Hello Gentleman.
First let me introduce myself. I am an 18 year veteran in the U.S. Navy stationed in Sicily but I am moving to Jacksonville. I am an Avitaion Ordnanceman by trade. IYAOYAS to any fellow ordies that may be hanging out here.
Allow me a couple of minutes to talk about the WWIIOL thread that got locked.
I don't want to talk about the games AH or WWIIOL but rather the communities of the two games. Neither are perfect but let me tell you a big difference I did see.
I first heard about Ace's High through a fellow WWIIOLer that posted the link to the Aces High website in both the Off Topic forum and The Hangar.
I followed the link and browsed the AH site and was intrigued. I have since then seriously debated downloading AH and paying to play it also. I doubt I will leave WWIIOL but I don't see it and AH as competiton, I see them as two games to play. Just like I play Delta Force Blackhawk Down and Raven Shield. I love games, I'll play all that I can.
The one thing that held me back from getting AH is that I am presently building a new system with an Asus A7N8X DX, XP3000+ and an ATI Radeo 9700 pro.
My system runs WWIIOL well even though it is only a 750Mhz AMD Athlon with a Kyro 2 base Hercules video card. However I was leary of getting another big game till my other system is done.
Well now I am seriously debating whether I want to get AH at all. See I feel that many of the guys here were way out of line. I see nothing wrong with what Ring did initially. He simply said hey we all love games and here is another you may want to check out.
Then the mudslinging began. I don't condone any of it from either side and I feel both sides did it. I think that being the hosts as this is your house you could have been a bit more cordial. It would have reflected better on the community if the first statement had gone more like this
"hey guy thanks for stopping by our humble abode and thanks for the info on WWIIOL. Doubt I'll try it but who knows, maybe someone will here will decide to try it. BTW have you seen AH's free trial? It goes like this........hey check it out and look me up in game if you decide to try it out. I'll give you the grand tour. later bro."
Instead the flaming began instantly to which WWIIOLers came here and flamed back. Pointless and needless.
I would like to give you guys the other side though. Remember the thread about AH on the WWIIOL forums that informed me of AH in the first place? Well that thread was treated much nicer than Ring was treated here.
A couple of guys were like, yeah I've tried it but I prefer WWIIOL. many other WWIIOLers said they liked it but WWIIOL was cheaper. Some guys just talked about the strengths and weaknesses of both games and yes both games have strengths and weaknesses. Some guys said they played both and said that at the time the liked Ah more because it was further along in dev but that they liked the potential of WWIIOL. Overall though the tone was much better. No flaming, no insulting.
As far as the forums being locked to outsiders, that was called for by the community because a player named Blair kept asking for certain changes in the game that were unpopular with both the Devs and the community. When he realized his was a minority view, he created multiple accounts and used those accounts to back his main identity up and bash anyone who disagreed with him.
He then started admitting to exploiting weaknesses in the game, weaknesses that have since been fixed mind you but he basically admitted to cheating. Then he became excessively abusive to the community and the Rats (CRS). He got banned from the game. So what did he do? He upped the volume even more on the forums. His accounts got deleted so he created more to post on the forums and took up where he left off.
He went so far as to create an Anti WWIIOL website. He became psychotically obsessed. He still is. He supposedly hates the game yet he can't stay away.
This has made the community at WWIIOL a bit sensitive. They often feel a need to defend their game and even promote it to an extent. They feel they need to do this for 2 reasons. The game had a bad launch and it has an obsessed Minister of Disinformation in Blair.
Now, everytime I have seen the game talked about on forums, I see one guy come back and claim to have tried the game and then spouts off about how it wouldn't run. All I can say is that a couple of these guys turned out to be a verified liar while a couple of others were legit. However every guy who claimed this had a much better computer than the one I have. WWIIOL isn't the first nor will it be the last that won't run for everyone.
I however maintain my system and have updated the drivers for every single component. If you are that computer illiterate that you can't get the game to run I wouldn't be posting it on the forums because 15,000 people many of whom have worse computers were able to get it to run so all you are doing is saying "Hey look at me, I'm a dumb A**!!!" personally I think the ones who have been found out tonot have actually installed the game are just trying to give the game another black eye. Juvenile to say the least.
Also many games have to be "learned" to be enjoyed. Yes some games have a steep learning curve but that just means it would be that much more enjoyable once learned. Anything easy isn't that rewarding. I'm sure that if I try AH I will have to do some learning and though I hold my own in the skies of WWIIOL I will have to learn from the pros of AH to do well in AH. Vice versa.
All I'm saying is that these are just games, we are people. The games aren't perfect and neither are we. WWIIOL isn't perfect and neither is AH. I have a friend who now plays AH (he aked to remain nameless here, he doesn't like controversy) we debated the pros and cons of both and are honest with each other. We both have problems with AH and WWIIOL. Incidentally he found out about AH from me when I saw it on the WWIIOL forums. he also just ried WWIIOL and being single says he loves both and plans to play both.
I digress, I do that alot so stick with me
Anyway, these are just games we don't have to get so riled up over a stupid game that we become rude to each other. It does nobody any good. I'm glad that thread got locked because it reflects poorly on both sides.
If you wish to flame me here feel free, I really don't care. I am not here to flame AH or pimp WWIIOL. I personally love WWIIOL and could care less what anyone else thinks. I am also interested in AH and could care less what anyone thinks.
I do think you guys blew it though when you went on the offensive. I would tell the WWIIOL guys the same thing if the tables were turned and they had acted like that. Your actions did not reflect well on your community. This is your house, you are the hosts. As the hosts, it was your responsibilty to be polite. If the guests got out of line the mods will do their jobs and delete or lock the thread.
I hope the lessons can be learned and I and any other WWIIOL who chooses to stop by can expect better treatment. I will pass the same advice to them on how to treat people. Personally I am sick of people using the anonymity of the internet to be rude. It's not necessary and doesn't reflect well for either community.
I would hope that that we could all see past some silly division defined by a couple of games and see that which binds us together. The love of online gaming in games that have alot in common.
Personally I doubt either games Dev's would have a problem with a bunch of us playing both games. LOL actually I would dare say they would like it.
Anyway spread the peace in the forus, make war in the games.
