Development Info ToEE demo on KaZaa?

[Saint_Proverbius]

Tags: Temple of Elemental Evil; Troika Games

According to <A href="http://desktop.kazaa.com/us/games/temple_of_evil.htm">this link</a>, there's a <b>six hour free trail version</b> of <a href="http://www.greyhawkgame.com">Temple of Elemental Evil</a> available for those of you with <a href="http://www.kazaa.com">KaZaa</a>.
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So.. Like.. Wow.
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[Jed]

Does that come with trail mix?

 

[POOPERSCOOPER]

Companies have been using kazaa to spread their product with like demos and stuff. They use the gold icon stuff in Kazaa I think.

 

[Deathy]

I think the fact that it is an 823MB download means most probably that it is the full version with a time limit coded into it.

That's just plain silly. I bet that within 6 hours, some cracker will have that time limit removed and it will be a free for all for the warezers (most of whom use KaZaa anyways).

EDIT: If this is a six hour trial, we can pretty much be sure that it is impossible to beat the game in six hours, or even twelve for that matter. You don't give half your game away in a demo. Even Vogel doesn't do that.

EDIT again: Maybe it isn't the full version. Pre-rendered backgrounds and all, maybe ToEE takes up 70 CD's like the BG games did.

 

[Psilon]

Nope. 2 CDs. Then again, BG and TotSC were eventually compressed into a 2-CD collector's edition.

And can someone explain why Atari's gotten so stingy about jewel cases? It's 2 CDs, and there's enough room in the box. Sure beats those damned paper sleeves, especially for games like NWN or UT2003 which have CD keys.

 

[Deathy]

And can someone explain why Atari's gotten so stingy about jewel cases? It's 2 CDs, and there's enough room in the box. Sure beats those damned paper sleeves, especially for games like NWN or UT2003 which have CD keys.

"Cheaper CD cases means that they can pass the extra profits to you, the customer!"

Nope. That doesn't seem right, how about this:

"Cheaper CD cases means that they can pass the extra profits over to the game developer!"

That doesn't seem right either. One more try:

Cheaper CD cases mean that the ancient black dragon that runs Atari can hoard more gold!"

Closest so far, anyway.

 

[EEVIAC]

Good grief this is a bad idea, its tempting people to pirate. I know some people in the world don't want to wait for a month or longer for their localized release, but wouldn't it be smarter for Atari to have a synchronous worldwide release for the game, rather than a dowload version? There's no manual so I'm not interested in it, but I can see others downloading, cracking, playing for a month or two or three, and then not buying the localized release when it comes out. Why does this happen to Troika?

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

I don't know, but whomever came up with this is a complete and utter idiot if it is the full game. At an 800B download, I don't think they could have left out that much. Like Deathy said, it wouldn't take much time at all to remove that limit.

 

[Whipporowill]

From what's been stated from someone who dl'd it you pay and get 600 more mbs of download. What that is, I simply don't know. But there you have it

 

[Spazmo]

Hush, EEVIAC! I didn't want to wait another month for the ToEE goodness.

 

[GreenNight]

The game seems to be (*) in the emule network too. It was there since yesterday night (european night). But since the demo goes out on friday, and I only want to test if the game works on my computer I decided not to download it and wait for the demo.

If the demo comes later the (ilegal) download will begin. Then, if the game works, I will probably buy it (**), but some other people would not do so. Not having a demo ready for the release hurts them too.

(*) There are several different files, with different lenghts. Some are divided into 2 parts (CDs) and other are one big file. All are exe files... so they look strange to me. Well, if the demo cames tomorrow I won't have to discover which ones are good.

(**) If the demo works the only thing that would prevent me from buying the game would be the rare case in which for one reason or another I have an strange urge to hate it.

(sorry, had to rant about not having the demo and having to wait for some days in order to test it before buying it in an import shop).

EDIT: It could be worse, yesterday I read this news (in spanish) about Icewind Dale II being released in spanish in July.

 

[EEVIAC]

Hush, EEVIAC! I didn't want to wait another month for the ToEE goodness.

On the upside, the people who get the delayed release will most likely recieve a superior product, free from SecuRom troubles (although this struck a lot of Australians with the SoU release,) less bugs, better performance, etc.

Asynchrous releases really bug me. Surely someone's done market research that shows that worldwide releases make gamers so blissfully happy that they often buy two copies. Its not as if Atari is a small company that has to do deals with other local distributors. Its just lazy.

On a completely unrelated note, I'm hoping UFO : Aftermath is decent, because it comes out next week.

 

[JanC]

Asynchrous releases really bug me. Surely someone's done market research that shows that worldwide releases make gamers so blissfully happy that they often buy two copies. Its not as if Atari is a small company that has to do deals with other local distributors. Its just lazy.

I find them absolutely maddening. I get caught up in all the hype, and read on the newsgroups that everyone is playing the game... prepare to rush to the stores ... and then realise that it is not out for 1-6 months where I live (the UK)
Then I wait the 1-6 months for the game company to translate the game into our crazy European language (English), it gets released !!! , I see it on the shelves, and !! I have completely lost interest by that point. I think "I've waited this long, why not wait until the game gets marked down in price or comes out on budget." Sometimes I never bother buying the game at all - it is old news by then.
Yesterday I went to a local computer shop and saw that two games that I'd been gagging for have just come out, "Lionheart" and "Galactic Civilisations". If they had been realeased at the same time in the UK as the US I would have bought them sight unseen, I was so excited. But now, I think "Eh, I'll wait for them to be marked down." It's probably good for me that I didn't buy them, but it is bad marketing sense to get consumer excitement to fever pitch, and then not allow legal access to the object of desires.
The simple fact is that it encourages piracy. It is hard to resist a pirate copy of a game that all the Americans on the newsgroups are going crazy over when it isn't available in your own country and piracy is the only means of getting it at all.

I find it quite satisfying that the Americans got a taste of their own medicine with the Gothic II delays ..a pity it wasn't a bigger release!

I think the idea of downloading a trial version of ToEE that can be registered like shareware is pretty good. Does anyone host it on a regular web site? I don't want o install Kazaa.
Although, come to think of it, why should we non-Americans be forced to jump through hoops just to buy games that are on the shelves in the US for anyone to buy easily? I have broadband, but it would still take me hours to download that huge file. And I wouldn't get a manual. This is what got me with GalCiv when it first came out.
On second thoughts, **** them. I'll buy it when it comes out in the shops....... If I retain any interest in the product by then.

 

[Azael]

I don't know, but whomever came up with this is a complete and utter idiot if it is the full game. At an 800B download, I don't think they could have left out that much. Like Deathy said, it wouldn't take much time at all to remove that limit.

It will be on the file sharing networks soon enough either way, this won't change a thing. Interesting initiative though.

 

[Ibbz]

I don't know, but whomever came up with this is a complete and utter idiot if it is the full game. At an 800B download, I don't think they could have left out that much. Like Deathy said, it wouldn't take much time at all to remove that limit.

Sounds very similar to the whole Steam idea... except Atari dont have to pay for the bandwidth

 

[chrisbeddoes]

It is NOT the full version.

No music NO video.

You need to download at least 400 more Mbytes after you buy it.

 

[EEVIAC]

It is NOT the full version.

No music NO video.

You need to download at least 400 more Mbytes after you buy it.

So they're still shafting overseas customers. You pay full price for a game without a box, manual, or cd. Almost everything Atari makes from these sales is profit - no printing or distribution costs, they don't even spend a heap of money on bandwidth. Its money grubbing at the lowest level.

If, for instance, it cost $20 to unlock and included a voucher that could be redeemed to purchase off-the-shelf at a discounted price, it could cater to casual gamers with bandwidth to spare, (although heaps of people will still download and crack, at least you give those that might feel a little guilty a chance to put some money back into the system,) and the persnickety grognards like myself who want the finery of actual printed product.

I find them absolutely maddening. I get caught up in all the hype, and read on the newsgroups that everyone is playing the game... prepare to rush to the stores ... and then realise that it is not out for 1-6 months where I live (the UK) Then I wait the 1-6 months for the game company to translate the game into our crazy European language (English), it gets released !!! , I see it on the shelves, and !! I have completely lost interest by that point.

Perhaps the problem is that although these publishers are working in an electronic medium, they fail to realize that people everywhere learn about games at the same time. A week delay I can understand, a month delay I can't. What exactly have Atari Australia and Atari Europe been doing for the last few months if not preparing for the release of their September catalogue?

 

[ecliptic]

I find it quite satisfying that the Americans got a taste of their own medicine with the Gothic II delays ..a pity it wasn't a bigger release!

Again, all that is doing is hurting Gothic II, as any unscrupulous people that want to play have had it sine at least summer started, so that just makes a large contingent of the Gothic I fans that are on college campuses not even worry about it, as they've likely already beaten it by now.

 

[JanC]

I find it quite satisfying that the Americans got a taste of their own medicine with the Gothic II delays ..a pity it wasn't a bigger release!

Again, all that is doing is hurting Gothic II, as any unscrupulous people that want to play have had it sine at least summer started, so that just makes a large contingent of the Gothic I fans that are on college campuses not even worry about it, as they've likely already beaten it by now.

That is my point exactly. If it had been a bigger release, the message might have got though to marketing departments about how bad for sales staggered releases are. As it is, it is such a minor game that it will probably slip under most people's radar.

 

[Barghest]

Well, the UK release may have less bugs...

If the game actually is released in the UK in October, we could look forward to TOEE being at least patched. There are a few bugs which potentially could cause grief by the sounds of it.

By that time, maybe Atari would stop being so anal, and put the children back into the games...

 

[slavemaster]

Re: Well, the UK release may have less bugs...

By that time, maybe Atari would stop being so anal, and put the children back into the games...

It's WOTC's policy, not Atari's, and I doubt they'll change it.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Actually, it's because of Hasbro those things are removed. They own WotC, and they want to clean up D&D to make it more friendly towards more people. Go figure.

As for the music and video, there's a static link to that stuff hosted on Infogrames' servers that's been posted on the Atari page. Looks like Atari/Infogrames has made warezing the title that much easier by giving away all the game's content so you only need a cracked EXE to warez it. BRAVO TO ATARI ON THAT!

 

[ecliptic]

Wasn't the real demo supposed to come out today? I hesitate to drop $50 on a game that I don't even know if I'll like, much less run nicely on my system. They should get it out soon, as the ftp I have access to is getting more and more tempting.

 

[Megatron]

Re: Well, the UK release may have less bugs...

If the game actually is released in the UK in October, we could look forward to TOEE being at least patched. There are a few bugs which potentially could cause grief by the sounds of it.

By that time, maybe Atari would stop being so anal, and put the children back into the games...

How would translating the game from american to english take an extra month? After seeing it's going to take another month for no significant reason I think I'll order from the US.

bizarro

by the way, any toee avatars planned?

 

[DarkUnderlord]

Asynchrous releases really bug me. Surely someone's done market research that shows that worldwide releases make gamers so blissfully happy that they often buy two copies. Its not as if Atari is a small company that has to do deals with other local distributors. Its just lazy.

I find them absolutely maddening. I get caught up in all the hype, and read on the newsgroups that everyone is playing the game... prepare to rush to the stores ... and then realise that it is not out for 1-6 months where I live (the UK)

Have to agree here too. ToEE won't be out in Australia until the 24th of October. Just a little over a month from now. By then, ToEE's fairly much old news. I'll be all over the place saying "OMFG I got ToEE!!" and everyone will be "d00d, that's like, OLD news man." and I'll be like "bummer".

Hopefully, ToEE will be released on the same day that I get out of the 80's.