Lets through some arbitrary numbers out there. I would guess that anyone who ranks in the top 100 consistantly thinks they have a shot at the money. Lets assume( I hate to do that, but for shins and giggles lets) that at any one time 40 of those pilots are online. Ahh, lets say 36 to make it divisable by 3. That means 12 in each country. Again to make the numbers easier to crunch, lets say the average online flyers for each country is 96 at any givin time. Thats 1/8th of each countries flyers "padding" their ranks.
In a game that's supposed to have a community and stresses teamwork, this is very counter-productive. Would you like 1/8 of your co-workers doing only whats good for them? How about 1/8 of your police force writting only speeding tickets because of the bonuses involved in the quantity they write. 1/8 of your firemen responding to "cat in a tree calls" because they can do more of them in the time it takes to put out one fire? Albeit, those examples are a little more critical than this game, but human nature is human nature.
Lets not forget the 100s of guys who have no shot what so ever still trying for "the dough". For those of you who responded by saying you know you have no shot so you keep doing what your doing, I say thats because you have flown in the community long enough to hold those values higher. This competition was never here to corrupt your in game morals. Where this is going to really hurt are the newer flyers who think they can do it.
I've already heard response to help or do missions come back with "sorry that will hurt my attack rating" or "not going there to get shot down and ruin my fighter rank". I have wittnesed PT boats sitting off enemy bases firing rockets into hangers to up their "hit percentage on objects" rating. Just tonight a guy bragging about his 74 kills and explaining he did it by sitting on a base and waiting for kills.
We all know if your CPID doesnt begin with a "F" (Fester, Fariz) your not getting number one. So whats the point? Rewarding AH flyers should be encouraged, but by other means. How about reward for most kills/sorties landed. Best hit object/sortie or even highest hit percentage in a fighter or bomber? At least these goals can be belived to be helpful in the arena.
One positive thing not to be overlooked is maybe we will all get a better idea of who the team players are and who is best left on their own.
(IMHO)
PS. As to Udet's response about the glamourization of real aces in WWII. Don't ever compare this game to real life. Yes the top guns got the glory while the average pilot got nothing, but those ace's real gift was the gift of being able to wake up another morning. Don't confuse recognition with reward. They were recognized as great pilots, but rewarded with their lives.
