I have been guilty of this as well. Easy to get off track with our passions.
Ok. So I had tried at the beginning and all I got were personal anecdotal testimonies on why this person or that person prefers AH to everything else and AH is simply the best in all categories. I had been trying to talk about the next higher view of where AH fits in with the overall sim market regardless of the selection bias of decades long AH customers preferring it. I have no doubt about that.
So let's get back on topic.
Simple question I never get a straight answer on. For those that say AH is best and needs no improvement, where are the players at?
Why did the 600 a night players leave, and why have they never been able to be replaced?
Why does IL2 GB find customers, WT, DCS (all across the sim spectrum) get the customers AH can't attract?
Is it simply HT needs to run some ads?
If HT ran $mil ad buy tomorrow, would that put 600 players back in the area (durably)? If not, what is holding it back?
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I actually think AH has more potential customers at it's point on the sim curve than DCS has at it's chosen point. DCS is fringe. But it captures near 100% of it potential base. That is why it is making money. Smaller potential but captures most of it's potential.
IMHO, AH has a larger population of potential customers with it's middle of the road fidelity design, but it captures almost 0% of the potential.
WT on the other the hand has the most potential customers and captures a very high percentage of them. That is why they are printing money hand over fist.