Humble.. I think you have unrealistic expectations, to be honest.
The "way the game is played" is fundamentally changed from how it was when I started playing (3 years ago). Back then, the emphasis was on getting "good" so you could win air to air fights. The typical fight was small, 1v1s were pretty common. So you had a culture (I suppose) where the emphasis was on 1v1 air combat, even if the "game" wasn't about 1v1 air combat.
About a year after I started playing, AH had a population boom. This fundamentally changed the way the game has been played. Instead of a trickle of new players coming in one at a time, learning the "culture" and adapting to it, the newcomers changed the way the game was played (which wasn't hard, considering the number of newcomers vs the number of "vets"). Since the disparity in skill was so great between the "vets" and the newcomers, fighting in the old style simply let to frustration for the newcomers. So their emphasis shifted from a "loner" approach to a "group" approach.
Since the initial influx, the population growth has steadied out somewhat. However, the "old culture" has been overwhelmed because, to be frank, everyone gets tired of the same old stuff after a while, and people quit. So, most of the "vets" from when I began playing are gone now. So instead of today's newcomers learning the old, individualistic way of playing, they learn the "new" way of playing.
There is no going back, the old culture is gone.
So in a sense, those of us that are left and dissillusioned with the "new" gameplay are tilting at windmills. It will not change. I'd venture to say that most people who play this game play for a year, maybe 18 months at most. So for most people, this is the only way the game has ever been played.
A 5,6,7, X on 1 isn't "gangbanging"... it is "getting the job done". There is no "glory" to be had in fighting 1v1, it simply doesn't make sense. If you see a red icon, you try to kill it. It simply doesn't matter to your average gamer what the situation is, they just want a kill.
So, you have three options. You can either accept the way the game is played, not accept the way the game is played and try to shame the players into playing "your way" (which doesn't work), or not accept the way the game is played and try to have fun anyway.
I suppose this next part will be taken as a "whine" by the new vanguard, but to be quite honest it isn't, it is just a simple assessment. Back in the "old days", there wasn't as much "nastiness" on the open channels as there is today. This is because, simply, there wasn't as much to be nasty about. The main cause of "nastiness" is people who've been playing for a long time refusing to accept the way the game is played now. Someone who kills you in a 5 on 1 expects to be told "Wonderful kill, great job".. because to them, it was a great job. They did what they were supposed to do, they "won". If you feel differently, you are a "poor loser", and a "whiner". They feel they are quite justified in "putting you in your place".. they won, you lost. It doesn't really matter how the game is won, as long as it is won. There is a fundamental difference in the way the game is played between people who still try to hold to the "old ways", and people who don't even know (or care) what the "old ways" were. Perhaps there is a fundamental difference in the way the "game world" is seen, I don't know.
The CT is not some last bastion of the "old way", it is simply an arena with a limited planeset. The game is not played any differently here.
I quit in the middle of last month, then decided to rejoin to fly in the scenario. Of course, I then decided I didn't really want to fly in the scenario, but I've been kicking around in the MA anyway. I have tuned to ch 200 a few times, but for the most part I stay off it. I have nothing to say to these people, about anything. I suppose to the extent I have any feelings at all for them, it would be contempt, and nothing else. Of course, the vast majority of them feel the same way about me, after all, I consistantly make "dumb choices" and put myself in "bad situations" and then "whine" when I die.
There is no point in trying to get your point across to anyone who has been playing for less than ~3 years. It makes about as much sense as me trying to have a logical conversation with a Mongolian.
Anyway, this is probably the longest post I've ever made on the subject. Time for it to end.
