Maybe I am in the minority, but when I stopped worrying about my score my ability to have fun in the game was no longer dependent upon:
1. Climbing to 15-20k before I entered any engagement
2. Staying away from heavily outnumbered situations
3. Whether or not I was currently doing "well" as the barometer for whether or not I was having fun.
Now, I fly whatever I want, I reverse back into certain death to see if I can take one or two of the seven chasing me with me (almost ALWAYS nets at least one maneuver kill as they fall over each other trying to get you first) and a lot less time flying back to land my meager kills.
This is not to say that score chasing is bad, that climbing out and flying in formation is bad, that doing everything you can to survive is bad... I've just discovered that it is not my cup of tea.
It's an FSO-level dose of awesome to fly with the guys from the 4th FG, wingman tactics, tactical coms (until I start drinking
) and yeah, they fly fast planes fast and at the edge... they don't "pick and run", but their collective efforts certainly net them more kills than deaths. And it's
fun to fly with them (as they are gracious enough to let me tag along, from time to time). Not having that focus, I'll never be as good as them at what they do, just like I will never be as good at dog fighting as someone who flies in the DA 24/7. But to disparage either playing style is intellectually dishonest. I watch Pand kick the piss out of Squat constantly... different planes, different situations... and Squat's answer is to try to call him out on 200 or the BBS because he still hasn't figured out how to reverse a diving pony =(
"But 80!," You say... "Your score has always been trash!"... I will neither deny that fact, nor the fact that addiction is easier to kick before it becomes firmly entrenched.
And, interestingly enough, before I started flying the K4 (which I am... challenged by... to say the least) my "score" was a positive K/D which it very rarely is for any length of time. And that's flying planes that can't outrun everything else in the game.
So, thanks Ink for starting me on this path... and specifically sc0tch, RedBull, and Krupnski for working with my mildly-retarded bellybutton to figure out this whole "Aye See Em" thing or whatever you call this sorcery... and a huge thanks to Pand for teaching me 95% of what I know about the game... it takes all kinds to make Aces what it is. The wimps are the ones who start trash on the forum because they got their ego bruised in game.
