Originally posted by Hristo:
So, why does it seem only Luftwaffe leaves ?
Like StSanta mentioned in another thread, he plays AH to create an illusion of being a WW2 fighter pilot. For him, this is a role game. And I'm sure he's not the only one. Some of the guys who've been flying online sims for a long time, have the same kind of an approach. I guess I fall in to this category as well.
If we look at historically minded AH players, be that Allied or Axis, we can see a few trends: They pick a historical squad, follow strict chain of command structures (although it might seem like utter chaos), fly their historical planes and usually try to get some realistic feeling into their flying. They want a hard and demanding environment where the pilots' flying and tactical skills make the difference - not the ability to game the game. These pilots are not usually big fans of main arena furballing, but have the most fun in historical missions and special events.
These pilots know that they must make some compromises when flying in the AH MA: there are no historical planesets - hogs and F6F's fight eachother while a finnish G-2 sweeps by chasing a Dora into the flak cloud of a CV. The terrains have no resemblance to the real world. Each plane is fitted with a radar and navigation system that is better than what an AWACS has in the real world. Aces High is a game and I'm sure these guys fully understand the need for these helps and aids for the casual gamer in MA. The Main Arena should be, and is, a place where even the less experienced player can quickly get up to speed and into the game.
Especially in Aces High, where the emphasis is clearly on late war planes, the historically minded DonQuijotes will grow tired of the constant La7s, Doras and P51Ds. A few years of the same old same old MA without any fundamental changes will finally get to some of these people. And so it seems.
Now, I'm not saying that a historical arena is the answer or that Aces High in its current form is bad. Currently, I'm enjoying Aces High more than ever. In some (most?) cases all this goes down to AH burnout. Four hours a day online will drive any man crazy, thats for sure. A week or two of AH-leave might be in order in that case. This applies to all pilots, not just Luftwobbles.
Now, why do only LW pilots leave? Well, if you think of LW and then look at Aces High, you will see that AH is quite far from Luftwffe nirvana. Especially with the current islands terrain, the game is heavily weighted towards the Pacific Theater. There are CV's, carrier planes and japanese planes that didn't play any part in the European Theater. Most of the ETO stuff is late war, with little or no early war planes. Like most of you can guess, the favourite era of most of the Luftwobbles is early war, from the Spanish Civil War to late 1942. This is when the planes were relatively slow and aircraft designs as the resulting tactical differences were pronounced. Up to that point the LW had the upper hand. In 1943 the Americans stepped into Europe and thats when the s#%¤ hit the fan on the western front, so to speak.
Eastern front is also a topic that most LW people find interesting, I think. For me, as a Finn, it is definately the most interesting part of WW2. And I'm happy to see HTC has put great effort into bringing the Ost Front to our screens.
But here as well, the same rule applies as in the western european front: early war is more appealing to the LW pilot. In 1943 the tide changed as the russians put their huge resources into serious use.
I'm not sure how big a role WW2OL plays in all the LW pilots leaving. It is true that for some of the historically minded players, WW2OL offers a "better" playing ground from a LW point of view. But with a very limited planeset and emphasis on ground war, I'm not sure if the flight sim enthusiasts will find themselves at home there. In my opinion, Aces High has a lot more to offer in the air combat department as a whole. That said, I'm sure that the competition will definately be a good thing and hopefully drive HTC to develop the early war aspects of the game even more enthusiastically.
Best regards,
Camo
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Camouflage
XO, Lentolaivue 34
www.muodos.fi/LLv34 Brewster into AH!"The really good pilots use their superior judgement to keep them out of situations
where they might be required to demonstrate their superior skill."
