Not sure why I am writing this... but here goes anyway.
I started playing AH back in March of 2009... not that long I guess when you look at how long some of the members of the community have been here... but for me, that's a good bit of time. I found my way to AH after I picked up a cheesy little game at Target called "Air Conflicts"... one of those $4.99 games you see in the discount section. So I brought it home, and installed it. Not a bad looking game at all... nice graphics... and it had a multiplayer LAN mode, so I put it on my son's PC and off we went killing each other.
It wasn't long though.. that we discovered that the planes were pretty much modeled the same... and we ended up in an endless spiral... with unlimited ammo and fuel... trying to get behind the other one... until one of us would just auger to end it. So I started looking for something better... and I stumbled across Aces High.
I was immediately hooked... and at the same time overwhelmed. My son and I both started playing with our 2 week free trials, and although he eventually went back to PS3 and his Call of Duty and Modern Warfare games... I stuck with it.
Over the last 2 1/2 years... I have made some really great friends here. I have also learned more about WW2 aircraft (something that I have been interested in since I was a little kid), than I ever had before.
I think I started out the way a lot of new players do. Flying goons and bombers... running M3's, and getting the feel for the game. Bombers eventually got old though, and I moved on to fighters. I still die more often than I land... but every moment I spend playing I enjoy.
I "lived" in Mid War for a long time... because the numbers in Late War seemed so overwhelming. But now that I made the switch, I cant see why I ever felt that way. Hehe... I still fly my FM2 and B25H in LW most of the time... and sometimes shock an occasional Spit16 or Pony driver when I send them to the tower.
I dont even tune 200, and I dont whine about being HO'd, picked, vulched, or camped. I figure if it happens... so be it, I will just reup and come back out. Although I do have to say that my only real pet peeve is if I am dogfighting over tank town... (not messing with the tanks mind you) and someone ups a wirble and starts popping fighters. But hey... if thats fun for them, so be it.
I learned not to care about score... or if I land 1 kill, 3 kills, or no kills. You get out of it, what you put into it. And if what you put into it is fun... then its fun you will have.
Anyway... Not long after joining my first squad, I got into FSO... and I have to say that FSO has become the highlight of my Aces High week. I look forward to Friday evenings with my squadmates... and my friends and family now know not to bother me between the hours of 11pm and 1am eastern... "I have a mission."
I have seen update after update, patch after patch, new planes, tanks, and maps. And while it may take a little getting used to some new feature (or an old one that has been changed) I think that overall this "game" keeps getting better and better.
So hats off to the HTC team for giving us a really cool yard to play in, and a huge salute to all of you... the members of the AH community for making to so much fun, and worth the time spent doing it.
Here is to many more years of cartoon combat in the virtual skies.
