Why the Sudden Interest in Flight Simulation?

At this point, I assume you have FSX installed and running at acceptable levels... And/or you also have FS2004 installed and are using that if FSX just isn't giving you the performance you desire?

Either way, this next entry might seem like it should be (have been) toward the beginning and been part of the forward, but I feel it fits nicely with how I am going to structure the rest of this blog... And this will focus more on intermediate and advanced simmers, but always with the beginning, or casual simmer in mind as well.

So, without further aideu...

From my experience and from talking with many in the flight sim community the most obvious reason people become interested in flight simulation and Microsoft Flight Simulator is their general interest in and love of aviation. Some are just born with the desire to fly and this is what they hope their adult life will consist of.

However, this isn't always the number one reason why people become interested in MSFS, and flight simulators in general. There reasons why people become interested in flight simulation are too varied and numerous to go into here, but I will be so bold as to state the one thing we all have in common is a shared love of what I call "endless possibilities". This might sound corny, but I think at the core, Flight Simulator represents a world of unlimited possibilties on various levels and this is why the appeal of this genre is so strong even if flight sim users aren't consciously aware of it.

Now, speaking from my personal experience as an avid video game player, I was looking for something more challenging than the typical "shoot anything that moves" kind of games that dominate the market on both the console, or PC. Don't get me wrong. I love a good action game like "Tomb Raider", or arcade racing games like "Race Driver: GRID" to name a few. But I always felt there was something missing. That something turned out to be the need for a real challenge and in-depth game play experience that went beyond just having twitch reflexes, or using exploits to beat the game because of inherent design flaws by developers. It also turned out to be wanting something with infinite replay value and a truly open-ended world that is becoming more rare these days since most games are linear stories (interactive-movies) with scripted setpieces and events that happen at the exact same place and time whenever you play the game through more than once.

Also, I am in my mid-30s. So, having played pretty much every game under the sun dating all the way back to the days of the Apple II, and Atari 2600, the appeal of very simplistic games with no real challenge, or long-lasting replay value was what I was craving the most when I decided to give the flight simulation genre a try.

As I was first becoming interested in the flight simulation genre, the first thing I did was what most people who are trying something new do: I did a ton of research. I read as much as I could. I would have talked to as many people as I could, but as with most niche genres, not many I know are into flight simulation. I downloaded demos of various flight simulator programs like X-Plane, and Flight Gear, and generally immersed myself in the basics of what this genre has to offer. I settled on Microsoft Flight Simulator because I feel it is the most user-friendly and has the most support from both its creator and the community at large. What also swayed me was MSFS has over 25-years of experience with this particular genre and this is probably is why it is more user-friendly and polished than a lot of the other flight sim programs currently available.

After deciding on MSFS... FS2004: A Century of Flight to be exact... I began to take my first steps into a much larger world (don't sue me, George Lucas!). However, that wonder was quickly tempered with the feeling of "What have I got myself into?" when I realized just how much I *didn't* know about aviation once I started reading some of the flying lessons by Ron Machado and others.

I think it is safe for me to state my initial reaction is probably typical for those new to MSFS, but especially for gamers making the transition from less complex games to the more reality-based simulations like MSFS. For the first time, I realized why so many kept referring to MSFS not as a game, but as a simulation (after having been at it for a number of years I discovered the *real* reason a lot of flight sim users claim it is a simulation is because of mostly egotism and elitism, but I won't go into that right now)... And I think this is what actually kept me going and *wanting* to learn more instead of just giving up, or only scratching the bare surface of what flight simulation can offer and being content with that.

What is only scratching the surface of what flight simulation can offer?

I consider just scratching the surface just flying the default aircraft MSFS ships with. Now, in all fairness the default aircraft have seen a lot of improvement from FS2004 to FSX, but they are still "video game" aircraft that are designed for casual and beginning virtual pilots and not intermediate or advanced simmers who want more realistic depictions of real world flight systems, operations and procedures. This doesn't make them all bad, however.

(CONTINUED IN NEXT BLOG ENTRY)