My Current Simulated Entertainment Bender

Over the past 10 days I’ve gotten hooked on two different multi-player Internet simulation games:

  • AirwaySim — It’s an airline simulator. I have two airlines going. Just recently, SwampAir became the airline transporting the most passengers through its home base of Orlando and now has a daily nonstop to Manchester, UK. Dog Food Airlines, on the other hand, transports half of all traffic going in and out of Cincinnati/CVG and recently made its first acquisition of an aircraft (everything previous was leased). I have dreamed of this game since I was six. The only thing that would make it better would be if it came with one of those departure boards like they have in all the European airports, the ones that make the clattering noise as the board updates by flipping through all the letters of the alphabet for each space in the city name column. But otherwise, a dream come true.
  • BATracer — It’s a car racing simulator. I haven’t dreamed of it since I was six, but so far it’s kind of fun, especially as it coincides with my recent interest in auto racing. I have a couple of cars running: a BMW-Sauber in a 2009 Formula One recreation and a Force Warthog Peugeot in a British Touring Car Championship series. I qualified last in the first F1 race and 13th of 16 in the BTCC. Nowhere to go but up.

Toward a more-simulated future,

bkd

2 comments

  • bkdunn

    Yeah, it’s stupidly addictive. It’s also very much like work — I’ve spent a few hours developing a cost per passenger-mile model in order to determine what planes to buy. Someone should pay me for doing crap like that…