With the impending update from TS2012 to TS2013 arriving later today, I thought I'd post a few thoughts on the whole process of what will happen for new users and us as existing members of the community.
There is a lot of "doomsday" talk around several forums regarding the fact that a new user will not automatically receive what we have labelled "default" or "core" content. Here are my thoughts, specifically leaving out the old routes are they are irrelevant to this piece.
There are several ways of looking at this:-
1, Shout, point and stamp your feet even though it doesn't really affect you as an existing user. Your content remains and always will, anything you have created is still available and useable. Shouting, pointing and stamping won't really achieve anything anyway.
2, Take the same view as me that absolutely nothing changes as a user. Existing users dont really see a change, all their content remains. Nothing changes for the new user as well, they are not buying a product that contains this "default". Their "default" content is effectively Sherman Hill, London to Brighton, Northeast Corridor and Isle of Wight, which handily brings me on to point 3.
3, It's actually an improvement on the existing system. Many in the community have complained about several things, one being the old assets and many routes being built using the assets, often called Identikit™ routes. Another complaint was that the IOW was not part of the default setup, and it now effectively is.
4, Look at the basic cost for a new user. At this point, TS2013 for £17.99 with the above four routes is a pretty good deal in itself. If they do want the asset packs then they will cost £3.99 each but, these asset packs are included free with a whole multitude of DLC routes anyway. Take WCML North for example, an excellent route that will appeal to many new users and it includes both of those packs as part of the purchase. For reasons such as that, I envisage that many new users who actually have an interest in buying DLC will end up with the packs as a proxy default anyway, meaning they then open the world of freeware as we currently know it.
5, Realise that despite us all having it, who are we to judge that a new user wants the 5gb+ of old content anyway? For many, it may just be an additional mess that they don't want and cannot get rid of. Having the option of getting this content only if they want it is to me, a much better prospect.
From what I can see, the only change that I will have to make as a route builder is to add that the EU and US asset packs are required for my routes if the user's purchase of TS2013 was after 20 September 2012 to the description. That will take all of 5 minutes I think, and won't need me to make any changes at all to the routes themselves. It won't affect anybody who already owns the game in the slightest going from the information currently available.
ReplyDeleteWell put Darren. Even if RSC had put it across that way, there would still be those proclaiming doom. You can't win with some folks ;)
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