I'm not sure that's a fair assesment of what actually happened. I got the distinct impression that the major "problem with Ants" was with the multi-player platform on which it was hosted, and not something that was within Mr. Howard's control.

Fair point Fr. Bill, I reread the chat and I agree it seems the root cause was the hosting platform and not Mr. Howard's fault, I actually think his last chat statement was a fairly good one and candid:

+joshuah@zone> The last time we spoke I felt a bit evasive - I could not tell folks what we were trying to do for Ants. Since then we have spent a lot of time trying to make something work. In the end the best we could do was still going to fall short of what the community wanted. Nonetheless I felt it important to let folks know - bad news is better then no news. Ants has made more of an impact that I or anyone else here could have imagined - because of you all. The secret to Ants is its community, not the game. Thanks for coming to the chat.

Here's hoping Flight avoids a similar fate to Ants and that Mr. Howards is candid with us on the progress and long term roadmap, I think the no-cockpit Zero wouldn't be as much of a disappointment if we didn't all see it as the one airplane per month he mentioned.

That quote is really out of context

That's a fair statement, however I think towards the bottom of the interview he finally admits to making the decision not to release the source (even though MS had no interest in it). The other thing is that it shows... whats the word... "abrasive"? maybe against the community? His answers and attitude always seem terse and not flexible-- robotic mostly.

Don... I do not think this is an accurate statement.

It's mostly accurate... they sold ESP, which is the commercial version of FSX, to LM.

loyal community of users

Loyal lmao seems more like you have been forced to buy the product due to lack of other options, a lot of the posts im reading seem to be a hell of a lot more loyal to 3rd party developers than to the fs series as well.

Loyal lmao seems more like you have been forced to buy the product due to lack of other options, a lot of the posts im reading seem to be a hell of a lot more loyal to 3rd party developers than to the fs series as well.

I don't know about other people's loyalty but I currently own a copy each of FS9,FSX Deluxe,FSX Accel,FSXGold. And for Flight, I was not part of the beta, so I actually paid for the Hawaii and Maule DLCs, so yeah you can consider me a MS Flight Sim supporter despite whatever other 3rd party payware I have purchased.No one forced me to buy anything, I bought it because I enjoy it and wanted to support it, that is part of the reason I'm participating in the Flight dialogue here, I'm an actual customer of Flight, I currently enjoy parts of it and I see a lot of promise for it and hate to see it wasted from poor marketing decisions.If you stop looking at all critics of Flight as some stereotypes you would see many of us enjoy and support it and are critical of parts of it because we want it to succeed. Unfortunately the way Mr. Howard answers some questions for enhancements in the interview, it creates stereotypes and picking sides is hard to avoid, I'll grant you that.

If you stop looking at all critics of Flight as some stereotypes you would see many of us enjoy and support it and are critical of parts of it because we want it to succeed. Unfortunately the way Mr. Howard answers some questions for enhancements in the interview, it creates stereotypes and picking sides is hard to avoid, I'll grant you that.

I think flight needs some serious work (No damage model :Doh:). Supporter yeah but to think they owe you (this is a genral you and not aimed at you) future products due to some misplaced loaylty (fan boys of anything aren't cool) is silly.

"hardcore antsers"

:LMAO: -- I seriously gotta kick outta' this.

Like it or not, MS along with JH has brought a new civilian flight sim to the market. Many thought we would never see that. Not a bad thing.I suspect, MS future with the civilian flight sim market, rests in the level of success with Flight. And right now, that lead is JH.

Civilian flight sim market you say?I predict a dim future then.Flying game?even chances.

No one forced me to buy anything, I bought it because I enjoy it and wanted to support it, that is part of the reason I'm participating in the Flight dialogue here, I'm an actual customer of Flight, I currently enjoy parts of it and I see a lot of promise for it and hate to see it wasted from poor marketing decisions

Well said, Kludger - I'm with you on this. Hopeful for the future of Flight - I truly feel if it doesn't succeed, Microsoft is done with computerized flight. That doesn't mean I will support an inferior product, but it does mean I am willing to wait and see what is "down the road" before condemning Flight...