Buckshot

Sorry but you are completely misinformed on both counts.

Actually calling it an "Annual fee" or "yearly subscription" is not accurate, you only pay once for the program, and you will be able to fly that program along with the free updates and add-ons you get throughout the year for as many years as you want. There will however be new releases approximately every year which will add substantial content to the sim, however will be stand-alone packages, which again will be yours to use for however many years you want without paying another cent. Therefore to call it a yearly fee or subscription is highly misleading. There is nothing stopping someone waiting three or four years to by their first copy of Fighter Ops, the copy they get will be the same as the person who has purchased the new editions every year for those 3 or 4 years, they'll just have missed out on the enjoyment and experience of those years of flying.

Well said Carl, couldn't agree more.

Totally understand where you are coming from Pilotasso, and we are of course totally fine with that point of view. I still think there's a little misunderstanding in the paying in advance statement, but anyhow, the overall sentiment is totally understandable.

lol, I hope I don't have to explain my vote on this one?

Hehe, well I wasn't under the impression that every vote needed full clarification. I do understand where you are coming from in that it may look to someone that I was indeed saying that black shark was a waste of money, which I don't agree with. I do think you went a little overboard though in your comments, and I certainly apologise if anyone mistook my vote to mean that and was offended. I hope my explanations here dispell any thoughts along those lines. I continue to have a good relationship with some of the original developers of LOMAC. I believe they certainly had a great vision for the product, unfortunately due to corporate realities those visions didn't come to fruition, but I hope ED are able to gradually bring LOMAC to what it could be. I'll continue to support them as they develop the jet combat portion of the simulation further, and like I said I possibly will purchase Black Shark, it's just not currently something high on my priority list. If it turns out to be as good as some predict, I'll likely still purchase it even though I'm not interested in that side of PC flight simulation.

Obviously with any poll, you choose the answer which best fits your personal opinion. Waste of money is not something I would have said, and as I have indicated in subsequent posts, I have supported LOMAC in the past, and if Black Shark interests me in any way, I'll support it. I generally don't purchase civilian sims, or PS2 arcade sims for the exact same reason, attacking me and the fighter ops team for that stance would be just as misplaced as attacking me and the fighterops team in relation to a helicopter sim I may or may not purchase. I don't have an unlimitted personal budget, if I did, yeah sure I might support every game developer out there, but I don't, so I have to use a little more discretion in my personal spending.

Umm how do you draw that bow?? The poll is asking for a personal opinion in regards to whether I am interested in a helicopter simulation. How does that reflect on me, let alone the product and the fighterops team? Because I don't particularly care for helicopter simulations I'm a lesser person?? because I don't care for a helicopter simulation, the entire fighterops team are somehow tainted??, come on now you have to admit that is a pretty silly statement to make. As I replied to the post you made on our forums, I have purchased a couple of helicopter sims in the past, but my primary passion has been, and will likely continue to be fixed wing. If black shark really stands out to me I'll likely buy it, but to be brutally honest, my investment so far in lock on products hasn't really been money well spent, apart from the fact of supporting another flight sim development team. For that reason I gave an honest answer to the poll, that I would currently consider it unlikely, based on the fact that it is a helicopter simulation, and based on my current expectations, that I would purchase black shark. I would be glad to be proved wrong.

Hey guys, just to clear up a couple of quick things, the FO terrain was replaced simply because it didn't look good enough down low. The new terrain system is coming along well and will look great at all altitudes. As for in-game shots, limited shots were released to Area51 of the current prototype in December last year. The main problem with releasing prototype shots at the moment, is that the terrain development is still occuring outside of the prototype so the place holder terrain in there now is not representitive of the final product. Expect that to change in the coming months. As for the age old claim of Fighter Ops fans needing to pay for what other sims give for free, nothing could be further from the truth. If you are really interested in the truth about that little myth, then this thread may provide some insight http://www.fighterops.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4233

I believe I did in post #26: Summing it up, the same situation applies to the demo as does screenshots, information, etc etc, the general public will receive a demo that is as complete or more complete than another development company would give at a time at or before the time another development team would be likely to release a demo.

Hey guys, just to clear up some of the mis-information here. First of all, as Cobra pointed out, Sumoscouse was never banned. He presented his argument and was treated with a great deal of patience, his arguments were rebutted not only by XSI staff, but also members of the forums, Area 51 members, and also general forum members. He then proceeded to continue to harp on about his opinions which was where he crossed the line into trolling territory and was warned. To clear up the misinformation about Area 51. The fighterops project prides itself in releasing huge amounts of information to anybody who visits our forum. Any forum member will find huge amounts of information, early development shots, etc which most development teams would not even dream about releasing. Area 51 was created by request from our community by members who wanted to be even more involved, and also wanted to contribute to the project. It doesn't take a rocket scientest to figure out that Area 51 isn't a money making proposition, it was never intended to be. More than 90% of the money received by Area 51 member subscriptions goes back to them in prize giveaways (actually when you consider that several thousand dollars went to G2interactive and we continued to honor those memberships the percentage is more like 150%). On top of that every Area 51 member receives their initial subscription back when they purchase the first release of Fighter Ops, earlier access to screenshots, extra screenshots, videos and other information, access to special guest sessions by our fighter pilots, developers and other people of interest, etc etc. So why do we continue to run Area 51 when it costs us money? Pretty simple, the first reason is listed above, customer demand, on top of that it gives us a qualified customer base, guys we know will be putting their money where their mouth is, to listen to and conduct market research with. It helps to create brand loyalty and is a way to have members participate more actively in the project, build excitement etc. On marketing hype etc, I do agree any project has a certain amount of hype, it's normal for developers to get excited about their project. We always try to be very upfront and realistic though, anytime someone asks me about a feature, I will tell them straight up whether it's likely to be on the list at some point, if it's likely to make first release, or is one of those we just can't be sure about yet. Demos are always very limited by nature, LOMAC certainly had a limited demo. The demo that the public receive will be no different. Area 51 members will receive bonus extras for their loyalty to the product, nothing strange about that. Also the timing of the demo is usually well controlled, again LOMAC is a perfect example, the general public won't get our demo any later than they would normally, but Area 51 members will get it first. Again pretty obvious reasoning there. Hope this helps clear a few things up. Again if there are any questions, feel free to ask them on our forums. I wouldn't normally post information such as this on other forums, but as there was so much confusion based on incorrect information being posted, I felt it needed to be cleared up.