The A2A Simulations Community

The big question remains; time, effort, and funds - vs. market feasibility...

A2A has an edge, in that; even though another developer has already produced that type of aircraft, they can still pick up the same customers, because of Accu-sim.
This is great for A2A, great for us, and actually, great for the other developer as well. Because it forces the standard within the whole community up a notch.

Now, given those factors, there is a market for those who would rather not fly with Accu-Sim, simply because of the added realism. They would rather just Ctrl-E and just fly, at the end of a work day. That is fine, and if they desire, they cann still have the A2A bird, without the Accu-sim. However, this market is in the hands of the rest of the payware developers circle. So, in this category, popular aircraft that have not yet, or not recently been professionally produced, will reign high in the list of "options" that a company like A2A might pursue.

Something like Rare Bear? Love the idea, but there isn't a market.
Precious Metal? Sorry, same problem.
Another Bearcat? Well...maybe, but it would need Accu-Sim.
Sea Fury? In the opinion of some...we're still waiting...

So get this guys...you know of an aircraft that you would love to have produced??? Doesn't seem to be a big market for it? Here's what you do:

1.) Find 20 Likeminded people
Then find at least 10 of those people willing to INVEST.
2.) Collect $100 investments from each of those 10. (With their understanding that they may never see a thing from it!)

3.) Contact a company that has a standard of professionalism and quality that you desire. (could even be a freeware guy/guys) If they are not bogged down with current projects.
Obtain his address, or paypal. Don't tell them why.. Send them $1,000 - With a description of what you are looking for, and a list of the first 10 customers. He'll either accept, or send your money back. If they take your money, without response...they must not have been as professional as you thought. Try, try again!

If you can manage the above, any developer might take the request seriously.

Best of luck!
Joseph

http://www.fsxairsports.com

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I would definitely be happy with a Sea Fury. Not to mention a Spitfire IX or XIV. I would definitely pay 100$ in hopes one of the 3 would be produced and willing to lose the 100$ for the chance at it.

I think the most feasible would be the Spitfire MK IX since the Merlin 63 is pretty much the exact same as the Packard V-1650-7 as found in the P51D. There are are very few fuselage and cockpit differences between the MKI+II and MKIX, the biggest difference being the addition of a second radiator under the left wing and the oil cooler inlet being relocated under the engine cowling. The MKIX Wings were as follows, the clipped (LF. Merlin 66), standard (F. Merlin 61 {IXb} or 63 {IXc and IXe}) or extended (HF. Merlin 70) There was also the MKXVI which was a Spitfire VIII fuselage which you can tell by the pointed tail and usually low back canopy except for the first models which were the standard high back which used the Packard Merlin 266 which was a license built version of the Merlin 66. So it was pretty much a MKIX with a low back and an American built Merlin with a pointed tail. They were all generally the same engine, just different supercharger impellers for the different altitudes that the aircraft were used at.

I think that would be my best 100$ spent since the chances of it happening would be a lot higher than starting on a completely new aircraft like the Sea Fury or a Spitfire XIV since it has the Griffon engine which is completely different from the Merlin.

Thoughts?

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As much as i would like a plethora of options I am not sure my bank balance could hold up We humans have a lot of desires. I would love to see A2A accusim several dozen aircraft but even if this were possible in a perfect scenario I doubt I would have enough capital and time to invest in seeing that desire through. Inevitably you have to come to a crossroads, the opportunity cost dilemna where you have to choose. Hence the most popular aircraft make it.

A2A would need a lot of capital and time to invest in providing the several dozen aircraft I have in mind as well as those in the minds you guys; I have however always maintained if I won the Euromillions or National Lottery I would earmark some funds to A2A
It is not always as simple as providing upfront captial either. Risk plays a part, cost overuns, future work. Company's may have to employ more people to meet a reasonable time frame and don't want to be left with more employees after completion of the project with no future prospects. You would have to at least stagger development. Thus you would need a lot of upfront captial, most likely at least a hundred or more enthusiasts of an aircraft to provide finance. A company with the capacity (time to do the work and whom is willing. Evidence that you could provide future business. There are a whole load of other factors too, like whether or not it is possible. There may be no flying examples of a particular aircraft or sparse technical information.

The problem with most things in society is bringing people together to focus power, think unions. Democracy often falls short of expectations because not enough people exercise their right.
It would be easier if there was a one stop shop for enthusiasts of a particular aircraft, generation etc. A worldwide Rarebear Community could wield more influence than several disjointed independents. This has been a big factor in several aircraft not making the cut or indeed certain genres; look at the state of combat flgiht simulators. IL2 Cliffs of Dover is a joke and the battle to fix it has become more a battle for credibility The combat flight simulator community will have to wait till see how DCS and Tacpack work out before possibly coming together to finance a new venture.

Lets all remember that this is exactly how A2A came into being. Unimpressed with the standard of add on aircraft and a 'if you want a job doing do it yourself' atitude Scott created A2A Lets be honest about one thing Microsoft assasinated themselved with Flight. If that investment had gone to A2A or someone else we would be sitting on a nice new simulator instead of a six/seven year old simulator. The only reason I only use it is because of accusim; maybe Prepar3d will develop and fare better.

The flight simulation industry appears to considerably less large than it used to be and I assume this has had an effect on revenue and profits. However maybe I am wrong and again this is down to the lack of a unifying body for fans; companies need to access the market and without data of how many prospective buyers there are they aren't going to risk a catch 22 fallout. The indsutry needs a rethink, communities need to take petitions and numbers seriously and combine. They also need to prepared to do it themselves and then do so for others. A2A can't do it by themselves at the present moment, they don't have the resources to fulfil the desires of everyone. Time is unfortunately finite and they are uber busy.

- Well written

Joseph

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The problem is that while customers and fans may want communities together, the reality is that every developer, these days, wants to run their own site, with their own forums and, because customers actually don't all want to congregate in the same places (otherwise they would!), then all of these forums have "General" pages where people can talk about anything they want... so they do.

This isn't new. The hobby and industry was fragmenting back in the days of FS9, when there seemed to be a new flightsim website every hour, let alone every day. As numbers of simmers have dropped, however, from the heady days before the announcement of FSX, nothing has been amalgamated. A lot of sites have closed their doors, or simply gone out of use. Some sites (mine, for instance) exist out of simplicity of management - I can update files, add them, remove them and do anything I like without having to seek someone's approval to do so and ask for changes to be made. A lot of developers find the same thing. Other sites exist because developers have opened their own stores for payware and brought their support under their own roof as well, such as this one.

Whether you view it as a good or bad thing, the hobby and industry are fragmented to heck and back, almost along tribal lines. It doesn't really affect a company like A2A, which doesn't have problems getting the message out about their product, but it is slightly amusing that many developers are now turning to social media to provide their information and advertising. Telling people to follow their Twitter feeds and "like" their Facebook pages, because there are too many forums around for them to post to all of them - then many developers simply don't bother sending out press releases any more. Apparently the people giving them free advertising should be following their Social Media feeds like everyone else... Which kind of misses the point, surely!

So... Do people really want integration? Do people really want this forum to close and for A2A, using this site as an example, to host their support forums at another "central" site?

Ian P.

We can not allow ourselves to be assimilated by the Borg Collective! The line must be drawn here!

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An excellent question sir and one whose answer is a complex set sociological explanations. Humans are well known for social integration but only to a point. Humans prefer to have lots of moderately to small sized social groupings rather than one large one. This could be for a variety of reasons: Social Status, Less Competition, Identity (Rareity vs Commonality) etc. Ironically humans also like to think and feel their independant but by participating in such social groupings and in general the effect of external factors have shown that the majority of humans are sheep following a common goal - Your metaphor with Tribes fits well here. In extreme circumstances (a cult like phenomena) they are effectively lemmings; one could argue that corporations, politicans and pop culture are the pied piper's of the 21st century.

Game theory, the Nash equilibrium, and general economics has proven that much more can be achieved together rather than duplicating resources, fragmenting and competing independantly motivated by profit. The European Union is a good example of the failures of unification.It has been poorly implemented and done so without broad support destroying the clear benefits. People appear to enjoy independant sovereignty.People appear to perceive independant competition as more beneficial versus unity partly because they don't understand how much luck plays a part in life and success and alway seek to rationalise the playout of their life and success. Our lives are the results of how we intereact with an infinite number of probabilties (events). Whether you work hard is irrelevant, there must always be favourable circumstances for success. The media don't help this concept by selling rare rags to riches and other 'work hard' success stories whilst not bringing into focus the infinately more numerate stories of people working hard and attaining limited success. Some people have ironically become more successful or well regarded posthumously. Frank Whittle would have had more success growing up in Germany etc.

Anyways back to reality (I do go on) To me there is no sim without Accusim, so other developers don't concern me. For true simulation this is where the forums are and maybe gradually a good chunk of the community will be centralised here. If I had the money and a knowledge of coding I would licence Accusim and look into the feasibility of producing several products myself. Nevertheless you are correct, the industry is heavily fragmented and the rapid growth of developers and numerous forums has been a catalyst in this fragmentation.

I'm sure A2A appreciates the compliments, and goodness knows I'm a big fan of them myself, but I think you are looking at this strangely. With all due respect to your point of view, and to the great developers at A2A, A2A is not the only serious game in town. Truth is, a lot of people are not interested in flying certain types of planes, such as single engine day fighters. Specialization is a good thing. If all people want to do is fly Mustangs then they don't need to go to Avsim and talk about NGXs. If one size fits all, it usually means it fits nobody perfectly.

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You are absolutely correct bigjuicyspider The comment was a personal opinion and thus a great example of how fragmentation has occured; A2A produces aircraft I have an interest in hence fragmentation and decentralisation of myself from a potential unified body. This presents a real problem for developers who have similar concepts as Accusim but lack evidence of a community and customer base to sell to, thus the project does not go ahead.

You can see from my post prior to that is that really all I want is a more centralised hub. There are consumers who demand and developers who provide a wide variety of aircraft, levels of fidelity etc. Developers usually specialise for a number of reasons; knowledge pool, modulairty, uniquiness etc. and I support even if it does not suit my taste; I care for others.
A central hub would like a metaphoric clothing retailer provide a one stop shop for a variety of 'sizes' and report back to the various manufcaturers (developers) the market for their size.
I find it difficult enough to keep up to date with everything going on in the industry these days because of the fragmentation. Websites like SimHQ and others have aided in unifying the information flow and community. I guess it is up to the developers to get together. Just as a thought I heard PMDG, VRS and A2A get on pretty well