Nothing new there..

Paid DLC's were always on the cards..

Free DLC's Now that will be exciting.

13 hours ago, Chock said:

The reason I believe this is the case, is that I have loads of work colleagues (at the airport, who work on aeroplanes on a daily basis) who absolutely are not remotely interested in aeroplanes outside of work. They could just as easily be working on a tractor or a set of shelves in a warehouse as far as their interest in the fact that it is an aeroplane goes. Don't get me wrong here, they absolutely do take it seriously and do things properly, but they don;t really care that it is a flying machine. Now I do have a few work colleagues who plan to become pilots etc but it's really only one or two, and among my colleagues I think there are only a very few who like me, had a pilot's license and are actually what you'd call a 'plane nerd' in even the remotest sense. This was a surprise to me when I first started working there, I thought almost everyone I was going to meet would be really into aeroplanes since they had chosen to work on them, but this just isn't the case. It's just a job to them and that's it.

Regarding your post, I think we all have anecdotes that inform our perspective on the subject:

My experience suggests that their are at least two types of potential simmers: Those who essentially, wish to be pilots, and those who wish to occasionally pretend, to fly an airplane.

The first, I believe comprise the more vocal enthusiasts to be found in forums such as this, discussing and enjoying the minutia and seemingly endless granular technical details of aviation.

The second, I believe comprise the vast majority of "others" that possibly could be persuaded to give simulation at least a preliminary trial if carefully guided through various levels of interest through being presented with set goals and challenges that are both interesting, enjoyable, and most of all, accessible.

Once upon a time, flight simulation actually was widely accessible to the general public, and titles of the time generally tended to advertise fun/excitement while in nearly all cases featuring extensive guidance from at the very least, low to mid level simulation of the type being presented.

Most of those earlier sims, the current enthusiast market would probably regard as games now, yet many, perhaps most of us cut or teeth on those titles and if so inspired, continued in simulation on and off continuously thereafter, growing over time in proficiency.

Sims became more and more complex, and as that happened, I saw a winnowing process where the genre became as a general rule, more and more technical, in the process inadvertently locking out more and more of the second type of potential simmer while veering to concentrate more and more on the first.

In my mind, this eventually led to the death of the "golden age" of flight simulation, when titles in the genre once proliferated, but gradually withered as more and more casual users were turned away by forceful demands for more and more technical sophistication.

Users fiercely dedicated to the highest level of detail demanded more and more "realism" while those less interested, increasingly told that if they wanted a "game" to go play Ace combat, contributed to a growing user schism that led to a shakeout of developers when popularity waned across the board.

The extensive detail demanded by the hardcore, in my opinion required greater and greater time and development resources, even as the overall market contracted below the level needed to sustain profitability.

I actually had arguments on many no-longer-existing developer forums regarding this, because as post counts waned and users disappeared, it seemed obvious what was about to happen. Then as now, I advocated strongly that maybe it was time to lighten up a bit, and foster strong upward pathways for new users.

The hardcore were not interested. 

Janes, Spectrum holobyte..... so many well known names collapsed like a house of cards, or simply abandoned their simulation franchises (some through simple stupidity or bad luck) and it eventually came to be that only Microsoft remained to carry the torch of people-friendly aviation titles.

The last, of course being FSX, which consciously accommodated the widest attainable cross-section of possible users, and was arguably the most successful civilian flight simulation title, ever.

Blah, blah blah! 🙄

My general argument is that at a certain point, and for stated reasons, flight simulation, particularly after FSX became outdated and the field was left to X-plane and P3D, etc, became associated with dry, humorless technicality and an apparent genetic aversion to fun (Its not a game, its a simulator! Rawrrrrr!!!) accompanied by an increasingly nose-up attitude among users and proponents that eventually caused potential flyers of the second type to associate flight simulation with similarly popular things..... such as okra and broccoli.........

Part of the huge amount of excitement being generated by MSFS2020 seems to me to be due to an audience that had lost interest and written off simulation without even thinking much on the subject anymore (because of its super-boring reputation) suddenly finding itself presented with spectacular images of bright, modern-day graphics, and a nearly forgotten promise of an accessible presentation of the long out of reach wonders of Flight...

Predictably, some in the enthusiast community are already seeing that accessibility as anathema (Its a game!!) and are beginning the familiar drumbeat.

I believe the buffet on offer from Asobo/Microsoft is so tempting however, after the genre being locked in place with dated technology for more than a decade, that the tide is very likely unstoppable. The third parties have seen the writing on the wall, and are flocking, and I suspect this time, naysayers are going to get buried beneath a flood of users waving their credit cards.

Microsoft has revealed very aggressive plans to keep the project from becoming stale and retain interest, and to me, this is a great thing.

I've waited a very long time.

Edited July 30, 20205 yr by HiFlyer

A great post, thanks.

There are also the sim pilots that are happy with what they have. Not all simmers want the latest. A wise developer, now departed, always said that simming is supposed to Fun, Fact & Fictional. Some of us prefer the old & slows, the Golden Age of flight, as it were. Vintage simmers enjoy the classics , with appropriate scenery, or lack of, as in the older days, and navigate using sextants & radio beacons. Older Boeing aircraft, Junkers Tante Ju, Antonov AN-2's we still have great aircraft to explore with.

Another great flight sim is FlightGear.. it's free, has an interesting & detailed range of planes that are downloadable within the program, & scenery that is better than a lot of payware. 

So, we are excited with an evolution in our gaming, but some of us still enjoy the steam era of flight, & the historical & somewhat fictional side of simming.

We can visit Fordlandia (Henry Ford's idea of a town belonging to him. (Google it, it was real), Hidden runways in mountains, China's Road, American mail flights. The list goes on. Different era's & planes for different folk, & we are not lesser simmers if we enjoy what we have.

27 minutes ago, HiFlyer said:

 

I've waited a very long time.

I wholeheartedly agree.

Accessibility will be the key for the success of MSFS.

No need to install and maintain several dozens of addons just to get a basic enjoyable simming experience.

No need to acquire expert skills about how a computer works just to cope with all the necessary tweaks and compatibility and other issues that are inevitable with the messy complex sim / addon installations we have now.

Just click an icon and enjoy simming - at the depth level you choose.

 

There will come a time when even some of the most elitist "serious simmers" will get off their high horse and realize that flightsimming actually can be fun - for all kinds of users, from casual arcade-like "gamers" to FSL addicts.

Edited July 30, 20205 yr by RALF9636

2 minutes ago, RALF9636 said:

There will come a time when even some of the most elitist "serious simmers" will get off their high horse and realize that flightsimming actually can be fun - for all kinds of users, from casual arcade-like "gamers" to FSL addicts.

Two things :

- relishing in tweaking is not being serious, it is being masochist, gregariously masochist if I read some forums.

- being serious and having fun are not contradictory, they fairly well go along together. 

So true.. There are those that get so involved in worrying about frames & tweeking, ...

Analysis Paralysis is fatal for simmers..  

17 hours ago, AirWayMan said:

they stated in the dev q&a that the profits from 3rd party addons on the ingame store (called Marketplace) will (hopefully) pay enough to maintain servers or w/e

Hi, do you have a link to this specific part of the Q & A where the devs said this?  Or does anybody else have a link to this part of the Q & A that AirWayMan is citing?  I would like to listen to it (or read it).  It would give insight on how they plan to fund MSFS for the next 10 years. Thanks.

On 7/29/2020 at 1:15 AM, Wobbie said:

I cannot imagine Microsoft, a $1Billion + company, begging gamers to buy add-ons as revenue will be crutial to MSFS's development, nor Asobo..

 

1.5 Trillion btw

@HiFlyer  I see a third pilot. It is the one like me, that can no longer afford  to rent a plane these days. The last time I rented a Cessna 182 it ran me $32 an hour, ( I still have the receipt) today a  Cessna 182 rents for $175 per hour wet, more or less.  

Edited July 30, 20205 yr by jpc55
Added

It will be funded through the tears of Avsim's serious simmer crowd.

8 hours ago, HiFlyer said:

Once upon a time, flight simulation actually was widely accessible to the general public, and titles of the time generally tended to advertise fun/excitement

Excellent post.

I think Asobo has created an excellent flying simulator.  It brings back the sense of joy and wonder I experienced in the earliest days of flight simming, when simply flying was special, even if it was only over blank terrain.

Bush pilots are going to love MSFS, because that's what bush pilots do:  they fly.  There are no SIDS and STARS for sand banks on remote rivers, no ATC, no radar coverage.  No VOR, no NDB, no airways or intersections.  No complex flight plans to be filed, you just tell your buddy where you're going so they can look for you if you don't return. 

We can go back to flying for fun.  Over the most incredible scenery you've ever seen in a flight sim.  And it can be done by people who have never looked at a flight simulator before, who have never studied flying.

Microsoft and Asobo have created something magical.

Not perfect, by any means, but magical nonetheless.

Hook

Something I realized on my last flight was the MSFS appears to be tailored to giving the first time flight simmer the best experience possible.  

It was also this flight that I started judging MSFS on its own merits, not in comparison to previous flight sims.  I've also started flying the same way I flew in P3D, long flights of several legs rather than flying from a particular airport to check out scenery.

Some special moments over the last few flights:

The first time I saw a rain shaft and diverted to fly through it, and noticing how it not only looked right, but felt right as well.
The first time I flew through an area of scattered showers with multiple rain shafts that looked like pictures I've seen of the real thing.
The first time I saw a rainbow.
The first time I realized that what I was looking at out the window was more like being in a real aircraft than any previous flight sim.  If non-pilots visited their local airport and got an introductory flight, this is what it is like.

And many more.

Hook