If you can find those magic websites that offer high speed downloads right when a patch or a demo is released, good for you. But I'll continue to pay the $7 a month so I know I don't have to go scrounging for a good source.

You missed the point. Add-ons for FS are almost as complex as a standalone product, involve extremely long production cycles and should be considered to be viewed as an "expansion", rather than an add-on.By downloading a patch you have already paid for the product and I want to see the outrage, if a publisher decides to exclusively charge their customers for patches. Demos have been traditionally free as well and are supposed to be a marketing tool for the publisher to advertise their product, so the customer can make a decision, wheather to purchase the product or not.Of course, you pay for the bandwidth, but, as I said earlier, there are plenty of websites that offer similar bandwidth for free or offer the demos via bittorrent, which makes pretty much any download payware service obsolete. Offering a demo, slash beta, exclusively on a payware site to lure customers into a monthly subscription is a rip-off in my eyes.I might contradict myself, because I did pay $10 for the Vista Beta from MS, but I got a nice 2-DVD disc set for it.Pat

I agree, some add-ons have great complexity (and to me that equals fun). I'm happy to pay for them (eg Dreamfleet Baron with Reality XP and Level D).I happily paid for the FSX beta too (via FilePlanet). I just want to get my hands on it, I realise it is beta and buggy, but don't care.Thanks to Aces for allowing us these opportunities. :-beerchug

This is not the FSX demo. It's the Beta, and it's a privilege to be a Beta tester so if you have to pay for it so be it. Quit whining you don't have to play the Beta.James

Yeah and I am more then happy to pay a few bucks to get this opportunity. Bring it on Aces!:-hah

>You missed the point. Add-ons for FS are almost as complex as>a standalone product, involve extremely long production cycles>and should be considered to be viewed as an "expansion",>rather than an add-on.>>By downloading a patch you have already paid for the product>and I want to see the outrage, if a publisher decides to>exclusively charge their customers for patches. Demos have>been traditionally free as well and are supposed to be a>marketing tool for the publisher to advertise their product,>so the customer can make a decision, wheather to purchase the>product or not.>>Of course, you pay for the bandwidth, but, as I said earlier,>there are plenty of websites that offer similar bandwidth for>free or offer the demos via bittorrent, which makes pretty>much any download payware service obsolete. Offering a demo,>slash beta, exclusively on a payware site to lure customers>into a monthly subscription is a rip-off in my eyes.>>I might contradict myself, because I did pay $10 for the Vista>Beta from MS, but I got a nice 2-DVD disc set for it.>>Pat>I understand about fileplanet, and I agree that there are alternatives out there, most of which I use regularly. Fileplanet, in my mind, is hassle-free, and I get access to betas now and then, so I'm happy with it, but I completely agree with your points about it.Then again, I have both played and been involved with massive add-ons for games like Half-Life 2, and it has always surprised me that developers have been allowed to charge for them here. When you take a project like Black Mesa Source, which is painstakingly reimagining the entire Half-Life game in the Source engine, or the project that updated MVP Baseball 2005 to the 2006 season, every player, new stadiums and models and such, it becomes difficult to view an add-on plane as a more complex project to make. I'm sure that concept has been argued back and forth a thousand times here, so I really don't want to restart that, I just wanted to explain why I felt it was ironic, as the FS community is the only one I have ever seen that allows the selling of mods to their game. Cheers,Brian

filerush.com for the most communist way of downloading patches (bittorrent). 3dgamers.com. fileshack.com (my favorite). Etc.Bluesnews.com always has a list of all the websites that provide a patch or demo to download.I simply refuse to pay to download something. =)

Must... have... now...I think that if I were going to pay for it (not being an FP subscriber), I'd prefer to wait for the finished product rather than a beta.I wonder how many of those that get it will really bear in mind that things will be unfinished, unpainted, unstable or whatever. If it were ready to go, it wouldn't be a beta so folks will have to reign in their expectations a little.I certainly hope that there's not going to be a spate of negative posts, NDA or not. If MS' own machines at Oshkosh were struggling a little with the beta builds, it stands to reason there's a good amount of optimisation to do before release.Anyway, I won't be downloading from FilePlanet - but I'm still dying to see the released version :DCheers,Jim

>>I'm sure that concept has been argued back and forth a>thousand times here, so I really don't want to restart that, I>just wanted to explain why I felt it was ironic, as the FS>community is the only one I have ever seen that allows the>selling of mods to their game. >>Cheers,>BrianWell, I'm probably wrong about this but here's a guess:Sooner or later all of these games add-on's will also become "payware" or at least a certain percentage just like FS community, that is, IF these games last as long as the FS series has.Why? The FS community has been around for 20+ years, we've been there, done that. Freeware still thrives, but NOTHING like it did in the early to mid 90's (ala Compuserve, etc.), and so, one day somewhere along the line an FS freeware dev person said to themselves, "I should get paid for the time and energy I put into this!" and the FS payware market began. Supply/demand equation means a lot too!

The FSX demo "advert" isn't on the homepage now. Suggest those that applied keep watch on their mailboxes!

Ok, of course when I'm at work and Fileplanet is blocked.Curse you proxy!I've come to what I feel to be a very mature understanding of my general bitterness towards this topic.First off, being someone who has payed a small fortune to Fileplanet in the past, I guess I was defending my impulse spending.However, more importantly, FS2004 has brought me deeper into the flight simulator world more than any other version. So I can only imagine what FSX will do. While many of the more serious FS fans have some issues that may not be addressed in the new version, it turns out that they have pretty much directly improved everything I was looking for in the new version.So I'm just jazzed, surprised by the beta, and snippy about anything that might lessen my general excitement in the moment. I apologize if I snapped at anyone in regards to this.-Brian

The real difference is the fact that when they said "I should get paid", no one sent out a cease and desist order. There have been plenty of teams shut down across the gaming spectrum for trying to profit off an add-on or using intellectual property. I always figured it made it because people in the FS community were willing to pay for add-ons, and no one tried to stop them from selling.I think it's great that these developers get an opportunity to make money off of their hard work. That's awesome. I think I just always think of all the guys who know that there's a good chance that they will never make a penny off of their work, because the publisher of the game they mod won't allow it.

>>As far as I know it is the full thing--12GB worth.>>Wonder how long that will take to download...Wonder how long it will take some cracker to remove the time limits...

Probably within a few hours after its available for download.

>>>As far as I know it is the full thing--12GB worth.>>>>Wonder how long that will take to download...>>Wonder how long it will take some cracker to remove the time>limits...Wait.What time limits?