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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

What Could Kill FSX

Personally I rely solely on this and other forums to find out what is new and in the pipeline, I haven't missed out yet on an up & coming project and release.

I think the "Pay for Marketing" line is simply just that... A line - Now granted you might bag a few extra sales from those who do not inhabit such forums but not that many. Those who spend amounts of money on flashy advertising have too much ego and too much expendable cash on hand, simple as that, before anyone produces their 37mm and attempts to shoots me down; I do have considerable experience in this field and I do not make that statement lightly.

Mistrust of paying via the internet. I have to disagree with this too. In the day and age of even orderign your Pizza online let alone all those Ebay junkies (my other half included on this one) even down to doign your weekly shopping onlien for home delivery. No not many folk are shy of buying over the net these days.

Sorry Dev's I really do not mean to be contrary but I do disagree with a lot that has been said here.

The first payware I ever bought was way back when (circa late 80's / early 90's). It was a Pilatus PC9 set from a company I cant even remember who and they certainly do not exist any more. It was a scottish gentleman who moved to Canada. You paid for it via Compuserve and the floppy's were sent to you with an extremely nice thank you letter, hand signed. How much did I pay all of $5 all inclusive.

Then came Alpha Simulations in 97/98 and I lityerally bought Phil's entire collection without missing one, every new release was purchased on the day. How much? If memory serves me right: $5 a pop going to $8 over the next couple years. Those models whilst simple by todays comparison were every bit as ground breaking and difficult to produce back then as their modern counter parts are today. Sales were deemed low... Well FS was still in its relative infancy, Phil and his crew were way ahead of their times.

Thats all I have to say lest I write a book.
 
Well, disagree or not, you are talking prices and conditions of some ten to twenty years ago.
By comparison, currently, it costs approximately $7 - 10 just to put an add-on on a disc and mail it you without the cost of tha actual software itself. One reason we stopped at AH and why download delivery is growing.

The fact remains that a large proportion of the market is unaware of specialist sites like this. In fact comparatively few are aware that add-ons exist at all.
 
What I've always wanted to know is what motivates people to do add-on developing on a full time base.
From what I'm usually reading, developing commercially for MSFS barely pays the bills. Is the love for modeling, painting and programming really stronger than anything else?




(I for myself could never do it. As much as I like virtual flying and developing I wouldn't want to trade a "standard" job with much higher income for it. FSX just wouldn't be worth it.)
 
I tend to agree with Baz that we the flighsim forum junkies who milk up everything that AH, A2A, LH, Realair...etc makes are a fairly small portion of the total number of people who buy FS. Even those of us with limited budgets and fly mostly the freeware, we still are involved with the community and provide good feedback for developers. This game's community seems large to us from our point of view. I have come accross quite a few who have FSX who dont now about flighsim.com or avsim, dont know they can add airplanes/scenery to their sim. Many just buy it, hook up their joystick and have fun with the default game. They have no idea of the wonderful community that makes this hobby more than it is.

If FSX was a closed system and did not allow for 3rd party development, would you buy it? Probably not because we are airplane geeks and appreciate attention to detail, aircraft systems modelling, appreciate more obscure designs...etc and truely pushing the boundries of FS realisim.

Maybe we are used to Fs9 and earlier sims where things were faster to make and new planes were cranked out every couple of weeks. I understand why high end FSX products are pushing 60-80 dollars. The level of detail and work put in to creating such works of art is serious time for these folks...and most of them have day jobs too with bills/family that is their priority. Developers are artists, they create works of art that function in a sim. I don't mind paying a little extra to support these folks and their craft. No one is forcing anyone to pay 60 bucks for an add on either there are many great free and low cost alternatives. Even if you just downloaded planes from Master Tim's you would have quite a diverse full hangar in your sim.

I am sorry to hear the Pasped didn't sell as well as it should have, it is a wonderful airplane. After spending time flying it, the Cub, the GAS Wacos/Stearmans, there is so much old simple airplanes like that can teach us about flying. That A2A Cub made me much better taildragger pilot, I am starting to nail more 3 pointers....on the runway...in big round taildraggers now. Anyway I hope it doesnt discourage Bill from making another from that time period. :)

An idea for developers, maybe have a small discount on release day, or maybe offer small discounts to those who bought previous products as I am sure you all have loyal fans.

Anyway thats my 2 strips of gold pressed latinum.
 
Much truth here, much...but its price the main situation, price. Some looney is charging 80 American buckaroos for a 837!!! who needs it? and just to ponder there are those making "one of a kind speedy" who 3 people might know in half the world, who want´s that?..I bet that when the real FSX DC-3 being cooked, if price is kept within the average world situation it´ll sell very well.....some designers should do more market studies if they want to have better success with their productions....do you want a Bishkar-37???---:salute:
 
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