Cause for Alarm?

[Naismith]

I wonder with all this doom and gloom, are there figures to compare over the years for the people visiting Avsim , FlightSim, Simviation. That would be a true barometer of any decline in interest.

Another thing to consider is P3D. Has anyone ever seen an ad or review for P3D other than within our small community? Can't say I've ever seen mention.

 

[fxsttcb]

Hit the Mute button.
Decline? I really don't believe so. Like another member posted "Ebb and Tide" seems to explain it.
Losing a long time contributer does tend to give us pause. Some damn near bring tears.

We had a similar discussion over at flightsim a few months back.
One member posted this in reference to the flightsim.com forum as a whole:

So as far as health.... I think it's on the critical list and wouldn't be at all surprised to see a Death Certificate issued sometime soon.

This is an excerpt from Nels(flightsim.com owner) response:

Rubbish...The hobby is in period of transition, due to Microsoft's leaving. However, we still get around 200 new people signing up as FlightSim.Com members every day!
Think about that...1400 new people a week, 6000 new people a month. Large numbers of people are still interested and new people keep discovering us.

In the Newcomers forum over at flightsim, I see 15-20 folks a week asking "How do I install FSX?", "How does this work", "How do I tweak that".
Some are brand new to simming, others are returning after extended absences, and installing FSX for the first time.
Icky could probably confirm similar stats here. Dunno...Don

 

[Odie]

I haven't really flown FS2004 or FSX in quite a while...real life seems to get in the way; but I always check SOH. Know why? For the community. Although I don't fly often, I check to see
what others are doing and what's on the radar. SOH has always been more than just a "resource" site, it's family.

 

[warchild]

Daveroo. Dont ypu dare go anywhere ( and you know what i mean ).. I need you. Yes, me, sorcerress, Warchild, pam, that thing in the corner that no one knows what the hell it is but it makes planes fly nice ME.. robert didnt leave just because of SOH.. I didnt leave just because of SOH ( nope, i'm not really here. just lookin through the windows of my old home hoping everyone is ok ).

The thing is, SOH isnt in decline. FSX has been declining. The quality expecttions have also been raised so high that many artists just give up. I am one who helped raise them. Its what we all wanted. Theres going to be tons of us who will always be here, and tons of us like me, always poking their heads out of the woodwork every now and then to say Hi. SOH HAS changed since i was a moderator here. Some would say for the better, some wouldnt, but change is inevitable and should be grasped with enthusiasm ( this coming from a taurus who gets upset when the person doing my shopping gets the wrong dish soap ). At its heart SOH will always be new, and always be the same. In some ways it hasnt changed a bit since it first opened its doors.. The community has changed, the expectations have changed, but soh remains the same..

the events of the decline in popularity of FSX are to be expected. Yes, its scary, even depressing at times, but its natural and should cause no more worry than a single cloud in an otherwise bright blue sky..

Pam

 

[Obie311]

Since SOH has become my defacto FlightSim roost, I have to chime in here.

There is an ebb and flow to life. Change is inevitable. People face personal challenges we are scarcely aware of. The mods here do a go job walking the tightrope of fair, effective moderation. Is it always to my liking? Not necessarily, but I respect the job that they do.

As civilization becomes more complex and hectic, more civility and respect is needed, not less.

Obie

 

[Bjoern]

On a happier note, I've spent quite a few hours yesterday identifying the cause and devising a solution for a long existing problem with the 737's autopilot (which became an outright usability killer in FSX). If I can pull the solution off without hitches, I might just ride the wave and finally finish that bloody manual which should make things easier for people to get into the TinMouse's systems.
After that, it's just cosmetic work and some wrap-up before you guys and the FS9ers will have yet another 737 to play with. But this one is for free.

So there is still some freeware development going on as exemplified by the paragraph above, but there remains one problem: Finding a target audience.


It seems that MSFS forums have adopted and cemented certain shticks, thanks to which you're very prone to simply just flicker up and then get blown out by all the shouting there is done about whatever new thing there is floating that forum's boat. If you don't believe me, just look at the subjects of the most popular threads or subjects in one of these.
It's hard to fit into one of these forums when your stuff will get litle attention because it's not simulated to the level of xyz, because it doesn't have pistons and props, because it isn't AI, because it isn't user-friendly to install and operate, because it isn't payware, because it isn't from a certain country, because it isn't for a certain flight sim version, because it doesn't incorporate innovative modeling, because etc...
It's off-putting, as a freeware dev's ego lives off nice words and tributes in whatever form. And these things are quite hard to come by nowadays without frequenting just about every forum everywhere to scrape up a bit of kudos and - more valuably: feedback - here and there. This makes PR rather time-consuming. And time is very valuable (and can be spent on other things).

Generally speaking though, I guess there's a point where making stuff for yourself to share with others just doesn't cut it anymore because your personally most needed models have been done and outside motivation to go on isn't just coming in anymore. One option would be going payware to avoid letting any acquired skills go to waste and using money for motivation and the other option is simply throwing the towel for now or longer.

In the latter case, however, I have one request to any developer thinking about abandoning their work:
Clean up your source files a bit and upload them somewhere. It would make things way, way, WAY easier for anyone else willing to complete or continue your legacy.
If you need an example at hand, consider Erick Cantu. Thanks to his public source files, MSFS got three basically new aircraft (737-200, DC-10, L-1011)!



Tl;dr: No one mentioned Tom Ruth.

 

[Daveroo]

well,i love the idea of a 737 coming,i hate to say i like the idea of it being freeware cause i dont want to come off as a cheap-o..but i want one badly...and i dont care for the "stock" FSX planes..is that bad of me?..dont know..and a DC-10?......wow...id love to see that with a airtanker version of the air tanker 10 companies..T-910,T-911( which was flying over my house all afternoon yesterday and i didnt get one picture)