Where have all the players gone?

[Arlo]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvlW4bEjB5A

Slow down, don't move too fast
You've got to make the morning last
Kickin' down the cobblestones
Lookin' for fun and feelin' groovy
Feelin' groovy

Hello little folks, what you know
I've come to watch the flowers grow
Now ain't you got no rhyme for me
Doo doo doo feelin' groovy
Feelin' groovy

I've got no deeds to do, no promises to keep
I'm baffled and drowsy and ready for sleep
Like a morning to cast all the petals on me
Life, I love you, all is groovy

[Max]

You are weird.

[sidey]

The question is where have they gone? the answer is Elsewhere, who cares , many come back, i took a few years off and am enjoying it again, for now.

As far as new players go, its never going to be a fair expectation for a newbie to start up and reasonably catch up to guys with a decades worth of flight sim experience. The games they build now are mostly pay to win, you invest in the game and you get further. Kids want it yesterday , and they drive the market. Embrace the newb, help them out, teach them, the learning curve is steep and unforgiving.

As we grow old, so does the game, i hope i get an invite to HiTecs funeral, if i outlive him, i did, afterall, help pay for it.

[Wizer]

I think it is just might be aging with time. I mean look at the plane sets we are talking like from 1938 to 1950 give or take. I think more of the younger guys look at it like a video game and want to win even if its gaming the game. I think more of the older guys born from like 1950 to 1980 might look at this as a WWII flight sim and not just a video game, I know i do built a chair cockpit and all and was building WWII planes back in the late 60's  . Most of the old timers I talk to like myself all say its about the hand shacking palm sweating fight you have not the kill and a score that seems to be what a lot of these guys want now (and they think these defines them as being good or just wining). Hey maybe its just me I don't know but that's my 50 cents worth (inflation)

[Randy1]

Declining PC sales due to tablets, laps and Xbox like gaming machines maybe the biggest single problem.  
Poor economy
Increased working hours to keep your job.
What can be done
There is an old marketing example that seems to fit here.  
"When you go to the hardware store to by a 1/4" drill what you really want is a 1/4" hole.
AH can't bet Xbox in games with graphics an such.  They just don't have the staff and large enough market share I would guess to make it practical.  Keep in mind too the power these Xbox like machines have.
They do have a fine roll-playing simulation that gives you a chance to be something you can't be.  They should market the experience of being a fighter pilot or tank commander on their web site.
Something like this perspective.
Aces High skies are filled with fighter Aces.  Can you develop the flying skills and killer instinct to become an Ace or you just not good enough?

[SirNuke]

Games need to evolve to keep being interresting. Someone quoted eve online, which over the decade evolved tremedously (night and day, really), while aces high didn't change much.

The MA gameplay is stale, lame, and htc doesn't seem to be interrested in changing it.

Up a plane, get horded, get another one, climb into a good position o get revenge, just to discover the horde moved on to somewhere undefended, puff acks kill you. Rage quit to another game where you can actually have fun.

We need choke points on the map to garantee some fun in the MA for the people who want to fight and only have a couple hours to spare.

[Arlo]

For the ADD crowd the game may have to evolve at light speed to keep their attention. For Aces High, it's pretty much a case of 15 years and still going strong. Subscriptions ebb and flow like the tide. There is a loyal customer core that is still pretty much content.

And, in all honesty, a game that doesn't require it's customer base to constantly race to stay on top of the cutting edge in equipment in order to play is probably better off in the recessed economy everyone mentions.

If it ain't broke ......

 

[Zoney]

It's more or less the same for me everyday, find a darbar, up a plane get 10-20 kills

When has that ever happened?  Seriously, in one sortie?  

[titanic3]

When has that ever happened?  Seriously, in one sortie?  

In multiple sorties. 

[Kazan_HB]

Only two countries (delete Bisch!  ). Three sides is illogical and makes too much chaos.

[Rich46yo]

When I first started playing AH I could roll for hours on end. Now? Its amazing how your 50's can take the juice out of you.

Older players cant, or wont, sit there for hours at a time playing and the AH crowd is pretty old compared to other games. And once you retire $15 a month takes on new meaning. Most of all with the Govt.'s policy of screwing the working stiff.

AH2, when it first came out, was pretty remarkable and innovative. Now its only one of a long list of online games, and a pretty dated one at that. Theres just to much competition. The game has gotten stale, as has the game play. The graphics are dated.
All of the above.

I still think its a great flight model and code thats written beautifully. If they update the graphics and make some changes to the game play I'd bet many would come back. But just introducing new models will not do it.

[olds442]

Declining PC sales due to tablets, laps and Xbox like gaming machines maybe the biggest single problem.  
Poor economy
Increased working hours to keep your job.
What can be done
There is an old marketing example that seems to fit here.  
"When you go to the hardware store to by a 1/4" drill what you really want is a 1/4" hole.
AH can't bet Xbox in games with graphics an such.  They just don't have the staff and large enough market share I would guess to make it practical.  Keep in mind too the power these Xbox like machines have.
They do have a fine roll-playing simulation that gives you a chance to be something you can't be.  They should market the experience of being a fighter pilot or tank commander on their web site.
Something like this perspective.
Aces High skies are filled with fighter Aces.  Can you develop the flying skills and killer instinct to become an Ace or you just not good enough?

Current PCs are already more powerful than the next generation XBOX....
Also.....power....you mean as intergrated APU which will just die off in terms of playing something at 60fps in 1080p in a year?

[JUGgler]

12 hour side switch

stale gameplay

competing games with decent graphics AND a much lower skill ceiling (which is what the majority of players seem to desire)


don't get me wrong, i still subscribe and try to fly when i have time...but the first two points i mentioned are big turnoffs fornme when i think 'hmmm...should i fire up AH?'

This!

Also something I can't put my finger on. The flight models may be the best out there, the GV system is good, the graphics may not be the best but it's a suitable trade off for the excellent flight modeling.

Once in a while I get the itch to return but there is just something lacking that stops me, something significant yet small in some way. Just can't put my finger on it.

This game is like an beautiful necklace without the string, each part is awesome and beautiful on it's own, but there is nothing that binds it into a great piece of jewelry. It is a jumbled massed of excellent pieces and it ends there.


Weird



JUGgler

[Kazan_HB]

Still a problem.
I do not have much time because of work. I started playing. I fly about 20 minutes -30 minutes without fighting.
 And then died (ramming hording stupid ho etc) This is boring.
I pay for the $ 15 / month.
Alternative? Free MMO like or Wot or War Thunder .
 I saw how Warbirds has died

I wish myself. Long Live for Aces High2, but we need changes...

[bozon]

I can repeat the long list of flaws in the game mentioned above and add some.
HOWEVER!
The reality is that it has been 12 years and I am still here, still having fun and shelling out my 15$ without remorse in the face of the F2P options out there.

I cannot count the games that have passed through my hard-drive and disappeared within a tiny fraction of that time span of 12 years. When I look at the player names I keep seeing names poping back from years ago. The AH core community is the one that is stale and aging. No matter how much we complain, we still return over and over again. This community is part of what keeps me in the game. I like it that I "know" the players that I shoot down, that shoot me down or fly around me. I can often recognize an enemy player by the plane type and how he flies it. This can only happen in a small and tight community with very little change over the years. Every other online game I played, I played it with random strangers. I got to know a handful of players in my organization/guild/whatever and that's it.

AH still offers a combination of realism, history and physics that exists no where else. I also like it that I am nearly 40 and still feel young in this crowd and my squadron. There is no new player base out there to the flying game. The number of 20 years olds and below that have any interest in flight sims and aviation history of WWII is tiny. Perhaps the ground game can bring a few new players. Sadly, I have no interest in this aspect of the game.