HiTech posted a comment about AH (from Steam?)
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It is a good simulation but there are a low number of players and many of them have dreadful attitudes towards other players. For example there is a high level of superficial charm but after a while the real personalities start to come through and then you realise there is something very wrong with many of these people and you are probably dealing with an unusually high proportion of psychopaths. There are no new players and when they do get new players, they tend to leave very quickly because of the dreadful social interactions. When these problems are raised in the community they are denied and burried. The community argues that their community is friendly and supportive: let me make this very clear, they are friendly and supportive of each other but not outsiders. Having said all that, there are some decent human beings in the game but they generally let the psychopaths ruin it for the nice people, probably because they do not want to be attacked like the other victims.So if you can handle personality disorders and you like to fly a very well built air combat simulation then go for it.
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I agree. Not that new players leave because of the "dreadful social interactions" but because of the steep learning curve, with the social interactions a minor supporting player.
But I do agree that there is a significant # of long term players who seem to find validation in AH by punishing/belittling enemies they dominate, and of course newbs would find that very off-putting.
The solution to me is simple, and if I am reading HT right (I like to theorize on limited data) the disabling of 200 was a shot across the bow to the small but vocal minority that love the venue merely in order to beat their chests when victorious.
Imo "shots across the bow" work short term, but actual damage to the hull is necessary long term.
My solution? Mute the players from 200 who are regular toxic contributors to it (and apologies, OP, but you are one of them, and there really aren't that many) but leave it open for everyone else. Give the toxic people an opportunity or two to come back and behave themselves, but ban them for an entire tour if they just don't get the memo. And ban them forever if toxic 200 is their raison d'etre. There is a definite element of truth to what the guy HT quoted posted. But it can be contained with less draconian measures.
