Master of Your Domain!

[hubsonfire]

I would agree with most of that, except for the part about ganging. Dismissing the horde mindset as some fault of the victim's judgement is simply trying to blame someone else for their actions, which seems to be what you're decrying here.

Otherwise some good points. The overall attitudes I see lately, and the treatment and interaction of others is a bit lacking compared to the old days.

[FiLtH]

Alot of it also has to do with how the game is designed. In WW2 a bunch of planes met, fought, withdrew. Here you can get into a fight with one guy, with a clear sky. The fight can last a few minutes. Suddenly 2 dots appear...enemy. Here you have had this good fight, and suddenly its 3 to 1.

  Do you now run and not finish such a good fight? Now lets say you kill the first guy, and the other 2 rush in. You kill one of them but are now on the deck. While fighting the last guy, you see the first guy you killed barreling in to get revenge. Behind him comes the other guy you killed.

  You finish off the third guy and try to get some speed up to gain separation but the guy is gaining. He forces a fight. His bud is coming fast. Its times like that, that gets my blood pumping. Its the game I love. Ya, historically you probably would'nt get such a conga line, and more of a squad on squad battle, but its a rush.

   I think that people play the game differently. While some would avoid those situations like the plague, others seek them out. I don't think its so much what you do in the game, as one man's defensive SA, is another's "baiting the trap", its more of how those people react to the outcome. Some people will never take defeat well. Who knows..its how they were raised? Only child spoiled rotten always got what he wanted? Beats me. But for as many players there are in this game, and as much crap as you see on 200, its usually the same people doing the complaining. I think the majority are good players and folks.

  In the end its how you play YOUR game, and how you accept victory and defeat.

[ColKLink]

Alright allready, I admit it, I SUCK!! lol good post.

[mtnman]

I have long held the same general opinion expressed by Zazen in this post.

Zazen!

When it comes to a "smart" flying strategy, or a "risk it all" strategy, I don't think it can or should be seperated quite to the extent expressed by some.  

There is a lot of middle ground to play with.  Personally, I want to defeat my opponents- that is my goal.  So I fly somewhat "smart".  However- I don't want to beat them because all the variable's are in my favor, whether it be #'s, altitude, speed, etc.  So I try to set up engagements that are somewhat even, and challenging.  I don't mind being disadvantaged, and will often set myself up that way purposely.  Baiting the trap was a good way to describe it.  I hunt IRL as a major pasttime.  But I do it with a flintlock rifle and/or a redtail hawk.  Why do it if you need all the advantages of modern technology?

At the same time, I'm not going to fly "stupid", just to give someone else the satisfaction of beating me.  No matter what the situation, I'm going to try to come out of it the victor.  What is the fun of beating someone if they aren't also trying to win.  I don't feel I need to land all the time, and my stats will show I die the majority of my hops.  But winning IS my goal, so landing will come hand in hand with that.  Anybody can go find a furball and die in it.  It takes more brain-power to come out alive.  Unless of course you just hang out and wait for cherries.

Most chnl 200 whining is baseless anyway.  I took off from a field a few days ago, with a fully fueled corsair.  A higher, lighter, better turning plane(KI-84) was above me, chasing a friendly.  The friendly died, at which point the enemy plane dropped onto my six.  The fight was running East/West, so I "ran" North.  I was purposely dragging this con out to a "private" fight, out of line of the furball.  Also realize that this was the only enemy in sight, with about eight friendlies nearby, not to mention ack, etc.

So, I'm on the deck, with a KI-84 on my six D1000 back.  It would have been pointless for me to try to beat him immediately, so why try?  Even if I had tried, and lived a bit, he would have been ganged.  Where's the fun there?  One friendly asked if I needed help, and I told him TY, but no I was fine.  So I dragged him out of icon range of the field, where we could both have a higher quality fight.  He wouldn't get ganged, and I'd have some speed to manuever.  He came on chnl 200 and cried because I was running away, and wouldn't fight without an advantage.  He also mentioned how I would always run to friends and wouldn't fight alone.  As soon as we were out of icon range of my countrymen, I let him overshoot, and smoked his engine.  He promptly inverted his plane and bailed.  Who has the advantage in fight like this?  Our social structure is making it difficult for Darwin's theory to come to fruition nowadays I think.  My personal opinion is that folks like this would have been trampled by a mammoth in the old days.

Personally, I would much prefer to fight someone else who is using their brain and putting up a challenging fight.  If they are getting beat, and have the opportunity to extend and re-engage, then they should.  They don't need to head to the next county, but extending out 2-3K is reasonable.  Beating some of the more skilled pilots in this game is where the most satisfaction comes from.  But not when they are helpless.  What is the point?

MtnMan

[E25280]

Originally posted by Zazen13
At the risk of surmonizing I would like to discuss, as the title suggests, taking personal responsibility for outcomes. As we get an ever-increasing influx of newer players, especially those in the younger demographic, it becomes increasingly important, as veterans, to do our part to instill in them some of that accrued community culture. Part of that culture includes the epiphany of sorts bestowed upon us through experience whereby we realize that everything that happens to us in game is a direct result of decisions we ourselves make at critical junctures during a flight. To put this more succinctly, we are all 100% responsible for what happens to us, noone else, under any circumstances, ever..

Don't believe that?

I suggest in the hanger we are all equal, potential energy waiting to burst forth into the MA. We all have the same planes to choose from (relative perk balances notwithstanding). We all have total control over what country we fly for, whom we fly with, where we fly, how we fly, when and even if we fly. The moment we select a plane and take-off the outcome of that flight becomes the sum of all factors resulting from every decision we make starting with plane selection. If you get gang-banged, vulched, HO'd, rammed, cherry picked, bounced or just plain outflown, it's a direct result of decisions you made starting with which plane you chose and the manner in which you chose to fly it.

I know that is a tough pill to swallow, and those who haven't had their epiphany will still be mired in the murky sea of denial that is what I affectionately term , "The hapless victim syndrome", but it is true. There are no hapless victims in AH, if you truly believe you are the victim of some dastardly tactic, scheme, manuever, legitimate or not, you are in denial..plain and simple. To put this even more harshly, every negative outcome you experience in the game is entirely self-inflicted...

Once people accept that they are the master of their own virtual fate in the skies, certain things will start to happen. There will be alot less whining, there will be more mutual respect, there will be a greater sense of purpose with each flight, and ultimately, if understood by a great enough percentage of the population, a much more positive gaming environment for everyone. Therefore, everyone will have alot more fun and we will atrract and retain more new players/customers.

I think the problem and thus the impediment to attaining the epiphany for some is a stubborn reluctance to place value on the quality of their experience on the individual level of each flight all the way to how they approach the game in general. When goals are set that have nothing to do with the intrinsic value of each flight there is no culpability and mutual responsibility for actions and resultant outcomes. That is the biggest difference that seperates this genre of the past to that of today. Each flight is sacred if one truly quests to grow, in terms of self-fullfillment, in this genre. Each flight is an unique opportunity to learn and develop skills thru infinite variety of experience. By not accepting responsibilty for outcomes you are robbing yourself of your fleeting chance to learn from the decisions you make and the subsequent carefull observation of the insuing cause and effect relationships of those decisions and outcomes..Please don't be a perennial victim...Make a conscious decision to be The Master of Your Domain!

Zazen

. . .

Allow me to clarify in response to what Filth and Skyrock said. By taking responsibility for outcomes I was not insinuating necessarily flying to survive above all other concerns, albeit that could be construed as this concept carried to the far extreme end of the spectrum. I will be the first to admit while I may only die a couple of times a tour, I learn far more from those few deaths than a hundred landed sorties in most cases.

By making oneself accountable and not externalizing resonsibility for what happens to you in-flight you gain a unique perspective, an objective one, affording you an opportunity to fathom greater insight into the dynamics of what caused the outcome whether it was a positive or negative one. This enriches your library of experience, you can draw on it anytime you wish to avoid repeating mistakes

Conversely, if you are a 'hapless victim' then your perspective is purely subjective, everyone is doing unto you, you are no longer an active participant in your own mind, you are an object and the outcomes are a result of actions perpetrated against you. That mentality is a disempowering one that leads to alot of whining, needless animosity and a general mind-set not at all conducive to learning, which in and of itself accentuates the feeling of victimization.

A healthy way to think of AH is like winning the lottery. For example, say I won a million dollars. I sit the pile of cash in my living room and admire it. It really has no value of its own, only by virtue of the buying power it represents. So, the money is like a player in the hanger who hasn't chosen a plane yet. Now, once you spend that money the value becomes the actual manifestation of its potential, it's totally open ended, you can do with it what you please. This is like a flight in AH. I could choose to invest it wisely or I could choose to buy a Kilo of Peruvian cocaine, throw a party, and blame the cocaine dealer when my heart explodes.

I would conservatively estimate 90% of all voices of discontent, posts and rantings on 200, are from those which would, with their last dying gasp, vehemently blame the cocaine dealer for their untimely demise. So, even had they not actually died from their reckless abandon they would have gleened nothing from the negative experience, become none the wiser, doomed to perpetually repeat their actions. Just like the hapless victim in AH who blames everyone else when they get HO'd, rammed, vulched, gang-raped, cherry-picked etc...A wise person would learn from it and never need to repeat the experience, holding themselves exclusively accountable for the outcomes...

Zazen

That's a lot of words.

I would have just said, "Quit your B-iching."

But your wall of text works well too.  

[Spiffing]

well said, very true.

[Zippy41]

Very well put!!!

[stickpig]

Well thought out...Thanks for a flash of reality...

If you get yourself shot down it was your own fault for getting in that position.

[Bodhi]

Well said Zazen.

[Lunger]

Well said, I need to send my whole squad here to read this one!!
Best thread yet.

[Ghosth]

BRAVO Zazen very well said sir!


This is an online flight sim, everyone dies, yes even HT.
Secret is to learn from it, try not to make THAT Mistake again.

If you died you made a mistake someplace, even if it was just leaving the hanger.   On the other hand just because someone happened to kill you this time doesn't mean they "own" you. Doesn't make them a better player. We are ALL on this journey, enjoy the trip!

[SkyRock]

Originally posted by Ghosth
BRAVO Zazen very well said sir!


This is an online flight sim, everyone dies, yes even HT.
Secret is to learn from it, try not to make THAT Mistake again.

If you died you made a mistake someplace, even if it was just leaving the hanger.   On the other hand just because someone happened to kill you this time doesn't mean they "own" you. Doesn't make them a better player. We are ALL on this journey, enjoy the trip!

SkyRock<----owns Ghost!

[tatertot]

outstanding!!!        great post!!!!

[Shuffler]

[GFShill]

the only hope you have is to accept the fact that you're already dead. And the sooner you accept that, the sooner you'll be able to function as a soldier is supposed to function. Without mercy. Without compassion. Without remorse. All war depends upon it.