Online Polls

With regard to online Polls they generally provide minimal useful information.  This is for a variety of reasons:

 

1. Biased/Loaded Poll Questions:

Online polls often have a biased question or restrict the users responses. Exaggerated somewhat silly examples:

Quote

 

P3D is truly awful because:

1.  etc etc

 

Quote

 

The new Heinkel Bxyz addon aircraft from DodgyFlight is:

1. Amazing
2. Brilliant
3. Stunning
4. Awesome
5. Pretty Good

 

 

 

2. Selection Bias in the responder sample

Only certain people will actually respond to any given survey.  In the case of a rare obscure airport or aircraft for example it is highly likely only those people with a specific personal interest may respond and that sample group may, for example, be more tolerant of faults as are keen to see their favourite addon worked on,  or alternatively actually be more particular than normal as they are familiar with the real world subject matter. 

3. Selection bias due to the place the poll was posted

Posting a poll about how good MSFS is will get totally different results posted on an XPlane forum compared to a MSFS forum.

if you post your poll in a thread about a particular addon there is no point whatsoever having an option that says Not interested, never heard of this aircraft for example as those people will never be in the thread in the first place.

4. Time related variation in responses

The trend in MSFS is for responses to products to be a bit like Statler and Waldorf in the Muppet Show.

Running a poll when a product is released will generally get very positive and enthusiastic responses.

Running a poll a little later when the enthusiasm has worn off will get mixed responses.

Running a poll when the product has been out a fair while will generally only attract responses from detractors who are unhappy with the product.

 

Edited August 2, 20232 yr by Glenn Fitzpatrick

8 hours ago, Glenn Fitzpatrick said:

Running a poll when a product is released will generally get very positive and enthusiastic responses.

In case you couldn't follow it the poll was ONLY about installation and update woes for Store users.  This had zero to do with impressions of the sim, only about those specific issues.  Tell me Glenn, do you think they lied about that?  Or perhaps you believe only people with positive experiences responded?  Nonsense... 

Edited August 2, 20232 yr by Noel

I took a few years absence from flight simming and so am a relative newcomer to MSFS.  I can say that MSFS is definitely a NG step forward c.f. FSX in terms of visual effects outside the cockpit both on the ground and in the atmosphere (without any add-ons utilized). Inside the cockpit though its either status quo or a step backwards due to the limitations that go with only having one available window display. However the 3rd party add-ons available help alleviate that  e.g. Air Manager. Overall, I say its a quantum leap forward taking the 3rd party sottware into account..  As for being a "pain", I can re-call all the pain I felt trying to get FSX running smoothly all those years ago.  Each new product will be designed to push the boundaries of its abilities to the limit so as to impress the audience... and thus there will be the inevitable bugs and unforeseen things that can go wrong. Thus pain is but a forerunner to pleasure.. Such is life. I look forwards to 2024... and presumably a bit more pain. I shall relish in the fact that I'm still alive.!!