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

[FALCONWING]

I think you have to look at things historically:

Air Warrior came out and helped develop many of the customers that eventually moved to AH.  When I started it was Free to play and graphics were cutting edge for the time.  It also offered an experience that was not available anywhere else.  MMO combat.  Very exciting.  Maps were small.  I think the best thing was  newbie arena that you could only play in until you acheived a certain number of points/kills.  Helped break you into the game.

AH now has better graphics but not phenomenal...also the game play hasn't really changed at all.  No true "capture the flag" or win the war anymore.  The community itself ridiculed the concept of "win th3 war" etc and the game has changed enough so it doesn't matter.  Question is why play?  Yes you can go out and shoot hoops but most folks our age want to play a game with a team winner and team loser.  The game doesn't have this anymore.  I think this is a big problem.  More goals then simply being "l33t" ned to be developed.


the MMO market has exploded but honestly is more 15-25 yo  folks i find play them.  They like "grinding" and "leveling" and don't have the desire to stay at one "level" and develop skill based rewards.  It's not HTC's fault they aren't getting this marketplace imho.....BUT there must be plenty of 30-50 yo who would love a fun non-20 yo mmo and I wish HTC marketed it better.  I know they advertise but honestly it is rare to see a commercial.

I agree the learning curve is likely too hard for most...especially older folks without a big budget for gaming.   I doubt the average new subscriber has a top gaming machine with a joystick with rudder control and plenty of views.  Imagine even the training arena if you only had a really simple Joystick...how difficult it would be.  I bet tons of folks are easily discouraged...you really need a newbie arena for long time learning.  Similar to the old AW newbie arena.

[Grape]

Not sure if this has been mentioned in this thread (no time to read the whole thing) but, what if a game disc was offered for free with the purchase of a joystick? After all, the game needs the joystick makers as much as they need a game that uses their product.

[pembquist]

I'm curious to know the reason why people stay at this game after 2 hours let alone 2 weeks.  What ever that reason is, the more you can deliver it the more people will stay.  What I mean is if you surveyed why people enjoy or stay with this game and found that, for instance, being in a 5 minute one on one fight was the reason then you might be able to figure out how to deliver that experience more often for new players.  I said somewhere else that asking people to fly 10 minutes to get shot down before they know whats happening is asking a lot.  In a way it screens out people who aren't that interested in flying but on the other hand it doesn't really encourage the development of that interest.  As far as I'm concerned the best thing about AH is that the flying has something to do with reality, so I'm not suggesting that that core be degraded to make a more tempting game.  Frankly I am surprised at how few people play this game.  Maybe you need more 2 week leads but before you spent money on getting more of those I think the game would benefit from some improvement on new player enjoyment.  I'm sure everyone has ideas on what that would be so I'm not going to give any but I would think that it costs something to get every 2 week trial in the door so anything that makes converting them to players saves money from one end and frankly the more players the better the game is,(IMO this is why the population clusters in the main arena.)

[chipr]

No matter how many you people you get into this game, I see Aces High taking a major dump once World of Planes comes online. Basic economics- when demand goes down, prices must go down. Over the years I've noticed less and less people and the combination of Blue and Orange arenas only confirms this. I've shown AH2 to 6 of my airplane-saavy friends. All did their two weeks and loved it but all refused to pay the $15/mo. Quoting one of the: "paying $180 a year to play a game with sub-par graphics isn't much of a deal. I'll just wait for World of Planes to come out for free."

Subpar graphics is giving too much credit. J/K HTC. World of planes for free?

[Shuffler]

you do understand that the people that pay, pay for everybody else to play for free.  just like in wot, it is not free for some as they must pay more than if there was to be a subscription for everybody to pay.  I would switch to free play and fly the free rides, let somebody else pay my way.

but where exactly are you going with these we need more players marketing campaign.     sure you have more numbers, but numbers dont necessarily equal better game play, you just have more numbers. arenas will never have more than 400 or 500 players in them due to the fact that they become chaotic.   if we get more players then, there will be just 2 LWA's just like before or maybe 3.


semp

More often than not the free play is below standard and those that pay get something more aligned to cheat codes... like tanks that disappear in the middle of a street or field.

[chipr]

Lets make AH2 dirt cheap if not free, and let advertisers pay for our sub. We dont pay to use things like facebook, google, and youtube but those companies dont seem to be hurting for money or asking for donations. My point is, if enough people use your product, you dont have to charge money in order to profit.  Its no big secret, companies like to advertise their product where people will see it.

I dont know how to implement this into the game without doing what the EA brand does with theirs. IE, Subway and Statefarm are big advertisers in sports related video gaming. You will see there logo more than you would want to. But atleast you didnt have to pay $14 that month.  why not add a billboard of a $5 footlong and maybe a gieco lizard on the opening menu.

All this would piss me off if I had to pay to see these advertisements. But for free, I think I can handle it.

[Shuffler]

Lets make AH2 dirt cheap if not free, and let advertisers pay for our sub. We dont pay to use things like facebook, google, and youtube but those companies dont seem to be hurting for money or asking for donations. My point is, if enough people use your product, you dont have to charge money in order to profit.  Its no big secret, companies like to advertise their product where people will see it.

I dont know how to implement this into the game without doing what the EA brand does with theirs. IE, Subway and Statefarm are big advertisers in sports related video gaming. You will see there logo more than you would want to. But atleast you didnt have to pay $14 that month.  why not add a billboard of a $5 footlong and maybe a gieco lizard on the opening menu.

All this would piss me off if I had to pay to see these advertisements. But for free, I think I can handle it.

AHII is already dirt cheap. I'd leave if I saw ads all over everything..... rediculous.

[guncrasher]

I'll be willing to put an "i love the muppets" sticker on my pony if they gave me 1 dollar a month  .


semp

[grizz441]

I'll be willing to put an "i love the muppets" sticker on my pony if they gave me 1 dollar a month  .
semp

We don't think we'd get very good returns on that investment.

[Peyton]

Most games that use a 1 month are sold in a box. In our box version that is sold in Europe we offer 2 months, I.E. the approximate price of the box.

We simply look how long people who try the game continue to play the entire 2 weeks.

HiTech

With all due respect kind Sir, I do have some questions.

While these are not apples to apples comparisons:
How many people that try the 2 weeks continue to fly?
How many Europeans that have the free 2 months continue to fly?
Compare the 2 over a 1, 2, 5 year period.


How many accounts do you have that remain active (cc is being charged) but the player has no logged on for 6 months or more?  Do you cancel accounts or keep charging?

WW1 I never see anybody in there. If you did that over again would you do WW1 or have spent the resources elswhere? Would you consider WW1 a succcess on drawing new players?

Last question:  Is the game cheat protected? 

Thanks

[The Fugitive]

With all due respect kind Sir, I do have some questions.

While these are not apples to apples comparisons:
How many people that try the 2 weeks continue to fly?
How many Europeans that have the free 2 months continue to fly?
Compare the 2 over a 1, 2, 5 year period.

Subscription data is NEVER released. The 2 month deal for the Europeans is a new thing. HTC just released a boxed version of the game over there a few month ago. They are only starting to get data on that.

How many accounts do you have that remain active (cc is being charged) but the player has no logged on for 6 months or more?  Do you cancel accounts or keep charging?

They would be foolish to cancel accounts that are still being paid for. There are a number of players who "support" HTC that don't log any time on line.

WW1 I never see anybody in there. If you did that over again would you do WW1 or have spent the resources elswhere? Would you consider WW1 a succcess on drawing new players?

WWI was hot and heavy for a month or two, and then the numbers dropped off to a number of "hard core" WWI players. But with nothing in the arena but 4 fighters most lost intrest, and the few left just don't bother because there is never any one in there.

I don't think WWI was put up as something to bring in new players, but I'm sure they wouldn't have looked down on any that came in. I believe the WWI was a test bed to run things they wanted to add to the main game but wanted to see how it works out. Last thing I think was a new damage model.

Last question:  Is the game cheat protected? 

Thanks

Stupid question, you bet your @zz it is! There are always those that "think" people are pulling something but very few push the code and HTC is very good at banning any who think they get close.

[BaldEagl]

I've played in the WWI arena twice in the past two weeks.  It's still fun as long as there are a couple other guys there.

[Tigger29]

Last question:  Is the game cheat protected? 

For sure!  Hitech's policy against cheaters is tighter than Skuzzy's policy against Flash!  They know what they are doing!

Except there is that one guy who hacks in every christmas eve and flies around with reindeer.  One of these days we'll figure out who that silly fellow is and how he gets around all of the security measures! 

[MarineUS]

Except there is that one guy who hacks in every christmas eve and flies around with reindeer.  One of these days we'll figure out who that silly fellow is and how he gets around all of the security measures! 

Me thinks his name is, HiTech! σ_ô

[MK-84]

You may want to look at this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_massively_multiplayer_online_games

Search for Dale Addink.

Only they got 2 facts wrong, it was 1995 and was used to describe Confirmed Kill.

HiTech

Cool!

The Wiki for AH which links from your name is a little light on content