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GAMINGWORLDS
(Los Angeles) Lot's O'Unhappy CyberAces
Entertainment Arts (EA.com), the same people who bring you the John Madden football video and computer games, as well as many sports and entertainment games have discontinued the WWII combat flight simulation game "Air Warrior MV" as of December 6, 2001.
Many internet gamers remember the Air Warrior Classic and AWII that were hosted on AOL from 1994-1997, part of that time as a free service in conjunction with it's creator Jack Kesmai and Kesmai Inc., of Charlettesville, Virginia. During the early days on AOL, a record number of players, some times over 2,000 at a time strapped on their joysticks and blew their trash-talking enemy warriors to bits over countries known as "Azz", "Bzz", and "Czz"lands.
AOL began charging by the hour for the game in May of 1996, at the same time the service was sold to a new domain (gamestorm.com) where it was made available at just under $10 bucks a month. Three years later, Game Storm sold the game to Entertainment Arts.
Over the years, just under a million players worldwide played the flight sim. It's estimated that just under 300 of the original players stayed with the game to the end.
The indications for canning the game seem to be volume of players, declining revenues from the game, and new competition. That new competition has been bleeding "Air Warrior" of players for almost two years, with flashier graphics, faster servers, and squad loyalties. "Aces High" (www.aceshigh.com),"Warbirds" (www.warbirdsiii.com), as well as the smaller, more "room" oriented Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator's domain on it's own MSN gaming area at "The Zone" (www.zone.com).
While many of the die-hards have been outspoken to EA, especially since the pre-Thanksgiving announcement of the game's demise, most are migrating to one or more of the above alternatives. "Warbirds" and "Aces High" are both premium services at $9.95 a month, MSN'S Zone is free.
We'll be reviewing the above games in the upcoming weeks to give you the best insight on where you may want to park your joystick.
