I've been a gamer since the Atari 5800 - a hand me down from my grandfather when I was about four years old. I have vivid memories of my parents forbidding me from playing video games before 7AM. (Oh, to have that kind of energy in the morning!)

From there I moved along the path of progress - Nintendo Entertainment System, Playstation 1, Playstation 2, XBOX 360, and a pair of computers thrown in for good measure.

By and large I've always been drawn to the most complicated games I could find. I loved Mario, but I really dug F117-A Stealth Fighter on my PC. And while most of my High School friends were diving into Starcraft or Half Life, I was eating flak over Flanders in Red Baron 3D, or dodging waves of fighters in European Air War, or just trying to figure out how to ramp start my F-16 in Falcon 4.0

Flash forward almost 20 years and the pattern is still the same. I love complicated games and prefer "sims" over just about anything else. So my current rotation of games (I try to stick to about 5-6 at the most or else I never progress anywhere) is WOFF, F1 2013, Project Cars on my PS4, Star Wars Battlefront (also PS4), and Battlefield 4 on my PC. I love something I can immerse all of my attention in and lose hours obsessing over minute details. There's a lot of psychology behind why, but I won't bore you with that here.

So the other night I was diving into Battlefield 4, which is a sprawling, massive, epic achievement of a game. Buildings that collapse, maps that change over the course of a firefight, enough tanks and jets and jeeps to keep an Army busy for weeks. But, as with all MMP games, it draws a... dedicated crowd. The type that invests not dozens, but hundreds of hours into not just getting good, but becoming proficient to a degree that even the Terminator would say, "whoa, maybe you should take a break for five minutes."

I was about to deploy into a map I had yet to play. I had picked up the entire game - with about 30+ maps - just before Christmas and I'm still learning the ins and outs, even after surviving Bad Company 2 and BF3. So there I sat, on a night ops map, trying to suss out what kit I should start with.

Minutes ticked by as I obsessed over what class to run before deciding that yes, Support was the best choice. But what optics? Night Ops isn't kidding around, these maps are DARK, pitch black experiences. So I chose a night vision scope. Finally, after ticking dozens of check boxes and picking my equipment and assorted add-ons, perks, and power-ups, I deployed to capture point Bravo. It was deep in the middle of a large swathe of territory controlled by my team and I figured it would be a safe spot to start out.

The screen flashed and I entered the map.

About three seconds (if I'm generous) passed by as I looked around the runway I had materialized on.

*BAM!!!*

My brains hit the ground about four feet behind me and my body crumpled, lifeless, to the ground. Sitting at my mouse and keyboard, mouth agape, I wondered what in the hell just happened. I hadn't taken a step, made a single move save for panning around to get my bearings.

The camera panned over, about 2 clicks west, to reveal a sniper about the size of a pixel looming on a mountain top in a different time zone. I concluded that my death was a random bit of bad luck, as I happened to spawn under one of the few active lights on the map. This let the level 151 player to drop the lowly level 9 newbie to the ground without so much as blinking.

As my shoulders slumped and an exasperated sigh slipped from my lungs, my next thought was, "Okay, time for some WOFF."

Here's the difference between these two games, and though I love both of them, why I still lean towards losing hours in our favorite WWI flight sim instead of the latest multi-billion dollar blockbuster, triple-A title.

The more time I spend in WOFF, the better I get. I learn new tactics, I discover the quirks and strengths of a particular aircraft. I learn which spots on the Front are particularly dangerous and what the safest routes home are. I become attached to my wingmen and I succeed when they do. The AI is insanely good, and I still have yet to crack the code that telegraphs their next move to me. I simply cannot predict what's going to happen next. The other, crucial difference is this: I'm not competing against other people for who has racked up more hours in the sim. My chances of survival are not dependent on dedicating massive chunks of time to becoming proficient. Why? Because I'm not competing against the player who has sunk hundreds of dollars unlocking all of the equipment I have yet to earn. I'm not fighting against someone who has played for thousands of hours and has learned every glitch and trick on a map the size of New York City. I am simply attempting to survive in a world with understandable physics, real-world aircraft, and flesh and bone airmen just trying to make it home in one piece.

In other words, I get out of WOFF what I put into it, and the more time I invest, the better it gets.

I also don't mind the odds being lopsided from time to time. Why? Because that's how it was. I'm not fearing for my life against a level 180 player during Bloody April. I'm trying not to run into MvR and his Flying Circus because my DH2, which was fairly overwhelmed before 1917, is totally at a loss for how to compete with the latest iteration of Albatros fighter. And that's not because Richthofen is a "Premium" player, either. It's history. And as a historian, I can live with that.

I think the last reason why I wind up so immersed in WOFF is that the thing just drips with authenticity and atmosphere. From the menu music to the intel reports to the aircraft renders that fill me in on the latest information on the newest fighter to arrive on the front, I am completely and totally in the world of WOFF from the moment I hear that trademark "meow."

Triple-A games make amazing set pieces. A dam breaking and flooding a map, a building collapsing and removing a prime sniping position, a gas line explosion ripping the streets in half midway through a firefight; these are all jaw dropping moments. But they're only moments - snapshots of suspense and adrenaline.

WOFF gives you a jaw dropping world to immerse yourself in. I lose myself for a half hour or so playing a game like BF4, and it's amazing. But I always come back to WOFF and find that I lose myself for hours when I play it. I might leave feeling depressed when a pilot I've tried so hard to keep alive dies in a freak crash on landing or winds up shot down in flames over the trenches, but I never feel like I've been tricked; beaten by a faster video card or a player with more wealth or better reflexes somewhere across the globe. 9 times out of 10, a dead pilot deserved it; usually because I made a terrible judgement call and got him killed. There are consequences in WOFF.

And at the end of the day, it's why this hobby of flying wood and canvas kites has kept me coming back for decades now. It's why I played Wolfenstein 3D and Doom but ultimately lost most of my time in Wings of Glory. It's why I played Medal of Honor and Call of Duty but never stopped flying sorties in Red Baron 3D. And it's why now, in 2016, when I divide my time between dissertation writing and fighting TIE Fighters in a Galaxy Far Away, and setting fastest laps at Le Mans, and trying for the thousandth time to break even in a round of Conquest in Battlefield, I close out almost every single night by hearing Pol yelling,

"CONTACT!"

See you in the unfriendly skies, and Happy Sunday!

WOFF is so good that we don't even complain about its shortcomings.The clouds that glitch look horrible and would never fly in other games but in WOFF you pretty easily turn a blind eye because....it just doesn't matter.We ask if its fixable and the answer is no and we move on.

Your description is why I never play multiplayer games, who can compete with the twelve year boy who doesn't have a job or any other responsibilities except to get crazy good in a video game. It's single player campaigns for me and WOFF fits that bill nicely.

I WOFF because
In WOFF AI's favorite and only dogfight maneuver does not consist of spiraling down to the deck.
In WOFF AI doesn't get stuck circling a balloon until they run out of fuel.
In WOFF enemy planes do not disappear just as they are about to be shot down because I flew too far away from my flight leader. In fact, in WOFF airplanes do not spawn.
In WOFF 2-seater gunners cannot snipe me from a range further than the effective range of my own guns.
In WOFF front lines move.
In WOFF I can start my campaign in 1915.
In WOFF there are way more than 40 planes to fly (does anybody even know exactly how many?)
In WOFF you don't have to pay for a gunsight, lamp or a gauge.
In WOFF I don't have to be connected to the Internet.
In WOFF the Devs listen.
In WOFF there are no flame wars about FM.
In WOFF no one cares about leader boards.
In WOFF no one calls you a noob - all you have to do is pay for a round of drinks.
In WOFF we get excited about a particularly pretty sunrise - what other game/sim does that?
And finally I WOFF because RB3D looks ugly.

Great read fellas. I totally agree. I don't mmp for the same reasons. I gave up. My thumbs are aging and are becoming arthitic, my mind cannot process the speed at which COD operates at...and I have a job and a family. WOFF puts me in my Alb D.III in 1917 when I want, and however long I want...and at the intensity level I enjoy.

Plus it's forum and community are filled with guys like yourselves not a bunch of pimple-faced, wise-cracking babies you so often find in COD rooms.

OvS

Yes. Just yes. Thanks for expressing it so well, Captain Sopwith. And thanks to Fullofit for explaining why, after being an ardent ROF fan, I haven't opened it once since the day I got WOFF.

AMEN to the above. Cap'n, you nailed it. And as well, especially because the DEVS LISTEN. They're here. And I must keep on adding, that this is the best bunch of folks I've ever been around on the "intrawebz". Civil, helpful, and fun, the lot'o'ya!

...wait a minute - that is Pol yelling "Contact!" ? I thought that was a Sound File from some Movie or so...
Is the Gun-Jam-Fumbling-Soundfile "Verdammt!" also Pol's Voice?

One of the Reasons why WOFF differs so much from Action Games is also, that there is no Kill/Death-Ratio. Sure, you can do a lot of foolish Things, but usually you make only ONE Mistake per Pilot...
Your Judgement of a particular Situation has Consequences.

Well worded, Capt. Sopwith.

It's why I WOFF instead of IL2 BoS.

The latter, like its predecessor IL2 CoD, is a fantastic sim, both in terms of feeling of flight and aesthetics, but its SP experience is negligible, and I just can't get into MP.

I spawn, take off, climb out and then get shot down by someone in a virtual sqn., all of whom are on voice comms and have been stalking me since I spawned. Oh, and they've put thousands of hours of training in to boot.

I did try being in a virtual sqn. myself during the IL2 FB days, but the time demands just don't fit with normal life.

So, WOFF it is for me too with its second-to-none SP experience.

On the other hand the sky can look dramatic and outclass all other sims..

No, that's mine

Cool
I think we should add another Soundfile that could be activated, when the Player keeps pressing the Fire-Button for more than 3 Seconds: Rick Rawlings yelling "Yeee-Haaaaw!"

Awesome thread. Just speaking for myself, WOFF has the "X-Factor" that the Red Baron series had. RoF is gorgeous in it's own way. RoF is beautiful in some ways... but WOFF makes me feel like I am THERE.

I almost feel like WOFF lives and breathes, whether or not I am interacting with it. I guess the way my brain works, it seems like it goes on in my PC, with all of you guys flying around in it, even when I've shut down my PC. (Sort of a microscopic TRON-like existence LOL!)

Secondarily... I don't feel like I am 'renting to play' WOFF. Whatever quirks and ongoing refinements belong to the current version, we OWN the pieces we've bought. (If the world wide interwebs shut down tomorrow due to a zombie apocalypse or whatever, we could still play WOFF.)

Having dreamed of being a WWI pilot since childhood, that is before I realized what war was, RB3D was the cats meow. Then along came OFF and we were"off" again. Then comes the crowning glory WOFF I have a computer dedicated to it. It is the only thing I play. I cannot say anything that has not been said except once I started flying real time, navigating by map with no aids, it's as close to a WWI pilot on this earth that I care to get. As Lehmann says, I am THERE.

I WoFF, because I like to fly: in 1915 and between the mountains.
I WoFF, After a whole week of hard working, noticed you have to pay 50% of your earnings to the Fxcxxg governments TAX, it is very relaxing to fly in the early mornings at the weekends and forget everything. A great start to enjoy my awaking family, which is all what life is about.