Thank you everyone for your public and private responses.
There were no surprises, other than the standard few who bring extremism to any conversation, but as Robert Kennedy once said "10% of people will never agree with anything".
I want to re-emphasize a point. I AM NOT LEAVING ACES HIGH !!!!!. To repost it for a third time publicly, "I'm not canceling my account as yet, but I'm taking some time away from AH until I can get a clearer view as to HTC's vision of what this product is supposed to be." Geeezz....I hope you all heard that, so the guys that wrote notes pleading for this old critter to stay and join their squad and not cancel my membership, I hope you finally are reading what I have been trying to say. I know I do suffer from textual diarrhea, but I hope somewhere in the verboseness, my message gets through.
I do however, appreciate the sentiments that you actually enjoy flying with me, even though I don't contribute that much with my average skill set. Since the MA is the ONLY supported and randomly populated gaming arena in Aces High, that means I have no place to fly the style I'm looking for, so I will stand down for a while, but still pay my bill. OK?
It is clear to me that the current AH product is a classic 70/30 marketing package. By design, it excludes the 15% of high end realism simmers who wish to use an environment such as what Citabria described under his thread "HA ... hardcore dream". I can attest to that because I am one of those type of dweebs. In my opinion, it also excludes the bottom 15% of people who are complete neophytes and log on expecting something much easier than the current MA delivers. I know, because I took the time to do some market research by isolating three of those "what is a rudder?" type people and spoke to them off-line. They were so overwhelmed on-line they won't be signing up, even offering them personal trainer one on one time. Hence, there goes 15% of the potential,revenue stream, potentially to the WB ACA $9.95/month (air starts, no blackouts or redouts, no stalls, no compression, flys on rails) environment.
You can jockey these percentages around anyway you wish by a few points, but the result is the same. It still is polarity marketing by design that there's absolutely nothing wrong with. If HTC can indeed get critical mass out of this marketing paradigm, then it is the way to go. It is my personal opinion that there's a time limitation intrinsic in the current market that could hurt them. That time frame is 6-8 months before they begin to see the effects of WB 3.0 (being introduced at CON 2000, June 22nd and a good guess that it might be flat rate) and WWII On-line going "open beta", probably during the fall. The current AH packaging pre-supposes that both of these products will NOT draw either end of the AH polarity packaging, or any other player demographic in the middle 70% away from Aces High. I think that's a dangerous set of assumptions, again note!!!!, these are my personal opinions, not gospel.
I appreciated fatty's "Pass the salt, I ain't going nowehere" pep rally message and his theme of fly whatever way you want and "If all else fails, do what I do, auger 12 times in a row so you take death a little less seriously."
Well said with lots of "pass the beer" followings, but it simply states the enjoyment that the middle 70% are getting from the current Aces High MA packaging. Add WWII On-line's 10 year old General Ballismo (whatever his name is?) to that mix and HTC should be complimented for providing that solidly defined "gaming" middle ground.
However, this type of MA is not what I want as a consumer of on-line multiplayer flight simulations, which brings me back to my original message. I am taking some time off and flying more WB again in their HA and other scenarios. I have spent more dollars in the last three days on WB, then my entire monthly bill to HTC. That statement alone should perk up the ears of any marketing manager who must be saying to themselves, geeeeezzzz, maybe there's a market to charge a premium and gain incremental revenue in providing some high end capabilities to garner some of that 15%? I know HTC's resources are limited and I also know Hitech and Pyro appreciate what I'm saying. I believe if they could at this stage of development, meet the immediate needs of the polarized 20% or 30% (high and low end) totals, they would probably do so in a heartbeat. It is definitely about priorities and making sure that they "crawl, walk, then run" before trying to expand their user base outside the core revenue contributors. I have to compliment them for their discipline in maintaining their focus, in spite of not being able to address my personal needs as one of their customers.
Salute to all.....
Regards,
Badger
[This message has been edited by Badger (edited 05-16-2000).]
