Finding the Positive impact of MSFS During a Pandemic

I would love to hear from people who may live alone and or into the SIM.
I myself would have had work to go into but now am 100% of the time alone at home, and MSFS has been a good addition to my life tools for keeping a good mindset.
I would love to hear other people’s experiences in maybe that it has helped them in terms of the community and friends that it helped you bound with new community groups.

I myself belong to a multi-player hub and we meet on the weekends for flights usually 30 or so people and the fun in those two flights is great it may be only an hour but it helps that disconnection from work.

I am sure I am not the only one with the story of how MSFS has helped them gain new friendships and fun times.

If you are just going to moan about MSFS their is other threads on the forum that will listen to you.

Northern Ireland here would love to get an idea of the demographics of MSFS reach

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Even before pandemic I’ve always been living alone. I play a lot of single player games and FSX was my last flight sim growing up.

To be honest, i don’t feel any significant impact from MSFS for me during the pandemic. Whether there is a pandemic or not, my life would be majorly the same. Living alone with 95% of my private time spending at home. The only difference during the pandemic is that I get to work from home, which means i save a lot of money on transportation, I don’t need to wake up as early or even waste time travelling to and from work. I get to enjoy a lot more of my time being at home. Apart from the tragic loss of life this pandemic has brought upon everyone all around the world. I’m actually enjoying this extra reason to just stay at home.

So I treat MSFS to be the flight Sim that I’m ready to fly again since FSX in 2006. Back to being a virtual pilot. I play with everything online though. But that’s just for having other planes in my flight session, thats all.

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Well… actually you have a good point.
I’m convinced that the current pandemic damaged a lot of peoples social and work life.
Many people lost their jobs, others work from home and are facing much less commuting time and as a result of that plenty of ‘free’ time at home.
I’m glad that MS/ASOBO gave us FS2020. It’s a great way to put down the negative thoughts/ effects regarding Covid-19 for at least a few hours/day.
I’m living alone for several years now and lack the 'face to face ’ interaction with family and friends on a reguarly basis but it’s 2021 now.
Facetime, zoom, whatsapp, you name it and it’s in your hands.
And of course there’s FS2020.
Multiplay and Discord voice are a relieve to me in the evenings.

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And all the money I’m saving not socialising is going towards upgrading my system.

Seriously though, lockdown has given me a lot of extra hours I can spend simming, tweaking learning and chatting on forums.

And as a bonus, I’ve learned how to cryptomine with my rtx 3070 when I’m not simming.

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Hi Neo

Thanks for all your outstanding contributions on the forum very helpful indeed. so much so that my wife and I would have no hesitation on boarding a A320 where you were the co-pilot.

Hows the crypto mining work, and does it pay off compared to the electricity used on a PC with 800 watt power supply?

I think the sense of adventure and ability to use it as a window to fly out into the World and explore is a nice antidote to being inside way too much.

Usually, the first thing I would do with a new flight sim is to fly around the areas where I live or am familiar with. This time around, I’m not interested in that at all… I’m desperate NOT to look at the familiar areas, and explore all over the World.

The good thing is that the sim was and still is quite a let-down in too many ways (in many ways not, yeah, we all know that) which I’m sort of glad about now. Because if it wasn’t I’d be sitting at my computer even more. Autumn and winter will be over soon, so thanks from the bottom of my eyes. We’ve made it through.

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Living in a big city in winter under lockdown - it offers a means of escape for me. Flying in stunning beautiful sunny landscapes help lifts the gloom.

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Yes it`s great when in works lol…most time I spent fixing issues or trying to find fixes for stutters or better performance in VR. There has been very little in terms of updates recently and the delays on the UK update really frustrates. Other that that great potential indeed but like with most hobbies in general… money talks. To actually get a good enough experience you need very deep pockets and as has been mentioned above most of us are out of work. So I have more time to look at things which I should not buy or cannot afford to buy ! :slight_smile:

I have a 650 watt psu that is using about 200 watts with my RTX3070 power turned down to 60% and mem clock at 1200. I’ve mined £100 in 3 weeks with a power cost of around £15 according to my smart meter. I will borrow a plug adapter power monitor after lockdown to get a more accurate consumption figure.

Sorry - that was meant to be a reply for Vonzeigler

Novatroop - I’m in Bristol but I know NI very well having visited on business (and moments of pleasure) on many occasions. There are lots of NI freeware addons at the moment which are very good indeed over at flightsim.to

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Obv didnt read my response to complainers lol

MSFS 2020 has had a huge positive impact on me but it would have done the same regardless of the pandemic. MSFS has brought me back to flight-simming again, for the umpteenth number of the time. I’ve left and re-entered the flight sim scenery many times in the past, and this time is the only time when I don’t feel like leaving it. Prior to MSFS, I already had left P3D and XP even after spending a large amount of money on both, buying all the study-level aircraft and scenery and what not, and the only thing left for me was DCS, and that too was dying for me slowly.

Nowadays the only sim I use is MSFS, but study level aircraft and avionics need to be available for it soon. Meanwhile I’m very happy with modification software for some of the existing default aircraft and avionics such as Pimarc, FBW and WT (although more work needs to be done). These are nearly study-level or approaching study level quality soon, depending on how you look at 'em.

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totally agree with you except I have never been interested in simming before untll now

I underline what you have said in respect of study level aircraft its imperative Microsoft and or Asobo provide the channel for these to be introduced and encouraged

Its self evident to me that the default aircraft will not be study level for the Xbox due to time therefore everything should be done to encourage 3rd party developers to bring their aircraft to MSFS

its just staggeringly beautiful especially when you see the ‘The Plough’ star constellation

dafault A320 on its way to Cape Town (South Africa)

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No, sorry…I like to pick up only the good bits :slight_smile:

This isn’t because I live alone, but my 13-year-old and I built a PC together to play this game and for him to run Rift games on his Oculus Quest, so we’d have something fun to do while on lockdown. We have different interests in general so it’s been nice to have a new way to relate to him.

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I am home as well, but not just from Covid.
I am recently retired, and find myself drawn even more to MSFS now that I have the time, and am finding I am learning so much from these forums.
I am fortunate though, in my area of the world (Atlantic Canada) we have been very lucky indeed to have kept Covid numbers quite low, so it really doesn’t affect us too much.
Wear a mask, practice social distancing, big assemblies of people are not allowed, but that’s about it.

So mine is “by choice” and in the words of the imitable Maxwell Smart, “annnd loving it”

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While I am part of a two person household, I agree that the arrival of FS2020 in August materially improved day to day life during the long slog through the pandemic. Perhaps the most frustrating thing about these months, outside of not being able to see my children and grandchildren, has been the travel restrictions. As a fairly recent retiree, much of my energy had been devoted to planning and experiencing the world outside of the United States, especially Europe. One wee bit of compensation has been to learn the VATSIM system (something of which I was unaware during years of messing around with FSX). While being on VATSIM can be quite nerve wracking for a newbie like me, it is great fun to be able to communicate with virtual flight controllers all over the world and even get to use my somewhat halting Italian, German and French. If you haven’t given VATSIM or IVAO a try, you should.

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I live in a cabin high in the mountains at 6,750 feet (2057.4 meters) and have 1 roommate, squirrels, racoons, and an occasional bear for company

Have fast Internet so I’m not lonely at all

I personally have not been on MSFS 2020 on the multiuser mode. Love the Sim and have been simming (Is that the word?) since the first Release on PC

But I’m sure my MSFS 2020 isolation will change when my son gets his Xbox Series X and then MSFS 2020 gets released on the Xbox

I’m a fan of MMO Games (Massively Multiplayer Online) and Microsoft has done some really great things with Windows 10, one of which is the built in Xbox Game Bar which let’s me and my son (Me on my PC and my son on his Xbox) play online together in the same sim

Just sayin’ … MSFS is going to get bigger & better

I’ll have to find a grooup of MSFS “Simmers” to fly with and try group flying

Am I a MSFS addict? Well, I guess. Bought a Fancy-Schmancy Thrustmaster T-16000 FCS and bought an Italian Fighter (M-336) to add to my hanger… plus $600 in upgrades to my PC

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@EvidencePlz

Was that you I saw popping up in the chat during the latest Official MSFS Live Developer Q&A?