Well, I haven't done any legitimate research on this, but thing that strikes me in AH is that I meet up with very few "raw newbie" types.
Very few pilots I meet up with show NO ACM ability, most are at least seem familiar with the basics. What this means, is that it is HARD for a newbie to develop in this community.
I remember when I first started playing Warbirds.... msost of the pilots I flew with were new to the on-line simming world. They, like I, were learning to fly and fight online for the first time. The vets that came from AW were fairly dominant at first, but as the game developed, I saw a general improvment in the overall quality of the online pilots, especially once I became a trainer. When I first became a trainer, I spent probably 80-90% of my time training guys who were RAW, and I mean mean RAW. There were folks where I would literally put my plane on auto-trim and let em empty there guns at me, and I wouldn't take any damage. But that changed. By the time I retired from the WB training corps, I spent 70-80% of my time teaching more advanced subjects. Clearly, the community had matured significantly. I felt this not only in the Training Arena, but in the MA as well. It became harder and harder to score well as the community matured and gained experience.
I feel this same thing in AH. I sense that the average experience of the pilots here is quite high. Couple this with the fact that balanced fights can be hard to come by in the arena and it can seem an unfriendly place to newbies, particularly when some of the more well-know "Shmack talkers" talk shamck to a guy who may be totally clueless, but is trying to learn.
I'd love to see the stats on the guys who are leaving quickly from the game. My sense is that they are getting PASTED, and after their 2 free weeks, figure it's not worth being a target drone for $30/mo.
What's the solution? Well, some of the things that HT is putting in MIGHT encourage some of these folks to stay, but it won't make up for the baby seal clubbings really. The only thing I can really think of, is to establish a "newbie" arena that is available FREE for 90 days from the opening of the account. This arena would be inaccessable after 90 days. In addition, I'd start the the 2 week clock on the main arena after the first time a flyer enters it. Add appropraite dialogues when enetering to make it clear that the MA is available for only 2 weeks form the time you first enter to avoid confusion. Further, I'd staff the newbie arena with a couple trainers to provide some leadership, answer questions, whatever. Also, limit the newbie arena to 2 sides (and maybe a smaller plane set?) to help focus things.
My hope would be that this arena would let the newbies get their feet wet, without being subjected to the utter shellacking they would get in the MA. 90 days is a MUCH more reasonable time to figure out the basics of flying a WWII plane than 2 weeks. Heck, when I joined WB, it took two weeks to figure out what that loud buzzing was!
Thankfully, I got into WB when it was in open beta, so I had plenty of "free" time to get comfy before plunking down my Credit Card.
Vila
