[mstade]

I watched almost the entire thing. You're right, it's not a particularly rich story, but it is a story driven single player game – which is the point. It seems we agree actually, I wasn't saying streaming full games should be ok, but what I was saying is it has most definitely informed my purchasing decisions in the past, in a way that demos used to do when they were common place. (Which they aren't today, at least not on console.)

I didn't buy Wolfenstein in the end – you must have misread that – and it was a combination of already knowing the story and the game play not being compelling enough for me to want to it "again" as it were, that made me back out of purchasing. Had I only played the demo however, there's a good chance I would've bought the game, because I did want to see the story and the gameplay although not incredibly exciting was still enjoyable. Instead, I watched it for free on YouTube, like a movie. I absolutely understand why publishers want to make this go away, and frankly I support that.

I still like to try before I buy though, and unfortunately since very few games have proper demos I can try I'm left with either reviews which give me next to no useful information or play throughs. Unfortunately the latter is just as likely to make me not buy the game because I might just not be compelled enough to play it "again" (even though I only watched it the first time) whereas a well made demo (e.g. the first 30 minutes of the game or so) is much more likely to get me to buy right then and there just to see what's next. Mileage varies of course, not everyone is like me. Just providing some anecdotes here.

[mstade]

By the way, the reason your friends might say they "don't have time" yet play repetitive shooters or other games for hours on end is perhaps that those kinds of game require much less emotional investment. I know I'm like that, some games I just can't play because I know it'll take me forever to finish them, but I've still probably plowed down a good couple of hundred hours into BF1. Why? Because I don't have to recall the story or characters from two weeks ago, when I last played the game. I love a good story based game, but if it takes more than a few hours to play through there's a good chance I'll never finish it, unless it's very compelling. Horizon Zero Dawn is an example of a story driven game that had my attention from start to finish, but the only game I recall having that kind of pull on me before that was probably Fallout 2.