I understand and respect the developers i do, and the modders (hint hint). But i dont look at things from that perspective Alex. When you go to buy a car, and your not happy with the tires you dont want to hear about how hard it is to get the rubber in malaysia. Your paying for a car, you want it to be the best possible. This is perhaps the only place i have seen the company defended so much, and i think it has to do with so many here who mod, simply sympathize with the work involved. I worked in basic programming a bazillion years ago, i do understand.
All that being said, no one expects a game to be 100% historically accurate, it is simply impossible, we and i know that. No one wants to have fun more then me, Im the one who plays all the minors remember? But if you have to make certain things so far from reality (say as in Japans NU or Germanys Manpower), then you really need to start over and find a different way. I mean if the only way they can get Nat china to fight well against Japan is to give them the Atom Bomb in 1937 would that be ok? Would we still be having fun?
This is why things like manpower are an issue for me. When some people say they dont care. To me thats the very first thing that must be right. You get the manpower, the economics, resources, technology etc... you get all that right and THEN design a game. You dont design a game and modify those things to make it fit.
I think most of us love WWII more then we love the game itself. We play because its a vehicle for us to use to enjoy WWII not because its the best thing out there. To be honest i have a hard time getting past the early 1940s in any game before i quit because the game stops being fun. I wish that werent the case. I play WOW (the mmo), they have essentially ruined the game over the past 6 years in order keep it marketable. I only play occasionally now, and only because its the best available atm not because i love it.
At the very least get the basics right, get the info right, we can live with the game mechanic problems and work through them. My thoughts are such only because i designed games without the benefit of everything thats available today. I spent 10 years before i found one book that had some info i wanted. For me it is important to be accurate about the important things, the other stuff can be fudged thats all part of gaming.
What good is all this micro managing ability if the basic data is incorrect?