I think hardcore sim players are now and probably always have been a minority. It takes a lot of time to get to know a sim and also it takes effort, two things which the large majority of gamers are not willing to invest, especially in today's "instant gratification" culture. They just want to pop the CD/DVD in and be blasting away once the installation finishes. If it comes with a 200 page manual, then forget it...
I remember when I was playing "Das Boot", all my friends were playing "Doom" and "Duke Nukem" and they were wondering why I could sit behind my computer, run "Das Boot" and basically have nothing happen, while they were constantly blasting away at things. There's nothing wrong with "Doom" (I played it too, back then), but I find such games like depth (okay, pun intended) for me. There's only a paper-thin story behind it, the replay value is next to zero and they basically fail to capture my imagination. SHIII can be frantic in a way that "Doom" can never be, but it's a different kind of frantic, that appeals to people like me and you guys.
I've been fascinated by U-Boats for as long as I can remember. I even watched "Operation Petticoat" when I was a kid.
Not because it was funny, but because it had a submarine. And if the Beatles could have a yellow one, I could stand to watch a pink one.
So in short, for a sim to grab you, you need to have three key ingredients, imho:
- an interest in the subject
- willingness to learn how the sim works
- time to find out how the sim works
When those three ingredients are there, the sim will probably hook you for a long time...
