Should AvA be cut back?

[jimson]

Apparently AvA is experiencing a bit of a resurgence due to the efforts of Mister Fork and others, but the 24/7 availability seems to greatly exceed the demand.

If the availability were cut back to one or two days a week, would that demand be more focused and the numbers improve?

It still wouldn't be quite like a special event in that it would be an open arena, with no registration, CM's or specific start times.

[gyrene81]

You spending a lot of time in there? Just trying to figure out what you're concern is with the arena...if it's not "available" but a few days a week what else would be done with it?

[The Fugitive]

Well if due to life I can't fly from 9 AM to 12 PM everyday cutting the availability down to only being able to fly in the AvA on Tuesday's and Thursday's isn't going to get me to fly there any more. Is that what your trying to say?

I understand "why" your trying to get more people in the AvA arena. There just isn't enough "thrill" to draw MA numbers to "historical" flying. Too many people need there uber rides so they fly in the MA. With all of those flying there the "wolves" who are after kills fly there too... more numbers equals more kills, or more fun.

[jimson]

Yeah, you guys are right and I'm sorry for beating it to death.

It's just that it was the thought of that kind of historical gameplay that drew me to the game, then I find that I can almost never attend the special events because of work, and that few want to fly AvA, and there's just no historical, realism type gameplay available to me.

I guess it's just a little disappointing.

Anyway, onward to other things.

[gyrene81]

Yeah, you guys are right and I'm sorry for beating it to death.

It's just that it was the thought of that kind of historical gameplay that drew me to the game, then I find that I can almost never attend the special events because of work, and that few want to fly AvA, and there's just no historical, realism type gameplay available to me.

I guess it's just a little disappointing.

Anyway, onward to other things.

Now I understand...I had the same ideology when I started...now I'm understanding that in toonville, the historical/realism fans are vastly outnumbered by the "I wanna fly a lancstukaspixteenponyjug and where is the B-29?" crowd. I know how you feel...hang in there...as with all things on the net, there are constant cycles of change.

[CountD90]

"I wanna fly a lancstukaspixteenponyjug and where is the B-29?" crowd.

lmao I got a laugh out of that.

[Mister Fork]

Apparently AvA is experiencing a bit of a resurgence due to the efforts of Mister Fork and others, but the 24/7 availability seems to greatly exceed the demand.

If the availability were cut back to one or two days a week, would that demand be more focused and the numbers improve?

It still wouldn't be quite like a special event in that it would be an open arena, with no registration, CM's or specific start times.

What you're asking for is the SEA which is already setup.  If you haven't got time to fly the SEA, then perhaps the AvA is ideal.  If the AvA isn't being populated, what do we need to do to get more players in the AvA?  If you can 'help' figure that out, then perhaps that will help fill the arena.

[gyrene81]

If the AvA was populated when I got the time to fly...I would never be in the LW arenas.

With all the whining there is in the MA's it's a wonder the AvA isn't more heavily populated. 

[jimson]

What you're asking for is the SEA which is already setup.  If you haven't got time to fly the SEA, then perhaps the AvA is ideal.  If the AvA isn't being populated, what do we need to do to get more players in the AvA?

In recognizing a bad idea for what it is (and I have more than my share of those)
I'll try to explain my reasoning behind it.

The AvA arena as I understand it (correct me if wrong) is one in which you can show up and play at any time. It is set-up for axis vs allies plane sets but doesn't not require prior registration, supervision, staffing during play, does not have specific launch times etc, basically like any other walk on arena except the different maps and country appropriate plane sets etc.

It can depict certain scenarios with the type of maps etc, but is essentially not a cm organized, non scripted event.

The SEA is one in which structured, scripted events are run at specific times, requiring supervision during play etc.

I suppose what I was describing is a hybrid in that it would still be a walkon, non scripted arena, but would be open for example: only on monday.

This would not necessarily increase the overall numbers of people that play there, but would be an attempt to get them there all on the same day.

It would give people a day to expect something to be going on there and a specific day for people to plan on playing there.

I know it's comparing apples and oranges but you wouldn't run snapshots by saying "The SEA is open 24/7 so pop in any time and when we happen to see that we have enough people in at the same time we will run the event."

I suppose I was thinking it might be easier to increase the level of play there on one day a week as opposed to over all. Making it more like an event might generate a little more excitement.

Instead of people thinking "we have all these arena's available so we'll just play in the one with the most people." people might think "Hey it's AvA monday, let's check it out."

It may be psychological pandering, but one way to create a run on something and increase the value of something, especially in a limited market, is to make it less common.

I know it will never have LW numbers, but I for one, would rather see an arena that was hopping once or twice a week than one that was mostly empty 24/7.

I also believe that the more players that are in the arena, the more will be drawn to at least try it.

I suppose this is the wrong approach.

  If you can 'help' figure that out, then perhaps that will help fill the arena.

If I can think of other ideas, I'll suggest them directly to the AvA people. I think about it often,  but as you can see, I haven't come up with anything practical yet.

[fbEagle]

heres an idea... dont fly in AvA 

[E25280]

My suggestion is that when you log on, go to the MW arena and ask on 200 whether anyone would care to join you in the AvA.  (Ask in all MAs if you'd like but MW seems to be the hang out for the majority of the AvA regulars.)  One or several of the regulars may take you up on it.  When there are a couple - three people in the arena already, the numbers tend to grow (at least during "prime time") until you have enough for a nice little furball.

Can't guarantee success, but doesn't hurt to try.

I've always enjoyed the AvA, but my flying time seems to continue to decrease each month, and so if there isn't already a few in there when I log on, I don't have any time to hang out hoping.  I'm sure many of the others likewise would rather not be the "first one".  Only solution to that I can see is to speak up and bring a few in at once.

[The Fugitive]

What you're asking for is the SEA which is already setup.  If you haven't got time to fly the SEA, then perhaps the AvA is ideal.  If the AvA isn't being populated, what do we need to do to get more players in the AvA?  If you can 'help' figure that out, then perhaps that will help fill the arena.

His problem is he flies off peek hours. With AvA having low numbers off peek is really low. The Ava unfortunately has always been more or less a ghost town. Sure some nights they get decent numbers, but they are few and far between. Many games have tried to get an AvA type arena going. While it interest anyone interested in the history, it still doesn't draw the numbers. It's just not a case of "build it and they will come". If you could have 40-50 people in there at a time it wouldn't take long to get many hooked and build something, but I don't think there is much that will get them in to test the waters short of killing the server the runs the mains 

[SectorNine50]

Would anyone be interested in seeing the MA turn into an AvA for a night or day like Titanic Tuesday?  Maybe not as often, but perhaps once a month?  I think that would be pretty cool.

[Kweassa]

 It's an interesting discussion that definately warrants attention.

 As some of you already know, I'm an Asian living in the Far East at GMT +9:00. Frankly, finding an opportunity to attend special events is practically impossible for me. I've always enjoyed combat flight sims, but my interest in this genre of games mainly comes from its historicity, as much as my interest in the concept of 'flight and fight.' For example, if someone would make a game with planes that fly exactly like AH2, but the external appearances of stuff are like Science Fiction.. then no matter how well the game is made, it won't draw my attention.

 A good rush of hectic combat in the MA is always fine and dandy, but what really drove me to fly AH was the illusion of immersion - imagining what the life of a WW2 combat pilot would have been like, the goods and the bads.

 That's why I was so eager and interested with the Combat Tour concept. It would have been the ultimate blessing for me, a revolutionary new format of online combat flight simulation coupled with a RPG aspect that simulated your virtual life as a combat pilot of WW2. When I heard CT was just cancelled, well, that was my queue to leave. Real life problems have kept me from flying much, not to mention the slumping economy effected the foreign currency exchange rates which really upped the price of flying AH with a credit card... and, the MA was just not giving me any more fun. I found no reason to stay any longer.

 But I've always hoped that some of the internal systems developed for the CT could be implemented into regualr AH arenas.. like, some sort of basic format system introduced to the AvA arena - such as mission scripts or the AI formations technique. Unlike the free-for-all aspect of the MA, simulating a certain specific era of aerial combat requires a 'set up' - much like one needs to set props and stuff on stage. It is usually impossible to get the players to fully cooperate and participate to form such a 'theater' - which is why special events - though very impressive most of times, is literally 'special' and cannot be expected to be 'regular' 24-7. That's why it'd be great to have AI help to fill out the 'extras' to get this 'flick' going.

 What I ultimately imagine to be a dream come true, would be such an AvA arena with some basic systems from the CT concept in place.. in which if there are many players logged on would be played like a 'special events' scenario or a tour that would be played anytime.. and not needing any organizers to get it going.

 Even better - if there aren't much players logged on.... you could still play it alone with the basic system providing AI 'fill-ins'... who needs a boxed/packaged game, when subscribing to AH can give you both a 'package game' single player feel, as well as a MMOG feel at the same time?!

 ....

 Someday, man, someday.

[jimson]

Would anyone be interested in seeing the MA turn into an AvA for a night or day like Titanic Tuesday?  Maybe not as often, but perhaps once a month?  I think that would be pretty cool.

Very similar to something I suggested. It got slapped down pretty hard as the general consensus was that that would be forcing people to play AvA and wouldn't be good for the game.

Kweassa: You and I are soooo on the same page. Maybe some day, brother.

In the meantime what I think I will do is try to get friends and squaddies interested in flying AvA a certain day and time.

I'm thinking of Monday as there are no other events going on and happens to be one of the days I can get on afternoon/early evening, and maybe into the night sometimes.

If I can scare up some interest, I'll post in the general or AvA forums.