Why doesn't HiTech invest in marketing?

[palef]

and I remember the senior members of the game cutting the squeakers down telling them to shut up squelching them,giving the squeakers a hard time when all they wanted to do was learn how to play the game.

Not all of us man. Serenity is a testament to how to welcome a squeaker and make him feel part of a community. There are others as well. It can be done, it just needs a squad to scoop a harassed squeaker up and keep his training wings straight.

[AceHavok]

and I remember the senior members of the game cutting the squeakers down telling them to shut up squelching them,giving the squeakers a hard time when all they wanted to do was learn how to play the game.

Yes,  I remember the ALT+F4 joke people pulled on newcomers.  If I remember correctly, HTC had to start putting their foot down on people for doing that.

[zinhwk]

Peak time I've been finding numbers in MA north of 100. Now how much of that translates to people flying? 

2 country system.. been there with Warbirds let me tell you, it doesn't work well either. People become entrenched in us versus them no matter what so there would be no option for one side after the other starts steam rolling.

Young/old, no need to be an amazinhunk. Period.

You are forgetting that my generation (27) had to find work in a recession. We're more apt to work our butts off than you would think. The digital age allows the snowflakes to be more visible as just as many shut up and work. Maybe I've just spent too much time in Idaho.

Freemium and consoles have garnered a mindset of instant action so if there is an avenue of change it might be in that area. Dueling is a start.

Coming from Warbirds you guys are not even close to the same issues. I'm inclined to say quit squeakin and have fun

[Vinkman]

Aren't there two types of people that play this game?
1) WWII fans. 
-if you are in this category you will scrape together whatever you can to play this game. if your PC is older and you can't afford a fancy HOTAS, you'll play is low res, with a mouse.  The problem with this category is that fans of WWII or disappearing as the people who remember it are getting older and older, and young people are into other things.

2) You're a gamer with trickout PC Gaming rig and you looking for cool games to play.
- If you are this guy and have a nice rig, you still need to go out and invest in a HOTAS because what hot shot gamer is going to play with a mouse. The peripherals in this game are pricy, and are limited to flight simulators. Don't most PC games still use a version of an console controller, or keyboard? I think those set ups will struggle in this game and the players will leave. the view system is not designed for a controller, and working the views with hat switches requires a lot of hat switches, hence you're in a hotas set up. Or you need to buy a separate view controller like a TrackIR.

The VR trend may help because PC games control interfaces will be created with the view system removed from the handheld controller and put in the VR head movement.  This will make their PC gamer set up much more compatible with Flight simulators and reduce the amount of needed peripherals.  a simple twisty stick, or even a Gaming controller could be effective and fun at low additional cost. Flight sims also provide the perfect gaming environment for VR users, so I expect more flight based games to be written and created for the VR platforms.  That work will pave the way for those gamers into AH3.

I would think marketing dollars should be targeted at VR buyers like oculus and the others. There's probably a way for Google and Youtube to know who VR owners are. They could custom deliver AH3 commercials into trailers for Dunkirk, and other air show videos, and WWII content on-line. Then HiTech is only paying to reach the target audience, and the money could be spent more efficiently.

That's the promise of the youtube and Google market models of the world. That's why we let them know all of our business, right? I hope all the spying pays dividends for this game. 

[cav58d]

Does the next generation even care about WWII?  We are the sons, daughters and grandchildren of the war.  We grew up surrounded by millions of vets.  New texts were still being written.  Younger dudes like serenity are probably the last group of young adults with limited interaction to the surving generation of those that lived through the war. 

So does this genre excite the next generation?  Is a P51 and a corsair cool, or is it simply not a raptor or JSF so blah!?

[Vinkman]

Does the next generation even care about WWII?  We are the sons, daughters and grandchildren of the war.  We grew up surrounded by millions of vets.  New texts were still being written.  Younger dudes like serenity are probably the last group of young adults with limited interaction to the surving generation of those that lived through the war. 

So does this genre excite the next generation?  Is a P51 and a corsair cool, or is it simply not a raptor or JSF so blah!?

maybe not, BUT...let them start with spaceships, Raptors, A10s and whatever else. Once you are into air combat this game with have a draw because WWII was the pinnacle of Air Combat due to it's reliance on ACM and gunnery, and the large variety of different Aircraft attempting to accell at those two things. 

[bustr]

Who knows, they may find making old men cry worth the time to play the game while getting their money's worth in competition. What tween, teen and millenial doesn't harbor petty grudges against grown ups and baby boomers? One small problem, the AH3 lawn they will be stomping on in the virtual world to punk the old men has the drawback of a few angry old men with cannons who will shoot back and talk old man smack while doing it, in the virtual world.

They are not used to getting back just as bad as they dish at old people if you think about it. In the real world old guys have been chained down by PC rules and lawsuits for looking cross eyed at kids, and they are not prepared to face "Old Farts Unleashed" hiding in the virtual world behind anonymity just like they do. Many have very thin skin for so young and being so tough in their internet communities.

AH3 may really need a kiddy pool to help them get up to speed and grow some calluses. It seemed to work when the DA Lake turned into a kiddy pond for a few years way back when. Or at least some trainers on staff in the MA, and a message for two weekers and new subscribers that they are there to help them with everything it takes to get up and going. Bring the mountain to the newbies if that's what it takes to keep them in the game. If the help channel only contacted an anonymous staff like the MODs, and the newbies got direct personal responses, that fits more into their cultural expectations of immediacy.

It's a simple generational problem, I doubt many of today's generation know you can use a rock to drive nails for rough carpentry in a pinch, let alone how to do it with a hammer 12 hours a day putting up framing. You give them services, they know how to press buttons and talk on smart phones, chat on twitter and so forth. But, it all has to be in place, in front of their noses, and they get an immediate response for pressing a button.

This is no different than the problems my wife has at her University interacting with perspective and current students and their expectations of being served for their money. The easier you make it for them to self serve with your processes and the quicker they can get support with resolutions, the better chances of keeping them and their money. They will be tolerant of a few bumps along the way.

It doesn't mean AH has to be turned into WT to attract kiddies. Just support them better for their first dip into the shark tank without alienating the grown ups. In the end we are all here to shootemup red guys who do not have ages or faces on your screen when they go BOOOMMM..    

[zinhwk]

Judging by the turnout for War Thunder, IL2, Red Tails, any WWII based game/film, yes, the young generation does have an interest in WWII combat aviation. The issue is game presentation/design. Admittedly, most folks I know think WWII planes are pretty, but they have funny ideas about ACM. I could say the same about any age group though  :evil

Time is the critical factor. A robust tutorial phase that explained the core details of how the game worked, on top of the basics, like how the radio works, how to tune the bombsight, how to WF a field, important dotcommands etc, would help speed up the learning curve. Have a fly along intro mission or something like it while the game loads in the background; or as they open up a new option or about to do a new action offer a textualized step by step guide. Kinda like the paper clip dude from the old MS Word. Great modern games do an excellent job of laying out the basics of the game within the first mission/level so the player can move on with enjoying the story or gameplay.

Young gamers are looking to get into the action quickly. Design the map and the play style so players get into conflict quickly if you want to attract more.

Great games for the masses are often hard to play, but they are not necessarily hard to learn to get your hands dirty and having fun quickly.

[JunkyII]

Judging by the turnout for War Thunder, IL2, Red Tails, any WWII based game/film, yes, the young generation does have an interest in WWII combat aviation. The issue is game presentation/design. Admittedly, most folks I know think WWII planes are pretty, but they have funny ideas about ACM. I could say the same about any age group though  :evil

Time is the critical factor. A robust tutorial phase that explained the core details of how the game worked, on top of the basics, like how the radio works, how to tune the bombsight, how to WF a field, important dotcommands etc, would help speed up the learning curve. Have a fly along intro mission or something like it while the game loads in the background; or as they open up a new option or about to do a new action offer a textualized step by step guide. Kinda like the paper clip dude from the old MS Word. Great modern games do an excellent job of laying out the basics of the game within the first mission/level so the player can move on with enjoying the story or gameplay.

Young gamers are looking to get into the action quickly. Design the map and the play style so players get into conflict quickly if you want to attract more.

Great games for the masses are often hard to play, but they are not necessarily hard to learn to get your hands dirty and having fun quickly.

Younger gamers aren't just looking for insta action....if you look at the top games being played and viewed on Twitch they almost on have 1 thing in common....a competitive side to them....Battlegrounds is anything but instant action...if you don't approach fights with strategy and tactics you will certainly end up being blind sided by the guy with patience(I bring up Battlegrounds because it just boomed into the game scene with over a million playing it's early access with very little advertisement done other then them paying big streamers to play their game). CSGO competitive matches are up to 90 minutes long, so players are willing to go the time. Point I'm getting at is that all of these games have things in place which do force action, Aces High does not. Aces High with it's match play aspect and events could easily draw a younger crowd, but they want to be competitive in a bigger community and they want a rank system which is more accurate. A player who has good SA and gunnery can be top ten in fighters very easily just by picking, vulching and farming easy kills...which is why I believe more kill points should be awarded for killing someone of a higher rank/