I've continually said that AH is a niche market game, and by definition attracts an atypical gamer crowd - which isn't a bad thing in most cases. It's just that in that overall pie of hundreds - literally hundreds of thousands of online WW2 PC gamers out there in the last few years with the usual suspect list of more simplistic games - there ARE players looking for something more than what they currently play (WT) in terms of difficulty of both the game and the skill of opponents. These, and other new players are what AH3/HTC sure could use and could be fairly easily targeted. Space games also - Star Citizen and Elite Dangerous also have a large fraction of older more "mature" - whatever that means in this context - players with the $ and the investment in VR and HOTAS controllers already, who obviously want a complex and competitive environment.
Fugitive - I don't disagree, a couple what seems to be simple changes, pulling a few large maps out of the rotation and some other things which many players are convinced should be an easy switch, would make AH2 while we're still playing it a lot better experience. I think the below response aptly covers it.
What's the point in that? Everything's been discussed ad nauseum for years with no action taken by HT.
Also - I sometimes wonder how some people here have decreed that this particular community is more "mature" than that of other games out there - that's pretty ridiculous on every 2nd day, at best. Perhaps more mature in terms of the digits in the "state your age" column, but nothing more than that. I've seen equal amounts of "maturity", even more in some, in a huge swath of other online games. Taking a look over the past years forums - Skuzzy has had an MG firing 1500rpm lock emoticons with "rule#" tracer rounds mixed in every 2nd round spraying page after page after page. Any sense of superiority here in the "mature" department is a figment of the imagination. Does the game require a more dedicated, committed, competitive, and a number of other adjectives type of player? Yes IMO. Maturity doesn't enter into it.
IL2's recent games, Rise of Flight, the Falcon BMS community, the DCS community - go check out Eagle Dynamics forum, and compare the amount of moderation required - or perhaps not required depending on opinion - over there. War Thunder - I think the case can be made that due to the monthly cost involved here that the lions share of the potential "immature" or what have you potential customers there are pretty much abated from the starting gun.
But it's not a magic wand either.
Over the years I have read countless posts of "they just need to advertise more", occasionally with some brilliant 'new' ideas which actually have been tried before.
And failed. Advertisement is a fail when the cost to get new players to subscibe is higher than the averge revenue you get from that subscription. You don't even need to generate interest (which is indeed relatively easy once you put enough money in, but your product must have an appeal enough for people to actually sign on for long enough to cover the advertisement expenses.
Very wise post, agreed 100%. It's not rocket science, but it's no simple matter either. Whatever HTC has planned with regards to advertising and capturing new players will have had to have had thought, as well as practice, and a lot of both put into it before unleashing the full force of the endeavor. I said before that there are assets here they could call on in this regard, AckAck for example has worked in the gaming sector, and specifically in gathering intel on competitors for one of the larger game companies around, as well as for CH and so on. There are others here too, plus I'm sure HTC knows a lot of people over the 17 years they've been around to call on for opinions regarding this, people we'll never hear or know about.
I know HT has mentioned a few times recently how poorly the add campaign and return on investment HTC received during the airing of a really, really well done docu-drama history thing on TV about WW2 aces. IIRC HT said they got exactly ZERO new adds from that, and it wasn't all that long ago either, certainly since the #'s noticeably dropped from the highs of 2009 or whatever.
A result like this understandably makes future plans seem to be a very, very dangerous matter if you put yourself in HTCs shoes, and rightfully so IMO. However, I return to the original premise I've repeated often - along with many others here - PC gaming is on a huge upswing, in hardware, and specifically in interest in online WW2 games, and massively multiplayer games as well. Finding the right formula in terms of both the new product, and a plan to promote it - I still believe it isn't rocket science, and that if HTC can put together such a product as AH2 and now AH3, they should be able - even if they need to call in some outside support - a plan of action to rapidly draw a lot of new players here.
