Originally Posted By: robmypro
What needs to happen is an industry push to make an open battlefield.

I'm not sure who should take the lead there, and with what kind of a business model. Only a pay to play/subscription model comes to mind, some sort of a MS Flight Simulator, just server based. But then the question is, if you make all extra content as something to buy separately, would the players actually be willing to do it, and wouldn't they end up paying a lot more than they do right now (subscription fees plus extra payments for vehicles and other content)?
I'm not sure if something like an open cooperative would work. You need to have one strong player to set up the entire market, and that player then needs to hope that other developers will join in to create modules instead of entire applications. I'm not sure if that is attractive enough. From an artist's point of view you lose a lot of creative freedom by submitting to some other company's rules, both commercially and with what they actually allow you to make (engine/content limitations).

Armies are willing to pay more money for certain standardizations, but there's still a long way to go before an open standard emerges that is also meaningful and mature enough for broad commercialization. Don't hold your breath for it.

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It would be an environment ... which allowed something like Steel Beasts to survive.


We're doing well, don't worry. Thanks for your concerns, but we managed to stay in the market over the last twelve years and are in better shape than ever, both in finances and manpower. The best is yet to come.
smile

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The market for sim products is just not big enough for every developer to tackle the entire thing.


May well be, but it's difficult to compromise between companies about engines and content to create one common product. I'm not saying that it is impossible - but rather unlikely. It worked with MS Flight Simulator for a while because there was one big corporation to establish the market, and at the same time that is exactly the reason why some developers would never want to join such a party. It is almost inevitable that there will be asymmetries in financial power and in the desired end-goals for all parties involved that make it questionable how long such an alliance might work out (see general Game Theory about that point).


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