lmao, Gosth is Canadian! Before my serious health problems, and a motorcycle accident. I was involved with banking, commercial land, and resort development in San Carlos, Sonora, Mexico. I worked for the founder and only developer, he owns all the land in San Carlos. I was also one of the very first Americans to offer residential financing via American investors/banks to foreigners in Mexico.
In the mid 2000's the Canadian market was doing extremely well and the exchange rate for Canadian dollars was 2 to 1 in comparison to US dollars for converting pesos. Canadians got twice as many pesos for their dollar than what you would get for a US dollar. We had a flood of Canadians. At first their business and desire to develop resorts/condos was welcome. But after about a year. We would no longer sell commercial properties to Canadians, and some Americans. Canadians were even more ignorant and arrogant then the Americans! Every Canadian project that did get started, failed. They shot themselves in the foot with their attitude, no one wanted to do business with them. Those who rise fast, fall the hardest.
Now back to AH!
The old timers will remember the articles about submarines in AH. Those articles and advertising increased the client base. I remember seeing ranking numbers over six thousand. Currently I see high scores in the upper four thousand range. That implies that there are some were around five thousand current subscribers. Why after all these years are there less subscribers? There are substantially more internet subscribers than there was over five years ago in the US, and Internationally, a much larger increase. Yet the number of AH subscribers has apparently declined. This brings to question what is causing this. Every other popular online game has had an increase of subscribers over the last five years. Granted AH is more of a niche game, never the less subscription has declined.
I have already mentioned that when in game, when someone uses a language other than English, immediately that person is told English only this is an American game. With people like Gosth making comments to learn to use English sentences correctly or repercussions will happen. Such comments certainly cause non-Americans to cancel their subscriptions, or not stay around after the 2 week trial. Who would put up with attacks simply because English is not your first language?
Games like WOW have grown to 11 millions subscribers. 5.5 million are from China, 2.5 million from north America, 2 million from Europe, yes I know that only adds up to 10 million, but those are the numbers that have been released, the other million are probably from many other countries.
Fact is, the US only comprises of less than 10% of the total world potential client base. AH only offers everything in English, while every other game comes in multiple languages. Surprising that AH does not solicit the largest population base. Given the allowance of attacks on non-English speakers. Shows that AH is not following a good business practice.
One of the mantra's in AH is, it is only a game. Yet, first and foremost it is a business. Everyone wants more planes, more arenas, more options. The players in a sense own a little piece of the AH business. They pay their subscriptions, they help new players, make suggestions, argue their point, A LOT. Progress has been moving along over the years slowly. Many planes still have the original cockpits, twelve years or longer and still not updated, that is slower than a snails pace.
The apparent current player base is so small that revenue is barely enough to keep AH running. If there was more revenue more people could be hired and progress rate improved. Who is at fault for this, HiTechCreations, or the players? Both are at fault.
With every new player there is an opportunity for a substantial increase in the player base. You never know who they are, their family, their friends. To us older folks, the kid now days are speed demons at networking. Facebook, twitter, personal websites, blogs, family business websites, etc.
Some one from another country may have access to millions of people. If they are treated improperly, they are going to tell every one do not give money to HiTechCreations because they are a bunch of jerk, arrogant, Americans AND Canadians! Instead of telling everyone how great AH is and that they should give it a try.
You math guys, can do the math. One person gets one friend each month to subscribe to AH. Each one of those new subscribers gets one friend each month to subscribe, and on and on. Granted AH is not for everyone. But I am sure there is a much larger base of subscribers out there than is currently subscribing. The current numbers clearly point out that something is wrong.
Numerous features and rules have been implemented to reduce the level of player vs. player abuse. The fact that these changes were implemented shows that there is a problem.
The best way to build the subscriber base is through the current players. There should be ten to twenty thousand subscribers, when the increase of internet users from all over the world are taken into account. Why are the non-Americans staying away? Yes I know there are numerous people from numerous countries, but the great majority of those speak english.
I believe that one of if not the primary problem is attitude. The reason why I have been pointing out attitude so much. Business owners, professionals, large corporate entities, spend lots of money employing psychiatrist and psychologist to provide classes and critique on how to improve interaction with clients. Everyone has heard stuff like he is a natural born salesman, he is a natural fighter pilot! While in fact, every good business owner has taken much time and expense and effort to em-better their people skills. Most people do not realize how they actually come across to people, common etiquette stops people from always being truthful about their personal opinion. Tell a women when they come home from the beauty parlor, that the hairdo looks crappy! What you think is funny, may offend some one else, even when you are both native speakers of the same language. Business owners learn that they lose clients because they say things, or use mannerisms, that offend a percentage of their potential client base. No one can get all the business, but anyone can get a percentage of the business, depending on your people skills, you will get a large percentage a small percentage, or go out of business. Like the Canadians in San Carlos.
Point is, the players need to take a good look at themselves, because they are directly responsible for the small player base. Read all the posts about people quiting. Fact is, in business people who complain or even verbally abuse, will stay around with proper handling, those who say nothing and walk out the door will never be back, and believe me they will tell everyone about their bad experience. Only HiTechCreations knows what those actual numbers are.
There are lots of players that display very good people skills. But there are consistently a number that do nothing but offend people. Usually these same offensive people are the ones stirring things up the most. I want this, I want that, I want people to play my way. Instead of moving things in a better direction they are diverting things towards a declining condition that eventually only damages every aspect of AH. If people leave and do not pay a subscription, AH does not have the revenue to move forwards. These agitators are actually building roadblocks to achieving what they claim they want.
When new players start up, they follow existing players to learn the game. They will play the game in the way they are taught, they will also acquire the same attitude, good or bad.
