@Shaggy

Now look up the definition of a game.

1"a form of play or sport, especially a competitive one played according to rules and decided by skill, strength, or luck."
2. "a complete episode or period of play, ending in a definite result."

MSFS doesn't meet the first definition because MSFS isn't a form of play or sport. It does have rules and is decided by skill, but since it doesn't meet the first, and main requirement, it not a game.

It could have some loose adherence to the second definition, but it's stretching the meaning of the term to try and classify it as a game because you don't technically play pure simulations, you participate in them.

MSFS is a simulator. All video games are simulations, either accurate or not, but not all simulations are games.

There is nothing wrong with calling MSFS a simulation and not thinking of it as a game. If one wants to think of it as a game, then it's fine too, because people do have their own definitions. But the first week or two of any game design program talks about the differences and definitions of video games and simulations, and the less official version that most textbooks cite is something along the lines of a simulation that provides a challenge, typically with some form of competitive tone(either within the program or not), with an end result of success or failure....to paraphrase.

Being a simulator doesn't mean that people won't enjoy it, nor does it mean it isn't fun if you're into that kind of thing.

If say MS added in challenges of some sort, that could be constituted as a game by how most people actually think of games.