I joined WB in Beta, it was the first game that I can recall that actually had 200ppl in one server. It was the first product for allot of folks when it came to flying WWII Sims online. Yes there where others, but this one brought forth a massive arena, great graphics, dynamic gameplay, solid community and a customer support department.
The perks (as I see them through my rose colored glasses of the past):
1. Quality of Player = Quality of experience
The hourly fee to play kept casual gamers out, the only people who where there, were the sort of folks who where as much Aviaition History Buffs, as they where old men wanting to live their childhood fantasies of being a WWII fighter pilot.
Alt.Games.WB was a place where instead of flame wars on the boards, you had dissertations on the ballistics of a 20mm, and it seemed as if the programmers listened. Everyone liked everybody, or at least respected each other. Jedi's Book of Dweeb, Toads Hall...
2. The Conventions featured real WWII Pilots signing books, Real good beer everywhere, and real geeky old men flying a sim.
3. Find the Book: WarBirds : The Story so Far, and read it, if for anything, to see where flight sims where in the mid 90's, what the community was like back then, and where it could be today.
Now, understand this, like old girlfriends from the past, we tend to put old games up on pedastals the farther back in memory they fade. We forget all the bad things, and remember only the good.
Examples:
1. You could take an A6M5 up, and actually fight with it. It was considered one of the most deadly planes in the game, because nothing could turn with it except an KI43 which shot spit wads.
2. Spit5 was considered to be the best plane in the game because it had cannons and could turn and out run a zeke
3. You could capture a field with 1 P38
4. You would fly for an hour and not see anyone at 8AM on a tuesday
5. The top ranked where there, because they killed alot, and never died.
6. Bombing was as much fun as flying a fighter
7. People Vulched with B17 formations with Auto Guns on, and it was scary efficient
8. The community was small enough, that there where probably only 100 people that flew during your normal flying time, and after a while, you could tell by the type of airplane, and the ACM being used, just who it was you where about to shoot down.
9. 2 vs 2 duels and squadron duels where prevalent and scheduled activities.
10. S3's rocked
10.5 Toads Air Races, its more important to finish than to win.................. TREE!
11. You could not fly most airplanes especially early war upside down for very long
12. Rolling Plane sets and Instant Action Arena
13. Loosing all of the cannon fodder easy targets out of the rolling planeset MA because they only flew in the IA arena
14. The Move to Carolina and the changes that came with it
Aces High brought the best of WB to the market with a reasonable price rate, granted it brought a different gamer to the mix as well, overall, the true die hard sim fan can still get his/her fix, and maybee even a casual gamer from time to time is turned into a true sim fan.
The War Birds community scattered to Aces High, to World War II Online and some stayed home to Alt.Games.Warbirds and still can be found on S3's when not flying their IL2 weekly squadron matches.
The only thing I wish I could change or add to Aces High besides the core base of the community being truely well read historical junkies and research fanatics, is I would LOVE..................... LOVE to pay an additional $8 or so a month, and have a simple little WWI stand alone with one arena. Everyonce in a while, it is good to wear your rudder pedals out a bit. That much I miss about WB's.
But we can only relish in the past, the reality, is we have a better product, more accurate product and at a cheaper price than we had back then.
WB's broke my cherry, but I married Aces High, just wish I had my little WWI mistress on the side.
