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Guest groundpounder75

WANTED: Research Participants (Microsoft)

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I am not sure I agree with this either...."they never pass up an opportunity to stick it to the little guy"Since we are talking about msflight simulator-We have a sim for $40-60$ which outperforms many of the others that cost much more (Elite for instance or any of the "serious" ifr trainers-which I have owned and don't use because I find MS generally better).It has included Jeppeson worldwide data-which I pay over a hundred bucks a year to have in my real world flight planner-and for only the US data at that.It has instruction manuals included by some of the biggies in the aviation field-which if bought seperately in book form would cost as much as the entire sim.Many other things-like MS paying for a Jepp weather server to deliver timely weather downloads....I am trying to figure out with MSFS how the little guy is "getting sticked"? It seems down right a bargain, and has brought an experience usually untouchable to many right into the living room-to many of the people who can not afford or are in a medical sense unable to do the real thing.Frankly-since September 11, I am surprised Microsoft has chosen to go through with future versions of MS. It probably would have been easier from a business standpoint to end it there-the risk of liability and negative publicity in the future would certainly warrant that from a bean counters perspective.You can debate of course Microsoft's entire business practices to no end-and that may be a valid issue. When talking about flight sim - I frankly don't see that much of that applies here-the little guy is getting a downright bargain.Therefore, I for one will be glad to show up to a meeting and contribute ideas!http://members.telocity.com/~geof43/Geofdog2.gif

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Me too, Geof. I was just thinking that we should be happy that they are even interested in hearing our ideas. Thats the first that Ive ever heard of such a thing. I would be happy to travel on my own dime (Im hoping that I get invited to a Chicago meeting, so I can have an excuse to fly into Meigs :)) and give my opinion on whatever they want to hear.Craig

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Agree. From RW experience, you are what you are. Walk like a duck, talk like a duck, and some day they will treat you like a duck.Likewise, act like a asjkf and you will be treated like a aafhajkl and be a asltj forever.Guys, MS is a in the business of making money. That is all any company wants to do. So, why should they pay anyone $20 a hour and all of the other perks when "They Don't Need To"? The room will be full w/o paying a cent. They probably will "invest" with coffee and soft drinks. If the group was all of age, they probably would buy some beer as a discussion lubricant. Even this can be calculated as a good return on investment after you have them in the room. People are nicer and more friendly over drinks and snacks.Money is the name of the game --- Not FS2004. Nothing wrong with it either. The charity department handles the charity investments.From my point of view, I think I would be more interested in the expections of the average user (who 90% of the customers are ) then the 10% power users we see here. This group is not where MS makes it money on FS.How to get an invite for sure, send two requests, one as a "power" user and one as a "poor" guy who will have to take the bus to get to the meeting.Bob

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I'm jealous???? Wow.Why do conversations here always have to degrade to personal attacks. What did I say to draw comments about my character, just because it differs from yours. See ya all....

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Just for you Mike,In the RW I would call you and ask you if we could have dinner together before the meeting and I would pick you up at your home. On the way home from the meeting we would stop and have a couple of drinks to finish out our discussion on what we should be thinking about in FS2004. I would hope that you would understand "business" and not tell the world of the "perk" you got. Business is business. Your name and the cost would appear in my personal expense book, not in the conference expenses.Yes, special concession and rules are made for special people. It is part of business.Bob

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>I'm jealous???? Wow. >>Why do conversations here always have to degrade to personal >attacks. What did I say to draw comments about my >character, just because it differs from yours. >Perhaps I was defending "your" personal attack against Bill Gates and the Microsoft management................ which is exactly where your comments were heading. I freely admit that I'm jealous because I do not "yet" have my own executive jet. But I don't sit around blaming Microsoft or any other corporation that generates "REAL" profits............. just because they have theirs! This is where our character differs..L.Adamson

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Now I understand why you defend Bill Gates. You're both greedy. You are right, our character does differ.Mike Stone

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Before this thread gets locked I am trying to understand the logic of where this has gone....a) Given- Microsoft is a big rich company and many of its top executives including Bill Gates have mansions, airplanes, and yachts.b)Microsoft makes MS2002-one of the best software values and one of the best, if not the best flight sims, at a price of a normal computer game c)Microsoft intead of coming out with another version of FS and maximizing more profits for themselves and their stockholders, which should be their goal as a business instead:asks for our input and suggestions for improvements for the next version. This will incur costs on Micorsoft's end both in the multiple meetings, staffing, and future implementation of features. This money could be better spent in getting more yachts, and airplane's for the executives. Listening to the customer of course should not be part of a huge, idealess organization like Microsoft.d) I drive an old car and live in a modest houseConclusion?!-Because they are asking us to freely contribute our ideas for the next version , Microsoft is greedy and self serving. The fact that soliciting our ideas will incur extra costs on Microsoft's end both in logistics and implementation is no factor. If they paid my travel expenses and money for my giving my expertise this would not be greedy on my part but fair-to ask for my opinions for free is greed on their parts.I think this is the logic some of us take issue with....Geof driving my 92 geo prism with 300,000 miles into the sunset to the Detroit Microsoft meeting:-).http://members.telocity.com/~geof43/Geofdog2.gif

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If you are not greedy, you go broke when you are are a mega- multinational company. If you are the Joe down the street selling apples from your home you can adjust your business practices every hour to fit your needs and be "fair" to your individual customers. In times past, did the community doctor charge all his patients the same amount? I don't think so. The "greed" is to balance the fair market price against the max margin that can be generated. If it is priced to high, the market will respond and tell you by not buying it. A company is in business to make the max margin they can. Not to build tractors, not to build software, not to build airplanes, and not to model aricraft in MSFS200x.Bob

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Ya know,It'd be nice if perhaps MS put a poll up on their page with a list of things people would like to see in the next version of FS. That way, everyone could get a chance to have an input into the software without neglecting the rest of the world. They could then maybe take the top 10 most voted, for example, ideas and incorporate them into the sim. And if they wanted to prevent duplicate votes, they could simply use the key code on your FS cd to record the user.After all, we are the consumer and if there weren't any of us, there wouldn't be any MS. And please don't respond with a "there'll always be someone to buy it" line. My point is that aren't you supposed to cater to your customers needs, wants, desires? I'm sure Boeing or Airbus listens intently to it's customers input on their product and incorporates their ideas into same. Sure, A 747 or an A330 might cost millions of dollars, but 5 million people buying FS also brings in millions of dollars.It just seems a little one sided.JMHO CF-AOA

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Guest groundpounder75

No, not yet. I was wondering the samething.

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