Its getting lonely in here! Aussie time is dead in MA.

[BaldEagl]

yeah that'll go down really well with the typical xenophobic, flag waving, two brain cells to rub together AH player

My two brain cells never touch.

[ghi]

Save 3000$, move to Detroit, and play in US prime time; 2000$ for plane ticket and for 1000$ you can buy a house.  

[Rich46yo]

Save 3000$, move to Detroit, and play in US prime time; 2000$ for plane ticket and for 1000$ you can buy a house.  

I think you'd fit right in Beef. Its summer here in Tool'Land and You can just put yer pint in a paper bag and hang on the corner with your new Home Boys.

[FLOOB]

I have shown AH to many people over the years. No one ever had the slightest interest on even trying it out. The most frequently given reasons given were

- Generally no interest in the topic of ww2 airplanes or simulations overall
- No joystick (I'm the only gamer I personally know who has one) and not wanting to put that much time into learning how to fly
- Graphics (almost always the first reaction - "Is that a modern game? It looks so outdated...")
- Cost ("Wait... you say it is NOT free??")


One friend of mine was generally interested, but said he didn't want to end up like me...     (I'm not kidding )

Seems like we just had this conversation back in June. I'll just copy and past what I typed there.

Its always perplexed me why the overwhelming majority of AH players are North Americans. I do think AH Needs more press.

A few thoughts:
First, flight sims are a niche genre, and one that seems to be dwindling just like all other PC games. I tell a friend that I play AH and their first question is "oh yeah? What platform?" Last person I talked too said it was "über nerdy" that I play games on a PC. She has three gaming consoles. And then if somebody does have a desktop gaming rig, I have to break the news to them that, no you really can't play it with just a mouse, you'll need a joystick. Remember joysticks? You used to be able buy them off the shelf in stores. Flight sims are a niche within the niche of PC games.

Second: Could the decline in the overall number of kills be due to the fact that noobs are out of supply. The arena is completely populated by players who are at least competent pilots. When I first started flight sims half of us in the arena couldn't fight our way out of a paper bag. We were meat on the table.

Third: This community has a lot of creative and productive people. As I said earlier this game needs more press, more exposure. We need to start hitting up the web sites, posting reviews and videos. And not external view rock videos, but videos that show what experience is actually like, sitting in an airplane cockpit coordinating with other players on vox and stimulating adrenaline. Ask not what AH can do for you. Ask what you can do for AH.

One final thought. After reading some other forums, simHQ, etc., where basically a lot of gamers who had a long enough attention span to post on an internet forum were complaining about flightsims because, in a nut shell, they aren't arcade enough, console friendly enough, and they aren't free. And it occurred to me that if this is what AH has to become to bring a lot more players in then I'm not so sure.. no I am sure, I don't want AH to become something that will appeal to the masses. If that happened, yes AH could have a much larger customer base, but none of us would be part of it. Face it, we're just a bunch of elitist flight sim snobs. 

[Slate]

how about free early war all the time?

  With that you need to tie perks to the Arena or the Lame azzes from the LW will be farming the noobs.   
TA free for 3 months? You don't want it free forever or will develop into it's own free arena.

[FLOOB]

Also when I tell somebody that they'll need "a joystick" to play I'm not being entirely truthful. Because I'm pretty sure that when I say they'll need a joystick what they're thinking of is something like this.

[Whisky58]

Might be simply because a lot more people live in US than Aus.

Never mind, you can always stick to stuff you're good at like test cricket and rugby union, no wait a minute....... lol 

[EskimoJoe]

I think this game is too difficult as a n00blet for 2 weeks trial, I know I was on off in H2H for quite some time before committing to the game? But then again maybe I would still be in H2H if it hadn't closed? 

Wouldn't hurt to have H2H back again though.

That's what I did. I remember having a lot of fun in H2H, and doing most of my learning there.

[pervert]

That's what I did. I remember having a lot of fun in H2H, and doing most of my learning there.

Talking about numbers I remember waiting 10 minutes logging in and out just so I could get in the smog room with 8 players  talk about being easy to please 

[SirNuke]

Talking about numbers I remember waiting 10 minutes logging in and out just so I could get in the smog room with 8 players  talk about being easy to please 

yes well back then you rolled and shot, no mind games instant action 

[Fulcrum]

(Image removed from quote.)

It perfect.  As bad as I fly, I really only need two axis and two buttons anyway.   

[100Coogn]

  With that you need to tie perks to the Arena or the Lame azzes from the LW will be farming the noobs.   
TA free for 3 months? You don't want it free forever or will develop into it's own free arena.

Very true about the TA.  It would turn into a playground after too much time.

Coogan

[JimmyD3]

yeah that'll go down really well with the typical xenophobic, flag waving, two brain cells to rub together AH player

I thought Xena was an Amazon?!

[Babalonian]

Instead of huge clusterf**** maps. And instead of the new rendition of pangea.

How about some medium sized well varied maps. Big enough for the midday rush but small enough to provoke fights.

I think map displacement is the issue. But more players would help. My lemming count is running dry.

I'm still waiting for that lucky scholarship to come in that will allow me to take a semester off from work so I can "concentrate on school" (and MA map making ).

[haggerty]

It is the business model that can't compete with today's games.
Many of the popular new games are free to play, but you pay to get benefits.  That style doesnt mesh well with historic gameplay at first thought but im sure some brainstorming can make it work.
You get a ton more players who just want to play for free, but then you have the rich kids that will blow their whole paycheck to save time in a game. 
People dont want to commit $15 to a game they may or may not like, with the free ones they can play whatever they want as much as they want.
I'm pretty stingy but I catch myself spending more than $15 a month quite often on free to play games...
As long as I dont have a monthly fee, I feel like im cheating the system and will play a game longer.
I'm sure there are ways to make it so paying gives benefits, but also doesn't make it pay to win.