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  • Please see the most recent updates in the "Where did the .com name go?" thread. Posts number 16 and 17.

    Post 16 Update

    Post 17 Warning

Demos...aircraft/scenery

pilottj

Blues is Life
Hey folks,
I read the last few topics on the recent developer bashing rash and certianly aware of the piracy problem. Here is a question to developers. Would creating more demos of your products ease these issues?

For ducks, Say you create a high quality payware Piper Comanche with all the bells and whistles of current graphic and flightsim design. You do a lot of research in to every facet of this aircraft including its 'quirks'...ie starting with the left mag, the horizontal trim crank, needing full up trim on final...etc...you really put your heart and soul into this bird. Now the Comanche, like many airplanes of it's era had many modifications/layouts depending on the year built, many panel layout options, power options, STCs. and so on. You know that when you release it, XX% will ask/want you make XYZ layout. They want a Garmin stack instead of a King stack because the one they rode in had that layout yada yada...

Create the original model/s you intended to create but, instead of trying to please everyone which is ultimately impossible, why not create a demo, that either is time limited or feature limited. That way people can try it out, if it meets their 'standards' great, if not well they had a chance to try it and they will have nothing to complain about. You shouldn't hear..'I paid for X and it didn't have Y in it'. As for piracy it might stop those who rip off to try things out.
Anyway, just a rambling idea

Cheers
TJ
 
Demos would only serve to assist the legitimate customer, IMO. Those bent on pirating a product will still buy it and then share.

I made a demo area for one product, still was a large download. People could grab it, install it and see if it was what they were looking for. The pirate won't bother with the demo, he just buys and shares.

What I have done in the past and will do in the future is make part of the product, um... identifiable. So that if it is shared the DNA is sitting there waiting to be looked at. Funny that the pirates hit the products sold through the online shops, but haven't shared (that I know of) the products sold through my site. Bit of a hassle, but sure beats seeing some pirate web site generating hits to my site because some dummy put a live link to my product in their post. No one said pirates have to be smart. And FWIW, they aren't all kids who are doing the sharing.
 
I made a demo for the Sierra.

Seemed like a good idea to me to let potential customers see how the thing works on their system.

I don't get too many people asking why the Sierra doesn't have this or that as anyone who has downloaded the demo knows what they are getting.

Pretty much most software you can get on the internet has some form of a demo so potential purchasers can check it out but when it comes to FS addons demos are rare.

Why is that?

Now, I could explain to you why I think more developers don't make demos but I think I would get into trouble :) .

Of course, any developer using the Flight1 system offers a 30 day money back guarantee so that's as good as a demo in my opinion.
 
Of course, any developer using the Flight1 system offers a 30 day money back guarantee so that's as good as a demo in my opinion.

Hmmm. Almost but not quite. It is more like renting demos. For the developer I would think handling payment and refund over and over as a way of doing demos would be hugely inconvenient.
 
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