The up and coming subscription fee.

[Razz]

30 bucks a month is steep, especially for a broke college student like myself.  BUT, like many of you, I love WW2 aircraft, and therefore I love ww2 aircraft sims so I am willing to pay it somehow, even if I have to get another job(ok lets not get ridiculous).  What im trying to say is that 30 bucks a month is not NEARLY as expensive as if the game were sharged on an hourly rate.  Personally I think we have it good compared to Warbirds players.

[hblair]

I'll be the a*shole.

Do you guys play Air Warrior or what!?!?

$29.95 a month is damn reasonable as far as I can tell. These guys want to make a living too. This may be what it takes for them to make a decent profit.

My little story...

I'm in the autobody business with my brother and father. We have 13 employees, some of you guys *would not believe* the overhead a small business can have. We regularly have a $600 to $700 gas bill year round, $800 a month for estimating / management software subscriptions. Each of our 4 frame racks cost $25k to $30k a piece. 2 paint booths; &50k(one is an italian gas fired downdraft model $35k) These are just some our more notable bills.  

When I write an estimate for a customer and its $200 - $300 more than our competiton, he may or may not like it. But thats ok, our reputation in this town is that "we are the highest". But thats ok too because our other reputation is that "we are the best".

If HTC continues to make this simm as good or better than WB's the price will work for me.

[Toad]

Let's try these pricing arguments on Mercedes and BMW and see if we can get them to come down too!

;-)

[dakota]

Those who want to pay "Will Play"
The rest will go to the inferior brand X
Don't whine because you are CHEAP.
If you are a student or such I can understand
but that is why you are a student, to learn to better your position in life so a lousy $30 is not an issue.
HOWEVER, if for any other reason you think its to unreasonable get a clue!! Why should we lower our STANDARDS so some cheap#$$ can have fun with us at our expense.
  If flying here is what u want you will pay.
This is going to be CHEAPER for me because
I used to fly in WB and my bill was always over $30
 You make it sound like we are welfare cases
looking for a hand out.
YOU WILL ONLY GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR!!!!!

[humble]

In order to place a true value on the product you need to determine your expectation's. I come from a AW background because I couldn't afford a 50-80 hr a month bill from WB's. I also didnt feel that the product warrented the premium charged back in 1995 compared to AW on AOL. Even in it's current beta form I'd pay to play (not full price)..but only if the bugs relating to hardware (want my saitek X36 combo to work) and "stick stirring" were fixed.

To me having these guys actually listening (least some of the time) and using there own product (and taking pride in it) makes for a world of difference compared to AW. As long as the product keeps developing I'm hooked...then again I just replaced my $5,000 database package (with $550 maint fee) with a $56,000 product ($5,600 maint fee) to get what I really need to do my job (headhunter)...I feel the same way here, I only have a couple of hours here and there to spend on my addiction...I want the best bang/buck ratio I can get..and these guys are already delivering a great experience.

Now how bout that overmodelled pony...

hmble

[Gadfly]

Hey Toad, if BMW had the relative value of this sim, that is about all that beemer would cost.

At this point, this game ain't worth FREE, much less 30 bucks, but I have high hopes for the future.

[Razz]

Ok see its like this:

30 bucks a month is cheap(Aces High, damn good game with lots more coming our way!).  30 bucks a month PLUS an additional hourly rate is not(Warbirds). Enough said, now lets fly.

[This message has been edited by Razz (edited 12-03-1999).]

[Sorrow[S=A]]

Just a minor point, in case Hitech or Pyro actually read this thread...

While I think it's a high price, I am probably going to pay just to keep flying. One of the things I would REALLY like to see (and just might be inline with your business philosophy of listening to the gamers) would be an option for those of us who have played the beta's, recorded stats, pointed out bugs and generally loved and commented and provided feedback for this game, to have a deal to purchase a Year's subscription with a discount when the game Beta period ends.

  I am not talking ridiculous amounts here, maybe allowing Beta testers to purchase 12 month's with a 10% discount when the beta period ends. We could purchase the time, accounts active when we log onto the new servers with our boxed version.
 It would be nice to have a reward for doing our best to help make the game what it is, and would be nice for HTC to get a bonus of 200-300 years subscriptions in advance probably a month before their boxed Gold version even ships?

------------------
If your in range, so is the enemy.

[koala]

Atrayo, what's your point?  That it's HTC's reponsibility to see to it that you can afford to play their game?  If it's too much, then don't play it.  They have to come up with whatever it takes to maximize their profits.  They're a *business*.  If you want $10 per month, go play Air Warrior.  If the price is too high, then nobody will play, and adjustments will be made.  I believe they will do very well at $30 unlimited, so why should they lower it?

ko

[Minotaur]

I feel that anything "Under $50 a Month" is reasonable value for entertainment.  I certainly know that I can and often do, spend much more than that.

I also must say that this is because I spend many hours in this form of entertainment.  The price per use therefore is way down.

It is tremendously cheaper than my main form of entertainment, which is Golf.  Or say, for example, drinking, carousing and chasing the opposite sex.  

$29.95 seems to be fairly priced IMHO.

Mino

[Razz]

Ok lets face it, Nothing on Earth is cheaper than chasing the opposite sex Mino! Or keeping them happy for that matter!

[iculus]

Remember, these folks have to make a living.  I don't understand how they can afford to eat while this is in beta.  As a long time WB fan, I welcome the unlimited $29.95.  A great deal of time and effort goes into making sims like AH, and it is a continuous effort.  While we're online flying, HTC will be hard at working on AH... like modelling my 190D-9... or D-13!  

IC

[SC-GreyBeard]

Hmm well let's see now,, I fly an average of about 3-4 hours a day, (averaging here..)
say 4 times 30 days a month, thats about
120 hours a month. (obviously a slow month for me...

If I was flying Brand W, that would total out somewhere close to 240.00 a month.
29.95 is cheap..

And I've been known to spend over 24 hours in a weekend online flying.

The one thing nice about the price also, is the number of idiots and children it will keep out of the game. (thats not to say I'm not an idiot, nor Childish..)

Price is just a relative term in the long run. This sim is only been out about 9 weeks now. In that time I've seen Major improvements others haven't touched in 2 years, or more.

Guess who's gonna get my money...



------------------
GreyBeard
Flight Commander, Aces High
Skeleton Crew

[HaHa]

Well I can say that I'm partially willing to pay the $30 maybe for a month but definitely not in the state the game is currently in. I realize its a beta so I'm hoping it gets a lot better  

One thing though is the BIG concern should be the number of people that are scared away with the $30. Even with the game being free right now there is never more than a 100 people online. I doubt even you hardcore guys would still pay when noone is playing ;0

[Kirin]

Ok, I may be repeating former posts here but I just want to state my point of view. 30 bucks unlimited play is great for people who have the time to fly 120 hours per week ('ello, guess who I mean?) but not everybody has the time to fly that much. I can afford to fly maybe a couple of hours every second day - besides my studies & family. Only because I do not spend my whole spare time with this simulation does not mean that I am not enthusatic about it. I really love Aces High and I am willing to pay a reasonable amount of money for it but there are still other things in my life that take time & money. I am sure that there would be some business plan to also satisfy pilots that fly less than 30 hours a month. Besides a broad customer base isn't a bad thing for a online game; some of my friends aren't the flight jock I am and they won't pay 50sFr. per month, but they still having a good time here at AH. So, even it may be additional administrative work to provide several business plans there is still a big gap between 20 hours a month and unlimited play...

We haven't talked about additional fees for scenarios, have we?  


Well, I really like this sim and I will pay for it... but constructive criticism should be allowed.


Kirin out