Originally posted by BugsBunny
Because everyone will just go in that arena. Sorry, I am a developer 
Greetings from an old Air Warrior, and an AH squad member since we all moved here from EA, years ago.
This is my first post in this forum since we moved here, but I have a few things to say about all of these massive changes to the game arenas.
First, I have a couple of questions: Why was the MA split into several arenas? Was it a technical thing? Was it a business decision that HT hoped would make the number of subscribers grow?
Whatever the reason, I don't see the positive benefits of it. Constant change may be how real life works, but it has been my observation that if you constantly screw with a game, people eventually throw up their hands and find one that they can depend on to be somewhat predictable and simple to understand, even if stoned or drunk. (Sorry, just trying to be realistic here.)
On "combat game" vs "wargame": A video combat game doesn't need any set of gameplay rules except those that make the sides even, and it's all about furballing. You don't need any sort of historical realism, and in fact, you can invent weapons and vehicles just for the pure fun of it. That type of video game has its place. But by its nature, a "wargame" is a simulation of a particular situation, a particular set of combatants, and a particular technological stage of development for weapons, aircraft and vehicles. Saying to people who subscribed to AH because they enjoy a (yes, let me say it)
serious wargame, that it's just a game and they shouldn't take it so seriously, is tantamount to telling them that they should be content in playing a combat video game, even though what they bought was something else. Nothing good can come of this approach. A good WWZII wargame is going to have furballing, territory capture, defense, offense, strats, supply and communication lines that can be disrupted, etc., etc.
On squads: Squads are the real community for many of us. They are like families that you can count on in a sea of indifference and online anonymity. I guarantee that if you force squads to switch countries, or worse, fight against each other or log, you will kill AH. I can't speak for other squads, but the Flying Tigers AVG and SkyKnights are filled with people who are loyal to each other first, and to the game second, and often, squaddies re-up their AH accounts solely out of loyalty to their friends.
On hording: Sometimes you horde, and sometimes you get horded. The old gameplay model had an ebb and flow to it. I don't know about the rest of you, but I belong to a squad (The Flying Tigers AVG), and we fly with a sister squad of bomber pilots (The SkyKnights). With one MA, you played the hand that was dealt you by circumstances. When we logged on for squad ops, we played the game for our country (not "chesspiece"), whether we were the horders or the hordees. It didn't matter which was which, because the important thing was that we we took pleasure in flying combined ops with each other.
On Balance: I hear people say that balance is so very important. I simply don't agree with this at all. We've had just as much fun in fighting against a horde as in being part of one. This is an attitude issue - not a balance issue.
On ENY: Let people fly what they like. It is, after all, just a game. ENY just irritates people.
On whining: Is that what started all of this? Mass numbers of whiners attempting to control the gameplay? It feels like HT is surfing the whiner wave, instead of letting people just play the game and whine all they want - something whiners are going to do, no matter what HT does with the arenas.
Suggestion: If the split arenas are here to stay, let's see what happens if there is one old-style MA with a 600 person cap, hording allowed, may the best horde win, etc., etc., and see what happens. If, as Bugs says, everybody will just go there, then there is the answer to what the community wants - whiners notwithstanding.
Meanwhile, both the Flying Tigers and SkyKnights are losing players to other games in unprecedented numbers - something we've never seen before, and all for the same reasons: too much screwing with the game. There is a limit to how much crap people will put up with. I hope it ends soon.
Respectfully submitted,
Stiletto
XO
The Flying Tigers AVG - now in our 10th year as a squad
