Sure, people wanted more structured activities but that didn’t mean they all wanted a gamified grind mode career game module. Asobo also got some great feedback on the nascent career mode from early reviewers, in particular about making it more flexible, but that was ignored.
eg:
Granted, it was late in the development cycle to onboard some of that advice (which should have been done at game concept design stage), but the issue here is that it was brushed off as inconsequential to the “realism of career mode” which has turned out to be anything but realistic, and still a grind to boot. Also, post launch up to now the feedback has been proven to be accurate and should have been onboarded. Doesn’t seem to be any sign of that happening still, unfortunately.
Games should accommodate different user play styles and time constraints, especially single player games, not dictate to the user how they should play. While there are some shortcuts in the current career mode they are not well implemented, and are also often bugged which just makes it even more a frustrating unfun experience. Simulations in particular should be extra flexible in order to accommodate learning through experimentation. That’s literally the superpower of simulation based learning.
What happened to the user creatable mission system we’ve been waiting on for years? Dead silence on that, still. I’d maintain that if this UGC mission mode had been properly designed and implemented with support for mission sharing it would be much more popular than a career mode anyway. It could even be integrated into a career mode as well. Missed opportunity.
What happened to the bush trips? Poof, disappeared and only now getting some recognition but not slated to return until next year.
We’re also still waiting on the racing modules, which were both promoted as being available at launch. Well, given how badly the Reno module turned out perhaps that’s not a bad thing, but I hope they’re working on fixing all the feedback from that saga, of which there was a lot.
Kudos for the challenge league mode and solo challenge activities though, that works well - apart from some issues with the landing challenge targets.
I can see many people getting real value and engagement from the variety of activities mentioned above, which should have been available from launch. Career mode is not a substitute for them, even if it was a well designed flexible mode.
Fortunately Free Flight works great (usual caveats) and I’m capable of making my own fun so none of the above are deal breakers. MSFS 2024 (SU3 1.5.3.0) is the best version of the sim ever for me even despite the current issues, and I’ve used it on and off literally since V1 way back when. I have no rose colored glasses previous versions issues, it’s onwards and upwards all the way, even if the engines backfire and there’s a funny smell in the cabin.