jbilton wrote:Hi
Well there will always be two schools....simulator and game.
Agree there is but need not be. Calling it a simulator simply makes some feel better about playing a computer game. BVE is nearer to being a simulator as you don't usually drive trains from the outside
As an aside, BVE sounds are the best I've heard.
jbilton wrote:I sometimes think that alot of grief would have been saved if the word simulator was dropped, and everyone just called it a game.
Hear, hear. Problem is that it would force people to admit they're 'playing' and it's 'fun'. Some require far more than that. They treat it very seriously and almost like a job. That throws up all sorts of irreconcilable logic and their frustration boils over, hence the personal stuff.
Any criticism is not simply of a game but of themselves. Add that to the above and you've got trouble, deep down and dirty, personal abuse born out of the conflicts created in the mind.
If we all said 'it's only a hobby' and relaxed knowing any good was a bonus and no one dies if anything bad appears, I'm convinced trainsimming would not only be more peaceful but more appealing.
That said, with model railways clubs it's accepted that 'it's only a hobby'. They still bicker and argue like old women as, I have to say and include myself in the description, it's a hobby which attracts .... how can I desribe us .... well .... let's say we're not brick-chewing hod carriers and not a little temperamental
Those with an artistic temperament or imagination are .... like actors and comedians. Spent an afternoon in a model railway shop with people arguing exactly which shade red a buffer beam should be! That said it all to me.
There are those that simply like making models, routes and activities and never play the game. Equally as temperamental
but it matters little to them whether it's a simulator or a game as they enjoy the creation side of it and if trainsiming didn't exist they'd probably be building planes or designing golf courses.
I honestly believe we'd save ourselves a great deal of trouble by actually taking an in depth look at the psychology behind the game and that which people want from it as opposed to having 20 mods with their fingers in a dyke.
A little psychological cement could do the job more permanantly.
This probably sounds like rubbish but I said years ago that there should be a wide-ranging debate about that which we want from trainsimming.
Cheers
John
