How did you discover online flight sims?

[FLOOB]

In the 90's I was looking at video games in a store. And I found Air Warrior II, if I remember correctly it came in a card board box like most pc games at the time. I ask because back in those days there were no commercials on tv or online for video games and it got me wondering how people discovered online flight simming. I bet most people discovered it like I did, they saw it on a shelf in a store. Not counting noobs who got into it this century.

Man the 90s were awesome.

[JimmyD3]

Saw Aces High commercial on the Military Channel.

[Schen]

Saw Aces High commercial on the Military Channel.

Same

[Volron]

Saw Aces High commercial on the Military Channel.

Yep.

[Lusche]

Can't remember. I vaguely knew there were some out there and probably found AH by search engine. It was definitely not an ad of any kind which directed me here.

[BluBerry]

Google, while trying to find a new online poker site.

[HL117]

Friend from work, knew I played some off line stuff told me...............it was when wife and I we were DINKS (duel income, no kids) wife was flying as an attendant away for a few days at a time and I was home alone, had a top notch PC for the time, great way to stay out of the bars and trouble when she was gone and relatively low price compared to other hobbies/time disruptor's.

[captain1ma]

i did a google search on WW2 flight simulator...

[Latrobe]

Back when I was around 8-10 years old, I'm guessing, my father downloaded an online aerial combat game that one of the guys at work plays and showed him. I got hooked on it but it was a monthly fee game so I only got to play it 1 month at a time. I'm told that game was Aces High 1.  (I was young and my memory is crap anyways so I really don't remember anything from back then.)

No other flight sim games for about 5-7 years. Then I saw the Aces High 2 commercial on the Military Channel late one night. It looked interesting so I downloaded it the next morning. Been here ever since. 

[USRanger]

Saw Aces High commercial on the Military Channel.

Me too!  I'll be hitting my AH ten year mark next month.

[shermanjr]

either history channel or military 8 years back

[xbrit]

Back in 97/98 I did a search for online flight games and found AW2, then it went to AW3/4 then died. After that I tried here in AH but couldn't adjust to it after only flying RR(relaxed realism) in AW. I went off and flew in Fighter Ace for a year or so then eventually came back here in 2001/2002.

[Wiley]

In the mid-late 90s I did a web search for online flight sims, as I was assuming it had to exist.  It was either AW or early Warbirds I found, but at the time it was an hourly rate.  I knew myself well enough to know I'd wind up in the poor house, so I forgot about it for a while.  In 2007 it occurred to me to take another look, and I found Warbirds.

Wiley.

[BnZs]

I tried ordinary flight sims. But I wanted combat. I tried Microsoft Combat Flight simulator. But then I wanted combat with other humans. Tried their online combat, but it sucked in profound ways. Then I saw a commercial for Aces High on dogfights.  Once you go AHII, it makes every other flight simulator look poorly put together, particularly their viewing systems.

[Kingpin]

I saw the TV ad for Aces High and joined shortly thereafter (in late 2007?).  Advertising pays.

That said, I left AH after only a month or so.  I found out about Warbirds around the same time, tried it out and chose Warbirds over AH, cancelling my first AH subscription then.

Why did I choose Warbirds?  

Two reasons: TRAINING and COMMUNITY.  I felt (and still feel) that Warbirds had far more accessibility to Trainers and that allowed me to learn at a much faster pace.  Realistic flight sims are HARD and without help I probably would have quit (getting your butt handed to you without understanding why for several weeks on end wears on you.)  At the time, WBs had at least 3-4 trainers MINIMUM on during set hours (one or two nights during the week and one weekend time-frame) that were meant for new players to attend.  New players always had priority over experienced players and experienced players in the Training Arena were expected to help the trainers out.  In my opinion this focused on new player retention and it worked on me.  I don't feel AH is as aggressive with that process.

In a more general sense, WB's seemed at the time more of a "we" community, with lots of people willing the help.  Whereas from day one, AH seemed much more like a "ME" group. Warbirds was not as good of a game, but I chose it over AH for the reasons stated.  As the game felt more and more outdated, had increasing problems, stagnant arenas with and lower and lower player populations (sound familiar?), I left.  I then gave AH another go.  After (finally) getting some training and being invited to a squad in AH, I stayed.

My point in all this, for all the people who complain about arena pop and player numbers, I ask: How often do you specifically seek out new AH players (based on their stats or actions) and offer to take them into the TA to help them? How often do you go into the TA to see if anyone new there is looking for help?

Sadly "shading" seems to have a long tradition and be a fun past-time in AH, which perhaps discourages this.  (I never ONCE heard the term "shade" or accusations of shading made in WB).  Personally though, I'd rather make the mistake of asking a shade if they need help over potentially losing players to the indifference (at best) and abuse (at worst) that many AH players dish out to new people.

My two cents.

<S>
Ryno