Hey all:
How about taking this to the Furball Magazine Forum next time? >G< But thanks for the feedback regardless. I was surprised when I stumbled across this link today while visiting this forum.
Brian "Omni" Rinehart, the author of the editorial, would know better than I (although I echo many of his same words--I cancelled my account in August of last year), but I think he's bored with the game. And he has valid reasons.
Kesmai doesn't exactly have the best support team out there (the best support team by far is the community itself--which is somewhat exclusive and can be found in New Bigweek--location available upon request only). But Bigweek, as I said, is prett exclusive. They don't take to RR guys very well. I had a hell of a time fitting in there, and I'm still not sure I have yet.
But anyhow, Kesmai can be a bite when it comes to support. Its standoffish attitude doesn't exactly help much. Ahh yes, who knows when Air Warrior Vietnam will be available, and it's nearly impossible to make a guess about Air Warrior IV. (I would guess about two years at least).
2 years.... wow. Air Warrior 3 is running on three-year-old technology. By the end of those two years, it will be five years old. The same old game get old after a while.
What about those uberplanes? Well, I would guess that they're buffhunting. At least they fly somewhat steadily and one doesn't have to worry about a warping bomber popping up all over the place. Unless you encounter the occasional (occasional?) dogfighting B-17 or B25. My old CO used to bring up a full B25, which he called his "Spitchell" (due to its **outstanding** turning and dogfighting skills) for dogfights--we used to shoot people down in those! And just the other day a friend of mine told me about how he outturned a 109 in a Gooney! C'mon--a damn gooney. Granted, a 109 isn't the best turning aircraft, but surely it can outturn a Bf-109.
But maybe those fighters are way up high for a different reason other than hunting for bombers--maybe it's just too hard to find a decent fight without warpers! What fun is it if the guy in your sites is really on your 6 and you get red-screened?
What fun is it to *always* fight at that altitude? There's got to be some variety.
Connections are definitely problems. For too long Gamestorm/Kesmai has blamed the problems on users. To a certain degree this is true, but I blame 75% of the problem on Gamestorm/Kesmai.
A friend of mine brought up an interesting point. As a *former* (yes many of my friends have left the game) Air Warrior pilot, he had experienced the good times and the bad--and the bad times finally got to him. Connections were horrible, and he hung up his headset. Anyway, consider Air Warrior: Vietnam/Jet Warrior (this is something else that bothers me--what is the official name anyhow?) for a second. Massively multiplayer like Air Warrior III. Same basic style and servers. Bad connections are a given. Jets? At 500 knots? Missiles? Now add in the warp-factor, which will undoubtedly be an aspect of any of Kesmai's massively multiplayer simulations. Ya look in your rear-view mirror, see a jet outside of guns or missile range. But in his view, you're dead meat. And you will be. The missiles and the high speed will add to the horrible effects of the warping.
Back to AW3. What kind of updates have we had? No new aircraft--this was discussed a while back, but I don't think it happened. Same boring old arena setup. (big eto changed it a bit, but it was extremely large--making fights hard to come by).
More than anything, the fun factor made the game what it is/was. But it has disappeared for many. Warping is not fun. Patrolling the skies at 40k gets boring--pilots want to find quick fights easily.
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Matt Arens
Editor, Furball Magazine furballmag.com
awpilot@aol.com
