Just Flight & Just Trains blogs

The most common words since the release of FSX…where is my bloody FSX update?! You promised it would be here by now….

As a new member to Just Flight, I have been lucky enough to experience being a flight sim customer for many years. This is certainly a plus point, as it means I understand both the developers and customers points of view…most of the time. However, where I seem to have lost that ability is when it comes to FSX updates. Maybe I am developing a software publisher mindset, or maybe I am just experiencing the bitter side of the flight sim community.

Everyday(yes, I also mean weekends) I witness a highly dedicated team of people who work their ‘bums’ off to the best of their ability. Many people seem to think that this is just a 9-5 job, I can assure you thats not the case. You literally eat, sleep and breathe, constantly thinking about the next patch…the next product. This is probably the reason that I get so annoyed when we get these emails, ranting about how awful it is that we haven’t released the Lancaster patch for FSX, or how horrific it is that we haven’t updated Traffic for Vista. Does this team, who work their bum off to please their customers, get a big pat on the back from all these people upon releasing a product or patch. No of course they don’t.

Of course, thank goodness, there is still that great section of the community. These people help us to identify bugs that need fixing, support us whilst we develop the patch, understand that we need time to perfect it and then thank us for our hard efforts upon its release. These people are the motivation for any developer or publisher, thankfully we have many of these great people on our public forum.

Here is my view on things as they stand:

1.)We have updated numerous products for FSX already.
2.)Most of the FSX updates we are awaiting are from external developers, rather than being a product we have direct control over.
3.)The most important point in my opinion, why do you get angry about updates for FSX? All of the products you have purchased were clearly advertised as FS2004 only products. The fact that we are offering updates for FSX, for free, is something which deserves a thanks.

When you buy a car, do you expect the manufacturer to give you the newer version when its released…for free? When you purchased a DVD player, did you expect the manufacturer to give you a HD DVD player when that was developed?

Sorry, but it does annoy me when flight sim developers get flack for FSX updates…unless you were promised an upgrade when you purchased the product then you have no real right to complain.

Another point, I receive plenty of emails through the tech support inbox which demand to know when the FSX update for product X and Y will be released. Now, by taking out time each day to answer all these emails, it is simply restricting the amount of time I have to test FSX updates that have been given to me. Counter-productive? Not the word…

As for the decision not to update some of our older products, you have to bear in mind that despite this being our passion, it is also our livelihood. As much as we, and other developers, would love to provide updates for all our back catalog, there are just too many issues. Gauges are a good example, most gauges used in FS2004 products were broken by FSX. Gauges are a major part of any complex addon, therefore FSX updates take a lengthy amount of time. When you take into consideration the costs surrounding dedicating that time to an update, when you intend to release it for free, its just not feasible to update everything.

We can try our hardest, and we really do, but we have to draw a line in the sand.

I hope this blog makes you, the flight sim consumer, appreciate the hard work that goes into our updates. We are here to help you, not hinder you. If you help us, you will reap the benefits

I dedicate this rant to Scotty, for without him I would have no anger management issues for which to inspire such a blog entry