Mike Gilbert - Demonstration of Flight Simulator 2004

Wow, I watched the first segment, hit refresh, and the second one popped up. Sweet!

I enjoyed this video a lot. The flight sim team definitely occupies an interesting place at Microsoft. I mean, they obviously don't really fit in with the people writing MS's business or development apps, but then again, they aren't really "game" developers either.

The constant incremental upgrades, and the fact that most of their work goes into including the tiniest of details, makes Flight Simulator more like an Office product than a video game. At the same time, they get to work with a huge variety of talent and face a very interesting set of challenges.

One other thing. When I watch the Channel 9 videos, I seem to be constantly thinking of questions I wish would be asked but never are. Is there any way to suggest questions for upcoming interviews?
Like with this video, I really wanted to ask if any of these people would trust themselves to a pilot who's only experience with a specific plane was in the simulator. I mean, theoretically, a person can actually teach themselves how to fly on this product. I've always thought it would be cool to play it for a while, just to get myself to the point where I think I could really fly in an emergency (don't ask me how that would happen).

It also would have been interesting to get someone's take on WHY they think it's fun to play the game. I just don't really like simulators because they can be so tedious, but it would be cool to hear someone from the team make an argument for why they love to fly.

Thanks man, I appreciate it!

I've actually had a chance to try out a couple of Northwest's full-motion flight simulators, and they are awesome. It's strange, because when they engage motion, you get the exact same feeling you get when you take off in a real plane. And while the graphics are definitely not as detailed as MS's, they have 3d projection systems that give a very convincing feeling of depth. To the point that, when flying at night, it is nearly impossible to convince your brain that you're not looking through a window of some kind. Of course, that didn't help my landing any:)

My point is that I know those simulators are good. But flying a plane after having only flown MS's flight simulator, that would be an interesting challenge.