Hang's sittin in the O Club lounge; munching beernuts, listening to the guy at the piano and tossin the reject peanuts at the back of the BPO's head. *plink*
In comes this guy with a pile of notepaper, a disheveled briefcase and old Rand typewriter. In his hat (as if it was necessary) is a tattered card that sez PRESS. This guy eyeballs the room and slides on over to Hangs table... the only available chairs in the room.
"Hi!" Sez the reporter... and he takes a seat. Hang looks up, gives the guy the once-over and goes back to sortin the beernuts fer aerodynamics. "Wuz wonderin if you'd mind answering a few questions for the folks back home??..."
Hang smiles, and since he's obviously got nothin better to do; nods slowly to the civilian and sez "Price of admission.. one Bud. In the bottle. and more ammo."
"Ammo??" Hang points at the beernuts. “Yah.” He picks one up and tosses it at the BPO's pate, misses; grunts "ballistics, my ass" and sighs. "Yah; ammo. Bring some round ones." (*plink*)
When he returns, the reporter passes a fresh bowl of nuts, the beer and a typed list of questions. Hang spills the nuts on the table; and begins to sort by feel while eyballing the questions.
“Humph. Nothin interesting here… Yah the community here in AH is damn friendly fer a buncha folks that spend their spare time killin each other. Kinda reminds me of when that brand W sim fired up. I spent years there mailin the equivalent of a house payment per month to the developer. When the original guys sold it; it went ta hell in a hand basket pretty quick.. connections sucked. Whiners everywhere. It turned into an amazinhunk contest after awile. New stuff was kinda porked… nothin to write home about after the first coupla years. I moved on to other prop sims. Kali and Janes and such. Not the same tho… no, just not the same as the old brand W.”
“So; what makes Aces High better than AW; WB’s or the or the other multiplay WWII sims??”
Hang muses; sorts. Swigs his beer; selects his target; tosses. (*plink*) “Well; fer one thing, the guys I really enjoyed flyin with and against wound up over here. Best on this planet fly here in AH. And sure; the play quality and technical crapola like flight models; AC fidelity; artwork; gunnery and ballistics (*plink*) and arena strategy is better in AH, but that ain’t it. At least that ain’t all of it.”
“….yes??”
“Well; its kinda embarrassing actually. Not sure if this is appropriate fer yer article. I mean; what’ll the kids think??” The reporter, used to digging a bit fer the substance closes angles and fires again. “In what regards???”
Hang points at the now empty beer bottle and smiles.
“…beer??” Sez the reporter, somewhat incredulously. “No”, sez Hang… “refill. It’s EMPTY”.
The reporter.. sure he’s onto some hot stuff; scrambles for a refill, and returns to the scene of the action as hang deftly fires a barrage of sorted ammo at various targets about the room. (*plink plink plink plink*) Dead on; he tags 10 for ten and sits back with the fresh beer and smiles benignly at the reporter. “Sheep” he says.
“WHAT??” The reporter is caught flat footed. Hang never misses a beat. “Well; yah. Sheep. Wooly little critters with big eyes and permanent sweaters. The place is infested with ‘em. There’s one now; waitin on the knit tables there in the rear.” Sure enuff; one with a flat head meanders by, totin green bottles to the LW boys back in the back. “Yer kiddin!!?? .. aintcha??” The press is speechless.
Hang; sucks down some more brew; eyeballs the pundit. “Yah. I’m kiddin. Had yah there fer a sec, tho didn’t I??” A slow smile appears. “Ok; the real skinny. What makes this a better show is the better class of people involved. ‘Better class’ meaning folks that give a damn about the product developing it; and lots of folks flying it that KNOW the intent and honor it while contributing input to the project while it’s being developed. It’s loyalty; and concern for the initial concept of creating something NEW and DIFFERENT and EXCITING; and being there watching and enjoying the developments as it happens. Every new revision seems to raise the level of excitement, every error or omission is ruthlessly analyzed by the community; and fella, lemme tell yah… when the developers are right there in the plane next to you, you KNOW they understand when yah bark ‘this is bogus!’. Show me another prop Sim like this; built like this; revised like this; flown by THIS high quality crowd.. (hang looks at the knits in the back) …well, scratch that last… but you get my point.”
At this point; the BPO rises from his seat at the bar; turns to leave and in passing; dumps a bowl of beernuts on hangs head. “See?? …and where else would a developer put up with my crap; but here. Enh?? Interview over. I gotta ewe ta see about an itch. Or is that an itch ta see that ewe… oh well. I ferget. Thanks fer the beers.”
Hang; out!
