I keep going back to the love of aircraft (or lack of) that compels one to want to be a virtual pilot.

I'm 50 years old and I know many of you are around my age. We grew up with Firefox, Blue Thunder, The Final Countdown, Top Gun and Iron Eagle at the theater, as well as Baa Baa Black Sheep and Airwolf on TV. We were inspired as children! I can vaguely remember when the F-4 was still an active sexy beast, while the F-14 and F-15 were such incredibly cool looking ultra-modern superplanes (the F-16 was also cool but didn't have twin fins, while the F-18 was a bit feminine looking [a plane I would grow to love]),

We were still young when the News (mostly CNN) was covering the Gulf War, showing hi-tech nighttime precision targeting. This was followed by Discovery Wings and various History Channel programs featuring aircraft of all eras, even futuristic predictions...fascinating stuff.

I think one can lead to the other. Back in the days before we had worthwhile internet access I helped build up a local LAN party group with some mates and at least two of those had no interest in aircraft at all. They were what I guess today we would describe as hardcore gamers and initially saw sims as nothing more than complex first-person shooters. It was the sims that in turn engendered their love of aircraft. In fact, out of all of us from that original group, those are the two that attend more airshows with their families today. None of them sim nowadays because priorities changed as careers, families and real life generally took them in different directions.

I thought the Baa Baa Black Sheep was a reference/joke I didn't get and had to google it. I guess that one never made it across the pond.

Personally i moved to Discord quite a while ago. It's just more comfortable to me than a Forum.
And the sim communities are very active as well. The hoggit discord server, which is for DCS, for example has on average around 300+ people online.
I heard the Falcon BMS server is also well visited.

So as with everything in technology, people will move on to other places. Just as forums killed the newsgroups, a new challenger appeared.

Forums will never go away - and although you don't see that much activity the number of people reading threads remains high.

Thanks for the wonderful compliment!

You're lucky you weren't an adult during the 1960's! You really would have been miserable then.

I remember being glued to this forum as 9/11 unfolded; it was the only organ for real-time information then.
I remember well (even though I'm English, so somewhat removed) with emotion members here anxiously awaiting a post from a member who was known to be in NYC or Washington at the time. And first hand reports of the aftermath. I particularly recall a most eloquent and poignant post from the last person one would of expected to compose such a thing, PDog, who described how paperwork from the Towers was fluttering down on his home in Queens 3 days later. He was later banned for his immature outbursts here I believe.

May the archive of that event here forever stand as a memorial to that dark day.

Now of course people resort to social media for info in a crisis.

I think that we are just part of the trend. Sims are not getting the people they used to, forums are shrinking because of social media, and the people who used to come here are aging and have developed other priorities.

I guess all we can do is continue on. It would help if we were all more active. Those with the ability and drive could do articles. We could all just try to get one friend or acquaintance to join and participate.

To some extent, our fate is in our hands.

Well I hope it's not dying! I avoid social media like the plague,it has so much to answer for

I've been visiting here for just over 10 years and it's my go-to place as soon as the PC fires up. I have little interest is playing sims right now but I still look at every new post to keep up-to-date.

Long may she carry on

Good post OG.

When I was writing my rant further up the thread I was thinking about what could be done by the folks who are here, and who want to see SimHQ revived.

The first thing that came to mind was that every member pledges to post an AAR, of any game, of any length. Could just be a paragraph. But take the time to show others his or her experience. I mean, people dump buckets of ice over their heads right? Wouldn't be much worse to post an AAR. But I realize this sort of thing isn't going to happen. So I won't say it out loud

I still occasionally donate to SimHQ. I've done my bit.

I've been bad though about not using the Amazon link here whenever I buy something from them. I need to make that a habit.

While I think OG is spot on with the "our fate is in our hands" I also see that whatever we fly/drive/shoot today is something we've been doing for so long making it hard to come up with something one finds worthwile to post aboot.

While we did loads of AAR in Falcon4 section DBond one must realize there's really nothing new to it (or is it just me?) so the value of a lenghty AAR isn't what it used to be.

In the early years we had new stuff every 7 hours (ok, I lied) but nowadays we have sub-par releases/updates and we keep grinding the same old over again.

Sims with alot of gameplay value is easier to post about but todays sims have gone introvert (like me ) and I think it's harder to post about "Look, I aligned the GDRT module in my Mirage 2000 in 3½ minutes" into something interesting?

Falcon is still possible to AAR about since it has the best gameplay value but IL2 Dover or BoS and more than others DCS, doesn't give the opportunity IMO.

While I do fly Dover and could picturize a somewhat telling AAR there is little data for this after any attempt in BoS or DCS which more and more becomes short tries of a mission that I rarely complete (so many times I've rage-quitted DCS makes me think I a bit slow to never learn to stay away from that POS sim, but I honestly want the DCS Viggen to become fun one day before I retire from this earth).

Excellent post Oden and I might add that the fundamental issue with PC simming (especially flight simming) is that the long-time older fans of the genre are not being sufficiently replaced by new, younger gamers. So logically, the genre and its fanbase is in a constantly shrinking trend.

I haven't played a sim in years, FS9 was the last one I put any time into. Moved onto Xbox and now I don't even have time for that with my kids sports schedules and photography or work.

Even the subjects of CH have become stale. When work is busy I'm lucky if I'm here once a week and I'll scan through 2 pages and only want to read a few of them.

Wait, I thought you were talking about some place where people can post their thoughts and ask questions and have discussions and get help. Now you shift the focus to ad revenue? I don't want to discuss posters and visitors as revenue streams as I guess none of us really have an idea of how profitable that is for SimHQ. Besides, does increased site traffic generate the proportional number of ad clicks?

As for the "truth," it's not just for DCS and being a religious crusade. I value input of fellow gamers more than I do of any review site and I like the ability to discuss the game with those that played it. I like talking about what is bad about the game simply because some of these factors can determine whether I can live with the game's shortcomings or if the negatives will be enough to kill the game for me. The positive side of the game is very easy to see so I don't really bother with that as much. I've discussed the negatives for things like Star Citizen, Elite Dangerous, and other games.



I try to be as active as I can but at some point, others see fit to start questioning my posting frequency and my life priorities

As for making articles, I propably could write a few, but as with BMS being my sim-of-choice, anything I come up with would be nothing new and would've been covered and covered better by other simmers who are even more into the sim and aircraft than I am. If I were to write an article anyway and post it here, it would get less traffic and interaction than it would if I had posted it on the official BMS forums. Simply put, we don't have enough people and those who do read the articles and post replies or interact are the same people. We need new blood, not just as a forum but the simulation genre as a whole.

Bingo. I can't say anything about lurkers but as far as frequent or at least semi-frequent posters go, we've had essentially the same group of people for several months now.

If you can convince high school and college age people to get interested in flight sims and to discuss them on forums like SimHQ then you should get the Elon Musk award for perseverance and intelligence!

So true.
I think we/genre need something like FC3 created by someone serious rather than ED.

I started flying monochrome pixels such as F-19 and been through a looong walk into super detailed arrangements such as DCS A-10C and Falcon 4.
I cannot imagine what it would be like to come in new through the door today and face that steep learning curve and still find things "fun".

With all my Swedish language I blame the over-detailed sims of today and hope for gameplay oriented stuff in future titles where mastering the avionics and what-not hardly being half the job.

The adventure using the aircraft as a tool and coming back to base eager to go tell someone else what just happened.
That would pour posts with AAR and maybe questions how to survive better or get better hits on target etc. - well, at least I think so but I've been wrong before and by God it will happen again


Edit: hahaha oh yeah PanzerMeyer, looking forward to see that award

I was thinking just yesterday evening, "These guys are hosting a buttload of my pics, time to revisit the kitty." <pulled out CC>

I keep forgetting about the Amazon link as well.

++++++++++

I'm currently in transition, from focusing on my health and marriage (10 years should be enough time, right? ) to getting serious with my hobby again, retro PC gaming (DOS and early Windows). My recent road trip to NYC, even OK/MO before that, has helped snap me out of a mid-life funk, too much reminiscing and thinking of what could have been if I'd made better decisions, regretting lost opportunities, mourning my youth and early adulthood (with some exceptions). Now that I have so many great *recent* memories saturating my brain, I'm not dwelling on the past anymore. I think I've finally left the 80's (except music, movies and the '88 Fiero GT).

It's having balance (hobby/virtual life vs. real life) that worries me, something I've never been good at. I get gung-ho one-track minded with one and neglect the other. But what I have gotten really good at is communication and teamwork (at home), so I think I might be able to pull this off, being passionate and successful at both. That's what I'm hoping for, anyway.

I've started playing PC games again just this week, after a long hiatus. Enough time has passed that even my really old games don't seem so dated to me anymore. I definitely haven't lost the enjoyment of immersing myself in a classic game, including flight sims.

++++++++++

I like the idea of posting an AAR, would this include classic flight sims as well?

Always enjoy your posts Oden, and there might be something to this. But I might argue that is exactly what a forum like SimHQ should be for.

But if I look at it objectively, and try to see it from the viewpoint of a new player/potential member, then I have to conclude that SimHQ doesn't appear to be the most noob-friendly place.

If I were a new player and new to this site, how comfortable would I be posting noob questions? In a thread like this some time ago I suggested that everyone take the time to send a friendly welcome to a new member. It's easy to see who they are, and personally I make it a point to welcome new guys to the site. If a guy shows up here and is brave enough to post, the last thing we should do is rip him apart. A friendly welcome makes him feel accepted, and part of the community. I was a noob once too.

20 years ago I joined my first sim site. It was Csim. Ever since then I have operated on the rule that I won't post anything that I wouldn't be willing to say to a guy sitting right across the table from me. I've never flamed anyone, and I was a mod at Frugs! So that should say something right there. I often think about the two guys having a flaming argument on a site like this. I shake my head, because imagine these two didn't know each other and happened to be seated at the same table at their cousin's wedding or whatever. One of them makes an off-hand comment about DCS, or F4 or any sim really. The other guy immediately perks up and exclaims "I play that too!"

They would be fast friends and would discuss sims for the rest of the reception, and probably hook up online later. It wouldn't be antagonistic like so much is today, even if, or especially if, they didn't agree. Why does it need to be this way? We are all in to the same things. But put everyone behind the safety of their monitor and they turn in to a bunch of assholes and idiots. I just chalk it up to the fact that people suck. It could be so much better, so much more of a sense of community.

A general vibe in this thread is that "well, it's just the way it is", a " you can't fight city hall" sort of resignation. I say, it doesn't need to be this way, we have plenty of folks here to revive this site now. But so many just have no enthusiasm for it any longer. And that may be the real problem.

Good points DBond, good points as always.
This thread really shows SimHQ isn't dead, far from
(a little sleepy maybe but, yeah)