DCSWorld community lack of traction ... Posted by Tom_Weiss , 15 September 2013 · 20

[bkrull]

I saw this on Lock-On files and thought it pretty interesting:

 

DCSWorld community lack of traction ...

Posted by Tom_Weiss , 15 September 2013 · 202 views

 

LOF

lack of traction ...

 

When you have been around for as long as I in the Flight Sim community, and I haven´t been around that long, there are people I know who have been for at least 5-6 years more, you start to guesstimate accurately the traction a release has, by traction I mean the time a product has until it starts to lose steam in a geometrical rate.

 

It is also easy to gauge this by the number of downloads a skin I make get over a period of time, this is a practical measure so long as the quality of the skins (good or bad) holds constant.

 

A good example is the DCS WWII kickstart - it is 10 days since it started with 20 to go, with a creditable 76% of its goal achieved.

 

If all that DCS WWII wanted to achieve was that - $100k, it would have been great. But that is not the aim, the aim is to achieve the stretch goals and fund the project to at least this goal

 

$375,000

Everything at the previous level, plus:

A flyable Boeing B-17

Normandy map extended to include Southern England

which is where I hope it will get , although my guesstimate is that it will only reach $150k if things remain as they are.

 

I wonder why this is so - maybe it is because the flight sim community as a whole, by that I mean the DCS flight community, has lost its once considerable traction, once you strip its numbers to its core, there are not that many people around to support an ambitious kickstart as DCS WWII.

[bkrull]

Link to above article: http://www.lockonfiles.com/blog/12/entry-138-dcsworld-community-lack-of-traction/#commentsStart

[AtaliaA1]

In case you haven't seen the page yet. here is what he is talking about.

 

[Flagrum]

Interesting. He picks a more or less randomly choosen stretch goal and as it seems that it will not be reached, he takes it as indication of "lost traction" (I translate "traction" as "enthusiasm" here?).

[71st_Mastiff]

well if it had been the F16, I don't think traction would of been a problem. :thumbup:

[Feuerfalke]

well if it had been the F16, I don't think traction would of been a problem. :thumbup:

 

Couldn't put it any better. :D

[EtherealN]

It is also easy to gauge this by the number of downloads a skin I make get over a period of time, this is a practical measure so long as the quality of the skins (good or bad) holds constant.

 

http://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/

 

A bit too simplistic analysis.

[Mnemonic]

well if it had been the F16, I don't think traction would of been a problem. :thumbup:

 

Exactly my thoughts! :)

[cichlidfan]

The WWII kickstarter is a terrible 'litmus test' for DCS traction/enthusiasm/longevity. There are so many non-DCS issues affecting the response that any attempt to derive information about the state of DCS is simply invalid.

[SkateZilla]

I saw this on Lock-On files and thought it pretty interesting:

 

DCSWorld community lack of traction ...

Posted by Tom_Weiss , 15 September 2013 · 202 views

 

LOF

lack of traction ...

 

When you have been around for as long as I in the Flight Sim community, and I haven´t been around that long, there are people I know who have been for at least 5-6 years more, you start to guesstimate accurately the traction a release has, by traction I mean the time a product has until it starts to lose steam in a geometrical rate.

 

Lack of Traction?

 

I was making Boot Disks for Falcon 3.0 in the EARLY 90s,

[NineLine]

I dont get what he is trying to say in the article... how can you judge a small, but diverse community on one era specific project? It doesnt work like that... least I dont think it does....

[NineLine]

Lack of Traction?

 

I was making Boot Disks for Falcon 3.0 in the EARLY 90s,

 

 

Ahh boot disks... fond memories... ah early 90's... ahhh I'm old and have been crashing into the virtual ground for a long time... alot longer than 5-6 years anyways :)

[Raven68]

The WWII kickstarter is a terrible 'litmus test' for DCS traction/enthusiasm/longevity. There are so many non-DCS issues affecting the response that any attempt to derive information about the state of DCS is simply invalid.

 

So true cichlidfan. Kickstarter would do better also if the paypal option was available, but again you cant base the state of DCS on the WWII kickstarter.

[SkateZilla]

Cursing the HIMEM.SYS and Autoexec Batches.

 

I Need my Joystick and CD ROM, Boot both, not enough mem, boot one, game runs, but keyboard only, boot the other, no CD Rom.

 

it got worse when I installed Soundblaster 16, cuz then I had to load drivers for SoundBlaster Audio, the CD Rom Driver, and the Joystick Driver... ahhhhhhhh.

 

Finally got it all to work by disabling ports and devices I dont need.. lol.

[EtherealN]

Cursing the HIMEM.SYS and Autoexec Batches.

 

...and the younguns today complain about steep learning curves... :music_whistling:

[Raven68]

Cursing the HIMEM.SYS and Autoexec Batches.

 

No you did not go back to HIMEM.SYS !! Wowwww...dust that record off!

[NineLine]

Cursing the HIMEM.SYS and Autoexec Batches.

 

I Need my Joystick and CD ROM, Boot both, not enough mem, boot one, game runs, but keyboard only, boot the other, no CD Rom.

 

it got worse when I installed Soundblaster 16, cuz then I had to load drivers for SoundBlaster Audio, the CD Rom Driver, and the Joystick Driver... ahhhhhhhh.

 

Finally got it all to work by disabling ports and devices I dont need.. lol.

 

 

It was good I was single and childless back then.... or I would have been divorced and paying child support lol.... lots of late nights, probably spending as much time finding the perfect boot up as I did flying...

[SkateZilla]

...and the younguns today complain about steep learning curves... :music_whistling:

 

or install times... you remember how long a 8-12 Floppy game took to copy, de-compress and install? at 66Mhz w/ 8MB of RAM and PIO Mode 3, 400MB Harddisks.

 

Pressing the Turbo Button for 66Mhz was considered Overclocking, and Installing the IntelOverdrive Module overtop of the 486DX2 CPU was Considered Extreme Overclocking.

 

Giving up and Downloading a Autoexec.bat File from a BBS server after spending many nights fighting with it.

[Nate--IRL--]

Ahhh memories.....

 

Nate

[EtherealN]

or install times... you remember how long a 8-12 Floppy game took to copy, de-compress and install? at 66Mhz w/ 8MB of RAM and PIO Mode 3, 400MB Harddisks.

 

Pressing the Turbo Button for 66Mhz was considered Overclocking, and Installing the IntelOverdrive Module overtop of the 486DX2 CPU was Considered Extreme Overclocking.

 

Giving up and Downloading a Autoexec.bat File from a BBS server after spending many nights fighting with it.

 

Or when "pirating" music software meant borrowing a stack of 30 floppies spreading a zip archive from a mate in school, only to get a CRC Fault on number 28. That taught me. :D

 

Though turbo button in my case, my computer-illiterate father was convinced, meant that our IBM 286 (_actual_ IBM, not just compatible!) turned into a 386. Looking back, I think he was had by a salesman. :P

 

I actually missed the 486 generation - moved from 286 to Amiga 500 to Pentium, aside from a bunch of 486es school had that were meant for writing our papers, but we used them for playing Hearts (after we got Windows 95), Doom and Wolfenstein. :P (Then we got some nice Pentiums in the "media room" that were capable of running Command & Conquer... Chaos ensued. :D )

Edited September 30, 2013 by EtherealN

[EtherealN]

Another classic:

 

Setting up sound cards. Every single game.

 

Good memory from when me and a mate tried to get Warcraft 2 running. After digging through IRQs and DMAs, the setup program had this voice recording to announce that "yup, it works."

 

It said:

 

"Your sou-n-n-n-n-n-d ca-ca-ca-ca-ca-ca-ca-rd worrrrrrrrrks pe-pe-rfeck-ck-ck-tly."

[SkateZilla]

i went:

IBM AT (DosShell)

286 (DosShell)

386 (Win 3.0)

486 (Win 3.11)

586 (Win95)

Pentium 200MMX (Win95SE)

AMD K6II 300MHz (Win95SE)

Athlon 750Mhz (Win95, Win98, Win98SE, WinME, Win2000, WinXP, Mainly Used Win2000)

Athlon 1.1Ghz (Same as Above)

Sempron 1.8 GHz (WinXP)

Athlon 64 2.2 GHz (WinXP)

AthlonX2 6000+ 3Ghz (WinXP, Win7)

PhenomX2 555, Unlocked 3rd Core (Win7)

FX-8150 (Win7)

FX-8350 (Win7)

 

Pretty sure there was assorted stuff in the middle that i bought/built for parents and brothers.

[SkateZilla]

Another classic:

 

Setting up sound cards. Every single game.

 

Good memory from when me and a mate tried to get Warcraft 2 running. After digging through IRQs and DMAs, the setup program had this voice recording to announce that "yup, it works."

 

It said:

 

"Your sou-n-n-n-n-n-d ca-ca-ca-ca-ca-ca-ca-rd worrrrrrrrrks pe-pe-rfeck-ck-ck-tly."

 

Aside from the Soundblaster Setup w/ IRQs, VESA Display Driver for 640x480/16-Bit was a Real PITA to get working all the time,

 

I spent a week messing with it to Play Jetfighter II and Chuck Yeager's Air Combat.

[cichlidfan]

Memories...have to scrape the dust of but...

 

Cosmac ELF built in my dorm room during my freshman year in college. Couldn't do much of anything with it but it worked. :P

[EtherealN]

Chuck Yeager's Air Combat.

 

Oh maaaaaan!

 

That right there is how I got into flight sims. :)

 

We got it on a CD when we bought our Pentium 75, bundled with the Soundblaster.

 

I had flown some Falcon games before on Amiga, but never got into them. Yeager got me hooked though. (Still remember when family went to germany for a meetup with my family there, and I went to Karstadt supermarket to find myself an analog joystick specifically for that game. :D )

Edited September 30, 2013 by EtherealN