1. Young people don't have (or want) desktop PC's anymore.
2. I'm older than dirt and I'll never buy a new Desktop.
If you can't fly your plane holding your iPad or Windows tablet in the future, I don't think there will be too many new players.
Posted from my iPhone.
I am 24 and just baught an $865 PC which I just finished so that I could play video games to the max capacity. Finally I can play AH in full detail haha. I think the PC gaming industry is actually about to see a spike. I believe it has become more popular among 18-30 year olds. There are more games to play, better graphics, and the games are cheaper (steam and origin deals), plus competition among the games are almost identical (COD, battlefield, and soon GTAV) are some of the most popular.) I was able to find BF4 for $5 on sale the other day.
I am right there in the target market for all of the gaming industry. There is a reason I still play this game. The challenge, the competition, and dogfighting in planes, the people, the skill, the concept. It's beautiful on the inside haha.
This game, like I said, cannot, or should not, be like COD in the sense of gameplay because it is a world map not limited to boundaries, in which any amount of players can be for or against you at any time, anywhere. The teams are not limited and the match never ends. Plus in a community like this, interacting and forming relationships is part of the game, where as other huge games are not. I hope this part of the game never changes. This means that time to find a fight is up to your disgretion, it takes patients and practice to be able to be good at always finding someone in the sky to fight. It is almost a second strategy skill.
It took me like 3 years to really figure out this game and how to fly all the planes in it, how to find fights and win in disadvanatged positions. It was something I craved, and was really passionate about. I met the muppets and felt those were the guys I fit in with. You just don't get that with COD or BF type games. I played Microsoft Flight Sim and Combat flight Sim in my early young years but this game blew me away.
I realize at off peak hours this is hard, especially with a huge map, and even more so when the HQ is down. I don't play off hours much as I am at work all day. But what I have I realized in the off hours was
that taking off was more of a risk of well I hope I can find the one or 2 con's in the sector so I don't waste 30 min staring at the sky.
I have said it before and I'll say it again. This game is extremely fun with only 8 players on a small map. H2H was the proof of that. If any of you played smog8 map Team deathmatch in H2H years ago you will know what I am talking about.
The problem that bores people from the game is lack of action and aimlessly flying around with nothing to shoot at. If this takes 20 minutes, the game gets boring. If you get shot down, flying 15 min to a base again is a real desicion.
When you die, you really gotta think twice about upping again. Do I want to use another 20min to get alt and go fly all the way back to a base for the same result?
If there was a way to make the map boundaries smaller and close bases off so that the arena is compact in a smaller area for off hours, this would condense the action and cause more fights, tangos, and fun during the off hours. As more people joined, more bases would open up. Just like real war!!! Plus the base capture game would be more concentrated. If this were applied during off hours, you'd start to see these people enjoy the game more. This would fix 98% of the problem people are having in the off hours. Plus if HQ goes down, people still kinda know where the action is.
1. Shorter base distances.
2. Close off bases and condense the arena into a smaller area during off hours so that fights are consentrated on the same overall map. As more people enter, more bases open up. It could be like every 50 players that enter, 10-15 bases open. This would be realistic too.
What do you all think?