Warning long:
I see the extreme DCS crowd to be not much different than the extreme PMDG crowd. For the most part neither have had the opportunity to fly the real airplane. That last statement is not critical it is only stating an observation. Very few aviation lovers get to actually fly any real airplane. The percentage of people who would like to be a military or airliner pilot versus make it is very low. There are too many factors that must line up to be a professional pilot. Health, education, funds, spatial ability, etc. Any of these can short circuit the dream to be a pilot.
Companies like DCS and PDMG offer opportunities to do the second best thing. You can pretend to a high degree that you are a pilot. Exacting checklists and startup procedures and VR headsets can go a long way to creation an illusion. They can suspend your disbelief that you are not flying.
This isn’t all bad. I have said many times that I use flight simming to pretend I am still 22 yrs. old. I can vicariously (through my memories at 22-24) relive all to good points. I can leave out the long deployments, living underground on nuclear alert for weeks at a time. Or even the heat and high G-forces that drained you physically and mentally. So, flight simming can give us the good and leave out the bad.
Life being life, some will carry the illusion too far. It is human nature to believe if you have spent $100 USD on a simulated aircraft and another hundreds of hours studying aircraft and/or weapons systems ATC, ILS procedures, etc, to feel like you are better than the average Joe, who just jumps into his $25-30 third party airplane and hits CRTL-E to start.
This is no different than the old money vs. new money, rich vs. not so rich, Ivy league (or in the military Academy Grad) vs. State University, etc. snobbery. Snobs are people who for what every reason think they are better than someone else. They promote their egos by pointing out to the lower classes how better they are. This is human nature. You have it everywhere from the mighty towers of politics, the ancient academic halls, or flight simulation forums.
I think the wise person should ignore most of what the arrogant snobs say unless it is something learnable. I think that third party developers would be wise to ignore the yapping snobs and listen to the people who point out things that can make the user experience better.
Making an aircraft that a 14-16 year old will enjoy is not the aircraft the 20-30 wantabe pilots and aviation enthusiasts will enjoy. The 14-16 year old’s may buy more of the models, but they don’t go on these forums promoting or negating the airplane. It is the wantabe pilot and aviation enthusiasts who made this hobby. They will continue to make the hobby.
So, if I were a developer these are the people I would listen too. Not the loud mouth snob, nor the 14 year old who will buy and play it for may 30 minutes. No, I would listen to the people, like the folks here at SOH or AVSIM. These are the people who have made this hobby by putting their sweat and money into the hobby. Leave the PMDG and DCS crowds to their platforms. The 14 year old will buy it because it is new and shiny. But, the hobbyist will keep coming back and buying, so long as you give us a good mix of real systems and shiny bling. Allow your products to suspend our disbelief.
