I understand this is your opinion and I hope you'll understand that you're basing your opinion on an assumption more than actual knowledge of why the AVA is always empty. There's quite a few people flying in the LWA now that never flew anywhere but the CT or AVA for years in fact back to 2001 and before. A few years ago you couldn't drag me or many of these other guys into the Main Arenas. Flying my super ponyspittempjughog 24/7 has nothing to do with it. In fact most of my squadmates fly 1942/43 era birds. Plus there's just as many taterlaunchingHO190uberjetjoc ks flying Luftwaffe birds in the LWA as people flying else .
My experience was..The arena ceased to be fun for the majority of what once was a fairly healthy community mainly do to behavior more than aircraft preference. As more left and fewer flew the process fed itself and the place died on the vine. In my opinion it could be saved with the right ideas and little positive sponsoring. The OP would be well advised to run his idea by some of the folks on the AVA staff along with guys with similar preferences as yourself. I for one would like to see the AVA make a comeback and there are a few folks trying to do just that. Insulting the people that don't regularly fly there or see things your way on the subject of reality isn't going to help build you much positive feedback on your efforts. Also your theory of the AHII community doesn't explain the popularity of Special Events where you are forced to fly a designated bird instead of your favorite. There is interest for realism and historic setups and settings regardless of how empty the AVA is at the moment.
I really don't have a dog in the icon debate, but I have to disagree with your statement on why the AVA is empty. It has less to do with people refusing to fly less than their favorite aircraft and more to do with the place needing a formula for fun again after it became such a disappointment for so many of it's longtime supporters. I'd like to see of you guys that seem to have a lot of energy for the sim like yourself and the OP to get with the AVA staff and run some of this stuff by them. I think you'll find most of them very accommodating to new ideas.
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Oh come on Shifty...
behavior puts the blame on other people...I see "bad behavior" in the LW arenas every single day and yet the EW, MW and AvA stand mostly empty...there is hardly a minute that goes by where someone isn't saying something stupid about someone else on 200...I see supposed "good pilots" doing stuff that they put others down about and it's not "rare occasions" that such things occur...and I've read all the existing forum threads about why the EW, MW and AvA are mostly empty (hours of searching and reading)...obviously behavior has little to actually do with the population of an arena...what I've seen is a lot of the old dogs have gone away for one reason or another and the community as it stands now is different than the one from 2001.
I've been in the AvA and watched people quit because of something as simple as getting HO'd...people get HO'd every few minutes in the LW arenas but that doesn't stop those arenas from being heavily populated...I was in the combat challenge and watched a good number of people quit when they realized there were no enemy icons...I've seen people not participate in the FSO with their squads because they don't like the ride assignments or the settings...it's one excuse or another and they are based on nothing more than childish desires...and that behavior is from people who call themselves adults in real life.
Now this is my "opinion"...It all comes down to choices and if those "pillars of the community" who are publicly refusing to challenge themselves beyond the arcade realm were to choose to at least try instead of coming up with a million reasons for condemning something or someone for not fitting in with perceived personally acceptable ideology...the AvA arena could have a better population than it does in spite of the excuses from the past. Yes, no icons or simply no enemy icons is more of a challenge than having icons on...but just like some of the things built into AH that we learn to compensate for from the day we start playing, if enemy icons were not available at all when we started playing AH, this discussion would not be happening...and people would be upset if someone came along and suggested that enemy icons be incorporated into the game.
They don't reduce realism, they increase it.
Yeah you're right, I see a rainbow of icons with distance indicators over everything I look at in real life...uh huh.
