It's wasn't that long ago that I was new to this game, so I still vividly remember the frustration of upping over & over & over again, only to be shot down by the same handful of names... over & over & over again. My life expectancy was measured in seconds. And landing a kill... forget it. I literally thought there was something wrong with my computer based on how impossible the task of lining up my sights on a rapidly-moving seemed. I think it took me a good week of play before I landed one kill. Seriously. I was that bad. And the weeks that followed weren't much better.
Considering where I'm at now (not great, but can hold my own), I don't think this pattern is an anomoly. New players have a huge learning curve ahead of them before the game has a chance to become enjoyable. And while sheer determination to not exit the game a complete loser forced me to soldier on, I don't see succumbing to frustration and giving up on the game early on to be a character flaw. The way I see it, a large percentage of potential future players are turned off from the start. There are plenty of ways to have fun that don't involve the study of ACM tactics. If a new player's carrot is too far from their nose to sniff, they're going to move on to something else more palatable.
I'd love to see changes made in the game to better support new players, but as we're not in charge of the game, we need to do what we can. That means saluting players who put forth the effort to fight, even if their flying is subpar. That means PM'ing these same players and offering friendly suggestions for improvement. That means offering to help new players in the TA/DA. It means remembering how much we all sucked from the beginning, and becoming the mentors we all had who got us to the point where we could get some fun out of the game.
