Free To Play with Subscription Combination

[bustr]

Your sentiment is very altruistic. The reality is human beings are human beings. Ultimately there is nothing special about free, and human nature responds accordingly. Free turns into an entitlement without the cost of a commitment.

So it turns out neither yourself or the game was enough for your friends to "like" the AH experience. Free will simply garner the liking of something with no cost since they didn't stay around for you at the least.

[BuckShot]

+1, I love the c205, and this will save me $15 per month!

Seriously though, no....$15 isn't that much to pay for 6 weeks to see if you like it (2 free + 1 month @ $15).

Another idea: Maybe discount the first month, $10? Like the free two weeks, it should only be available to each new user one time.

[DmonSlyr]

My perspective as a 14 YO when I first started playing this game was that $15 a month sounds really expensive, and I played in the 2 week trial and had absolutely no idea what to do, I came from MCFS and knew a little bit how to fly in simulations and the learning curve was way more difficult than I imagined. H2H saved my AH fever and is what kept me around to pay the subscription when Hitech shut it down. I would have joined the MA one time to check it out, as the interest was high, but I still couldn't really afford it being a young lad.

 With the outdated graphics and a subscription model, my friends can't even believe I even play this game, much less get them to play. And when I do get them to play, they suck so bad at flying its a joke. It would be extremely difficult to keep them interested in the game if they had to pay. Now if there was a free model, they could play with me and have a good time, learn to play it, and maybe eventually subscirbe one day.
 

Triton makes a good point. 2 weeks really isn't enough time. The game is for players with a niche interest and we have to figure out a way to expand the market.  A person who has no idea about flying will drop the game and not even subscribe because they will still have no idea what to do. There has to be a free way to keep new players entertained and wanting for more.

A P51B and c205 are decent planes but there is nothing special about them. They would give players a chance to win, but it wouldn't be easy for them either. They are not totally capable planes and both take a lot of skill to really be good in. It would give the noobs a chance but at the same time limit their abilities. They would strive for better planes and most vets wouldn't play for free to only fly those 2 planes.

It's just a gesture. Would be nice to see a lot more players join the game and at this point we should be trying everything we can to get more players in the game.

[Triton28]

Your sentiment is very altruistic. The reality is human beings are human beings. Ultimately there is nothing special about free, and human nature responds accordingly. Free turns into an entitlement without the cost of a commitment.

Free turns into interest which is special to the person selling the interesting thing.

So it turns out neither yourself or the game was enough for your friends to "like" the AH experience. Free will simply garner the liking of something with no cost since they didn't stay around for you at the least.

Good Lord Bustr... lol.  It's a time/interest thing.  When there are other electronic entertainment options that are either one time pay, or free to play, it's tough to sell a subscription game like AH to people who didn't grow up idolizing Tommy McGuire or the sleek lines of a Spitfire, and do it in two weeks time.  Allowing a FTP route for people to ease into the game as time permits isn't nearly as dramatic as you're making it out to be.

[bozon]

F2P only makes sense if you have micro-transactioms in a game store. It is totally unsuited to AH.

To get new players into the game, a longer trial period is a good idea. 2 weeks is not enough for a game like this, especially that the actual hours of play over two weeks of real time may vary significantly, for people with a life.

[Latrobe]

I'm glad you brought this up.  No, I don't think a two week free trial is enough, especially for those who find the game without ever having developed a keen interest in aviation or more specifically, WWII aviation.  I'm pretty sure I made a wish about that some time ago, too.  When you consider the steep learning curve, the potential hardware requirements/suggestions, and real life getting in the way, you're shaving quite a bit of usable time off that two weeks.  It would be one thing if that two weeks was actually 336 hours spent in game... which would be plenty, I'd think, but it's not.  It's two calendar weeks and for many that I've tried to bring into the game, it's not enough.  Giving people a FTP way to play the game would at least give them an opportunity to play the game at a pace their life allows before they have to consider whether or not to shell out $15 a month.

Agreed. The 2 week free trial just is not long enough to really do anything unless you dedicate every second of every day of those 2 weeks to the game. I remember when I first started my 2 weeks I intentionally waited until school was out so I could use as much of the 2 week free trial as I could and even then there was so much to learn that I barely got a feel for it before the 2 weeks were up, and I even had someone kind enough to take me under his wing and show me the ropes. What really sold me on getting a subscription was I have great interest in WW2 and flying/dogfighting, and there wasn't really anything else out there that provided a WW2 flight game like AH2 did. Someone who doesn't have such a strong interest in WW2 like most of us do probably won't get enough of a feel for the game in just the small amount of time they can play in their 2 week trial. Then why should they spend $15 a month of a subscription to continue their trial to see if this game is what they want when they can just go to War Thunder (which is F2P) or DCS (which has a F2P aspect)?

Not being F2P worked back in the day for AH2 because there was no other WW2 flight game on the market that came even close to it. These days there are several popping up and most are F2P or have a F2P aspect. AH2 needs to evolve if it wants to survive and the new update is certainly the first step towards that but most definitely not the final step.

[JVboob]

Chances are an FTP arena for the passing lookylous will be AI missions 24x7 along with the existing 2 week free trial for the MA. Most of you have been vets who paid for, or vets who still pay for a subscription. FTP would give many of you your fix that you no longer want to pay for. The amount of structural complexity dithered over this wish shows more concern to what you want then a heart felt wish for others. Hitech is the professional here, I thought.

Dear Hitech,

Please consider some form of an FTP arena to help bring in new players.

Thank you.

started in2002 i dont wanna do the math lol

AvA F2P
I do like the AI missions idea.
DA SEAs Main areas are subscription only.

Why the AvA? 1. Rotating plane set, 2. the community that plays (very few) are awesome, 3. Its my favorite arena and id like to see it populated again some day.

[caldera]

Extend the free trial to four weeks, or maybe change it to 100 hours (time logged on) free.  People may start the trial and have other things to do the next few days. 

[Slade]

I like most any idea that involves having more players in the game.

+1

[Randy1]

 . . . With the outdated graphics . . .
 

No doubt as you said AH2 is not the latest stuff.  But you know when you get close to another plane, the detail is quite good.   The things we rarely see that are detailed like falling plane parts and bombs are just plain cool.

In the alpha, the default FOV is 80 and for testing I use the default.  I use 90 in ah2 and that really bumps up the detail from the default 106.

Not sure half the complaints about graphics are related to high fov settings.

[Tilt]

Not sure of the demographics now the numbers have dropped. I would have previously resisted any combat aircraft being available via F2P.

However there is a case for

C47
Storch
Po-2 (future)
FW189 (future)

all gunner positions.

Jeep
M3
Lvt2


After this certain other aircraft can be earned through gaining F2P credits (like perks but you spend them) during game play.

This way F2P has a role and it provides occasional access to main line play in a manner that cannot distort the game play balance of subscription players.

[SlipKnt]

Extend the free trial to four weeks, or maybe change it to 100 hours (time logged on) free.  People may start the trial and have other things to do the next few days.

^^^^^THIS!!!^^^^^

 

[Randy1]

Extend the free trial to four weeks, or maybe change it to 100 hours (time logged on) free.  People may start the trial and have other things to do the next few days.

That's a good thought.

[Max]

10+ yrs ago H2H was consistantly busy.  Half of the population milked the free play status but quite a few gravitated over to paid accounts. I rarely, if ever see anyone in pvt areans sinc HTC rekindled the.

Perhaps more could be promoted on FB, Twitter to get new players started in nouveu H2H.

[Meatwad]

They get only the storch and a jeep