Cost just to high for most....

[ROCKEYE7]

Hi,
I come from the not so real part of online flight sims called Fighter Ace 2... I have tried several versions of aces high offline and online in beta and found this game to be a very nice realistic World War 2 flight simulation...

The flying part though a serious learning curve isn't the problem for me its the cost of $29.95 a month.

There are alot of us that are interested in joining your organization of pilots and increasing your monetary cash influx but, 300 bucks a year is not in most peoples budget for an online game simulation.

Yea i can hear the ex Warbirders saying thats cheap in comparison. Well alot of us interested wouldn't pay for playing warbirds with the other options available and the new and upcoming simulations in production.

I like many could deal with the 15-20 dollars max range a month but 30 bucks is simply out of the question for alot of us...

I can tell you this if the priced dropped to that price range the customer base would most certainly grow to include me.

Thanks for your time..

Take Care,
Kirk

[easymo]

 How about free. would u take it if it was free. It is. 8 players


[This message has been edited by easymo (edited 04-08-2000).]

[Sharky]

Kirk,

Sorry bud but I think your looking at the standard price for the "sims of the future".  At least for those of the quality of AH WB and WWIIonline.  Like you said this is a much better sim than AW3 or FA2.  A much better sim is gonna come at a little high price.

Hope you find the money to come join us. (Check in the couch cushions)  

Sharky

------------------
You can run, but you just die tired.

[bloom25]

You need to remember, there are only 6 people at HTC and they need to make a living.  I personally felt $30 was steep for awhile, but when I thought about it, here's what I figured out:  

Given 1000 paying customers at $30 US a month, you net $360000 a year.  Divide that by 6 and you get $60000 a year each.  Now, how much do servers cost?  At least $3000 for anything worthwhile.  How many servers do you need for AH, more than one I'll bet.  Now add:  3d graphics studio software (3d studio max?), why that's about $2500 at least per copy.  How about bandwidth (t1s)?  Not cheap, but I don't know exact figures. Building lease, taxes, etc, etc. (HT's beer and pizza fund.   )  Anyway, add it all up and I doubt they get more than $30,000 a year each.  Now, imagine if they charged $20 a month.  I don't know about the rest of you but I personally can't see how HTC's employees can be expected to work for free, can you?

I believe I once saw a post by HT claiming that the cost to them per customer is $17 a month.  If I'm right, and they were only charging $15 a month ... well it doesn't take a math professor to see that you are losing money at the rate of $2000 a month.

Now, once we get a few thousand playing (and paying), then maybe something could be worked out for those who fly less than so many hours a month etc.

bloom25
THUNDERBIRDS
(It's been too long since I took an English class!   )

[Dago]

Considering all that is involved in developing and supporting a 24 hr online sim, I think $30 is a great bargain.

Maybe not everyone can afford $30 a month, and that is unfortunate, but if someone can afford a computer capable of handling this kind of game, I wouldnt think that price should be too high.

From a selfish point of view, I hope the minor cost of this game keep out alot of the quake heads.

Dago

[funked]

You get what you pay for...

[Citabria]

30 bucks for land air mega online ww2 sim is an extreme bargain.

(edit: not the first: AW was?)  


[This message has been edited by Citabria (edited 04-09-2000).]

[Dead Man Flying]

 

Originally posted by Citabria:
30 bucks for THE WORLDS FIRST land air mega online ww2 sim is an extreme bargain.

While I love Aces High and adore the latest patch, you're mistaken to think that it's the "WORLDS FIRST land air mega online ww2 sim."  Air Warrior added tanks and flakpanzers years and years ago, back before Warbirds or Aces High were twinkles in an eye.

Now, realism and quality wise you may have something.    But combined ground/air ops go waaaaaaaay back in AW.

-- Todd/DMF

[Torque]

I want the best, I want it free, and I wanted it yesterday.

How much would $30 buy of your time??????

Committed flight enthusiasts will allocate resources or sacrifice other luxuries to fly in AH.

Which category do you fall in?

[Stardog1]

Well I like AH as much as anyone but I am also an avid FA2 flyer and that sim is sadly underrated.
In the advanced arena the FM is alot better and the emersion is there for sure.
We are flying in a historical event tomorrow with 800+ people.

Love AH but cant bash FA2, its a quality sim and getting better all the time



------------------
Todd "Stardog" Garner
Adjutant 358th vFS
355th Virtual Fighter Group

Managing Editor/Webmaster
Stardog's Simshack

[Replicant]

Hi all

I originally thought it was expensive but I now think it's a damn fine bargain!   I think what was putting people off in Britain, Europe etc., was that you don't get free dial up time so you was having to possibly pay for an ISP and then your phone bill which could, along with AH, go to $100s a month.  In Britain now there are many offering an ISP price of about $17 a month with free dial up i.e. - not showing on your phone bill.  

I am on a very tight budget, but $17 + $30 for AH is great value!  The best thing is that it can only get better to what is already the best WW2 sim out.

Regards

'Nexx'

[snafu]

I can only echo Replicants comments. As far as the UK was concerned it was the price of the (Phone) service which was the problem. I am not a heavy user of AH but with the latest cheap internet access it still works out at a negligable cost per hour. I think $30 is about right (But if you weant to lower it HT)........

TTFN
snafu

[Hans]

Wait a minute.  $17 a month for an ISP in England?  We pay $20 a month here in the U.S.

ITS NOT FAIR.  WHHHHHAAAAAAAA!!!! <rant, cry, rant>

Hanz.

P.S.  About time British telecom got it together.

[AborT]

In Russia we pay $50 for Inet, if you pay per hour - it's about $80-90   Plus here a nightmare connection, discos, and outstanding rude service....

[Fury]

I'd have to agree with part of the original post:  $30/month is too high for most people.

Remember that when FA first came out it was 19.95/month -- for FA 1.0 (remember that map?).  They later dropped the price.  It's tough to say why FA boomed from a high of 200 at one time to an average high of 600-700, but it all started about the time they released 1.5, started giving away free month coupons, and lowered the price to 9.95.

Not that I want to see HTC fail, but I like it the way it is now -- both numbers and price.  Before 1.02 the highest I saw was around 90 or so, now for the last few night's it's been in the 150s.  This is great and the new map seems to handle this well, but I really would hate to see them drop the price and have an influx of several hundred people for reasons I'd rather not go into here.

Possibly in the future, HTC will consider dropping the price a bit, possibly they won't.  I don't work for them so I can't speak for what they need for a return on investment.

Personally I don't have a problem paying the $$ because I like the game so much.  The only real problem will be when WWII comes out and I have to justify paying upwards of $60/month    Fortunately I do not have to worry about that for a while.

Fury