Back in the nineties, I was what today people call a hardcore gamer, no doubt about it. I spent lots of hours of my week with videogames, I had lots of time to spare and I could easily skip some sleep to happily game my way through the night without a witchy wife telling me to go to sleep. I finished tons of games with just a weekend rental and maybe an average of 6 or 7 games a month, to say something. Things have changed a lot now. But back in the day, I could risk playing games I was not really convinced on. That's a luxury I don't have today.
I bought 4 or 5 gaming magazines which helped me to be "updated" about what was going on and what was new. No matter this, I made some blind purchases as Final Fantasy Tactics (that was genious luck!), Driver and Bust a Groove.
I quit gaming in year 2000 only to come back at it in 2008 and gosh, lots of things have changed. Making a choice now is so much easier, specially thanks to the internet. But then you also have the Demos, which I personaly love. They may have helped me avoid some titles more than encourage to purchase them and that could be read as a fail, but that's not how I see it.
I think it is an excellent service, very considerate towards us as costumers, which help us select what is appealing to us with ease. I must conceed that most developers don't put enough thinking and effort into their demos and that's a problem. Who would want to underestimate such a powerful marketing tool?
