Fair enough, Guppy. Honestly I see it as kind of a bastard move to look at the entirety of the situation, and make the conscious decision to whack the guy. However, expecting a free pass in a war zone because you're just out messing around isn't reasonable to expect in an online game. Like I said, 'That's Grizz.'
If I were up in a Val deep behind enemy lines, just dicking around, would it be reasonable to expect them not to shoot me down? I think not. The tactics and movements of ground vehicles are 99% a mystery to me. I might, given the right circumstance see that jeep and be thinking 'I don't know what he's doing there, but he's red. He must be up to no good.' and kill him. I don't know. I might not even notice where we are on the map, just that there's a red icon on the ground there, and boom.
As far as showing the newbies what the game's about, just my humble opinion here, but I don't believe most people coming in here are blank slates looking to the longer time players for guidance on how to behave. Most are probably pretty used to online gaming and as such have already formed a good deal of their rules for interacting with people online.
The one thing that has struck me about online flight sims is that they kind of developed uniquely in the online gaming world. The main thrust for a good number of the early adopters and just the community in general wasn't the fact that it was an online video game, but rather that it was a fair simulation of something they really really wanted to do, had dreamed of doing all their lives in some cases. It is a different mentality from pretty much all other online games, because other online games pretty much evolved out of gaming.
I guess what I'm trying to say is if you ask most people why they play First Person Shooters, it's because they're fun games. The early adopters of Doom or Duke Nukem weren't interested in killing demons or aliens in real life and looking for a way to simulate that experience. The same applies to most online games, they developed purely as a game, an entertainment medium. Not as a simulation of something people follow as a hobby like aviation or World War history.
Air to air combat in WWI and WWII was a unique phenomenon, it's something that will probably never be recreated again in human history. We'll never again have that special mix of technological innovation over the course of a short period of time coupled with the necessity for the men who were doing it to have an amazing level of skill to survive and prevail against the enemy. It's unique, and it's why I think most of us enjoy these kinds of sims over later war stuff. It's no fun for me to lock on a missile from over the horizon to kill another aircraft. We want to get in close, and kill them with guns.
I think most of the guys who have been around for a long time came at it from more of the aircraft hobbyist perspective, or the history buff aspect. It's a much different mindset from your average online gamer, and online gamers is the pool we're drawing a good deal of the newbies from. For a sample of what you're missing, log into XBox live playing an FPS like Halo or Gears of War sometime, then come back to AH and fall to your knees in joy, thanking whatever higher power you believe in that those people aren't on Vox in here.
Now not all of the longer time people are necessarily hugs and puppies. From what I've seen of Grizz and most of the Muppets they play hard, and seem to enjoy being the antagonists, enjoying ticking people off. *shrug* It's their deal, if you don't like what they're doing in game stop them if you can. It seems to be what they're about and what they want.
VonMessa-
Wiley.
