AirwaySim

AirwaySim is an online airline management simulation game/software. It works under the Massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) principle and in the simulation each player is in control of their own airline and compete against other airline managers around the world.
AirwaySim was launched to public on January 9, 2009, after an extensive beta testing period. The software is developed in Finland by AviaDesign and its manager Sami Puro.
Concept and game play
In AirwaySim each player joining a game world will found their own airline at any desired commercial airport available. After that, the player needs to purchase or lease aircraft to start operations, while setting up routes to other cities, adjusting airline staff levels, starting marketing, setting ticket prices and aircraft route schedules. After the airline has set up routes and destinations, passengers will start flying and revenue will start increasing with additional ticket purchases.
The management decisions made by players are directly related to other players, for example when it comes to ticket pricing or selling aircraft. There are also other options to interact with players, such as forming an airline alliance. The core of the game play concept is to acquire aircraft to the company, keep them maintained, discover new potential routes for the airline, and set them up for the company's aircraft. When the game world time goes on and more airlines have started, competition between airlines forces players to update their route prices and keep an eye on management decisions made by competing players.
The game database consists of over 2500 different airports around the world and practically every commercial passenger airliner ever built. The players can choose to use any of these airports or aircraft if they are available at the game world in the given game year.
AirwaySim currently offers gaming in game world / scenario type environment. There are usually a couple of different game scenarios running at the same time which each lasting for 2-6 months. The game world time moves forward in 'accelerated real time' mode according to the term used by developers. This means that a single game world day passes in 30 minutes - meaning that a 10 year long game takes a bit over 2 months to complete. The game scenarios can be between years 1950-2020 and will include the airport/aircraft selection of that era only, together with the economic figures accurate for that era (such as inflation and interest rates).
AirwaySim is a fully browser-based game with content based on text, images and number of Flash applications.
History and development
The AirwaySim project was started in late 2006 by Sami Puro, a Finnish independent software developer and aviation enthusiast, with the goal to develop an extensive and realistic online airline simulation. The first website of the project opened in summer 2007 with limited information and game access to only a handful of pre-beta testers.
The original public launch target for the project was set to year 2008 but other commitments of the developers and growing feature list caused the release date to be pushed back more than half a year. The software was also extensively tested by a large group of beta testers during the last 6 months of the development phase.
AirwaySim's first public version was launched in January 2009 but the number of independent reviews is still limited apart from various blog type reviews.
Customer Service Complaints
Many users of AirwaySim have complained about the customer service they have been receiving from the websites only webmaster, Sami Puro. Many users who have complained to Sami Puro about many features that are not working or that are wrong have been given harsh and unfriendly responses. Many users are turning away from the game to other airline manager simulations with more organised customer services.
Financing
To access the full games with all features user must purchase Credits from the website's online store. The Credits can be then used to join the game worlds, and also to some other additional functions such as reserving your favourite airline name. There are no advertisements at the website and the user fees are the sole form of financing for the software.
The current payment plan is to pay a fee for joining a game world which is usually 10 Credits for the initial week, and 1 Credit for each additional week (real time) the game is played - equaling about 0.1 Euros per day.

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