Looking forward to a new version

Yawn. There are some things I definitely look forward to when we release a new version and one of them is the online buzz and curiosity. I make it a point to read several of the more popular online forums on a regular basis. I particularly like to find questions posted by people who have bought the product and need help using it. Flight Simulator is very complex and even with a great help system (which we call the Learning Center) sometimes people can't find the specific information they need. Sometimes even the simplest things can make all the difference. For example, a couple of versions back we added the ability to replace the standard 2D instrument panel with just the essential flight instruments simply by pressing 'W'. Unfortunately we did an absolute horrible job of advertising this feature. (In software circles this is known as poor discoverability.) I lost track of the number of people I was able to help taxi and land their aircraft simply by suggesting they get that big ol' panel out of the way. If only we could do that with real aircraft!

But at this point in the product's life span those types of simple questions are few and far between. Most posts these days fall into two categories: (a) questions about using third-party add-ons or (b) opinions/rants/speculation about the current or future versions of the core product. I'm not in a good position to comment on the former and getting involved in the latter would be counterproductive at best and probably violate company policy on disclosing proprietary information. Beyond the legal reasons it just would not make sense to either debate the current design or fuel speculation about the future. There are simply no right answers to any off it, unlike the questions I can answer like, "How do engage the thrust reversers?" (The answer is to press and hold 'F2'.)

So until we decide to release a new version I'll just be a mostly passive observer, measuring the community's pulse and waiting for the next batch of "how do you..." questions.