"Why would anyone waste time indoors coding a game which he gets no financial benefit out of? Wink That someone surely must have a rather dull and pointless life and should just go out and watch paint dry. Very Happy"
That's quite easy. There are plenty of millionaire software engineers in this country. Learning how to create, debug and deploy code is both a fun creative hobby and also a rather lucrative trade. Coding something like this easily builds up a resume.
"Being a broker, leasing/buying pretend airplanes as you nicely put it, is in many respects the same as playing AM, but it is much more dynamic and extensive. "
Yes, but how can you play a game if there is no objective? It's like playing Battleship with yourself. It's not a game if there is no competition.
"What is the difference of being a broker?"
Except that AM is a competition. Being a broker is well, being a broker. You're not even playing game as it were. You're providing support for people playing the game. It'd be like being a physical therapist in a Madden 2008 football video game.
competition, enjoyment, and the goals and objectives of the game tend to be as objective as what the "best" flavor of ice cream is. There is competition in being a broker, you're still in the rankings, you're still facing undercutters and varying demand for your product [in this case planes for sale/lease], you're still interacting in various ways with other players [be the competitive such as undercutting leases, or friendly, such as brokering with a discount]. your goals are as self defined as you like, maybe Orange's goal is to be the highest ranked of the game brokers... maybe not. who cares if anyone else he's claiming as competition sets the same goal?
The basic goals set forth in AM, which are as freely ignored as taken seriously, are daily passengers, airline value, loadfactor for either a continent or the whole world. if you don't like that rat race, feel free to set your own goals in game. maybe it's just as simple as get a higher ranking then the last game, or XYZ over your last age. Brokerage was put into the game to supply a function i tended to see in a few competitors games that was never officially put in [brokering aircraft]. Players choose how they want to play in this little digital universe, some like to emulate real life as closely as they can, others find sheer joy in flying routes otherwise impossible or illegal, and others just want a place to burn off a little spare cash for the short term.
