ROF online shenanigan.

[jasonbirder]

Well i for one hope that they fail...and there is every reason to believe that they might...after all I am a hardcore sim fan, i have copies of just about every single sim from the last 15 years on my shelf...and if they can't persuade me to be a copy (I am after all their target market am I not) what chance do they have with the wider public? Particularly as times are a little tough for people right now...so they're taking just a little more care and thought when it comes to spending $40 on a discrectionary purchase...

I am not against buying online...nor am i against downloading software either..so i'm no luddite but the idea of being forced to be online whilst i'm playing offline is an anathama to me...Bearing in mind that the majority of software users are offline only players...that huge proportions of people who buy software never even bother to register or download a patch...that large portions of the world don't have easy and cheap access to 24/7 broad band connections then you cna see that they are handicapping themselves before they have even started...

What marketing genius came up with this business model...did they sit around having a "brainstorming" session?
Did someone say.."I know what would really push sales of our product...restricting its use to people that have a 24/7 broadband connection" and "i think if we could generate alot of negative feelings about the product amongst our core market of existing flight sim players that would really help too!"
Doh!

I am opposed to it in principle because i think its wrong for the vendor to dictate when and how i can play with the software i have purchased...I don't want them having access to my machine or my data i don't want them to have my details so they can bombard me with advertising and spam...I don't want them sharing my information with other marketing bodies... i don't think its practical why can't people without a 24/7 broadband connection play the game? Why can I not play the game if my wife is working from home and using the bandwidth? Or my daughter studying? Why can't I play the game when i'm away from home on holiday or if i want to take it and play it on the laptop away from my router? What about people who live in regions were broadband connections are hard to come by? What happens if i want to change my internet provider? Or if i simply have an outage...why should i be barred from playing the game? The strategy is quite obviously paving the way for a pay to play system - you will be "encouraged" to purchase extra content as its only half a step away from a subscription based game...The policy is to encourage the use of the game as an online dogfighting arena without the necessity of the developers creating a detailed and immersive offline environment and campaign...is it any coincidence that this revelation comes hard on the heels of question marks about ROF's offline environment and mission creator? They obviously hope to shortcut the development process by squeezing as many people as possible into a cookie cutter dogfight environment...