Beating a dead horse

[Chivas]

Piracy is the biggest threat to our hobby. It will kill the golden goose. Even Modding is a form of Piracy that can effect the bottom line and make developers think twice before staying in the market. For the first time yesterday I'd seen some modded terrain screenshots that peeked my interest. Before those particular screenshots, I wasn't concerned that there was any competition what-so-ever.

So it does mildly concern me reading statements from the community like "And now it's all going to be done over at AAA without Ubi getting a penny." It could be a factor with the huge lose in revenue from CD piracy that the developer may also have compete in any small way with his own product.

The modders wouldn't have been able to come close to improving combat flight sims without using Oleg's software. The mods of EAW, CFS, and BOB are proof of that. The mods of IL-2 are starting to look great for the community in the short term, but I have concerns that it could stagnate combat flight sims in the long term.

The community should be OK for the next few years as I can't see the SOW series being cancelled at this point. BUT if CD piracy is rampant, even a small loss of revenue competing with their own game could tip the balance. Future addons to the SOW series could be seriously affected, except for some mods. Oleg was a member of our community who thought he could make a better product. This community may have to wait along time before another member comes along with total skill set to develop another benchmark combat flight sim.

Hopefully the developers will be able to control the loss of revenue due to CD piracy so that any small lose of revenue due to modders won't be a factor.