game play

[coombz]

somebody forgets that lots of people who quit, quit because they lost their jobs.  economy went to crap a few years back and still hasnt recovered.  so for some people having money to play is still tough.

pff come on seriously, $15 a month is next to nothing, I know there are some of you fat slobs who spend that much just for your lunch We all saw those Dayton gathering pics of the last few years

[guncrasher]

pff come on seriously, $15 a month is next to nothing, I know there are some of you fat slobs who spend that much just for your lunch We all saw those Dayton gathering pics of the last few years

might as well be a billion dollars if you have nothing. dont forget those 15 bucks also need an internet connection which is another 30 bucks.  plus they also need electricity which also adds another 20 or so bucks a month.  plus you also need to maintain your puter which on the low end adds another 10 to 15 bucks a month.  so those 15 bucks you say is nothing pretty much adds up to 50 or 60 a month.  which is a lot of money for some.


semp

[coombz]

my heart bleeds.

does this have anything to do with AH gameplay or do we really want to turn the thread into a whine about how hard life is in the 'economic downturn'??

McDonalds are always hiring afaik

[Lusche]

Look at the K/Ds from the game at its height and look at them now. Not scientific but one gets the idea

It's actually quite useful.
Total kills for a given arena, especially LW, tracked over time gives a very good indication of activity, played time (as K/H is remarkably stable over the years) and thus a good assessment on average number of players online. Of course you have to take into account the varying tour lengths, so it's better to calculate a moving average or to sum up the kills per quarter. All of which I have done for all main arenas 2001- to now, as well as determined the # of scoring (= at least one kill or one death) pilot id's per tour and (most of) their scores (and thus hours played - that's why I can comment on the k/h factor)).
Right now, we have roughly about 58%-67% of the activity (depending on which indicator you chose) in the LW MA compared to to 3-4 years ago - but the time around 2007 had been very exceptional for AH in the first place, and not the "standard".

And while I'm far from trying to argue monocausally, I find it interesting that the drop of numbers was very much matching the rise of US unemployment rates at the same time... 

[Lusche]

does this have anything to do with AH gameplay

Quite a lot. Significant less players do have an effect on gameplay

pff come on seriously, $15 a month is next to nothing,

When money is getting tight, it's the "unnecessary" expenses that people are going to drop fist - and more often than not it's not the actual player alone who determines if AH is necessary or not 

[Kazaa]

I miss the days when the old Main Arena had 700+ players.

[Lusche]

I miss the days when the old Main Arena had 700+ players.

I'm just glad I was there    

For who now want to say "that was too bloody much for one arena!" - that number meant also that offpeak numbers also hardy ever dropped below 100 players online.

[coombz]

Quite a lot. Significant less players do have an effect on gameplay

True, this is nothing that wasn't already mentioned by myself and others on pages 1 and 2 though...

When money is getting tight, it's the "unnecessary" expenses that people are going to drop fist - and more often than not it's not the actual player alone who determines if AH is necessary or not  

I agree, but we can probably keep the topic on the rails more easily if we don't get sidetracked bewailing the fate of those unfortunate individuals who can't afford a subscription right now...in order to discuss possibilities for improving the game for those of us who can!

I'll undertake not to take the piss out of people who can't afford $15 a month if others will agree not to use the low player numbers as an excuse for the bland gameplay in the Main Arenas

[Lusche]

..in order to discuss possibilities for improving the game for those of us who can!

And for a small fee of just 15$/month I can present all the charts and tables which are absolutely needed for a constructive debate about the possibilities and the future of AH   

[coombz]

reading between the lines, has your Mrs forbidden your AH subscription? 

[Lusche]

reading between the lines, has your Mrs forbidden your AH subscription? 

LOL

Not yet... right now I still have my account (if not for playing I need it for a few more surveys), but it's future is very uncertain

[doc1kelley]

somebody forgets that lots of people who quit, quit because they lost their jobs.  economy went to crap a few years back and still hasnt recovered.  so for some people having money to play is still tough.

I mostly play at night and even when we had 2 arenas back in the day, there would be less than 100 after 12 am pst.  normally would be one with about 20 and another with around 60.  which is what we have now, except for the weekends when there's a couple of hundred people playing till morning.  log in on Thursdays and it is normally dead as dead.  but what do you really expect at 12 am or later pst.

semp

Semp has a point about the economy and jobs.  I used to play lots more and I've been here for years but those of us that are lucky enough to still have our jobs are covering for those whose jobs were eliminated.  I am now doing the workload that three of us did a few years back.  I think my combined play time for last tour was just over 12 hours and that is with AFK time when I was online.  I used to average 4-5 times that.

All the Best...

    Jay
 awDoc1 

[Krusty]

I second Doc's sentiment... I've even cancelled my sub due to income problems. Thankfully I have it back (for now). Our economy really is in the crapper. Don't believe the press that we've rebounded, our unemployment is still the highest since ... what was it? Since the Great Depression? (or was it a different one in the '80s?)

[Wiley]

 Yes, unfortunately the way the game works promotes hordeing, running away, avoiding the opposition entirely to take undefended bases while they do they same to your undefended bases (!!!!) and spawn camping (in the case of GVs).

I mean no disrespect, but with regard to promoting hording, how is it possible to design the game around not hording?  The game ultimately boils down to two things:  Blowing stuff up and shooting stuff down.  What measures can be put in place to make a job that can be done with one plane harder to do with two, or five, or fifty?

Spawn camping is a bit different, I have seen a couple suggestions I think would work, but it would be a PITA to make maps that accounted for it.

Wiley.

[coombz]

I mean no disrespect, but with regard to promoting hording, how is it possible to design the game around not hording?  

I haven't given it much thought...but at the very least there should be some kind of game mechanic or facet of the design which would prohibit the hordes from just ignoring each other while they attack scantly defended bases...perhaps smaller maps to go with the newly diminished player base, with unavoidable action packed choke points!

In my opinion there isn't anything inherently wrong (in online gaming in general) with bands of lower skilled players banding together to acheive something for once, i,.e. hordeing or  'zerging', as long as you get some fun gameplay from it (i.e. killing 40+ man groups with 8 guys in the old fantasy mmo DAoC )

In fact, two large groups of planes clashing sounds like a jolly good time to me. The problem is that there is nothing pushing players in this direction (the direction of action, competition and in my opinion, fun)...

It's too easy to just avoid combat or any kind of test of skill all together, and that to me speaks of poor game design - unless of course you are designing a game for the kind of people that play WoW pve and stuff like that...

...come to think of it a lot of the AH player base probably does fit into that kind of category (casual, non-competitive), just with added aviation enthusiasm...so perhaps the problem is that two different breeds of flight sim pilot are being forced into the same arena? Thoughts?