22 replies to this topic

[Ariane]

How about implementing a system where you can donate, say, 1 US dollar, to AE (via PayPall or some other secure method), and that will add to your airline 100,000 AE dollars. You could donate an unlimited ammount of money. With this system, many people would donate, and that way Miller could afford to take more hours of work to improve AE, amd people will receive something in return for their donation. Also, the amount that I chose (1USD = 100K AED) would help people with struggling airline, while at the same time helping the rest of the AE comminity.

the only problem might be that not everyone has a Paypall account or acess to a credit card. Then perhaps a moneyorder by mail would work.

What that system, if you, say want to buy an A319 without going into debt, then you will have to donate to AE 430USD, which is a nice sum that Miller could use. Both you and Miller and the rest of the people would be happy with the system.

If that sounds a bit to expensive, then maybe a 1USD = 250K AED would work.

What do you think?

[airline55]

no, not a good idea, this might give more well-off people an advantage over people who may not have money to give to a game.

[StephenM]

But Miller would be rolling in it, and then would be encouraged to spend more time on AE? Maybe $100,000 is a bit too much!

[piercey]

It would be nice, but......

A. miller said he does not want donations in any way, shape, or form.
B. Only reason I play this and not get Airline V6.0 is because it's free!!! If I found out that a competitor is giving miller 3 digit numbers, I wouldn't be that happy.
C. IT'S BRIBING AN OFFICIAL, THAT'S ILLEGAL!!!

[AirKevin]

Piercey, you may want to remove the B. Not a good idea to post some other game on AE. SHow some respect for Miller.

[Syrami764]

Originally posted by AirKevin
Piercey, you may want to remove the B. Not a good idea to post some other game on AE. SHow some respect for Miller.

Nothing wrong with B. He was just using it as an example.

[drv4truk]

Forget about the whole idea of donating for AE dollars, that just wouldn't be right. But, I would gladly donate to AE if Miller would put a system in place.

[marbergi]

Or you could just ckick on some of the ads everytime you come in.....

[Maestro69]

But sometimes thats too hard for some people to do, MarBergi

[miller22 (inactive)]

This is actually an idea we will probably develop later on. Of course there are things that need to be done first, such as forming an LLC and meeting with the lawyer again, but it is in the business plan.

[Crazy764]

If and when this idea is implemented, the game loses all its realism.

I'm all for donating money to Miller to thank him for his work. But for that moeny to be converted into game cash is unfair and unrealistic. The day this idea gets implements will be the day I quit, because the game will no longer have any point then. It won't be a measure of each player's business savvy anymore; it will become a cash grab and a test to see who's willing to spend the most money to win in an online game.

This is obviously not a threat, because I do not hold that much weight. It's just my opinion.

[Salomon]

I totally agree with Crazy. Nothing to add.

[miller22 (inactive)]

What about all the airlines who are receiving investments from outside firms? United just announced today another $310 million. How much did AWA/US get for their merger? Outside investments are a very real part of the industry.

[Simpleboy]

OK then, make a rule on how much an airline can recieve from 'Donations'. If UA had asked for $5billion, i doubt they would have got it. Make a rule such as 1/10th company value etc.

[Crazy764]

Originally posted by miller22
What about all the airlines who are receiving investments from outside firms? United just announced today another $310 million. How much did AWA/US get for their merger? Outside investments are a very real part of the industry.

That argument is completely flawed.

Outside investment nominally infers that the investment is from an outside, third party source. One can hardly consider the player of one's airline a third party source!

If you want to liken this to a real life scenario, this would be like UA's CEO pulling a practically infinite amount of money out of his a** to invest in UA. I say "practically infinite" because whatever sum he invests, its value is multiplied by 100,000% for UA (as suggested).

Now, even if we disregard realism completely, I don't see how this would add to the game in any way, shape, or form. Like I said earlier, once this function is implemented, the game will have absolutely no point. If I want to win, I just invest in a few more dollars. How sad and pointless is that?

I mean, would you play CS, Halo, NFS, or any other game if there was a function of "donate money to the game-maker here and you win"?! That would definitely be one of the most retarded things ever. And that is basically what this "feature" will end up as.

I know you'd like to make some money through such a popular game as this. I could even understand if you want to make this a pay-to-play game. Although I don't support it, that would still make much more sense than this suggestion. Because once this suggestion is implemented, the more money one wishes to donate to you = the higher the ranking. Once people realize how pointless the game has become, less and less people will play, and you will lose out in the end.

Just my 2 cents CAD.

[StephenM]

People involved with airlines already can invest in them. In the case of European Low Cost carriers, a number of years ago it was not uncommon for new pilots to invest ?20,000/?30,000 into the airline when they applied for their job! (It was part of their employment contract, a bit like Airbus chasing after the UK Government for their part of the A350 launch costs) I have not heard of this being the case now, since the number of new airlines has fallen.

[Edited on 16/7/2005 by StephenM]

[Crazy764]

I can't believe how such obvious things are even debated on these forums.

Why would anyone pay to win in a game!?!? Do you guys realize how pathetic that is?

[miller22 (inactive)]

Who said the airline industry wasn't pathetic?