I don't think the average consumer really cares whether they are 'online' or 'offline' when they play. There are certainly charactersitics we think of when we think of 'online' play, and there are different characteristics we think of when we think of 'offline' play. Whether a particular plane is being piloted by another person or by the computer isn't really important though. What is important is that we understand the difference between the elements of play generally considered as either 'offline' or 'online' and that we create those same seperate experiences based on the preferences of each consumer.
There would be some challanges with such an approach. Some players might for example go out and try to shoot-down the other planes in their flight. I think there are ways to deal with issues like this though.
I don't believe it is necessary to draw concrete lines between being 'offline' and being 'online.' Current technology makes it possible to start blurring those lines.
If you can draw enough new players into the genre, that will give you a steady stream of rookies. If you can't draw them in quickly enough, then you throw lower-skilled AI planes into the mix. Ideally you would have a mix of skill levels that accurately represents the mix of people playing the game. Yeah - that means new pilots will sometimes get their heads handed to them on a platter by an experienced pro. That is how most kills were achieved in real life too! But if you have a large quantity of new players they will have a tremendous amount of fun playing each other. And not knowing the skill of a plane you are approaching adds a whole new level of anticipation to newbies and veterans alike.
Having some purely offline training aids would also help. You could offer training similar in quality to what real pilots had during the war.
You are correct that there are some purists out there who have pre-conceived notions of how a flight simulation should work and who will make blanket statements like 'I won't play anything unless it has a real online/offline mode' or 'I won't play anything that has setting X'. I don't think there are that many people out there though that would not be willing to try something new if it works. I think some of the 'purists' would complain, but I think most of them would buy the game anyway.
I look at it this way.. Is it possible to create an environment that pilots today would consider 'offline' but to create that environment using elements from an online war? Can I link someone into an online dynamic campaign environment but still create the appearance of an offline campaign for those players who do not want to fully embrace the perpetual online war? Yes I can. Not only that, but by blurring the lines between what is 'offline' and what is 'online' play, I can start to offer some intersting crosses that use elements from both styles of play. How about an offline campaign with real chat? How about being able to see how your offline squadron compares to online squadrons in the same war? Traditional techniques that completely seperate offline and online play can't do that.
Imagine it this way - player 1 wants to fly an online campaign as a member of an online squadron. He meets on Friday nights with his squadron buddies and they form up into a formation. They fly. They have registered their squadron as a part of the online war, and their progress is tracked as a part of the online war. They get all the bells and whistles of pure online play as a part of a big multiplayer re-enactment of WWI.
Player 2 wants to fly in an 'offline' campaign without joining an online squadron or doing any of the things generally considered a part of 'online' play. A virtual squadron is created on their hard drive and the progress of this squadron is tracked on their hard drive independantly of the online war. They run a mission and take off with the same virtual pilots they always fly with and fly a mission that in every way would feel to them like an offline campaign. The fact that each plane they see has a human behind the scenes would be completely transparent to them.
Player 3 just wants to hop in and fly. They don't want anything resembling a campaign at all. So they hop in and fly. They don't have a virtual persona at all. Again - the fact that all the planes around them are controlled by real people who DO have personas would be transparent to them.
The only difficulty to this would be balancing the right mix of skill levels. If you have to throw in some AI such that you have enough 'rookie' planes you could do that. You would however never have to worry about not having any pilots who were very good!
I'd like to ask the purists to step back from any preconceived notions of 'realism' and I'd like to ask them to do the same thing with regards to what is 'offline' and what is 'online' play. Consider for a moment of those notions really are all that important. If you could fly something that Chuck Yeager says feels just like the real thing, would you be willing to look at it with an open mind?
