CC Miko. I agree 100 %. In my case I felt AH could not have been worse than AW so my optimism had a solid foundation to begiun with.
Many folks also confuse box games with being in competition with online games. Even if they are the same genre there is no comparing offline games, with 16/32 player modes, with any MMPOG like AH or WB's.
Also, IMO, a number of recent departures are hoping that a 1940 time frame will put them in the "properly modelled" and finally the "truly superior" plane over in that game/sim "elsewhere." Well
I think we may see a lot come back after they get to try it for for themselve in a week or two. When they finally see, what it is that they've been imagining for a year or more, as it really is. The rest will come back when "elsewhere" finally gets around to the 1942-1943 time frame
-Westy