Game Trials

I came across a "trials" page at one of my favorite download sites. These trials allow you to try a game, the full version, for an allotted amount of time. If you like the game you have the option to click a button and purchase the game. It is a neat marketing scheme that, in theory, is great. The idea is that you will be so into whatever game you are playing that you will feel the need to purchase the game when the trial is over. It is a way of triggering an impulse buy. But for me, the theory didn't work in practice. I am a mature gamer. I will sit down and fire up a game and may get called away from it for any number of reasons. Phone call, wife wanting something, kids wanting something or just taking a break. For these situations, I hit the Escape key, which pauses the game, and go tend to whatever. The problem with these trials is that the clock continues to tick even though I am not actually playing. So for me "demos" are a better choice. They may only be a small portion of the game and some may even have features missing but at least I can finish the demo and still tend to other matters.

Of course this didn't stop me from downloading some of these trials. I played them but none of them hooked me significantly enough to want to buy them. Oh well. I guess the marketing boys will have to talk about the big fish that got away.