Interesting read from a game relating to Aviation

[Wayne S]

Those in the static modeling side of Aviation might find interest in some of words in this post from the maker of fighter ace an on-line game.

After reading this, since "she" my six year-old is out of school this week. Think it is time she learns the vision through manically inclined eyes on how to put her bicycle back together again.

Possibly there are less things people have interest in "using their mind", I ponder how people these days perceive their surroundings, are they fascinated with things.

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Dear friends and fellow flyers,

It is with a mix of joy and sadness that I write to you today.

For many of you, Fighter Ace has been a 13-year journey of friendship and learning. For me, Fighter Ace has been a 20-year saga of hard work, fascinating friendships, world travel and an unmatched education in things both technical and philosophical. Like all good things, though, Fighter Ace must come to a close.

The world in which we live has changed a great deal since the early days of Fighter Ace. We have been around longer than many popular game properties like Grand Theft Auto or Bejewelled. We've been around as long as the DVD. And here's the kicker: the game has been around longer than Google, MySpace, the iPod, or Facebook. My work on it even predates Jerry Yang's work on Yahoo. Heck, I've been working on this game longer than Tiger Woods has been on the PGA tour!

One of the unfortunate – at least from our perspective as Fighter Ace players - ways in which the world has changed is that the computer, its users, and its typical ancillary equipment has changed over the years. Where 15 years ago a joystick standing next to the computer was de rigueur, today most households do not even own one. Where 15 years ago, the PC was the primary device for delivering game entertainment to adults, today it is the console or handheld device that is king. The computer has become a gateway to Social Media, and the console is enjoyed from the couch, in a very different mode of interaction. One might argue about the efficacy of such progress, but ultimately that is the hand we are dealt, and there are many benefits to be had from this evolution. The only truly unfortunate change, from my perspective, is the change in people’s attitude to aviation, and more broadly to technology and science.

Where all of us grew up thinking of flight as a wonder, and aviators as heroes, today aircraft are seen mostly as an excuse to stuff ever more unfortunate souls into ever smaller seats, and pilots are little more than glorified bus drivers in most people’s eyes. Where engineering and sciences were seen as areas of excitement, growth and opportunity, today scientists and engineers are viewed with distrust and disdain by the many who appear to be retreating away from enlightenment and back towards tribalism, shamanism, superstition and false intuitions.

These changes in technology, consumption and attitude have lead to the ossification of the player base. Amazingly, our average subscription length is now roughly 67 months. That is 5 and a half years, which would probably be even longer were it not for the transition from Microsoft to VR1. What this tells us is that very few new players are joining our ranks, which is born out by other evidence as well. In short, we have a bunch of folks who have played together for a long time, and as people drift away they are not replaced by newcomers.

This does mean, however, that we have a very special and close knit community. We’ve been through a lot together; while flying our way through the friendly skies of FA, we've seen three wars and two economic melt-downs. We've seen children born and children enter adulthood, we've even seen some adults becoming children; and we've seen many good friends pass away.

Like them, Fighter Ace will fade into memory on August first of this year. We will stop selling 3 and 6 month subscriptions on Monday, April 19. We will stop selling 1-month subscriptions 2 months later, on June 19. We will refund the balance of any 6-month subscribers as of July 19. July 19th we will begin a 12-day alumni period as our thank-you to all current and former Fighter Ace players and will shut down the servers on August 1. The bottom line is that the game is losing money and shedding players. It requires a major investment in infrastructure and development to make current, and there is no possible way that such an investment could be made back.

Although I am announcing the shut down of Fighter Ace today, I would rather spend this evening in celebration of all that we have accomplished together than in mourning for the loss of our game; the bond will remain even if Fighter Ace goes away, and I’ve worked hard to try to make sure that the community has a way to continue, even as we turn off the lights on the game.

To accomplish this I have turned to my long-time friend, “Wild†Bill Stealey, the CEO IEntertainment who owns and operates Warbirds, who is himself a retired USAF Lt. Colonel. Bill has been a major contributor to the flight sim genre as the founder of Microprose, and I am sure many of you remember playing Microprose’s games. For me Bill’s games were an inspiration, and his example was instrumental in helping me launch my own Fighter Ace vision.

WarBirds would like to welcome any Fighter Ace players who would like to join the WarBirds online community. As his welcome to all of you, Bill is offering FA players a FREE 60 Day account to WarBirds. You can sign up for FREE at the special URL that has been set up just for FA players: You can also email Bill at his email address with your questions:

Like FA, WarBirds has FREE online training, events, and has started plans for Fighter Ace specific events just for all of you. They will also offer all those players who sign up with a Credit Card a Premium WarBirds account that includes all WarBirds Events, Special Aircraft Skins, Priority Customer Service, and a FREE DVD of WarBirds (upon request) at each major release. You will be able to get the full details on their subscription and the special Fighter Ace player offer from the website.

Although there are certainly differences between WarBirds and Fighter Ace in terms of gameplay, community interaction and game operations, I encourage you all to try WarBirds. As different as it may feel, we are all a part of one fraternity and I believe that our love of aviation transcends the nuances that separate us. The two communities together are stronger than they are apart, and I will continue to support Bill in this effort. Bill is helping me provide an opportunity for all of you to transition as a community and maintain those ties, going so far as to rapidly implement support for Japanese language so that we leave no one behind. I urge you to take advantage of this opportunity rather than letting this community disintegrate.

The greatest legacy of Fighter Ace, beyond the impact it has had on its players, is tremendous innovation. You may not be aware of this, but Air Attack (the non-Microsoft version of Fighter Ace) was the first for-pay online game in South Korea, now the world's largest Massively Multiplayer Online market at approximately $2B per year. It was also the first such product offered by Microsoft and Sony, both of which have since built huge MMO businesses. You may also be unaware of the fact that the technology that makes Fighter Ace possible is also used extensively by the armed forces through the solutions offered by Circadence Corporation and is saving lives on the real battlefield by making it possible for deployed forces to maintain their communication links with their commanders and intelligence providers.

It has been a pleasure and an honor to get to know many of you over the years. Thank you for letting Fighter Ace into your lives and helping me achieve my dream of building a massively multiplayer flight game. Never in my wildest dreams did I expect that we would still be here today, almost twenty years later. From the point of view of a 16-year-old kid, living in a pre-Internet world today seemed more difficult to imagine than it was to accomplish. Remember the good times, forget the bad times, be good to those around you and I hope that those around you are kind to you.

Edited April 19, 2010 by Wayne S

[PetarB]

Yes, its sad. Never was into flight sims myself, but definitely more of a PC gamer. The h@rdcore military simulations seem to be falling by the wayside with games simply becoming easier and easier. When something challenginge, and a bit more realistic like the Russian game 'STALKER' I get all excited. Sadly they are few and far between....

Edited April 19, 2010 by PetarB

[Ben Brown]

That second bolded paragraph says it all. People today seem to wear their ignorance and laziness as a badge of honor.

Ben

[11bee]

Very sad indeed. I hope Warbirds continues to prosper. I subscribed to that in the past (and am thinking about going back). It was a great deal of fun. Much more satisfaction beating a human opponent rather than a computer.

It's also sad about the dumbing down of games in general. The flight sims I used to enjoy all came with a few hundred pages of instructions (hell, Falcon 4 gave you a filled three ring binder). Half the enjoyment was mastering something as complex as an F-16 or Apache. Now the average PC game has about 10 commands.

John

[CorsairMan]

I used to be a computer pilot but I stopped upgrading the computer. Sims are still amazing but the system you need to run them on are just too expensive for me to justify.

I sort of regret it though. I would like to play MS Flight Sim again. Say - I wonder if I can get a used system. What would I need to run Flight Sim X adequately.... its old enough that I can get an older used computer right?

[Ken Cartwright]

Most sims these days have a wide range of performance options that will allow them to run on lower end hardware, but without a lot of eye-candy, up to brining the latest and greatest hardware to its knees.

I'd guess that a US$500 system would handle FSX at some basic settings for flying, and still look fairly good, but if I crank the graphics and terrain detail up it will still overpower my new i7 930 system. Typically speaking, sims are more CPU limited than GPU limited, so a medium quality video card should be sufficient if you have a beefy CPU, assuming you don't need a lot of anti-aliasing.

If FSX is your primary interest, I'd go with an Nvidia card, as there are a few issues FSX has with ATI cards (vsync primarily, as far as I know).