would a demo be a good idea?

[Princess_Luna]

well ther is video of the game and it look's great for something in pre-alfa! but maybe a single player demo would be a good idea... just to get use to the controls of the game. who else think's its a good idea?   

[lurk852]

Not happening for many reasons. The first one that comes to mind is that they haven't revealed anything about the gameplay (beyond running around the countryside) and so there really wouldn't be anything to do in it. That, and it would be a lot of unnecessary work for a team that already has a lot on its plate.

[Chishio Kunrin]

Meh. Just wait until Beta. I think they said they're gonna release it in the Beta stage.

[Tiger]

They had an extremely outdated demo 
But in all seriousness, we should let them focus on the main game rather than waste a bit of time making a demo

[Tekner]

Agreed. It's too much work to disconnect gameplay from the server. I could be wrong, but I have a feeling the OP was a nice way of asking, "Can I have a taste of the game to play please? It just looks so cool." Sorry, but we can't do that. Even if there was an easy way to make it single player, we can't exactly go back to what was in the videos you saw, which is the other objection to us releasing something for you guys to play: we can't reveal any of our new work yet. Trust me when I say that I really, really, really want to update you guys on the awesome things we've added, but I am not allowed to because it would make the surprise at Galacon not very surprising at all.
I hate to do this to you guys, but you're going to have to wait until then. It's only three more weeks .
We'll make sure it's worth the wait!

[Tiger]

I hate to do this to you guys, but you're going to have to wait until then. It's only three more weeks .

I'll have to see it a lot later, not being near galacon at all. Country-ism! 
...To the galacon, that is 

[Tekner]

I'm sure we'll release game footage and schtuff from Galacon for those who can't attend. So regardless of if you go, you'll get an update.

[SweBow]

We will never release a singleplayer demo. It will take us a lot of time just to make it singleplayer again.
Our game will be multiplayer only.

[Lary]

You can technically consider 'Open Beta' the demo (assuming they decide to make it Open and they wipe all the stuff afterwards).

[SweBow]

You can technically consider 'Open Beta' the demo (assuming they decide to make it Open and they wipe all the stuff afterwards).

It will be open and yes. All stats, inventory etc. will be wiped.

[Blues-Music]

There is no such thing as a demo for anything online.How would that even work?I know MLP:Online made one , but may I remind you there was no multiplayer feature just a small part of the singleplayer story.This game is fully multiplayer making it impossible to run it down into a demo without making another game without an online feature which would make the whole game just a boring sanbox that you collect items , and not use them with anything.

[byndbored]

There is no such thing as a demo for anything online.How would that even work?I know MLP:Online made one , but may I remind you there was no multiplayer feature just a small part of the singleplayer story.This game is fully multiplayer making it impossible to run it down into a demo without making another game without an online feature which would make the whole game just a boring sanbox that you collect items , and not use them with anything.

Doesn't a beta technically count as a demo?

[Lary]

There is no such thing as a demo for anything online.How would that even work?I know MLP:Online made one , but may I remind you there was no multiplayer feature just a small part of the singleplayer story.This game is fully multiplayer making it impossible to run it down into a demo without making another game without an online feature which would make the whole game just a boring sanbox that you collect items , and not use them with anything.

Open testing phases can technically be considered a Demo, as I've stated in my previous post. You only get a portion of the game available to you, and come release time everything is wiped (although some games give you special items for participating or clearing certain objectives during beta).

Personally, I don't like demos. They spoil a lot of things.

[Blues-Music]

If a game is open to the public because it accomplished certain things such as reaching beta , or alpha its considered a full release unless its a none updating game then its called a leaked game.
A demo is giving a small part of a game out of no accomplishment to only show what has transpired thus far , and are impossible to transform into multiplayer.Therefore demos are not existant in mmorpgs that have no singleplayer option.

[Lary]

If a game is open to the public because it accomplished certain things such as reaching beta , or alpha its considered a full release

No, that's the testing phase. It opens to the public so it's easier (thousands of players can test better than maybe a dozen developers, and the players might find something they overlook which is why professional game testers exist).

[Blues-Music]

It is only called testing when its enclosed.If its free for anyone to play , and they can report bugs as they move along its still a full release if its accessible by all the public.Its only testing when only a few people can test wether its randomly picked ,or done by sign ups.

[Lary]

It is only called testing when its enclosed.If its free for anyone to play , and they can report bugs as they move along its still a full release if its accessible by all the public.Its only testing when only a few people can test wether its randomly picked ,or done by sign ups.

How else are you going to test if your server(s) can accommodate X amount of players? Or if Y amount of players enter a certain area it doesn't crash? Or too many people talking to an NPC makes it bug out? Or an incorrect player move can destroy an entire event tree?

There's only so much the development team can do when it comes to large projects such as MMO's. Especially considering this one, where the development team is not getting paid and therefore cannot (or will not) afford professional testers to search every little nook and cranny of the MMO's world, and attempt every single instance that a player would (also while taking into account that multiple people are present, doing the same thing, or something else, or doing nothing at all and just being there).

The whole point of Open Beta Testing is to make sure that kind of stuff does not happen. It releases to the playerbase so they can take part in the testing. The development team watches, and takes notes on any and all bugs and glitches that the playerbase finds.

Not to mention that some MMO's don't even allow all the content released in Open Beta due to either being unfinished or unavailable (whether it be development-related or storyline/content-related) at the time.

There's your demo. Open Beta doesn't last forever, and there's a good chance you won't be able to experience all of the content.

[Chishio Kunrin]

I agree with Lary. Open Beta will be a testing phase, so it'll somewhat be a demo. Especially since it won't be the full game, and at the end, the stuff we did will be wiped so it's like we didn't play the actual game yet.

[McSleuthburger]

question answered, locking topic