My answer to the original question is - Yes AND No.
Some of the veterans on here will remember a Trainz member a few years ago who charged us for Payware routes that were quite frankly, bloody awful, he was publicly vilified and I think may have left the community, but, not after leaving many of us pissed off at having spent money on complete rubbish, was this selfish, to me, yes.......
Now, having had time away from this game for a while, on my return I've found that quite a few creators are now charging us for their content, why? They never used to do, and have been making content for many years for Trainz, all of it used to be freeware, is this selfish, to me, yes.....
I suppose it depends on who the folks are that charge us for their products, are they just hobbyists, are they old aged pensioners, are they unemployed?? I have absolutely no problem in purchasing anything if I like what I see, but, at only a fair price. Some Trainzy items used to cost over 100 dollars EACH, sorry, but there's not a chance in hell of me buying those assets, irrespective of whether they look authentic, and are the only ones available on the planet, however, if something was priced structurally to my liking, then yeah, I'll obtain it if I can make use of it, I always have. Obviously having played on other simulators, you get to know who Payware vendors are. If someone relies heavily on Payware models to make an honest living, and some folks do these days, then they are more likely to take more time and effort in creating their content and it is generally very difficult to say no too......:hehe: If someone just does it as a hobby, then I would have to look at it 10 times to decide whether it was worth acquiring, or, not. I always look at screenshots and videos of things beforehand, I tend to be a bit picky as to what I personally want for my games, if it doesn't look right, then I'll ignore it, maybe his next creation will be more my style. I would agree with mrscsi that I don't ever remember buying anything recently that wasn't worth the money for after getting it, I don't want to get my fingers burnt again.
Cheerz. ex-railwayman.
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. And will your computer-generated choo choo go UP in value over time? There are 1950s Lionel locos that are selling for WAY more than they originally cost. Some of them appreciate more than a bar of gold. Here ya go...check this out...