I remember a story from many years ago about a guy that joined the Air Force or Navy to be a pilot and he was a prolific Microsoft Flight Simulator user. They noticed how quickly he was learning and he told them he flew the simulator all the time for the rating and they ended up incorporating MS Flight Simulator into their program. These computer 'games' as JohnBurke would say are useful tools in flight training. I think they are especially good for instrument training to get procedures down.

When I did my instrument I did 15 hours on one of the old ATC710 desktop mechanical simulators with an instructor to get the procedures down which of course counted toward my total time. MS Flight Simulator and X Plane are far more realistic than that was.

JohnBurke is just being his usually curmudgeonly self. Don't pay any attention to him on this subject.