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Q. Why the Matrix system?
A.It's unique. What other Virtual Airline operates this way?
It's open ended. Where else can you fly darn near any plane, anywhere and haul any cargo?
It's simple. At least once you get used to it.
It darn near runs itself. Once its going, the Matrix system can run for extended periods of time with very little input from management. Not I said very little. We still have to "stir the pot" now and then. But the Matrix frees up some of management's time so we can fly too!
Q. Isn't the new system asking a lot of the individual pilot?
A. We don't know if it's asking a lot. But is asking for the individual pilot to do more. Perhaps the old system asked pilots to do too little. The way we see it, it is a lot easier for one pilot to take care of his own data than it is for two people to take care of the data for 200 pilots. That's the work side of it. There's a fun side of it too.
As it was set up, the PGA make believe world revolved around the imagination and creativity of a handful of people. Most of the pilots were shoe horned into this world. They had no control over its make up and limits were placed on their own imagination and creativity because it didn't fit into the other.
With a Matrix Game the individual players have almost total control over what transpires within the created world. I never felt I had a monopoly on imagination and creativity. With a Matrix Game you as a player are not limited by my idea of what is fun.
A concrete example of this is the missions. The old way you had to fly the missions others and I wrote. The new way you get to create missions that you want to fly. We also will never run out of missions now. A problem we were bumping into constantly.
Q. Who rolls the die for my Charter Arguments?
A. You do. And you post the results with your Argument on the PGA Forum.
Q. What if I can't find a die?
A. Really? The die we use is a standard six-sided die found in almost every board game (Monopoly, Parchisi etc.). Go raid your kid's game chest. Yahtzee has five of them inside. Oh, you don't want to hear them squawk? Okay, dice are cheap and available at almost any general department store such as Walmart. You say it's midnight and Walmart is closed? Well, we don't want to give you any excuse to sit around in the Pilot's Lounge, so a Javascript program that simulates rolling a six-sided die can be found here. How's that for service?
Q. What's to stop me from cheating?
A. Nothing. As you can see with most of PGA's new procedures the Pilot now becomes the engine that drives PGA. The individual Pilot also becomes the primary record keeper. You do most of the bookwork for yourself. If you want to fudge your die rolls, pad your logbook or jack up your bank account, no one is going to say, "Hey stop that!" It's all on the honor system and it always was. Just keep in mind why you are flying for a VA in the first place. It should be for fun and entertainment, not for competition. If you cheat, you are only cheating yourself out of the fun you could have had by earning your promotions and planes honestly.
Q. Isn't the rating of arguments somewhat subjective?
A. It is to some extent. But that's the nature of a Matrix Game. We went to a great deal of effort to make rating the Charter Arguments as objective as possible. This is so you as an individual pilot didn't have to rely on anyone else in order to fly. You can make your mission, assess your argument using the rules given, roll to see if it succeeds then fly. The other arguments that are made to someone other than the player are a bit more subjective. We have provided supervisors some guidelines on assessing Promotion Arguments and that will help have across the board consistency. Another point is, as referees, we want to see arguments succeed. It's arguments that make things happen in a Matrix Game, and we should all want things happening.
Q. What about the old charters?
A. They are being rewritten and put into the new Matrix format. Everyone of the old charters and several new ones will be available for flying when the job is complete. So you can pick and fly when you are out of ideas.
We'll post more questions as they come up on the forum.
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