You're just not going to let this one go, are you? :lol:

 

Let go of what? Logic? Nope.

 

Hello

But MS did not want a "section" of its target market, they wanted all 20 million of their imagined target market.

Once one of the grown ups still left at MS realised how absurd that proposition was, it was game over for Flight!.

 

The original discussion was over whether any Children had been reached. The rest of it is all under the heading "Various scenarios" for me until something concrete appears.

 

Its a possibility that the other poster is perfectly right. But possibility is not the same as the certainty he was expressing.

Hello

JH was looking for 20 million children with deep enough pockets to buy aircraft at $14 , you bumped into a few dozen on multiplayer flying the free aircraft around the big island.

I flew in alaska last night and there were more folk in the Propilot forum here at Avsim than were in the Alaskan skies

Hello

JH was looking for 20 million children with deep enough pockets to buy aircraft at $14 , you bumped into a few dozen on multiplayer flying the free aircraft around the big island.

I flew in alaska last night and there were more folk in the Propilot forum here at Avsim than were in the Alaskan skies

 

Ok, lets go with that. I read the JH articles, but perhaps too quickly, and missed the part where he mentioned 20 million children. Could you repost that paragraph please?

Ok, lets go with that. I read the JH articles, but perhaps too quickly, and missed the part where he mentioned 20 million children. Could you link it please?

 

Hi Devon: Q&A: Microsoft Flight boss on "rebooting franchise"

 

Quote

A: The bet we've made is that to the non-hardcore simmer, flying the whole world isn't as interesting when there's nothing really interesting to see or do. I do get that for some segment of the audience that was one of the values - I can fly anywhere, into any airport, 25,000-odd airports was crazy.

But I think as you try to broaden and you want to bring in not the next million or two but the next 20 million or 30 million people, you say I will err on the side of more interesting area that's dense than the same amount of content spread all over the globe. There's a lot to do in Hawaii, and Hawaii is gorgeous.

/Quote

He didn't say children, he said people.

Hello

Well, he mentioned 20 million users

I assumed based on the aerocaches and golden coins that he was referring to children.

@Kabronicus

 

I did not think he said Children for an instant. :lol:

 

Thank you very, very much for going to the effort, though.

Hello

Well, he mentioned 20 million users

I assumed based on the aerocaches and golden coins that he was referring to children.

 

No problem. After all, aren't we all children?

 

___________________________________________________________________

 

Now, I propose we let go before the thread gets closed.

You know what they say? "The difference between men and boys are the price of there toys"

As far as I can tell, we aren't really talking about children, a market that already understands FS - take it or leave it. With 10-20 million new users I'd say we're talking about a casual market. That's a way of saying, mature women who enjoy online backgammon and Farmville....of which there are very many they say ;)

As far as I can tell, we aren't talking about children, a market that already understands FS - take it or leave it. With 10 million new users I'd say he is talking about a casual market. That's a way of saying, mature women who enjoy online backgammon and Farmville....of which there are very many apparently ;)

 

Since I am a compulsive Plants vs Zombies player, and have Angry birds on my tablet, I guess I am right beside them. There is a LOT of innovation going on in the indie market. One of my favorite new(ish) PC games is LIMBO. I don't think many major company's would ever have the imagination to make such a strange, twisted little game.

 

http://limbogame.org/

LIMBO is really cool. I haven't played it, but I have watched the videos before.

I don't mean to make fun of casual games...they're important :)

I haven't played Farmville, but I was hooked on a game called Tribal Wars.

You could see how addictive a good simple game can be.

LIMBO is really cool. I haven't played it, but I have watched the videos before.

I don't mean to make fun of casual games...they're important.

I haven't played Farmville, but I was hooked on a game called Tribal Wars.

You could see how addictive a good simple game can be.

 

Didn't think you were. If anything, I would make fun of me and the kids sitting bleary-eyed in front of the screen working through those last few puzzles at 3am.

Kids are kids. The kids that ram you are still experiencing aviation, and while they may be a pain now, who knows when and how the spark is lit. Those same people may be back later and older, ready to be more serious.

 

 

 

I keep seeing these things. Your proof? Even anecdotal? You may well prove to be right in the end, but could you at least try to back it up, please.

 

Well.. Why would MS shut flight down if it was successful? Products get shut down this early when it's obvious that it's failing to achieve it's goals. If it was making money they would still be developing.

 

Of course I have no data to back it up.. the general public is not privy to that information. If you think I am wrong then why do you think flight development was stopped?

 

The problem with anecdotal data is that it's incomplete. The question is how many of these "newbies" stuck with Flight and spent money on DLC, and how many of them quit once the novelty wore off and never looked back? The fact that Microsoft has pulled the plug on Flight seems proof positive that a majority of them were the latter.

 

Even the "dozens" that were seen online are not enough. nowhere near enough..

After seeing scores of flight simulator enthusiasts silenced for voicing their legitimate concerns over the direction of Flight, I must admit that I chuckled when I read that MS had stopped development of Flight. From the beginning this has been a matter of pure economics.

 

The target market for the Flight project largely coincided with that of the platform game. To pull the complexity out of flight simulator and inject a Playstation Network-esque experience into what was previously a niche technically focused hobby was a mistake. That they ignored the existing community in favor of a new product strategy capable of monetizing the potential that had previously been left to third party developers is beside the point.

 

In fact, I'm surprised that MS tolerated the 3PD binge for as long as it did. But to assume that you could simply churn neo-flight simulation enthusiasts out of a market distracted by titles like Call of Duty and Skyrim is astounding. MS attempted to address this culture gap by adding things like Aerocache, but they incorrectly assumed that the persistent drive and enthusiam behind the flight simulation genre would be sustained in the process of simplifying the experience. A little market research would have gone a long way.

 

Oh well.

They presumed they did market research. If i recall correctly, I read, more than once JH and some PR/CM people saying just that.

 

The first NO NO in my book is to alienate the installed user base, and that seems to be the first thing whoever was responsible did.

 

Anyway, lets enjoy the little we have.

 

Cheers.