Why are they leaving?

[Hungry]

I started AW in the fall of 95 (Mims), the thing I think I liked about AW was the FR - RR split, no offense to anyone but the FR crowd yes smaller seemed more about the flying and less about the Score and the noise.  The RR crowd was more like the Friday night bar scene.  AH seems more like the Friday night bar scene than the more serious minded WW2 flying enthusiast. Not saying all, but seems like. I got here when AW closed so I don't know if AH was ever like AW FR.

The point is if I had not taken so many breaks I wouldn't be flying period, the problem is in the relearning and the adapting to the game play style. 

Yes at many points I realized I was allmost missing some important things that were going on around me but when AW died I stopped letting the game dominate. 

Some of these guys leaving I think have played non stop, that's just too much the bar scene will burn you out.

Sorry for the ramble hope the above reads the way it sounded in my head, lol

[uptown]

  I never knew you were elevenK

[JB11]

? - JB11 - ElevenK - 1Eleven1 - JB11.  You don't think i was gonna give it away, did ya?   

  11

[MaSonZ]

Uptown, i believe its more or less the mentality of the MA.

As you mentioned theres the Hoarders, vulchers, milk runners, and the sort.

[Anaxogoras]

I played warbirds in the late 90s, and the only difference with AH is all the whines about cherry picking.

Seriously, people leave because they've been at it for years and get burnt out.  The game is addicting and after a while the dopamine rush just isn't there.  After hundreds or thousands of hours in the virtual skies, taking long breaks is healthy and natural.  Don't worry, they'll be back.

[999000]

999000<----------often wakes up in the middle of the night SREAMING.............109's high 6!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My thearpist refuses to forward my bill to JB11.
<S>999000

[TwentyFo]

Over-reaction first and foremost.

Video Games come and go, that's just how it is. People that have been playing for 10+ years have the right to find something else for entertainment. That is the nature of the beast.

[Spikes]

Honestly, I'm glad I only get to play once or twice a week for only a few hours. Keeps things interesting than some guys on here that log 7 hours a day for 30 days straight.

[TOMCAT21]

I guess things happen in someones life that become bigger than anything else. I have thought about leaving . When I came from Iraq in NOv emergency leave because my son was born with a rare heart disorder, I thought about quitting the game but I thought about it and I stuck around because I need the temporary escape from everything. Maybe I am totally off the mark of this post but I also decided to stick around because of the support I have gotten from my squaddies and associates on here.  Tomcat , out ...

[texastc316]

I never played AW or warbirds, I started Ah in 04 for awhile and came back in 06. The game is alot different than it was even in 2004 and 2006. Attitudes mainly. I see alot of "someone needs to do this or that" "The (insert chesspiece) never work together" The constant whine becasue someone killed you. " I need I need I need, gimme gimme gimme." This is a GREAT game. This is the most entertaining and involved game out there. HT has put together exactly what most of were looking for. Atleast for me anyway. But its what you make of it, there are lots of different things to do ingame, not everyone wants the same. I imagine alot of the old hands are tired of this crap. I think to make the game better its up to us, the players, to act like grown ups, quit squeakin so much and just play and have fun. Plus get SILATS new improved Squeaker Hack ready before Summer.

If all the Old timers leave, this game is done.

[Tr1gg22]

I think it is just because of the same old boring crap...Same basic game same old thing everyday...

[Zazen13]

People have always left for various reasons, people also come back just as frequently. People leaving always attracts 10 times the fanfare as people returning as negative issues always get more press than positive ones. This is a very mature community, most of the original participants of this genre are not gamers per se, but are WWII combat aviation enthusiasts, which is an important distinction to keep in mind when contemplating the state of affairs now and in the past.

Most of the squadrons I have been in during my 18+ years have been comprised of people who generally do not play any other game except AW--->AH. They tend to play for the love of the subject matter not for the love of "the game" itself. The more the subject matter tends to take a backseat to the "gamey aspects" the less appealling they tend to find it.

Certainly some do leave because of a subjective perception that the "game" is not as compelling as it once was for whatever reason. Sometimes that is true in some respects. But, retrospection has a nasty habit of turning artifacts of "fond memories" into flawed recollections tainted by rose colored glasses. With only a few exceptions those that I know from the "old school" days that profess leaving for "gameplay" reasons were at least partially to blame for their apathy by failing to adapt to the product and the players in an evolving way over time. You simply cannot extrapolate what worked 15 years ago in another product against different people to the MA of AH tonight without thoughtful consideration for changes in your overall approach to compensate accordingly.

The developer has a role in all of this too, as Pyro indicated a few months ago, full effort is going to be put forth into the development of the core product now. That will do a lot to restore lost faith in the development process itself and stimulate enthusiasm for the game. Hopefully this will act as a catalyst for a resurgence of interest and a return to the fold of bygone members of our long-toothed and fickle community.

[trotter]

Why are they leaving? If you take good air to air fights out of this game what is it? A poorly designed strategy game with tremendously outdated graphics, the only attainable accomplishment being "winning" the chance to start right from scratch again. The question isn't why they left, it's why people for whom the fight has lost its fun stick around for as long as they do.

[Ack-Ack]

Uptown, i believe its more or less the mentality of the MA.

As you mentioned theres the Hoarders, vulchers, milk runners, and the sort.

Don't forget the pathetic tools that vulch shade accounts, they're just as guilty and just as sad.


ack-ack

[Treize69]

I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that the average player now, in 2009, has become the younger, video game bred player who worries more about score and "winning" than the average player of 5 years or more ago, who was generally an aviation and history enthusiast here to get a bit of "the experience".

I was never in AW, but I've heard from several who played it that they really started going downhill when it was released as a boxed game and kids with no patience or knowledge of what the game was about started playing it and drowning out the "old breed". So many of them went over to WB.

Now I played WarBirds for several years, and was asked to become a CM just before I left it. I got fed up with it because of the almost daily swing from a simulation to a game, with the player base becoming more and more of a war-winning horde than a group of enthusiasts enjoying the fight and the experience of the scenarios and events. So I left in 2001.

When I came here and began flying regularly in 2004-05, the game was like WB was when I started- relatively mature group of core players and good, intense fights with folks who were in it for the fun, not the score. Then the massive influx of kids started, and it almost overnight got much worse than WB ever was. I've several times taken long breaks, usually with the intention of not coming back. Eventually I get bored with boxed games and come back for a while, and every time the progress is apparent on just about the first sortie. First was teh arena split, then the larger and larger maps, and finally this "Titanic Tuesday" which seems like an online daycare service instead of a flight sim. Now I usually spend half my time chasing high cherry pickers around the map who refuse to fight, even when they have every advantage, and the other half fighting mass hordes of skilless score-monger clones. Even among friendlies you can see the gameplay dropping fast- in the old days, you would be asked if you needed help before someone jumped into a 1v1, now you have to get to ramming distance to keep from killshooting yourself on all the kill stealers.

I can see why the "vets" are starting to leave in droves, and maybe they'll be coming back when they get bored and start to miss the good times. Unfortunately the "good times" are now far outweighed by the increasingly lame style of gameplay and immaturity of the players- some long time players who've been "infected" included.

I don't consider myself an "old timer", but I've gotten to the point where I basically just stick around for events and scenarios. I usually only go into the MAs or into the AvA during regular hours when I'm looking to try out a new plane or get used to a new setup in "combat" instead of offline where you can't really try it out.