Jubilejním 1000. postem na oficiálním fóru se s komunitou, minimálně z pohledu vývojáře, rozloučila jedna z hlavních postav stojící za vývojem America's Army - [DEV]AceKilla. Původní znění "dopisu" naleznete v celém článku, ja se jen zaměřím na stručný popis jeho příspěvku. Ace v první polovině popisuje svých 6 let strávených v Army Project Teamu, jak s America's Army začínal a kam se až dostal. V další části nastiňuje situaci kolem trojkové verze a jejího vydání a nepřímo tak potvrzuje zákulisní tahanice. Zároveň však žádá komunitu o trpělivost se současným stavem, neboť i přes zrušení DEV týmu, je hra v dobrých rukou a můžeme se těšit na její mnohá pokračování. 

[Dev]AceKilla:

6 years and 1000 posts later - it's time for me to say goodbye.

(warning - long ‘blah blah blah’ rambling post ahead!)

I just wanted to thank the AA community for your passion and your patience over these last 6 years. You all have been a daily inspiration to me and I hope you have seen some of your feedback incorporated into various versions of the game over the years (even if it took many years in some cases). I know AA has had its ups and downs over the years and I appreciate all of you who have stuck with the game through it all.

I also want to thank the U.S. Army for the opportunity, and Alex Mayberry ([Dev]Abraxas) who took a risk when he hired me in 2003 and gave me a chance to break into the industry.

I’m very grateful to have had one of those ‘player to developer’ opportunities on this project. I remember July 4th, 2002 very vividly. I had read on a gaming forum somewhere that Unreal Engine 2 would be debuting in a free FPS made by the Army available on July 4th. When the 4th came, I started the 230 MB download and then went to Fry’s to pick up Warcraft 3 (which also came out on July 4th, 2002). When I got back, I installed America’s Army: Recon 1.0 (and then subsequently Gamespy Arcade because 1.0 didn’t have a server browser!) and needless to say, I didn’t get around to installing Warcraft 3 for 2 weeks! I didn’t even really play that much CS back then because of the no respawn (mainly DoD/TF), but in AA it clicked and I was in love.

A month later HomeLAN started accepting applications to the persistent closed AA beta program they were running at the time. I applied immediately and a few weeks later I was accepted into the beta program. About 6 or so months later I was still a very active beta tester and [Dev]Abraxas & [Dev]Mayme (AKA [Dev]Mindriot) put up a dev team job post in the beta forums - an ‘Assistant Producer’ position to work for [Dev]Abraxas, the Executive Producer. Of course I sent in my resume and a cover letter that I agonized hours over lol. After a phone interview and later a team interview in Monterey, CA (Naval Post-Graduate School) – I was offered the job and accepted on the spot.

Since then, I’ve taken on various roles on the team as needed, although my goal has always been to get into game design. I started as Assistant Producer around v1.7, then Associate Producer around v2.0, then Associate Producer/Designer around v2.2, then full Designer around v2.5, and then Lead Designer for v3.0. It’s been quite the adventure to be sure.

As for v3.0 and all the drama surrounding its development and release, I don't really want to comment other than to apologize to all the AA fans who were let down by the state of the game. And also that I really miss seeing my dev ‘family’ at work every day.

All I can do is humbly ask the community to be patient with the young AA3 as I’m confident it can mature into something pretty cool if given the chance. If you can’t or won’t play it now for whatever reasons, I’d suggest you come back after a few major updates and give it another try.

To the AA beta testers – I haven’t been able to post in the beta forums since release, but you all should know how thankful I am to have worked with you over the years, several of you who have been beta testers as long as I have been here. It cannot be overstated how much of a positive impact you all have had on the game, thank you very much for all your hard work and feedback. Oh and when it comes to the state of the game, that’s on us – not the beta testers.

Working on AA has been the longest continual job I’ve had in my life up to this point and it will always have a special place in my heart. Although I won’t be working on the game anymore, I’ll still be lurking around and fragging on the battlefield. And for those worried about the future of AA - it’s not going anywhere and should only be getting better from here on out.

Thanks for an awesome 6 years AA - I wish the game and community the best!

-Ace