The Marketing of AH - Ideas on how to increase player base

[LCADolby]

2001 - 2003   
I have a bottle of Bordeaux Red that old hidden away, but since that time my tastes have moved on. 
To drinking Kopparberg. 

[guncrasher]

The whole WoT format would not work in AH (well it might but it does not have to IMO).

The key facet IMO of the WoT customer capture point is the free at the point of base product use. I have WoT on my PC I don't play it but if I want to I can load it up and play it now, next week, next month and its free. But limited. If for some reason AH is not attractive to me then I am playing WoT in minutes at no cost (yet).

The AH revenue model is based upon subscription membership. Don't mess with this. Its a secure revenue platform that supports the company.

My view is that there could be a level at which free account holders could access AH much as free account holders can access WoT. When these free account holders want to access game play they flash the credit card and get a months full access (at a certain rate), or become DD account holders for say a minimum of 3 months (at another rate) etc etc etc. (may be they could even Paypal a day rate)

When the period expires they return to free account holders.

The point being is that they are eternally captured and it is easy for them to just make the payment and upgrade to full access.

The challenge then is to decide the appropriate level of the free access.

One example

The P40E is IMO the base line Fighter/attack aircraft and is well known by the core (US) market
The B25C is its equivalent bomber.
The M3 enables capture, supplies and  a 75mm gun

The FP (Free Player)  has
-no access to any arena other than the MA (No Scenarios, No Training, No Dueling, No Custom arenas)
-not the ability to score points
-not the ability to earn perks
-not the ability to use any other radio channel other than  range and help.
-not the ability to form or join squads
-not the ability to steer task groups
-not the ability to create missions
-not the ability to join missions

If numbers soar and multiple arenas are again needed then access will prioritise subscription players in some way or form to ensure that subscription players do not suffer access to the game due to any quantity of FP's.

the reason wot is free for everybody is because they have a lot of people buying gold.  you can easily spend 30 to 60 bucks a month just to upgrade your tanks.  there's a fee of 2500 gold just to create a squad.    that's about 10 bucks.  now the guys who buy gold pay a lot more than if everybody had to pay just a minimum to play.

you create a level of free access with just a couple of planes and you will have some subscribers switching to free and hundreds of others that joining just to ho everything in sight.

there's about 10k people playing wot at any time.  what do you think would happen if 10k people joined ah and only 2k were paying customers. those 2k would have to pay for ah to be available for everybody.

nothing in wot is free. somebody somewhere is paying for it.  i dont want to be the sucker in aces high that pays for somebody's "free" access.

marketing 101:  you have to make money somehow.

semp

[ink]

This is sorta off-topic, but I think it'd be cool if you could download the flight path information for a selected plane from an .ahf film recording and import it into an Offline training mode function.  That way you could relive actual engagements you've flown and fly them over and over again and learn how to apply the proper ACM in situations you've actually encountered in the MA.

wow dude this is a great idea

you should start a thread just on this

[Raptor05121]

Perfect setup for the xbox type except for one thing...... the xboxer will look for ways around having to pay for the elite equipment. This mean shortcut codes and "you know whats".

Stop stereotyping everything. I am an original Xboxer. I bought it when the original came out, then get Xbox Live when it started, upgraded to the 360 when it came out, etc. I have NEVER EVER touched a cheat code in ANY game EVER. By that definition I am an "Xboxer", not some punk 12 year old who just got one for Christmas from his grandma and goes online TK'ing and all the BS. You guys need to start using new phrases

[killrDan]

2001 - 2003   
I have a bottle of Bordeaux Red that old hidden away, but since that time my tastes have moved on. 
To drinking Kopparberg. 

Why don't you donate that Bordeaux to someone who can appreciate it .  I'd love to get my hands on a St. Emilion Grande Cru.   

[jimson]

1st. Don't mess with the MA

2nd. this:

Custom arenas staying open 24/7 capable of stat/log collecting like we see in FSO?

With the freedom of choice to run  24/7 custom servers with logging tools folks could hold events have contests and generally be more dynamic.
All niches of playing styles would now be available .

I'm sure HTC put the 5 minute timeout in because there would be a problem providing 100's of 24hr arenas.

Perhaps rent permanent arenas with 32 player or higher capacity for an additional fee?

I know that in IL2, some folks pay a lot of money to rent servers. I don't know how much space HTC has for this sort of thing, but if they could offer it significantly cheaper, they might be able to bring in some new business there.

I know at least a few players that couldn't hand their money over fast enough if this were available.

Again it depends on how much it costs to provide the bandwidth? for this, but then, no icon fans get what they want, GV only players get what they want etc, etc. It would help to have more AI development including for ships and ground vehicles so arena renters would have more flexibility for game design.

The player hosted arenas are going largely unused right now and I would guess part of that is because they can't be left up all the time and they have no logging/scoring.

3rd. Perhaps a revival of the Combat Tour concept or something similar. That would be a place for the RPG aspect.

In any case, I'm sure HTC knows what can be done in Il2 and other games and they know what their monetary and development resources are, and we don't.

EDIT: I see that AI aspects of #2 are in the works.

http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,324430.0.html

Ability to add the "offline AI" to custom arenas for scenarios

This is already planed.

HiTech

[The Fugitive]

You can do all the marketing you want, but until the game play has be tweaked to become something a bit less 1 dimensional you aren't going to hang on to these new players.

[Shuffler]

Stop stereotyping everything. I am an original Xboxer. I bought it when the original came out, then get Xbox Live when it started, upgraded to the 360 when it came out, etc. I have NEVER EVER touched a cheat code in ANY game EVER. By that definition I am an "Xboxer", not some punk 12 year old who just got one for Christmas from his grandma and goes online TK'ing and all the BS. You guys need to start using new phrases

You are a rarety. BTW many xboxers are not punk 12 year olds..... some are punk 50 years olds too. Some are not punks...... you stop stereotyping xboxers.

[Nr_RaVeN]

You can do all the marketing you want, but until the game play has be tweaked to become something a bit less 1 dimensional you aren't going to hang on to these new players.

Right and that's were custom arenas come into play were the host can make dynamic campaigns  or incorporate any settings especially if there are logging capability's like seen in FSO were people can hold events or run campaigns. That would be less one dimensional and more dynamic.

Basically custom arena will allow you to do exactly what your asking for.. I would pay $16-$25 subscription To AH for this capability...

For the subscription fee you would have and keep all the existing arenas and have countless  player controlled arenas to choose from that all would have settings that would appeal to a larger audience all play styles would be satisfied. Icons no icons short icon Axis V allies plane setts just WW1 anything you can think off.

 Appealing or allowing  a larger demographic to run servers how they want opens HTC up to far more potential subscriptions that translates into more recurring income  and more players online at one time.

The possibility for global market share is huge.

 I'm curious what is the obstetrical in the way of not allowing to remain open 24/7

[Shuffler]

Instead of all play styles together your saying have them all in different arenas?


Player controlled arenas often change with the wind. Sort of the way the current AVA does. That is not always for the good.

[bustr]

In the finaly analysis what sells Aces High is the Main Arena.

There has only and ever been the main Arena. The place where up to 700 players chase each other around going piu, piu, piu while yelling at each other on a common channel at the exact same time. Everything else has been to test the possiblity more than a small group of players will really spend time in another arena format. You were given the DA, TA, SEA, AvA, WWI and H2H arenas and what have any of you done with them other than a small clique in each? I will asume in the past they were begged for just like now. And where do 98% of you congregate? The MA..............

Instead of turning this as usual into a wish list for the fantasy game that tingles your leg, enumerate what works here and why. Or are you taking part in the greatest ongoing game in the history of our species? Kill the goose that lays the golden egg because you are bored?

Which has the real problem? You and your bordom, or the game?

[grizz441]

Which has the real problem? You and your bordom, or the game?

Well if you are bored before a reasonable period of playtime, then it is the game's fault. 

[Lusche]

Well if you are bored before a reasonable period of playtime, then it is the game's fault. 

What would be a 'reasonable period'?

[guncrasher]

Well if you are bored before a reasonable period of playtime, then it is the game's fault. 

It's a game, people are going to get bored of it sooner or later.  I dont come here because of the game itself, I mean it's fun too, but what brings me back is the squadies and other good friends i have here. 

semp

[oboe]

Have you noticed that Aces High is often absent from websites that deal with WWII or flight sims?   I've checked Aircraft of WWII, SimmersPaintShop, and SimHQ.  And even though these sites support labelled discussion forums for games like EAW, IL-2, CFS, and Targetware - there is no specific forum for Aces High sim topics on any of the ones I've checked.

AH has outlasted Air Warrior, Fighter Ace, and Targetware.  I don't understand why AH is left out, or grouped into a generic foum called "Other flight sims".

Of course, I have to say I didn't see WWII Online or Warbirds forums, either.