taildraggin68 wrote:As is my understanding, it is P3D that is the culprit, having many different fees for amounts of licenses being purchased(used). The bottom price being academic and going up dramatically from there. The fee that is shown above is the same for the FSX and P3D if bought separately but a savings if bought as a bundle. Milviz also uses separate pricing for bundle packages that will work in both platforms. The main rub being that P3D has the disclaimer on their site saying not for personal computer entertainment. In our world of legaleeze crud, that means they can charge more because it is Professional vs entertainment. A2A is in line with their pricing as going by the prices listed from P3D. I will gladly pay $50 for a great product and a little more if I used both systems but I have seen little justification to move to P3D especially with the implications of their disclaimer that their product is too professional for me to use on my home computer and have to pay to use simulators at a flight school to get professional results.(ok off my soapbox now)
The whole P3D licensing situation is a bit of a fiasco. Here's kind of how I see it:
They're using and building on the FSX engine, but don't actually own the game or the name, and as an aerospace company they have no interest in officially entering into the "video game" industry. So for the lawyers, they market and license it as a professional training device, and strictly NOT for entertainment under any circumstances. Meanwhile, they're practically BEGGING for the casual, desktop flightsimmer to come in and buy their product by advertising third party scenery addons, control devices, etc. with giant banners on their homepage. Not to mention the direction they're going with development: why would a training device need volumetric fog? Cloud shadows? HDR?
When pressed, they never seem able to answer what you can and can't do with a given license, because the language is so vague anyway. I'm a certificated Private Pilot, soon to be attending college for a piloting degree. So I bought the P3D academic license. Is it acceptable for me to practice IMC navigation in my Cessna, but a breach of contract to screw around and do some barrel rolls in the P-51? What if I happen to be entertaining myself in the process of learning how to navigate IMC? What kind of a pilot would I be if I weren't having fun doing what I do? How can they even think to regulate or enforce a rule like this?
I know of at least one YouTube flightsim personality who has been given a copy of P3D by Lockheed Martin to try, even though, to my knowledge, they are not a pilot nor training to be one. They happen to use the sim in a realistic manner 99% of the time, but they are certainly not using it as a training device. How is this not "consumer entertainment"? Bottom line, it seems to me Lockheed Martin
wants the general consumer to buy their simulator for entertainment, they just can't say it out loud.
I love P3D. I'm thankful to Lockheed Martin for continuing to develop the FSX engine. I respect the licensing and understand why they have to do it this way, but that doesn't stop me from noting that some of it is rather absurd.
