Guys,
Albert Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
When you get 'tunnel vision' it is easy to fail to see that commercial success is not achieved through a niche market like a 'flight sim' but through a larger one like a 'war simulator'.
Most people that I tried to get interested in iL2 were put off by the steep learning curve. After getting shot down by veterans (or should I say bi***tch slapped around the sky) for a few weeks, they simply gave up. These were not 'hard core' fans of military aviation, but rather guys that though it looked cool. These are typical customers. Dye hard simmers are a dying breed. When iL2 first came out, its average player’s age was close to 40 years old. This mean that today, more than 10 years later, its closer to 50, as younger player are more into consoles and FPS.
Consequently, if you introduce a land element, like tanks, transport, trains, that are user controllable, than you introduce a FPS element to the game. This would have a larger appeal. If 1c would like to overcome the apparent problem of having to 'drive' for an hour in order to engage the enemy, one could select AI controlled land units on the fly...
If I was running the development, I would introduce a few user controlled tanks to begin with, and see how it is receive... hell… let the modders do it in the beginning and go from there.
I own a company that successfully brought a SaaS to market, so I know firsthand that there are people out there willing to help out a company with limited resources but a great product. They should leverage the power of their fan base. Even if what comes out of it is a pay to play version of Clod, as long as they are upfront about it in the beginning, people will be willing to help.
Finally, if at all possible, they should leverage what 3d models that exist in other 1c games. It is time to think differently and create synergies.
I think that it is time to think outside the box if we want flight sims to survive. Maybe it is time for them to evolve into something different. If not, developers are looking at a smaller and smaller market, thus repeating history all over again, but expecting a bigger commercial success.
My 2c
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