This thread is meant to be honest and not a put down thread to the owners of AH. I Honestly believe if they had foregone the WW1 effort, closed down and not put the modeling effort into EWA and MWA aircraft, and instead modeled a 1946 arena. That they would have double the paying customers then they have now. I say this out of the years Ive signed on and the numbers Ive seen in EWA/MWA and WW1. Mostly the first two are made up of a small bunch who wish to see their name in lights as the leaders "somewhere's", and yes there are a few purists who basically enjoy early war flight. They are very few tho. All of us must agree the 3 arenas get very little use. Most of all in the last year.
And the actual playground is not AH's fault. They are fine arenas with nice airplanes, and all 3 of them have the juice to be as much fun as the LWA. The fact is however the interest just isnt there.
And now it seems that every week there is a RIP thread and not enough squeeky little voices on the vox. Lets face it, the WW2 enthusiasts are dieing out. I almost joined them last spring but pulled thru. At the least we can say "most" of WW2 flight is made up of players in their 40's or older. And were a dieing breed. Thats just nature. And the nature of History. The ones who actually did it are mostly gone. The ones who heard the stories directly from them "us" are going or will be gone. And our kids are playing Warcraft or B-3/COD. Can anyone truly say the WW2 fight/fight genre has even held its own in the last few years ?
No a 1946 arena could not be modeled on what happened in actual history cause it "didnt" happen in actual history. Instead "imagine" that it had and what aircraft would have filled the sky's if it did. The Horten 229, the Bearcat, Meteor, B-36s, LA-9s.... Im not an expert on the "what might have beens" but could envisions the new airframes, and advanced varients of existing ones, had the war gone on one more year and if the criteria for game inclusion was relaxed for what in fact would be an arena of the imagination. And indeed what would the words "squadron size and saw actual combat in a combat theatre against other planes" mean in such an arena?
I know all of this isnt practical and probably will never happen. But at the least I'd like to see further inclusions be late war airframes of the type that would create excitement in the game. Some might say the B-29 was a waste of resources but I say that no matter what its stats and usage says the fact that noob players see one sitting in the Hangar creates excitement and makes them reach for their credit card. Perhaps a re-thinking of inclusion criteria for new airplanes is in order as well, as in "airframes that actually flew before 15 Aug. 1945".
No disrespect to the early war crowd. I understand where you are coming from as well. And I do respect your wish for early war, and niche, airframes too.
BTW We still need a fracking Soviet bomber
