The marketplace desperatly needs quality control ASAP

Here is my take from one of those newly Xbox sim wannabes :smiley:. Though I do have proper sim experience from way back yonder.
This is what I would like to see IMHO

  1. A review system I can rely on from only those who purchased
  2. Some way of knowing what lvl of detail/quality am I getting, eg a lvl 5 is a fully loaded plane with all switches working licensed from airbus with extra tea liveries, and I will pay extra for that.
  3. Some way of getting money back, but only for x number of hrs, eg 24.

That and having a large group of experienced people review item will remove all the $0.99 ■■■■ planes and the 300 versions of the Unyted 757 all spelled different hoping for someone to buy it at $49.99.

Google Play has a good review system as well.

IMHO a star system isn’t really enough. If you want to post a 1 to 5-star review, you should have to post a message as part of it. A two-star review doesn’t really tell you anything unless you know why someone gave that rating.

A review system lets the community self-moderate products. It means we don’t need an official gatekeeper who enforces their views on the community, and yet people are far less likely to unknowingly buy bad products.

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  1. That’s obvious that only those who purchased it could review it. But we won’t get proper reviews like steam has. So stars are pretty good too compared to nothing or third party stores where reviews are moderated to increase sales.

  2. Absolutely not realistic. Who and how would determine that level? That’s just not possible and would create a lot of confusion.

  3. Refunds should be a thing already. But it’s the least of a problem. Just do research, don’t buy day one and you won’t need to ask for a refund ever. And if someone buys every addon they see then they don’t care about losing money anyway.

Star system is the same as score system. 2 stars obviously means it’s bad. And the score would even out after few hundred reviews. It roughly tells if the addon is good. I assume carenado planes should be rated 3,5-4/5 mostly for example.
Even if we had text reviews the overall score or % would be roughly the same because different people have different needs. For one carenado is 5/5 or 10/10 for someone else who values study level it will be 3/5 or 6/10 and for some angry not very sane people it would be 1/10 or 1/5 but in the end it would even out and you would have similar result. Steam is a prime example of that.

I agree to 100%

Even with a rating system…


*twice in a month, the products which are promoted first at the top of the new Market Place releases, are deceiving in what they are supposed to be basically doing: flying.

1st one:
[BLOG] July 1st, 2021 Development Update

2nd one:
[BLOG] July 22nd, 2021 Development Update

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Wait, you can get the engines to sound like flatulence, that’s awesome, how do we add that😅
Seriously though there is a need for some kind of ‘waste-o-money’ filter before it gets to the market otherwise how will average joe know which DC9 is the one to buy?

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Actually when I got 777F (only 777F) from Captain Sim working after I pondered for weeks if I should get it, I decided to try it. 20$ for eye candy plane that is a placeholder for better 777 ain’t that bad. Honestly I hate CaptainSim for this 777 as I would easily pay 50-60$ for fully working operational 777F, but still, it atleast works and looks well, unlike Bredok3D 737 Max (which I don’t own thankfully.)

But still, I gotta give props to the one who modelled that 777F, it clearly took effort and I don’t mind giving 20$ for that as long as it flies and flies well. That 777F doesn’t fly bad, it has issues but would I advise buying it? No. Not in milion years.

Plus CaptainSim clearly advertised that plane as using default 747 systems, which in itself isn’t a bad thing. It’s mostly arcade plane, much like standard 747 and I honestly can’t fault it for that. I wanted 777F and I will definetly not spend another cent on CaptainSim, but atleast that one eye-candy plane is good for what it sets out to do. I am not defending CaptainSim, but the product works as advertised, plus it has pretty good modelling. The cabin is gorgeous, the exterior is fantastic, systems are standard but that’s fine with me (for now). I will ditch this plane as soon as proper 777 arrives, but as it is, removing or prohibiting actually working planes from being on marketplace is a bad thing.

What I am trying to say is that CaptainSim actually put minimal effort (but still effort) into 777 series of planes, they look presentable and function as advertised - something that even Bredok 737 Max or any VirtualCol aircraft can’t claim to do.

Non functional planes are entirely different story though, devs like MS SCENERY should have their planes removed.

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Depends. If someone gives a mod a 2 star review because the plane is ‘too complex, don’t want to read the 200 page manual in order to get the engines going’, then I would take that as a positive review :wink: So I agree that knowing why people give the mod a certain score/amount of stars, is important.

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That doesn’t matter, as i said it evens itself out. No matter how good or bad the product is there always will be people giving it highest/lowest scores but that literally doesn’t matter. That of course means that no product ever reach 100% positive (and honestly whenever i see that it’s clear that ratings are fake) but that doesn’t mean that good products will be downvoted. In the end it will even out at 9/10, 4,5/5 or 90% and vice versa for bad products.

My point was actually that different people expect different things from the sim. I have seen reviews that were negative because the sim was too complex, and I have seen the exact opposite (e.g. too simple). About the same mod, that is! So, if that is going on, the average rating will also depend on what the average user expects. I.e. if the user base is leaning towards complex sims, then complex sims will get a higher rating than the simple sims. So how things average out depends on the user base, which percentage expects study-level sims and which percentage expects a more casual simming experience.

Now, of course, and perhaps that is what you meant, absolute garbage will always get low ratings. I mean, if the engines do not start at all, nobody will give a good rating (at least, I hope nobody does!).

In any case, I will always check some reviews, download the manual etc.

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You to not read what i say. I know what you mean but that doesn’t matter.

I think Microsoft/Asobo should take a more proactive role on quality control.

  1. Set up standards to which marketplace content needs to adhere.
  • Content needs to be in a decent playable state (bugs and stability)
  • Paid Content needs to look ok visually and in-line or close to default plane quality, some cockpits look like a thrown together mess with no shadows, crazy reflections, flat textures etc (we can forgive some issues or low res textures, but some of the stuff out there is a disgrace).
  • Paid Frankenplanes ie. converting default planes to a 737, 777 etc (captainsim/scam basically) but doing it poorly with lots of bugs, graphical glitches and an all-around low quality experience. needs to be barred from the store, period. The community response is incredibly negative and it sours the “curated” in-sim store experience.
  1. Set up an internal team OR supplemented by trusted community members to test and review product information on said standards. to make sure the creator is honest about the product. Also allow this team to label content with colorful labels or warning bars.

Even allow them to submit troublesome store items to be re-submitted to quality control when in poor health or causing issues / bad reviews. Pending Asobo review they would then be pulled temporarily… or perm.

Allow Labels to published on content by said team such as:

  • Complex Aircraft
  • Study Level Aircraft (with a disclaimer this content requires thorough understanding of the plane or teaching yourself how to use it, not jump in and play)
  • Simple Aircraft
  • No MSFS Flight Planner (forced to use simbrief etc.)
  • High Performance Impact (planes and scenery)
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While I agree there needs to be a quality control. The hard part is policing it. They can only do it to their own market place within the sim and that fly by night companies will just put their work on sites like Simarket who don’t care what they peddle as long as the get their commission on sales. The only way would be all addons have to go through the market place and that isn’t going to happen as it would kill the sim.

The point of this thread is to ask for quality control within the official marketplace, not other platforms :slight_smile:

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Which is pretty much what Microsoft is doing themselves now. Or at the very least it comes across like that.

[The rest is not related to the quote]

In my opinion they should offer the ability of a refund. It shouldn’t be that difficult to implement. And the consumers do deserve some protection. (And I believe there are customer protection laws for that for a reason. Probably sadly not as up-to-date enough for this digital age to include 3rd party payware mods but still. Some other platforms still provide adequate support with these kinds of cases.)

Another idea would be a demo mode. Where you can fly the desired plane for an hour or so. The problem I see with that is how do you protect the aircraft files from not being stolen. But I can already think of solutions to that.

I’ll give Microsoft this: the consumer, when buying a(ny) product is obliged to do their research into what they’re buying.

But the difficulty with it here is that you have no adequate preview of what you are buying. You can’t ‘test drive’ it or ‘see a show model’ like you can a physical product in a store.
Yes you see a few cool screenshots. (But they can be set up any way the content developer wants.) You see what it theoretically should be capable of, if you’re lucky and the info provided by the mod developer is correct. Because sometimes the info is just plain wrong.
And there are video and text reviews on external platforms (Youtube etc.). But even those reviews can be a mixed bag sometimes.
In the end you end up with a product that still looks enticing, even if it turns out to be $%*&.
A lot of the products on the market, I must unfortunately say, are abandonware. Released in an awful state, sometimes with nice promises/ideas for the future, only to never see them updated. Or just with a shiny coat that hides the facts.

I’ve ran into this trap, twice, unfortunately.
I’ve tried MSFS support first time around. I’m sad to say it’s like talking to a brick wall.
The second time (2nd purchase) around I tried directly contacting the developer of the plane.
(as MSFS support suggested me with my first problem)
Telling them a crucial part of the plane’s functionality is not working correctly. With no response.
I’ve seen it working in youtube videos from before I bought it, proving the point that even with the customer’s research you can’t always get guaranteed quality.
(Flying Boat with non functioning water rudder, pretty crucial I would say for a boat)

Again: Microsoft should protect us against those things.
After all: it’s their marketplace we’re talking about (as Nyx1819 pointed out) and they are making money of it as well.

(Sorry for the long rant, but I am obviously passionate of MSFS otherwise I wouldn’t have bothered.)

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Marketplace is where MS/Asobo really makes money. They need volume and people buying from there.
I just bought one aircraft from marketplace, the first jet release and, to be sincere, I regreat. Now I prefer download from comunity for free.
Ah…at least we did not pay for that hospital that can not fly…

A 1 hour limited license to fly/ test or …
Buy nothing, the prices are ridiculous.

o7

Well yes, that is an entirely different subject, but I find the prices way too steep too.

1 hour is not much, more than we have now though. And it’s enough to test at least the functionality of a plane.

But still: I prefer a refund policy.

I made the mistake of buying the msscenery A10 thinking the marketplace was a safe, curated place. It’s garbage. Tried to get a refund via Steam, they said no, tried to get a refund via MS, nope. They should be embarrassed they allow ■■■■ like this to even be sold in their official marketplace, it cheapens the entire franchise. But then again, we live in a age where no one gives a ■■■■ anymore…

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