I started flying well before dipping into the FSX sim thing (now Lockheed's Prepar3d), but I have to respectfully disagree with some of the comments here with respect to sims.
Yes, there are the arrogant simmer types that can't grasp that simulation is no replacement for reality (and are even more bored with reality), but there are also those that transition from simming to real flight, as rare as that may sound. We should be encouraging more interest in GA flight, even if that means simulation. Most gamers don't even understand flight sim at all..."you mean I can't drop bombs?" and if Joe Simmer wants to use your expired Jepp plates to shoot an approach to mins in a 747 we should not discourage that. I get it though, it's the attitude carried to real life that some of these guys have that is entertaining. Between you and I, I think many of them are simply just scared of the real thing, so they flex their 'confidence' through their thousands of hours of simming - which is indeed funny/perplexing.
With the sims themselves though, it's all about 3rd party add ons, which drastically helps with the realism. You get yourself a decent yoke/quadrant/pedals, good weather software and amazing 3rd party aircraft (the A2A releases are my favorite), and it's light years ahead of the stock software, if your PC can keep up.
Personally, it's great for the scan and working on nav work / holds / etc (disclaimer being you are instructed in that first, so you reduce the chance of developing bad habits...). I think some of you naysayers would be amazed at what's out there now - again, it's all about having decent add-on software and hardware. For feel, the sim is terribly unrealistic - it's actually far more sensitive and harder to control (especially pitch) than the real thing.
All that said, of course the sim isn't real life and we need more people outside doing the real thing. And I don't understand those that would rather sim but have zero interest in the real thing. However, the sim world can still stoke interest in people and in my experience has been far more positive than negative.
YMMV. My 0.02.
Thread relevant comment: youtube comments are the best. So entertaining. If I need a good laugh, it's one of the best places to go.