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Question about Game Demos in General

ZeekZeek
edited September 2011 in General Chat
I'm not going to set up the scenario in detail. I'm just going to ask the question in general.

Is it normal for a demo of a game to corrupt the save data of another game made by the same company?

Clarification:

Game A has saved data. Game A's data becomes corrupt upon the installation and launch of a demo from Game B. Both Game A and the demo for Game B are made by the same company.

Comments

  • puzzleboxpuzzlebox Telltale Alumni
    edited September 2011
    Er, I would say that's almost certainly abnormal and unintentional.
  • LuigiHannLuigiHann
    edited September 2011
    Normal? No. Possible? Sure. A lot of companies iterate on the same engine over and over, so the new game in development may be using a tweaked version of the same code base that their old game used. And if they aren't totally done, that means that they may not have finalized the changes to the save system that would cause the save files to be fully distinct, so it's not hard to picture them accidentally overwriting your previous saves if they somehow end up in the same folder.
  • ZeekZeek
    edited September 2011
    LuigiHann wrote: »
    Normal? No. Possible? Sure. A lot of companies iterate on the same engine over and over, so the new game in development may be using a tweaked version of the same code base that their old game used. And if they aren't totally done, that means that they may not have finalized the changes to the save system that would cause the save files to be fully distinct, so it's not hard to picture them accidentally overwriting your previous saves if they somehow end up in the same folder.

    Even if the demo is suppose to be a stand-alone program?
  • Darth MarsdenDarth Marsden
    edited September 2011
    Yeah. If it's based on an existing engine (Unreal 3 Engine, for example) and it's not been properly coded where the save games should go, then it's possible for the demo/game to cock up saves from another demo/game.

    So yeah, it's possible, but it really shouldn't happen.

    Out of interest, is this just a general 'what-if', or has this actually happened? Because if it's actually happened, I'd love to know which game dropped the ball.
  • ZeekZeek
    edited September 2011
    Darth Marsden wrote: »
    Out of interest, is this just a general 'what-if', or has this actually happened? Because if it's actually happened, I'd love to know which game dropped the ball.

    It actually happened.

    Here are the details I left out from the original post.

    EA released The Sims 3 Pets Demo yesterday. It's just the Create-a-Pet engine, but it's still a good chunk of the upcoming EP.

    After you launch the game, your main Sims 3 game gets corrupted. The three biggest problems being reported are the following: unable to launch the game, loss of saved game data, DLC being uninstalled at every boot even after DLC has been reinstalled.

    Over the course of yesterday, several people from the modding community dug deep into the demo and discovered that the demo is not a stand-alone demo. It actually uses existing Sims 3 data for exporting reasons, but something messed up that causes all those problems above. It mostly has to do with the demo being programmed like an actual EP, and as a result, it installs things from the upcoming expansion that weren't working properly.

    EA has yet to say anything about this bug. The closest thing to it is when a forum admin suggested to install the demo on another computer that doesn't have The Sims 3 on it. That suggestion didn't go over very well, as you can imagine, since most Sims players don't have a second computer.
  • SilverwolfpetSilverwolfpet
    edited September 2011
    OMG Sims 3 Pets!!!

    ...too bad I have a life.

    :p (I'm mean, I know, sorry)
  • Darth MarsdenDarth Marsden
    edited September 2011
    Oh, EA. It's like you never changed.

    Your original post is somewhat misleading, since the details you've just given me are different from what you said. The demo in question isn't for a different game - it's for an extra bit of stuff bolted onto the original game. That's a very different situation!

    This is, as you may have guessed, a really lazy demo that was terribly coded and not properly separated from the original game/expansion. And quite frankly, given that the demo was for an expansion rather than a completely separate game, it's not entirely surprising, given what you say with the programming.

    I'll be honest, the minute you mentioned The Sims, I just shook my head and accepted it. The Sims franchise has a long and tired history of them not giving a sh*t about the expansions, and this is no different. But even so, this is a disastrous bit of PR and one that does nothing to disabuse the notion that expansions for The Sims are cheaply made money-grabbing bits of DLC.

    I'm actually looking forward to hearing what EA has to say about this. I'm sure it'll be hilarious.
  • ZeekZeek
    edited September 2011
    While I would agree with you, here's the only counter I can offer to you. And it's a weak one at that.

    The "demo" was suppose to be just the Create-a-Pet tool and nothing but it. While the demo is just the Create-a-Pet tool, it isn't a stand alone tool/program.

    Meanwhile, if you download the Spore Creature Creator demo from EA, that demo is it's own stand-alone program that doesn't interfere with Spore. AT ALL!

    The again, you have one that was made by Maxis, and then one made by EA. That's why I called this counter "weak."

    BTW, EA hasn't responded. In fact, they released the Demo on Amazon and on GameStop for their customers to download.
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