“You don’t have to play it” is what is said again and again here in the forum when a critical post is made about the new career mode of FS 24. This hasty answer forgets that every FS 24 buyer had to pay for this new „money game module“, regardless of whether he wants to play it or not. They had no choice at all as to whether they liked this new, central game element of FS 24 or whether they wanted to use it at all.
Everyone (including me) had naturally expected and trusted that MS / Asobo would provide a really new flight simulation with improved key functions compared to MSFS 2020. Everyone bought it with this trust without really knowing what they would get. Everyone should remember what was written in the advance announcements for MSF 2024 by Microsoft:
This brand-new simulator is designed to take advantage of the latest technologies in simulation, cloud, machine learning, graphics and gaming to create the most sophisticated, immersive and awe-inspiring flight simulator of all time. To achieve this unprecedented level of accuracy, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is powered by the significantly evolved Asobo Studio engine.
This announcement didn‘t say anything specific about the fact that making money will be a central game element in FS 24. So I was excited when I read this promising MS announcement and took advantage of the pre-sales offer.
Everyone could trust in good faith that they would get something really new and unique. What you‘ve got is now terrifying clear. A cloud version of FS 20 with all the glaring disadvantages that this streaming model has inherently. A new UI for the controller settings that overwhelmed and frustrated me. And a career mode, which takes up a lot of attention and central importance in FS 24 (the icon in the main menu page for selecting the career mode is twice as big as the icon for free flight, which says it all).
The career mode. For the first time in the 40-year history of MSFS, it’s not just about flying. It’s about earning money in your own flight company or as an employee in that company. In any case, money is the main focus, initially as an imaginary CR currency. The saying goes: “When it comes to money, the fun stops.” That’s right, every FS 24 pilot who starts his own company experiences that. First he has to take certification exams, PPL, CPL, IFR rating, etc. These exams are ridiculous to put it mildly, you can’t mess them up. You have to make an effort not to hear after the exam: “Excellent flight, you passed.” But after the proud pilot has been fed with this praise, the serious business of life begins. The freshly baked pilots starts his own aviation company as a manager. Then reality comes in, the fun has gone. I will spare the reader the countless examples that show what the everyday life of this manager looks like. Insurance, repairs, etc. force him to chase after money. He has to fly, no longer for fun, but for money, for the business. The great suffering begins when the poor but honest pilot and manager experiences incomprehensible punishments during a mission that drastically reduce his income. For example, if he briefly strays from the taxiway while taxiing, or flies over an airfield without clearance that is not actually required. The list of oddities reported here is long.
The ranking. A particularly subtle psychological element of the game, in my opinion. Each of us wants personal achievements to be recognized and honored. And how great is the personal frustration when the ranking slips from A to C, often because of a small piloting error and even more often for no comprehensible reason at all. The humiliated pilot then quickly forgets that it is only a game and the psychological trap snaps shut.
I would have expected the career mode to be an optional module that you can buy separately. You can then buy the pure flight simulation (as “free flight” is) with all the “improvements” advertised by MS before. Speaking of “improvements” brings us back to the statement made at the beginning: “You don’t have to play it”. My second answer is: “What is left of the new FS 24 then?” What of the improvements promised to us is actually visible and noticeable? I claim that Asobo has focused its resources particularly on the development of the career mode and therefore had to neglect all other developments. This explains why, in my view, there is hardly any progress and improvements in the core of FS 24, but many steps backwards compared to FS 20. These structural steps backwards cannot be corrected by updates. So I’ll stick with good old FS 20.
What is the outlook for the next version, maybe MSFS 2028? I don’t want to be pessimistic, but I have a fear. If you think about the concept of career mode from the perspective of a company that wants to make money with games, the next logical development step of this game module would be the use of real money. $ for CR! You simply buy your favorite planes and the business success of your airline with real cash, your pocket money. It wouldn’t be the first game with this model. Or there might be a “monthly subscription model” or both. Then MSFS would be over for me, game over.