A. Sway consumers who are on the fence about the game.

B. Instill interest into consumers who have not heard of the title before.

To be honest I’ve only downloaded demos for Fighting Games and for RPGs..
In RPGs, a demo usually involves giving you the first 20-60 minutes of game play, depending on how long the actual game is.

This gives you enough time to be introduced to the premise of the story, take a look at the user Interface and get a short but enticing taste of the combat mechanics.
As mentioned above, this is usually enough for me to decide whether I should buy a game which I am on the fence about, or inspire me to at least google the title of the game and look for more opinions/previews/media of the actual product.

Fighting Games Demos however, usually give you a very limited way of trying the game. Like limiting the roster to 2 -6 characters and limiting the player to using one or two modes. (Usually Versus.)

What does this accomplish?

What do fighting game fans, or veterans of a particular franchise look for?

Balance?
Character Choice?
Game fluidity?
Low learning Curve?
Competitive Scene?

Because if it were me, I’d answer yes to all of the above.. However when I download a demo of a new fighting game.. I really don’t see how I can gauge if I’m going to get any of these 5 things.
Simply due to the idea of limiting a player to a set number of characters, there is no possibility of me knowing if there is a character I like and enjoy playing.
I may get a sense of the game’s mechanics, but if the character I like is NOT in the demo, I will not get a feel of that character, this applies to both gameplay and learning curve.
Likewise with balance, there’s no way to determine if the game’s balance (which pretty much determines it’s replayability and longevity) when all you have is 5-10% of the cast to work with.

So is there anyway a developer can release a demo that will attract the FIGHTING GAME player? I hardly think so.

So why even bother trying? Why think out of the box and market the game to a different audience? The one that sees the game at the shop, thinks it looks cool (or has Ezio in it) and picks it up just to play that one character?
In the case of SC5, there seems to be a fair amount of single player content on the title that is sure to attract players who have absolutely zero interest in playing against another opponent.

Why not tack on a sampling of Creation Mode on top of the usual “Versus with 4 Characters”?
There is so much depth in the new Creation Mode, that even with half of it’s options removed I’m sure people can spend hours on the demo trying to create as many characters as they possibly can.
All the “locked” options will be revealed, just not selectable. Options that are actually unlockable in the game can be revealed along with the requirement to unlock them, so players playing the demo will not only know of their existence, but also how easy or difficult it may be for them to acquire.

Another thing that bugs me is how Ezio is being used to market the crowd to Assassin’s Creeds fans.. But the demo will most likely not have Ezio in it.
What is the point of marketing your game with a particular angle, when the hands on preview that you give to your potential consumer contains little to no hint of it whatsoever?!?!?

With all that ranted out and said, this is how I envision the ideal “Demo” that will really play to the strengths of the title and the type of crowd it should really be trying to attract.

“Soul Calibur V Demo”
3 modes available: Versus, Creation, Quick Match.

Versus Mode

Limited to 4 Characters. 1 New, 1 Returning, 1 Replacement and Character Creation Slot. Must NOT include Ezio (That would defeat the purpose of the license).
Stages limited to 3-4. Including Ezio’s along with Theme Song.

Creation Mode

Limited options.
Eg. Half the number of hats/hairstyles/armor/pants/shoes etc.etc. available.
No color selection allowed.
1 out of 4 Accessory slots allowed.
1 or 2 sample patterns allowed.
Only the 3 available souls from Versus mode.

Quick Match Mode.
Players are allowed to use the 3 characters from Versus Mode and their own from Creation Mode.
Opponent choices are reduces to reflect the limited number of characters in the demo. (So the 3 base characters + “custom” characters using those 3 souls)
However, to entice potential buyers. EZIO is included amongst the opponents. So you can never touch Ezio in the Demo, but he will be there, constantly reminding you that you should really buy the game to try him out.

And if the developers say that putting Ezio in the demo as a AI opponent would defeat the purpose of getting people to buy the game to see the character in action, then I would advice the developer to remove the arrow called “Youtube” that they’ve so gracefully stabbed into their left knee caps.

On top of that, the sheer amount of content you would have released as a DEMO would easily make your title the topic of the week on many gaming related sites and forums.
And being the hot topic of the week surely can’t hurt when your game releases the next.

Shen Ou Aheda – 神王アヘダ – http://areallyniceperson.wordpress.com BRIGHT ORANGE CROCS! says (10:16 PM):
No.
I’ll have to send the board for warranty on day 1
AL – Revelation of a new love/hate relationship says (10:16 PM):
LOL
Shen Ou Aheda – 神王アヘダ – http://areallyniceperson.wordpress.com BRIGHT ORANGE CROCS! says (10:16 PM):
“Now Loading….”
“Please step on your Wii Fit Wii Board”
“Please Re-connect Controller”

http://worldofjapanesecms.minnasan.com/tag/shiori-kutsuna/

Just look at her.

Absolutely <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

I’m off to watch the PV over and over and over again. Lol

Kamen Ride….

DECADE!!!!

*plays random sounds*

…..

…..

…..

Lol random.

In other news, I want to play more gin rummy.. gin rummy.. gin rummy…

I go count my CNY haul now. Lol.

That shitty movie is called Ong Bak 2.

Please don’t watch that shitty movie.

People who tell me that shitty movie is awesome deserved to get fucked by a truck.

Fucked by a truck as much as people who have ps3s.

Fucked by a truck as much as Level 5 and Sony.

To Level-5, Sony, and People who tell me Ong Bak 2 is good.

恭喜发财，希望你今年早死！！！

Amidst all the Muay Thai action and what not… Something WAY more important caught my eye…

That's her on the left.

Here’s the problem with fanboying a Thai Girl..

What the HELL is her name… *off to google*

Oh look, I found something..

“pumwaree yodkamol”

Ok….

NOW HOW THE HELL DO I PRONOUCE IT???

“Who’s that girl on your wall?”

“Er… pum… pum… That Ong Bak Girl!!”

“What? She’s not all that!”

Too Cute.

I need that hanging from my walls, yep…

The funny thing is how she looks like one of my Japanese favourites..

Narumi Riko

I even found pictures of them sharing a similar theme!!

SAME ADORABLE GIRL….*Fanboys*

Strangely enough Pumwaree is over 10 years older than Narumi Riko. ^^

Now to go and watch Chocolate and fanboy over the main girl.

*hears the crickets*

Yep.. no interest.

Lol.

Over the weekend we held a session for newer players of Soul Calibur at Rein’s place, which would be the first I would SEE the game, but not touch it for the week. However we ended up not having many new players show up, so us veterans sat there wondering what to do.
Let’s play SOULCALIBUR….. Notice the lack of digit at the back ^^

So that along with Street Fighter 2 HD Remix took up most of that night (and some Soul Calibur IV T.T), after overnighting there we woke up in the morning to have Shabu Shabu for Lunch… And that was most of my weekend.

Monday Night me and Leo were playing Rohan and I had a crazy idea.
I’m going to walk from Choa Chu Kang to Bukit Gombak to have supper with Leo!
Those of you who think “so?” are either not Singaporean, or ignorant folk who haven’t had the esteemed honor of meeting me in real life!

However, due to time constraints and a lack of confidence in my oversized, underdeveloped muscle mass… I decided to take a cab to skip the highway, and walk the remaining distances before and after that highway… (So its like a 5 minute +10 minute walk.. pretty tame.) Upon meeting up with Leo, I hadn’t broken out a sweat (which again, is odd for me) and wasn’t satisfied… So Leo suggested we walk to West Mall! (Which is at Bukit Batok, for those of you who don’t know, Bukit Batok, Bukit Gombak and Choa Chu Kang are 3 consecutive stops on our local rail system. The rail takes about 5 minutes to get from one station to the next due to the fact that there’s a HILL in between both distances. In fact, “Bukit” means “Hill” in Malay) After we got there, we sat around McDonalds for an hour talking about MMOs and people who behave silly in the game and think its “Strategy”… Then we walked BACK to Bukit Gombak (Another 15-20 minutes of walking)

So I ended up walking for about 2 full hours?.. which is the most I’ve done since I was like 14? Its quite an achievement for me and I was all… “I’m going to reward myself with SUBWAY”…. alas Subway wasn’t opening until 4 hours after we arrived, so we couldn’t wait for that. Whole “road trip” lasted from 3:30am-7:30am. Walking around, hanging at mcdonalds for an hour, then walking halfway back for a REAL breakfast.

Although, I would be lying if I said there wasn’t any monotony in the past 3 weeks.
Every week since I finish work, I’ve had Shabu Shabu with Rein near his place…
That’s a lot of money gone, and a LOT of cows slaughtered…
Which reminds me, I forgot to take pictures of the huge plates of beef slices that we kept getting them to bring out…

http://www.peta.org/sea_kittens/

You should check it out too, its basically some weird campaign where they refer to FISH as “SEA KITTENS”….

And that you shouldn’t eat “SEA KITTENS”…. In other words PETA is promoting red meat and WANTS YOU TO DIE EARLIER.

Ironically, dear farp’s other nick is “Shen Yu”.. which directly translated means “God Fish”…

So now he’s God Sea Kitten…

I’m going to stick with this and milk it for all its worth.