How many people play this?

[JETZcorp]

I think MXS does the most good for you when you start out as a fairly relaxed, slow-pace rider. You begin to learn the basics of using body position, you get a feel for what hard braking and hard acceleration do to the bike and become more prepared to control it. The biggest thing for me, though, was RPM. I used to shift WAY too early, and as a result, my 250 Husky (on which the designers abandoned the traditional Husky low-end and focused on making it explosive) never got to do its thing. When I got MXS, I did the same thing, but soon discovered that I could do much, much better by letting the revs build up before banging the next gear. If you've NEVER thrown leg over a bike, then it could be dangerous to have that extra confidence, but for anyone else I highly recommend it.

And as far as other people using simulators to help them practice, you can't find a better example than pilots. Not only do they use the simulators, but they are required to do so, and almost entirely trained in them.