so to use your logic, when you want to buy an apple for lunch, and at the store they hand you an apple that is covered in poop, you'd still eat it "just because you are an apple fan and planed to eat one for lunch that day" ?

its an idiotic scheme, thought up by some greasy haired pimple faced sales drone who doesnt know anything about marketing in the pc gaming world

the other issue is, will they even have a clear warning label on the game box to inform potential buyers, stating for ex "warning: this game can ONLY be played while your pc is connected online to our private server, a permanently active internet connection is needed for it to work at all times !", or is that going to be a hidden "feature" and they plan on conning people with misleading advertising ? and can people get their money back once they realize the old bait and switch has been used ? we all know the answer to that one eh

Good analogy.

Guys, guys, guys, take a deep breath here.

The devs of this game are/were mostly online pilots from IL2. Online is what they care about, and what they know. Why is their decision so shocking? Personally I'd be willing to bet that they have a good idea about the size of their potential market doing the thing the way they are going about it, and don't care about this issue.

They are building a sim to suit their vision, not yours, mine, or anyone else's.

I'll buy the thing anyway.

Online is the true arena anyhow.

Offline is meh, at best.

Lucky I ate my apple BEFORE reading your analogy ;) But then again it was home grown and my wifes into permaculture so like as not it was!!!!!!

<I think, Call of Duty World at War uses this sort of protection on it's game. Once you start the game it logs you on to the server and then you choose solo play (I have never played online with this game). Might have to go home tonight, pull out my internet, start up the game and see if I can still play? >

[No I was wrong, CoD lets you play without an Internet Connection!]

Cheers!

You can tell its a REALLY bad idea because me and zapatista agree on something for once! ;)

.... I'd say my example with the car is a little bit more mature.
As for the box warning , yes their required to say that the game requires an online connection, however not that you'll need it for the Single Player aspect of the game as well.

But then again, in todays society broadband is almost as common as having a TV so seriously i doubt it's gonna effect store sales at all, it's another thing with digital distribution thou. It really isn't surprising that they take this approach and i welcome it, helps getting less piracy at release.

GTA 4(PC) got to love those developers including anti crack coding making cars drive etc if you had a cracked version.. took about two weeks until the game was cracked 100% and many potential pirates bought the game instead. Thats how pirates should be threated , it was rather fun hearing about all frustration from the illegal people.

Get you're money back? It's what 40-50$ maximum come on, as soon as you buy an game you agree with their license agreement and everything which is included in the product. I'd prefer if Battle of Britain had something like this as well, but of course i still want people that don't have the ability to have a BB connection to be able to play the game obviously.. but if developers think this is the new approach then its just to adapt.

People make it sound a little too serious, almost like the world is becoming a minority report(the movie were the government controls everything).

*Voice of Yoda* "Begun, the Sim wars have........." :eek:

I, myself, think that most people will end up buying the sim. But it is not all about sales (at least it shouldn't be), it should be about customer satisfaction. The consumer base for this kind of a sim is largely enthusiast based, and the vast majority of those enthusiasts have no problem paying $50 for a good sim. I really don't think pirating is such a big issue. Anyways, I'm sorry for starting a civil war amongst the community, my bad.

I don't think you have FF!
For me,I fly 99% online,and REALLY want to give the RoF team my money.My main concern is :if the company goes bankrupt/server goes down/they abandon the game then RoF will be unusable.

Not sure if you are right... look at WW2 online still going strong, in its market segment despite the orginal publishers giving up...
You then have Eve online, 30 000 people all paying $14 a month to play...
How many people these days do not have internet access?
Will i pay to play an online only game, yes. would I like it to have offline feature? Yes but if they do not I can live with it.
The real question has nothing to do with money. It is simply, will ROF be fun, a realistic enjoyable experience.
If it is, then count me in, if not... Well :)
The poll question is rather biased "Yes, I might reluctantly buy it w/o offline mode" The assumption is already made that the person clicking this is reluctent. 12 million people play WOW online only. Obviously they are not a niche market as most claim flight sims are but it is testemony to the fact that ten years ago, having 100 000 people playing your product online was awesome... Times change.