To the FSO Community,
I'm leaving the FSO CM team. I had planned to stay until October, which would have been my 3 year anniversary as an FSO Admin CM, but my batteries died before I could get there.
A couple of thoughts on the way out the door:
This is a great event--the best, in my humble opinion, among the Aces High special events. Its great for 4 main reasons. (1) The vision of the creators that imagined it first, and figured out a way to sustain it second. (2) Hard work by the entire CM team. While the Admins and Setup CMs shoulder the majority of the burden, the entire CM team plays a part. First, the terrain team builds these awesome maps that take us to all of the battlefields we all read about, and over which we attempt to recreate those epic air and land battles of WWII history. That includes the maps, the custom features, and sometimes the custom weather files we use. In addition, each FSO setup is vetted by the entire CM staff. We get input from the Race CMs, Scenario CMs, KOTH, and Snapshots--they all contribute to refining the setup before it goes public. (3) The support of HTC. You guys may not realize it, but HTC bends over backwards to support this event. From uploading terrains and weather files, to trusting the CMs with information that allows us to score and manipulate the event arena in so many ways. They have enabled a number of custom settings over the years that give the CM team even more capability and flexibility to create even more immersive battles. Truly, without their support, this event would flounder. (4) Last, the players. What if we had an FSO and nobody came? You guys and gals showing up each Friday give the event and FSO team a purpose--to entertain, educate, and immerse the FSO community into an intense, historically-based event that has enough of an edge to mean more than 2 hours in the main arenas. Your participation has made FSO the
largest, most popular event of its kind in the entire WWII online market. Squadron COs and staff dedicate hours each week to create orders that structure the event and allow the Admin CM's ideas become reality. Your interest helps sustain ours, and to hear someone say they had a kick-ass time in one of my events has truly made all of this work we do worth it.
Since I've been flying FSO, over the last 4 years or so, I've seen the participation levels in FSO sky-rocket. We used to get 150 or so pilots participating. We almost hit 600 for one frame last year. That's a lot of new blood into the event. Consequently, there are many more consumers of FSO now than ever before. In that same period, I've seen about half-a-dozen Admin CMs come and go, with an equivalent number of Setup CMs as well. Right now, we have 3-4 veteran Admin CMs (counting DD) that have been around FSO for a long time. Ghostdancer is a veteran of the event. Squire/Warloc is a veteran of the event. Daddog has been with the event since it started. I'm leaving after almost 3 years. These other 3 have been around the event since before me even.
In my time, I've tried to push the envelope of the event. GVs, new scoring systems, wind, manual calibration--all because I thought they were needed--raised the bar, made the event more difficult and more realistic. Some of you have not agreed with me. Trust me, I have heard some very vocal protests, calls for changes, ideas for improvement, suggestions to spice up the event, and, always the loudest, the folks pointing out exactly where we, the FSO Admins, screw up the event and their personal FSO experience. With that being said, my challenge to the community is for you folks to step up to the plate. It can be your turn. My first public criticism of FSO came in a discussion with then Admin CM Nefarious regarding fog visibility settings. I had some very strong opinions about how they needed to be changed. That led to other discussions about other facets of the event. Eventually, I was offered a chance to try my ideas about how to make the event even better. I was fortunate enough to have that opportunity.
If you find yourself constantly telling everyone else about how FSO would be better by doing this, or by balancing that, or using more of these aircraft, etc.--petition to join the FSO CM Team. Instead of merely throwing darts at the CMs, stand up and allow yourself to be a target of criticism. Let people challenge your ideas, publicly ridicule your historical research and decision making. Learn what it is to be behind the curtain. Daddog is looking for talented people. He may not want you. But, the only way the event is going to get better is for the entire community to take a turn at the wheel.
I've enjoyed the opportunity to do this. I'll continue to participate in the event as a pilot, with very little responsibility, and now armed with a perspective that will help me understand the challenges the FSO CM team will continue to have each month.
Cheers and
Stoney
