Back in 2006 when this article was written... my neighbor and I had Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator and setup a network with cat 5 cable strung between our houses. We used play this game frequently. It started a mini arms race between us where we each kept upgrading our computers and peripherals such as joysticks, control yokes, rudder pedals, etc... to get whatever advantage that we could.
We both still live on an the same “airpark” and own General Aviation aircraft. I don’t know that this activity helped improve either of our actual flying skills. But it was fun shooting down my wily opponent.
Tremendous fun flying F-15 Strike Eagle III back in the early 1990s.
One of us would perform the ground mission while the other flew MIGCAP.