Fighter Ops Argument

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.

Thanks for the input Buckshot! :)

The area 51 members will be be buying FO no matter what but holding back a better more complete demo from the the customers who are checking FO out and are not sure sales seems backwards to me.

 

I would want the most complete and feature filled demo available to those new potential customers rather then a castrated one.

This is an excellent point which perhaps Buckshot can respond to?

I believe I did in post #26:

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.

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.

I guess you really need to think about the reason for the demo and the uniqueness of Area51.

The whole reason for a demo is to wet peoples appetite for the game and show them some of the features in a game, hence inticing them to buy it. Giving them a high spec'd demo might infact have the reverse effect in that some may be satisfied with just that and not feel the need to buy the game at all. As you have pointed out the Area51 members are a different breed and hence giving them a more spec'd up demo as a thank you for thier loyalty will probably not impact on the sales of the game.

The other point i'd like to make is we wouldn't be doing anything different in regards to the amount of information/level of demo's etc for the public if Area51 didnt exist. So dont feel you are being hard done by because of the existence of Area51 as you wouldn't have got it either way. This means that Area51 is an opportuinity to get more than you otherwise would have, not as some people make out, an exploit to take away from what the public would have otherwise got for a profit.

Cheers

Guys: where is the problem?

There is an official FO forum for which you don't have to pay.

There is an other forum where you can see a bit over the developers shoulder during that process of development. For this you have to pay. If you don't want: lots of information comes some weeks later to the official forum. So again: where's the prob?

For me it is sexy to get in touch with the game developers and see the ongoing progress of a new simulator up from the scratch (even if I'm at the moment not sure if we ever see that product...). But for me it's ok to support them with some money. But you don't have to.