>That in itself is a very odd attitude to take. As a non>customer of theirs you are drawing this consclusion from 3rd>part information, where some a lot of it is positive with some>selected (usually the same) individuals with a problem. >Granted they may have a real problem, but without knowing both>sides of the story, how can you come to a conclusion that way?Do you really think this is an odd attitude? From where should I take my information then? Should I buy software from them, just to be able to verify all those complaints? I am NOT my own worst enemy :-)Do you know another company with such bad reputation (well, Ariane, maybe) ??? Those negative statements obviously cannot be the products of a few selected "evil customers", can they???Click on these links, even in Germany they have aquired a rather "strange" reputation:http://www.wcm.at/forum/showthread.php?thr...sd&pagenumber=1http://www.wcm.at/forum/showthread.php?thr...sd&pagenumber=1

they do best, just like anyone else.>>However, you'll never get 30,000 customers for the 737. You'll>be lucky to get half of the 10,000 customers. >Why should anybody download a livery, if he doesn

>I think your numbers are quite a bit exaggerated. I am not a>software company so I can't quote accurate numbers, and>neither can you. >>The only thing I know is that what a few developers have told>me before about their sales volumes does not come anywhere>near the numbers you are talking about. Look at their website. They give the number of downloads themselves. Of course there MAY be a number of "idiots" who download a livery for an airplane they do not possess but I really cannot believe that this would be more then a "handfull" of people...>Plus when you>consider an outfit like PMDG has to split these proceeds among>a lot of programmers, modelers and graphics artists. Of course that is true...but still there must remain more than enough money to inspire them to immediately start their next project (why else would they develop one new add-on after the other...)

The forum you are using as an example is a notorious hangout for software pirates and file traders. They are constantly talking about where you can get cracked files, trading "keys", finding crack tools, etc. Don't think that's much of an example.

Sure. Why esle would they keep doing it? My only point is I doubt if any of them are getting rich doing this. I think there would have to be an element of just wanting to do it because the hobby interests them.Don't know how many of them do this sort of thing full time or not.

Probably a lot of failed downloads. People reinstalling. And probably a certain number who do not "own" one legally.

>The forum you are using as an example is a notorious hangout>for software pirates and file traders. They are constantly>talking about where you can get cracked files, trading "keys",>finding crack tools, etc. Don't think that's much of an>example.This is certainly NOT true. It is the forum of a big (printed) flightsim-magazine (FlightXPress) available everywhere in Germany, Austria and Switzerland! I have NEVER read anything like where you can get cracked files etc there - on the contrary, people who would demand such files would get no reply or would get banned from the forum!

>Probably a lot of failed downloads. People reinstalling. And>probably a certain number who do not "own" one legally.This might easily all be the true. Still, as there are "only" 5964 downloads stated for the Air Algerie - livery, why should there be so much more "failed downloads" for the Lufthansa-livery? I would rather think those numbers indicate that so much more people were interested in the Lufthansa-livery and that this number shows that there are definitely a lot more customers than, lets say, the approximately 6000, who downloaded the Air Algerie-livery. Certainly there will be failed downloads, people reinstalling (without having saved the liveries somewhere) and even illegal 737-users. On the other hand there will be quite a large number of people who bought the boxed version and never even downloaded a single additional repaint!In any case I think it is quite save to say that several (many) thousand people bought the 737.I think I will leave this thread now, as I am not the sales manager of a software-company :-)

I have to agree with Paul. AVSIM forums have a role in hosting (respectful) debate on payware products and a policy of removing something critical just because it is critical of a payware company would be disappoiting. Most readers are pretty good at separating honest opinion and differences in experiences from reactive ranting and raving.

Bob,You seem to have a problem with just about every developer out there. I particularly recall a nasty exchange yo had with Flight 1 a while back, and I have seen a few others.It's getting kind of old man. If you really have that many problems I think it would be best you take it up with these people in private, rather than with all these drive-by accusations and negative comments.

Hi AllI thought I was the only one who received a reply from FSD when I couldn't install a service update to my Panther Navajo.When I attempted to install the update, using my password and key, I received an error message indicating to contact FSD.I did this and received an Email from Tim Dickens indicating that someone had downloaded a hacker program which affected the keyGen and I could be liabel.I sent Tim a reply indicating that I am the only one who uses my computer, and would not know how to allow a hacker to infiltrate the FSD program.I also had purchased four other aircraft from FSD and I can no longer access,due to the problem with the key.I enjoyed their aircraft, hopefully the problem will be solved.Kenny G.

If you have XP then do a system restore to the time before you tried to install the update and you should still be able to use the aircraft you have already bought and paid for legally. It's all very well accusing you of piracy and blocking you from applying the update to one aircraft but to block you from using your other FSD aircraft is ridiculous. The same happened to me when I bought and tried to install the Avanti and got the same keygen accusations but a quick system restore and I had all of the others back up again. Stopping you from using add ons you have already paid for on a paranoid hunch that you are doing something wrong amounts to theft by FSD.

>If you have XP then do a system restore to the time before>you tried to install the update and you should still be able>to use the aircraft you have already bought and paid for>legally. It's all very well accusing you of piracy and>blocking you from applying the update to one aircraft but to>block you from using your other FSD aircraft is ridiculous. >The same happened to me when I bought and tried to install the>Avanti and got the same keygen accusations but a quick system>restore and I had all of the others back up again. Stopping>you from using add ons you have already paid for on a paranoid>hunch that you are doing something wrong amounts to theft by>FSD. Tks. Mesa for your reply, I will try the restore which certainly is better then doing a reformat of my entire system as suggested by FSD.I still can't figure out why Tim Dickens would think I would hack into their security key after purchasing four of their aircraft over the past several years.Tks. again Mesa for your advise.Kenny G.

You're german isn't very up to date isn't it? Using FUD doesn't help because its easy to check your claims for people that can read german. What does this say about your other claims.Fact is that every now and then FSD gets a few posts about their licensing system or about the way some of their support people express themself in e-mails to customers. This happens on many different FS forums in different langauges and by different people. Every publisher has some problem customers but FSD seems to attract more attention than others. Its unlikley to be a smear campaign (just consider the many different complaints and different nationalities). I also find it very unlikly that a pirate would complain in an open forum about being caught as a pirate. Very unlikley.You have a positive experience with FSD. That's a fact congratulations.There are a lot of people that have a negative experience with FSD. Also a fact your positive experience with them doesn't change that.

I am not providing my opinion to belittle anyone else. So please give me the same consideration.My Deutsche is not too bad. But just about anything can be translated on the web if one ever feels it's important. Also some of the posts are in English, or contain parts that are in English. So you don't need to be a UN translator to figure out what they are talking about. When I see addresses of peer-to-peer sites that distribute pirated FS planes (and just about every software you can imagine), offers to "share" product keys and locations of crack files, well, it does not take a genius to figure out what is going on. Plus I continually see the unethical practice of quoting private mail involving 3rd parties, which is something no legitimate forum would allow. You certainly can't pull any of that at Avsim. This FlightXPress forum seems to either be completely uncontrolled, or the operator is sympathetic to those who are trading in pirated software on his forum. Either way it lacks credibitly on this subject. If accusations are being made there it is very possibly coming from someone who is engaging in those activities. There is really no way to tell, so there is no way it can be taken seriously. That's not to say that's all they talk about over there. Most of it is normal sim related stuff here. But unlike Avsim they are also willing to be a Warez information site as well. That's my reason for not giving that site any credibility.