The response on Facebook? lol 58 comments most of which are people stomping their feet like a child after being told by mom they can't have that toy they want out of the 10,000+ people who are following that page.. Yeah.. What a response! If anything if cements that they (the self proclaimed hardcore simmers) are the loudest minority and not the determining majority. It's quite amusing to watch.

Great interview, you covered all the important concerns with directness and tact. :Applause:Thanks for putting a direct question out for TIR support; it's really appreciated. TIR support is my only beef with Flight....to bad it's use considered is a "minority" . For this reason alone, I've shelved Flight (and not out of 'principle', but because it's too frustrating viewing the VC and surroundings without it).I hope this thread doesn't go "south"...

Thanks for putting a direct question out for TIR support; it's really appreciated. TIR support is my only beef with Flight....to bad it's use considered is a "minority" . For this reason alone, I've shelved Flight (and not out of 'principle', but because it's too frustrating viewing the VC and surroundings without it).

Hey Rod,If you have not, I highly encourage you to write the Flight team and state your sentiment as above...I firmly believe the more they hear from us " minority" Track IR users, the more attention missing that feature might get. I have certainly expressed this to them directly on at least a couple of occasions. And I also do know they have been in contact with Natural Point, and have expressed a desire to maybe add to the sim. I don't know how recently, but do know NP has sent them everything they need in order to make that implementation.So please if you have not done so, drop them a note here:[email protected]

...might be a nice change of pace in Flight from buzzing pinapple trees in a Maule.

I agree with you, but feel compelled to point out that pineapples grow on the ground, not in trees.I mainly mention it because the first thing my wife wanted to go see when we moved to Hawaii was the pineapple trees. ;)

I agree with you, but feel compelled to point out that pineapples grow on the ground, not in trees.I mainly mention it because the first thing my wife wanted to go see when we moved to Hawaii was the pineapple trees. ;)

BEFORE Don Ho?!?! ; )

The response on Facebook? lol 58 comments most of which are people stomping their feet like a child after being told by mom they can't have that toy they want out of the 10,000+ people who are following that page.. Yeah.. What a response! If anything if cements that they (the self proclaimed hardcore simmers) are the loudest minority and not the determining majority. It's quite amusing to watch.

The problem is that you, free from any responsibility, can also offend many users, but for Microsoft the question is very different. In my opinion they are making huge mistakes from simple marketing and strategic point of views. Any company knows very well that loyal and passionate customers constitute one of the most important assets. MS instead is treating many of them as totally superfluous, or even annoying in this phase. The interview to Mr. Howard is a big nice scoop for Avsim and Tom, but it is becoming a giant boomerang for Flight. One can also laugh at the various negative reviews and the comments on the FB page, but in these days, where you can't buy Flight content in stores, but only online, obviously forums, social networks and specialised sites have a strong influence on user choices. If MS strategy continues along this path, I foresee that the "Flight" brand risk to be burned. Obviously we don't have data about DLC selling, and we still don't know the price and exact content of the next packages, but the present attitude towards potential customers in my opinion is clearly wrong and counterproductive.A.

The problem is that you, free from any responsibility, can also offend many users, but for Microsoft the question is very different. In my opinion they are making huge mistakes from simple marketing and strategic point of views. Any company knows very well that loyal and passionate customers constitute one of the most important assets. MS instead is treating many of them as totally superfluous, or even annoying in this phase. The interview to Mr. Howard is a big nice scoop for Avsim and Tom, but it is becoming a giant boomerang for Flight. One can also laugh at the various negative revies and the comments on the FB page, but in these days, where you can't buy Flight content in stores, but only online, obviously forums, social networks and specialised sites have a strong influence on user choices. If MS strategy continues along this path, I foresee that the "Flight" brand risk to be burned. Obviously we don't have data about DLC selling, and we still don't know the price and exact content of the next packages, but the present attitude towards potential customers in my opinion is clearly wrong and counterproductive.A.

I feel exactly the same way, which is why I wrote in my first post in this thread (and on the beta forum) that I really don't get their PR/marketing at all. It makes no sense to me.

The response on Facebook? lol 58 comments most of which are people stomping their feet like a child after being told by mom they can't have that toy they want out of the 10,000+ people who are following that page.. Yeah.. What a response! If anything if cements that they (the self proclaimed hardcore simmers) are the loudest minority and not the determining majority. It's quite amusing to watch.

What beats me is why so few of those 10 000+ voice their hurrahs. Why don't Flight fans voice their opinion?

In my opinion they are making huge mistakes from simple marketing and strategic point of views.

Perhaps this is true, at this point... but it would not surprise me to discover MS Flight included with every copy of Windows 8 this Fall...

Perhaps this is true, at this point... but it would not surprise me to discover MS Flight included with every copy of Windows 8 this Fall...

Wouldn't be surprised. FSX was used as a showcase software for Vista.

One can also laugh at the various negative revies and the comments on the FB page, but in these days, where you can't buy Flight content in stores, but only online, obviously forums, social networks and specialised sites have a strong influence on user choices. If MS strategy continues along this path, I foresee that the "Flight" brand risk to be burned.

And I would say they are in a great danger to get burned from totally different directions. The interview gave me the strong feeling, that they don't know one of the biggest problems of online games: People that have left won't come back and they report their bad opinions to their friends. Even a free product can look very uncool in a short while.I must really say IMHO their PR really sucks! They make so many really stupid mistakes, that I am surprised. In the beginning the whole mess with 3rd party developers. It is pretty clear that they generated a lot of bad blood. Why were they not open and simply declared: Sorry guys, we have to change a lot of this stuff, and we can't really promise what will be stable, so it is impossible for us to make a SDK at this time.A simple public statement and they would have avoided a lot of bad blood from the 3rd party developers and the hard core simmers. They don't think that other people won't talk with them, but they shouldn't be surprised if they would get in two years a reply: Oh, you want something from me? Geez, at the moment I have these three projects fo5r X-Plane and these two projects for Lookheed Martin, I could do something for you after this...It is a pretty bad idea to say to a paying customer: I don't care about your opinion, even if you feel this way. You should always tend to say: Oh, we would like to, but we only have limited resources so we have to do first what most people asked us, so we have to...Most online games reach a time when so many people leave the plattform that they start an avalanche. Even top dogs like "World of Warcraft" aren't immune, but with their stupid PR they obviously want to get rid of their customers.At first they had a huge plus: It doesn't cost anything, but they more or less lost this image pretty fast. If someone gets borted he will siomply stop playing, and then it gets pretty hard to get this guy back. It is quite different when he uses the game and someone else tells him: "Look at my new plane. This is so cool", or if someone or an advertisement tells him: New DLC available...

I agree with you, but feel compelled to point out that pineapples grow on the ground, not in trees.I mainly mention it because the first thing my wife wanted to go see when we moved to Hawaii was the pineapple trees. ;)

Hmm, I even spelled pineapple wrong. Is it too late to change that to coconuts?

It is a pretty bad idea to say to a paying customer: I don't care about your opinion, even if you feel this way. You should always tend to say: Oh, we would like to, but we only have limited resources so we have to do first what most people asked us, so we have to...

Well, it depends on the product. Apple are very arrogant and succesful. The problem with Flight is that it isn't a great product, so how arrogant can they afford to be? Only Microsoft knows. I like that they had the guts to try something new, too bad they only delivered a watered down FSX with a few cosmetical improvements.

Perhaps this is true, at this point... but it would not surprise me to discover MS Flight included with every copy of Windows 8 this Fall...

Highly unlikely. MS Flight is simply to small insiude of Microsoft, that a totally different and much bigger division uses such a tiny title from the entertainment division, There would be to many people involvedWith Micrtosoft Flight the situation was a bit different. If the CEO asks: "Wouldn't it be a cool idea to include other products from our company?"In fact in an other interview Joshua Howard exlicitly said that they are a totally different division. He wouldn't have said something like this if there would even be a slight hope of such and advertisment.

Great interview, thank you Tom! I like questions, but answers is not that good.They just abandoned big community of simmers. No airliners, no world, no ATC... Future is not bright at all, as Flight moving in south direction. To bad they are going to waste all that potential...