I totally agree with JB42 <S>. It's relative noobies and pandering to them and furballers. When you said put a quarter in i laughed caused that's exactly what i think AH is... an arcade game. I could see that when they came out with the silly ww1 arena. But like tonight it's not even that. With a 29 ENY in one arena and not able to go into the other arena, the only choice is to quit. Almost everyone flies the late arenas. I don't know the use of the early or mid arenas. A lot of good my $14.95 is. 59 quarters to pull the plunger and watch the ball. Need to change my hit sounds to "ding-ding".
To be fair, graphics wise I am impressed with the new towns and fields. I don't mind them being harder cause that just takes more teamwork. (something the knights need to re-learn) 
What would you have HTC do there Mister Wizard? See, you, JB42, and the rest whining in their Gerber pudding should think back to when you were noobs and logged into the main arenas for the first time. But then I'm sure all of the "I've been here since AW on Genie" "oh the good ole days" crowd were experts before they even saw the game. Fact is
everyone starts out as a noob and if the game forced you to play the way you're thinking it should be done right now, very few would be here lamenting the goold ole days, you would be doing something else.
The main arenas exist to give every player from 2 week geek to uber ace experten a level playing field. Everything that happens is
player choice. They have to be that way or the population of players you see now would not exist, very few people would extend beyond their 2 week trial. Once you clowns get that into your little craniums life will be much easier for you. But then maybe that's what all the short sighted little minds of the adult children crying in their oatmeal want, only the airplanes they want to use being available in the hangar, 1999 graphics and terrains, everyone forced to play the way they think it should be played, and just 50 other 1d10ts in the same arena doing the exact same thing, regardless of whether or not HTC could stay in business.
You want something besides arcade? Go to the AvA, or participate in a scenario. But then you probably couldn't handle the settings...so that would mean arcade is what you really want.
gyrene81 now to you sir, i may owe an apology. i have reread the conversation between us and maybe my original responce to you was hostile in its mannerism when i wasn't intending to be so. if i am the one that ruffled the feathers between us then i do apologize. this does not mean i agree with your point of view, to the contrary i still think a once in a while FFA arena would make for a fun and interesting night. but i had no intention of turning this thread into anything more than a good hearted discussion, not into an argument or a battle of wordy insults. i was and still am serious when i inferred ( 
) that you were intelligent. you are well spoken and intelligent in your posts. so i do retract and apologize for any and every statement i made to the contray of that fact.
FLOTSOM, no need for an apology. I fired first on the merge. One thing that bothers me to no end is to see grown men spending precious moments of their lives crying about a video game in a public online forum like children throwing a temper tantrum in a store, and I do not hesitate to point out the flawed intellect behind that kind of behavior. Your choice of words prompted my rather sharp response.
I realize I'm probably in the minority with the belief that AH is a game that has been created in a manner that allows me to make of it what I want. There is not one other person playing AH that dictates how my life turns out on any given day. Don't get me wrong, there are things about AH that bother me but I cannot substantiate my dislikes with adequate historical documentation so as an adult I make the choice to continue without putting blame on HTC for what I find to be to my disliking. I don't enjoy every aspect of AH or the events as they occur in the main arenas, but for me to dwell on what I dislike and allow it to taint my experience puts the power and the responsibility of my enjoyment on the shoulders of HTC and every other player in AH. And no one carries that power over me, but there are grown men within this community that cannot take such responsibility upon themselves and feel justified in making everyone else responsible for thier experiences. If they would "man up" like the rest of us adults, their experiences could very well be different.
