COMMUNITY and #1

[NUKE]

Originally posted by Nash
I think it's brilliant because it's still there.

But you have to *choose* it. It's not foisted upon the newbie as part of the game.

No longer does the newbie install AH and get bombarded with "Kerry sucks". Ya have to want it. And if you do, you can't complain.

To me personally... It's made things more.... immersive.

It always took something away from the game when I could hear the "enemy" chatter about wotevah MSNBC. Now, if my own country chatters about it, it's kind of natural. I'd expect that. Even back then. But not from the "enemy".

Don't get me wrong... the community is important and all... It's just that I don't really feel like hearing whatever you think it is that's so important for you to say while I try to maintain control of an ahrplane.

I don't care about Bush when I'm up. I don't think that you should think that I should think that I care about Bush when I'm up.

To those who want automatic-in-yer-face-aol-chat:  Just what is it that you think is so important about what you say?

Bahhh

Channel 1 was great. It was always there when I wanted it, always ignorged when I wanted too......without squelching it. It was beautiful and enlightening, never pitiful or frightening.

Chanel one was a smoking gun and a 6 pack to go. Channel one was a Ken and and two Barby's.

Channel one was like an old flannel shirt and a pair of jeans without underwear.

Channel 200 is like kissing your sister....sure it's a lot of fun, but it's not the same.

[XtrmeJ]

Originally posted by Nash
I think it's brilliant because it's still there.

But you have to *choose* it. It's not foisted upon the newbie as part of the game.

No longer does the newbie install AH and get bombarded with "Kerry sucks". Ya have to want it. And if you do, you can't complain.

To me personally... It's made things more.... immersive.

It always took something away from the game when I could hear the "enemy" chatter about wotevah MSNBC. Now, if my own country chatters about it, it's kind of natural. I'd expect that. Even back then. But not from the "enemy".

Don't get me wrong... the community is important and all... It's just that I don't really feel like hearing whatever you think it is that's so important for you to say while I try to maintain control of an ahrplane.

I don't care about Bush when I'm up. I don't think that you should think that I should think that I care about Bush when I'm up.

To those who want automatic-in-yer-face-aol-chat:  Just what is it that you think is so important about what you say?

And you could'nt just squelch 1? You don't make sense hehe. You make it seem as if you are forced to watch ch1. Well you could squelch or ignore it. It is really the same as just switching to ch200 for the politics or switching away. The only thing that was good about ch1 was that it was a default thing that everyone could use, or simply squelch it. I don't see the hardships in that. A quick fix would have been to have an option if you wanted ch1 permanently squelched or not. You were never forced to watch the happenings on ch1.  I agree its a vigorous task have to squelch 1 .  But since this is the flow of things I will just tune to ch200.

[Nash]

Ice cream has no bones.

[XtrmeJ]

[Nash]

[XtrmeJ]

wait no this!
touche!

Actually I see your point quite clear heh. I see why they did this ch200 thing. It was actually a good idea, just in denile ch1 is gone I guess. It will liven up a bit once ppl get in the swing of things.

[DipStick]

Originally posted by TDeacon
The problem with channel 200 is that most people don't use it.  This doesn't mean they don't want to talk, however.  

For example, the other day I had an interesting, inconclusive dogfight which lasted 15 minutes.  Since neither of us died, I had no easy way to ID my opponent, even though I wanted to exchange observations after I landed.  I eventually tracked the guy down by:

1)  Guessing his country by looking at ownership of nearby bases.

2)  Going on channel 200 and asking if anyone was on from that country.

3)  When someone on channel 200 finally replied in the affirmative, I described the situation, which took some time, and requested the person go on that country's channel and inquire as to the ID of my opponent.  They kindly agreed to do this.  

4)  I was later informed of the likely ID of my opponent, and guessing at the spelling, typed his ID into the radio and was able to contact him.  

5)  Even though my opponent hadn't tuned into channel 200, it turned out that they were still willing to exchange friendly comments on the recent fight.  

Note how complicated this all was.  Had channel 1 still been operational, I would have been able to inquire directly, and would have gotten an answer immediately, not 15 minutes later after I landed.  

Get the picture???   :-)

Just goes to show you how RARE it is to get into an interesting fight anymore...

[FT_Animal]

Originally posted by Silat
This is more than a game. It is a chat room with planes. Or at least it should be in my opinion.

Community , community , community.

I have made some lifelong friends since I started flying back in the Jurrasic age of AW. My eldest daughter was in London and met Spiffy and his lovely wife. When I go to Seattle to visit my daughter I hook up with a handful of flight simmers that have become friends. I flew to Myrtle Beach to play golf with fellow flight simmers I had only known online. I will be hanging with NB and his son in Seattle in a month or 2. Who would have thought a game could actually produce real life acquaintences and fellow sheep shaggers?

Channel 1 in lieu of Officer Clubs was better than nothing. AW had it right by having an OC that you entered when you joined the game. There you could see all, friendlies and enemas, who were entering the game with you. You could chat and make friends which builds COMMUNITY.

I believe a strong (with teeth) and visual Moderator/Training corp would be the glue that holds the community together. This would have stopped 99% of the bad behavior on #1.

I hope that HTC sees how important community is to this type of game and does something about it.

                             

DAMNIIIT! I thought when I saw "#1" it was going to be about me, me , me.

I'm,...... hurt

Anim

[fffreeze220]

Whats the difference between 200 or 1 ??? There is no.
But we could need an OC like in AW that would be a ncie improvement.

[Ack-Ack]

Originally posted by Nomde
Silat's respected?

 PWND1

or as they used to say in that 'other game'...

A kill has been recorded...


Kidding aside, an active community is what hold these online games together.  Without an active and robust player community to support the games, the games will die out.



ack-ack

[culero]

Originally posted by Mathman
I still fail to see what channel 200 doesn't offer that channel 1 did except for one thing: a more or less captive audience.

The only other solution that I could see would be to keep channel 1 but offer either one or both of the following: a perma squelch for it or a feature that allows you to disable/enable it.  Seems to me that we already have one of them in channel 200.

Wouldn't it be more accurate to say "default" than "captive" audience?

And that's the whole point. Nash points out in another post that n00bs are the only ones who won't know about 200. That's an important distinction. Another important distinction is inertia - which will cause a significant number of folks who do know about 200 to not take the time to tune it.

Knowing people from the enema side as well as your own side is part of what keeps this game vital. Not having the "mixer" of a common comms channel as a default will tend, over a long period of time, to create a playerbase that is only familiar with their own side. The enema will become just some icons, voiceless shapes in the sky to joust against, simply more imaginative AI if you will. The community will lose rather than gain viability.

Your two suggestions (perma squelch of a channel or a toggle) are much better alternatives to eliminating 1 as a default. Another good idea is .permasquelch . This would make it VERY easy for those who had any complaint at all with channel 1 to address their issue quickly and easily, while still retaining the mixing bowl of the common channel that allows people to make friends (and enema they love to hate ) which is so much a part of what our community is.

culero

[Kweassa]

I agree with Mathman.

[jodgi]

Not very long ago I was a noob, with no clue about the game or the community.

The most prominent reason that I stayed and enjoyed AH so much was/is the community.

You make bold assumptions when you state that (most) noobs are being violated by ch1 bullcrap. Maybe it's a culture thing? Where I come from sarcasm and "mock up" wordfights (in lack of better words) are highly regarded forms of humour. I never took offense at anything typed on ch1.

From the start I got a lot of entertainment and help out of the ch1 chat and nonsense.

Sure, there are many things uttered on ch1 that we would be better off without. In my 18 months of playing this game I have never felt that the bad things outweighed the good.

I want ch1 back for my own self-centered reasons. Unless I was unique in enjoying ch1 as a blue eyed and tender noob, there is a chance that other noobs are missing out on the community feeling I got from the world of ch1.

I think ch1 has been essential in forming the AH community. Since new players may take some time finding out about ch200, it isn't the same as ch1. I was completely taken by surprise by the demise of ch1. I always thought it was an important part of the AH community.

I hope it will be back.

[jordi]

To me it is an EASY Choice . . .

If I want to listen to the ENEMY CHAN I tune to 200.

If someone ask how to talk to the enemy ( If he has chosen to listen ) I say tune to chan 200.

AND the ADDED BONUS is I can tune VOX to 200 and TALK to the person !

I had no problem tuning to chan 200 when asked to because an enemy wanted to talk to me.

Except for saying and Hi every once in awhile I have not missed chan 1 at all.

Probsably 75% of my CHATTING is with my SQUAD ( Virtual chat room ! )  - 20% with my Country and the last 5% on chan 1 or now 200.

Just my 2 cents worth.

[JoeBWan17]

Originally posted by TweetyBird
>>The 200 switch is one of the most brilliant things HTC has ever done. My kudos.
<<

I agree, but its not original. Throughout history, "unpleasant voice " have been removed (e.g., poisoning philosphers, puratanism, communism, and our current "political correctness.")
But everytime, its lead to change. I can't wait to see how this changes a virtual society.

Book burners have a very poor k/d ratio  I guess because they burn more than they read.

"I DON'T LIKE THAT!!! Remove it!!"
(in a shrill, hysterical, paternalistic voice) "WE MUST ****SAVE**** the ****CHILDREN****!!!!"

Yea right - and power has nothing to do with it eh?

Was just too hard to tune out the smack talk eh? Was just to hard not to read it eh? Yea right - sell it to someone in with a double digit IQ. Anyone in triple digits knows its a power play.


Trivia question - what was the reason given for executing Socrates? (if you didn't burn the damn book you'll know).

I don't usually contribute to these discussions, but I find this utterly absurd.  

The "unpleasant voice" has not been removed, it is still there.  You can still listen to it if you want to.  The difference is now that you have to make an active decision to listen to it (as opposed to an active decision to not listen to it).  To me, the difference is responsibility.  You make yourself more responsible for what you hear when you choose to listen to that channel, then you did when you just didn't bother (or didn't know how) to squelch it.

I also find the comparison to book burning absurd.  If you really want to run with a book analogy, the best I can come up with is this:  

It is the difference between having the book in your face when you wake up, and having to push it away if you don't want to read, compared to going over and picking up the book when you want to read it.