A new way of doing things...

[Wing Nut]

I was reading a posting about the planes we wanted and it occured to me there might be a better way of doing this.  

What if MS were to sell a barebones sim (no planes) and place on-line a selection of planes from all categories (military, commercial, vintage, etc...) for us to choose from.  They could make up a series of each and we who like WWII fighters wouldn't be shoehorned in to buying Jetliners.  I would say MS would have to make around forty planes or so, and we could choose maybe twelve when we buy the game and maybe even buy more later. MS makes more money, we get a custom tailored sim, everyone is happy.

Just a thought...

[Iroquois]

Would be too much of a pain. Also some people still don't have the Internet yet so they would miss out.
Besides, freeware and payware addons usually come out pretty quickly after the sim is released.


BTW, this will probably be moved to General Discussion because the Cafe is not for flightsim speak.

[Craig.]

add to the problem to many people are still on a 56K modem and these things would take way to long to get. the idea is good in theory but put into practise i dont think it would work

[Paz]

MS makes more money

 That would be about it too!

 Because you can be sure that the planes that M$ would have up "for sale" would be all the most common types of aircraft, which you can already find at one of the sim sites in the form of freeware, besides, knowing M$ you would probably still have to pay $50.00 for the game to begin with, and you are suggesting it comes with no planes, therefore useless out of the box.

 I'm not one to put people down for their ideas, so I'll just say that if it was sold seperately from the other MS flight sims as an alternate package, then I suppose a few people might go for it, but I think you would find yourself shelling out a lot more cash in the end.

 I just don't think it would be a very popular item.  

[BFMF]

Now if MS designed additional aircraft for the Flightsim, that would be cool

[Rifleman]

Don't even suggest this to anyone.....I remember the anguish it caused me when the Auto Manufacturers all decided not to sell options in singles any more....they forced me to have an entire pkg, of which I only wanted one or two things and had to take the lot ( and pay for them ) just to get the few I wanted in the first place......Think about how many cable channels you don't watch on TV, but pay for, because you have to buy a pkg!

[Hagar]

Don't even suggest this to anyone.....

My thoughts exactly.

[Wing Nut]

Man, what a response!

[Craig.]

the only other problem that would be encountered. copyrights. microsoft have always maintained flight sim as a commercial sim not military, and i doubt they would go to the huge trouble of getting permission to sell off military jets. then you have airbus, as i ams ure you have all noticed they seem to be missing despite being on a par with boeing(i cant believe i said that) again because MS dont want to shell out on more licensing fees. i cant understand why the variety of the fleet hasnt increased maybe again having to pay for each type, although you would have thought they would include the 757 and 767, along with a tri-jet. anyway, correct me if i am wrong, i am just going on what i have heard from others.

[Rifleman]

[quote]Man, what a response!

[BFMF]

kdryan,

So effectively what you want is even more payware

You can already usually find freeware or payware aircraft that you want. Isn't that good enough?

[Wing Nut]

No, what I want is more variety and a customizable sim.  I AM NOT SAYING MS SHOULD SELL A SIM WITHOUT PLANES!  JUST THAT THOSE PLANES COULD COME FROM ANOTHER SOURCE BESIDE THE GAME CD!  I also hate being forced to buy packages of things.  I want to be able to pick and choose what I want for gosh sakes!  And THEN have the ability to buy more of the same quality if I want them!  Yes I love planes for free, I am not anti-freeware, and I have absolutely nothing against God, Country, Queen, Baseball, Apple Pie or Dodges (well, maybe Dodges)

Upon looking at this further, however, it does seem to be more and more unworkable because of the reasons above dealing with copyrights.  I agree MS wouldn't want to shell out that kind of money and as soon as anyone starts talking about MS licsensing something they automatically double the price.  Maybe just a CD of add-ons would be better.

[Hagar]

To me & I'm sure many others, the attraction of the M$ sims has always been the open-architecture structure.  We purchase the shell & modify it to our own preferences. Long may this continue. I rarely, if ever, use the default aircraft. Many of the countless addons are better quality. IMHO

I find the trend from Freeware to Payware addons unfortunate but inevitable due to the ever-increasing demands of us, the customers. Personally, I would not wish this to be left to the M$ designers, who are simply commercial modellers working to contracts & deadlines just like the other Payware guys.