Pay Download Sites - GRIPE

I apologize beforehand for the language and the spelling. When I'm pissed I just write as it comes. So no emails telling me how to spell.

Let me start off my saying I myself have made many mods for many games over the years.
Only twice did I ever charge for them and this was AFTER I had released it for free for awhile first, OR made a fully functional free version. Just look up GunMod or GunSlinger's Mods and you will find mods I have designed for Sports Car GT, Janes Flight Sims, Operation Flashpoint, Hornet Korea, Grand Theft Auto 3, San Andreas. The list is frankly too long for me to remember. My point being I make mods for 2 reasons. One to better the game for myself. Instead of complaining about a game not doing XYZ, I fixed XYZ. Secondaly to give others who didn't have the time or abilities to mod games a chance to play a better game. Keep in mind these are all PC games. I assume I could mod console games but one it's illegal and two you need special hardware that not many people would solder into their consoles.
Getting back to my point U want to bring up something that really "Grinds My Gears". That would be Pay to Download sites that A) Host OTHER peoples work on their sites and B) Charge YOU to download what someone else released elsewhere for free. I had that happen to one of my products once. I sued and sued big. They ended up paying me a whopping $800 for something that should have been free in the first place. Because I signed a document I can't go to much into detail, however the monies I recieved I invested into modding software and donations to websites who don't ask for money. Too make a long story short, in the end the only one who suffered was the idiot game company who tried to profit off my kindness.
Now to the subject back at hand. Every 6 months or so I get an inching to fly Microsoft's latest flight sim, MSFS. And everytime I end of stopping because of the sheer greed of the community. It's one thing to take 2 or 3 people, time, money and effort to create a product for a program. It's something else entirely to do something 5000 have done and charge money for it. About 70% of MSFS websites either charge for access to the "free" files or make your downloads super slow while slamming ads in your face to "donate" for faster speeds. Greed stinks hard. I can remember the days when people made things like this because it was fun, hekped them, and helped keep your hobby alive. Now the Greed Stinkers are slowing killing PC gaming. Remember going to your local EB, GameStop, Wal-Mart, Best Buy and seeing at least 3 or 4 complete rows of PC software? Not today. Now PC games are either phased out completelty, or if they do have them they update the New sections once every 4 months with one or two WOW add-ons or SIMS Cash Cow stuff. WHY? Because of Greed Stinkers and Pirates. Personally I think the same people who pirate games are more than likely the same ones who throw up a web site to host other people's work and charge your a fee of $20 a month to download the crap. And do not get me started on "But they have to charge for access and web fees and blah blah blah" No they dont. No one made them put that website up. No held a gun to there head and said, spend this money on a Pentium 1 PC with Windows 2000 on it that cost you $80 and then charge people $20a month to access files that you never even look at. How is that different than the game pirates? Actually the game pirates aren't as bad. They steal the game for themself but they don't turn around and sell the copies to everyone on the net (Ok a few idiots TRY... but then they get smart and put up a New Napster type site that charges a monthly fee to... blah blah blah.) See the cycle here. Joe Blow makes an add-on that adds new lighting for runways. He submits it to 2 or 3 free sites. People like it. Next thing you know he finds his file on 50 other websites. 40 of them are charging people to access his free file. Well that's illegal you say. Maybe. But what the heck is he going to do. I made something for free, told people they could have it, and some decided to actually sell it to some suckers. Judge says, Well dont make anymore free ones. And pretty soon the Greed stinkers and the Pirates win, only they lose because they lose the very thing that made them. Games and people to play them.

Gripe over.
I'll be listing websites I find that host free MSFS stuff and charge or seriously cripple your connection if your not a paying member in this message. Just so I can know to stay the fuck away from the jerks.

1) Simnetwork.com

Here is there pathetic excuse for WHY:
It takes lots of hard work and money to keep one of the web's largest Flight Simulation sites running, therefore we are asking our members to pay a small monthly fee of $5 In order to keep Fly Away running. The payment entitles you to a full account and a user account here at Fly Away. The user account gives you full access to Downloads section, which is regularly updated with quality flight simulation downloads. The fee is a lot cheaper that other flightsim sites such as Surclaro, that offer one month member ship for $18, while we offer a monthly membership for only $5.

Slam someone else who is doing the same as you to get customers. Yeah your honest and trustworthy.
Bite me.

More coming. Much more.