I wonder though...don't people get tired of the same planes over and over? Variety is the spice of life. I know I can up in an old plane anytime I want in the MA, but it's no fun if everyone else is in mach 5 cannonbirds. And 20-60 players is no fun either. Personally, I am interested in Luftwaffe 1946 and Italy vs USA 1938 and everything in between, in a MA or pseudo-conflict type environment (not just a limited controlled historical scenario).
I find it curious why people don't enjoy flying the earlier planes against their contemporaries--especially given all the talk about how people want all these old obscure planes. It appears that many (?) people think it'd cool to have Buffalos and Yaks and Fiats, but then want to just fly the same P51 in the MA.
Seems like people like late war planes because they are better. But if we take that attitude to its logical limit, then why just WWII? We should introduce F86s and Mig15s into the same arena as ponys and superspits, and then eveyone will fly the jets. Boring? Well yeah, but for the same reasons as the current situation. Or actually, forget these crappy 20th century planes...let's just skip a few galaxies and do Xwings and TIE interceptors.
And on the issue of forcing people to do something. The whole game is essentially a collection of forcings. All games are this way, and in fact you could say that forcing is the definition of a game. There needs to be a balance between freedom and constraints, and that balance makes for a good game. I think an RPS is a good forcing, one that makes the game more interesting and varied.
