I think that Microsoft/ACES is doing a great job with FS .....!
Think of it, for 2 or 3 hours payment you get:
The whole world, a good handful of various aircraft to choose from
Adjustable weather
AI traffic, that being other airline traffic, animals, cars, boats, ships etc. all configurable.
A SDK to further dvelve into the mysteries.
A good basis for thousands of developers and even more "standard" users to get started on.
Not many games gives you that much for this price.
They have even gone down a path that very few commercial firms goes by encouraging their developers to blog and mingle with the numerous communities.
At be honest, we are NOT the easiest bunch to satisfy!
And with FS9 and FSX I think they have even proved that they DO take the buzzing serious. Introducing Real Weather, ATC and AI, was quite a leap in FS9, and a whole new community only dedicated to provide flight plans, repaints and additional voices has been born.
Then we argue over the cartoon-like terrain and textures, and that has improved dramatically in FSX. I bet in either FS11 or FS12 we will see further improvement in airport designing, as this has become somewhat a demand to be able to layout real traffic motion in airports, where we sometimes just drop in to "FS-spot". there is already the ability to add or remove various items in the bgl-files for the airports, and more steering-parameters will come I'm sure.
I also believe that MS has contact with more than one "high-level" 3. party developer out there. And by this they also show a dedication to the product.
It is in many ways a very in-expensive product that gives us hours and hours of pleasure, and frustrations agreed, but I think the frustrations is overwhelmed by the pleasures in the big picture.
FS being able to be more and more of a design platform for developers AS WELL AS a funny game for those that just want to "see how it is" is quite an achievement in my opinion.
Well done Microsoft, and I hope that they will continue to expand the possibilities and performance within this magnificent product.
Well now.....shoot me
