Two concepts to clairify about this game to understand TIMID.
1. This is a game and a flight simulator in which no one dies.
2. Game definition of deing = LOOSING
Point (1.) has allowed a subset group of very talented computer simulation game players to push the theoretical limits of computer simulated WW2 aircraft in simulated combat beyond what MOST real WW2 pilots were willing to do because the price was their single REAL life. Unlimited Lives = Unlimited Opportunities for Skills Development = Grizz.
Point (2.) demonstrates the core of human nature is an aversion to LOOSING. WE ALL HATE TO LOOSE. Clinically its a very healty manifistation of our Fight or Flight response. Because we fear death we fear LOOSING. How each individual expresses a social response to LOOSING in this game then becomes a measure of their personal coping mechanism to the fear of loosing and FEAR in general.
Here is a way to understand why only a few in Aces High are as talented as Grizz, a third are solid good sticks and the rest run the gamut of fair weather players to pure cowardess. The Army performed a study to understand how and why soldiers react in combat. They found at Gettysburg a very common issue. Muskets that had been loaded up to 9 times and never fired. Reports of soldiers who would reload and hand their musket to a small number of soldiers who had no problem mowing down the enemy. Soldiers who would close their eyes every time they fired at another human being. And that third of solid soldiers who performed their duties as needed. This personality formula held true from Bunker Hill through Viet Nam.
Most humans do not handle fear very well, and in the heat of the moment during a combat immersion simulator we get what we pay for. A real response to fake stimulus by our older animal brain. Thus you get questions and contrversy about TIMID game play. The historical solution to poor fear response has been to publicly shame the individual. One of the Army's solutions eventualy was better training.
Horses and water come to mind about now because the definition of winning for some in this game is complained about as TIMID by the more talented. As long as you have an anonymous Internet, Public shaming is a WIN for the anonymous target of your indignation. After all HiTech did say this game is about pissing off the other guy. He never defined HOW............
Sure, my adrenalin goes up and thats what makes it fun, but by no means am I scared or do I sense any extreme form of fear. Are people actually scared by the game? I can understand peoples responses in real war, but I have never felt like my RL life was in danger and if I did, I wouldn't play the game... '
Better stated, are people that afraid of loosing that they refuse to loose to learn?
Isn't that what life is all about, learning from your mistakes and growing?
or is it just dweeby ego bs... aka, my ego is greater than my skills so I'm just going to be lame and beat my chest over nothing... look at me, I have a high k/d, (because I don't take any risks).