Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Aces High General Discussion => Topic started by: Raphael on May 11, 2011, 04:52:38 PM
-
I am a student of Administration school (don't know what it would be called in USA, i guess its called economic science, not sure) and i had 2 hours to make a study about an innovator and alive company that focuses on something else than the old paradigm of profit. so the students started to discuss apple and things like that but the only company that could come to my head was HTC hehe sorry guys. so i made my best to represent what i understand of the HiTech Creations and the whole comunity evolved starting by its mission plan exposed on the ahwiki and examining all the interactive "mood" between the company and the exterior market, i just want to say thanks to you for keeping this company up and i want to congratulate all the company for the development of Aces High. I would post my work here but it is all written in portuguese so i don't think it would have any use. also i HAD to simplify a lot of things because there are so many areas, its a shame I'm not brave enough to explore every single area that HTC acts directly and indirectly because it would be to much and i don't think that is what the teacher actually wants. haha i don't really care for my grade, just happy i had this idea.
I don't know if i would post it here or on the o club, sorry if i made the wrong choice.
-
:aok Good Work Raphael!
<S> Oz
-
I've actually used HTC in discussions before with teachers. One actually had played for 2-3 years, sadly I couldn't convince him to let me "borrow" his equipment.
-
My wife is working on a Masters in Educational WEB Design. In here most recent class she had to write a paper on Internet MMO game theory and culture in relation to how that will affect student learning expectations and response. Because of years of watching me play AH and listening to me talk about AH, she included it in her demographic profileing.
Attention spans of nats. Big shiny things that go PIU, PIU, PIU ...boooooMMMM.......... :joystick::angel:
-
My wife is working on a Masters in Educational WEB Design. In here most recent class she had to write a paper on Internet MMO game theory and culture in relation to how that will affect student learning expectations and response. Because of years of watching me play AH and listening to me talk about AH, she included it in her demographic profileing.
Attention spans of nats. Big shiny things that go PIU, PIU, PIU ...boooooMMMM.......... :joystick::angel:
I'd love to hear her analysis of the "oink" :rolleyes:
-
Another might be Valve (Half-Life originator)
Here's a pretty long interview... IMO has a bit of fluff in it:
http://www.develop-online.net/features/1184/The-Valve-manifesto
But there's some interesting commentary on how they run their business buried in the gushing adoration.
-
I'd love to hear her analysis of the "oink" :rolleyes:
It's better than having me trolling for love notes from ursus leviculus with my spare time. The oink for her is part of the territory.
Short attention spans and an affinity to visual communication media while lacking in person to person interactive skills is a problem many companies are finding as a common theme these days. Knowing how to taylor training venues to impart needed functional business skills can be a nightmare. Just read these forums some time.
Need me to shorten my word count to keep you awake??.... :angel:
-
I am a student of Administration school (don't know what it would be called in USA, i guess its called economic science, not sure) and i had 2 hours to make a study about an innovator and alive company that focuses on something else than the old paradigm of profit. so the students started to discuss apple and things like that but the only company that could come to my head was HTC hehe sorry guys. so i made my best to represent what i understand of the HiTech Creations and the whole comunity evolved starting by its mission plan exposed on the ahwiki and examining all the interactive "mood" between the company and the exterior market, i just want to say thanks to you for keeping this company up and i want to congratulate all the company for the development of Aces High. I would post my work here but it is all written in portuguese so i don't think it would have any use. also i HAD to simplify a lot of things because there are so many areas, its a shame I'm not brave enough to explore every single area that HTC acts directly and indirectly because it would be to much and i don't think that is what the teacher actually wants. haha i don't really care for my grade, just happy i had this idea.
I don't know if i would post it here or on the o club, sorry if i made the wrong choice.
It is tough to find companies that don't focus on the old Paradigm of making a profit....because..... ;)
-
It is tough to find companies that don't focus on the old Paradigm of making a profit....because..... ;)
Some of us just hide it very well.
HiTech
-
It's better than having me trolling for love notes from ursus leviculus with my spare time. The oink for her is part of the territory.
Short attention spans and an affinity to visual communication media while lacking in person to person interactive skills is a problem many companies are finding as a common theme these days. Knowing how to taylor training venues to impart needed functional business skills can be a nightmare. Just read these forums some time.
Need me to shorten my word count to keep you awake??.... :angel:
"Need for attention" would have sufficed :bolt:
-
Completely American owned.
You can count the number of people on the team on your hands.
You can talk, directly on the phone, to the head honcho if you have reason.
And they just happen to make the best product out there...so much better than the nearest competition (where it counts) that its not even a contest.
And tech support speaks English. Or at least Texan. :D
Yeah, the company deserves highlighting in economics class all across this nation.
-
Some of us just hide it very well.
HiTech
I hope you're making a huge pile of money because you deserve it. :aok
I was implying that companies that don't focus on making a profit, aren't around to be studied. :D
-
Some of us just hide it very well.
HiTech
And by the way, I've run some quick math...
4,000 players [from Lusche's stats]
some must be 2 week free trials. [10-20%]
Leaving 3500 paid subscribers.
@ $15.00/month@ 12 months/year
= $630,000 in yearly gross operating capitol.
Subtract:
Salaries for 7 employees
Office space rental
Office equipment [computer purchace or leasing]
Development software licenses.
Server equipment and software licensing
Internet Bandwith (!)
Insurance
Taxes (!)
It doesn't seem like there's a lot left over. I've seen you post that you put every cent you make back into this company and it's very easy to see how true that must be.
I wasn't joking when I said I hope you are making a big pile of money, but the numbers suggest passion for this game must be a big part of it. As a result of all my speculation, I actually do fear, at times, that one day all the whining and complainting will cause your passion to fade and the money won't be enough to keep you going.
So if kudos are worth anything toward you maintaining that passion, I hope this helps...
I love this game!
:salute to you and the team,
Vinkman
-
......I've seen you post that you put every cent you make back into this company ....
I never said this, I said I put every cent I had to START the company.
HTC Is doing very well, I just hope the economy comes back soon so we can be back to doing super fantastic.
HiTech
-
Yeah, the company deserves highlighting in economics class all across this nation.
Im brazillian... is not about the country the company is in, is about the focus walking away from the neoclassicism where the only formula that matered was Total profit= Total recipe - Total cost; of course you need it in the capitalist system but I am talking about the new focuses.
i wish i could know more about the way the company works in the inside tho, meaning in structure.
for what i can guess here (i could be REALLY wrong here) is that it doesnt work on the participative mode, but it also looks like there is a nice and comfortable work mood that follows on the mission plan: "...experienced cohesive team that enjoys its work..."
What i mean is that i know that the idea is to use this mood and image to get the bigger level of satisfaction inside and outside the company but i have no idea how and that is what makes me so curious but i guess this isnt a subject for forums and also i dont know if it would be confortable for the company to comunicate all that. (even tho it would reinforce the image of strong comunication HTC has).
-
And by the way, I've run some quick math...
4,000 players [from Lusche's stats]
some must be 2 week free trials. [10-20%]
Leaving 3500 paid subscribers.
@ $15.00/month@ 12 months/year
= $630,000 in yearly gross operating capitol.
I lol'd. :)
This reminds me of (about? dam foreign language) The Drake Equation ;)
-
Im brazillian... is not about the country the company is in, is about the focus walking away from the neoclassicism where the only formula that matered was Total profit= Total recipe - Total cost; of course you need it in the capitalist system but I am talking about the new focuses.
i wish i could know more about the way the company works in the inside tho, meaning in structure.
for what i can guess here (i could be REALLY wrong here) is that it doesnt work on the participative mode, but it also looks like there is a nice and comfortable work mood that follows on the mission plan: "...experienced cohesive team that enjoys its work..."
What i mean is that i know that the idea is to use this mood and image to get the bigger level of satisfaction inside and outside the company but i have no idea how and that is what makes me so curious but i guess this isnt a subject for forums and also i dont know if it would be confortable for the company to comunicate all that. (even tho it would reinforce the image of strong communication HTC has).
Raphael, I know your just beginning to think about this subject and it is very difficult to describe business until you have owned one.
Profit is the only goal and the equation Profit = Total Recipe - Total Cost is really the only equation. There is in reality NOTHING else to consider.
But understanding the equation above is more complex than can be described in a book. Cost is not just a $ amount, you must also consider the time frame of of the profit. I.E. What is your profit over many years vs just this year. This adds the complexity when you start asking, can I sustain a profit when just looking at the short term vs long term effects of lower $ cost. It may be that you are saving a $ but the productivity and training cost increase down the road more then the original savings.
There are also times when nothing is more important then short term profit because in business cash is king. If you run out of cash the company will most likely fold very quickly. Hence thinking long term can also explode the company.
Personal satisfaction also ends up in the same basic equation, because with out it , the drive to make the profit larger is liking to leave very soon.
HiTech
-
But sir, are you talking about the survival of the company or its objectives? the paradigm im talking about is making the increase of profit THE objective of a company but it doesnt apply to some examples. Of course that every company NEEDS the profit and that basic equation to survive and im not passionizing the question, I am talking about the companies these days that make some actions that just wont apply to the classic point of view.
for instance when you make sponsored FSO. is there profit evolved in THAT specific decision? in the classic point of view such idea would never go forward, it isnt looking at the profit, it is looking at something else rigth on that time: image? propaganda?. in the end it WILL result in profit of course but do you see what i mean? walking far from Taylorism. looking at the outside.
a few days ago there was a memorial fligth for flackfud that has passed. ok, you migth say, but it wasnt the company that really organized it (i dont know if it did) but you made it indirectly, the only reason people homenaged that man and others is because of this "feeling" of family HTC leaves to the comunity, it is all indirect: giving the feature of creating oficial squads, organizing events, FSO's and other things that make the gaming experience something else, something more human. there is no profit there, is more emotional then phisical. and well if your objective is profit, it will result in it. but in the classic view, you would never look for profit in that way.
it would be cutting costs. classic. fire some people, buy cheaper, and economic material etc.
-
also look at this, i have the complete freedom of discussing directly with the creator of the company.
-
.... in the end it WILL result in profit of course .....
And when it is a deliberate choice to take the action , such as I speaking with you, to better PR and Image, the reason is profit.
I am not smart enough to define what the "Classic" view is. I'm just stating that the motivations are profit, not something else.
Some of what we do is to promote community / social relationships. That would include the FSO and the memorial flights. While we do not actively support them on a day to day basis, the reason they are encourage is community .. Longer player life ... more profit.
HiTech
-
Some of what we do is to promote community / social relationships. That would include the FSO and the memorial flights. While we do not actively support them on a day to day basis, the reason they are encourage is community .. Longer player life ... more profit.
Yes! that is exactly what im talking about. by promoting these events it shows that the old formula isnt beeing the one you are using. it is resulting in profit in the end? sure why not. but when i mention the classic view it is: need more profit? cut costs, fire people etc. the classic view looks into the company and ignores the market. your actions are indeed resulting in profit but the search for profit isnt inside the company. THAT is what is called breaking the paradigm. and that is why i find HTC really interesting. like google, apple and etc...
Never, in the classic and neoclassic view you would take and ACTION as the promotion of comunity/social events, this action just doesnt reduce cost and increase recipe rigth away.
-
I never said this, I said I put every cent I had to START the company.
HiTech
My mistake. :salute
-
Raphael: We are in agreement. In fact what you speak of is why HTC got started after I lost control of ICI to IEN. Many choices made that I thought were very short sighted and would not work out well in the end.
HiTech
-
:salute
keep up the good work sir, I really wish i could some day meet with you to learn more, but i guess thats a far dream.
-
Yeah, it matters son. There are alot of people out there who say American business cannot compete because Americans will not work for 50 cents and hour and no bathroom breaks. I say that is a load of crap.
And heres THE formula btw. "Hitech doing whatever he damn well decides to do with own time and money+The public buying his service or not as they damn well please=Freedom. And Freedom=Prosperity."
(I imagine one thing about the business of building a flight sim, versus providing steel or fuel or cars, is that it hasn't been regulated, fee'd, and taxed to within an inch of its life. Though it wouldn't surprise me if OSHA came by one day and had a problem with everybody's chairs or something.)
Im brazillian... is not about the country the company is in, is about the focus walking away from the neoclassicism where the only formula that matered was Total profit= Total recipe - Total cost; of course you need it in the capitalist system but I am talking about the new focuses.
i wish i could know more about the way the company works in the inside tho, meaning in structure.
for what i can guess here (i could be REALLY wrong here) is that it doesnt work on the participative mode, but it also looks like there is a nice and comfortable work mood that follows on the mission plan: "...experienced cohesive team that enjoys its work..."
What i mean is that i know that the idea is to use this mood and image to get the bigger level of satisfaction inside and outside the company but i have no idea how and that is what makes me so curious but i guess this isnt a subject for forums and also i dont know if it would be confortable for the company to comunicate all that. (even tho it would reinforce the image of strong comunication HTC has).
-
Not to be off topic, but one business you may look into is Patagonia. One of the last things I did for college was a Harvard case study of Patagonia. They are not looking for incredible growth nor large profits. Their mission is to make as little of an impact on the environment as possible, while keeping a high quality product. They donate a % of their sales to environmental causes, and employees are given 2 months of PAID leave if they want to go help with a cause.
-
There are alot of people out there who say American business cannot compete because Americans will not work for 50 cents and hour and no bathroom breaks
that is totally not what I am talking about over here.
I am talking about innovation (wich is a new wave going around the world)and you are talking about Exploitive authoritative managment system.
Hitech doing whatever he damn well decides to do with own time and money
Well in this case you are saying HTC shouldnt be considered a company, you are calling it a game. and it HAS to be more serious then that since it is hitechs third experience in that field.(sorry mistake here, second)
and you are talking about freedom. well freedom is what gave him the oportunity to really invest his money on building this company, yes you are rigth on that. he could make a company on steel, fuel, cars business but he choose a small company for the development of a combat sim. i still see no link to coments like "Completely American owned." and "Yeah, the company deserves highlighting in economics class all across this nation."
i am sorry but i just dont get your argument, maybe its my bad english, could you explain more?
-
Not to be off topic, but one business you may look into is Patagonia. One of the last things I did for college was a Harvard case study of Patagonia. They are not looking for incredible growth nor large profits. Their mission is to make as little of an impact on the environment as possible, while keeping a high quality product. They donate a % of their sales to environmental causes, and employees are given 2 months of PAID leave if they want to go help with a cause.
enviromental investment is a wave that many companies are using around the world, i have no authority to talk about Patagonia since i have no study on it but the so called "green seal companies" (i dont know if US uses the same term) use it as a marketing strategy. of course that are cases and cases. and it is still pretty interesting.
I remember coke a few time ago aimed for this campaign here in brazil on their propaganda aswell. its done now LOL. now they are focused on the "there is a reason to believe, *cof*drink coke with us*cof*, on a better world"
-
enviromental investment is a wave that many companies are using around the world, i have no authority to talk about Patagonia since i have no study on it but the so called "green seal companies" (i dont know if US uses the same term) use it as a marketing strategy. of course that are cases and cases. and it is still pretty interesting.
I remember coke a few time ago aimed for this campaign here in brazil on their propaganda aswell. its done now LOL. now they are focused on the "there is a reason to believe, *cof*drink coke with us*cof*, on a better world"
It is a new trend in marketing, however Patagonia has had this position since its founding and is more of a business strategy and integrated with their company culture than a a marketing ploy.
-
now THAT is different.
-
Having worked for small indepenently owned businesses, having owned one myself and also having worked for (and currently do) multi-billion dollar public corporations theres a big difference in outlook vis-a-vis long term vs short term. Smaller companies, if not in immediate need of cash flow improvements, tend to have a longer outlook. They aren't driven by quarterly results and the effect of those results on their shareholders stock prices.
Publicly held companies with thousands or tens of thousands of employees can trim their "faceless" workforce to control expenses. It becomes much more personal in a smaller more intimate company. Big companies can weild their market clout to reduce costs, both product and operating where a small company isn't afforded the same luxury. While every company wants to attain customer loyalty, it's far more critical to a small company that may have to charge more for a similar product or service.
In the end a small company only has to answer to it's owner or a small group of owners. As long as they're satisfied with their return on investment then everythings good. A big public company answers to their shareholders, typically thousands or tens of thousands of them and have to act in a way that provides those shareholders with an expected rate of return on thier investments.
All of that is not to say that even in large corporations that there aren't "visionaries", be they individuals, departments, divisions or even executive leadership but the dynamics acting on them are substantially different and ultimately more confining in many ways.
-
I never said this, I said I put every cent I had to START the company.
Thank you for taking such enormous risk, I hope it has paid off as much as you hoped. I enjoy the game and if it wasn't your passion + willingness to take on risk, it wouldn't exist.
Having been in the game industry, when it comes to success, it is very risky and most studios live hand & mouth to the publishers as most titles don't make it big.
-
Hitech speaks basic language, even us in Grade 11 Business Class know this.
I buy product, I use product, I replenish product = $$$$$$$
Person earning $$$$$$ interacts with customers and fanbase to make even more $$$$$
and it keeps going until the parent company has an abundance of $$$$$$ and then its Craggenmore, family time and flying REAL planes until keeling over into the great beyond.
Its straight forward, and I love its simplicity.
Plus, cranking up a Spitfire on the weekend is something that I live for, id lose my sanity without it :x a big :salute to the game makers.