Where'd all the Trainz fans go?

D

davesnow

Crabby Old Geezer
What happened to these guys, who, until a year or so ago, were posting on the forums almost daily?

- Deadpool...................... Justin
- Illinois Central .............. Woody
- Sniper297 .................... Jim
- BNSF50 ....................... Clem
- Retro00064 .................. Zach
- Slabay ......................... Scott
- Euphod ........................ Ed
- 2Wayne ....................... Cody
- Dricketts ...................... Derrick
- HolBr14 ....................... Brandon
- Misterchugg ................. Ron
- SouthwestinAZ1 ........... Alex
- jcalmx55 ..................... Justin
- CloakedGhost275 ......... Toby
- Sporbust ..................... Frank
- Haddock56 .................. John
- Charlielima .................. Claude
- Slugsmasher ................ Rich
- Hot_Box_Detector ........ Durff
- Backyard .................... Allen
- Steamrodder .............. Robert
- PdKoester .................. Paul
- Yukonzoom ................ Steve
- Southern1581 ............ Sean

Just wondering. I miss some of them.

Cheers,

Dave
 
At least two I know are the same person. They are still around but don't post here much because of the trouble all of the time. One of those listed still produces some self-glorifying and rather nauseating post every few weeks or so.
Some are still in touch but have lots of other non-trainz related work or life to tend to.
That's just how things go I guess.
 
I have been American truck simulatin', lately... and finally got some local Western Pacific content, a la Train Simulator 2016, Keddie Wye, etc., and been busy with workin' a lot.
 
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Slabay and Illinois Central have left the forums due to the current atmosphere...

SPorBUST and Backyard have both left Trainz.
 
Sniper297 has been around more often lately. He jumps in occasionally to help someone with a question and provides some commentary as well. :)
 
Well, I think there is nature attrition in an hobby... I only know two on the above list on a personal level. One has left because he is per-suing other interest in his life, like marriage, kid & mortgage, etc, and the other the last time I e-mailed him said that he has had an absolute guts full of the direction "everything was heading" full stop!!! (he didn't really indicate why he was so angry)...

When I finally asked him why he was so piss off, I was surprise that his annoyance wasn't solely vented at N3V. He covered the forum, and covered it's no where like it used to be. "back in the good old days". (we'll, my answer to him was that I'm struggling to find a lot of things in my current life that are as good as "back in the good old days")!!! Time moves on, and so does a lot of things. Some good, & some not so good. That's life...

As I tried to tell him him, as I get older I've found women aren't so hot & the beer isn't as cold, so I understand why a man has so many concerns. :hehe:

One of the example he eventually gave me was he was sick & tired of the "pre -teens", dash, "five year old's" partly taking over the forum... He quoted!!! "I want, I want & I want it now"...

I suggested to him that he just blocks those that p_ss him off, like I have on the forum. Then he came out with let me know when N3V finally sorted out Tane & I might be back. (So there's hope!!!).

I think that the community needs to except that there's going to be people coming & going as life and interest change. Sure there's going to be a few that will leave because they are not happy with something or other, but I'm sure there will be plenty of new people joining the Trainz addiction daily...

$3,000 and six months of cold turkey therapy couldn't cure me of my Trainz addiction... :eek:

I've just finally come to accept my fate... A life time of drinking & Trainzing... oh boy, am I going to miss chasing those wild women.... :udrool:

Happy trainzing all,

Cheers, Mac...
 
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davesnow said:
What happened to these guys, who, until a year or so ago, were posting on the forums almost daily?


- Sniper297 .................... Jim
- BNSF50 ....................... Clem

- Euphod ........................ Ed

- Dricketts ...................... Derrick


Just wondering. I miss some of them.

Cheers,

Dave
Click to expand...

Hello Dave

Except for Ed, who left last year, or maybe the year before that... the other three have posted here and there from time to time!

As for the entire life, have not seen anything of those names in a long time~

Kind Regards
Ish
 
Hi everybody.
It has always been that over the years people have joined the Trainz hobby and people for various reasons have decided to quit. It has always been the same with this forum. Some members of the hobby never post here, while with others it is very much all part of the whole experience of Trainz.

In my humble opinion, the Kickstarter funding and then subsequently the release of T:ane has brought about the most divisive period there has been among forum members since most probably the original first version launch of this simulator. Certainly there are many more that no longer post on this forum than the opening posters list, with many of those seemingly “going absent” in the last 10 months.

Those that leave the hobby and forum always have to be replaced if N3V are to continue business into the foreseeable future. In the foregoing, I would have to say that the layout of this forum must be the biggest deterrent to prospective new buyers that there could possibly be. There are sections which new and prospective buyers are not allowed to access or if they can access not allowed to post. A new or prospective user would soon find there is no explanation as to why the above is so.

I would also feel that a train simulator would have its biggest sales appeal to those who already had an interest in the railways of the world and in that this forum has its biggest iniquity. The forum has a rail news section which only a selected few can open topics in. No one knows how these persons were selected, what experience they have in rail travel, relevant employment or any of the “special” reasons that may qualify them to open threads in the section.

The above means that anyone other than those who are selected but who may have interesting news of rail development, rail events or passenger experience tales really cannot open a topic in that section at all. Those of us through experience know that you can open topics on real rail matters using the “prototype talk” section of the forum but would any new user or prospective buyer know that, most likely not.

Certainly in my humble opinion it is time for this forum to be restructured in a way that puts the past behind it, or in a different place. It is time to make this forum far more welcoming to those considering making Trainz a hobby which they can more easily link to their co-interest in the real world of railways.

Bill
 
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Hi Folks,

No doubt, one of the reasons is that locking out editing of the payware T-ane routes has prevented many potential creators developing the skills & know how needed for the future well being of the game.

There are many enthusiasts out there carrying a vast amount of info that could benefit Trainz immensely if given a free hand to input their knowledge into route building. Restricting any enhancements/customization etc is just a recipe for stagnation & eventual decline of this once great game. Trainz need to be reaching out to more enthusiast groups to tap the knowledge out there, &, in regard to the steam era routes, try to draw in the older generations to share their memories in the form of route building whilst they are still around, after all, this is whats being happening for years in the railway modelling world.

All I can ask is that Trainz Management seriously give consideration into allowing editing of all routes - as long as it is stipulated that the orignal creators are credited there should be no problem.

Regards

BOGIEMAN
 
Should also add that if any Trainzer wishes to upload a custom job of an existing route to the DLS then again, should be OK as long as he/she obtains prior permission of the original creator.

BOGIEMAN
 
That is EXACTLY what they are trying to prevent ... the editing of assets, and routes, by people that do not ask for permission to do so, and these people want to re-upload OPS (OtherPeoplesStuff) to the DLS, to other 3rd party sites, and to redistribute said files, without permission from the original creator.

BOGIEMAN said:
Hi Folks, All I can ask is that Trainz Management seriously give consideration into allowing editing of all routes - as long as it is stipulated that the orignal creators are credited there should be no problem.
Regards
BOGIEMAN
Click to expand...

The statement is a huge problem, as you do not have permission to re-upload OPS (OtherPeoplesStuff) to the DLS, to other 3rd party sites, and redistribute said files, without permission from the original creator. "as long as it is stipulated that the orignal creators are credited" means nothing as you are stealing their work and redistributing their assets without permission from the original creator !
 
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DeadpoolMX was perma-banned due to some nasty things he was saying to people.

Not mentioned is LVWRR who had some "issues" and was banned if anyone remembers that incident a couple of years ago around Christmas all over JR putting a freeware advert in their own forum instead of the freeware announcements.

Euphod just up and left. We sure miss him.

I've seen others around but not often. Wayne (2Wayne) I don't know what he's up to, but his hopper cars and stuff are awesome. I just setup some in my big Midwestern route yesterday, and even in TANE they look awesome if not even better.

Looking back at the Kickstarter thing, I think it was both good and bad as it did give us T:ANE as bad as it was on first release. Even Tony Hilliam said they would never do that again because of the constraints put on the company for contractual deliverable dates and so on. This may explain the rushed, unfinished, state that T:ANE was when it was first released and still unfortunately, though getting better as time goes on. Live and learn as they say.

As far as others go, it's typical of any hobby and life in general. John Banks wrote an interesting study on online communities and how they reflect the same as in the real world. We also have to consider the age of many of the Trainz users still here. Outside of a few younger folks, many are well into their middle-age and older. With that comes age-related stuff and in some cases the inability or incapability to keep up with newer technology whether that's due to not willing to learn something new, or unable to purchase newer computer hardware required to run the latest computer software, whether that's T:ANE, or some of the other latest titles from other publishers. We also see this with every release of Trainz since Trainz 1.0, people have left because the content creation "got too hard". This started with TRS2006 and has continued since then.

This shrinking membership is also found in other hobby-related venues including the NMRA which is slowly shrinking as less and less people are interested in model railroads due to many reasons including an interest in other things such as computer games instead. The music industry, namely the piano industry, is suffering a major decline that only got worse since the last Great Recession. In the US alone, the piano industry has shrunk as many dealers have closed, and today there are only three piano manufacturers left out of an industry that once had several hundred and hired 200,000-plus people a century ago. Baldwin Pianos is gone, and the only ones left are Steinway & Sons, Mason & Hamlin, and Charles Walter, and these three companies are struggling to survive. It also doesn't help that the new digital pianos are now rivaling some of the best acoustic instruments available today at a cost that's less than 10% of the cost of a real thing such as the new Roland LX-17 digital piano, which emulates a Steinway Model D at the fraction of the cost.

So anyway, sorry to get off subject, this is nothing new and hopefully the community will grow again as time goes on.

John
 
Considering how long Trainz has been on track, its amazing that so many are still here from the early days. Interests wax and wane, life happens, etc. Even if Trainz is still used on a regular basis, participating in forums is not always the high point of each day.
 
I've been coming and going for a few years now. The Trainz bug dies down and I get hooked on other things for a while or busy with life but inevitably I come back. There sure is a lot of different people posting now a days and a lot of the old timers are gone. I have hope for the game and the community to reach what it used to be back in the '04/'06 days. We all just have to act as a community that is welcoming to new comers wanting to try Trainz.
 
Has anyone heard from Angelah? Her last activity was 15 months ago. If she is still modeling as much as back then, she should have most of Wales done by now! :D
 
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