
Realistic 'Flight Simulator' Puts Players in Economy Class - rbanffy
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/ev7dqj/flight-simulator-game-pc
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xref
DLC Ideas:

    
    
      - Three hour wait in runway queue, rand() for seatbelt sign on/off
      - Delay for de-icing, fail to take off within 20 minutes, delay for de-icing, fail to take off within 20 minutes...
      - Watch from window as your luggage is loaded onto wrong plane
      - Spill beverage on aisle seat while passing over to window seat

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drivingmenuts
\- Passenger next to you spills over into your space

\- Passenger in front of you reclines seat

\- Player is taller than average or inconveniently sized

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maym86
\- All passengers near you are young children.

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madaxe_again
This goes well with the “air steward breakdown” DLC, I gather, and together
provide a fulfilling and cathartic experience in which the children who just
pushed over the drinks trolley get jettisoned at 45,000 feet.

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Animats
There's a small genre of boring games. The classic is "Desert Bus".[1] Penn
and Teller had this made mostly as a joke. Watch the intro. The game is 8
hours of driving a bus on a straight, empty road. The bus pulls to the right,
so you have to steer.

More recently, there's "Papers Please".[2] It's about carefully checking
paperwork, but there is a plot.

Someone with artistic pretensions should make up this "Flight Simulator" in a
coin-op case and get it into SFO's art collection. SFMOMA currently has a Oki
dot-matrix printer printing out RSS news feeds as an art piece. So why not?

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LtiHla1dNg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LtiHla1dNg)
[2]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTu0GniB2rc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTu0GniB2rc)

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dagw
I wouldn't put Papers Please in the same category since everything you do is
on a very tight time deadline and the whole thing gets really stressful in the
later levels. So it's not simply about carefully checking papers, it's about
carefully checking papers as quickly as you possibly can while under the
constant fear of screwing up, missing some tiny detail, being docked pay and
not having enough money to both feed your kids and buy medicin for your sick
mother.

Personally I love the game.

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fernly
Need the NPC in the next seat who wants to tell you about Jesus, or sleeps on
your shoulder. Also, the more times you play it, the smaller your bladder is,
and the more likely there will be a food cart in the aisle between you and the
toilet, which will be occupied.

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GW150914
I figured out the best way to shut up evangelists in those situations, it is
100% not rude, 100% effective. They start in with Jesus or Allah or Kraznor-
The-Many-Headed, and you... get techical. Don’t engage the subject matter of
whichever god they’re peddling, just use a flimsy rhetorical “oh that makes me
think of...” and whip out the dryest topic you can imagine. I like to start
with the differences between a scalar, vector, and tensor, then move on to the
differences between Newtonian, Einsteinian, and Quantum field theories. Make
_no_ accommodation for your audience’s level of interest and expertise.

Inevitably they become the ones who suddenly have to do something else, and
you get to read your book in peace. It can only backfire if they’re also
highly literate in the field you chose, but then at least you’ve changed the
conversation. One time a guy next to me on a bus tried to turn me on to
Jainism, I started talking physics, and it turned out he worked in non-linear
optics! We still stay in touch.

You cannot lose with this method.

~~~
zappo2938
I've had a 100% effective rate saying, "JC is a cool dude. However, I have not
been saved yet. When JC wants me to be saved I'm sure I'll be the first he
speaks to." For reasons I don't understand this works flawless every time. It
is almost as if Jesus wanted me to be saved he will let me know. Maybe they
all know to stay out of Jesus' business when he is working.

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smnrchrds
Reminds me of The Onion sketch : Ultra-Realistic Modern Warfare Game Features
Awaiting Orders, Repairing Trucks

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuTkgi7scKo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuTkgi7scKo)

~~~
zaarn
You can have that with ArmA or Squad (the later to a lesser extend).

At least in two ArmA games I've had to lie down in the dirt for an hour and
when it was time to move in, most of the enemies had been bombed out by air
support already (who also bombed out a few of our own squads because aiming
bombs is for losers). Of course once it's your turn for action it can get
quite hectic too.

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jcwayne
Reminds me of Desert Bus
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penn_%26_Teller%27s_Smoke_and_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penn_%26_Teller%27s_Smoke_and_Mirrors#Desert_Bus))

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RcouF1uZ4gsC
The truth is that airlines are just responding to what people value- they
value low price above everything. There is still business class for those that
value comfort more than low cost.

My guess is that the inflation adjusted price for business class today is
similar to the economy class price from before de-regulation.

~~~
refurb
Agreed. You can tell by the offering of bare bones tickets - ones you can’t
even bring a carryon that is too big to put under the seat.

People aren’t even willing to shell out another $20 for that.

~~~
craftyguy
I think the problem is that the base, cheapest ticket prices have been
generally _increasing_ while at the same time losing 'features' that now cost
an additional amount of money to have. It's not like airfare is decreasing
when they arbitrarily decide you must now pay for water.

~~~
refurb
Hmmm... I guess it depends on your timeframe, but I’m constantly amazed at how
much cheaper airfare has gotten over the last decade, when you account for
inflation.

Particularly if you look international. 10 years ago a US to Asia flight was
$1200-$1400 at the absolute cheapest. Now you can often find flights in the
$600-900 range, regularly.

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Simulacra
Flying is truly awful, no matter your size or shape. It's a cute demo and I
get that it might be trying to help folks relax who have flight anxiety.
However I think a lot of flying anxiety could be cured if airlines treated us,
you know, like humans instead of revenue generating cattle.

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xref
It's a utopian idea but study after study shows we'd rather be treated like
revenue generating cattle than humans if it means a cheaper flight.

Honestly the only way the cheapest seats are going to get any larger is if the
government regulates them to be larger, otherwise passengers will continue
buying the smallest seats for the cheapest they can because price is all they
care about.

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josho
Personally by the time that I get to paying for my seat I’m so frustrated by
the experience that I refuse to give them a single cent more.

Some of my frustrations include their unpredictable pricing changes. Pricing
flights with an extra stopover or two cheaper than a direct flight.
Advertising a price that isn’t actually available.

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PhasmaFelis
Clear cookies before purchasing a ticket. A lot of airlines will raise prices
the second time you look at a flight, to try to push you to buy before it
rises more.

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mstade
Can’t wait for the upcoming DLCs “Flight Simulator: Security Check” and
“Flight Simulator: Baggage Reclaim“ – now that’s realism!

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madaxe_again
Blue Gloves are an optional extra for more... extreme... gameplay.

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torgian
Apparantly the author hasn’t flown much if he thinks it’s a “harrowing
experience “.

I hate flying simply because it’s annoying. The only time I actually enjoyed
flying was when I was in the Navy.

I upgrade to business or first class as often as I can at this point. Economy
seats are literally painful to sit in. Fortunately I live in east Asia now,
where economy seats are cheap and I’ll ride them in short two hour flights.
And you still get treated really well, unlike in the States where economy
makes you treated like you’re a piece of shit staining the inside of an
aircraft.

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briandear
You must not have flown much on domestic Chinese or Indian airlines.

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SOLAR_FIELDS
Ah yes, domestic Indian airlines is a true adventure. Whatever visions you
have about the crowded Indian second class bus, take that and put it in a
place where you can’t escape for multiple hours. Stinky food, screaming kids,
arguing with the stewardess and all sorts of other hilariousness and hijinks
ensue

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devoply
Don't know about the details of the game, but what would be great is to have
all the harassment that's a normal part of air travel be a part of this
simulator.

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mvanvoorden
But does it include the option of joining the Mile High Club?

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gaius
It looks like this is on Icelandair for hard mode it would be on Wow.

