"The Pointless search for Payware Perfection"

[falcon409]

IMHO this is an excellent article by Mike MaCarthy and well worth the time it takes to read. The Title says it all. . .there ain't no such thing as the perfect payware product and understanding that will go a long way to saving your sanity and lowering your blood pressure.

http://www.flightsim.com/main/op-ed/ed421.htm

[harleyman]

I found that intresting....I however follow a different approach

I purchase freely, and if the purchase lacks in it promise, I'm first in line for my refund... I just simply state that the software did not do as expected and i would not like to keep it ...

Never have I been refused....As a result I still enjoy doing business with them......

I also have only done this 3 times in a 6 year simming career...


That author says his time is important to him..Well so is my money to me...I have time...LOL

[rpjkw]

I tend to follow the author's practice. I've bought aircraft that, for one reason or another, I'm not really happy with or simply aren't fun to fly like I'd hoped. Others I enjoy so much I could delete all the others and be quite happy. Since I consider that a subjective attitude, I move the ones I don't care for to another hangar on another drive and forget about them. Also, I've yet to have an unhappy experience with any payware developer, but I do have my favorites. Flying was always a hoot for me before I lost my medical; now I have only FS and that should be a hoot, too.

But it doesn't really matter how each simmer chooses to enjoy this great hobby, only that they do.

Bob

[Blackbird686]

I tend to follow the author's practice. I've bought aircraft that, for one reason or another, I'm not really happy with or simply aren't fun to fly like I'd hoped. Others I enjoy so much I could delete all the others and be quite happy. Since I consider that a subjective attitude, I move the ones I don't care for to another hangar on another drive and forget about them. Also, I've yet to have an unhappy experience with any payware developer, but I do have my favorites. Flying was always a hoot for me before I lost my medical; now I have only FS and that should be a hoot, too.

But it doesn't really matter how each simmer chooses to enjoy this great hobby, only that they do.

Bob

This is a good approach, and for the most part, performance is directly related to price. I have purchased payware that has dazzled me with brilliance, but for the ones that don't quite make the mark... I try to tweak and mod, if not attempt to fix what I see as the problem. In 90% of these cases I have been able to adjust the model to my satisfaction. The other 10% has either been shelved or is a work in progress.

BB686:USA-flag:

[cheezyflier]

i call b.s. on the article. near the end he states :

"I'm not saying that 50% of payware is garbage. Rather, I'm saying that 50% of the add-on aircraft I buy either a) won't install correctly on my flight computer, or b) run sufficiently badly on my flight computer that I choose to consign them to the scrap heap.

Most likely I could cut my DOA rate from 50% to 5-10% percent by following normal support procedures, but as discussed above I choose not to because of the man time and calendar time this takes."

are you kidding me? what kind of attitude is that? you throw away 1/2 of what you buy because you can't be bothered to follow support procedures?
anyone who is that pressed for time has bad time management skills to begin with, and frivolously throwing away money because they are lazy. here's a clue buddy, cause you obviously don't have one:

do a little research before you buy. if you can't be bothered to followed support procedure, then send the money you would normally spend to me. that way, you can eliminate having to un-install what doesn't work for you, but you still get to spend money in a wasteful manner. best of all, you are funding my economic stimulus! :costumes:

[Cazzie]

First, I have to like the airplane (or scenery).

Second, I have to know the people doing the work and most of the fellows that do the really good work are over here.

Third, it has to be economically feasible. I cannot afford payware over $50.00 Yankee,.

And lastly, I have to have reviews by people in the sim community like the good folks here. Sites like flightsim or avsim are usually biased so that the candy jar is not taken away from them.

But that was a nice breakaway from the usual praise seen. Kudos Mr. MaCarthy. :ernae:

Caz

[Wiens]

Isn't Mike the one that boasts he only buys the $600 Best Buy special value "off-the-shelf" computers and then he locks his FPS at 10 or 15? No wonder half the stuff he buys doesn't work on his system............:faint:

Kevin :d

[Prowler1111]

.....and i was born yesterday....am I the only one to see the subliminal support to 2 well known products????
C´mon!!!


Prowler

[Sascha66]

.....and i was born yesterday....am I the only one to see the subliminal support to 2 well known products????
C´mon!!!


Prowler
Yup its there!

Time equals money - so the man is in a loose-loose game of chicken with himself!
:faint:

[Astoroth]

My money is too hard-earned to just throw away like that. I am usually one of the last people to get a payware addon, I usually wait to see what others think of it first, to get an indication of the quality. Then I will buy. Haven't disappointed myself yet!

[OleBoy]

Boy, the guy that wrote the article must have money growing on a tree in his back yard. Either that or he is someone that writes rave reviews and he gets them all for free. The guys not telling the whole story.....:bs:

I've only bought two payware airplanes so far and that's been after other friends have let me fly them on their machines first.

My motto: try it before I buy it, or not at all. Of course that can change based on the true grit I read here :friday:

[WarHorse47]

I take some exception to his article. I am not "a professional C/assembler/WindowsAPI technical programmer with a product under active development." But I am a working stiff that likes to learn a lot about computers, aviation history, and lots of other stuff.

I can't afford to spend money foolishly. I research all payware before I purchase. This specially true since I have an older computer which still runs fine, thank you. Consequently, if I purchase payware that "isn't perfect", I typically trying to fix it with my limited knowledge. And often that means asking for the advice of others on (this) or the developer's forum.

And frankly, what does one consider as Payware Perfection? What does that really mean? I think that answer is in the eye of the beholder - aka. customer. I'm not a rivet counter (I wear glasses) and my HD has only so much free space, so I know that high resolution and tons of a/c models are not in my definition of perfection. But I will take great sounds, textures (both with package and freeware), flight model, great VC (smooth, thank you), not a sigficant FPS impact, and innovative developer features.

And I've never asked for a refund. If I can't fix it, it goes into the hangar for another day. Either I'll figure out a solution, or reinstall it after I get my next computer. My decision, my risk.

--WH

[falcon409]

There is a second "inclusion" (if that's really a word) to the original written by Mike McCarthy. . .this one by Alejandro Hurtado, that sorta expands on what Mike was talking about. . .I think. The english is not exact and I had to reread quite a bit to get the gist of it all. . . I think the point of his short editorial is that besides payware/software simply not being compatible or not working as advertised, there are other reasons for the problems we run into day to day getting flightsim and it's addons to work together. . . .at least I think that's the idea. . . .you take a look.