What can we do about Flightsim vendors that give industry a bad name?

[brubros 0]

UPDATE : Good thing I am not a betting man. InterMap sent me an update to say that FSGenesis status is "on life support" (rather than being terminated as I had predicted) for reasons that I think are not required to be repeated but make sense.

 

In other news from other research coming together today (things start to click quickly when new facts emerge):

 

FACTS

 

There have been three owners of FSGenesis over the years:

 

Justin Tyme (Pennsylvania/Colorado) until 2013 though ironically this is not yet a fact but rather a de facto aka FSGenesis founder, developer, consultant or employee to new owner

Michael Epstein (Florida) for, seemingly, around 90 days only before sale aka eDimensional, BBB 'F' Rating (Florida, California)

Cameron Cox (Utah) => Current Owner with Justin as consultant/employee aka put kibosh on lifetime or previously purchased product 

 

So the company purchase was actually between Cameron, current owner, and Michael, prior and very short-time owner and not, apparently, between Justin though Justin appears to be part of any deal that involves FSGenesis.

[Justin Toposim 16]

My sincere apologies to all Galaxy members. Mathematically, it was doomed from the start but took nearly a decade to gradually reach the threshold of diminishing returns by removing the best customers from the future revenue stream. The demise was certain almost from the beginning. Had I capped the Galaxy memberships at a much lower number, revenues would have continued to grow and I would be contemplating retirement by now.

As things have turned out I live on the edge of poverty and homelessness, working mostly low-wage menial laborious jobs, living mostly day-to-day, in simple rustic housing with sporadic Internet. Any flightsim-related work has a challenge in these circumstances. Some might say, good, karma bites, eh?

Just know that the old FSGenesis was always operated with the best intentions, and I am sincerely sorry for the way things turned out. Towards the end on my tenure the pressures and struggles just became too much and I sold out and went in a different direction after 15 years.

Also know that I too feel ripped off in the deal. I thought I was dealing with Michael who made promises that Cameron refused to honor. A good portion of my retirement planning rested on Michael's promise and a year and a half later I have seen no result from Michael's original agreement. A significant chunk of anticipated monthly income budget is missing, so making ends meet has been a struggle.

I wish I had the resources to buy it all back, make everything right again, recover my significant losses in the deal, and restore FSGenesis' hard-earned, long-time previous good reputation.

Justin

 

PS

 

And no, I don't live in my mother's basement. I live in a primitive cabin near a river at the base two beautiful ridges. Lots of trails, wildlife, and beautiful terrain -- Perfect for literary work, not so good for technology.


JT

[hawkeye52 8]

My sincere apologies to all Galaxy members.

JT

 

What I've definitely learned from this and the recent Earth Simulations interview that the really good guys have it pretty hard when it comes to Flight Sim 3rd party development.  I bought a large series of your products just before your original site went down and you were extremely responsive and helpful in any request I had.  It's unfortunate that someone took your name and tarnished it to what it is now.

 

Personally, I've tried to get into flight simulation 3rd party development and could not see, as an individual, how it could ever be sustainable as a full time job.

 

Your FSGenesis product was always the first thing that got installed after a fresh reinstall but i could not get the new guys to honor my purchases so I had to switch over to FSGlobal

 

Probably like you, developers like myself are not the best businessmen and just love what we do and I've wasted a fair share on my time on deals that were never met on the other end and am now skeptical about doing any development work outside of my career day job.

 

I guess what I'm trying to say is to avoid falling into the trap Justin did, those of you without business savvy that start to see some success in third party development, it might be wise to spend a few extra bucks ahead of time asking a financial planner/expert before making decision on how to sell your product (lifetime memberships, etc...).  We might still see Justin running the show.

 

This is just one of those stories that has no winners...I hope word spreads about how the current operators of FSGenesis have treated the original owner and its customers.  I implore users to not support practices, this community is too small for that.

 

EDIT: I just checked out your new site (TopoSim) and your commisioning of an airport idea is amazing.  So you are saying you will create a relatively good airport for 29.95 to develop it and the user who commisions it gets 5% off of it when it is released?  I actually love this idea!

Edited October 17, 2014 by n4gix
Deleted excessive quote.

[Justin Toposim 16]

EDIT: I just checked out your new site (TopoSim) and your commisioning of an airport idea is amazing.  So you are saying you will create a relatively good airport for 29.95 to develop it and the user who commisions it gets 5% off of it when it is released?  I actually love this idea!

 

Yes, that's the concept.  But this pretty-much is for airport plateaus, not a highly-detailed airport down to the waving grassblades. More like blending the surrounding terrain into a more natural appearance to compensate for the flat-airport limitation. 

 

Haven't had an order in several months, though.  Geez, four orders a day and I could do it full-time again.  But not sure the community wants to trust me after this fiasco.

[brubros 0]

 

 

But not sure the community wants to trust me after this fiasco.

 

Well, Justin, for coming clean I've just placed a custom airport order at your new site. I look forward to the quality result.

 

This does not address current grievances but your authenticity now does, however, address past grievances to the extent possible, at least for me.

 

More later. But this is progress. And thanks for surfacing.

[Justin Toposim 16]

Well, Justin, for coming clean I've just placed a custom airport order at your new site. I look forward to the quality result.

 

This does not address current grievances but your authenticity now does, however, address past grievances to the extent possible, at least for me.

 

More later. But this is progress. And thanks for surfacing.

 

Thank you, Brubros.  At this moment I have no control over current grievances.  In fact, I have grievances myself with the current situation.  It's hard watching something I built over more than a decade be ripped apart.  I wish someone with deeper pockets than I have would buy it, run it well, and hire me to continue development, while restoring, or at least making some acceptable compensation for the former Galaxy membership.  Until that happens I am powerless.  Maybe I'll hit the lottery or something lol

 

Justin

[mgh 89]

 

 

More later. But this is progress. And thanks for surfacing.

 

Does that including withdrawing your claim of dishonesty?

[brubros 0]

 

 

Does that including withdrawing your claim of dishonesty?

 

Nope.

 

All I can tell you, Gerry, or anyone that has been following this thread, is that the dishonest ones in a position of power will be receiving a very unwelcomed inquiry from a U.S. government agency based on information that came to light during this research and forwarded to the authorities. If FSGenesis is still an operating company by this time next year then I have failed. I'll check in here again, after it has gone out of business, and when I can go over what precisely happened to the dishonest ones.  I received an Emmy nomination not long ago for my investigative journalism work. I know what I am doing Gerry.