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Digital Gaming => Computer Gaming => Topic started by: jomni on December 19, 2018, 10:42:00 PM

Title: 2018 Flight Sim survey
Post by: jomni on December 19, 2018, 10:42:00 PM
No. It's not all about combat flight sims but some items include them. Interesting results.

QuoteThe typical flight simulator enthusiast is a 43 year old male from the United States. He flies simulators 2-3 times per week for about 5-10 hours in total and was introduced to flight simulation 20 year ago. There is a 27% likelihood he already has some sort of pilot license. If so, he was introduced to flight simulation before he pursued his pilot license. Moreover he has a bachelor's degree, is full time employed, makes 50,000 USD per year before tax, and spends about 250 USD on software and 200 USD on hardware annually. He prefers X-Plane 11, but Prepar3D v. 4 is also popular.

http://blog.navigraph.com/post/181243982766/flightsim-community-survey-2018-results
Title: Re: 2018 Flight Sim survey
Post by: Destraex on December 20, 2018, 12:22:46 AM
Oh wow. Only Yankees like flight sims. I feel special :)
Title: Re: 2018 Flight Sim survey
Post by: Toonces on December 20, 2018, 10:28:30 AM
Boy, that was a really cool read.  Thanks for posting!
Title: Re: 2018 Flight Sim survey
Post by: DoctorQuest on December 20, 2018, 11:54:52 AM
It was very interesting. I am way below average on my hobby spending, though. Glad to see I'm not the only one still flying fs2004. I did spend a bit on add-ons for that back in the day.

BMS even had a line!
Title: Re: 2018 Flight Sim survey
Post by: Destraex on December 20, 2018, 05:38:42 PM
Doctorquest, I hope you are buying a real aircraft with all that saved money.
Title: Re: 2018 Flight Sim survey
Post by: DoctorQuest on December 20, 2018, 07:52:39 PM
Flying lessons, actually.
Title: Re: 2018 Flight Sim survey
Post by: Destraex on December 21, 2018, 12:03:50 AM
I did that once and decided it was too expensive. That spending money on sims was much more efficient.
Title: Re: 2018 Flight Sim survey
Post by: DoctorQuest on December 21, 2018, 09:58:44 AM
I completely understand, Destraex. I may end up being in the same situation myself. This is a bucket list thing for me. We will see how it goes.
Title: Re: 2018 Flight Sim survey
Post by: Father Ted on December 21, 2018, 06:10:59 PM
So I consider myself a flight simmer (main reason for buying a PC - have a bunch of peripherals as well), but I don't feature on this report coz I exclusively fly combat flightsims.  Would be interesting to know what proportion of the community have a similar profile.
Title: Re: 2018 Flight Sim survey
Post by: DoctorQuest on December 21, 2018, 08:19:21 PM
*Raises hand*
Title: Re: 2018 Flight Sim survey
Post by: Skoop on December 21, 2018, 09:06:34 PM
I actually started flightsims only doing combat as well.  The f15 and gunship on my C64 in the 80s.  Stopped all gaming during during my first 10 years of adulthood cause I did nothing but travel and surf.  Then return in 1999 to wargaming and flightsiming when reality set in and had to join the work force.  When I returned, it was original il2.  Then graduated to Dcs.  Once I master Dcs, I figure hey why not try commercial Sims  like xplane and prepare.  My interest in flight simming has grown to the point of, it's not if, it's when I get my pilots license.  Seriously think I should have done aviation as a career, seriously considering it as a post retirement career.  In the meantime, flightsims all the way.
Title: Re: 2018 Flight Sim survey
Post by: Toonces on December 21, 2018, 11:33:21 PM
^ If you're looking to get into flying as a career, there is no better time in the U.S. than NOW.  Do it sooner rather than later.

I started with civilian flight sims, the old SubLogic Flight Simulator on my Atari 1200XL and working up from there.

I am mostly a combat flight sim guy, but for a few years there when I was in Hawaii I got pretty heavily into flying civilian airliners to the point I joined a virtual airline.  I have never been able to adequately explain it, but there is/was something extremely soothing about driving a civilian 737 or MD88 through the virtual skies. 

And, as with the survey, I actually preferred the short-haul airliners and shorter routes.  More interaction with the cockpit I suppose.

I'm not sure how I feel about the whole civilian PPL thing, but I definitely encourage any simmer to spend the $100 to get a flight in an airplane, takeoff and land, and pull some G's.  I still remember the first time I flew a real airplane after decades of simming, the noise, the forces on the stick, just how much is going on beyond what you can possibly imagine having only done it looking at a computer screen.
Title: Re: 2018 Flight Sim survey
Post by: Skoop on December 21, 2018, 11:56:10 PM
^ I agree I scoffed civilian flight simming for years, but when the scenery and graffics got so good I gave it a try and was surprised at how entertaining it was. The description of soothing flying airliners is spot on.

Aviation career will have to wait, I make more in my current job than a senior airline captain plus I have a hefty pension waiting at the end.  Actually dream come true would be if my employer expanded to the point of taking on aerial firefighting with air tankers, then I could get qualed in that to finish off my career. 
Title: Re: 2018 Flight Sim survey
Post by: GDS_Starfury on December 28, 2018, 01:20:24 AM
I think playing Tie Fighter should count as a flight sim.
Title: Re: 2018 Flight Sim survey
Post by: Gusington on December 28, 2018, 01:39:56 PM
Me too.
Title: Re: 2018 Flight Sim survey
Post by: Kushan on December 29, 2018, 11:11:13 PM
Quote from: Toonces on December 21, 2018, 11:33:21 PM
I am mostly a combat flight sim guy, but for a few years there when I was in Hawaii I got pretty heavily into flying civilian airliners to the point I joined a virtual airline.  I have never been able to adequately explain it, but there is/was something extremely soothing about driving a civilian 737 or MD88 through the virtual skies. 

And, as with the survey, I actually preferred the short-haul airliners and shorter routes.  More interaction with the cockpit I suppose.

When I started simming in the early 2000s I did a lot of GA flying. But when I got back into it a few years, I've flown airliners almost exclusively. I completely agree with how soothing/relaxing it can be. Once you get into the climb and cruise there's not much to do but sit back, relax, and take endless amounts of screenshots. Haven;t gotten to a point where I've joined a VA. I've looked into a few, Westwind, Delta and BA virtual, but never pulled the trigger on signing up.

Same for the typical routes flown, but for me its more of a time issue. I normally do most of my flying on the weekends, and don't really want to spend 6 hours or more crossing the pond or doing another super long haul flight.
Title: Re: 2018 Flight Sim survey
Post by: MikeGER on December 30, 2018, 03:13:19 AM
my career as a flight simmer started exactly in here  ^-^

(https://www.joystixgames.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Red-Baron-arcade-game-at-Joystix.jpg)



at that time as a beginner physics student i thought: Would be so cool do have this at home on a "Personal owned Computer" and i will be stunned by what will be possible in the future to come, ....and so it was O0

it was a time when as a student you could still gave a staple of punch-cards to the computation center to run your little Fortran program and got a printout next day. thankfully replaced by remote terminals in dedicated rooms and later by a remote terminal (you can see those in Alien1, and display had green text only) in every office room in the physics department, each to share with a handful of office mates   


it took a while and i had this on my C64

(i remember i had a 911 precognition, i tried to pass between the towers  ...and thought what a mess if a plane would actually try that)   

and better and better sims on the Amiga500 and later PC


played a hell out of Lucas Arts  Battle of Britain

my interest mostly remained in combat and especially in CAS  ...like in the very first sim: strafing
,plus unguided rockets, not so into bombing  ...maybe beside Stukas :D

so i was all exited about Cliffs of Dover before the release  ....but like we all know, it was a mess with all the bugs beside devs and later modders trying to improve it. 

civil simulation:
i like to fly, start (and maybe land) a bush plane in xplane10 , if the landscape is as real and as photorealistic as it gets from 300m flight level
i have zero interest in starting a Airbus380 with all the procedures in DUS and proper land it in LAX so   
but enjoy the DCS simulation of cold start and getting a UH-1 gunship in the air and flying a mission ... i miss a DC- Nam map so 

...so looking back it was along rough ride until the DCS 2.5.3 we have now.
Title: Re: 2018 Flight Sim survey
Post by: Skoop on December 30, 2018, 03:18:04 AM
  The quality wings 787 for p3d and the Toliss A319 for xplane have a skip to waypoint feature that's been amazing for cutting down long haul flights.  I usually skip from top of climb right through to top of decent, just focus on the important stuff that way.
Title: Re: 2018 Flight Sim survey
Post by: Gusington on December 30, 2018, 04:27:37 PM
I would give my left nut for a Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe remake :(
Title: Re: 2018 Flight Sim survey
Post by: Staggerwing on January 01, 2019, 09:26:23 AM
Quote from: Gusington on December 30, 2018, 04:27:37 PM
I would give my left nut for a Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe remake :(

Same here, even if all they did was increase the resolution to 800x600.

OTOH, they could include a few new 'aircraft'...

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fgrogheads.com%2Fforums%2Findex.php%3Faction%3Ddlattach%3Btopic%3D23201.0%3Battach%3D13845&hash=09e6603167798cef3de2db05957728bc96db1a15)
Title: Re: 2018 Flight Sim survey
Post by: MikeGER on January 01, 2019, 09:48:30 AM
SWotL  ...if development cycle at DCS and 3dparty would not take literarily yeeears, we already had a decent makeshift follow up. ::)

at least they speak about the  Me262 so add a Komet and a Natter
(why does development of the software representation takes longer then development the f-ing real things in history)

and what happend to the Ju87 development?
I want a Battle of Britain 1940 too
level bombers can be AI driven, so we need the Hurricane and the Me 110 and some ground structures, for example radar masts
i have read a SouthEngland map may be in the making... ?     
Title: Re: 2018 Flight Sim survey
Post by: Gusington on January 01, 2019, 01:34:11 PM
A Me262 game (newer than IL1946) is very necessary...with a LucasArts-style 1945 campaign where players can play as the Reich or the Allies. We need this. Add the Komet in there too and wow.
Title: Re: 2018 Flight Sim survey
Post by: Skoop on January 01, 2019, 06:57:00 PM
I'm game for a new version of secret weapons mainly because I missed out on the original. No way am I playing that date thing now, but I would love to experience it with modern graffics.
Title: Re: 2018 Flight Sim survey
Post by: Gusington on January 01, 2019, 07:53:02 PM
Same. I played LucasArts Battle of Britain for what must have been 1000 hours but could not afford Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe at the time. I totally missed out :(
Title: Re: 2018 Flight Sim survey
Post by: jomni on January 01, 2019, 08:21:47 PM
I enjoy flying the B-17 a lot in SWotL.