A LOT less people play AH on the week ends. Recall splitting MAIN arena due to FULL volumes of 200-500 players? Now these days you barely see 150 players...
His statement was a comparision of more players play on the weekends then play during the week.
It's not about the #s of the players. It is about the QUALITY of the game.
different people have different ideas of what the quality of the game is.
Each decision has lost players. 1) Split the main arena and when #s drop re-unite to a single arena
US was in a heavy recession at the time as well
2) Make Gvs automatic
which was the first step in removing the "interior of the GVs so that HTC could add new GVs quicker
3)Employ dar bars of enemies
We have always had friendly and enemy dar bars
4) Show ENEMY GV dar
Many newbs coming in are looking for tank fights and couldnt find them and so left with out subscribing.
5)make arenas FULL DAR across temporarily AKA lets find a fight.
As a TEST, he has already posted a couple of times about adjustments he plans to make. Again, this is so Newbs can find action.
6) Chase away history recreation enthusiasts - they cannot post missions or strat runs because full dar bar.
This only showes how lazy players have become. Talk about "realistic" How about and bomber group/wave at 10K with a couple groups of fighters at 15-18k as top cover just like they did in the war.
7) Increase dar at expense at a small map that is not realistic on real maps.
Dont think of it as "Dar", think of it as "enemy positional intelligence". Local radars, spotters, civilians reports, military intelligence and so on all rolled together to give us the data displayed
8) employ a HUD so planes can be modern in a fake WWII level.
Again, a crutch for newbs until they get their feet under them.
Conclusion: Lets turn the game into a 'fighting game'.. Damn the squads, Damn the missions planners, Damn the bombers. Meanwhile competitive games has advanced amazing graphics in an WWII historical sense.
Cough: This is what caused the downfall of Wildbill's WARBIRDS game (which mr aces high himself was helping to run the bad decisions in Warbirds)
Learn from history. It's your choice. Greed of the #s
Players want ACTION. the graphics are pretty enough these days. As for squads and missions, get off your a ss and put them together! That is one of the things this game has lost, the camaraderie of players. Squads use to mean something, now all they are, are a group of names on a list. Missions are nothing more than "Grab a hvy fighters stay NOE and flatten everything".
Do new players leave because they "can't find the action", or instead because they die quickly? If the latter, then making them more visible would seem to be counter-productive.
MH
Have you ever seen a "Call of Duty" game run? Players dont care how much they die, they just want to get back into the action ASAP. Its the time flying TO a fight that is turning new players away.