Chris, I have been a member of Fileplanet off and on for years. I re-upped my membership at the beginning of the year, so it is just an added bonus that I get an oppurtunity to beta test. Would I have signed up for their services in the hope of getting a chance at the beta,YES. Would I have come in here saying I was going to ask for a refund, because I didn't get that chance, NO.

>Chris, >I have been a member of Fileplanet off and on for years. I>re-upped my membership at the beginning of the year, so it is>just an added bonus that I get an oppurtunity to beta test.>Would I have signed up for their services in the hope of>getting a chance at the beta,YES. Would I have come in here>saying I was going to ask for a refund, because I didn't get>that chance, NO.We're very alike then, I didn't come in this topic saying I was going to ask for a refund either.

If you're looking into subscribing to FP, when I upgraded my Comcast to 8000/768 kbps it came with free founder's club membership. That alone makes up for the extra $10/mo that the speed upgrade cost.

It looks like the sign in page is up again :(http://www.fileplanet.com/promotions/flight_simx/

:-mad It refuses to die.

>:-mad It refuses to die.Kinda like these threads... ;)

Persistence pays, Mike:)

>>:-mad It refuses to die.>>Kinda like these threads... ;)Now that was funny and true :)

So it was all a false alarm. Must be coming soon though because the page says "in the next few days". ;-) :-lol Seriously though, I don't think we'll see anything before September but I hope I'm wrong.

One thing I do wonder now is that if and when it comes out how much use it will actually be to the FS devs anyway. I don't know much (nothing actually! ;) )about manufacturing and shipping games but the October the 3rd date is pretty close already so any bugs found in the beta would be on a tight timescale to fix.Of course that doesn't mean it wouldn't be nice to get my hands on a copy! ;)

I think it takes 2-3 weeks to get from gold master to store shelves, so the sim would probably have to be finalized by around mid-September.

Really unless they get it out this week it will be of little benefit to the developers as far as fixing bugs is concerned. Another theory I have is perhaps they are waiting until they are ready to lift the NDA? I am sure a public beta of a large scale it would be impossible to keep everyone under wraps. Maybe the real purpose of the public beta is to sell the product and not so much to fix bugs? The FS community is pretty large with several hundred if not thousands of forums. With a large scale public beta about 4 to 6 weeks from release would do a wonderful job of presenting the product. Much better then MS can do with its resources alone.Perhaps since they only have one shot to sell this product by introducing a successful beta this is the reason for the delay. I am still calling it a delay at this point but its a write off if it does not show up by the end of the month. BTW I see little humor in the current events. Until the beta is released it is fraud in my book. Its not just fileplanet but Microsoft as well. You simply can't start something like this and then decide to drop or even change the scope with out notifying the participants. Especially when money is involved. The disclaimer does not hold a lot of water. Classic bait and switch and this is illegal!!

The lack of information is a little frustrating but I'm not sure we should all be talking about illegal this etc etc. The end of the day FS has brought me a lot of pleasure right back to FS98 and if the beta doesn't come and I have to wait till october does it really matter?In the long run we all get what we want which is a new FS, which i'm sure in the next few years will surpass all our current expectations.

>Really unless they get it out this week it will be of little>benefit to the developers as far as fixing bugs is concerned. >>>Another theory I have is perhaps they are waiting until they>are ready to lift the NDA? I am sure a public beta of a large>scale it would be impossible to keep everyone under wraps. >>Maybe the real purpose of the public beta is to sell the>product and not so much to fix bugs? The FS community is>pretty large with several hundred if not thousands of forums. >With a large scale public beta about 4 to 6 weeks from release>would do a wonderful job of presenting the product. Much>better then MS can do with its resources alone.>>Perhaps since they only have one shot to sell this product by>introducing a successful beta this is the reason for the>delay. I am still calling it a delay at this point but its a>write off if it does not show up by the end of the month. >>BTW I see little humor in the current events. Until the beta>is released it is fraud in my book. Its not just fileplanet>but Microsoft as well. You simply can't start something like>this and then decide to drop or even change the scope with out>notifying the participants. Especially when money is>involved. The disclaimer does not hold a lot of water. >Classic bait and switch and this is illegal!!>> My uncle spent a year in law school and is out of work right now, did you want me to call him for you?

But you do see a little humor? Just kidding! :)I am like most of you, always anxious about a new release of MSFS, and YES! I subscribed to File Planet mainly in hopes of being picked to be a beta tester :(On the bright side, I do like the faster downloads of game previews, demos, videos etc. So I am really considering keeping my subscription even if I am not picked for FS Beta.No I do not work for File Planet! But I do find comfort in finding a lot of simmers like me on different message boards anxious, and will do almost anything to get early hands on, or information about the game/platform a lot of us grew up on :)All this excitement, at least for me, is part of the fun! Adding a little humor now and then to sometimes serious matters, adds a little, back to earth, to things.With out a little humor the world would be a sad and destructive world