ASR going pay to play

[ZMW_willie64]

The community is largely guys our age or around our age (30-60) & we all tend to think like you said, so will be interesting to see just where this leads

PS - Not leaving you younger bucks out, it's just that we oldmen tend to out number you guys.

[ti2blegrr]

And that should give them a hint. We've all payed $50 a year for what basically are up-dates, but the big difference is those were disks we kept, all this "on the 'net only, pay to play" stuff just doesn't sit well with us old guys.

[Zippy]

Originally Posted by ti2blegrr

One thing I've noticed, the community is spreading the word on the switch to pay to play, Zippy's not going around and posting everywhere like he used to. I haven't checked, but I haven't seen anything pop up on their Face Book or My Space.

Information around the product, changes and other things are now posted mostly at www.thesimfactory.com/main. I will continue to post at Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and Youtube, but it became way too cumbersome to try and keep up at all the sites. The way the client is setup is also another avenue for communications.

*The website changes were not completed when someone came across some of the WIP stuff. After these were posted and the site bogged down from traffic, it was decided to remove the redirects and work on it as best as possible to complete.

[ZMW_lordpantsington]

I once was interested in ASR, but then I learned how short of complete it actually was. So I waited. Glad I did because in waiting for the complete schedule, I've lost interest. News of ASR2 was both interesting and disappointing. Why would you move onto something else when you hadn't finished the previous? Pretty greedy and insulting.

My biggest complaint about PTP systems: It puts you on their timeclock, on your dollar. I lose interest in the actual game part of games rather quickly so I need something I can come back to at my leisure. If I mess around for a month and then sit on something for a year (or 2!) that is my prerogative. The pay to play system simply doesn't allow that, and as such I will never buy into such a system.

I can understand that probably ASR ran out of money to complete what they had intended, so this is their solution (pass the buck). IMO they short changed their consumers and need to make up for that (not shaft people for more money).

[ti2blegrr]

Speak of the devil, there he is.

I've been a long time supporter of TSF and ASR, almost from the start, I've held the party line that TSF had put out saying the game is only going to get better, I would have continued to hold TSF party line if they continued with the disk based system, but I will not support any pay to play. I know, I'm a broken record.

[Zippy]

Originally Posted by ZMW_lordpantsington

......
My biggest complaint about PTP systems: It puts you on their timeclock, on your dollar. I lose interest in the actual game part of games rather quickly so I need something I can come back to at my leisure. If I mess around for a month and then sit on something for a year (or 2!) that is my purgative. The pay to play system simply doesn't allow that, and as such I will never buy into such a system......

May be true of some subscription based games, ours is a bit different in that if you choose not to subscribe, you can still use the software offline without penalty, and maintain updates as needed. Online will be needed in order to progress in rank and participate in server based racing.

[ZMW_schumacher]

so instead of hosting the multiplayer on your own computer, you'll be hooking up to a asr server then?
If so, the subscription makes sense to pay for the servers

[Richie61]

Originally Posted by Zippy

May be true of some subscription based games, ours is a bit different in that if you choose not to subscribe, you can still use the software offline without penalty, and maintain updates as needed. Online will be needed in order to progress in rank and participate in server based racing.

Ok, I will bite.

So I will still get updated tracks, new tracks and addition cars if added for a one time payment of $50 say?

[ZMW_lordpantsington]

Originally Posted by Zippy

May be true of some subscription based games, ours is a bit different in that if you choose not to subscribe, you can still use the software offline without penalty, and maintain updates as needed. Online will be needed in order to progress in rank and participate in server based racing.

That's a touch better than iracing, but still in the same vein.

Interesting, can you host your own LAN or online league server?

An even better system would be a cell-phone like plan. Subscription based on units of time, units that only expire when used (think extreme rollover). That would cater to both the hardcore and the casual simmer. As is there is very low return per cost for people who have slight interest. The buy in is still rather high. If I race for a month, I still pay for a year. If I paid for a year I'd feel screwed when I only had interest and played for a month.

[Zippy]

There will be a tiered purchase system of sorts, should cater well to casual and hardcore league style racer. Also those who purchase the sim prior to V2 release will be welcomed into the new system under a prorate scale.

Updates to V1 will continue while this entire process is underway