PRICEY ????

[lasse]

I am in the same situation as straffo above about living in europe and having to pay for local calls.
Currently I pay 2$ a hour for a local call  
But this aint Hitech and the guys fault, is it ?

Also I see several others complains that 30$ a month is 40-50$ canadian, so what, it is like 200-250 Norwegian Kroner and a billion psetas  
Still it is just 30$ US.

I try to stay below 100$ a month in Warbirds, so AH will be a bargain for me when I start to play it on regular basis.

I am however not gonna sign up when it goes pay, I guess Ill just stick around and DL every update and try it offline until I feel it is so much better than WB are, then I will move over.

When I do move over I guess it will be on a permanent basis, and I will come, no doubt.
After all I fell Hitech\pyro and the guys really want to give us the best flightsim around (Notice FlightSIM not Flightgame).
IEN on the other hand give me the impression of me beeing one of many sponsors to finance their Bingo\casino\hovertank games.
Giving us an uptate every 6 month just to keep the customers (relatively) happy.

AH is in many ways a better game than WB already, but not in all the ways I want it to be before I quit WB, I just dont afford\have time to fly them both, and dont forget WWIIonline.
 
But with the speed and pace the Hitech guys are working I will not be long before they once again is on the Realism\Popularity top again.


Now, pyro, how is it going with my Lancaster  

You give me a Lanc, and Ill be yours for ever  

------------------
The Wild Vikings
Commanding Officer
lasse-

[AKDejaVu]

It seems that HTC is trying to make this an actual sim.  That seems to mean that they are not particularly catering to the entire gaming comumity, but to the hardcore sim pilot.  No relaxed realism (ever.. I hope) and no pandering to "its too hard to fly".

The price seems to perpetuate that.  Those that are commited to flying an excellent sim will pay it.  Those that are on the fence will have to think about it.  Those that just want to play the newest cool game will not pay.

So... I'll have to classify myself as "on the fence" for this one.  I'm going to pay for a couple of months at least... then see how many people are still playing.  I'm a firm believer is supporting companies that have philosophies in line with how I think things should be ran.  HTC seems to be one of those companies.

AKDejaVu

[popeye]

It may be that there would be more players at a lower price, but there would ALSO be more cost to operate.

Let's remember that HTC are the guys who created WB, and set it's price.  They KNOW the market, and know the costs.  I'm sure they gave this issue a LOT of thought before they came up with the price.

popeye

[Saintaw]

I have to agree with AKdejavu,
I just saw a good Sim go in the Drain, because it wasn't appealing to the "regular shoot the runner player"...

If this sim is as good as i think it is, I'm ready to pay 30$ a month...

------------------
Saint
DCO 186th Wardogs (Falcon4 Squad)
 http://www.wardogs.org/

[CptTrips]

Naw, I still think my analogy is valid tweedy.  

I'm pretty certain that Porche would sell a higher "volume" of 911's if they cut the price to match Yugo's.  But in an online sim bandwidth requirements increase exponentially with volume not linearly.  The volume curve isn't nearly as attractive.


Besides half the dregs you'd be pulling in a 10$ a month would be whining about their wings coming off just because they pulled 9 G's and that black outs make the game too hard.  Besides, they would have names like  DaRkLoRdOfdEathZ,  AnArCHyRulEZ, LamErTaMerZ, which make it very hard to type in the squelch command.  

I think you are better off with a more mature, committed community.  Even if it is smaller.  Leave the volume (and the great unwashed masses) to walmart. ;>

Personally, I think 24.95 a month would be a better compromise between volume and quality.  High enough to keep out the guys who's names all end in Z, but low enough to draw in the more serious pilots still sitting on the fence. But it ain't my product, and ain't my price point to set.

BTW, 30$ US is exactly the same as 40$ AUS(or whatever the ex.rate is)  The number of bills and the color are different, but the "cost" in buying power is the same for both.  Thats what exchange rates are for.  To normalize currency variences.

Regards,
Wab


[This message has been edited by AKWabbit (edited 01-18-2000).]

[CptTrips]

opps


[This message has been edited by AKWabbit (edited 01-18-2000).]

[Minotaur]

     

I'm pretty certain that Porche would sell a higher "volume" of 911's if they cut the price to match Yugo's.

Interesting market anology and a very good one, Wabbit.

IMO, just as Wabbit descrbes, you can not really compare Porshe's to Yugo's.  The Yugo is a "Base Need for Survival", while the Porshe is entertainment (In the form of transportation).  For comparison, you need food to survive, but dining on lobster is for entertainment (In the form of nutrition).

It amazes me how much squeaking goes on based on the cost of something that is not needed for survival.  If you are worried about the cost of survival, why worry about the cost of entertainment?  A whine of spoiled modern societies, that entertainment is a "Right of Life" and not a fringe benefit from the "Fruits of Labor".  

Nonetheless; manufactures and retailers both know, that for the vast majority of consumers, the consumer tries to buy the best "thingamagig" for least amount of money.  

From a retailers stand piont.  Sell 10,000 "widgets" and make 25 cents net profit each. $2,500

From a manufacturers stand piont.  Produce 250 "hooyahs" and make 10 dollars net profit each. $2,500

From HTC (manufacturer and retailer) stand piont.  Produce and sell 1000 "whatyamacallits" for 2 1/2 dollars and make 2 1/2 dollars net profit each. $2,500

AH will sell itself based on the percieved entertainment value vs cost, for each individual consumer.  (Supply vs Demand --> Cost vs Value or Cost vs Need)

However, from what I can gather, HTC does not need to sell the game to players anyway.  It pretty much sells itself.  

HTC needs to sell AH to the potential players wife, girlfriend, significant other and / or parents.  

Then there is much less problem with the cost!        

Mino

[This message has been edited by Minotaur (edited 01-18-2000).]

[jmccaul]

Don't know if this has been said (note to self :read the thread then idiot)

10000 players paying $15 is no different to  5000 paying $30 (apart from the game becomes more appealing due to fuller servers)

So the question HTC has to ask itself is will halfing the price double the customers, they obviously think not. Luckily they obviously think doubling the price will take out more than half the customers  

It's not like yugo v 911 as the 911 will cost more to make but AH will cost the same to make whatever thay charge.  

[Pyro]

It doesn't quite work that way.  Each user represents an incremental cost to us through servers, bandwidth, and support.  If halving the price only allowed us to double the number of users, we'd come out losing heavily.

This doesn't include the fixed costs, but to take your example, what if your incremental costs per person were $16?  5000 people paying $30 nets you $70000 but 10000 people paying $15 nets you a loss of $10000.  



------------------
Doug "Pyro" Balmos
HiTech Creations

"The side with the fanciest uniforms loses."

[jmccaul]

Ok i am wrong   but i am not sure where my logic went wrong so you please tell me.

 I had assumed your current server infrastructure was capable of holding XXX people and as long as this limit was not exceeded the infrastructure would cost you a set amount. (your statement above suggests that the more people using the server the more it costs you i.e 50 people using a server 200 person server costs less than 100 people using it, is this where i went wrong?)

  You get the same income and have the same costs it is just that your costs per customer is less because you have spread it out over more of them.

? ? ? ?

[Sharky]

Hi All,

I seem to remember a thread on argo's board about the demographics <sp?> of the average WB player.  Seems the average WB player was 30-40, professional that made about $40,000-$50,000 a year.  That would tend to fit with the cost of $2.00 dollars per hour.

With a flat rate price of $30.00 per hour it seems that AH is targeting a group that is a little younger and makes a little less money (Bravo guys).  Now I can't begin to guess at what the demographics of the average AH player will be once it goes pay, but it is sure that HT and company will be bringing the same high quality flight sim to people that can't easily throw away big bucks for entertainment, and I for one think they should be applauded for it.

For those of you that it will be still to expensive for, I understand, but I don't think that the answer is to cut the quality of the sim to the point that would be required to bring the cost to the $10.00 per month.  This stuff is expensive to develop, produce and continue to improve.  As the customer we have to be willing to bear a large portion of that cost to keep the company solvent and be able to continue to provide us with the quality entertainment we want.

Sharky

[Minotaur]

Sharky;

Well said!

All in all, I consider $30 very reasonble for the entertainment value that I will be getting from it.

Mino

[HaHa]

Active thread I see.

I like WB, I like AH. I quit WB because it got boring (same old garbage). It got boring because HT and crew left and IEN is the crappiest game company on earth.. (I have not ONCE played a game of theirs I liked.. in fact I gasped in horror at a couple of their box titles).

In my PEAK of playing AH I never spent more than $30. On average I would say it was around $20. I'm an avid player and I think of myself as being a little above average when it comes to the amount of time I would play.

Thus I suspect the average player would only play for about $20 worth (compared to WB) max. The base of your price should be focused for the average person since they will be the majority.

Yes the flight sim fanatics will pay $300 a month on WB will pay $30 a month on AH. However, what % of the community is fanatical/rich, like 10% ??

Anyways I'm Canadian and $30 is $42. I would basically be paying the price of a new game every month (yet it won't be a new game). Furthermore I know that I would not play enough to account for the cost. BUT DAMNIT I want to play the game!! I want to play for a couple hours here and there.. at the MOST $20 worth (10 hours) but definitely NOT $30 worth.  

Just my 2 bits

[Gadfly]

You are all Worthless and Weak, Now Drop and Give ME TWENTY!

[CptTrips]

Hey Gadfly, you using 10 or 12lbs test?