Quote:
Originally posted by Neal:
I can sooooooo live with pay-for addons!
Even more than with IL2/FB which I have all of!
Me too Neal......it's a scheme I've been trying to impress upon both Third Wire and GT's designers recently.....and one I promoted on the SimHQ forum here for Aspect's now defunct Knights Over Europe effort way back when. ;\)

Incorporating the add-on (modular) build concept into a sim's original design and marketing plans makes so much sense today.

First, considering a build process that can span multiple expansion modules, acknowledges the complexities and market forces that make it difficult to get a combat flight sim from the designer's drawing board to the retailer's product shelves these days. Obviously, if a project fails to meet it's required development deadlines, it is in jeopardy of ever being released. We've seen many promising sims come and go (for the WWI era especially), and much of this legacy of failure has occurred because design teams were too small to the task, or the original concept was too unmanageble in size and scope to be sensibly realized.

I remember harping on the KOE forum years ago that "less is more", and that when a design team entertains the idea of making a high-fidelity simulation, they should at first think about their "survival"......that is, being able to sustain the quality and intergrity of their build-process over time, and being able to deliver a product at the end of that process. With this imperative in mind, delivering a high-quality, marketable product in a timely manner becomes the most important objective.....without delivery, all else is failure.

In this same vein then, careful consideration should be made of how to deliver on the desired end-goal with the resources available, while minimizing the difficulties that threaten that goal. In this regards, designers and customers need to allow themselves the latitude to realize success, by making the goal attainable from the onset, and by keeping the on-going process practical. In this regard "doing less is more" becomes the imperative, in that keeping the build process targeted, promotes the attainment of the ultimate objective.....delivering a high-quality product at the end of the process. So from the beginning of the process, when analysing what sim package can be practically designed should occur, the ultimate goal of final delivery must be weighed against what the market will support. This is where customer expectations enter into the equation of whether a product, once delivered, is ultimately successful.......what ultimately are those most important customer expectations that must be fulfilled!

This is the area I reserve my criticism for not only a sim's designers, but for us simmers too, in that designers must have the discipline to realize that they can't deliver on each customer's personal expectations, but that they must try to satisfy their ultimate objective of finally delivering that marketable product that most cutomers will want to buy. As simmers and potential customers, we also have a responsibility in allowing designers to reach their goals of final delivery, and that once realized, that the end-product is something that will satisfy our expectations. As an example, would it be practical for us simmers to expect the inclusion of one hundred high-quality aircraft in an equally high-quality, high-fidelity sim today, before we would consider buying it? Should WWI simmers demand up-front that the whole land mass of Flanders & England should be modeled, and with requisite detail, before we would consider buying that either? Demanding delivery, and maintaining expectations that are impractical to realize, and ultimately unrealistic to hold, does neither sim designers or us customers any good. In the end, maintaining impossible expectations can mean the failure of both designers and customers to realize their mutual goal......having a product delivered to the marketplace in the end.

With these factors in mind, the process of building a sim's content over a series of mutually complimentary releases, would seem like a way to assure delivery of both. The modular "add-on" concept allows the designer's time to accomplish their goals in a timely manner, while allowing simmers to receive continued support on their original investment. The add-on scheme allows for a mutually supporting and beneficial "system" to coexist between the producer of a product and the users of the product, in that it inherently recognizes that both sides of the marketplace need each other to survive!

In summation (finally), I think most simmers recognize we depend on the survival of game designers to be able to get the products we desire to buy, and without their staying in business we have little chance of seeing our hobby continuing on into the future. For this reason we must mutally support each other, and both get something out of our relationship together. Like many consumers nowadays, I have high expectations over the products I'm willing to buy, but I also realize that what I buy expresses what I value too. In the end I'm casting a vote for what I individually value, want, and need. I think most us here on this SimHQ forum want to allow GT to be successful at giving us something we're wanting, and are hoping the relationship results in our mutual benefit. I'm also hoping GT will be around to continue their support of this and maybe other products, so that this hobby of ours continues to grow and prosper into the future........those are my greatest expectations (and desires). ;\)