Viewers of Rami Ismail's Twitch stream were recently handed the controls of an airplane in Microsoft Flight Simulator, with harrowing but ultimately positive results. Microsoft's popular airplane game launched a month ago to rave reviews, and fans have had a blast exploring the limitations of the robust simulation. One enterprising player used the game's powerful live weather mode to explore its rendition of the devastating Hurricane Laura and take some truly awe-inspiring pictures, while others have taken the opportunity to explore infamous locations like Area 51.
Despite some early review bombing over lengthy loading times, Flight Simulator has become a huge hit for Microsoft. The company recently announced that the game has had the best launch ever on PC Xbox Game Pass. The simulator boasted some truly impressive figures, including a grand total of over 1 billion miles flown by all users, the equivalent of one plane flying all the way around the world 40,000 times.
Rami Ismail, co-founder of the recently defunct game development company Vlambeer, decided to cash in on that Twitch success in a very unique way. As reported by Eurogamer, Ismail handed controls of his virtual plane to the viewers of his stream. By typing commands into the chat, fans could control all the functions of a massive Boeing 787-10 dreamliner. As expected, there was a lot of chaos, but despite all the madness, the Twitch chat was able to successfully guide the plane through takeoff from Košice International Airport, achieve roughly an hour of airtime, and then land safely back at the airport of origin. They even managed to perform a barrel roll in the process.
The bizarre cultural trend that is "Twitch Plays" began years ago with Twitch Plays Pokemon, a social experiment that let thousands of viewers participate in a playthrough of Pokemon Red. Despite the sheer anarchy of the process, Twitch was able to beat the game after 16 continuous days of gameplay. The overwhelming popularity of this strange social event led to numerous other attempts to harness the power of several internet strangers to beat video games. Obsidian Entertainment hosted a Twitch Plays stream for The Outer Worlds before the game even released, showing off how powerful a marketing tool the concept has become.
Chat-run playthroughs of popular games are always fascinating to watch and take part in, and it's a powerful way to bring a disparate community together. For instance, when Ismail's plane broke through the cloud layer, all the squabbling over flight inputs ceased for a solid thirty seconds while the players admired the view. That's a powerful, shared experience that doesn't feel the same when fans are just watching the game being played by someone else. A Twitch-played game is a great way to bring people together, and this Microsoft Flight Simulator stream proved that.
Source: Eurogamer, Rami Ismail/Twitter
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