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Black Helicopters in Train Simulator?

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Ya know, it's certainly reassuring that despite my move from Flight Sim to Train Sim, some things remain the same. When we first starting talking and blogging about the latest version of Flight Simulator we were met with reactions that, frankly, bordered on the paranoid. I suppose that's what we deserved, given how little we'd communicated with our fans over the years. Our new openness was greeted by some with suspicion. "You want to hear what we think so you can build a better product? Riiiiiight." As many of these folks pointed out, Microsoft, er, I mean, Micro$oft <g> had long ago abandoned the pursuit of innovation and customer satisfaction--two concepts made obsolete by our obvious worldwide monopoly in all things software. A nice theory but, as it turns out, incorrect.

 

Nonetheless it looks like our efforts to reach out to the Train Simulator community will need to go through the same growing pains that we endured (and continue to endure) with FSX. Just consider the many theories concerning the timing and intent of our public annoucement on the Train Simulator web page. First there was the suggestion that we'd timed it to somehow dampen Kuju's participation at CES. Not true. We'd been trying to get approval for the annoucement for months. Then there was the suggestion that perhaps I wasn't completely legitimate in my forum posts, although that's probably just due to the poster being behind the times when it comes to bloggers at Microsoft. Finally there's criticism that we even bothered to say anything. How do you answer to that? In order to communicate with customers you have to, well, communicate.

 

And so that's what we'll do--in the imperfect, awkward, and sometimes frustrating ways that real human beings do. Stay tuned. ;)

Comments

  • Anonymous
    February 05, 2007
    That's awesome! How often do developers reach out to there communities and see what <b>they</b> want in a game. Personally I'd like to see Multiplayer and jointed rail, but this is not the place for that discussion. Thanks Guys! Charles H. PAVR VP

  • Anonymous
    February 06, 2007
    The two big hotbeds of conspiracies in the world I think are definitely Area 51 and Train Simulation. There's been plenty of conspiracy theories leveled at UKTS too - I wish some of them were true, it'd be a much more enjoyable life to have a Lamborghini and a private Lear-Jet :) Still, ya just gotta treat it as it deserves to be treated, for its comedy value :) Matt. UKTrainSim

  • Anonymous
    February 06, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    February 21, 2007
    If you hand around the forums for long enough - and I mean all the forums, not just UKTS.  You come to realise that there are two or three sorts of people.

  1. The people who welcome new developments and embrace them to try and improve the hobby,
  2. The people with little time on their hands, who snipe and deride any new development because it helps them feel more secure in themselves, and
  3. The vast majority who just want to get on with it and enjoy simming for the pleasure of it. I'd observe that the first sort of people are probably emailing you privately, the second are what you're reporting on here... (Hi Otto) and the third just want the second to go away and let you guys get on with it. I guess the real question is, can we have multiplayer connections between FSX and TSX as implied by the title of your posting?  :p Cheers, Mike
  • Anonymous
    February 25, 2007
    Hello Mike,  As I said on the train-sim forum, glad to see you guys are trying to keep us in the loop as much as possible. Don't you just love the rumor mills :) Take care, Rich S.