Whilst chowing down RSS feeds this morning, I found a post on a comic website worth sharing. OK, so it’s Penny Arcade and therefore a very good comic, but even so I find myself almost wanting to apologise. Tycho today put up a post from Joel DeYoung, a games industry type who shares his experiences of SquawkBox.

“The depth to which the virtual aviation enthusiast pursues this hobby depends entirely on how far down the rabbit hole they want to go. You could get a headset and fly short flights using your mouse and keyboard (a fact you should probably not tell your fellow pilots lest you be ridiculed for such unrealistic input devices). Or maybe you get a yoke and some pedals and build a little cockpit at your desk. Maybe you decide to make the leap into air traffic control and join one of VATSIM ís controller training regimens, hoping to pass the test and get certified. Perhaps you join a virtual airline flying long-hauls across the ocean, building your hours until you achieve the coveted rank of Captain. Or maybe you spend years searching for surplus Boeing parts to build a 737 cockpit in your garage, or elsewhere if the hydraulic motion platform requires a larger venue.

Safe, efficient air travel relies on a mountain of rules, procedures, international treaties and regulatory schemes. On VATSIM, they try to simulate them all. It may just look like a bunch of people flying and directing air traffic. But to make sure the whole operation runs smoothly, there are a ton of regulations, organizational hierarchy, committees, agreements and other schemes which effectively add up to a government bureaucracy sim. Maybe this sounds stale, but if you’re trying to be authentic you may as well go all the way.”

A few weeks ago I was browsing the magazines in a local WH Smiths (my local one being the one in the Arndale), and spotted a magazine dedicated to virtual pilots. Flicking through it I was astounded by how much enthusiasm there was for this - what I thought to be small - niche. I never even considered that people might want to spend their evenings pretending to be FAA or CAA regulators.

What fascinates me about this, is that people are creating whole new experiences, hierarchies, structures, organisations and rules around software. They are extracting from a simulator the ability to mimic real life.

I kind of get what the appeal is. I looked at working in ATC when I was still making my mind up as to what I wanted to do with my life as a teenager (bet you’ll be glad I didn’t go for it next time you get on a plane), and have done a few hours towards a PPL. This is like being able to do those things but without real consequence. The ability to do high-stress, technical jobs as entertainment is something extraordinary.

Then I had another thought. What if instead of ATC and Virtual Airlines the simulation was of something less life-critical though, and it wasn’t just a simulation? What if by engaging in a simulated gaming environment, people were able to actually get real World work completed, Mechanical Turk style?