Flightgear on steam

[Vinny002]

Hi, guys! I was thinking, Flightgear should be on steam so more people can get it! Spread the word! Thanks!

Cheers,
Vincent

[islandmonkey]

I'll give a 'hmm' to that idea. Steam has a DRM system as far as I am aware. It would clash with the GPL licence that FlightGear is published under?

[icecode]

The SuperTuxKart project recently added their game to Steam, so it's certainly possible.

I don't think it'll benefit us at all though:
- People expect even more support on Steam. If FG crashes, doesn't work, has bad performance etc. they won't hesitate twice to write a bad review and give it bad publicity. If people are usually very entitled already, imagine in a platform like Steam where people are used to paying for stuff and receiving support.
- Steam has a lot more traffic. Is the FG team ready to support that increase in users?
- Is FG user-friendly enough? We have made a lot of progress lately, but is it enough to satisfy a user-base used to games? Let's not forget FG is actually a kind of "nerdy" app used mostly by "hackers".

[Octal450]

You don't NEED DRM with steam.

Kind Regards,
Josh

[CaptB]

GODOT Game Engine(MIT) is on steam.

[Thorsten]

I was thinking, Flightgear should be on steam so more people can get it!

Why?

Unlike commercial sims, we don't actually benefit from more users in any way - on the contrary, the infrastructure in terms of MP servers, forum support, Terrasync Mirrors etc. actually can't really deal with a sudden influx of many new users.

The people who want can certainly get FG 'right now', but I don't see the benefit of 'marketing', i.e. convincing people that they want FG.

[Kafovofa]

The SuperTuxKart project recently added their game to Steam, so it's certainly possible.

I don't think it'll benefit us at all though:
- People expect even more support on Steam. If FG crashes, doesn't work, has bad performance etc. they won't hesitate twice to write a bad review and give it bad publicity. If people are usually very entitled already, imagine in a platform like Steam where people are used to paying for stuff and receiving support.
- Steam has a lot more traffic. Is the FG team ready to support that increase in users?
- Is FG user-friendly enough? We have made a lot of progress lately, but is it enough to satisfy a user-base used to games? Let's not forget FG is actually a kind of "nerdy" app used mostly by "hackers".

The game will always be a work in progress of sorts since it's being built more as a community project than anything else. Many users on Steam are unsatisfied right now with the number of mods and dlc polished games from paid studios are providing, and they will appreciate the diversity and depth in certain planes and their systems even if the game is a little less stable. We can offer custom content and ease of modding over ultimate graphics and performance. I used to play Microsoft Train Simulator when it came out in 2001, and since nobody attempted to compete in a way that was as open toward reskinning, they had the market cornered well after they stopped supporting the game. People are so attached to their old dlc and the volumes of freeware that the open rails project is allowing for continued improvements to stability and functionality over the old game while continuing to support the old content. I believe they are in a similar position at the present in that they still have a large community of tinkerers, but backend developement and stability improvements are slowly trailing off so the shine is fading. If we present the game as a work in progress and a community project when putting it up on steam to manage expectations, new users might embrace the game like they did the recent fps pubg. It's still a beta and barely performs, but people overlooked that because it offered a new playstyle (battle royale) in a familiar setting (modern shooter). The question is whether putting the game on steam could address these faults. Perhaps a donation button on Steam could be used to contract a backend developer to directly address stability issues as determined by the devs and community. In the name of making the game more noob friendly and less nerdy, perhaps things, like autostart for all planes, a fixed loading screen for the half of the people out there using amd, and a favorites tab in the location browser in the QT launcher would do the trick. I think we're real close to being polished enough, but not quite. It's also possible that since our game is open to modify, more publicity will draw in just enough people intent on taking matters into their own hands and fixing things for themselves to quell any persistent criticism from casual users. Oh, and Metar. Live weather is a real draw, but only if it works.

[Kafovofa]

We could also look into publicizing the game in development circles, schools, reddit, etc. Opensource games make great learning tools, and we might get some stability improvements/new features by accident from making the right people aware of it.

[legoboyvdlp]

It's already on Reddit:
https:// reddit .com/r/flightgear

Unfortunately terrible screenshots aren't such a good advertisement. While I don't mean any disrespect to the person posting them they are not a good representation of FlightGear. If more people could post better screenshots it would certainly improve it somewhat.



As for METAR it's already been fixed and will be in the next release. I think a bugfix 2018.3.3 release is in the works... better than nothing although a 2019.1 release would be better...

[wlbragg]

Unlike commercial sims, we don't actually benefit from more users in any way

Really only one way and that is if any of those new users are capable of becoming new "hackers/developers". But if you can't afford the influx of infrastructure costs and the complaint department becomes overwhelmed, well then, you get the point.
It does seem to be that the project as a whole is benefited by a fairly narrow mindset. I understand the concept of wanting to get a bigger base but it has to be people of the right mindset or it will be counter productive.

[Octal450]

Why not? I would love it if the community grew!

Kind Regards,
Josh

[wlbragg]

If this community of "users" who contribute nothing and want or demand everything grew to a enormous size, that would be not beneficial.
If this community of "users" who contribute nothing wanted for nothing and were happy with status quo, then OK, all the merrier.
I think it is all about mindset of the new participants.

[icecode]

I think it is all about mindset of the new participants.

The "gaming" community isn't very forgiving unfortunately.

[Octal450]

Totally agreed - and so is the flight sim community. I've heard horror stories of people demanding certain things from developers! (I am lucky not to have this so much! It would be upsetting)

Kind Regards,
Josh

[Alant]

Anything which adds numbers to the Flightgear community should be encouraged.
If a small proportion become sufficiently interested that they become Flightgear contributors/develpoers the project will progress faster.
In any promotion it must be made very clear that this is a free and not commercially funded project, so basic support mostly comes from fellow users.
So , if you can help a newbie with a "stupid question", please do so.
Also, anyone here can make improvements to the various wiki articles., - you do not need to be a developer to change something in the wiki that is wrong or out of date about some aspect concerning running or installing Flightgear. If you have doubt about your changes, post them here and a , hopefully productive, discussion should follow.
Alan