Originally posted by Captain Virgil Hilts
The AH Main Arena has been unbalanced on a regular basis ever since I came to AH in 2001. It comes and goes, always has, and likely always will.
Just sayin.
The thing is, as time went by, the cycles intensified. What started off as "in the hole" in 2001 (when I started as well) is a much different thing than the extended cycles the population went through in 2003 and 2004. In 2001, a country being a bit low on numbers for a month was "in the hole". By 2004, you had countries that were looking at being 20% of the population for 6 months at a time. I remember the Knights were low for a long while, then it was the Rooks turn. I haven't really paid attention for a couple years (hell, it has been a couple years since I played, really) but I imagine it just got worse.
I think the main focus of the format change is to bring back peer pressure as a way of influencing behaviour. In a 650 man arena, getting called out by someone for acting like a dink is meaningless, at best. At worst, you get into a juvenile flame war on Ch1 (or 200).
In a 150 man arena, people KNOW each other. I always thought it was funny when people would say "Score don't matter, people KNOW who the GOOD pilots are!", because in a huge arena, that isn't true. "People" know who some good pilots are, but mostly they just know who has the biggest mouth, and who can brag on themselves the best. Please note that my definition of "good" means only good as far as good in fighters, I never cared much for the other play formats.
In a 150 man arena, you get wasted by someone you go "holy crap, how'd he do that!?" You might even ask - and in a 150 man arena, he might even answer you. In a 650 man arena, you just think "meh, he got lucky", and even if you ask, odds are good you won't get a response, because it just doesn't matter to him. You are just another noob.
A small arena format fosters better behaviour, in my opinion. It will definately take some time to "breed out" the hording behaviour, and honestly I don't know if it is even possible, given the natural tendency towards the path of least resistance. But there is definately a possiblity of that happening in the smaller arenas, and not at all in the larger ones. For that reason alone I think the change is a good one.
