In-game transactions in lieu of $15/m

[19zac]

Hello!
It has been a long time since I have been active on Aces High, but now I am back (In game handle "BZacc" now), and I am pumped to be a part of the community again.
Now that I am flying again, I have had some thoughts that I wanted to get some opinions on. Mainly, this $15 a month business. I preface this by stating that I do not necessarily have a problem paying that fee to play this awesome game, but judging by the number of people in the MA at any given time, there are a lot of people that do not want to pay that much money for this game.

Monthly fees has become an antiquated method for making a profit in today's gaming world. As one of the younger members in this game (I am 22) I can attest to that fact. The most popular games in the world right now are run by micro-transactions. And no, I am not suggesting the totally idiotic way of doing micro-transactions, like EA does with their games. I am suggesting the micro-transation methods that Counterstrike, League of Legends, Rocket League, and various Blizzard games implement (as well as many others).

To start, the overall goal here to get more people into the game, and the side effect being that HighTech makes MORE MONEY.
So what does Counterstrike and League of legends do? SKINS! People today are suckers for in-game skins on different items. This is a system that AHIII already uses! There are so many wonderful plane designs. Why not keep adding them, and make them 49-99 cents each?

Second, perk points! I have been thinking about this one for a while, because I realize this could change the whole feel of the game. This is just my idea and I feel it could be tweaked, so hang with me.
Make more planes worth perk points, even if its a small amount. That is, Spit 16, P51, B17 all cost maybe 8 perk points. Or maybe an LA is 6 perk points. All I am suggesting is to make the perk points more valuable in some way. Maybe that means making them harder to obtain? With that, there could be a way to buy the perk points. I cannot suggest a price for perkies, but what I would say is that any new player would have to come into the came with maybe 35 perks already available to them. The game could not turn into a pay-to-win type deal. All of the most popular games out there today are not pay-to-win, but pay-to-look-good (hence skins). By allowing players to start with perk points, they would still be able to use the better planes that they want to use. Maybe part of this system would be that all earned perk points at the end of a map, or even at the end of a month are wasted. All bought perk points are maintained.

There may be others ways to implement this idea too, but I am just not sure.

I have no idea what you guys are going to think about this. But I believe that in the end, this would grow the community while making High Tech MORE MONEY. This is just the direction that games are moving today, and it works. I can see why a new player wouldn't want to pay the 15 bucks to continue playing a game where he still cant even fly straight after the two week trial is done. This system would encourage players to stay.

Thanks for the time, hope to see you all in the skies.

<S>

Zac

[thndregg]

Monthly fees has become an antiquated method for making a profit in today's gaming world. As one of the younger members in this game (I am 22) I can attest to that fact.

As one of the somewhat older subscribers of AH (I am nearly 45), I am fine with how it is. Defined as antiquated or not, it still works.

[19zac]

I tend to agree with you. As I mentioned, im okay with the fee. But if AH has any hope of expanding the community so we can get more than 200 people in the MA, I feel like a change has to be made. What if the fee was only 5 dollars, and then there was some microtransaction for plane skins? Just throwing out ideas.

[thndregg]

I tend to agree with you. As I mentioned, im okay with the fee. But if AH has any hope of expanding the community so we can get more than 200 people in the MA, I feel like a change has to be made. What if the fee was only 5 dollars, and then there was some microtransaction for plane skins? Just throwing out ideas.

I already saw this stuff in Elite Dangerous. I briefly tried that game.

Yuck.

I'm one of those boring folks who likes to spend his money on more practical, real-life material matters, and not spend a lot on virtual "stuff". 

[Krusty]

Monthly fees mean the game is the same for everybody. Monthly fees means your plane is 100% identical to the next guys, and that he hasn't paid to unlock a 200hp engine upgrade. Monthly fees are how SERIOUS games have done it for decades now.


Micro-transactions are by games that cheat and gives shortcuts. Microtransaction games are for phone clones of bejeweled or for arcade games that give you free power-ups or unlocks. Well that's 100% useless and really BAD for a game that is built upon skill and fairness. You can't shortcut skill.


If you want to request that HTC lower their monthly subscription rate, go for it. Don't ask for microtransactions because that would destroy every last point of this game existing and remove the only thing from it that keeps people playing: That you have to learn and get better as you go.

There is no grind right now. By putting in micro-transactions you require a fake grind to be added so that people then have reason to bypass it regularly.

Microtransactions don't work in a vacuum. They're there to keep bilking money from players. They also cost a lot more than flat subscription rate games because they keep introducing more and more reasons to cheat or bypass a grind with real world money. If Aces High started looking like World of Tanks I'd quit instantly. No thanks.

[19zac]

I hear you, and you're right. I feel the same. Just take a look at what I am suggesting again.

I would never suggest this game turn into War Thunder or World of Tanks. I would never want to play a game where you pay for "upgrades". All im suggesting is the possibility to buy skins, which is not a performance enhancer. And the perk points would not be much different than it already is. Also it would not take away the aspect that you would have to learn to get better, not in the least bit. How would anything I am suggesting change that? Im not saying that upgrades can be bought. Im just suggesting making perk points more valuable. Either way you have to learn how to fly in order to make the 262 worth flying. In this system, your plane would be the same as mine no matter what.
 
I am not suggesting the type if Micro-transaction that makes you better. I am suggesting the one that the most popular games use that are purely cosmetic. I understand that messing with the perk system is delicate, and I would not want to change the nature of the game. So that part would take thought. But I just want to make sure you don't think im suggesting that we make this game like World of Tanks. That would be ridiculous, i agree.

Sorry if I was not completely clear in the first message. But to clarify, I would never want a game that is Pay to Win. I mentioned that before. PtW games are terrible, and as you said, create a grind that you can bypass. No thanks. I just want a bigger community.

[Wiley]

In this game, cosmetics could convey an ingame advantage.  Different camo against certain backgrounds, etc etc.

Couple that with the fact they'd need to employ skinners now to create new content, and keep creating that content so the cash keeps coming, well...

Wiley.

[Lusche]

I already saw this stuff in Elite Dangerous. I briefly tried that game.

But unlike other games, all the 'microtransaction' stuff in E:D is strictly of cosmetic nature. No need to buy anything of that stuff at all, you don't have any disadvantage by not buying a flashy ship kit for your Anaconda.
On the other hand, look at the current EA outrage...

[pembquist]

Strange, I thought I posted in reply but apparently I am button challenged.

The biggest question I would have is are you going to get 15 a week of revenue month in month out by selling skins or other "stuff"? I would suggest staying away from anything that confers an advantage, for instance perk points. Doing the arithmetic and assuming there is no cost to offering skins for sale a player would have buy 180 skins a year.

Basically AH is a niche game so I don't think that changing the revenue model on its own is really going to change the number of subscribers. I have never understood the economics of this game to start with, I mean if there are 2000 subscribers that is only 360,000 a year in revenue which seems a pittance once you figure in overhead.

[19zac]

Strange, I thought I posted in reply but apparently I am button challenged.


Basically AH is a niche game so I don't think that changing the revenue model on its own is really going to change the number of subscribers. I have never understood the economics of this game to start with, I mean if there are 2000 subscribers that is only 360,000 a year in revenue which seems a pittance once you figure in overhead.

Yea, in the end, you're right. I dont get it either. Maybe there is no solution; i definitely can't claim this is a perfect idea, im just brainstorming. The ultimate goal would to have so many people where they would end up making more than they do now, because in other games people will buy in-game stuff all the time, even though absolutely none of it is for advantage, purely show. But i guess between the time that this hypothetical system would be implemented and the time where they would make more money than they do now, they would be losing a toejamload.

[horble]

I always thought having 10-15 decent planes for free in the MA and the rest for subscription players would work, but what do I know.

[pembquist]

I think you could probably do something in the line of E-sports or maybe organized events that had some AI component. I don't mean self organized but "professionally" organized. Sort of like scenarios but with a little more support/augmentation. Limited life limited time, maybe a prize? Anyway something that would take a fair amount of time and money to implement well. The open ended nature of AH is what makes it great but at the same time I think a lot of players really feel like the game is at its best during FSO or special events. Hell you could bring back air racing if you had a way of automating it, it was fun but it was always at the wrong time. Also this page: https://theairtacticalassaultgroup.com/index.php shows who is online and what they are flying (depending on when you look at it there might not be anyone there, it's a niche of a niche) and maybe AH could use something like that, and then if it did have some kind of automated air racing or what not it could have a timer counting down the hours till the event started, I dunno just thinking out loud.

[Ack-Ack]

Just like putting a game on Steam isn't guaranteed to increase new players, adding micro-transactions will have the same result.  It is not guaranteed to increase new players or increase profits for HTC. 

Quite frankly, I don't think the subscription part of AH is conducive to a micro-transaction business model.  However, I do think that micro-transactions can work in the free to play portion of AH, namely with the Match Play arena, where you can use micro-transactions for things like custom skins, sounds, etc.

[19zac]

Just like putting a game on Steam isn't guaranteed to increase new players, adding micro-transactions will have the same result.  It is not guaranteed to increase new players or increase profits for HTC. 

Thats a good point. I guess my goal isnt to increase new players, its just to make it more likely that those who do join stay and play the game. That seems to be the issue to me. People play the game, play for two weeks, enjoy it, but cannot justify paying 15 a month for it. Im just trying to find a way around that. But i do realize this will never go past a forum discussion. to me, Its interesting to hear what people think about it.

[Krusty]

I always thought having 10-15 decent planes for free in the MA and the rest for subscription players would work, but what do I know.

Part of me really hates that... Part of me really thinks there's some merit in it.

I really don't like the whole division in playerbase it creates, but.... on the other hand... we'd have floods of players if that were the case. Question is: How many would subscribe? Would it just be a drain on HTC, or would it pay off?