Hey hey now, some of the stuff being done in BVE is pretty fun. I've brought my laptop to work and we play BVE between trips in the crew room - challenging each other to see who can get the top speed through a tunnel without hitting a red signal. Of course, everyone points out every little mistake in each layout (hey, there's not a timer there!!!). On the other hand, I really wonder how some of those R160 announcements get recorded, especially for the routes they don't normally run on, and then I decided I'm better off just NOT asking...... I also worry that many of the railfans who play these games think that it's a substitute for schoolcar and get the impression that they can operate REAL trains just because they can do it in the game. There's no brake pipe rupture feature in BVE though....that's what got Darius McCollum caught the first time!
Anyway, I hope development on those projects continues. I agree with pretty much everything else you stated though.
And I specifically asked that everyone ACT RESPECTFUL if you were gonna come out. If you can't handle something out of the ordinary, then you don't deserve to be riding. That's why from this point forward I WILL keep my mouth shut out about anything new or interesting coming up or seen out in the field. After that fiasco with the to Flatbush my rookie year (dear god, how many of you skipped school just so you could ride an R62 down Nostrand Ave?), I knew this was gonna happen. And I'll have no part in it ever happening again.
BTW - I've seen the photos and some of the posters here I recognize. So don't give me a bullshit story that YOU were behaving and it was just everyone else acting up.