Not wanting to start any form of heated argument here but for the last few weeks I have sat back and read as many comments on here as I can. Some are very helpful, some positive, some negative, some trolling, some genuine questions looking for help.
Mod edit: Vote in the poll here
Well looking at the responses it got me to thinking… What is the age of the members on this forum. Only reason I am wondering is because some of the posts I am seeing on here are definitely juvenile…
For me ? 59…I have been on Flight Sim since FS98. have been a mod/admin for a few FS sites… IRL… 6000 hrs total with 5000 in command. but unfortunately stopped flying many years ago due to health reasons.
Anyway… I love this sim and having an absolutely fun time with it.
8 Likes
I am quite certain the median age of flight sim genre players skews much higher than the median age of PC gamers in general.
You’d like to think that means there would be more maturity, but unfortunately flight simmers also seem to tend toward the “cranky old man” stereotype. The toxic negativity here, especially in the past couple days, ranks among the worst of any game community across the gamut of genres I’ve seen.
For the record, I turn 34 next month.
4 Likes
I suspect age has very little to do with juvenile behaviour. 
I’m in my 50’s (and I’m adoring the Xbox version). 
7 Likes
Tend to agree with you there… I guess even some of us “mature” people tend to troll 
I am 30, but man I feel age is not related to the juvenile and aggressive behaviour we are seeing in the forums since the patch, sometimes older people complain like a 12 year old child.
7 Likes
38 (but luckily I look like twenty-something.)
Sometimes emotions of hardcore-simmers are cooking over a little bit when their most important and beloved hobby is endangered.
I have to admit that I sometimes overreacted too when suddenly all these long forgotten nightmare from the past from the late nineties begun: All these yelping and the insane witch-hunts against videogamers including endless cries for censorship of games and this agenda “make all games casual, dumb, and kiddy-conform”, and declaring all people who enjoy ADULT games like The Witcher 3 or an good and gory Resident Evil 2 survival horror session on a rainy saturday suddenly getting declared as “psychopaths” and “potential amok shooters” like I got sucked into some timewarping wormhole back in the horrible era at the end of the nineties.
Where EVERYONE who owned a PC and a PlayStation 1 and enjoyed some Silent Hill 1 or Metal Gear gaming evenings was declared a “psychopath” and “potential school-shooter” and “maniac basement-dweller living in mommys basement while building bombs” and whatnot.
But this is a whole different topic now, but yes I can understand when someone has a hobby of utmost importance and passion and suddenly get`s threatened getting taking that away.
Many people thought that the end of the new Flight Sim 2020 has now come because of the XBox and that the Flightsim will be probably be downgraded to Flight Simulator X graphics and whatnot…
Half of the people even said that “now they will give up flight simming forever” and “they are done now” - that was kinda strange because I have not noticed a difference in graphics. (But on my machine any streaming like photogrammetry and satellite imagery don´t work because of my internet connection maybe that´s why I never noticed any difference in graphics quality.)
I can understand the fear about this and also the frustration because of this, but some topics were really hyper-aggressive and foaming with frustration with pure hate against the programmers and development teams (but people should not be threatened or attacked.)
Wow I rarely have seen a more intense sh*tstorm like the XBox release of the flightsim that was intense and almost frightening…
I on the other hand was always calm and firm as a rock - because:
We have PCs and we mod and script, texturize and program our own mods, and we make our own LOD-draw-distances and ultra-deluxe-graphics configs in config scripts, and our own shaders with ReShade programms and much more.
I have never truly seen a problem because whenever the graphics get´s downgraded I modify the config settings to upgrade it again
3 Likes
Thanks for ‘legitimizing’ the poll.
I think the responses are very surprising but I do wish you had kept it hidden for a couple of days. Otherwise, the voting may get swayed.
76 years young and started with flight sim in 1984 on a Commodore 64!
11 Likes
Hi there, 61 years old here,
1 Like
I think most will ne honest with their age, i see no reason to lie when it’s anonymous.
1 Like
Exactly. I once had a older and wiser guy tell me “your only young once but you can be immature any time”
3 Likes
I’m not surprised in the slighted.
The average console gamer is 28-35 and I suspect this sim edges a little higher.
72 years and thoroughly enjoying playing MSFS 2020. Started the love affair with FSX!
the earth has completed 22,843.75 full rotations on its axis since I was commissioned
62.425 solar orbital rotations
MSFS is a valid distraction from the maelstrom - the forum a little less so
I’m 42. I remember when SATCO was around 
1 Like
Well, I just completed my 94th trip around the Sun. I’ve been associated with computers since before there were PCs. They are what they are, never will be ‘perfect’. There is no such thing. Most things are evolving. Those that couldn’t are gone. MSFS is a game, a very advanced game, all things considered, but still a game. If there are serious deficiencies, I haven’t noticed. I play with what I have, it’s better than I ever had. I remember ‘Submarine’, where you played with an overlay over the keyboard and a 30 day Patrol could take you 30 days if you were good at evading. This is as good as it gets, kids.
9 Likes
57 and just retired. Simming since the Sublogic days, but also flying any sort of sim on C64, Amiga and PCs back in the day. I have been involved in Military aviation for just over 33 years as an Aircraft Technician Working on AP3C Orions, F18 Classics and P8 Poseidons and have deployed all around the world with them to keep them flying. Also was a AP3C sim operator when I was an instructor a few years back and used every excuse under the sun to go for a “fly” when ever the opportunity arose 
.
2 Likes
