I tried WWIIOL too a while back and accompanying the poor graphics I was thrown in the middle of infantry battles with no coordination whatsoever but just a bunch of guys running left and right trying to get high scores. I'm sure that it can be a better experience by playing with a specific group of people, but I'm disappointed that the game itself doesn't enforce that structure.
The challenge I guess lies with the fact that majority of the games are either 'casual gamers' that want to spend max 5 mins to learn a game and then then play an action / entertainment packed session for 30 mins or so every now and then. And then and the other part of the majority are the youngsters who's enjoyment of the session highly depends on the score they managed to acquire and the spectacular graphics them (and the casual gamers) are surrounded with.
I for one (being an old geezer) would be happy if I could enjoy a very immersive, realistic and structured experience. And I'd be willing to cut down on the 'hollywood factor' in order to participate in a well structured, organized and realistic battle experience wether that takes place on the ground or in the air. That I guess is possible atleast to some extent through whatever clan activities, tournaments etc. But I don't really have a schedule that would allow me to be gaming at a specified time and date to gain that so I unfortunately need to go against AI most of the time.
What I would like to see is a WWIIOL kind of game that you could join whenever you want and when you join you'd be automatically assigned to a certain group that in advance plans what they're doing and then carry out those plans as part of a bigger operation which is a part of a dynamic campaign. And if you'd go solo or disconnect whenever you feel like it you'd get penalized to keep the dicipline atleast to some level.
However that is not the optimal money making machine for the gaming industry so I doubt that I will experience such a thing unless I'll get organized to some clan or whatever and try to arrange my schedules accordingly, but even then the it would be mini-scale battles of around 64 players.
But on the other hand I'd be quite ready to pay for such an experience a monthly fee (being an old geezer who already has a steady income
) if someone would be able to facilitate such a gaming platform and structure and I think I'm not alone on the planet. Wether there is a critical mass of people like me for that, I don't know.
I'm happy to see however that there are projects like DCS and SOW with some ambition towards joint forces operations atleast on a longer term so maybe we'll have some decent platform in 10 years that I can put all my money into to get the perfect gaming experience whenever I have the time for it.
Thumbs up for that gaming fantasty!
