Nate Lanxon

Nate Lanxon is CNET UK's Senior Editor of News and Features, and covers every aspect of technology for Crave. He also enjoys popular-science books, obscure Japanese animation and plays 'technical metal' on the drums, whatever that is.

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Monday 19 January 2009, 6:03pm

Xbox demos should offer Gamerscore points

Giving Xbox 360 gamers a modest number of Gamerscore points for completing game demos from Xbox Live might be an excellent way of encouraging subscribers to check out new titles and playing them to the end.

I'm what's called an 'achievement whore'. I'll fool around with any game you give me, and go to great lengths to snag an extra 50 points here, an extra 25 there. Offer me 50 points for showing your demo a good time, and I guarantee you, dear developer: I'll work your demo to its bitter end. And I'm not alone.

The achievement system is superb: it's a brilliant way of encouraging gamers to refine their skills, then replay, replay, replay. Points for completing demos would incentivise gamers to spend time playing demos, and that's never going to hinder sales.

I asked a couple of Xbox elitists their opinion. Lee Hadfield, a good friend of mine, thought, "It would be the perfect incentive to get gamers to try more games, as well as a further reason to hook your Xbox up online."

But conversely, CNET regular -- and one of my most skilled Gears of War 2 co-op buddies -- Pokeh argued, "It would probably undermine players who have worked to earn achievements in full games, if somebody manages to get thousands of points over time by simply playing demos."

Personally, I feel there's little difference in offering a few points for completing a demo, to offering a full 1,000 for every game on the store shelves -- demos and full games both take time, and we're all limited to 24 hours in a day. And there are only a finite number of demos available anyway.

What do you think? I encourage you to let me know in the comments below.

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Comments on this post

As a seasoned Xbox LIVE! player I can't say that I would be too bothered either way. It would probably not be enough of an incentive for me to demo games. If they want people to play more demos I think they need to advertise the demos better. In its current state I tend to miss demos for games I'm thinking about purchasing as I don't know (or check) that there is a playable demo. Maybe a short and decent cut scene to a new demo every time you fire your Xbox up would be a good idea?

Posted by Anonymous on Tue 20 January, 2009 9:27 AM

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@ Anonymous: Just go to the Spotlight/Inside Xbox channels on the Xbox Dashboard, it pretty much informs you of all the latest happenings there.

Posted by Pokeh on Wed 21 January, 2009 5:05 PM

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I think it is a great idea! You should be in a government think tank! It would encourage people to play more demos and then to buy the good ones they play thus raising both the number of demos played and the number of good games bought which would further encourage good games to be developed as more people would buy them.

Posted by aero101 on Sun 25 January, 2009 11:08 PM

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