I'm guessing it is very similar to a job opening where less than 10% stay past 3-6 months. The lower number that stay will eventually acculturate themselves to the community and eventually give back to the community, or at least be added presence to the game itself.
It is the larger percentage that do not stay that I am focused upon. The desire for instant action is growing, as evidenced by the countless games that offer a 24 hour sandbox in a limited environment. I feel lowering the side switch would help alleviate some of the frustrations. It would upset some of the more paranoid members of this community, and their reaction would likely be have to factored into the equation.
I've been a part of Aces High (online flight sims as well) for more than 20 years. While I am seeing the massive influx of WWII genre games over the past few years, none of them has the scope that Aces High delivers. Please, Hitech, don't take our criticisms personally. You have invested more into this game than anyone else on the planet. However, we have invested time into the game as well, and I feel our passion filled pleas are proof positive we genuinely care about the future of Aces High.
Don't mean to jump on ya but on this rare occasion I want to point out how mistaken almost all people on this board are about the dynamics of AH.
In the last 100 days aprox 40,000 people have installed Aces High, 20,000 new people have created accounts and entered an arena. Of the people entering the arena 65% are gone and do never reenter by the 10 minute mark of being in the arena. 75% are gone after 30 Minutes.
So when some one makes a claim that changing to 3 hours will have a measurable impact on attracting new subscribers it makes me
Don't begin to think I don't that I ignore the issues.
The release a few weeks ago was a huge change to how the mouse system works, in an attempt to improve the 75% leaving before 30 minutes of play.
So were the new training video systems. Also not only about 15% of people who try AH have Joy Sticks. Right now Aces Highs biggest issues is conversion rates of players trying the game to players subscribing. For some reason I am not setting the hook quickly enough that a player is having fun when first trying the game.
We used to run between a 10 to 12% conversion rate from entering an arena to subscriber. My goal currently is to substantially raise my current conversion rate which is around 1%. And I do not think the driving forces of that conversions are things like how long between country changes.
My next attempt is to try get free Match play populated. I am doing so by creating tournament structures. With prizes in the future.
HiTech