Microsoft Flight Simulator could change the future of flight

[@etaknar]

Pay them more: problem solved! European bus drivers make more, and have better benefits.

[@DataRew]

An important qualifier here should be pay STARTING pilots more. You make an assload of money at the end, but that doesn't stop the fact that, in the US, you have to have a bachelor's degree, spend like $60-70K ON TOP OF THAT, none of which is eligible for student loans and has to be paid for as you go and, in my calls with schools, is assumed you will have someone to pay for it. I have always wanted to be a pilot and tried to pivot a few times but just don't have the means to make it happen.

[@MemeSupreme69]

Reported to the House Committee on Unamerican Activities

[@harrylane4]

Shush, paying people a liveable wage is considered "political" here in the US

[@DerFroschMitMaske]

Might also hike up planes to prices that are more appropriate Regarding their CO2emissions. It’s often ridiculous that you have to pay between 100 and 200€ for a train ticket and a plain trip costs about half of that...

[@legathar8558]

@@DerFroschMitMaske A plane also produces much less CO2 than a train. No really, except for electric cars and trains, planes are the most CO2 efficient method of travel, as well as the cheapest

[@elemenopefitzgerald2954]

Why is there a shortage in the first place? A lot of industries have "shortages" that are actually symptoms of other problems (i.e. teacher shortages exist not bc there aren't teachers, but bc the job sucks lol)

[@scarecr0]

Costs a fuck load to get a commercial pilot's licence. There's more to it than just that, but that's a big factor imo

[@elemenopefitzgerald2954]

Basically, schooling is too expensive to be accessible, and the options outside of that are neither great nor sustainable, even with training? Shocking! Unheard of! (Obviously jk) I wonder if the 800k new jobs are temporary/gig/low quality jobs like the ones you mention. You cut one full time job with benefits, and make 2 part time contract jobs. Voila! Job creation! (P.S., thank you for the explanation!)

[@DINGOlord]

I don't think teaching sucks, it seems like a very rewarding and engaging job on a personal level. The problem is that it pays shit despite being an essential job

[@kangarutan1915]

Most licensed pilots, at least in the US, come from places like the Army or the Air Force, simply because they can get their flight hours logged by being a pilot for the military. It's a lot harder to come from somewhere else and get a pilot's license unless you're from a wealthy family or already know someone with a pilot's license that's willing to let you practice in their plane. Planes are expense, fuel is expensive, and the training is expensive.

[@kangarutan1915]

It also doesn't help that even if you land a gig as a commercial pilot, the pay is extremely low and the hours can be long and arduous. Imagine having to sit in your car for 14-18 hours straight, but you can't pull over to stretch your legs. And yes, I know that a lot of long distance flights are handled by autopilot, but that doesn't mean you don't have to be aware of the instruments and what's going on while the plane is operation.

[@billvolk4236]

Whenever you hear anything about a skilled labor shortage, it means they're not being paid enough and the employers want to keep getting away with it.

[@nullone3181]

Reminds me of all this push trying to get people into tech and programming. There is no shortage, the corporations just want to flood the industry with excess workforce so they can exploit the workers and treat them as badly as they treat unskilled labor, because everyone is replaceable. On a larger scale, this is the primary reason unemployment in general even exists.

[@lashlarue59]

Right. What they really mean is there is shortage of people willing to do that job at the money they want to pay for it.

[@robotiquebleu9619]

Honestly, you saying “Bing Maps” made me think I was still watching the What if Digimon Won video.

[@itsfreezinginhere764]

Lol perfect

[@trueaidooo]

Everybody in the comments pointing out that the best way to solve the pilot shortage is to pay pilots better clearly doesnt understand that the American way is to do anything but paying people well or improving work conditions and instead getting a ping pong table with 4 balls that get lost within a week and never replacing them

[@teecee1827]

"we need more bodies"

[@Asiliea]

If they wanted more money, they could just fetch it out of the Money Pit, but nothing ever comes out of the Money Pit /theonion

[@minihjalte]

There is a not a pilot shortage, there is a pay deficit

[@samkadel8185]

Same with teachers in many states.

[@DataRew]

both of these things are true, but the shortage is because of the expense of paths to get there, yea.

[@samkadel8185]

@@DataRew no, the reason no one wants to do these things is exclusively because the jobs themselves don't pay enough. Plenty of people get degrees to become teachers and then either quit or give up when finding work because they can't find anything in that field that will pay enough to support them.

[@DataRew]

@@samkadel8185 No, I AM ONE OF THE PEOPLE who has wanted to do this my whole life. I just can't live on the $20K starting wage and that is EXACTLY what I said. Just 4-5 years in, I'd be making more than I do currently in IT.

[@samkadel8185]

@@DataRew so you agree...? I'm confused what were arguing about in the first place since you said you couldn't do it because of the ridiculously low starting wage.

[@ellie_shrug]

I love clicking on a Polygon video and being pleasantly surprised by whoever the host is.

[@rachelrachel9152]

Equally good is clicking a polygon video guessing who it is based only on the title and being right.

[@JossCade]

@@rachelrachel9152 100% i was so happy when I was like.... This feels like a Jenna topic

[@marzipanjoyner2272]

there isn't a pilot shortage, there's a shortage of folks who will work 48 hour high stress shifts for no pay while the airline companies do stock buybacks with the bailout money we gave them

[@LeonHorsman]

Icarus_BZ how is he misinformed?

[@Asiliea]

@Icarus_BZ Likely just hyperbolae for dramatic effect. No need to nitpick, my bro hahah

[@BlindErephon]

@Icarus_BZ Technically wage theft is illegal too, but its a huge problem anyway. Just because something is mandated doesn't mean its adhered to. Airlines get fined for this kind of thing, but its peanuts compared to how much they make, so who gives a shit if you have to dish out another million or so?

[@DataRew]

As a person who has wanted to be a pilot since he was 3 (and is near 40 now) we should be pay STARTING pilots more. You make an assload of money at the end, but that doesn't stop the fact that, in the US, you have to have a bachelor's degree, spend like $60-70K ON TOP OF THAT, none of which is eligible for student loans and has to be paid for as you go and, in my calls with schools, is assumed you will have someone to pay for it. I have always wanted to be a pilot and tried to pivot a few times but just don't have the means to make it happen. The only way in for a person not of means is the military, and when I graduated, I wasn't about to fight a war on obvious lies about WMD's in Iraq, despite the fact that joining the military to do this (I'm from a military family) had always been my plan and was the only practicable way there.

[@MaddyBlu9724]

Woah what? Its crazy that we even have any pilots right now if you cant even get loans. I mean, I am gonna pay 200k for med school but the loans are super easy to get and I am gauranteed a great income after residency (plus there are a good number of loan forgiveness options). Pilots are a pretty essential part of modern life you would think there would be more interest in funding pilot training.

[@DataRew]

@@MaddyBlu9724 just so I'm clear, you can get loans for the degrees they want you to have IN ADDITION TO your pilot training, but not for the flight training itself... So yea, medical school is a really great analogy. Most pilots out there had thier training paid for by military service or had ppl with deep pockets. Not all, but most.

[@FoxEatingBamboo]

Now I'm wondering if it's at all by design that access to piloting in the US is walled off by cash except through the military. It wouldn't be the first, or the second, or the thousandth time money problems funnel Americans into the military.

[@DataRew]

@@FoxEatingBamboo you are likely correct, imo.

[@nauthizzz]

@@FoxEatingBamboo If "by design" you mean "most profitable design", then yes. It's not about keeping people with no means out of the industry, it's more that by relying so much on government trained pilots, it lets airlines make more money. Then you end up with a civilian equivalent training infrastructure, except someone else besides Uncle Sam has to foot that bill. The airlines aren't going to do it because that would cost them money. Too many industries now have moved away from running their own training programs that provided a feeder program of new labor into said industry because they got used to cheap experienced people being readily available at one point or another.

[@stijnvandrongelen5625]

KZbin: watch out, "Includes paid promotion" me: yeah but also Jenna

[@camelbob8568]

Without watching the video, no. The problem isn't that nobody wants to be a pilot the problem is that rampant capitalism had made being a pilot a terrible job. Bad hours, bad pay, and tons of debt with a huge amount of time dedicated to the job to get in the door. The industry is eating itself.

[@eoghanley]

Capitalism made it a terrible job, therefore no one wants to be one. You contradicted your own point.

[@andrewmly9834]

Le Cactus Doré ? no they didn’t

[@OakenTome]

Le Cactus Doré No they didn’t.

[@hastyscorpion]

Lasagna Man the point is that the system of Capitalism has supplied fewer pilots because the job sucks. That is literally the entire point of Capitalism. If they want the supply of workers to do the job they will have to make it a better job.

[@samkadel8185]

@@eoghanley the point is capitalism crushes people's hopes and dreams. That's only contradictory if people can only want things that they can have.

[@theowatchesyt]

can't tell if this video is telling me to play video games, get a job as a pilot or join the army

[@DisneyCorporation1]

!yvaN eht nioJ!

[@TheLetterbomber]

Where can you begin to make your dreams all come true On the land or on the sea IN THE NAVYYYY- (don't join the army)

[@EmissaryofWind]

Don't join the army

[@MiseFreisin]

the first option is the only one I can really reccommend tbh

[@gabibi99]

I hate it when industries say there's a shortage when the solution is to pay people more, especially in wealthy industries like airlines But anyways, cool sim. Accurate world wide sim is crazy technology. I hope someday they pay pilots more and give them better hours, it seems like it would be a cool profession. But I'd say its more likely that they just develop full autopilot instead.

[@alexmiller1658]

Or at the very least eliminate the high barrier to entry (the tens of thousands of dollars it costs to get enough logged hours to become licensed). Ideally both. If we keep expecting people to plunge themselves into insurmountable debt for vocational training or tertiary education (hell, with the recent push toward private schools, even primary/secondary education!) We are going to end up with a shortage of all kinds of labor.

[@orialtman6176]

I just had a thought after reading your post. What if this flight sim is an attempt at adding huge amounts of simulated flight data to an autopilot, focused on the VFR, just like how we all are teaching self-driving cars how to spot stoplights and crosswalks and buses and stuff through captcha?

[@wanderer2688]

@@orialtman6176 the autopilot in msfs2020 is too awful to be allowed in any real aircraft, so thankfully it's not for that

[@dimitreze]

you can become a real pilot after playing a flight simulator???? *insert Drew Scanlon meme*

[@cnl1213]

I forgot his name already. He is better known as "that guy from the internet."

[@tedioustotoro4885]

I love how all the comments are just “Nobody wants to be a pilot because the pay is terrible” proving again that Capitalism is the root of all problems

[@rt_w1456]

What would you suggest is better?

[@tamijo-]

@@rt_w1456 I mean it's obvious.

[@rt_w1456]

@@tamijo- I mean better than capitalism

[@tedioustotoro4885]

Rome Russell Socialism, y’know a system that doesn’t rely on the greed of a select few

[@rt_w1456]

@@tedioustotoro4885 Yeah it relies on the corruptness of the whole government. You know I love being taxed to hell so that other people can use it for themselves

[@xanhopkins9142]

i was watching a polygon video and then i got a notification for another polygon video so i clicked on that notification and now i’m watching a different polygon video

[@daleshellmo9016]

Sounds like a Polygon experience

[@DeusExRequiem]

When there's a shortage of workers, first ask what the majority of pilots do, what those wages are, what their university costs and loans are, what job would be required to pay back those loans and costs, and determine whether the majority of pilots earn more than what's required. If they don't earn enough, determine what bracket of pilots is capable of paying off their debts. If it turns out only the best of the best jobs earn enough to pay off their student loans, odds are there's gonna be a shortage of workers in any field. If everyone who graduates makes back what they borrowed and a whole lot extra, there will never be a shortage.

[@Tuxfanturnip]

OK, you can gush all you want about the fidelity of the environment in MSFS2020 but when I saw my hometown go by in this video I *froze*

[@MusicmatchJukebox]

Correction: we WERE in a pilot shortage. Then COVID hit. Source: am a pilot

[@Adventurous-Emma]

Unless flight sims start pumping out scholarships they will not be solving the pilot shortage. I am a student pilot and I am one of few students I know that come from a lower income family, flight school is just sO EXPENSIVE. I literally put myself through college debt free but I had to take out a 95k loan for flight school.

[@MineNSleep]

How is it going with covid and everything ? You still having lessons?

[@kenshokram]

I was kinda waiting for a twist about bad working conditions for pilots being responsible for the shortage... that never came.

[@The_Jovian]

It's cause it's a promotional video for Alienware. I think if it weren't we definitely would've gotten some good ol' capitalism bashing

[@elscorchio82]

@Icarus_BZ Loving your job unfortunately doesn't necessarily preclude the working conditions being bad. It just raises the chance of those conditions being considered acceptable trade-offs.

[@ig7157]

Polygon I know you are just writing this to be fun entertainment, but this really misleading. The Solution is complicated and has to solve monetary drain of the US's education system as well as chronic underplaying of pilots.

[@caseykoons]

Commercial Pilot Jobs start at wages as low as $46,254, and this is after hundreds of thousands of dollars of training that includes plane rentals and fuel fees. Some pilots find that in order to get certified is . Something needs to be done about this discrepancy, either more money for pilots or subsidized certification funding. Both wouldn't hurt, honestly.

[@Asiliea]

JFC, I earned more than that after two years of junior programming work and getting a new job as a senior (horray for exploiting dumb high-paying industries). And that's with $0 student debt 'cos I luckily realised how useless it is for my industry in order to earn a decent salary.

[@OblivionMaster79]

I love the diverse topics this year!

[@cashnelson2306]

hmm another thing they could do is properly compensate their employees

[@bentonbowen7140]

Pilot here, the pilot shortage got solved by COVID. Now there's a job shortage.

[@ratfromsewer6683]

while theres something to be said about flight sims getting ppl interested in aviation, given that pretty much the only avenues for people to become commercial pilots are "already have a lot of money to buy a plane and pay for consumer training which are both incredibly expensive" or "join the airforce", all for a job that doesnt pay as well as it should it makes sense why people arent too keen on becoming pilots

[@CommonApathy]

There isn't a pilot shortage... There's a shortage of decent paying jobs for pilots...

[@AuntBibby]

when Jenna said “Bing Maps” unironically, i knew it was a sponsored video 🤣🤣😂😂😭😭😥😥😰😰😱😱

[@rachelrachel9152]

Thats exactly what i thought lollll i could feel her biting her tongue

[@Mark_Goddin]

1:42 is Drew Scanlon really that meme guy? That’s basically famous, right there.

[@dernudel1615]

I love all of Polygon's videos, but Jenna is my favorite presenter. She's got this dry wit that makes the already interesting material that much more entertaining. Keep up the amazing work, Jenna!

[@npc6817]

1:31 aged like fine wine, " _R e A l i S t I c_ "

[@taylorb1090]

i went back to watch “like when i got my first digital solitaire victory and now i’m here” 3 times 😂 excellent delivery

[@renfloyd7595]

quick note: a big part of the pilot shortage is also bc there are archaic rules in place at a lot of airlines where pilots who are on psychiatric medication OF ANY KIND, including antidepressants, aren't allowed to fly. So...yeah.

[@Asiliea]

Not all those laws are archaic. There are _some_ medications on the exclusion list that have _very_ good reasons to not have your pilot addled by them when they need to be paying attention to so many different variables at once. Still, yeah, lots of them are perfectly safe, but better safe than killing an entire passenger flight, while simultaneously wrecking the company's PR

[@amory8412]

Just train the pilots of jets in the us army to be commercial pilots cuz we don't need such a big military

[@cwovictor3281]

All the passengers have to parachute off.

[@OakenTome]

That’s where a large portion of US commercial pilots come from once they leave the military; it’s a lot easier to get the required hours when you’re already doing it as a job.

[@Greenhourglass]

she left out the one key detail when talking about solving a shortage of workers: Why there is a shortage of workers.

[@ClintEPereira]

Whenever I hear about the "yaw" of a plane, I like to think it's a combination of "yee" and "haw."

[@flametitan100]

To be fair, if the plane is doing a lot of yaw rotation, you might think a cowboy was flying it.

[@nathancooley8459]

You know, Yee and Haw actually come from the commands for a draft animal to turn Left and Right. So It's entirely possible your hypothesis might be right!

[@dust6590]

They should make air planes look like dragons. That would get them more pilots. They should also pay them more.

[@TeeBeeOhh]

The real issue with the "pilot shortage" is of course that airlines aren't willing to pay and treat their employees well, making it an unattractive career.

[@theowatchesyt]

If polygon can make me interested in video production, then flight simulators can make people want to be pilots. It makes perfect sense (and we'll all be broke at end lmao)

[@ahaquer153]

I've gotten so used to funny bdg videos that turn existential that I never expected a serious one lol

[@devlian]

The simulator portion of the training is the cheapest part. Even after that you'll still be spending around 60 to 200k on training depending on what you're trying to do. And once you finish training you'll be lucky if your first job pays better than 100$ a day and only has you working 10 or 11 hours.

[@jacobcooperlong]

Wait at 1:16 were they just casually showing footage of someone reenacting 9/11 😂

[@Renfailed]

I thought I was crazy when I noticed that

[@rhonaw3409]

And I had to search for so long to find a comment about it!!

[@_wolke97_haha54]

A solution would also be for everyone to fly less. A growing flight industry is not a good thing. It's incredibly harmful to the environment. So shouldn't the goal be for us to need less pilots in the long run?

[@flametitan100]

Yes/no. Air travel is generally more fuel efficient than via car/train, though you can make trains electric (you can cars too, but this isn't entirely ideal.) One of the problems is that infrastructure has been built to revolve around the idea that everyone inherently owns a personal car. This jacks up fuel emissions, and can put strain on the various rare earth metals needed to make electric vehicles. Make owning a car less mandatory with better public transit, and that alone cuts _massively_ into emissions. Subsidize rail infrastructure so that it can be modernized, and some of the need for personal vehicles and air travel can be reduced further Unfortunately we haven't made an effective way to completely eliminate emissions from Air travel like the other options, so it'll be harder to adapt to fight climate change.

[@JRexRegis]

@@flametitan100 The majority of emissions aren't made by private citizens. They're from coal power plants, industry and the absolute vast majority comes from cattle. Stop eating beef and you do more for the environment than if you stopped driving.

[@flametitan100]

@@JRexRegis Oh certainly. But Our reliance on fossil fuels for getting literally anywhere is... really not a good thing. I believe one of the recent "most emissions are created by ten corps" put a lot of onus on oil and gas for making us so reliant on using them. EDIT: Also, just be careful on that phrasing. "Stop eating cattle," still implicitly puts a lot of blame on the average person, when your point is that the average person isn't to blame.

[@JRexRegis]

@@flametitan100 I think it's quite obvious that I put eating cattle in contrast with driving, which is what you're telling people not to do - as the average person can't do much about international titans. As in: If you, a private cititzen, want to do something for the environment, then stop eating cattle, because eating cattle harms the environment more than driving ever could. I'm obviously not arguing against the point I literally made in the sentence before that.

[@flametitan100]

@@JRexRegis I'm not saying people should stop driving. I'm saying that as a society we need to rebuild infrastructure so that driving isn't _mandatory_ to survive in this world. The onus isn't on the individual there for having a car in that scenario. It's on the government for subsidizing and letting oil and gas and car manufacturers placing themselves as industry giants we _must_ rely on. Individual choices aren't going to do anything, whether it's driving or eating less meat. We must push for deeper and more radical change from the top down if we're going to solve the climate crisis

[@xmlthegreat]

Sponsored video so I understand you guys can't point at the actual cause of problems in the aircraft industry.

[@MemeSupreme69]

Loving the based comments about fair wages. Also, maybe we just fly less cause it's destroying the environment?

[@mrcraggle]

Love that you got Drew in on this. He used to host a show on Giant Bomb about flying games and aims. Miss that series

[@ConquerorDash]

"Can flight simulators solve the pilot shortage?" No, but Covid does.

[@ghostlyhousehorrors]

airforceproud95 (who's a actual professional) showed me that you shouldn't put faith in flight simulator players *gestures at* awful landing, the occasional air balloon doing a vertical at 500 knots or more, planes going through each other, no one knows proper protocol and language, etc

[@imrefez]

Pilot shortage while there is thousands of pilots out there with no jobs after the covid crisis, That's comedy at it's peak 😂

[@rt_w1456]

There are still delivery planes, military, and federal pilots that are needed.

[@modelmajorpita]

What do you mean "after" the covid crisis? You realize it didn't stop just because politicians refused to pay us so quarantine could continue, right?

[@guardpolice3913]

Rome Russell absolutely not. All cargo ops are hiring guys that pretty much have to be space shuttle PIC and 25,000 hours

[@tortozza]

@@rt_w1456 Wow, tell us more about the hundreds of thousands of unfilled cargo vacancies.

[@akaicedtea6236]

Should have started with why there is a shortage. They go into hella debt for little pay in a super stressful and simulateously boring job and have a particularly high rate of alcoholism and suicide. I talked s about the bungee pit for being unnecessarily concerned with facts but this swings too far the other way. I'm not going to watch the whole video to find out if you get to real talk. That's probably the problem I have with this video and with the bungee pit video. my two fentanyl

[@Praqueue]

After watching it, I can confirm money isn't mentioned at all

[@tschutschkalon9312]

wait, is that the "blinking guy" meme guy ????

[@SeveSavoieTeruel]

Hey It's Drew!

[@CreativoErratico]

Maybe it's because the lowest paying pilot jobs pay just a tad more than mcdonald's manager positions, and the training costs around 40K.

[@wellspokenrambler]

Shot by Patrick Gill eh? The gang’s (very very slowly) getting back together?

[@AleksandrStrizhevskiy]

Pilot shortage? Pilots are struggling to find work right now due to covid

[@tactical_philanthropy]

Yeah, sounds safe! Under capitalism, a higher demand for pilots will only be solved with cutting down costs (continuously) for training equipment, cutting salaries, cutting personnel, cheapening plane manufacturing and flight software development. And essentially hiring people to fly planes who shouldn't even drive a bus. Isn't it great how every industry is getting so much better under this system? So much progress! Enjoy your instagram holidays.

[@birdzilla01]

My dad was in computers since the earliest days of tech and as soon as the first flight simulators became available, becoming a pilot became his dream. Unfortunately he had heart problems that prevented it (he couldn't go high-altitude at all, he couldn't even fly as a passenger). When he died and we went through his eight laptops, one of them was NOTHING but flight simulators, just, every one he could find and download and play.

[@tylerf.145]

I'm early gay rights ig 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈

[@MarmaladePlan3t]

bird of the abyss it’s gay rights what’s so confusing

[@coletm7146]

@@MarmaladePlan3t Probably confused why this is posted, it's fine being posted just confused why in this context it's being posted.

[@SirAroace]

The pilot shortage due to bad pay and poor hours, not lack flyers.

[@rowanhedges3060]

Jenna I love this video! Of course I think labor changes are important for pilots and air traffic controllers, but the idea of games having this direct effect on real people and their careers is fantastic

[@notAshildr]

An ex-boyfriend of mine wanted to become a commercial pilot and was told that they didn't take any applications at the moment he finished school. That was about 8 years ago. It's not that there are no people willing to become pilots, it's partly that the standards are very high(which is good), and too few people are actually getting spots inside the airline companies(which is not so good).

[@cactustactics]

I love the people talking about immersive complexity intercut with footage of jumbo jets doing barrel rolls

[@SeanTBarrett]

"IFR [...] is the main way that previous flight sims were constructed..." is not true. It's the main way that MICROSOFT flight sims were constructed. There were fully-texture-mapped VFR flight sims for the PC in 1997, 23 years ago. Why is Polygon effectively just publishing an ad for MS FS?

[@Goldlucky13]

i also feel like there are fewer people with perfect vision, so even if they learn the controls & theory of it, many won't be able to be hired

[@Agnes.Nutter]

Huh? I’ve definitely seen pilots with glasses.

[@Goldlucky13]

@@Agnes.Nutter i always thought they weren't allowed to need correction! i could definitely be wrong. i've only been on like... 2 plane rides.

[@liquidjubb3672]

20/20 vision is not required to be a pilot. In fact you can become a fighter pilot with imperfect vision.

[@macthelost]

mmgold your vision has to be 20/20, but if it can be corrected to be 20/20 that’s perfectly acceptable. As long as you can get 20/20 with glasses you’re fine. Even for fighter pilots. I launched out four fighter pilots just today that wear glasses.

[@xliquidflames]

But it's *so* boring. Once I take off, all I can think about is trying to land because those are the most engaging parts of flying. The in-between is so boring. It feels like I'm on a long boring drive. And a lot of the planes have auto pilot so then what? It's a fancy screen saver. Maybe I just don't have any interest in aviation.

[@JavaJack59]

Could dial up the clouds and wind for more challenge, I guess.

[@sloqlap]

The real solution to the pilot sim: Fair pay and worker protections.

[@medulasa1]

Honestly I played "Music: Creation for the Playstation" and now I'm, unfortunately, a real struggling musician with degrees and everything. Be very careful as to what videogames you get real into, kids

[@1Mr.Legend1]

This is ridiculous. There are tons of unemployed pilots.

[@CanuckMonkey13]

Why aren't there more comments about other people flying under the Golden Gate bridge in flight simulators? I did my run in F/A-18 Interceptor on the Amiga 500. Truly a memorable experience!

[@thewinterbuck]

Lots of student pilots don’t realize there are more options than just airlines. Cargo, air ambulance, fire fighting, etc. etc. But i suppose what you do is find what’s best for yourself in the industry. i’ve never played the new microsoft flight sim, so i have a question if anyone can answer it. Can you make radio calls in it?

[@vikingsFTW1234]

I'm sure you're aware of this, and decided to go with the flight sim angle as its just a much more entertaining subject for a video, but I think we both know its not a lack of interest, but a lack of value for the work. Maybe if they hold a few planes up in an organized manor, they could unionize.

[@janewoolf2038]

Microsoft Flight Simulator X was my gateway drug. I’m currently a Commerically rated pilot and a Certified Flight Instructor.

[@Citrikacid11]

I appreciate polygon creators for making an entire in depth , researched video with a legitimate message all because of lying on the floor of an airport for hours and thinking: ".....why?"

[@kylebradford2427]

I am loving these video essays y'all have been putting out. Especially Jenna's. This is the kind of nerdy games content my dramaturg heart loves and yearns for!

[@notellieblake]

I love Jenna's deep dives into niche topics! I always learn something cool about something I probably wouldn't have given much thought

[@Abigail-hu5wf]

Thanks for the video, Jenna! I always love your content :) I think you're one of my favourite youtube makers, I love your style so much!

[@mennoberga4133]

Okay but what if Hear me out Trains

[@MiseFreisin]

this is good, I like it but I have one note - trains only go on the ground what if we punch it up a bit and stop me if this crazy but flying trains ehh? ehhhhhh? what do we think?

[@JavaJack59]

You're in luck. They make train simulator games, too :)

[@hayleygullett]

Maybe we should just pay for people to go to school? I know several people interested in flying but who couldn’t afford to even consider it.

[@TheWeazelNews]

Flying sounds fun, but I'm not paying those insane school fees just to work under such shitty conditions. I'll stick to the sim experience

[@JRexRegis]

You can neatly solve the pilot shortage by lowering the insane barriers of entry and increasing pay. Supply and demand works the other way around, too.

[@TheLetterbomber]

Every month or two I start to crave Jenna making me care almost irrationally about something I had hardly thought about. Thanks, Jenna

[@theridonculesknights]

making actually piloting more financially accessible would go further to solve the shortage, but whatever I guess.

[@Geraltoframen]

Pilot shortage? Watch Elon Musk buy airlines and make them all self-flying. Great Video.

[@sb5k]

DREW! i love that man

[@miguelnery8907]

So he is a guy known for being a huge fan of flight sim games, for being a journalist, but mostly for being a meme. What a random way to be famous.

[@ziggy_starz]

everyone's talking about the salary but I can't become a commercial pilot because of my shitty eyesight >:(

[@yitzakIr]

Excellent video Jenna keep up the great work. Also if you're not okay blink twice.

[@squid1524]

I feel weirdly accomplished for accurately guessing that this was a Jenna video before it loaded.

[@Tazman55x]

Pilots will be a thing of the past soon. All current pilots do now is take off and land now. Autopilot does 90% of the flying

[@daftodil589]

bruh i cant believe polygon got such a strong pull with 'blinking confused white guy' its that intel money

[@guytorie]

1:56 The captions say "Alex Fitzgerald" but the person's name is "Alex Fitzpatrick."

[@marcasum467]

"Going above and beyond to chase the feeling of the real thing" _Shows Airforceproud_

[@peril7531]

broke: violent videogames cause violence woke: flight simulators cause pilots

[@1MattMega]

That Blinking White Guy(TM) should do something with video games someday!

[@lebaguette7392]

Why don't we just clone the worlds best pilot 800,000 times There, no more shortage

[@jupitersmoon3033]

2:50 I just watched an Airforceproud95 video before watching this, he’s the one that got me into Microsoft Flight Simulator (watching videos of it at least, I don’t have a copy of the game sadly 😭)

[@axemtitanium]

Since flying is so terrible for the environment, maybe a pilot shortage is a good thing :thonk:

[@Lee-wb5yx]

being a pilot is nice and all but I don't wanna risk myself getting into student debt that'll end my family lineage

[@michealangelo12865]

Here for the Drew. Also nice marketing Polygon, I will now buy an Alienware