Are Our Flight Simulation Sites Dying?

By Mike Clark

Publisher, TheMag FS News

Impossible I hear you cry! But WAIT a minute! Have you actually stopped for a minute and wondered how these sites are financed OR how they actually get content into your browser? "Yea - they charge for advertising". Yes, partly, but what would happen if that advertising revenue suddenly dried up? Don't for a minute think that it might not happen because in some instances IT ALREADY HAS.

The Internet medium is still in its infancy and received some pretty damning press over the past two years. For example, the collapse of the DOT COMS, Malicious Virus attacks, major security holes in online banking systems and not forgetting what seems to be an everlasting problem with copyright infringements. Then there is the age old argument of page views v hits that we have seen a few years ago with popular FS sites bickering over who had the most "Clicks" - remember? Well, commercial companies are questioning the reliability of sites statistics and now deciding not to bother with advertising on the Internet at all.

More and more we are seeing advertisers pulling out of their marketing strategies and turning their attention to other forms of promotion. Printed media, cross branding and targeted e-mail champagnes are the flavor of the day. All the major web sites now appear to have problems finding companies willing to part with their cash for banner advertising or sponsorship. This is a BIG problem for the major sites. They, as repositories of files and other information, require huge chunks of cash to subsidize their server costs and bandwidth. "So what?", you say. "I don't really give a crap". Well people, lets put this into perspective; without cash these site WILL close down permanently and nobody, including freeware developers will have a place to read news, reviews, download files or chat in cosy little forums.

Some might argue that the flight simulation market is SO niche that there just isn't the room for everyone. This could be a major factor but more and more people are now asking the question whether the Internet medium is a "Free Ticket" or an open library where anyone can get anything for very little or nothing at all. Industry experts seem to think that this mindset will eventually crucify the hobby and lead to the downfall of flight sim sites as we know and love them today.

It has been placed on record that Flight Simmers are seen as people who are willing to spend hours downloading stuff for free but offer nothing in return by purchasing products that subsidise the very web sites they get them from. You and I both know that this is complete load of tosh. But if we are to be brutally honest and want to take this hobby forward we MUST take two steps back and look at the facts.

There are in fact several factors that are making this industry unstable:

Freeware Developers quite rightly create add-ons in their spare time to enhance products like Flight Simulator to make their flying experience more realistic. These add-ons are freely distributed around the Internet via file repositories like those found at FlightSim.com, Avsim, Compuflight and others.

Through evolution the freeware sector has become so competitive within its own community they are now (unknowingly) taking on the likes of the commercial sector as well. There are so many files for download, and at such good quality that people simply aren't buying products via the Internet any more. They are downloading them for free.

The trouble is that this is creating MAJOR problems for the very web sites that promote and distribute the files. As the freeware community has caught up the commercial sector both in product quality and quantity there has been a marked decrease in product sales and advertising revenue. While the store based products (not sold through the Internet) remain constant, it would appear that the Internet Flight Simulation market turnover is decreasing at an alarming rate. This, together with the general bad feeling towards the effectiveness of Internet advertising is causing the commercial sector to look elsewhere.

Web site turnover is half of what it was two years ago and in some instances at breaking point. If nothing is done to restructure the way that flight simulation products are provided then we shall see the end of Free flight sim sites as we know them today - possibly within a year or two.

As a representative of this wonderful community I would like to propose that we start looking at ways of helping these sites through this uncommon and unique Industry transition. There are hundreds of ways to approach this and no doubt respected people reading this will have some ideas. We would love to hear them.

With the launch of Train Simulator just around the corner, it would be nice if we could pass on the experience we have learned so far onto future TRAIN freeware and commercial developers so that they don't make the mistakes that our Industry appears to be experiencing now.

Mike Clark - Publisher, TheMag FS News
mike@themag-fs-news.com

Read a formal response written by Milton Shupe.

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