In the thread "I hope we'll never have an EZ mode" I saw the following post by Pyro which contained some very disturbing verbage which IMHO "could" indicate a shift away from the direction indicated on their home page which is also quoted below.
The issue was something called EZ-Mode which I'm against primarily because as was posted elsewhere I know squat about this issue, but as was also posted in that thread, it will cause suspicion and tension if mixed in the same arena. The problem really isn't EZ-Mode or any other programming issue. The problem for me is what does this shift in company phylosophy mean to us as customers?
The quote from Pyro;
We don't know what we're going to do in terms of an "easy mode". We will be doing more in that area, we're throwing money away if we don't. These types of games don't survive on old-timers alone. You need a constant supply of fresh bodies coming in to keep things going. Some people talk about this like it's a bad thing when it certainly isn't. A bad thing is not getting enough players into the game. Just because you or I took our lumps and persevered through difficult learning curves doesn't mean the average player can or will.
and taken from their own pages, what appears to be their original philosophy......
HiTech Creations was founded with a simple philosophy by Dale "HiTech" Addink in 1999. It's not to create a large corporation, a vast gaming network, or a line of online games. It's just to create one game, but one that is better than any other like it. Contrary to most companies, our goal is to keep the company small. We know that with a singular focus and an experienced cohesive team that enjoys its work, the production, service, support, and overall level of satisfaction will be unmatched.
The original philosophy is what attracted me away from my old sim. After a year of flying the old sim I was totally turned off by what appeared to be a total disregard for their customer base. I came to AH more than willing to pay 3X as much because of what I read into the statement immediately preceeding and what I saw in the involvement of the management in the rooms themselves. Now, from that post and a couple of others from Pyro in the subject thread, it's quite evident that there's trouble on the home front. The money monster has reared his ugly head enough for Pyro to publicly state
"These types of games don't survive on old-timers alone"
(I think a lot of good loyal customers would be taking exception to this statement)
Needless to say, it's their company and they can do whatever they want but I would sure like to know if my $30.00 a month investment isn't going to be negated by suddenly finding that business concerns have forced them to water down AH to a degree where it becomes the same kind of sim that I could get for 1/3 the money.
My suggestion would be that if things are tough then stick to your vision to keep it pure and good and if necessary go for the masses with $9.95/month pricing. Yeah!, I know you said that would never happen but as you can see above, things do change.
Hope things work out.
Beeg
Beeg
