The thing is that setting up an arena is one part, populating it another. As it is right now, attendance is low during American snooze hours and adding one or two more arenas will thin out the number of people even more.
What HTC is saying is that they've tried it before and it makes financial sense and that their customer base won't be affected in a negative way at least financially.
Think it's important to acknowledge that there aren't too many of us purist level playing fields fanatics out there. We sure are outnumbered by the people who transition from say Fighter Ace to a more complex sim.
We'll likely see a shift in the customer base - out goes the purists, and in their place we have one or two transitional pilots. Good for those pilots, good for HTC, but less good for the few purists.
To be perfectly honest, the reason I never thought about EZ mode before is that I did not think AH was trying to reach out to the transitional crowd - in my mind it was trying to fill a very small niche, but one that was large enough to produce enough cash to make a relatively small company survive economically. But it seems that niche isn't very big, despite the hundreds of millions of people with an internet connection.
I just realized that I have two criteria - "maximum realism" and "level playing field". AH will certainly continue to fill number one in terms of flight model, damage model etc, so that one cannot be criticised. Number two is a different matter.
How do you find out if you're a Level Playing Field Fanatic(tm)? Well, if you've played a sim, be it against computer AI or humans and you've thrown your joystick into the monitor in disgust while screaming "*I* cannot do that by pulling the stick. He's using an alternative way of controlling it than through surfaces!" you're in the danger zone.
If you've gone with a thai boxing veteran friend of yours to a training session for the first time and said "no, I don't want you to hold back, that's not fair", you're probably a LPFF. :=D
Now if *you* where the veteran, you'd likely hold back - unless you where in the finals of a competition or something. And I gather you'd scream "not fair, he's using a gun!" if he pulled out a semi automatic, smiled grimly and pointed it your way
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I didn't work my way up the foodchain to be eaten by a furry wabbit with a Colt .45.
I don't know Westy, I hope you do not consider this whining. HTC, I hope you won't see me as evil and against you - I am not and I've got high opinions of you and you've deserved it. It's just that for a few of us, not having the favourite dish at the restaurant will make us find another one, no matter *how* good the rest of the food is, how well it is served, how clean and nice the waiters/waitresses. We're just hardwired in another way for better or worse, and I don't consider us superior to transitional pilots so it's not a matter of elitism.
To restate one of RAM's points (using other words); I need to try it as much as I need to try eating something I really don't like and pay money for it. Just a matter of personal taste here people
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In the end I'll probably try it, get a foul taste in my mouth and scream "THAT'S why I don't eat this!"
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Sorry for the long post. I've contracted the Badgerivian virus.
Sincerely
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StSanta
II/JG2
[This message has been edited by StSanta (edited 05-28-2000).]
