We have gone in several directions. Newbs and ride choices is a whole other topic which usually peters out and the real newbs have to get into the Melee arena and ask for help or suffer. So they pick the fastest most powerful ride they can, and if they survive for 18 months and don't quit. They have the confidence to fly earlier war rides with some favoring one for an idiosyncrasy about it. Most people fly the list of top late war rides, and those who lurk in these forums let Hitech know, if they are kept from their favorite ride, this game is not worth paying to play. You can see a species of this attitude when ENY kicks in too much.
I'm not sure how many of the current crop of subscribers would stay with the game if Hitech suddenly changed the game so they couldn't logon and roll with their favorite late war un-perked rides in the Melee arena. Pushing the whole population down to early and mid war rides, canceling for some 15 years of earned perks, and then forcing them to earn perks\money to gain access to their favorite un-perked ride that once cost them a monthly fee. That would be a cold slap in the face as customers who have paid monthly in good faith for this service.
Now if you wanted to eliminate over night a large portion of the baby boomers who make up the current core in the Melee arena. I couldn't think of a better way to shut down the Melee arena inside of a month. But, that is very short sighted as a scheme to upgrade AH3 to another level to attract a different gamer demographic. Enrage an existing customer demographic to make them bail as a hoard before there is anything in place that "might" open a deluge of new subscriptions before HTC has to declare one of the chapter# and turn off the servers for good.
Ideas are ideas and some are good, some bad, some really lousy. It's not until the idea's rubber meets the road do you start discovering unintended consequences and that most ideas start out one way and end up not looking much like what the salesman sold you. Very few idea men that I've ever met, want to discus the unintended consequences as many levels down hill that the stuff can potentially flow. Usually they change the subject and throw out a screen of misdirection's. They always lay that unintended consequence off on the engineers to create the teleportation device they assure management will save the company. If everyone will just get on board, slip their critical judgment factor, and agree with the idea man he can really see the future where they can't.
