I simply base it on the number of offline players I have known over the years (especially older ones) that simply are not online at all, not even connected to the internet, or rarely go online.

I personally have no internet at all at home and only use the net when stuck with nothing to do at work to fill in time. (yeah i have one of those jobs)

M4T currently (4.30 AM BST, 3rd August 2010) has 26254 members registered. How many of those ever fly online?

Well, if I may say so, that's quite unusual these days. I'd be really stuck to think of anyone I know who doesn't check their mail, news etc online at least once or twice a day; apart from two older fellows who never really got into it, they being 66 and 92 years of age.

In many European states, such as Finland or Estonia, it's considered a basic human right to have an internet connection. It's certainly something the UN is pushing.

I grew up before we had internets and now simply can't imagine having to do without it.

Perhaps I'll also mention that I now get very little pleasure from beating AI routines but I still do play offline, in much the same way that I used to play a chess computer if I couldn't find a human opponent. Never once did I ever turn down a human opponent to play the chess machine. And nowadays, I would never choose to play the computer at anything I could instead play a human at.

I still really enjoy IL-2 offline, and many other games too. But the thrill for me, in any sort of game/competition, is in outwitting the human opponent (hopefully).

May I remind some of you that this is a poll directed to people who come to this site? I wanted to see and share what their gaming preferences would be regarding SoW_BoB. Even some who do not have internet access at home come to this site. It's fine by me if they only play offline (if it's fine with them), but some of them come here all the same. It is not relevant to this poll to know or guess at the true number of those who do not come here, or even get online. It's a non-sequitur.
So if you took the time to visit this poll, I hope you made your preferences known, and I thank you for sharing. How about someone throwing up a poll to see who will fly Sow_BoB for the virtual Queen and who will fly for the virtual little corporal? :D
Flyby out

vote for offline custom missions!
campain? will be 500 planes in the air! my machine will give me one image per minute. small missions

263 votes. Hardly a representation of the IL-2 and ww2 flight sims market (including casual gamers). Otherwise, this market is way more smaller that i had thought! :D

Hardly a representation of the size of the market, I agree (though that was not the intent). I can only say that flying "full real" seems to be more preferable for both online and offline action. No way one can predict sales, size or general acceptance of the sim itself based on this poll. ;)
Flyby out

I didnt vote cause sometimes I like to fly with nothing distorting my veiw of the ground below and sometimes I like to fly simulated real.

I checked every box, 'cause that's how I'm gonna fly, at least for the first few months. The wife will bring food occasionally, and remind me to sleep a little. Then she'll threaten me with a frying pan, and I'll have to get back to real life. :)

When my wife thinks I've been on the computer too long she just pushes two screaming kids into the computer room!