Mr. HiTech, Mr. Skuzzy, BBS members, fellow players:
Thirteen years ago, Dale declared to this Board. “Westy I feel your pain. AW was my first love also." The AW chapter of combat simulation had ended, but it's legacy continues with us today in Aces High. For some reason WWhiskey has made it my task to report the State of Aces High – for in it is to improve the game for us all.
Today, thanks to the grit and determination of the HTC, there is much progress to report. After more than a decade of grinding war, our brave men and women on land and in the air are still fighting happily. Happiness, cannot be had without strife, however. After years of grueling bbs debates, HTC has created new ways for us to virtually kill each other. We still log on with the same zest for air combat that we did all those years ago in AW. Our heart is strong. Our player base is stable.
Together, we have cleared away the rubble of faulty coading, and can say with renewed confidence that the state of our game is stronger.
But we gather here knowing that there are thousands of people whose desire for air combat has not yet been rewarded. HTC is adding new planes – but too many people still can’t find time to fly anything but the Spit XVI. Anti-hoarding sentiment is at an all time high – but for more than a decade, the actual effect on game play has barely budged.
It is our generation’s task, then, to reignite the true engine of aerial combat – a rising, thriving fighter pilot ethos.
It is our unfinished task to restore the basic premise that built this game – I shoot you, you die. You shoot me, I die.
It is our unfinished task to make sure that HTC works on behalf of the many, and not just The Few (Sorry Bruv
); that it encourages combat, rewards individual initiative, and opens the doors of opportunity to every pilot across in this great game.
The players of Aces High don’t expect HTC to solve every problem. They don’t expect those of us on this board to agree on every issue. But they do expect us to put the game's interests before our own. They do expect us to forge reasonable compromise where we can. For they know that Aces High moves forward only when we do so together; and that the responsibility of improving this game remains the task of us all.
Our work must begin by making some basic decisions about our plane set – decisions that will have a huge impact on the strength of FSO and Scenario gameplay. We must add the Bristol Beaufighter so we can end the scourge of threads calling for it. The same goes for the Dewoitine D.520. If for no other reason than because it would be fun to shoot down. The time to act is now.
We may fly different planes, and fly for different countries, and set different views (coughendf3forthea20cough) than the pilot beside us. But as AH'ers, we all share the same proud title:
We are virtual pilots (Ok, most of us anyway
). It’s a title that doesn’t just describe our chess piece or FPH status. It describes the way we’re made. It describes what we believe. It captures the enduring idea that this game only works when we accept certain obligations to one another and to future generations; that our fights are wrapped up in the fights of others; and that well into our second decade as a game, it remains the task of us all, as pilots of Aces High, to be the authors of the next great chapter in our Aces High story (or at least get a cameo in one of Dolby's flicks).
Thank you, God bless you, and God bless HTC, and God bless Aces High.
