Freeware development - what do you reckon?

[pete]

Yay or nay?

I'm not too positive on this one.

I read an article breiefly that mentioned the idea of a 'central marketplace' for 3rd party addons.

If M$ are going to do an Apple and try to control the whole product and all addons the future is not that bright.

I also believe that if there is no freeware available they will drastically reduce the lifespan. Freeware addons have kept the air blowing through the sails of the MSFS franchise since at least the mid 80's. Without that, and without having to spend $100's on regular addons (or they may be called 'aps') - will the long term popularity be the same? I personally doubt it. It will be a different thing entirely. & maybe that's just what they want ......

Open development ability means open to real, self driven, talent. True talent from around the world. That was built into FS before MS bought the franchise.

[alrot]

I being saying Over and Over in this part of the forum(trying to see if by miracle some one up there M$ would come to their senses ),MICROSOFT FLIGHT SIMULATOR SERIES HAS BEEN THE MOST SUCCESSFUL IN THE HISTORY OF GAMES FOR COMPUTERS WHEN FREEWARE AIRPLANES MODELS CAME OUT AND SO WEBSITES DEDICATED TO THIS WONDERFUL GAME (at the begining mostly were mostly freewares)
I hate this New "Flight" ,M$ doesn't realize that MSFS previous success

[Strawberry Yogurt]

If they do that, they lost my sale. Who's with me?

[pete]

Quote from a previous thread:

Just because ACES made one mistake in the over 28 years of the MSFS series with FSX, why would the next version automatically be a failure?

Actually M$FS/Aces have made quite a few errors when they have not listened to the prime users of their product. Think CFS3/ FS2000.

It's not about anything like default aircraft. It's about the core of the product, how it works, and what can be done with it to customise it for individual tastes - and to be able to do that freely and easily. That can only be done with the input of a huge community - not a few hired staff.

In a huge development program, no-one can expect a bug free release and it's natural that bugs/ errors will emerge when the users start to use it intensively.

However I really hope M$ have learned from the past and listen BIG TIME to it's long time users. They say they have done this with W7. Let's see if 'listening' is a new general M$ practice.

[Daube]

Yay or nay?

I'm not too positive on this one.

I read an article breiefly that mentioned the idea of a 'central marketplace' for 3rd party addons.

If M$ are going to do an Apple and try to control the whole product and all addons the future is not that bright.

On the other hand, the Apple Store and Android Market are full of freeware applications...

[Strategic Retreat]

If they do that, they lost my sale. Who's with me?

With my heart bleeding and without any kind of exuberance, I am.

It does not bode well. Our last only hopes may lay in the hand of Laminar Research and the guys behind Flightgear only... and if and when that'll happen, it'll be a sad day indeed. The day Flight Simulator died.

[Flying Mouse]

One only need to look at Silent Hunters latest release.

Ubisoft moved away from the simulation effect to cater for a broader audience and look what happend.

They themself destroyed the series. They suffered major losses because of ignoring inputs made by their most loyal customer base.

Ofcourse the online connection requirements also contributed to the failure.

I for one am glad FSX is as powerfull as it is with it's add-ons because we might possibly have the same scenario as with Silent Hunter where majority folks rather stay with older versions then support newer versions because of company imposed greed.

As I also said right from the beginning, FSX created a high benchmark within the flightsim community & MS Flight will have to be perfect to equal or surpass such.

[Daube]

But concretely, what would be the downsides of a central marketplace for Flight addons ? I fail to see them, in fact...
Would that prevent payware devs to propose addons ? No.
Would that prevent freeware devs to propose addons? No.
Would that prevent noobs from posting billions topics about "how to install this or this" ? Yes, definitely.
So what's the problem ?

[JBaymore]

The question is .....will Microsoft actually allow freeware to exist?  That marketplace might be all paid offerings.  If they require a lot of rigamarole for a developer to register for the market,that would be the same as not allowing freeware.

best,

.....john

[pete]

But concretely, what would be the downsides of a central marketplace for Flight addons ? I fail to see them, in fact...
Would that prevent payware devs to propose addons ? No.
Would that prevent freeware devs to propose addons? No.
Would that prevent noobs from posting billions topics about "how to install this or this" ? Yes, definitely.
So what's the problem ?

BIG and to me, obvious problem. We don't want M$ to be controlling available products.

Control will stifle creativity big time for all kinds of reasons.

Do you think if everyone had to go MS Insider for FSX and FS2004 addons there would be anything like the community we have today? Not a fraction.

[alrot]

[quote]

Do you think if everyone had to go MS Insider for FSX and FS2004 addons there would be anything like the community[ we have today? Not a fraction.

[Daube]

But concretely, what would be the downsides of a central marketplace for Flight addons ? I fail to see them, in fact...
Would that prevent payware devs to propose addons ? No.
Would that prevent freeware devs to propose addons? No.
Would that prevent noobs from posting billions topics about "how to install this or this" ? Yes, definitely.
So what's the problem ?

BIG and to me, obvious problem. We don't want M$ to be controlling available products.

Control will stifle creativity big time for all kinds of reasons.

Do you think if everyone had to go MS Insider for FSX and FS2004 addons there would be anything like the community we have today? Not a fraction.

[pete]

Yes and I avoid Apple completely. I'm not the only one. Apple is very innovative - but I think will suffer in the long term by controlling all and everything.

Bottleknecked control is in the long term anti competitive and leads to a reduced market.

Apple is also a MASS market range of products. MSFS is not. It's a niche market and a small arm of the corporate giant Microsoft which purchased the Flight Simulator franchise from Bruce Artwick back in the 80's. Luckily Bruce built in 'open source development'. If it wasn't for that it would certainly have died like a range of others ... way back sometime.

Android on the other hand to Apple, allows anyone to distribute products. Long term much better.

MS Flight Freeware will depend whether 3rd party development is possible without having to do something like purchase the SDK - which wouldn't surprise me.

Remember the WHOLE of the Internet would not exist without freeware. Apache, Linux. BSD etc. Open source means the best brains around the world contribute.

It's a simple equasion. You can't hire, or one company vet, the best. The best do their thing and the best of the best get through. Hence the Internet. Hence almost every useful thing we have today. Not done for money. Done by individuals with a passion and an idea.

[Strategic Retreat]

M$ will destroy everything its being done ,They never even care ,they never ask themselves Why after so many years we are still sale FS2004? ,they just grab the money.

They never do. For all their supposed genius, they end up looking like fools every single damn time.

Then again, I've seen it with my eyes in a much smaller scale: everything for a buck right now, even at the expenses of future incomings... and then file for bankruptcy...

Differently from that my old acquaintance maybe M$ will not go bankrupt for the sole FS taking a splashing plunge into the sewer, but the whole community will be poorer for it.

Not that they ever cared for any community, of course.

"Flight" will be a closed game, no community for this and the death of MSFS community.

I hope you're wrong. I hope I am wrong.

I dread we're all correct.

[alrot]

I dread we're all correct.

maybe even worse ,a unique WWW Forum from M$ Insider