Regarding content creation, it's true, we do have favourites. Our favourite content creators are the ones who work together with us to produce great content.
Rewards are available on an equal basis for everyone who signs up through our Trainz Content Creation Program (contentcreators.trainzportal.com).
I have no idea what you might be referring to outside of that as I have no knowledge of any intentional bias (which it appears that you are implying?).
Regarding "non-working software", the demise of N3V Games has been predicted regularly over the past almost 20 years, and yet we're still here. As you can read earlier in this thread, there are many happy customers and many excited by the next installment. Our update schedule is pretty close to that of Microsoft with their Windows 10 software:
* Win 10 released July 2015, and 5 major releases since then with another due "later this year".
* TANE, released May 2015, and 6 major releases since then and another due shortly.
I would say that providing updates is part of the service of software companies these days, and we haven't charged for any of those updates. The number and severity of issues being resolved in each update is decreasing, and the stability and functionality improving each update. It;s true that occasionally there is a set back. These setbacks tend to be specific to one area of the program under a very specific set of circumstances.
We don't expect everyone to be happy, and we don't expect everyone will jump on board on day 1. What we do expect is that with wider pre-release testing, the myriad of different hardware, content and operational configurations employed by our users will identify any major issues prior to the official release date.
Historically we would have released a new version of Trainz prior to now and asked our customers to pay for that update. So rather than ignoring our customers, we're doing everything we possibly can to ensure that when we release the next version of Trainz that we have covered as many bases as possible.
I'm not sure what else we could do beyond having over a thousand people test the product and fixing as many of the issues identified as possible. If we charged more, we would have less customers. If we rework every known system and ensure bug free operation before releasing, we will release in 2030 (except that we wouldn't have any cashflow to pay the staff, so that isn't a feasible option).
Ultimately, we will do our best. If we do a good job, the product will be well supported. If we don't it won't. And while some will say TANE "didn't work" the numbers speak for themsleves. There are more people playing TANE today than at any time since release 3 years ago.
*/ Rant over