Nah! I get what I ask for in game, just logging too many hours and real life weighing in as well.
I would like to give a brief history of my experience. I started in august of '03. It was my first ever onlime game and it completely blew me away that technology had gotten to this point where you could simulate my dream of dogfighting world war two fighter planes. When I logged in, not being aware of how important your name is to the online gaming community, I wasn't aware that the number I typed in thinking it wanted my password would actually be the name I would introduce myself to so many eventual friends. My first ingame cpid was 031598, my daughters birthday. I went 3 months before I figured out I was dying on landings. I would just come in and hit the rnway and be in the tower. Then it took like what seemed forever before I actually shot someone down without HO'ing them. I decided to get a mic and talk to people about 3-5 months in. I bumped into a guy who befriended me and brought me into the 327th. His cpid was Spook. He then went with Vic, JB#, and now he is Creton. Eventually flying with the 327th I learned about the game. The first thing was views, WOW! no wonder I would only fly the yak la7 and nik. You could see out the back. I learned how to take out hangars and gv's. I learned about how you could control a cv group with low rank. So after about a year of getting better at cherry picking and vulching, I decided to go for rank. Eventually after learning the many score whoring tricks, (although there are some that I don't know about, like hit%) I achieved a rank of 5 overall. It was as good as I was going to be because of my fighter skills. If I didn't learn how to actually fight I would never get that K/T to come down low enuff to own #1 overall indefinitely. So I completely dropped the rank thing all together.
This brings up the involvement of community. In my squad the only thing I wanted to do was fight and learn to fight. I had absolutely no motivation to drop a bomb anywhere and didnt for the longest time. I liked and still like everyone I flew with in the 327th. I have met and RL befriended several in the squad. They are extremely nice and respectful people. I will always be friends with that squad because they are my friends in RL.
I noticed that some in the game knew each other and were well respected for there fighter prowess. It was like a secret club of kewl fighter jocks. I was enamored with the idea of being an elite fighter ace. I would sometimes talk/bull****/bug the fah k out of one of them until I got them so angry they would go to the DA with me a kick the watermelon out of me. One of these people was ManeTMP. At the time he was in "The Army of Muppets" what an awesome killer squad to be in I thought to myself. That squad Fn rules. So I changed my name to SkyRock and started being a fighter ace. I got pwned so many times that any normal person would be naturally humble enough to give it up. I kept on challenging everyone and trying to learn how they were doing things in the fight that gave them the advantage. One night I told ManeTMP that I would like to be in the Muppets. An invite appeared and I joined. Sniper was with us and he kinda befriended me and showed me the learning curve I was up against by totally pwning/serving/slapping the watermelon out of me in a spit! A few days later I was on and Mane asked me to leave the squad because someone in the squad was embarrassed to have me fly with them. I was feeling quite the fool for a couple of days and then I upped a base and the muppets were furballing there. I saw fester and PM'd him to ask him if he was aware of the incident. An invite to join popped up and I joined again. I flew with them for a few months and met some great folks. I unjoined the squad and went on my way flying with as many of the best sticks I could find. I developed an impatience that probably stems from certain anxieties I receive daily from my job. I was so impatient that I would only up bases that were about to get overrun, were being overrun, or very close to a massive furball. I started flying low and slow because it was the only way to get most to engage. Often, constantly fighting from a disadvantage, fed my verbal release of anxieties upon whomever did the cheapest shot. Although some deserve a callout, I was relentless and ruthless. I had an outburst just last night. I eventually became a Flight sim indigent junkie extrahunk! Well, I am not that person at all and I have to stop. I sincerely salute all who I am brothers with in this obsession with WW2 aircraft. There are so many very intelligent and creative people in this game it amazes me sometimes. I will keep up on the boards so I am not saying good bye to teh community, just to flying. Thanks to all who helped me and befriended me.
