Disclaimer: The Man from The Outside, Looking In here: I do not own FS2020 (a.k.a. MFS a.k.a MSFS2020), and do not plan to obtain it. I did spend a lot of time reading the fora, though* (this one and the official one). Depending on your personal preference and party affiliation (Whiners a.k.a. Negativity Spreaders, or White Knights a.k.a. word not allowed EDIT: Interesting: starts with F and ends with bois), you can thus freely choose to argue, with equal justification,
¤ either that therefore I do not know what I am talking about;
¤ or that as a non-partisan outsider with no horse in the race, I may have a more detached and objective view of things.

Anyhow, I like Balance, and to restore it in the FS2020 context, I had an idea which I herewith present to the Community for their kind consideration.

It goes like this:

I buy FS2020, let's say the "Premium Deluxe" variant (purchased directly, not via Game Pass).
So I now owe Microsoft/Asobo (MS/A) the sum of USD 120.

The payment will be made as follows:

• I pay 60% (thus USD 72) up front.
  (Depending on your FS2020 experience, perhaps 50% or 70% may be more appropriate, but it's only about the principle here.)
• I make an honest commitment that in ten years from now (to be precise: on August 18, 2030) the full sum of USD 120 will have been paid.
  (With no interest or extra fees, though.)
  So I still have to pay USD 48.

These will be paid according to the following scheme:

• I shall not pay directly in USD from my bank.
• Instead, I shall make available "credits" *) which MS/A can download from my website via a special downloader application called "SpecDow".
  These are small encrypted and securely authenticated files; my bank has my corresponding program which will convert them into equivalent real money which is then transferred to MS/A's account.
  *) Note: This is not to stoke the hornets' nest of discussion about the "credits" system! It's a mere technical ruse: I cannot control how the bank operates, but I can control how my website operates.
• When a new batch of credits is available, this will be announced. It will require an updated version of SpecDow (always to be downloaded first, from a different UI).
• But only a certain (variable and non-predictable) amount of credits will be available per (variable and non-predictable) time period (aiming for once per month, but no guarantees).
• Sometimes a batch of credits can be obtained and converted to USD without difficulty.
• Sometimes a batch can be downloaded only at the rate of 0.1 credit/hour.
• Sometimes the download of a credit will fail completely and/or "loop" (occasionally many times).
• It may be necessary from time to time to completely uninstall and then re-install the SpecDow application (it's quite big because of my 1.4 GB logo).
  (It may occasionally seem that even re-installing Windows 10 from scratch is necessary, but that's a bit of a myth.)
• When attempting to convert downloaded credits to real dollars, quite a few of those credits may turn out to be broken in various (variable and non-predictable) ways, e.g. mis-coded encryption, or a faulty authentication part.
• Some credits may work, but cause the SpecDow application to slow down, sometimes considerably so (e.g. no more than .001 credit/h).
• Any of the above may depend on which specific computer with what specific hardware/software configuration MS/A is using to obtain credits.
  Some machines may work flawlessly while others, working on the same batch, may not.
• In the case of difficulties as above, I shall in due course (say after 4-6 weeks) offer an update to the SpecDow application to fix things.
  (Hotfixes, within 2-3 weeks, only in special cases.)
• These updates then may or may not fix the issue under consideration.
• They also may or may not revert, or indeed nullify, previous features and/or earlier update fixes.
• But, to re-iterate: On August 18, 2030, the full payment of USD 120 will have been made!
  (This is not a scheme designed to shirk or even to merely reduce the amount paid. Eventually.)

What do you think?
(I'm hoping to see opinions split along the same lines of Whiners ("Payment system doesn't work! Unusable!") vs. White Knights ("Be patient, it's a brand-new scheme! Give it a year or four, and almost all money will have been paid!") as mentioned above, but will myself refrain from any further comments. It would not do for an outsider.)

Cheers!🙃

* Having flightsimmed since Bruce Artwick on the Apple ][, one does have an interest to see down which hole the rabbit is running these days.

Edited March 11, 20215 yr by TheFiddler
typos, astonishment at "word not allowed"

Don't do it folks...move along.

24 minutes ago, FlyBaby said:

Don't do it folks...move along.

 

1 hour ago, TheFiddler said:

 

"... What do you think?..."

1) overly verbose

2) unnecessarily pedantic

3) pretentiously erudite

4) gaudy rather than succinctly eloquent

I will gladly pay you Tuesday, for a hamburger today.

I am fascinated by your ideas and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

.

Edited March 11, 20215 yr by WingZ
Post modified as it was getting too long. Go on, give it a Like

6 hours ago, RustyFlyer said:

1) overly verbose

2) unnecessarily pedantic

3) pretentiously erudite

4) gaudy rather than succinctly eloquent

And these are just the good points. 🤣

The Fiddler.

With ideas like this, you are probably better off remaining an outsider.

Tony

8 hours ago, FlyBaby said:

Don't do it folks...move along.

Looks all right to me.   I chuckled heartily.  I'd say if a person can't laugh at this...

The original post is like one of those click bait YouTube videos where the "Click to Subscribe" button is gigantic and keeps flashing throughout the entire video.

Geez, and that whole text you wrote is in the end all about YOU not being able to get over the price of 120 dollar for the premium version right?

I'd say it is ridiculous.....unless your name is Scrooge.

I anyone who has the time to write something like that needs to get out more.

The ironic thing is, the sim pretty much already has this system anyway, just not with a convoluted way of doing it: You rent it with a Gamepass, if it sucks you don't play it and give up paying for a Gamepass and no onger rent it, or you buy it, but if you don't like the DLC, you don't buy that stuff.

48 minutes ago, Chock said:

The ironic thing is, the sim pretty much already has this system anyway, just not with a convoluted way of doing it: You rent it with a Gamepass, if it sucks you don't play it and give up paying for a Gamepass and no onger rent it, or you buy it, but if you don't like the DLC, you don't buy that stuff.

I really don't understand why you state in only three lines what you could otherwise state in 3 pages!