Looking at the title of this thread got me to thinking. Being labeled a picker seems to be directly tied to whether or not someone could beat you in a traditional dogfight or not. Fester is the classic example for me. My AH infancy included the constant scourge of Fester zooming around in a 262 picking the ever-loving-hell out of anything and everything. I think I can count on one hand the times I saw Fester not in a 262. Yet, nobody seriously considered him a picker. I realize he's been around since Moby Dick was a minnow, and he certainly has a bit of an ACM master reputation, but does that make one immune from the label of "picker"?
I also remember a thread in which he posted his motivations were actually trying to live through every sortie, and that when he finally died, he kind of lost interest in the game. That's certainly different than the absolute warrior ethos many champion... but is it wrong?
These questions vex me. Also, I have almost nothing to do at work today. Sorry dudes.
That's a point that doesn't get brought up much, because from what I've seen very few guys who are top shelf duelists pick in the MA. Most of the people who whine about being picked usually do so because in their opinion that guy never would've beaten them in a fair fight. Then comes the DA challenge, then comes the forum thread whether the DA challenge happens or not.
Occasionally, you've got a guy like Fester who can take 99% of the people who talk crap at him.
Mentioning Fester does remind me of one time though that applies to the whole difference in goals mentioned in this thread.
I was in the MA and an enemy 262 was laying waste to a friendly conga line in between two bases. 'Enemy 262 in the area' is one of the fastest ways to get me to up a 262. A lot of people who run them don't dogfight terribly well on equal terms in them with some notable exceptions of course.
We found each other, with prop planes from both sides within icon range and started to fight. I figured out after about 2 turns this was one of those notable exception type guys. I knew from my trip over to the feeding 262 that there were a handful of friendly ponies headed that way grabbing. I had my hands full just staying away from the sharp end of his plane, never mind getting a firing solution on him, but I was having success not getting shot.
I changed my goal from killing him to bleeding his E and alt while keeping the fight more towards the friendlies than the red guys who were headed towards us. I had to evade a couple of passes from enemy aircraft during the fight, but eventually what wound up happening was a friendly pony managed to wound the 262, at that point I closed in and finished it, don't recall getting the kill or not though. Turned out it was Fester.
Now I can already hear the fair fight brigade sucking wind to berate me for not fighting fair. The way I look at the MA, that is an example of exactly the difference between a duel and an MA fight. Our sides were clashing, and I used the resources I had to kill him. My goal wasn't to have a Marquis of Queensbury duel with the other guy in the jet, it was to get him to stop inhibiting my side's control over that airspace. I succeeded in that instance.
I don't think much of people that fly around exclusively looking for people to pick, and only ever pick, but it is one of the tools in the box that does help your side control airspace effectively.
Wiley.
