A prominent player has recently posted that he has burned out.
It set me to thinking about what is fun in the game.
I am easily amused. When I land, I like to go to external view and look over the excellent skins. Same goes for inflight in a bomber, with the added bonus of low altitude flight. 
to the artists.
The feature attraction in the game is flying with and against other people. Period. What makes it fun is the unpredictability. Every so often, the outcome of a fight or base capture is suspenseful. The best actions come down to one shot, be it an overshoot, killing a troop, killing the troop killer or whatever. That’s where the fun is. to the players.
A while back, a guy posted that he set a goal for himself to land 2 kills in every fighter available. Having Lusche-like tendencies, I started tracking how many different planes in which I got at least one kill, per tour. One tour, I went for 10 kills in as many planes as I could (much more game time back then.) I went a few tours in 20 ENY and above planes.
What else is fun in the game?
I think there are 2 kinds of burn-out
#1 when you are stuck, killed the same old way over and over not understanding why or how to correct it. This foments unconfidence and frustration. I would say almost every player goes thru this at some point. Usually results in the 1st "long" break from the game.
#2 Players like grizz, suns, levi, 2bighorn, del " at one time" and others, whose timing and gunnery are so good that the "challenge" if you will is gone. Last time I fought Grizz his gunnery was so good the need for him to use ACM was negligable so this foments a lack of challenge. Essentially these guys burn out from beating their 5 year old sons at airhockey over and over, it is not fun for them but fun and challenging for the kids.
Both types of burnout are real and run their course in time.
What is fun for me is that one shot! It happens now and then, more often as you get better. You know the one I'm talkin about, the one that to yourself makes you say WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOA! with a small chuckle soon after. Also when you play against QUALITY players and you both have a great deal of respect for each other no-matter who wins, if you lose you are thinking to yourself, WOW that was crazy!!! you also know it's only a matter of time till you do it to them
and they will be thinking WOW.
It is difficult indeed to identify what keeps me here, if you think about it, it really is a silly thing for so many adults to be doing so often. So with that said I think it may be just the fun of association and common interest that keeps the candle lit.
Thank god this wasn't around when I was a kid, I may never had gone outside!!!
JUGgler
