ORIGINAL: JocMeister
ORIGINAL: Lokasenna
I've noticed that lately there's been an atmosphere of "JFBs have it so awesome guys, all these ahistorical production numbers and their planes do awesome things and mine miss and wahhh." Maybe it's because the Allied AARs are more active. Maybe it's because the Japanese players are cowed into keeping their own counsel. I think these complaints are driven by the game engine at its root - it's ahistorical. There have been ahistorical results in pretty much everyone's game. This isn't a simulation, it's a wargame. The Japanese player will lose the war, every time, unless the Allied player loses his patience (and even then...?). Pax had a great post on this in one player's AAR within the last 24 hours or so. So what if the Japanese player outproduces the Allied player's aircraft? There is a finite amount of HI available to the Japanese player. He'll run out all the same. The Allied player will always have the better tools and the forgiven mistakes due to the size and variety of his OOB. Complaining that the IJ player can put up a reasonable fight is like complaining that the Cubs were able to beat the Cardinals 7 times this year. But the Cardinals are a better team and they're in the World Series, you say. I agree. The Allies are more powerful no matter what the Japanese do. Yes, even in Scen 2.
I mean come on guys. A stiffer IJ side is good for the game. Otherwise fewer people would play the IJ, and then none of the people complaining about ahistorical this, ahistorical that would have a PBEM game. And nobody wants that. The PBEM community here is maybe the greatest thing in the history of the internet. Except naked females on demand, of course.
Speaking only for myself here but I do like to whine a lot! Not sure that makes it an allied thing though. [:D]
On a more serious note I think a big portion is ignorance. From both sides. Allied players often have little knowledge of how the Japanese production works and its easy to just see the endless hordes of planes. The Jap players on the other hand might not completely understand just how fragile the Allied planes pools are and how frustrating that can be coupled with the "endless Japanese plane production".
Speaking for myself here I will admit that hitting 45 and still fighting the plane pools more than my opponents air force was a big shock. And not a pleasant one.
All that being said the "us vs them" mentality will always exist in games like this. Its the same over in the WITE forum and probably in any other similar forum on the internet. There will always be whine and complaining going on from both sides. Personally I think it adds flavour and competitiveness which is a good thing. How much fun is it to read an AAR/review/forum where no feelings are expressed? [:)]
I think some of it can be a good thing, but then it comes to the point, as a player on the Japanese side, when you do better than historical. Suddenly you're vilified for it, or criticized for using what's available in game to fight to your utmost ability, and it's not so great. There is a kind of competition that can be honorable, respectful and see the bigger picture that this is a game for BOTH players where each take advantage of the non-historical abilities they find in the game to do better in some respect than the history we all know. After all we're trying to give a good game to our opponent, to win hopefully, but playing Japan it will rarely feel like winning even if the numbers say so.
We all complain, but we don't have to complain about each other. There are other things in abundance to complain about.
If all players decided to really learn this game by playing both sides it would solve the issue handily. There seems to be a reluctance on the part of many to play the Japanese side, and these are often the most vocal about how unhistorically it is played. Play it and find out how it works, what it feels like, and then complain away. This is one of the few games I've seen where players only want to be involved with one side or the other.
Look at the players who have played both sides. Virtually none complain about Japanese production numbers or any of the other usual gripes about the dark side. They have a healthy respect for the difficulty of managing the Empire, of fighting off the Allied masses time and again and watching as everything they've done for literally years goes to hell in a hand basket, but very slowly, excruciatingly over another few years. If the game goes into the late years, the time of agony for a Japanese player is very long. Much longer than the brief period when the Allies are building strength.
I love competition as much as anyone, but I value respect for other people more than winning.
"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm." - Winston Churchill
