These labels are meaningless IMHO. Some users of MSFS are casual gamers, yes, who got it on Game Pass because they could and played for a bit, and probably moved on. Nothing at all wrong with that. Those who stay beyond that and invest their time in the sim, however they do it, are simmers, end of story. You sim, therefore you are a simmer.
I have a friend who wasn’t particularly into simming or aviation before, but had seen my setup and was at least a bit curious, got himself the Xbox Series X and MSFS, and now he’s more ‘on it’ than I am. His bag is VFR flying lots of different aircraft to see what there is to see in the world, not procedural correctness, but he’s absolutely serious about it. We fly together and I have as much fun doing that as I do flying a 3-hour IFR sector with all the checklists.
I don’t think cockpit builders (like me) are what qualify as ‘serious simmers’, either. I think we qualify as mildly insane. I’m fine with that 
I think you’ll find that real pilots exist outside the USA.
There are exceptions like those that use msfs to prepare for actual flight but I’m guessing most of us on here are male, aged between 30 and 50 and have no actual flying experience. What we are doing, and I include myself in this, is playing. We are doing something for enjoyment, for fun or maybe to re-enact a childhood dream. It’s just a game, a toy, albeit more expensive than when I was a child.
Those calling themselves a serious simmer are just trying convince themselves that they have grown out of the playing stage. But it’s just a lie. It doesn’t matter what you use or how much you’ve spent, we’re all just big kids at heart.
I saw a youtube vid a few years back of some dude take off and land a 172 having only ever flown one in FSX before (as a bet). He had a CFI sitting next to him -of course- who was very eager to take the controls as soon as the wheels touched!
■■■■, I loved that game. The damage effects were awesome - you would be limping home shot to pieces, struggling to stay in the air. Who cared that the graphics were awful? The gameplay was immense.
Well, I thought I would save reading this thread until there a good number of posts. Thank you for all the serious and not so serious contributions, the memes, the awesome home-cockpits and most of all the fact that so many of us responding reject the idea of exclusion. There is only one rule: have fun. And if you’re not having fun, whatcha ya doing??
Here is a serious simmer…
Wow that is awesome. Must be a natural then. I could be biased in that I’m pulling too much from my own experience, but having spoken to other pilots and my instructors and other people at my club, I still stand by my opinion that the average simmer couldn’t.
Thanks for your input and nice words in your other posts!
A serious simmer only flies by the stars. If you don’t navigate using a sextant and a stopwatch, stay in your lane, casual.
I think they keep pretending this to become something hyper-elitist: “every so-called flight simulator is just a stupid game that has nothing to do with reality, because a REAL PLANE is so complex and difficult that only some rare elitists with superhuman powers can manage to control such a big flying machine.”
(I hear people say the same stupid stories about driving Ferraris or Lamborghinis and other sports cars, “you must be a certified racing driver like Michael Schuhmacher because a NORMAL CASUAL HUMAN could not even accelerate and drive one meter without crashing or without helpless spinning and rotating in circles and painting rubber donuts onto the street because of the tremendous power such a hypercar has on the rear axle, and even if they could drive they were in no way able to control and steer such a car for long blah blah blah…”)
Elitists want to feel elite by constantly telling everyone that a normal human being could NEVER control their expensive toys.
That a normal human being could never fly such a Cessna without being born a talented pilot, and a normal human being “could NEVER drive this Tesla Roadster or a Ferrari without having been a podium racing driver for ten years!”
An Elitist would never admit that flying some Cessna 152 or similar high-wing planes are often so easy and such a stable forgiving planes that everyone could sit in and fly it after having had some flight physics theory and a little bit of hints and tips support of an instructor.
(Not navigating, not knowing the correct ATC radio procedures not having knowledge about Jeppesen SID STARS VOR etc. - this is high complex stuff to learn. I talk about just taking-off flying and landing it. )
Serious simmer never play again after a crash. Except ctd
But crashes can be survived. And real simmer could pretend he had a parachute on the copilot´s seat - no need to fake death and lie into some ravine or forest pretending lying next to an airplane wreck.
Wondering how much time lying there would be the most realistic death-experience with an imaginary beeping ELT until standing up and going home again is not necessary thanks to imaginary parachutes 
It’s just before the pot starts to boil.
But surely a serious simmer would at least get their wife to smash them in the leg with 4lb lump hammer?
The definition of what counts as a “serious” or “casual” simmer is nonsense! It’s nonsense because all of us play Flight Simulator differently on different hardware on different settings. There are no rights or wrongs in playing styles. Definitions of what count has X causes massive problems in gaming communities (i.e girls who receive constant abuse in multiplayer from boys) and forces people who love to play to either a) leave the game completely because of abuse or harassment received from people who despicably and stupidly believe they can control who plays the game or b) believe they are not good enough in the game and never participate in events because they have lose confidence.
That’s why definitions of simmers have to stop, full stop completely. Everyone has paid whether game pass or version to play the game and it’s only right they be treated with respect. Everyone is welcome to Flight Simulator.
Those on here that fly/flew in real life are pilots, all the rest (me included) are just pretenders 
I totally agree with you.
After all, it’s a (good!) piece of software and hopefully programmed to have fun with.
I learned from cycling that different people want and get different things from the same activity.
Some want to trick out in cycling gear and re-create the Tour De France, others just want to poke along and look at the scenery.
It’s all good.
I generally agree with your main point. Sounds like you may had some bad experiences? Cheers.
