Well, I just got back, sort of any way.
Having used only Macintosh for the past 6 or so years I haven't been able to play AH, nor have I really had any interest in it as I've been up to other things. A few weeks ago I decided to build a new PC though so thought I'd get back to AH and at least try it again and of course this thread caught my attention.
Some MIGHT remember me, most won't. I played AH from the first day of the open beta until, well, for a long time, many years and I've put countless hours in it.
I have started it up and flown some offline so far and the thing is is it feels and looks exactly the same as it did 5 or 6 years ago (offline at least). This is in part good and in part bad, of course I like the fact that I remember everything but it also surprised me some that almost nothing has changed, at least not on the surface. We will see once I get online again, it'll be sometime after new years eve.
I did see some new planes (surprisingly few) and some new vehicles but fewer then I expected. I remember when Hitechcreations used to spurt out new things and new updates, that kept the interest sparking. But like I said, we'll see when I get online again.
I will say this how ever, I don't think a declining player base has to do with a too steep learning curve of too much time needed for the game. Of course many people are just looking for some quick action, easy to learn, great looking games many are also looking for something really competative. I'm playing Eve Online for example, that's probably the game with the highest learning curve I've ever seen, and might very well be one of the games in the world which are hardest to master and still there are A LOT of people playing it, if you enter during prime time there may be over 40,000 people online, enter during the slow times and there are still around 10,000 people playing in one way or another and this is a game that really takes years to master most of the time.
What Eve online does right is very many things, one of them, and one that I felt HTC was missing by the time I quit last time, was the lack of updates, not only to the game but to the webpage as well. Here Eve Online is a real inspiration, they release "major" updates almost every month adding many new feutures and other updates. They always keep the player base updated on what is happening, communicating and even asking players questions as to wether "is this somehting you want or how do you want it?"
I think an active communication from the company making the product is more important than anything else, closely followed by rappid updates. They don't need to be major, but they do need to come often when it's a game you pay monthly for. Afterall, paying monthly means you not only pay for the servers but also for an evolving game. Otherwise one might as well spring for a $50 game and be done with it, at least one does't expect many updates part from maybe bug fixes with those games.
Another issue might very well be the competition of really high end flight simulations such as the DCS series but that's just a guess...
Having said all this, AH was one of the first games I downloaded and installed as it's been my favorite game for many years and it still sparks and interest. Wether that interest will be kept alive or not is another question.
Well, just my take on it, so far.
