Ya know guys. I tend to listen more to people I know have other things for a comparison. You can't know something is wrong unless you know what's right. Did we ever have what was right? I dunno. It was fun we know that for sure. it was also much of the same, we didn't have everything we wanted then either, we made due with what we had and immersion carried it the rest of the way. HTC gave us what we begged for.
That said, the peeps that I know are long time vets, have placed issues on the table that all have relevance to the said "problem". There's not a lot I can disagree with. All valid, all the good fight.
But since you are vets, going back many many years and hundreds of thousands of hours logged on, let me drag you all back to a time we all remember, and we all tend to brag about as if every day was bliss.
Remember the AW BBs? Remember BW when it first popped open? I don't know much about WBs sorry. Have any of us not seen the same exact postings 10-12 years ago that we are reading today? Vulching, land grabbing, poor class, one-one fights, who's king of the hill (that day), aimless venting, baby seal smack talk.... I don't know for sure about some of you, but I DO remember reading the same exact complaints. Maybe not in such the same magnitude, maybe it was, but our game needed GAs and moderators for a reason too. I had my days as the village idiot too, yes I was once a baby seal dweeb smack talker too. You're all my friends even if we clashed "back then". But look at me in the eye and tell me the above is not reality. Check 6.
That said
Some of this is like a welders flash to some, if you look too long your eyes will hurt. Revert back to the training some of you had as GAs or Techs in AW. You KNOW how to ignore things. Don't look too long, don't consume yourself with it. IMO Milk Running keeps dweebs away from the good fights. Kinda like kids have a play area out of the way at adult BBQs. Who cares as long as they are out of the way.
If you like the game then stay and lead by example. If your example is weak and negative then you're not helping anything either. Causing mass flight will do nothing to improve it. Maybe we're all waiting for someone (HT) to knock on our doors and present us with a red felt pillow with everything we wished on it. We never got it in AW, we got most of it here, but we will never get it all. Since when are we such failures and whimps that we allow the baby seal game box crowds to claim the sim as a game to be broken?
There is a constant influx of new players, if you want the sim to die, don't allow new players and shame them like FR elitest did in AW and it will die soon enough. What I am saying is, leading by example doesn't stop when the first crews of noobs graduate into acceptable.... it has to keep going. If you're gonna brag about being a long time vet, then we're gonna have to prove it.
Don't pound on HTC about this or that. They gave you a community to run and form, it's our job to police it and keep it within history, and immersion, and most of all fun. No one else is going to set the good examples except us. Stop whining, stop crapping on each other and teach. I don't care how great you are, if your attitude sucks, then you suck. Being a vet does not empower you to claim it, do nothing, then whine about it,.. that's someone who may be a vet, but never "got it", or forgot it.
Take the dern sim back. HTC isn't going to do it for you, the noobs aren't going to do it for you,.. you have to do it for you. Show them how to have fun in immersion of history. Show them how to laugh things off. Get the sim back on track. Points do NOT matter.. the MA is just for practice. events is the real top shelf.
Some say, "well we used to do this and used to shame them over that",.. well,..why did it stop? Crack the whip. What happened to some of you who used to be willing to teach, instead of getting sucked into smack dweeb zones? Who really gave up here, HTC or you? Seems to me he\they are still working and we quit.
Why are you getting all upset and paranoid about a few or several great people leaving? Did you consider that they are leaving because they got sick of towing the line alone? Yes it saddens me too.
If you stop being the complainer and start being the leaders again these people will come back, and noob butts will follow. To leave it up to just few vets to keep things straight, and history not forgotten then maybe you're not doing your job to preserve your community within reason. If you leave this up to just a few bold noble people,..then they will tire and leave. Maybe some of us let them down, maybe it's not all on the noob? If so as vets we have shamed ourselves putting it all on them.
You could be the ultimate best pilot ever, if you're not having fun, it's becomes totally irrelevant in the big picture if you're number 1 every tour. Since when did skill take over immersion and fun? Worried about score and wins is for those who lost their way, or never "got it".
Some of the whining and finger pointing in this thread as to search for blame as to why they are leaving,... may in fact circle around to point at you. If you want these people back and you don't want other people to leave,.. then get off your butts and take the SIM back... not in a cruel way, not being a punk bully know it all,..not shooting your mouth off at dweebs or acting like one,.. take it back by leading by example the right way. DO NOT EXPECT INSTANT RESULTS.... one noob\dweeb at a time it will work out. But it never stops.
If you love the game, as I do, as CorkyJr does, or the others we're so concerned about losing, get up and do something about it,.. DO something. Teach the history, teach etiquette and don't expect perfection...lend a hand in events, lend a hand in training,.. DO something besides belly ache, we're Vikings dern it act like one. This belly aching could be the very thing that's driving people away. "You ran from me, I am better then you",..... so what, if you ain't having fun it's means nothing.
Some of you know me well enough to know, I would do ANYTHING for you IF I can, you want something built, you want help on something, you need graphics for your events page, .. you KNOW I will do it all you have to do is ask and you know that,... Us AWers are like family even if we hated each other, AHers have now been playing long enough to earn that same status, don't be elitist, it's distasteful, allow them into the fold.. You KNOW I am just radical enough to put reality in front of you,.. with good intensions, tough love. And that's what this whine is about,.. hoping I can wake the vets I know, admire and remember to be vets again.
There are a couple suggestions I could make that might inspire some to think about it.
I think some of you have played the game to it's limits and need a new spark. Just a couple thoughts to ponder that I am sure have been said before.
1) Create an arena where is full 100% realism, no combat trim, no flight aids, straight up full tilt poker. Anything that was set for noobs, gut it for this arena. Make it so it doesn't even work. Give the vets something else to achieve, another rung on the ladder to climb. Not to cause separation or division in the masses but simply because the game needs a new approach, something new\fresh\different, expansion. PBJs get old every day.
2) Let Moderators be seen, knowing from experience you don't have to say or do a dern thing just the visual alone will stop some things from getting blown out of purportion. I used my game name in both personal flights and Mod\GA flights I never had a problem with it. Although some prefer two accounts. It doesn't create miracles but it DOES help. The whole time I was a GA in AW I only used my powers 2 times, once being in a scenario. Most of that is because they knew me or someone else was there which caused second thoughts you don't have to place yourself in their face, just wonder in from time to time. If a situation is out of hand you become the voice of reason in private and talk them down from jumping off the cliff. Most times they end up respecting you in the end, it's skill train for it. Most everyone involved in events etc.. has already had that training.
But from what I learned, you learn the most about flying and your mistakes when you fight a friend. You won't learn anything but how to talk smack when you fight personal enemies. Rivals is great, making personal enemies is unhealthy, not only for you, but the whole community who has to read\watch it.
If you want to fly old school there are still plenty of us here to do it with. Oldman, CorkyJr and many others have offered many times,.they will give you old school on a silver plater, take it. When someone sees how much fun you have with it they will want it too,.. again, their butts will follow.
I'm sorry if I wasted your time with this. Maybe I shouldn't have posted this. But IMO, these are things that MAY need to be said. And maybe I'm just still just a village idiot. <shrug>
So lets pull up our pants, act like the Vikings we are and do something about this. Those who left will be over-joyed to return, help them pull the line that makes the sim,...a sim. It takes a special person to be a simmer, any moron can be a gamer.
That is all,...beat me as you feel you should.
#1 rule = Fun First. Supreme skill is an added bonus.
#2 rule = Arenas are just for practice.
<S>
Animl
