Pricing synopsis

[Beegerite]

Pyro;
After just having read your message and without going down to see any others, I say thank you.  Thank you for a clear explanation which leaves me with the feeling that perhaps we will get a reduction which undoubtedly would be welcome.  Thank you for providing us with a great game which at least in my book is definetely worth the $29.95 you suck out of my Amex each month.  Thank you for the vasectomy analogy which brought joy to my life and finally, thank you for understanding that expressing a contrary opinion doesn't necessarily mean that we don't value the product or those that bring it to us.
Beeg
P.S. Do not raise the price above $29.95 or you will find out what a botched vasectomy is all about  

[humble]

So how many folks signed up on the $39.95 price plan...

[Hangtime]

I'm reminded of the old adage.. "When yer up to yer bellybutton in alligators; it's tuff to remember the original objective was to build the best WWII flight simulator ever offered, and instead wind up having to drain the swamp."

Hang dips his oar into the water...

*SNAP* (stares incredulously at the shredded stump)

"Damn! ...and it appears the alligators are PC!!"

Hang

[Vulcan]

Well I came here for a couple of reasons: Flat rate vs $2 an hour; better connects; better service.

Same still applies, so I'm staying. If it gets cheaper... sweet.

To all the whiners out there... IEN fisted me via my Mastercard for many a year. The grass is greener here and I'm staying.

[Kieren]

I guess I typically will take the side of HTC (or anyone else for that matter) when the comments directed towards them are basically thinly-veiled insults.

I don't feel character assaults are warranted for any reason about anyone. If you read the board you see there are many times that legitimate comments get buried by the snide comments that wrap them.

When a parent comes in and talks to me about their children and concerns, I'm all ears. The minute they start the insults they are mentally filed away as hotheads, and I don't concern myself about their cares any longer. I still work with the kids, but the parents are cut out of the loop unless absolutely necessary. They can come in and yell at me all they like, but I don't listen to them any more. I nod my head and let them blow themselves out. They think they "taught me a lesson", I go about business as usual.

Am I unresponsive? No way. But there is a way to get your way and a way to get ignored. I will kill myself to accomodate someone who behaves respectfully. I will very quickly ignore someone I believe cannot rationalize or behave like an adult.

I have no complaints with anyone complaining about HTC or their business practices. I don't even necessarily disagree with some of it. Some of the posters did come across as jumping up-and-down with clenched fists and teeth. It isn't surprising the reaction that vision created.

Now it seems if you agree with HTC you are a cheerleader. Well, then guilty here. You see, I do think it is still ok for a business to handle their own business. Whatever you think of their choice it is their choice to make.

Maybe I am too optimistic- maybe I read too much positive into the pricing test. See, I think the price reduction isn't an "if", it's "how much".

It is also very fair to say that there were many eloquent posts against the test, and they should not have been attacked (if indeed they were). I feel it has come full circle to become a double-standard; it's quite ok to be harsh and critical of HTC, but don't dare challenge the person who makes such statements, or you are an HTC butt-kisser.

One thing I can say I have learned from my time online (over several years); if you flame, you can expect to be flamed. More correctly, taking a strong stance on any issue will give you a strong response, both positive and negative.

[This message has been edited by Kieren (edited 11-01-2000).]

[Pongo]

Agree with all that keiren. When a teacher starts discussing their own personality problems or their union collective aggreement, I tune them out. I will still tell my kid to listen to them, but I wont.

I think that wholesale atacks on people that complain or disagree are far more harmful to the comunity then the people the complaints in the first place. Im not saying dont disagree with me, Im not saying dont flame me if I piss you off. But dont group flame and taunt people that legitimaltly and honestly critisise HTC just because they did. Posts are being started just to stir up more flames against people that didnt like the pricing survey. This excellent thread of pyros was instantly turned into another flame the disenters thread.

[easymo]

 WB is under 30 bucks. Apparently WW2OL is going to be less than 30. IL2 is up in the air. But a boxed sim, with multiplayer shouldn't be that much. Anyway you look at it. its a good time for prop simmers.

 Ill probably end up in the one with the most challenging FM, and believable gunnery. Regardless of price

[hazed-]

i agree easymo.

and anyone who wants to up the price is a lunatic.I wouldnt be able to afford $50+phone bills from UK.
I struggle now to pay but enjoy it so much i keep doing it.thanks for the post pyro it was interesting.

Hazed


<tick tock tick tock>  

[Lance]

 

Im trying not to be a hypocrite here. Im not shy about mixing it up with people that disagree with me. Many things that I post and others post that are negative about details of AH should be open for critism in the veign that they were offered. But if you constantly alline yourself with the status quo and attack instinctivly and viciosly those that do not. If you troll insults for them out of the blue then you are a chearleader.

I agree, Pongo.  Where we seem to disagree is that I think Badger's second post (before anyone posted anything negative towards him regarding this) about the price change went far beyond acceptable criticism.  In it he called everyone that isn't upset by the offer a martyr willing to die for HTC out of blind faith, and he speculated that Pyro's explanation for the offer was a lie meant to justify a subscription drive.  Take out the big words and you have an insult to people who don't share his viewpoint, and damaging speculation about HTC's motives made in front of their customers.

After that, things got nasty for him.  Rightfully so.

Its one thing to disagree and to offer opinions about the way HTC does things.  Many people did that (Maverick, Ram, yourself, etc...), and I have no problem with them.  I can even understand why they are upset, even if I myself am not.

It is quite another thing to insult people of differing viewpoints and to tell a business's customers that the business is feeding them a line of BS.  If someone wants to make those type of obervations and have nothing but speculative rhetoric to back up their opinions, then they themselves have tossed civility to the wind.  Whatever they get, they deserve.

Gordo

[Sundog]

Thanks for the info Pyro.
After reading your post and considering the hardware implications, I can imagine the b****ing that would have been all over this board if a bunch of new players suddenly flooded into AH (Not that I don't want that to happen mind you...), I just had an incredible image of a flaming BB.
Kudo's to HTC for the way you guys handled the entire situation. Tell HT to tip back a couple of cold frosty ones on me (Just add it my bill this month).

SD

[Moose11]

<ppuuuunnnnt!>

An excellent post by Pyro, hope people see it.

[-towd_]

vividly remember thousands of people on aw at 10 bucks a month 4 years ago nite after nite that is at least 4 times what you have now at peak . so the numbers issue is mute. so is it bandwith that is the problem ? cause its hard to understand why you would hire another company to determine the obvious. and make large numbers of customers angry at different prices for different folks. and the appologists/cheerleaders are the worst thing about this game save the horrible decisions reguarding the c hog so far.  so again is it bandwith ?

[AKSeaWulfe]

Sort of Towd, but more than that too.

You have to factor in support for a bunch of new guys that come in with a lowered price, meaning more trainers which means more free accounts to keep the new guys flowing in and not leaving because they can't figure out the game.

Then you factor in RAM and HDD storage and CPU power to keep track of all the players in the MA, and their score.

Then comes bandwith. It's not that there's a lack of bandwidth, there's plenty for the current customer base. The only problem is that as new players come in, HTC would need to increase the bandwidth 3x per everyone 100 customers(or thereabouts, depending on their connection and stuff). Bandwidth costs a boatload of money, so lets say HTC lowers their price to the much desired 10$/month.

Now, lets say currently we have 300 users and each are paying 30$/month under the current version. That's 9K/month. I'd say atleast half of that goes towards keeping the server running, the connection going and enough bandwidth for us to not have plane's warping across the skies. The other half goes to the 6 employees of HTC. $4500 a month divided by 6 employees=750$/month per employee. That's about 4 and a half dollars an hour if they work a full 40 hour week. That's well below minimum wage.

Now lets say the price is reduced to 10$/month and we get an influx of 300 new users. Double what we used to have. 10$ * 600 users= 6K/month. That's 3K less than they had with a 30$ subscription. And now more than half of that goes to maintaining the server and to give them more bandwidth to support the new increase in players. Lets say 70% of that goes to all of the upkeeping and bandwidth. That's 4200$ that goes to the server and bandwidth. 1800$ is left over for the 6 employees. They can no longer support themselves, HTC folds and the game is gone in a month or two.

So, it's not worth it to lower it to 10$/month unless we can get a thousand new users.
-SW

[Zigrat]

id say way moore than 300 paying users, but just a guess.

more arond 1000 id think, since in a tour around 2000 ppl play. Id guess at least 1/2 are paying?

[AKSeaWulfe]

I dunno the numbers Zig, I was just using numbers easy to manipulate to give an idea of what it costs HTC to keep everything going and still be able to live.
-SW