As a lone gun in the game, I have played Rook for years. I went over to the Bish side for he very 1st time a month ago as I was curious as to how the Bish and Knit played and I wanted to help the underdogs who were short in numbers.
I cant say the reception was a warm one. Noone accused me of spying etc and a couple of the guys flying were genial enough, but there appeared to be no great willingness on the Bish side to combat the hordes against them.
When I asked about missions etc after seeing some poor slob post one in the interest of gaining some form of retalitory response, i recieved replies on how the Bish (those there on the day) prefered to fly in their squads and didnt want to join the missions of others. I thought that a little odd but accepted it as one of those occassions where we all like to do our own thing and not get caught up in the wanton needs of others online. However the 2nd, 3rd and 4th day with the Bish all appeared to be the same. No co-operation. No ingame banter about bandits on 6's or up high etc and I was left with the distinct impression that noone gave so much as a frogs prettythang about fighting back anymore.
I then made the mistake of asking about large squads in the game (Bish side) that were recruiting as I had been thinking about flying with a large group ingame as opposed to continuing my lonely efforts in the sky. This was about the only time I recieved any sort of response and while I can accept the dry humour of others and how its open to misinterpretation over the internet, again I was left with the impression that noone gave a hoot about my recruitment offer.
Now it could have been that noone wanted me. Not a problem as im only interested in those that did, but I remember thinking to myself, what if I was a Noobie just joined the game and happened by unfortunate circumstance to choose the Bish side as my intro to Aces High? If I was new, id have probably turned right back around and left the game with a not to friendly disposition towards it.
Continuing my quest for alternative side adventures, I went Knit. (Not that the knits had any lack of numbers to play with). Immediately I noticed a distinct difference in game play. Warm welcome, friendly atmosphere, helpful and their communication ingame was on par with that I knew as a Rook. So much so, ive decided to stick it out with the Knits for a while as the Rooks hardly need me and I wont be missed anyway.
I accept that I could have tried the Bish on a bad week. That my timings ingame may not be consistent with finding the best players the Bish have to offer in terms of collaboration wise, but I dont think thats the problem. Bish have some serious communication problems on their side of the pond. I wish them well, but I have no desire to fly there again.
This of course is one mans view. Yours may differ.
