Would the last person staying, please douse the fire.....

[Sesquashtoo 2,846]

Mike T has made me think of my own analogy for Flight:For over two years, the crowd has been growing at the concert site (Avism's Flight Forum) to see FLIGHT, the new 'rock star' of our type of music...the sound of the wind through the wing(s)...The time was near for Flight the group to make their appearance on stage. They do...and all the hype, the glitter, the special effects---cannot mask the dreadful output coming from the stage.Fans are outraged, they voice their "Boo's...................................." They start leaving in droves. A few I-can't-believe-it still stay around the dying campfire, poking the embers until they, even turn dark. All eventually leave, and the park is dark without activity.This is how I see this forum through analogy. Soon, within a matter of days or hours, the last of the ones still poking the few remaining embers of their 2 year old 'hope' will throw down the sticks...and walk away.This is so incredibly sad. Microsoft strung us for two years, with vague 'references' that it would cater to us, the loyal core group, and also would cater to new, younger 'flyers' that would join us, taking to the skies. They absolutely did this. They could have been totally up-front from the beginning, by saying they have taken an new direction since the closing of ACES, and now wish to cater to a more ARCADE oriented game. That would have been fine with me. They would have had that clear choice, as the creator of it. But for me...I would NOT have been emotionally STRUNG OUT, coming into this forum with all HOPE in place, and PRAYING that the day would be announced that FLIGHT was ready for take-off. Microsoft, you have made me feel totally foolish over the last two days. You have taught me a lesson in all this. Trust me...and that lesson does not bode well for you as a viable company putting out products today, and into the future. I am angry, I feel disappointed beyond measure, I feel foolish to have let my past faith in your products, ALLOW me to string myself out if at all.I'll move on, as will most everybody still sifting through the last remaining few embers of this once MIGHTY flight-SIMULATION franchise today in this forum. Yeah, I think that after this post, I'm going to throw in my stick to the dwindling fire...and move onto forums that respect us, that are part of a genre that SIMULATES flight for those of us that will never, or most probably will never be able for a myriad of reasons, slip inside a real-life cockpit. The Flight forum on Avsim and anywhere else has no longer any relevance to trying to capture 'being able to step inside that cockpit'. Not for me anyways.....Last words directly aimed at all the Suits that were responsible to GUT the very life out of the honorable name; Microsoft Flight Simulator;The words, SCREW YOU !

Edited January 6, 2012 by Sesquashtoo

[3-2-1-Now 126]

+1Best regards,Robin.

[Mike T 201]

Your analogy is spot on.

[Guest jahman]

From the MS Flight Web, December 8, 2010 Press Release:

Wednesday, December 8, 2010 — Welcome to News from the Development Team!<snip>A number of you have asked, “Why did you drop ‘Simulator’ from the title of the game?”In addition to the FAQ on this topic, we want to directly address the concern that by dropping the “Simulator” from the name, we’re dumbing down the experience. Quite the contrary! We’ve developed on the “simulation” aspect for many years and have no intention of losing that legacy. What we’re doing now is improving the total experience while building on this legacy, enhancing the enjoyment for all who share a passion for flight. The more people who join us in the Flight experience, the greater the opportunity we’ll have to do even more.Many of you are concerned that because we want to appeal to a wider audience, we must be building an arcade game.We don’t need to create an arcade game to welcome a wider audience. But we do need to improve the total user experience if we’re to be successful in welcoming new audiences into the experience of Flight. The passion and fascination of flight is powerful, with so many different aspects to aviation and different levels of enjoyment to experience. There is distinct value and strength to be gained by welcoming a wider audience, and we can’t claim to have done the best job of it in the past.What does appealing to a wider audience mean?It means improving the user-interface experience, achieving better performance on today’s hardware, providing more focused challenges for people who aren’t quite sure what to do next, and introducing more persistent experiences for people who return often. It also means keeping alive the freedom to go where you want, when you want (Ed.: As long as it's Hawaii Island), and to do what you want. Regardless of their hardware power, piloting experience, or level of interest, many people have enjoyed the traditional flight-simulation experience as a solitary activity. We see a compelling social aspect to the experience inherent in the fun, and we need to better enable and support this dynamic to strengthen the entire Flight experience for everyone.<snip>Thank you,The Microsoft Flight Development Team

Thank YOU, Microsoft Flight Development Team !!!"Cheers",- jahman. Edited January 13, 2012 by jahman

[Swe_Richard 1,119]

Very well written. I also had my hopes up regarding flight. Maybe it will grow up to a full fledged sim, but I don't think it will. They could have told us from the beginning it would be an arcade game. Meanwhile, I will fly xpx and fsx. Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

[simmerhead 885]

Why couldn't they just have spent six month making FSX SP3 instead...

[Toys_R_Us 0]

Ses...You could not have said it any better. Those are exactly my thoughts too, and I was thinking them before I read your message post. I'm a big boy, and had they announced their intent I would have accepted it and moved on. Not only have I held off on certain decisions about my FS future, but now they bury us even deeper into a completely and totally unknown future and it's associated timeline. This in my view is taking a large and loyal customer base and just completely treating them like you know what.While right now they may be holding the upper hand, so was the entire U.S. for 60 years until we got as arrogant and inconsiderate towards our customer base as MS is right now. And someone else jumped in and stole most all of it away. If you doubt that take a trip to down to Walmart this afternoon and actually read the country of origin on most all of the boxes. You would have thought that after their long list of recent failures and late entrance into markets, MS would know that by now. While MS was laying off the troops (despite huge cash cows), their competetors were adding people to get themselves a large piece of the new flavored pies. And these people successfully got them exactly like China did to us as a nation. It's no wonder employees walked out on Ballmer in what was their vote of no confidence.Bob

Edited January 14, 2012 by Toys_R_Us

[JSkorna 137]

Why couldn't they just have spent six month making FSX SP3 instead...

How would that generate any new income for Microsoft?

[Ben Cap 89]

How would that generate any new income for Microsoft?

By charging 10 bucks for it and including new missions and DX11. Hardcore simmers would buy that in an instant.

[JSkorna 137]

By charging 10 bucks for it and including new missions and DX11. Hardcore simmers would buy that in an instant.

And re-code the base program? Come on Ben, you know better than that. No SP in the history of computing is going to make a jump from DX 9 to DX 11.

[Ben Cap 89]

And re-code the base program? Come on Ben, you know better than that. No SP in the history of computing is going to make a jump from DX 9 to DX 11.

True.... At least they could've fixed DX10 and updated the shaders.I can almost guarantee it that you would buy that if it was 10 bucks. Edited January 14, 2012 by benorg

[Toys_R_Us 0]

How would that generate any new income for Microsoft?

How did it do it for the last 30 friggin' years ? This is not about anything other than some "suit" redefining and attempting to capitalize on a product with a successful nameplate. I'm not saying he does not have a right to do that, but I am saying he disrespected a current customer base by taking 5 years out of their anticipation of continuation of the franschise, and then further now leaves them hanging with no well defined direction or timeline. Remember, Microsoft did announce that it was not the end when they shut down Aces studios.For 30 years a secondary group of businesses, freeware developers, hardware developers, real aircraft hardware sales departments, real trainers, and later website businesses hung their hat on this business model. And they were dropped right on their collective heads. Do you seriously think Autodesk or Adobe would do that. I don't. I think they have a better sense of ethics. Sears Roebuck had a bad reputation for doing this. Build up third party suppliers and then they cut them off, and swallowed them up. And look what is happening to them now.Bob Edited January 14, 2012 by Toys_R_Us

[JSkorna 137]

Remember, Microsoft did announce that it was not the end when they shut down Aces studios.

Right, so now we have Flight.

For 30 years a secondary group of businesses, freeware developers, hardware developers, real aircraft hardware sales departments, real trainers, and later website businesses hung their hat on this business model

For how many of those 30 years were any add-ons REALLY developed? What FS version was first to be REALLY that open coded?

And they were dropped right on their collective heads.

And we REALLY don't know this for sure yet do we?

[Guest jahman]

Why couldn't they just have spent six month making FSX SP3 instead...

How would that generate any new income for Microsoft?

By charging 10 bucks for it and including new missions and DX11. Hardcore simmers would buy that in an instant.

With DX10 plus tweaks and bug fixes, they could call SP3 FSXI and charge $100 for all I care.Cheers,- jahman.

[simmerhead 885]

How would that generate any new income for Microsoft?

Just call it FS11. Each version has sold millions, so it would have sold millions too.