[Rama]

Originally Posted by fuzzychickens

This is a quote from the simHQ review:
"In the near future, we should start seeing Camel versus Fokker Dr.I missions (for examples), which will both be pay-to-fly models. If one hasn’t purchased the planes, one is forced into spectator mode."

Sounds like the reviewer thinks pay-planes do just that and force you to sit out of matches if you don't have a plane. Or can you still join the side for which you own a plane?

Read better "If one hasn't purchased the planes".
If you don't won ANY of the planes of a mission, of course you can't join. But if you own just one of them, you can.
If you had asked the question on SimHQ in the review discussion, you would have known.
More generally, it is not a good idea to spread "information" about a game when you never played with it and don't know anything about.

Also, the multiplayer is setup like a mission - no respawn, you crash - end of game. Kind of kills the chance you'll ever see a server full of planes like in IL2.
The reviewer pointed out many negatives about it's multiplayer.

Of course they are today "many negatives" about RoF multiplayer. Dogfight mode is not even yet released (which is the mode that normally interest the vast majority of the online players), the Mission editor manual is still not translated (which means there are a very few users creating coop missions) and the in-game multiplayer lobby isn't very practical.
... still... there's no nead to spread some false information..