Pilot career

[JOACH1M]

dweeb 1: 'Oh hey I need one more bomber kill to get this new uber award.'

dweeb 2:'Oh ok friend, I will swap sides for you and fly a bomber.'

dweeb 1: '♥'



dweeb 3: ' I need to not be killed for another 20 kills to get my timidness award'

dweeb 4: 'what you going to do?'

dweeb 3 'Fly at 30k all day and not fight at all if there is a risk'

dweeb 4: 'Oh good idea, let's all do that.'



dweeb 5: 'Hey noob, do you have your TBM HQ raid badge yet?'

noob 1: 'er, what... no, I've only just subscribed, what are you talki...'

dweeb 5: 'OMFG you suck noob. You'll never be good at this game.'

noob 1: 'I wonder what that WWIIonline game is like.'


And what Fugi said

Reminds me of CoD...camping (sitting high alt, being timid) calling people n00bs for not being a gamer. And boosting to get score up

[Lusche]

It's not the consoles that are bad, it's the KIDS that come with them! 

I'm afraid we do need them. If we keep AH an "Old Gentlemen's club", there soon will be no more AH.


On the topic of Pilot Career: I don't think it's bad per se. I do not need it, but I'm and old man & air combat addict. But I remember well, back when I was like 13-17 immersion and a story was a big factor in the games I played.  I welcome every addition to AH that may help keep mid and long term interest of players up, draws more players into AH and gives them more to accomplish or do, as long as it doesn't come at the expense of basic flight / weapon modeling or a "RR Arena".
Awards, new tank controls, squeakers... I'm willing to accept a lot to keep this thing going.

We do need more youngsters, more fresh blood, more "gamers". Sometimes we (I include myself) forget that this game wasn't targeted at true "flight sim purists" from the start. We don't have advanced engine management, simplified flaps, autotake off, and you can find many places where AH had been loathed for this approach

[mechanic]

I disagree Lusche.
What you describe will perhaps keep 'a game' going. It will however have killed off what was 'AcesHigh'.
I don't think the object should be to keep any game going just for the sake of it. If we cannot keep the spirit of Aces High going, then why bother?

Don't get me wrong, I love this game and want it to continue. I just believe we can find better ways to attract customers and still keep the game we love, rather than selling out and competing in the console shooter style market.

[Rob52240]

Put the medals on their plane/vehicle, like noseart

[jimson]

If we keep AH an "Old Gentlemen's club", there soon will be no more AH.

Yep, "fight for the sake of fighting" with no immersion or role playing aspect isn't enough anymore IMO.

[Lusche]

I disagree Lusche.
What you describe will perhaps keep 'a game' going. It will however have killed off what was 'AcesHigh'.
I don't think the object should be to keep any game going just for the sake of it. If we cannot keep the spirit of Aces High going, then why bother?

Don't get me wrong, I love this game and want it to continue. I just believe we can find better ways to attract customers and still keep the game we love, rather than selling out and competing in the console shooter style market.

The question would be. Which better way?

Let's face it: Players with a (more or less) vast knowledge of WWII aircombat before joining the game are getting fewer and fewer. WWII is on the way of becoming just another war of the distant pasts, planes of that era that filled TV shows and every young boy was building plastic models of are getting more obscure by the day. I'd even dare to say. Every old-fashioned enthusiast has already played or at least tried AH. The pond of players being driven by an inherent fascination of WWII air combat is drying out.
On top of this we have also the change of general gaming culture. Once, you could expect any PC player having a joystick and at least having tried/played one or more "flying  games". No today anymore. And many do not play on PCs anymore at all. And once AH (AW/WB) was one of the few real massive multiplayer online games. But in the last 10 years we have seen an online gaming revolution with a myriad of games to chose from. And those games are AH's competitors as well, especially if you take into account the change in player demography I just pointed out.

It's my firm belief that it's just not  "the economy" that has caused the overall player numbers to drop significantly, but very much is due to these reasons



The question would be (even though it's not really up top us to answer that, but HTC): What is the essence of AH, what is the core that need to be preserved, and what aspects could be added without compromising it? For me, it's the flight model and the planes and vehicles of WW2, and the resulting combat, in as much variety as possible. If additional control modes help getting players here without changing to that very core, so be it. If fancy medals and a pilot's biography web-page do help, so be it.

Times are changing, and we (that includes us players!) have to adapt. I don't want AH to be the third hobby of me I see going down the drain
We can't afford too much elitism and resentment of any change that even vaguely smells like "console".

[mechanic]

You make some very good points, but I still disagree on a few key parts.

1) The pond of new enthusiasts may be drying up. However there are hundreds of us (enthusiasts) who are still subscribed and don't plan on dying off within the next 10-30 years at least. So enthusiasts will still populate AH for atleast another decade if nothing changes. If the game becomes a console clone we may very well lose alot of that player base of WWII enthusiasts(i'm not resentful, I own an xbox!).

2)That the way to get new players into the game is to offer some phoney awards system that accomplishes absolutely nothing and will be gamed just like the ranking system. The first time I got a salute from a vet when I was a new player, that felt like an accomplishment to me.

3)That WWII enthusiasts will vanish and it will become 'just another war'. I see plently of young kids joining AH each year. A good proportion of them are enthusiasts in aviation and WWII history.

 I was 19 when I started this game and I had been an enthusiast of WWII aviation for most of my life which started in 1983. I am 28 now and still playing the game, which equates to something like $1500 in subscription fees. I will absolutely stay for another 9 years and double that if the game stays as fun as it is now.

Enthusiasts are a long term investment.

The xbox kiddies will buy a new game, play it for 6 months at the most, then never play it again. That's the problem with awards and prestige style gaming, once you reach the top the game is finished and loses it's appeal.

Xbox kids are a short term investment.

[hyster]

@ lusche
the figures i put up were just a guide.
obviously the figures would need to be change from achievable for nearly every 1 to near imposable for the top 1.
i dt no enough about the stats of players as a whole to say what they should be.

i used sniper as i couldn't think of another word to use.

[W7LPNRICK]

Anything that would deter folks from actually fighting, I'm against.  Too many folks now only fight when they know there is no 'risk'.  For AvA or something similar it would make more sense.

I don't understand this fear of being "Cartoon-Killed"...? I never hurt me even the slightest bit. In fact, I have a lot more fun when I charge in Balls to the Walls & who cares, especially in tanks. I rack up a lot more kills than I would if I just sat there. It's an aggressive style, but it's mine. 

[Penguin]

You make some very good points, but I still disagree on a few key parts.

1) The pond of new enthusiasts may be drying up. However there are hundreds of us (enthusiasts) who are still subscribed and don't plan on dying off within the next 10-30 years at least. So enthusiasts will still populate AH for atleast another decade if nothing changes. If the game becomes a console clone we may very well lose alot of that player base of WWII enthusiasts(i'm not resentful, I own an xbox!).

2)That the way to get new players into the game is to offer some phoney awards system that accomplishes absolutely nothing and will be gamed just like the ranking system. The first time I got a salute from a vet when I was a new player, that felt like an accomplishment to me.

3)That WWII enthusiasts will vanish and it will become 'just another war'. I see plently of young kids joining AH each year. A good proportion of them are enthusiasts in aviation and WWII history.

 I was 19 when I started this game and I had been an enthusiast of WWII aviation for most of my life which started in 1983. I am 28 now and still playing the game, which equates to something like $1500 in subscription fees. I will absolutely stay for another 9 years and double that if the game stays as fun as it is now.

Enthusiasts are a long term investment.

The xbox kiddies will buy a new game, play it for 6 months at the most, then never play it again. That's the problem with awards and prestige style gaming, once you reach the top the game is finished and loses it's appeal.

Xbox kids are a short term investment.

I'd disagree on the point of the young being a short term investment.  I joined AH2 because I saw the commercial, played the offline for at least six months, and then my parents let me play it online.  I found a squad of squeakers, joined up, and we had fun just messing around (Case in point, Operation: Public Nuisance, where we all jumped in Boston IIIs and strafed everything that we could find).  I've moved on since then, but it has always gotten better.

I've been playing for years, and I think that there is more to AH2 than enthusiasm for the most brutal conflict in history or a love of aviation.  There is a sense of community, continuity and cameraderie that one only finds here.  Yes, there are old coots who want to see you cry, but when I joined, a nice old man named SgtTalen showed me the ropes.  He was a large part of the reason that I stayed, along with many other squeakers and trainers.

The gameplay can be tedious and the learning curve is steep.  The playerbase is becoming limited and the graphics are sometimes cheap.  But that's not why I come back.  I come back because I know that there are at least forty other human beings on the other side of that screen whom I can call 'friend'.  That's why I come back; day after day, night after night.  It's not the graphics, the gameplay or the medals, it's the community that is the meaning of Aces High.

-Penguin

[Slade]

Cool idea.

Maybe add something that can tally and reward a pilot for participation in base taking.

Something like:
If pilot delivered gv supplies, destroyed ACK or base structures or killed cons over a base that was taken.

[mechanic]

Penguin, improve you reading comprehension skills. Your whole post is moot to my argument.
I didn't say the young were a short term investment, I said the 'xbox kids' were a short term investment. If you read more carefully you would see my distinction was between 'enthusiasts' and 'console gamer types'. Not ages.

[fudgums]

Hi gents, I've been holding back from posting much in this thread but a couple of friends and I have put together an event that matches this. I call it Broken Skies, but its a spinoff of HTC's Combat Tour. It has pretty much everything yall have discussed in this thread. Some people might not like it, but it is what it is. We are currently in discussions on how to get this live and going. Click the links to see what all we've put together, look throughout the website at all the things we've put together.

links:
Event Description:http://s15.zetaboards.com/AHBrokenSkies/topic/7001673/1/#new
Pilot Profile: http://s15.zetaboards.com/AHBrokenSkies/topic/6998772/1/#new
Medals and Awards:  http://s15.zetaboards.com/AHBrokenSkies/topic/6999538/1/#new
Ranking System: http://s15.zetaboards.com/AHBrokenSkies/topic/7001160/1/#new

Feel free too register at the site, criticisms or suggestions are welcomed. Anything to make it better for everyone else.

 

[Penguin]

Penguin, improve you reading comprehension skills. Your whole post is moot to my argument.
I didn't say the young were a short term investment, I said the 'xbox kids' were a short term investment. If you read more carefully you would see my distinction was between 'enthusiasts' and 'console gamer types'. Not ages.

Everywhere I talk about the old and the young, I hear my generation referred to as the XBox generation, so I felt that you were referring to my generation.  I realize now that's not what you meant, but you have to admit I got on a roll.

-Penguin

[ink]

many of the reason Bat says it wont be good are true and many of the reasons why Lushe are saying it would be good are true....this is why it needs to be an arena on it's own, NOT the MA...A "WAR" arena if you will.