Ice, some people are just sore losers. That explains most of the whining on ch1.
Some are just intolerant to other's point of view and mostly ignorant.
They have hard time realizing that another person may have different goals, interests and values then themselves.
Some are just stupid kids that throw around words like "cowardice" and "honor" talking about a computer game. They probably never encountered anything scarier in their life then the prospect of losing in a computer game and think that what the fear is.
I wonder how RAM plays chess. He would probably declare an opponent a coward for not moving all his pieces forward...
They should get a life. A guy in AH surrounded by a bunch of enemies may be a Quake-style player who does not mind getting virtually shot down. Why should I lose my alt to help him if he got into the virtual trouble himself? In any case his life and health are not in danger. Maybe some ego, at most. Nobody dies when shot down in his chute or vulched.
Also, whan I am lonewolfing in the arena, why would I care about preserving/improving anybody's score whether he has a green icon or a red one? You may as well ask me to not shoot an opponent in my sights as to sacrifice my advantage to help somebody. I may do or not do both if I feel like it.
In a scenario or a special event a person is obligated by his voluntary agreement to take care of his wingie and his squad and his side and his mission, but in MA?
It is obvious that a good plot can defeat a newbie with just a few weeks of flying time in any plane under any circumstances before the newbie even realizes what is going on. The only way a new player has to enjoy the game and land some kills is to be very carefull, deny the enemy any opportunity to attack, let alone shoot, take only safest chances himself and observe the others from his high perch until he has enough experience accumulated to get down and mix it up with some chance of success.
It's pure hipocricy on the part of experienced players to say "you are doing wrong only attacking from above and escaping where you have 90% chance to survive, you should mix it up with me where I have 99% chance to kill you".
Here is my point of view:
Flying for survival may be a very interesting game by itself. It was only necessary to get 5 kills in dozens of missions to be considered an ace in WWII. LW aces took years to accumulate hundreds of kills. Hartman scored much less then one kill per sortie.
I would say that people that fly conservatively are much more true to the spirit of the sim.
In real life the inexperienced pilots (the live ones) were not known to be killed often. They were known to have much fewer kills per sortie, if any, then experienced ones.
Some experienced players bored with the usual gameplay and kill scoring may prefer to play as if they only have one life for variety sake.
Other people cannot spent enough time with a game to get very proficient even after a year or two and they also may prefer staying alive to trying to get a few kills at the expence of many deaths.
I do not get irritated by other players if they are not flying my style. It's their choice. Many prefer to talk rather then play, but that's what ".squelch" is for.
There are no bugs in this game related to this discussion, so anything anyone does with his $30 is perfectly legal.
RAM, if you do not like that a guy did not clear yours or somebody else's six, try to talk to him. Offer him to fly as your wingman for a few sorties. Demonstrate how much more fun it is working as a team. May be then he will share your values.
Regards,
miko
[This message has been edited by miko2d (edited 09-06-2000).]
