Crowd sourcing the funds to buy the game as an investment

[hazmatt]

EVE Online
Genres: Massively multiplayer online role-playing game, Strategy video game, Action ...

Ultima Online
Genres: Massively multiplayer online role-playing game

Dragon Quest X
Genres: Massively multiplayer online role-playing game, Adventure game, Action game ...

EverQuest
Genres: Massively multiplayer online role-playing game, Free-to-play, Adventure game ...

Final Fantasy XI

Minecraft
Genres: Survival game, Action-adventure game, Nonlinear gameplay

Overwatch
Genres: First-person shooter, Fighting game

PUBG
Genres: Battle royale game, Shooter game, Massively multiplayer online game, Action ...

RuneScape
Genres: Massively multiplayer online role-playing game, Entertainment, Speculative ...

Second Life
Genres: Virtual world, Massively multiplayer online role-playing game

Star Wars: The Old Republic
Genres: Massively multiplayer online role-playing game, Adventure game, Free To Play ...

All subscription based games. Some pretty big players there too. Subscription based games are not done, it is alive and well in the gaming industry.

What Ive found in my meager attempts to get the "Aces High" name out there many have either never heard of it, or didnt think it was still around, after all 20+ years is a heck of a run for a game.  I think what is needed is just to get the word out there. I love when a commercial pops up on FB for "War Thunder". They leave the posting option on so I post  I post how AH is so much better with 24/7 continuing battles going on and for a monthly fee you get ALL the planes and vehicles. I know a few players have come over from those posts. The same goes for reddit. Most of those guys that were interested didnt know about or think AH was still available. I havn't posted there in a while due to a rule about having to post in other threads to earn the right to open new threads. EVERYONE needs to get the word out there.

Now, could HTC run a "sale"? It would have to be tied in with one of those gamers influencers. Get them to run a video about AH and with a coad get the first 3 months at $9.95 a month like most TV subscriptions, everyone has a crap load of them    Maybe do something similar on Steam.

But again the whole thing relies on Hitech WANTING to get the game rolling again. At this point he has "Greebo" doing the skins approval process, he has "Kenai", "Kong" and others doing the maps, and the Scenario guys building and running all the events and posting the points/scores, and "Spikes" on the webpage updates. For all that stuff he is pretty much hands off until its all put together then he adds it to the game. Someone mentioned hes in his 60's and maybe he doesnt want to be bothered any more. I can understand this. I spent years repairing vending machines including pinballs and loved the challenge of it. I retired over a year ago and can say I dont miss it..... well except "testing" the pinballs  For those of us addicted to the game we hopr Hitech comes back, but in reality it most likely isnt going to happen. The best we can do is do what we can to get the word out there, hope one of us wins the lottery, and just enjoy what we have for as long as we can. I know I will continue to push for AH, I'll keep making videos, I'll keep posting help and adding to my "help" page as things come up. At 67, Im still going to do what little I can for Aces High, how about you?

I'm confused. You said these are subscription game but some say free to play in the title and my kids play mine craft and I don't pay a subscription for that.

I've posted on other games forums like IL2 promoting AH and events like sceneros. It comes up from time to time in the games I currently play but the discussion seems to stop as soon as the sub is mentioned. I do what I can

[Spikes]

I'm confused. You said these are subscription game but some say free to play in the title and my kids play mine craft and I don't pay a subscription for that.

Yeah, Overwatch and PUBG are also F2P.

[Shane]

What I'm saying is that the major complaint is the sub, not the graphics and I think if there was another option that it would get around the most common complaint of the sub and bring in new players. I don't think a major upgrade in graphics will bring convince the people who are commenting about the sub.

I try to bring an outside perspective to the game. For that I get personally attacked with comments like I can't afford .50 cents a day. I can but I choose not to because of this and other factors in the game I'm pretty sure that at this point I won't come back even if the entire game became free to play. Somebody recently posted how they saved over $1,400 in subscription fees since they left.

It's fine. Go ahead and attack me. You can join Shame on my ignore list.

tl;dnr - The true challenge facing AH is the persistent-world model lacking a (free) chew your way thru the "tech tree ladder" aspect.  And it's not gonna change.

    $15*12 = $180/year for a subscription.   Either that person left almost 8 years ago, or had multiple accounts (unlikely.)  Weird flex.  There have been periods lasting years where I wasn't p(l)aying... easily exceeding that $1400 - I guess I used all those savings to upgrade my gear and renew my subscription for the past few years. Smart, aren't I?    And I can still play WT for free if I wanted!

You can ignore me, but not the fact you're just passive-aggressively troll-whinging at this point.

You're failing to understand (like many things about this game) that it is on auto-pilot.  Numerous people have commented on the realities of this.

Nothing stops you freeloaders from running custom arenas, using any number of maps you might like, keeping MA settings, even. Seeing action there might actually attract people curious to check it out and may even end up staying and potentially paying.   

Yet you don't...   

[Animl-AW]

Look Haz.

It's dirty marketing, it's purely mental.

Yes, subs seems to be a problem to some, but some also refuse basic math. Marketing won.

I looked into IL-2 last week, I figured, by the time I buy a part of the game and a plane I was already over a 1 yr sub for AH. I might not even play it for 2 months, I may not like it.

"Ya, but I get this for life" cool, if you play it for life then it paid off. What if you spend 2k for planes and gear upgrade and end up only playing for 2 years,.. you just spent 5 times the money. 2 yrs AH $360.

$4k for 25 years of playing non-stop 24/7, that's a deal, compared to above.

The problem is, we have a problem convincing people that their math sucks, or non-existent at all.

How is HT going to pay his bills and game bills if he has no idea if he will sell any planes this month? The game will die much faster.

What's an AH plane worth?
See people have ideas they don't put through the grinder. I do it myself sometimes, speak first grinder later, my bad.

I'm not defending subs as much as what is a better system that pays for the game to remain alive and HT make a living/retirement?

People from IL travel to IN to buy gas .50 to $1 cheaper,... they drive 10 + miles. The gas and time they burned to get here just zeroed any savings, and they keep doing it anyway. <blank stare> Totally moot. they MAY have saved $1-$2, MAYBE. Some people just too lazy minded to do basic math.

stepping over $1 to pick up a dime.

[Eagler]

HT discusses the price...



 

Eagler

[hazmatt]

"Ya, but I get this for life" cool, if you play it for life then it paid off. What if you spend 2k for planes and gear upgrade and end up only playing for 2 years,.. you just spent 5 times the money. 2 yrs AH $360.

About the math. "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics. I think we could both come up with "facts" to support our opinions.

I don't think I've spent $360 on all of my IL2 accounts (I have 4) and planes (I don't have all the planes on all accounts but I pretty much have all the planes I want spread across all of my accounts. I have no idea how you could get to $2k even buying everything that IL2 has to offer at full price. Maybe this is possible in DCS?

The thing is that IL2 GB stuff goes on sale many times a year with sometimes 75% off so those $19 planes are less then $5. Those $89 combos I've seen for $19.99 or even 14.99. Once you get a map, you can fly on any server that has one of the planes you have enabled no matter what map the server is running. There is a lot of content you can access for a one time $50 investment. Granted you have to wait for the sales to get started otherwise it would cost you $50 to get started.

I think it's kind of like the guy that say WT is arcade like. Well, ya if you only play arcade mode it is very arcade like. If you buy into IL2 when it's not on sale it's going to cost you 75% more. That's one of the reasons I used to mention IL2 sales here is because of the massive savings you get.

All that said, I would love to see AH3 start getting new players again. I just get the feeling that nothing will change until it is too late. I think once AH3 gets down to 50 or lower during prime time that the chances of a new player wanting to spend the time to learn the ropes, pay the subscription fee and deal with the great big maps will pretty much get near zero. My hope is that something gets done before that happens as I could see it getting there within the next year or two.

BTW. I'm not a "disgruntled former player" as I've been called some times. Yes, I was disgruntled when I left but I got over it. I'm glad it happened as it gave me the chance to see what else is out there and based on that I've tried to relay back what I've seen to give some perspective from the outside.

[Shane]

About the math. "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics. I think we could both come up with "facts" to support our opinions.

I don't think I've spent $360 on all of my IL2 accounts (I have 4) and planes (I don't have all the planes on all accounts but I pretty much have all the planes I want spread across all of my accounts.

Once you get a map, you can fly on any server that has one of the planes you have enabled no matter what map the server is running. There is a lot of content you can access for a one time $50 investment. Granted you have to wait for the sales to get started otherwise it would cost you $50 to get started.

All that said, I would love to see AH3 start getting new players again.

BTW. I'm not a "disgruntled former player" as I've been called some times. Yes, I was disgruntled when I left but I got over it. I'm glad it happened as it gave me the chance to see what else is out there and based on that I've tried to relay back what I've seen to give some perspective from the outside.

Yet... despite all this cheap or free WW2 plane entertainment, you still keep coming back to lick the window here.   Btw, who is paying for these servers and they come with capacity, amirite?  Wonder if this has something to do with the subscription model that allows HT to run his own "Massively Multiplayer Server" instead of farming off to sketchy player servers with less robust net coding.  I guess those "servers" can handle the traffic 5 or 6 people bring. 

And yet, HTC offers the same player-hosted server capabilities with the entire plane and vehicle set available, also for free....    BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE!! This offered free feature still flows thru HTC servers with all that net code drip!

Yeah... it looks disgruntled trolling when you actually have apples to apples to compare.

Here's a free arena I set up using montis2 map (but not the updated one pending.)  Anyone who has d/l (free) the game can do this. 

[nopoop]

I dont know but if I was HT and had the urge to do some fiddling with the game when the mood struck, the LAST thing I would do, is share that here.

I'd fiddle and at some point drop it to the game.

Who knows ?

[fudgums]

He adjusted ord bunkers like two weeks ago.

[Spikes]

BTW. I'm not a "disgruntled former player" as I've been called some times. Yes, I was disgruntled when I left but I got over it.

To be fair I don't think you got over it, at least since May 21st when you last complained about the mods for seemingly the hundredth time since you got muted however many years ago.

[hazmatt]

To be fair I don't think you got over it, at least since May 21st when you last complained about the mods for seemingly the hundredth time since you got muted however many years ago.

So when I agree with somebody who has stated something that I myself had experienced that is complaining?

Lets see if I follow your logic.

A guy who lives in the apartment complex where I used to live says: Yesterday we were sitting around listening to music in my apartment. The volume wasn't very loud but my neighbor called the cops and made a noise complaint and they knocked on my door about the music.

I respond. Ya, I had the same thing happen to me when I lived there so I moved out.

I would be complaining?

[Shane]

So when I agree with somebody who has stated something that I myself had experienced that is complaining?

Lets see if I follow your logic.

A guy who lives in the apartment complex where I used to live says: Yesterday we were sitting around listening to music in my apartment. The volume wasn't very loud but my neighbor called the cops and made a noise complaint and they knocked on my door about the music.

I respond. Ya, I had the same thing happen to me when I lived there so I moved out.

I would be complaining?

complaining?  yes.  window licking, definately!

[Spikes]

So when I agree with somebody who has stated something that I myself had experienced that is complaining?

Lets see if I follow your logic.

A guy who lives in the apartment complex where I used to live says: Yesterday we were sitting around listening to music in my apartment. The volume wasn't very loud but my neighbor called the cops and made a noise complaint and they knocked on my door about the music.

I respond. Ya, I had the same thing happen to me when I lived there so I moved out.

I would be complaining?

Uh, yeah. If you are agreeing with someone and regurgitate your complaint from years back, it's still a complaint.

[Animl-AW]

Look
Anytime someone repeats a multi-repeat convo/post that has been extensively addressed each time, as if the past repeats never happened…

1) they have cognitive issues to process, retain, recall
2) use a repeat beaten path to conflict or give negative attention
3) drinks or 420 too much

Yet all can be true at the same time.
Stop with the repeats and ya won’t be accused of doing it with intent.

[Mayhem]

Star Wars: The Old Republic
Genres: Massively multiplayer online role-playing game, Adventure game, Free To Play ...

I beta tested SWTOR. It was a Bioware game and based on Knight of The old republic I and II. SWTOR was Bioware's first MMO, When it went gold you had to pay $59.99 and $14.99 a month every month after the first month.

EA purchase Bioware and took over SWTOR at the legacy Bioware leadership started abandoning ship. EA made the game Fremuim F2P with Pay to win mechancis. They kept the subscription plan which provided you with some premium benefits and a handfull of Cartel Coins the ingame currency you buy with real cash.

The game become a Feces Fest and I left in 2015. My Kids took over the Damned(Empire)/Blessed(Republic) Guilds and I haven't played since.

The story is Pretty good but the multiplayer raids and Fremuim elements make the game suck now. Leave it to EAvil to screw the pooch on such a good thing (Sort of like what Disney did to the rest of the Star Wars Franchise).

Only decent game to come out of Star Wars as of late was Squadrons and I'm not sure how much longer the servers are going to stay up. I don't think they changed it so you can host your own games yet.

Most the other games in that list are Dead, F2P, Freemuim, and/or you just buy the game. Very few games keep a subscription model any more.

Fallout 76 requires that you buy the game then it forces a Freemuim model down your throat with Pay to Win mechanics and a subscition fee on top if you want certain "Promised" Features, like private servers.

Most the games I multi-play on now you just buy the game ... No subscription or microtansactions.