The posts I've seen over the last few days relating to the Fileplanet FSX beta indicate to me that its largely a fun fest for a select few (paying) FS fans a month out from the full release. Its value as a beta seems questionable given how unstructured user feedback to MS seems to be (please correct me I am wrong here), and moreso because any bug found would have to major and easy to fix to meet the very short time line before FSX goes gold. The NDA side of things seems to be a non-issue, given the information being disclosed on these forums without any apparent recourse from AVSIM or MS.Before anyone points out that I could have signed up for Fileplanet and the FSX beta, sure I could be rubbing shoulders with the lucky ones, but I'd still be left wondering what MS aims for this beta to achieve. Comments anyone?Gary

I agree with you that it was pretty much pointless.There's no structured reporting system for those on the FilePlanet beta. The REAL beta testers out there had such a system though.The FilePlanet beta is just the full version of the demo ( nearly the same code, no optimizations or bug fixes since the demo really ).

It is, indeed, pointless. There is zero "beta" value. The whole effort is all about marketing hype and building a bit more anticipation for the final release. I don't see the sense in wasting time on such things, but, to each his own...Doug

Yes. You are probably correct as to the value as a beta tool.So what?

Yep. It's pointless. But its fun.

Thats only because the Demo was released. If it were not for the Demo, this would have been the big ticket item.But still.. I remain heart broken that I did not get the Golden Ticket. :(:)Manny

Well if the beta part is a charade, then perhaps it should be released as a date-limited (I assume the beta version expires on a certain date), full-featured demo and made available for a much wider audience to enjoy. Gary

If it weren't for the fact that many folks were wrongfully enticed into "joining" FilePlanet this whole thing would be laughable. The MS team hasn't, IMNSHO, moved thihgs forward through this approach. Rather, they have shown a significant lack of regard for many of the simmers who have supported the franchise over several generations of new product. A really sad situation. One can only hope that they have learned a bit from the experience and that the mistakes won't be repeated.Doug

> If it weren't for the fact that many folks were>wrongfully enticed into "joining" FilePlanet this whole thing>would be laughable. The MS team hasn't, IMNSHO, moved thihgs>forward through this approach. Rather, they have shown a>significant lack of regard for many of the simmers who have>supported the franchise over several generations of new>product. A really sad situation. One can only hope that they>have learned a bit from the experience and that the mistakes>won't be repeated.>>DougWow.... "wrongfully enticed"? It clearly says you aren't guaranteed a slot. Noone puts a gun to your head to join. I had been a member of fileplanet anyway. I got a slot, so I'm happy. Sure I'd be a little dissapointed that I didn't get in, but because I am mature and have an understanding of how it works I would not have a hissy fit like so many others have. And as far as "significant lack of regard" well...thats just plain wrong. Never have they communicated with the community as they have over the past few months. You sir should get your facts straight.

The point of the beta is to entice enough people to try the multiplayer, to find out if the GameSpy infrastructure is ready for the game's release.

Around 561 people have downloaded the beta so i'm not sure how many people joined and how many slots FP had. I know most of us would have wanted Aces to release a public beta that we could download for free from the MS site but imagine releasing a public beta that's 8gb's in size! I highly doubt Mircosoft would give unlimted amount of resources such as bandwidth for the FSX beta. I think the size of the beta made FP limit the slots because honestly the FSX beta is the largest file I have ever downloaded over the internet.

Not that I don't believe you, but where did you pull that 561 people figure from?-Greg(Curious)

The point is they took my money and yet right now I still have nothing :-fume :-mad :-fume

You have a membership to Fileplanet!

>Not that I don't believe you, but where did you pull that 561>people figure from?>>-Greg>(Curious)The download pages for any file on FP has the number of downloads listed.