Bill "styckx" has left the room

[Darpor]

I don't want to "stir the fire," but I do want to point out the Railsimulator has twice as much payware for the UK crowd as for the US group.

I am fairly certain that this has no bearing on Bill's decision, he doesn't actually have a gripe about the amount of payware either side. I think he is more disillusioned with what can be deemed as "opportunistic" payware, possibly the sight of someone releasing scenarios for a freeware route and then charging is the "straw that broke the camels back". That is certainly something I don't agree with, I feel there has to be a seperataion in that respect.

[SMMDigital]

And my god, typing this while listening to Kenny G was the best thing I have done in a while.

No no no no no no no no no no no no NO! Bad modern saxophone jazz lover! Try David Sanborn instead.

Joke: Why do saxophonist dislike Soprano Saxes? No place to hide the weed!

Ok, back to the serious stuff.

[NDORFN]

I feel so YOUNG!

[Chessie8638]

I'm confused about the above posts.

Anyhoo, the moment I saw scenarios being charged I promised never to pay for one. No matter how good they are. I once read this quote on a content creators site:

Make It Freeware, and Demand the Most Out of Payware.

Lately I'm only buying things from RSC when they are on sale (Donner Pass is a perfect example why). To the one who make freeware scenarios, sounds, repaints, and whatnot. Thanks for taking the time!

[Kali]

I haven't gone counting, but I suspect the UK has considerably more freeware than the US too, to counteract the number of paid DLC. I don't have a problem with payware, I have a problem with balance, greed, and it's effect on a community of creative individuals. I also have a problem with programming customers both to expect to pay for anything and everything ( which is why given a choice between microtransaction deals and nothing, I mostly pick nothing ), and programming them to believe that something they don't have to pay for is rubbish.

[buzz456]

I don't understand all this angst over payware. If you don't like it don't buy it. No one is twisting your arm. I have never bought any payware scenarios unless they were tied to a route and don't plan to. I have too much fun making my own stuff.

Buzz

[Rich_S]

This is sad news, to bad Bill would not reconsider? Here are a few of my personal observations, remember I'm not posting this to start a flame war or take anything away from what Bill said, just trying to offer another point of view

Free enterprise is the American way. Personally I forgo payware as this is my hobby and I really don't want to have to worry about collecting taxes, hiring a CPA to make sure all of my "I" are dotted and "T" are crossed, getting a lawyer to ensure I'm not violating any licensing agreements and so forth, so I contribute to the community as freeware. Some folks feel differently so they sell what they create, hoping to put a few extra dollars in their pocket. But remember that is also the risk they are taking, anyone remember the fiasco with the cottage industry that created the first Surfliner route for MSTS? It also appears to me that we have more users / players in the US Rail Works community verses creators. Since this seems to be the case, these small cottage industries are able to make a few extra dollars to supplement their regular incomes by selling products that interest the Rail Works players. After reading Bill's first blog, I found it funny that when Bill decides to come back to the community, he is only going to post his stuff in a file library where you have to pay to be able to download at a normal speed, verses posting his stuff in a file library were it's always free to download? Isn't that almost the same as the freeware scenarios verses the payware ones? Another point I'd like to make that may not be obvious to some, the payware advertisers on the home page help pay for this board and file library space. I can't give you exact numbers, only Hawk can tell us that, but look at the other major US board, they have advertising on the home page and still charge $30 a year for full access to the file library. It's like the old saying, "There is no such thing as a free lunch" and "The only reason air is free is, they haven't found a way to charge for it yet" In my opinion the only way this issues would reverse, would be for more users to take a look under the hood and start releasing freeware scenario's, assets and repaints. Until that time, I guess it would seem like Rail Works in North America is dominated by payware products.


Regards,
Rich S.

[Samwolf]

This is sad news, to bad Bill would not reconsider? Here are a few of my personal observations, remember I'm not posting this to start a flame war or take anything away from what Bill said, just trying to offer another point of view

Free enterprise is the American way. Personally I forgo payware as this is my hobby and I really don't want to have to worry about collecting taxes, hiring a CPA to make sure all of my "I" are dotted and "T" are crossed, getting a lawyer to ensure I'm not violating any licensing agreements and so forth, so I contribute to the community as freeware. Some folks feel differently so they sell what they create, hoping to put a few extra dollars in their pocket. But remember that is also the risk they are taking, anyone remember the fiasco with the cottage industry that created the first Surfliner route for MSTS? It also appears to me that we have more users / players in the US Rail Works community verses creators. Since this seems to be the case, these small cottage industries are able to make a few extra dollars to supplement their regular incomes by selling products that interest the Rail Works players. After reading Bill's first blog, I found it funny that when Bill decides to come back to the community, he is only going to post his stuff in a file library where you have to pay to be able to download at a normal speed, verses posting his stuff in a file library were it's always free to download? Isn't that almost the same as the freeware scenarios verses the payware ones? Another point I'd like to make that may not be obvious to some, the payware advertisers on the home page help pay for this board and file library space. I can't give you exact numbers, only Hawk can tell us that, but look at the other major US board, they have advertising on the home page and still charge $30 a year for full access to the file library. It's like the old saying, "There is no such thing as a free lunch" and "The only reason air is free is, they haven't found a way to charge for it yet" In my opinion the only way this issues would reverse, would be for more users to take a look under the hood and start releasing freeware scenario's, assets and repaints. Until that time, I guess it would seem like Rail Works in North America is dominated by payware products.


Regards,
Rich S.

Well said and in a lot calmer manner than I could say it. My

[micaelcorleone]

I just want to tell that I personally feel deeply insulted by some of styckx's statements and also the words he uses.
I can understand some of his arguments, but only very few.

However, I think it's not appropriate to insult me and others with words like:

- brutally attacked by money grabbing greed
- Disgusting. (...) Do you have no morals?
- just think with their wallets
- the growing greed a select few who flooded my beloved homeland with greed

I think there are many arguments that invalidate his statements. I don't want to go into detail now, but rather collect and post them later (soon).

I always appreciated styckxs comments, although I didn't always agree. I appreciated his repaints and other contributions to the community.
And I think that this applies to a lot of people on RWA.

But, there is no reason to use insulting language. I feel deeply insulted by the comments.
I have nothing against people uttering criticism, be it justified or not. After all, there is freedom of speech and that's good.
But please not in such a way.

I personally can't leave such harsh and impolite criticism stand without a response/counterstatement. And that's what he will get soon.

[Hawk]

OK folks. Let's keep this civil, or this whole thread will disappear.

[harryadkins]

This thread has probably run its course.

[Hawk]

This thread has probably run its course.

By-golly - I agree!