Geez, is that really Pars?
Heya Nash - check yer email, you FW-stalling spin dweeb <g>
MacAW was a lot like the old DOS AW days, at least according to the DOSAW vets like Bull, Fool, Fogy, etc., who flew with us in the old days (circa 1995-1996 for the open net beta of MacAW.) MacAW was really nothing more than DOSAW, even though at the start the idea was to make it the Mac version of AW4W. It never really got past DOSAW's last incarnation in features.
The community was tiny and tight knit. Everyone knew EVERYONE, and their fighting styles. Squad were tight knit - many survive to this day even without a real game to base themselves around. And of course, Voss from Kesmai disabled all the Relaxed Realism, so we all flew FR in those days - something very different from AW4W and it's hordes of RR folks at the time. It was a great time - I must have spent 25 hours a week flying and bullchitting in there through 1995. Haven't been able to get that same feeling out of any sim since.
I think it, like DOSAW, was a combination of a small, tight-knit community of folks who were distintinctly interested in A2A combat on the personal level. There seemed to be a much higher degree of respect - like someone said up thread, if two people were going at it in a good fight, it was unthinkable to dive in on them. Any newbies quickly learned the code, and adopted it. It was really community in action.
I think once you pass a certain level of size, the emphasis shifts from the overall community to *segments* of the community, and that does a lot to remove the overall cohesion folks felt about MacAW and DOSAW in their day.
Spitboy -SW-
[This message has been edited by Spitboy (edited 10-19-2000).]
