If I may add my two cents here, since I quit playing a couple years ago and being in AH since it's inception almost 21 years ago and playing Air warrior before that. 21 years is a long time and if you participated in Air Warrior before that you would be talking at least well over 20 years. When AH was first introduced, those of us who were playing Air Warrior and other boxed sims were intrigued and wanted to take a look at AH. The difference in graphics and flight modeling were night and day. That induced many of us in Air Warrior to come to Aces High and subscribe. Not to long after that EA discontinued Air Warrior and many from Air Warrior came to Aces High to participate. We saw the toys and what more could be developed to make the game better physically. We were only to happy to pay 30 dollars a month to play. Selection of aircraft was marvelous. The game modeling made it much closer to "real" flying then Air Warrior and the graphics at that time were undoubtedly better then Air Warrior. Boxed Sims were at the end of their heyday. They were fun to play but very expensive to develop. Flight Simmers were and are a very small niche in the gaming market. The money spent on developing a great boxed sim was a great deal more then the profits that were to be made from developing and selling them. They generally lost money on them and just flat out quit producing anything more for the flight sim market. Remember also in that era a great many of us were children of the "greatest generation." Our parents and relatives unfortunately had to participate in WWII. The stories we were told, the movies that we saw that were made in the late 40s' up until the late 50s' about the air war in Europe and in the PAC intrigued us. My father, who was on the ground in Italy, talked about dogfights that he and his fellow soldiers witnessed while in their foxholes. He remarked a lot about seeing P38s and 109s swirling in the air above them and watching P47s dive from the sky to take out infrastructure before them as they were fighting towards Rome. When a 38 knocked out a 109 my father said he and the guys would jump up and cheer the 38 Pilot for his victory. He also noted formations of bombers flying overhead on the way to northern Italy to destroy the German Army and its' positions knowing full well that the bombers success and the fighters escorting them were doing the same thing. Trying to destroy the Nazis and make their job a little more easier.
Now, as years pass society changes. It's natural. Back in our first years of Scenarios in AH we had a great number of participants. The older of us loved to participate in them. We knew about those conflagrations. Our Fathers and Mothers and Uncles etc. lived it. We were told first hand how it was at that time. Not only about the War but about life back here at home at that time. So us older gents had opportunity to imagine ourselves in the seats of these aircraft during these battles. Pretending to be Bomber Pilots and Escorts. Trying to emulate and feel what our Fathers must have felt at that time. It's not a coincidence that Der Groose Schlag and Der Groose Schlag II were the most populated events in Aces High Scenarios. Imagine in a Sim, in a 47, 38, and a Mustang escorting 40 to 60 B17s and 24s' with at least 40 t0 50 escorts seeing this in your virtual cockpit. And listening to the voices over the radio the professionalism and accuracy of the radio chatter when all hell broke lose. All while sitting at your desk, with your headphones on and in the virtual cockpit of a P47. For us "Olduns" it was heaven for at least 3 hours no matter how much one got to fly in combat. We were doing what our Fathers or relatives did, or neighbors kids were the same way. They was a generation of us that actually got word of mouth first hand accounts of what really happened. Also in DGS there were three FULL Bomber squadrons up with escorts over Germany at the same time heading to their objective/objectives. In DGS there were at times clouds over the targets that obstructed the view of the target, and the whole set of escorts and Bombers had to set out for the secondary target. How much fuel did the escorts have? That was always a question. This placed the participant right in the seats of the Pilots who actually flew combat during these missions in real life over Germany. How could us "Old Simmers" not love this.
Today as society has changed, as it will, a generation or two have gone by since Air Warrior. Hell, there are people who deny the Holocaust ever happened or the landing on the moon. It's simply society that has changed. Everything evolves. It must. There is no blame to be brought. Even those of us that are Boomers are now passing. I'm seventy years old and have lost many of my friends already. Can't be helped. Humans have a shelf life also. So, hopefully this explains why some of the old guys have left. Again, no blame on anyone. At one time when we ruled the skies of Air Warrior and Aces High, Scenarios and immersion were they key to our participation. It placed us in the virtual skies of WWII. That's why we paid 30 dollars a month to play. A tip to all, take it for what it is worth. Don't ever blame a CM if you didn't have fun, or the person who stepped up to lead your side. They shared their personal time so you could participate. It is much harder to design a scenario now as most of us know because of the low interest of the Community in such events. Maps are far smaller and choice of targets are limited and now easier to defend simply because of the low numbers of participants. Give the CMs' and leaders who volunteered their time to lead the props they deserve. They are giving of their free time to do so when they could be doing other things.
I apologize for making this long of a post. I've seen topics on the subject of "the game is dying" for the last ten or so years of this wonderful game. Suggestions on how to "improve" the game out the ying yang and the insults that inevitably result, which doesn't solve a thing. The tools are here. aircraft, ground vehicles, Carriers etc. Use them. Hitech has given us a wonderful game. Figure out how to use the tools.
