It's just a 50-60 dollar flight sim. I think too many are over analyzing the facts and myths. Here's an idea, just shut down IE, double click on the plane icon and fly, or better yet, go outside and run a few hundred laps around your house. No offense but I think even the devs are tired of explaining themselves.Ian.

>In actuality the program code for FS is controlled by a>big slider with "game" on one extreme and "sim" on the other.>The development team of 50+ people usually spends the better>part of 2 years debating on where the slider should be set and>then, a month before release, we hire a temp worker to the>change the setting. We then take the next year off.>haha, brilliant

Hi Tdraggee,Great news you've been allowed to post the real deal on FSX and it's good to know the flour bombs are staying. I'm an old guy now and I've been all around the world (twice) looking for a flour bomb game and now it's here. Brillianto.Many thanks for all your hard work, you and the other 50 sitting on your b*tts pretendig to check the slider.I've thought long and hard about this and low-brow is the way to go. There are far too many long words about what are hard to tell what they are so good luck with that as well.Is it too late to ask for the planes to just have one dial that does everything? Or maybe a button?Andy.

Good work, Mike.If you ever lost your job at Redmond, there's always Vegas.Mike.

tdragger,Welcome to the world of flight sim fanatics!!!Personally, I amazed and thankful for the openness of Flight Simulator and the change in MS policy to allow developers to write blogs and communicate openly.No, you haven't answered 99% of my mental list of questions with your posts - that's not the point.You and the ACES team are talking to the general Flight Sim community - something which has not happened before in my experience.FS2004 was the first FS launch I observed, and though I was mainly focused on AI aircraft - it was simply amazing how little about the program capability anyone knew - especially the beta testers.It was an amazing voyage of discovery, and there was a lot of sand in the ointment from people who wanted the world of changes - but nothing to change their legacy add-ons.But for my part, the discovery of more and more capability and "features" built into the default FS setup continues even today.I saw someone post on another forum that "we knew everything about FS2004 within six months of release" - to which I responded "after six months of FS2004, we were only beginning to realize how fantastic the program was and how outdated and wrong our previous assumptions were. We had only started to explore the program and its possibilities".This product rollout is so much more open and rumors of add-on developers actually working with MS to get ahead of the launch power curve is another great sign.The plan that SDKs will available before or at product release is simply the most amazing good news I've heard so far about FSX. This product and community live for add-ons - and SDKs are the key without which those add-ons will not exist.Hang tough, only seven or eight more months of speculation - then you get to start all over again. :-)I, for one, greatly appreciate the information.And I too want to tell my boss I want to go anywhere but here today.

LOL great read for a Tuesday AM.Count me aso one fo those that coudl care less about hoops, however it might be a fun diversion... After all it is a GAME!

And to think that I always thought most people in the IT industry (especially programmers and developers) were socially inept! And now one demonstrates wit, sarcasm, humour, satire and use of complex everyday slang such as "hoity-toity". Perhaps these people are capable of interacting with others from outside their tight-knit group. It's about time you chaps from "the other side" took a dig back at the moaners and groaners (who incidentally do not actually know what they are complaining about). An entertaining satirical read... the kind I always love!DISCLAIMER:Yes this is sarcasm incase you less brain cells than teeth and it's only meant in good fun as a dig at stereotypes and to show my appreciation of the post - If you don't appreciate satire perhaps you shouldn't of read the first post in this thread... Though everything in my second paragraph is true. I'm also in much agreement with Mr.RFields5421.

> And to think that I always thought most people in the IT industry (especially programmers > and developers) were socially inept! And now one demonstrates wit, sarcasm, humour, satire > and use of complex everyday slang such as "hoity-toity". Perhaps these people are capable > of interacting with others from outside their tight-knit group.Might be time to count your own brain cells. Tdragger is not a programmer :-lol

Not everyday you see Microsoft developers rant about their ranting users. Mike, take it easy, take two aspirin, etc... :) We believe in your passion for aviation, we are going to buy FSX anyways, and we are going to love it! There is no need to be so mad at your most loyal customers. We are all nuts anyway - as my granma says about aviators :) All The Best,=S.V.=

Did I ever mention he was a programmer... no... I said he was "in the industry". :-) I'm still firing on 5 of my 6 cylinders! I just pointed to the fact that programmers and developers tend to be worst for social ineptness (which was a joke on stereotypes before I strung up by my privates and shot).

>> And to think that I always thought most people in the IT>industry (especially programmers >> and developers) were socially inept! And now one>demonstrates wit, sarcasm, humour, satire >> and use of complex everyday slang such as "hoity-toity".>Perhaps these people are capable >> of interacting with others from outside their tight-knit>group.>>Might be time to count your own brain cells. Tdragger>is not a programmer :-lolActually, Mike is a "programmer," even though his official duties have been more management than actual programming.If you'd been following the full soap opera with dilegence, you'd have known that he spent many, many hours working on the UI (User Interface) code for FSX, while the "programmers in fact" concentrated on the more sophisticated code sections. :)I am a retired priest, and although now much of my time is spent in 3d modeling and gauge programming, I'm still a priest! :-halo

Mike,Thanks for the levity :-lol :-lolIn a day where too many of us take ourselves, and our hobby, waaaaaayyyy toooooo seriously, it is like a breath of fresh air to kick back and laugh for a while. We could all "lighten up" a bit :-lol

Brilliant Mike!!I look forward to all of these new features in FSX. It just shows how real it will be! :-badteethI think the new slider is pure genius. Personally I think you and them team could have put more effort on the slider and spell 'Simulator' completely, rather than just 'sim'. But I will still buy FSX when it comes out, even though that will be missing.And now I must DUCK and RUN, I reccomend you do the same!! :-outtaEDIT: Sheesh, my spelling skills ain't so much better![hr color=#000000][table border=0" width="98%" id="table1" height="4" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="2][td width=500]Jason[br /]General Aviation Fan[br][/b]P4 3.2Ghz, 1GB Ram, FX5900 128MB, XP SP2.[br /][br /]

WooooooooooF! I want what your on!

I was actually suprised by some of the replies in this thread, and some in the other threads. This may be a little off topic, but:If the current bashing of the MS FSX team continues, and are getting rude comments from people, I don't see them returning with information on the next FS release. These are the guys and gals that are making an awesome upgrade to a piece of software that some of us have played for 20 years! And guess what?! They actually come in these forums and tell us about all the new features, they give us the exclusive! Who cares that they aren't giving us 100% of the information!? It's not released yet, and even in the beta stages there will be some code changes that may make some things not able to be in this release! Why promise something and then have to take it out?! Some of you would REALLY be ###### if you are getting mad at them not even giving you information on what YOU want. FSX is going to be amazing, and I would love to get the full scoop on it like everyone else. But, I have realistic expectations. I have patience. The FSX team does an amazing job, they are working long hours, nearing deadlines, and yet they still come here to answer our questions, give us hints... Plus, they still have time for their families. I give them mad props, yo. You should too. If you don't like the missions in FSX, DONT PLAY THEM. They will not force you to play them. They do not detract from the actual sim at all. It's an addition. I doubt it was at the expense of something else... Sorry for the OT rant... Just had to get that out. Thanks for the humor, tdragger. And I'm looking forward to that temp job! ;)