The majority of video games ultimately have a natural lifecycle. Gamers play for a couple of months, perhaps a year, and then abandon the game for something new and shiny. Simulation games are different though. Train sims from the 1990s still have sizeable communities. Flight sims that were released decades ago are still receiving updates and community-created add-ons that keep the games fresh.
The longevity is not an accident. Complex simulation games require something that most other gaming genres don’t, communities that are willing to dedicate massive amounts of time educating, troubleshooting, and constantly optimizing the experience for everyone.
The Continual Learning
Enter any sim gaming forum and the difference from typical gaming forums is immediately clear. Instead of the customary arguments on who is the best player or who has the best equipment, the discussions are focused on technical issues, accuracy to the real-world, and who is learning.
Flight simulation communities are perhaps the best example. New players enter forums with elementary questions on how to turn the engine on or how to read a specific instrument on the instrument panel. Instead of making fun of or outright ignoring the beginner, the conversation continues on and the experienced member provides a thorough explanation, along with tutorial links, and an offer for additional training if needed. In fact, many members seem genuinely excited to share their knowledge of aviation with beginners rather than locking information behind a limited availability.
This teaching ideal doesn’t just stop with the basic answers to gameplay questions. Flight players often discuss, share, and employ aircraft checklists, interpret weather and wind patterns, and use their navigation systems in ways that are unchanged from their new-pilot training opportunities. Eventually, communities become informal training institutions where players hone skills that are sometimes indistinguishable from programs set in a traditional professional training facility.
The vast knowledge sharing makes for a fascinating outcome: players who may have exited other challenging games early still play or engage, for they are getting the assistance they need to manage the learning curve. Most simulation communities have platforms specifically designed for the consistent exchange of knowledge, with dedicated sites such as FlightSimZone serving as forums where interested parties converge to discuss any and all things from basic instructionals to advanced skills.
Problem-Solving as a Group
Simulation games often break in ways that non-simulation games don’t. For example, a new driver for the graphics to one of your instruments might make the instrument display not work properly. Or perhaps, an OS update rendered the radio communications inoperable. Even a computer hardware configuration that worked fine for months now has strange issues.
For most gaming communities, these technical issues would stop game play completely. Many players would just uninstall the game and play something different. In contrast, simulation enthusiasts engage in a different culture set around problem-solving. Rather than simply posting something is broken and hoping you or someone else comes up with a solution, simulation enthusiasts will post that it is broken, request a solution, and collectively troubleshoot the issue while at the same time sharing solutions and workarounds that everyone can benefit from.
Collectively problem-solving creates a culture that engages other members. When a simulation technical problem is posted on the forum, for example, you will find community members posting some information toward a solution, but they will also go one step further, and explain why the problem exists and how to avoid the issue in the future. The culture of knowledge and learning turns an incredibly frustrating technical issue into an opportunity for knowledge-sharing and learning that strengthens the online community.
Long-term Projects and Collective Goals
Many simulation communities share projects that last a year or longer, or even are years long. For example, in flight simulation communities, groups are recreating airports in such detail that it takes months of research, 3D modeling, and testing. Rail simulation enthusiasts create immense plumbing networks with historically accurate signalling and schedules.
The projects take a sustained effort from dozens or hundreds of people, with someone researching historical documents, a second creating 3D models, a third programming, and, lastly, as group tests it all, to ensure all is as it should be. The scale and timeframes would be impossible without communities strong enough to endure over long periods.
The project-based nature of simulation communities creates something that most gaming communities lack, shared ownership over improvements and enhancements. So, in the example of a community creating and releasing a new airport, or train route, everyone feels a sense of pride from the experience. All these groups become a togetherness, which not only creates community bonds, but reinforces the motivation to keep getting involved.
Teaching real skills in a virtual environment
Simulation communities also serve an educational purpose that sits outside of gaming. It is not uncommon to see flight simulation enthusiasts become real pilots, often claiming the virtual environment has prepared them for their real flying experiences. In our train simulation example, the train simulation enthusiast is able to develop very extensive knowledge of railways and signalling systems.
This application outside of gaming often brings people into the experiences who wouldn’t otherwise define themselves as gaming participants at all. Engineers, pilots, mechanics and other professionals will frequent simulation communities as a chance to explore aspects of their world in a risk-free environment. They all help build conversations, and credibility to the occurrence as they share their expertise with others who are professionally invested in the same learning.
Hobbyists and professionals create rich learning environments too. Casual players benefit in depth from professionals simply talking in all their enthusiasm, and, professionals appreciate sharing with everyone being thoroughly engaged. This interplay of learning collectively keeps the communities intellectually stimulating and prevents the stagnation you might find in many other other gaming communities.
Community controls quality
Surprisingly, simulated game communities hold very high standards for realism and accuracy. Community members with real-world expertise will respond to everything from the behaviour of the instrument to effects of the environmental with constructive feedback. A layer of peer review elevates community-created content to established norms for highly professional, or even scientific, accuracy.
People who gravitate to accuracy make up a solid base with other players who may find existing gaming communities too casual or unrealistic. These finicky community members will create a gatekeeper level of quality that defines this culture in the sense of simulation gaming.
An economic model of longevity
In most gaming genres, game developers generate all content. The simulation genre keeps growing because games develop community-generated addons that lead seamlessly into new add-ons. It also offers example of consistent improvement long after traditional developer-led methods have ceased.
Most community developers start as hobbyists, but ultimately hone their skills to sell their quality addons professionally. An economic model emerges whereby an individual succeeds in either supporting their community as a hobbyist or making a honest living with their skills creating quality content.
Now, because high-education valued skills exist in most communities, the economic potential creates an incentive to engage in a sustained manner. The cost of software, hardware, and time are often an investment in learning complex development tools, simply because they may be able to develop a site where they may re-coup their time invested in getting better, and the community gets smarter content.
The continued mixed arrangement defined by communities sustained by complex simulation games creates something highly unique in video games. An experience in video games gets better over time as opposed to usually declining over time. Most games fade, almost into irrelevance, but frequently supported confident simulation community lasting decades past their original release is united through a cult-like obsession of passionate people dedicated to experience their nostalgic worlds.
