I've been flying online for over 10 years now. I spent a long time in Warbirds and was deeply involved in the Historical Arena, Special Events and general arena maintenance. I was involved to the point I wrote scripts in Warbirds script language to the point of completely automating a real time 72 hour Battle of Britain event. Also I was a trainer forever as well. Thats just to say I'm no rookie to any of this.
I've been flying in Aces High for a few years now ( I changed my handle back to my Warbirds handle recently) and it is a much better game.
It does, however, suffer from some player induced issues I haven't seen as prevalent before.
There seems to be an epidemic of whining about leaving people alone to fly in a 1 v 1 fight in a MMOG arena.
The best analogy I've heard is the Bruce Lee analogy. You know the scene where the expert martial artist is surrounded by 50 bad guys. They all take turns fighting the master, allowing them to kick their butts one at a time.
I really like the history aspect of the game and enjoy flying as part of a team. My squadron and the camaraderie are why I fly at all nowadays. The Dueling Arena is always available for 1 v 1 and I enjoy some good fights in there occasionally.
So I go into the AvA today. When I log in there are two guys flying allied so I up a C-205 and go hunting. I find some B-17's at 100 feet over a friendly field and attack them, dying in the process. I up another 205 and find the other allied player in a heavy Pony and kill him. He ups a Spit and I kill him in that. He ups some B17's and I kill one before I get an oil leak and go land. As I land I see a P38 swooping the field. I up a 190A8 and see Lonmower get swooped and killed by the P38 (Fudgums) a mile off the end of the runway. I levelled for speed and put the autopilot on to adjust my views while keeping an eye on the P38. I whacked a tree while adjusting my views so I upped another 190.
The P38 and Lonmower are fighting right over the base now. He must have upped right after he got killed. He was doing ok but not obviously winning so I jump right in and proceed to kill the P38. I never thought this was going to provoke the rules godz of the AvA to stir to action. But, alas, I was wrong.
I have always hated players trying to impose artificial rules. I've never understood it and, frankly, I take it as a sign of weakness to be exploited. My 30 minutes in the AvA is met with silly rules and insults.
Fudgums got his 1 v 1 with me a little while latter.
I think the AvA is suffering from a bunch of rules curmudgeons who can't have fun.
I have films as well. Maybe I will post my big gang/pick of fudgums for the AvA rules committee to judge.
