Methinks WB will be dead by then most likely.
I am frankly shocked they're still chugging along. They even seem to be doing some slight development on the game. Still, it's way, way underdeveloped compared to this game in its current state. I think the S3's keeping it alive. Their MA is like 30-40 people on during primetime. The S3 is the single thing I miss about WB, and it's not worth the money to me to have an account just for that.
Wiley I appreciate you view, I just wish there were a way to cater to both personalities.
The thing is, I wouldn't quite call the two personalities mutually exclusive but I would definitely say their styles are at odds.
My typical sortie during primetime these days (relative terms, I REALLY fell hard into the GTA5 pit since mid September, only just lately have started coming up for air back in here) generally looks something like this:
Look for red horde bardar on map. Ideally, one where there's a few friendlies trying to hold them back.
Choose plane. Usually P47D11, but can be just about anything as long as it's half decently fast.
Up from a nearby field, climb out.
Get up to 10k at least, 15k or higher if I'm hearing reports of buffs.
Fly into crowd and work my way in from the top until I'm out of bullets, fuel, or airplane parts if I got into a bad situation.
My K/H positively sucks because of the sorties I fly. That's not why I'm there though. I'm looking to do what I can against the horde, get some kills, hopefully stop some bombers if they're there, and just generally do what I can to try to ease the pressure on the field that's being attacked to give the friendlies who are upping into the vulch more of a chance.
I'm not down on the deck shooting at the guys that are actively vulching, I'm trying to get at them when they're coming in at alt so instead of coming into the field with a ton of E and nothing above them to go after the guys who have survived the vulch, I'm there to keep them busy, maybe kill them, but at least make them have to look up every once in a while.
Success rates vary widely.
Part of the reason I do this is, I know the vast majority of the players on all sides are 'instant action' types, who up, climb a little bit and go straight to the action. I'd love to see a Snailman style analysis of the average alt that people cruise at in the MA. I bet it's around 5k. I would say at least 60% of the people in the arena at any given time fly like that.
My point is, I fly how I like to fly and do what I can to try to help the friendlies below me who are more of the 'instant action' style players. While I'm climbing out they've probably died 5 times in the vulch at the field I'm headed to, probably killed a few guys too.
I'm sure there are a lot of people I've shot down who figure I'm a picktard, and that's fine. The way I view the game is both sides have the same tools at their disposal, it's up to people to decide how they want to use them. If you're on your way to vulch my field, I am going to try to prevent you from doing it. From a certain point of view, I'm 'feeding' on these guys. I'd respectfully submit the difference between me and many is I don't run from the first high bandit I see.
I enjoy flying for an hour or two in B29s as mush as I do 10 minutes in a Ki-43. I enjoy the freedom, could not agree more. When it comes to catering to crowds, imagine if the core of the map had not value to base captures required for the win. Imagine if they were uncapturable. This might give a place for the furballers to fight, while the mission oriented guys do their thing on the side. I think it would not be that hard to do, and at least would make for an interesting experiment on where people are drawn?
The problem is, numbers breed numbers. I am not big on furballing over TT, though I have done it on occasion, just because it doesn't feel like it has a 'point'. I much prefer trying to harry some bandits who are actually trying to accomplish something against my side. It's kind of silly if you look at it objectively, but that's how I feel. Furballing for furballing's sake may as well be done in the DA as far as I'm concerned.
The more people are furballing in the middle, the fewer people are participating in the mission style stuff. People doing mission style stuff either log or go to the furball in the middle, so the mission style stuff eventually dries up completely because of the constant cycle of I have no mission because nobody's running missions, I don't run missions because nobody's available to run missions.
Wiley.