These videos of Flight Simulator X roleplays gone wrong are important viewing
Content warning: protocol and safety violations aplenty.
Microsoft Flight Simulator X is a very serious video game, though calling it a "video game" probably undersells it. It is a simulator after all, and as a result it attracts its fair share of avid roleplayers.
But wherever there are serious roleplayers, there are also more casual participants eager to take the piss. And nowhere is that better demonstrated than on the YouTube channel Airforceproud95, which hosts – among a collection of reasonably sober Flight Sim videos – a collection of hilarious roleplay failures.
Take this most recent video for example. In this video, the serious pilot (Airforceproud95) is troubled when he discovers that the air traffic controller isn't serious about air traffic protocol and safety.
(A bit of context: in FSX you can play as either a pilot or an air traffic controller, and if these videos are any indication, the meeting of two similarly dedicated players isn't always guaranteed.)
This next one features a similarly ambivalent air traffic controller, only this time it culminates in some rather heated exchanges and the potential for a bomb.
I don't know about you, but when I knock off work this evening I'm going to open a beer, put my feet up and watch this YouTube playlist handily titled 'FSX Multiplayer Chaos / Trolling', which features such promising video titles as "Landing WITHOUT Clearance in Flight Simulator X!" and "NOOB PILOT Tries to Land an AIRLINER!"
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Shaun Prescott is the Australian editor of PC Gamer. With over ten years experience covering the games industry, his work has appeared on GamesRadar+, TechRadar, The Guardian, PLAY Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald, and more. Specific interests include indie games, obscure Metroidvanias, speedrunning, experimental games and FPSs. He thinks Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed is an all-time classic that will receive its due critical reappraisal one day.