[Contest: Third participant: Marvic]. A study on developers efforts and how they can reach simmers expectations.
How far is too far? With all the latest scenery and aircraft, we have come to the point from which we cannot be happy with the developers until we are satisfied with the product even if it is past the limit of what is being offered. Also I am getting the feeling that some developers are putting out less than a finished product and using the public to test the product and the limits of what is offered. And you thought this was going to be a one sided editorial. There are some developers that openly do that, so if you buy in, you get to be a beta tester. The bar had been set a lot higher with the NGX, no question there, just realize that NOT all developers have the same amount of time and resources used to make the NGX. There are many great scenery developers, too many to mention. The one thing many pilots have forgotten is that no two developers model the same, although if you go to many forums and you get the idea immediately that not everyone understands that, comparing modellers is complete waste of time. Yes I said it and I meant it.
Cheers, Marvic
Not sure if this a post or just ramblings of a nut. You decide.
Marvic
Contest Airdailyx April 1st 2013
How far is too far? With all the latest scenery and aircraft, we have come to the point from which we cannot be happy with the developers until we are satisfied with the product even if it is past the limit of what is being offered. Also I am getting the feeling that some developers are putting out less than a finished product and using the public to test the product and the limits of what is offered. And you thought this was going to be a one sided editorial. There are some developers that openly do that, so if you buy in, you get to be a beta tester. The bar had been set a lot higher with the NGX, no question there, just realize that NOT all developers have the same amount of time and resources used to make the NGX. There are many great scenery developers, too many to mention. The one thing many pilots have forgotten is that no two developers model the same, although if you go to many forums and you get the idea immediately that not everyone understands that, comparing modellers is complete waste of time. Yes I said it and I meant it.
Comparing an Airbus to a Boeing makes just as much sense as
comparing a car to a boat, both are forms of
transportation..........but not the same thing. How about the recent
developer who put out a great scenery, many people had many issues,
the scenery was hard on frames, glitches, bugs, CTDS and the OOM's.
After much re-working of the scenery, the developer got the frames
up, gave the purchaser many options for setup. Now the developer went
well beyond what was offered, however, the developer took care of
their customer. It was ok to question product, you spent your money
right? You only wanted what you paid for, what you deserved.
After
reading the comments about a certain L1011 in development just the
same day one company released theirs, it made me think. Were those
customers justified in their comments? Are they expecting too much?
Did they get what they paid for? I will reserve my judgement on this
due to the fact that I have an aircraft from the developer as I am
not giving an aircraft review. Lets just say it needs some
improvements. How about purchasing a classic airliner, the well done
videos and write up clearly demonstrated the product you were
getting. VOR's and NDB's are your friends, but wait, You know what
this plane needs, a FMC. Hello, are you there? Did you just ask for a
FMC? Did you read the write up? I know three things about this
product, It is well developed, there were a few issues at the
beginning, but the developer gave what he promised and the purchaser
expected far more that was offered. There has got to be compromise
from all of us and a large order of patience. As we are looking for
another aircraft or scenery, the quality has gotten better.
We all want the same thing, a
good product, for a good price, what we do not need to is beat each
other up in the forums or waste out time demanding things that are
not reasonable. The developers have become better , the purchaser has
become smarter, the demand is higher. As a flight community we have
to realize, that there has to be compromises from both sides.
Cheers, Marvic
Not sure if this a post or just ramblings of a nut. You decide.
Marvic
Contest Airdailyx April 1st 2013
3 comments:
Nice Submission!
Good writeup...
Asking these questions has become important, especially during the last couple of years where the tone has changed in the various forums.
I don´t know if the rawer tone is due to the age of facebook and other social medias, but the tone has become more dis-respectfull and harsh.
As a developer the ever growing demands from customers are making the life less peacefull.
What has happened is that dveloper A introduces a new feature in his product - let´s say a weather radar. When developer B then comes with his new product with another feature - let´s say a functional IRS system, then when developer C announces his product, people start to demand that it comes with the same features as A and B, plus they also expect C to add more features.
So the featurefest spirals and has been good for enhacing realism over the years. Problem is just that at some point it becomes very hard to add new features. We are really approaching the line where FSX cannot handle much more, cause at the same time people also expect stable, non CTD'ing software and smooth framerates.
Speaking of using paying customers as beta testers is also not fair. People who have worked as beta testers will confirm that beta testing requires alot more than "just" flying and pointing out bugs and issues.
Beta testers will often have to fly the exact same route doing the exact same procedures over and over again, maybe 10 to 20 times, each time carefully note any action that leads to the faulty outcome.
Again addons has become so complex today, that if the price should remain resonable, then You have to setup timelines for a project.
Even with 50 betatester You will never be able to assure that the product will work the same on all hardware and software setups that exist. Just note how people are using all kind of scenery, weather engines, co-pilts and ATC programs or using it on in online flihths with various clients.
So for the developers the question is not whether a product is completly finished, it´s more a question if the product has reached a state where the addon can be used without any major, showstopping flaws and then follow up with patches, hotfixes or servicepacks afterwards, cause we know that regardless how much we test, that issues will arise after release.
No one in this business are releasing wrecked software on purpose, the community is simply too small to get away with that.
Back to the tone in the forums...
The toen has become increasingly harsh over the years. While we as developers know that the real trolls and whiners are a rather small percentage of the costumers, it´s not very motivating to be hunted down the way we have seen recently on many forums.
People might think that most developers are working fulltime , sitting in an officelandscape with other developers with full payment for their work. This is far from true. most but a very few developers only do this as part of their hobby, being FS addicts themselves. Most ahve a daytiamejob and family and simply develope addons in the evenings and weekends. While most off them get paid, it´s mostly regarded as pocketmoney.You definitly not get rich in this business.
In the "old" days people where more forgiving and patient as long as the bugs and flaws where fixed over time. Today You are ripped apart and seems not to have the right to defend Yourself if an addon You made doesn´t work right after release.
To be rightfull I also think that we as developers must learn not to use phrases like "realistic", "fully featured", just like in reality" etc. if we cannot warrant that it is so, but also be honest about what isn´t working as in real life and why it isn´t implementet. Fact is that we can do almost everything, but doing so means that nothing will run smoothly, meaning that frustration will go from aircraft systems bugs to choopy flight, both wrecking the immersion.
Just my few words to this topic.
Finn Jacobsen
(Aerosoft aircraft developer)
Thanks Finn. I have spoken with people who have the genuine belief that if they keep pressuring the developer, they will eventually get what they want. My comment to them is, you got exactly what the developer promised. It is OK to Ask for more (one time) but be willing to accept the answer that is given to you and move on. If the developer does decide to upgrade, be prepared to pay for it, remember you got what you paid for.
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