Railworks users listen up! If I could get you all to just circle around and have a seat I have an announcement I'd like to make. Slowly but surely I'm starting to get where the DLC issue for many is a problem. On one hand we do, especially me, refer to Railworks as a game. Or as Toni corrected us in the Realism thread, actually it's a game-simulator. Very important distinction I might add which helps to clear up a lot. Well, the thing is, Railworks to me is really a hobby. And hobbies incur expenses. My music hobby is well in the "thousands of dollars" and I don't even blink at that.

Well, it dawned on me just the other day, and I do mean "just the other day" that many of you never thought that when you purchased Railworks, you was buying into a hobby. And I think that's where the sticker shock comes from. Except with Railworks if you think of it as a railroading hobby store, it isn't exactly so well equipped.

What I mean to say in that is let's just say you wanted to get more into Microsoft's Train Simulator. You can walk through that door and jump into the tons of freeware and get your feet fairly wet before you considered a purchase. Railworks should (and I believe will be) like that too. But the question is... how?

You know what? That's a really good question and has left me scratching my head the past couple of days. There are so few developers while the user base is growing all the time (yes, I've been talking with RS.com again...).

So here's my part of the solution to this problem. I am offering a learn how to model class (free) at Railworksamerica.com Just head on over there and look in the Scenery forum (might be moved to its own forum). Now this isn't going to be a tutorial you do whenever you feel like it. This is meant to be interactive. You do need to register to get the full benefit and bear in mind we have forum rules. Members are to use their first names in the class but certainly you can use your handle for elsewhere.

Why would you want to do this? Well, of course it's volunteer. But take for instance the thread just deleted (jul24) asking us the millionth time why would we buy an overpriced game with overpriced DLC. We know why because we're railroad enthusiasts. Being an enthusiast I prefer to not just be a looker but a player. Being able to participate through modeling will benefit every part of your appreciation for Railworks like knowing what can and cannot be done in a computer program like Railworks. How about working with your hands. Modeling is as entertaining as the game itself. And even better, now you have more control over what you see in the game. And who knows, you might be the next undiscovered talent. When I first got into MSTS I had never done any of this stuff but I liked it and eventually I opened my All Aboard business.

So think about it. I'm looking to assist in the building of the freeware developer base for Railworks. Folks are rightly thinking there's not enough content out there. You just might be part of the answer to that problem. Come join me.

Rich