The History of Warbirds: 

--Two Air Warrior players decide they can build a better mousetrap. So they do. Unfortunately, they run out of money for mousetrap parts. 

--They find a partner with more money--iMOL. iMOL has just released a couple of fairly successful, critically-acclaimed helicopter sims, Apache and Hind. Their president is an ex-AF pilot who helped bring sims like F-19 Stealth, M-1 Tank Platoon into existence. Looks like a smart move. But isn't. 

--All goes well for a year or two. WB becomes universally acclaimed as the top combat flight sim. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, iMOL is proceeding to pump out an almost unprecedented series of absolutely AWFUL sims, starting with the ill-fated iF-22 and iM1A2. Among other poor business moves, this eventually produces the situation where WB is the ONLY profitable entity in the entire bloated, unprofessional, amateurish, clueless organization. 5000 customers now support an entire bricks-and-mortar "empire." 

--Now Wild Bill decides he needs to get "hands on" with the Warbirds "creative brain trust." More customers are required. No more "hard core" flight simmers to be had, so we need the "casual gamers." And for that we need "EZ mode," boys and girls. Certainly SOUNDS reasonable. Unfortunately, this marks the moment when WB ceases to become "Hitech and Pyro's" and becomes instead "Bill's." A couple of months later, bye-bye Pyro and Hitech. 

Blame whoever you want, but Bill's decision to "dictate" the course of Warbirds to its creators absolutely DID cause those guys to walk. And for what? A failed experiment with EZ mode that resulted in the addition of maybe 500 customers tops. At the cost of the only dev team we've ever had that was REALLY "like us" and committed to the "vision" for the sim--after all, it was THEIR vision. It was NEVER Bill's. But back to the story... 

--Luckily, back then, the community and the dev team had several more guys who could carry on where HT and Pyro left off, who still "got it." Enter Mo and his team. The sky doesn't fall. Pace of development continues. They release a rather buggy update with some major problems, but they seem to have it under control. Uh-oh, who's that I see coming? 

--Got to cut costs, boys. Got to shut down the Texas operation. Pack your bags, y'all is movin to Nawth Ca-lina! Um, but Bill, we don't wanna move. Sorry boys, King Bill has spoken. Um, OK, "your highness," but I hope YOU know how to program and maintain servers, because "we all" is staying in Texas. Have a nice day now. And thus was born WW2OL. And thus was WB, now the only significant REVENUE-generator in iMOL, let alone profit-maker, left WITHOUT a dev team. Oooh, very "savvy" move, Bill! 

--Along about this time, the angry mob of villager-investors carrying torches appears on Bill's doorstep. With a hearty, "Geronimo," Bill exercises the "Sir Robin defense" and uses his golden parachute. Last seen winging his way to an airshow with his golf bags in the back of his T-28 "warbird."  But, um...what about WB? 

--Enter Pyro and Hitech AGAIN. Even though they are trying to build their OWN sim, and not really allowed to use the technology from WB, which they, don't own, even though they built it in the first place, they come back in to keep the servers running for the WB community. Sure, they get paid to do it, but seems like it sure woulda been easier (and smarter business?) to just say, "Sorry, we'd love to, but we've got our own business problems now." Instead, they save WB from almost certain shutdown. 

--Now the current dev team appears on the scene. They've basically been crippled by having virtually EVERYONE who knew ANYTHING about the WB code "driven off" by Bill's inimitable "management style." Just bad luck that they have to take over BEFORE Mo's team can solve the problems with their last version, I guess. It takes a full YEAR to untangle the mess. No WB development to speak of occurs (one new plane, one new terrain). Meanwhile, AH and WW2OL get a free ride during their beta period. Forget about having to "catch up" to where WB is. WB stops and WAITS for them. And let's not forget where the guys who are building these two betas are SUPPOSED to be working! Thanks for everything, Bill. 

--At last, the current team is back on top of things. Too bad the rest of the sim world wasn't just sitting there watching. The new generation of video cards makes possible a level of "eye candy" never before considered. The new iEN boss figures you gotta compete or get left behind. So, switch all development effort over to WB3, boys. Even the community understands, by and large. Unfortunately, the dev team goes heavy on the hype, and pretty light on the performance  What emerges is both greater and LESSER than WB 2.x. "Patience!" says the team. "WB3 is modular! Once we get the kinks out, we can add stuff at will." Well, OK, but the clock is running. Eye candy "melts" in your mouth pretty fast. Meanwhile, the stock price sinks slowly into the sunset... 

--But wait! Who's that I see? Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Or is it just a corporate raider, back to pick what little meat is left on the bone?  Stop the presses boys! I know how to get more customers! I can save this company! We need a TANK game! We need a Korean War game! Vietnam! Hoooah!! You there! Dev team! I vant panzers, panzers, panzers!! Ve don't need airplanes! Ve don't need strat! Ve need guns! Big f***ing GUNS. Vit vhich to shoot all ze first-person shooter dveebs who vill run schkreaming to our doors! Do it! Now! Vhat? Ze current customers? Who cares? Ve'll get more. Many more... 

Hey, just the view from the lowly peanut gallery. But I've been sitting in it for seven years. Make all the innuendo you want about who did what to whom. But some things were obvious to anyone who bothered to look, and what matters is results, not hype. If you think Billy-boy is "committed" to WB, you aren't looking very hard, or very deep. His agenda has nothing to do with ours. Sad, but true, I'm afraid 


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jedi VF-17 The Jolly Rogers


Last edited by jedi on 12-21-2002 at 04:19 PM


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For me, the question has never been whether or not iEN "deserves" to survive and become a profitable entity. IMO they really don't have "the right stuff" in terms of business acumen to have much hope of that, but it's almost beside the point. 

The question, for me, has always been whether iEN would sacrifice the "vision" of Warbirds on the altar of profitability for the company. If the only way iEN can think of to make themselves "successful" is on the backs of the WB customers, and the only way they can think of to grow the community is by "selling out" to the shoot-em-up crowd, then, quite frankly, I don't CARE whether WB survives or not, because it won't be a game I'll be interested in playing. Let's face it: as an "integrated battlefield sim," WB can't hold a candle to WW2OL. That leaves two choices: compete with Aces High for the "serious flight sim" dollars, or just give the arcade crowd a slightly more complex Battlefield '42 and hope there's some great untapped mass of Quake fans out there just itching for WW2 mayhem. 

I have no particular problem with being patient and supportive if what they're working toward is the "next level" of combat flight sims. But if all they're doing is building something to bring in a bunch of high school kids who like to blow stuff up, because it's "too hard" to build a customer base from serious flight simmers, then they can do it without MY money, thanks. 

And if you're buying that line about projects like Armored Assault somehow providing "seed money" for further advancements in WB, well...  

If the tank game DOES bring in some huge cash flow, they'll drop WB into "maintenance mode" so fast your head will spin. They only have limited development resources, and you can bet Bill will expend them on getting the most bang for the buck. If that's the tank game, then it's bye-bye w'birdie. And bye-bye old customers. 

IMO the success of Aces High and IL-2 and FS2002 pretty much proves that the "serious flight sim" niche is big enough to support a profitable product. Too bad WB seems to have thrown in the towel...