My sons (9 and 6) have grown up watching their dad fly Aces High. Through this process they’ve both began their love and admiration for WW2 warbirds and the associated history. We’ve amassed countless die cast metal and plastic planes over the years. When some kids were learning their alphabet and numbers, my oldest was identifying warbirds instead. It’s only been natural for them to either sit and watch me fly or take to the skies themselves in AH supervised by me.
They’ve also collected several beautiful aircraft books by their request on visits to the book store. My oldest wanted for a long time to go tell HTC about the airplanes he likes and hoped to see in the game. He wanted to show Mr. Pyro and Mr. HiTech his “airplane science book”. Back in March 2007 on Spring Break we went to visit my in-laws who live 10 minutes away from Grapevine TX. I told my then 7 year old to choose the airplane book he wanted to bring on the trip and told him we would try and fulfill his request if we had time.
Well we got to stop by HTC briefly to let our 7 year old show them his “airplane science book”. With excitement and nervousness he flipped through his book to show “Mr Pyro” the planes he liked. I had no idea which pages he would flip to. If I recall we looked at the Me 410, the Gigant, P-39, the Kingfisher, maybe the Hs 129. I remember he spent some time pointing out the B-25 and particularly the diagrams in his book on B-25’s skip bombing ships which Pyro took some interest discussing. I know it was memorable moment for my son. As a dad I was full of pride and joy: pride that my son knew his planes, was forming his own opinions about them and sharing his intererst in them with others - joy that I get to share a common interest with him in airplanes (at least for awhile!).
The real kicker was later that week Pyro announced the vote to the community in March 2007 for which new plane to add to AH. You should have seen the look on my son’s face when he found out that some of the very planes he showed Pyro were on the list to be voted on!
What’s my point in telling this story? First some of us as parents do use AH as a medium to introduce our kids to WW2 warbirds in hopes that we can pass on our love and passion for these legendary planes and the brave men who flew them to the next generation. 2nd playing on Aces High with our kids is a way for some of us parents to develop common bonds and interests with them.
Until HTC says otherwise, AH isn’t an adults only game. There is no ESRB rating posted to suggest otherwise. There are no limitations posted by HTC on age restrictions. Perhaps this thread will bring some awareness to folks who’ve never considered this social aspect of AH before. Maybe even a few may choose to behave differently when they realize that the AH arenas are more like public pools instead of nightclubs. Who knows? Maybe when HTC implements skip bombing in AH, it might have been a 7 year olds suggestion to them that tipped the balance.
Tango
