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Would you pay $500 for a flight sim?


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I got into a discussion tonight with another guy whom challenged me on the money I spend on flight sim peripherals and games. In his opinion, this hobby of mine could not compare to his passion for hockey and was a poor excuse for entertainment.

 

He asked a rather pointed question:

 

If this is truely your "hobby" would you pay $500 or more for the perfect sim?

 

In his mind - He'd pay $500 to see one 3 hour Stanley Cup. Even if it was a crappy game... Then he also pays for equipment, club fees, gas to the rink etc etc etc. If this was a passion on the same level, is there a market for a $500 simulation? Would we as consumers support the development of a sim that warranted that kind of cash?

 

:huh:

 

It got me thinking.... I might actually pay that kind of money. hell I dropped a load on my Warthog HOTAS and MiMo monitor anyway. Why wouldn't I for the core game?

 

So i ask you.... what would a $500 game look like?

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That's a hard sell. I don't see the need for much more detail beyond what you get in the DCS games of the past few years. The only thing that would justify that large of a price tag in a single game would be if there were around 5-10 planes modeled to the level of A-10, and they had another region or two modeled. Also, a multithreaded engine - I'm a little peeved that my overclocked i7 is my bottleneck in BS2. Multicore has been standard for a while now, and developers have known it was coming long before it's been common place.

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For the right sim, yeah. $500 up front would be a hard pill to swallow though (and nearly impossible to get wife approval!) Maybe it'd be best to pay for add ons as you go? $100 for advanced AI, another $100 for the improved graphics engine, $50 for ATC/JTAC, and so on.

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We already pay big $$$ for our sims. Look at the amount of money we spend on computers, flight sim peripherals, the actual flight sims and the time we put into learning and flying them. I'd say we spend a lot more. By "perfect sim" that will not exist in my lifetime. Even in real life things don't go right. The prefect sim will be were you feel the G's you pull, too many people out there use unreal moves and why not, they work in game, but wouldn't work in real life, you'd black out and kill yourself. People do not realize what even 4-6 G's do to you and how much harder it is to do anything....let alone 8-9 G's. Another thing is people/servers don't fly with failures on. After flying BMS for the last few months and seeing the prep that goes on before a sortie, makes FC2 look even more air quakeish. There is no prep time in FC2 for your flight. The briefing screen takes a quick second to look at.

 

 

A $500 game would look like DCS graphics, BMS briefing/UI screens, the world modeled not just a small part of it, FC2 aircraft + lots more, it would be awesome to interlace something like Arma into it as well as Naval/subs all working together. I think that would be a good start.

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I got into a discussion tonight with another guy whom challenged me on the money I spend on flight sim peripherals and games. In his opinion, this hobby of mine could not compare to his passion for hockey and was a poor excuse for entertainment.

 

If you ask me, the guy made a rather poor excuse of an argument. :)

 

How can you equate passion and monetary expense? If he lived in walking distance of a hockey stadium, boom, his passion would decrease a lot? Sounds just not right.

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I would. I've paid at least 10 times that on EVE Online (I really should make a postit about cancelling those accounts soon...), so that's actually less than what I paid for my Warthog HOTAS. I might raise my expectations though, but under a scheme similar to what RoF is doing it would definitely be possible for me to end up dropping that amount of cash.

 

Something I just cannot understand is people who will happily pay hundreds of dollars to watch Bruce Springsteen, plus hotel, plus gas for travel etcetera etcetera. Rediculous money to spend on something that's over the same night, leaving you with only a hangover, sore throat, and burst eardrum. :P At least with a flight sim, the next day I still have it. :)

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Looks like Cali's thinking along the same lines I am- I would most certainly pay $500 for the "perfect sim", but this sim would be a full virtual battlefield. Like Arma, but at a DCS level of fidelity, and a continent-sized play field.

 

Take the Arma infantry interface, Steel Beasts Pro PE tank interface, 688i Hunter-Killer/ Dangerous Waters naval interface, DCS-level aircraft interface, a SAM operator simulation, FOPCSIM artillery/ FO interface, and put them all together into a single piece of software (or as modules to a common engine) with an enduring dynamic campaign.

 

I would EASILY pay $500 for that. And still feel like I'd gotten a steal.

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In his circle, paying 500 dollars for a hockey game is probably considered baddass. This is the kind of person who wouldn't admit he cries at movies let alone play computer games. :D

 

I still wouldn't pay for F-16 unless it's from ED or the Airforce.

ED have been taking my money since 1995. :P

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Sure I'd pay - if you play subscribed-based games/sim like ww2online, this kind of money comes together easily... (if not at once, but over years).

 

My perfect sim would include controllable armor/vehicles and infantery (kind of ARMA), but all detailed and "realistic" (unlike ARMA) :D

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I would. ... I might raise my expectations though, but under a scheme similar to what RoF is doing it would definitely be possible for me to end up dropping that amount of cash.

 

I to would definately have higher expectations. Especially if we are talking about $500 right up front to buy the sim.

 

Now when you break it down over time such as a subscription or the ROF model, then it would be easy to imagine spending that much and more. I have done it too!

 

For example, I might hesitate to spend $20,000 on an aquarium setup but I can promise you I have spent more than that on the hobby over the years, with little hesitation at all.:P

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For example, I might hesitate to spend $20,000 on an aquarium setup but I can promise you I have spent more than that on the hobby over the years, with little hesitation at all.:P

 

QFT!

 

Back in S.A. I was running a 350 gallon marine setup with Drip filter/UV/Protein Skimmers/Coral Lighting etc etc and stocked I don't even want to know how much I spent stocking and maintaining, especially after the introduction of a Snowflake Moray......:music_whistling: :megalol:

 

As to the $500 pricetag for a SIM? Would depend I suppose. If someone told me 5 years ago I would be dropping £300-odd pounds on a HOTAS system I would have told them to get knotted!

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...My perfect sim would include controllable armor/vehicles and infantery (kind of ARMA), but all detailed and "realistic" (unlike ARMA) :D

 

Yeah, a complete war-sim including land/see/air combat and a strategic command guiding the simmers :) All featuring a DCS level of realism and hundreds of players playing online without lags :D I would easily pay 500 bucks for something like this. I'm pretty sure this dream will come true someday.

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$500 for a sim? Hell, I'd pay $500 for a decent mission planner and weapon delivery planner I could use to set up my DTC and calculate my attack profiles etc.

 

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If this was a passion on the same level, is there a market for a $500 simulation? Would we as consumers support the development of a sim that warranted that kind of cash?

 

No, full stop, end of story. As you may have noticed, flight sims are priced more or less like other games. There's a reason for this, but I'll leave this as an exercise for the reader.

 

Your friend is comparing apples and oranges.

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