Originally posted by Oldman731
This rang a bell in my hollow head.
It seems to me that the WWII historical aviation enthusiasts have been in the minority - and a very small minority at that - for quite a long time. Probably AH started out with them being in the majority (I wasn't here to confirm this, but I have heard tales told around the camp fire, and I saw the change occur in AW). But now it seems to me that most of the people who fly here have, at most, a very basic concept of WWII aviation, gleaned from such sources as The History Channel. There are many more who seem to have no grounding in the history at all, but who were attracted by the opportunity to have a win-the-war game using the equipment their grandfathers told them about years ago. Or, failing that, using equipment which they may have seen on The History Channel.
While I instinctively resent this, I also recognize that times have changed, I have grown old(er), and kids no longer are interested in reading about the WWI aces, or the WWII aces, or history in general. The world moves on. All you have to do is compare the populations of the early-war, mid-war, and late-war arenas (heh, much less Axis v. Allies) to see that performance and success are what matter most to the overwhelming majority of our group.
The historians among us can scratch the dirt and cluck loudly and peck each other until we bleed to death and die in the dirt, but the rest of the world is moving along by us and paying very little attention to our concerns.
- oldman
You know, before I bought AW3 one rainy day, I'd never even heard of a P51 or a Spitfire, so I suppose I was one of the guys that you'd instinctively resent... But, OTOH, games like this certainly did spark a true interest in me that I now have a fairly decent chunk of my personal library devoted to books on WW2 aviation in one way or another... Die cast models, trips to airshows and museums...
Basically, I've gone from someone who might have thought the show, "Dogfights" was cool because of the graphics, etc., to someone who thinks the show is cool based on how it looks exactly as it did in my head when I was reading about the dogfight in question (especially that Mustang vs. 109, prop-hanging fight, forget the names)...
I'm no expert on the topic, by any means, but I'm also certainly not reliant on the history channel for my information anymore, either.
I'm sure there are others like me. People who grew to enjoy the same interests as you, but who probably never would have been able to if it weren't for games like this.
Give newer people a chance, and I'm sure they'll join that fold, too.
