Bit late with this because I don't check the boards much anymore. But I hope the perspective may still be useful, because I seem to be in a bit of a different category than a lot of you posting here.
From my very first scenario (the BOB a few years a back) I became a scenario Junkie. I haven't been involved in as many as most of you, but quite a few: Kurland, Big Week, 2 BOBs, Okinawa, Malta, Rangoon, Midway. The only one I've really loathed was Midway, mainly because of some blatant gaming (using B17s as fighters) and because the planeset wasn't really up to it. My favorites? Buffing in Big Week and, surprisingly, Okinawa playing Axis. But I've loved all of them (except Midway). I don't care about alt controversies. In Malta I was in a couple of fights where the 109s arrived much higher than we did (and I'm sure on other parts of the field the allies were arriving to the fighter higher than the Axis). We didn't whine about it, we simply dragged them down and killed them (and knackered their buffs on the way). The way I see it, that kind of thing actually makes the scenario more realistic. Real warfare was seldom fair, and pilots were jumped by enemy with a substantial alt advantage all the time. They would have loved it if someone had arranged things to try and level the playing field. I rarely get the chance to fly all the frames of a scenario; RL is just too busy for that. I've usually flown with squaddies, but recently I've been part of mixed squads. And that has been great. I've enjoyed meeting new people and gaining respect for people I've only seen on the boards or whom I've never even met before. And I've learned a lot from flying with the likes of Brooke.
But here's the deal. Scenarios are practically the only thing I fly in AH now. Recently I've made a couple of forays into the AvA arena (loved the rolling planeset). And I'm part of a squad that used to have a substantial presence in AH, both in the MA and especially in the scenarios. I don't think anyone would describe the Firebirds as one of the flashier AH squads, and we certainly weren't the largest. But we've been there in the scenarios for lo these many years.
Most of us don't fly AH at all any more. And a few of us, like myself, only hang on for the scenarios. The reasons are many. Some are just a little burned out on flying in general. But most of us are spending all our available gaming hours flying IL2/Forgotten Battles/Pacific Fighters and loving it. The reasons are many, and probably nothing you haven't heard before. We like flying planes with realistic engine behavior (I had forgotten how much this mattered to me, until I pinged a 109 the other night in AvA and watched it fly around with a smoking engine for 10 minutes). We like flying planes with realistic cockpits. We like the more realistic damage modelling. We like--and here's where it starts to become relevant to scenarios--flying the obscure planes as much as the more well-known ones. And to judge from the population on the various FB arenas, a lot of other people do as well. Why is it that people there don't seem to mind flying obscure early war biplanes or strange variants of Russian (and American) aircraft that few have ever heard of? What makes them want to attempt carrier take-offs in a wildcat where they have to hand crank the gear?
I think the answer is love of immersion, love of something a little different, and an interest in challenging yourself. I think those are the things that scenarios should be about.
But, quite honestly, AH tends to make all of these things a little difficult. I personally don't fault any of the scenario event organizers. I think they have all done a fantastic job. No one is getting paid to do this, and they all put in a huge amount of time designing and coordinating these things. I couldn't imagine myself doing any one part of their job half as well. But, AH itself. . .welll. . .
Let's agree that there are different kinds of immersion. But let's also agree that AH has dropped certain kinds of immersion based on realism in order to accommodate a less specialized player base (so no realistic engine behavior, cockpits, damage modelling, etc.). And one of the things that has really hampered scenario designs, it seems to me, is that designers are faced with making endless series of substitutions because AH long ago stopped developing its planeset in any meaningful sense. When I first joined AH I loved the fact that it contained many planes I hadn't flown anywhere else, and for a while, more of these were added. But for a couple of years now, all we've had is yet another variant of things that we already have. So scenario designers are faced with doing yet another Pacific scenario with a JU88 masquerading as a Betty; with doing BOB without the most common Luftwaffe bombers, with doing a Russian scenario that can't use any Russian bombers at all. And we can't do any scenarios that employ any really quirky aircraft (something that might bring new people in if they could try something really novel).
So I don't think AH makes it easy for a successful scenario. And I also don't think that any of the things you are all proposing here (better marketing, etc.) will really do anything, mainly because, as I said above, I think most scenario teams really have done a sterling job.
The big thing you design teams are battling is the MA "instant success in an uber ride win at all costs" mentality. We could all argue over what exactly this mentality is and how pervasive it is, but the fact is, that when you are trying to get people to attend scenarios, even those who have played scenarios before, you are asking people who spend most of their time flying as apples to fly as oranges.
So there is only one thing I see that could change this: Tour of Duty 2, or Combat Ops, or whatever it is being called now, when it actually arrives. This could, if it works well, give people a taste of immersive combat environments, success based on mission completion, teamwork, etc., all the things that scenarios are about. Gradually, it could start to change the way people approach their flying, so that scenarios will start to be seen as an extension of ToD, rather than as something completely alien to the MA. My dream would be to see the MA shrink in population to the size of the old CT! OK, so that will probably never happen, but you see the idea.
Forgive the late night ramblings, but I'm bored with the Olympic coverage already. And please don't interpret this as a bash AH post. There's a good reason I still have an AH subscription! And I plan on being there for the next scenario, for as many nights as I can handle, and dragging as many of my squad members who still have accounts in with me.
