Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Aces High General Discussion => Topic started by: oboe on December 16, 2011, 06:45:37 AM
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I think there is a terrific opportunity coming up for AH with the opening of the movie "Red Tails". How could AH capitalize on that?
First thing, I'd have Cactuskooler use his excellent P-51 and P-40 skin bases and have him skin the planes used by the Red Tails group in the movie. Then I'd enlist LePape or Niros to use these skins in a short AH film with soundtrack and combat scenes similar to what's seen in the movie trailers, and get it out on YouTube as soon as possble.
I think Raptor has a gorgeous Italy terrain too. Would definitely want to use that in the film.
History Channel will no doubt be running some Red Tails related shows this February, and I think some spots purchased right around those episodes would be well-placed also.
My opinion is completely biased but I dunno how anyone could see the movie, look at the AH film, and not sign up to try it free for 2 weeks.
(http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd148/tjlaven/Red-Tails-P-40.jpg)
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Good idea! :aok
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First up the majority of them guys will go to World of Planes, a lot of people equate realism or a realistic flight model to how a game looks, take IL2 for an example I'd describe it as an immersion game not a combat simulator. World of Planes looks pretty but not real in the same way IL2 does, it looks like your watching a painting of the scene, even watching the cgi in red tails trailers it also looks like a painting.
A lot of these people simply won't want to wait maybe a year or 2 or more to get reasonably compotent in a game. They want some success within at least the first few hours. In Aces High that won't happen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBHQMizctgY (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBHQMizctgY)
Funny reading up on this people are whining about how they hope this game will take skill rather than upgrades, you'd have to wonder why they didn't just go play Aces High, probably because they are full of it :lol
I was thinking back to the first time I played this game I actually logged off after an hour or so and forgot about it for about 4-5 weeks when I came back my trial had expired but there was still H2H free 8 player.
Gradually after about 10 or so new ids over the course of maybe 2 years I was hooked, when H2H went I found I had to subscribe to get my fix. Point being it was the fact that H2H was free that got me hooked, if I had been straight up asked for payment I would have forgotten all about Aces High and deleted it.
I'm working from memory here but I think H2H would have went in 2007 sometime?? I remember looking at one of Lusche's pie charts the peak of players was in 2008. Just saying free H2H might be the reason the numbers have declined.
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Allow free accounts with (restricted) access to the MA (only)
Restriction limits rides to the following
P40E + Options
B25C + Options
M3 + Options
Free players do not get
Points
Perks
Attaboys
Polled
Radio
Squad membership.
Mission access.
Task group course access
Should arena limits ever return Free Players are dumped to lobby if arena is within 10% of its limit.
When ever a free player tries to access something he/she is not entitled to he/she gets a promotional message advising he/she can get all this and more by opening a full account.
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I remember looking at one of Lusche's pie charts the peak of players was in 2008. Just saying free H2H might be the reason the numbers have declined.
Personally, I find that explanation highly improbable. (http://www.greensmilies.com/smile/smiley_emoticons_my2cents.gif)
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Allow free accounts with (restricted) access to the MA (only)
Restriction limits rides to the following
P40E + Options
B25C + Options
M3 + Options
Free players do not get
Points
Perks
Attaboys
Polled
Radio
Squad membership.
Mission access.
Task group course access
Should arena limits ever return Free Players are dumped to lobby if arena is within 10% of its limit.
When ever a free player tries to access something he/she is not entitled to he/she gets a promotional message advising he/she can get all this and more by opening a full account.
Or they get a free 2weeks like everybody else :rolleyes:
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Personally, I find that explanation highly improbable. (http://www.greensmilies.com/smile/smiley_emoticons_my2cents.gif)
Thanks for the pm true there is a lot more than 1 variable at work Lusche, was just saying from what I heard other peoples stories they always had a big interest in planes until Aces High, I am the type who dabbled in various sims over the years but never committed. Something as big a fail as the WW1 arena is now would be perfect for free play.
What has HTC got lose? Absolutely nothing.
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Alot to lose. Allowing limited free play might give the wrong impression about the game.
You mentioned possibly allowing free play for the WW1 arena for example, if we dont use it, why would anyone else want to.
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Another thing I think AH could benefit from is a presence at air shows. What if somebody with a couple of simpits pitched a tent OshKosh and let people pay to try out the sim?
Or at the least, get space on a merchant's table at a smaller airshow and stack a couple hundred free AH CDs to give out; have a laptop running a big screen looping the best AH movies on YouTube.
Or, how about sponsoring a real Warbird pilot (somebody like Steve Hinton?) and using his testimonal of the fidelity of AH's flight model and air combat experience? I think an older face associated with AH might encourage a broader range of ages to try the sim out. Could be we're missing bringing older guys into the game because they think its all for younger folks.
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Would it be a benefit to new players if they were "placed" into a participating squad,that would then give them pointers or tips on how to fly the planes,gvs,etc...and set views and how to engage. this would only help the new player have a GOOD experience.......instead of the noob asking a question and somebody saying..."yeah alt f4 will help you"....and BAM! hes on his desktop and chalk up a bad experience. he gets a few of those ,finds it difficult to play because it is not his arcade style playstation or world of warcraft game....and hes gone....never to return...a lost oportunity for AH.
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I've always liked the newbie squad idea.
Here's an off the wall one - how about everybody who reads this board goes to "How Its Made" website and makes a suggestion for a segment on how MMOL flight sims are made. AH could serve as the example - it could discuss the mechanics of the sim, 3D modelling, software, interview players and developers, show how accurate the flight model is, etc, describe special events involving players worldwide.
Could be a thorough introduction to the technology of AH but also (hopefully) display the excitement and comaraderie that can be found in our sim.
I'd watch it!
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Alot to lose. Allowing limited free play might give the wrong impression about the game.
You mentioned possibly allowing free play for the WW1 arena for example, if we dont use it, why would anyone else want to.
If you have nothing to lose, what harm would there be in finding out. The people in here don't use it because they don't like the fact they have to have an evenly matched fight :rofl
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If you have nothing to lose, what harm would there be in finding out. The people in here don't use it because they don't like the fact they have to have an evenly matched fight :rofl
or because it got really boring... really fast... :rolleyes:
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or because it got really boring... really fast... :rolleyes:
Maybe you could have organized a 'zany' mission in WW1 to liven things up since your such an imaginative guy reviving quah daily?
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No matter how many you people you get into this game, I see Aces High taking a major dump once World of Planes comes online. Basic economics- when demand goes down, prices must go down. Over the years I've noticed less and less people and the combination of Blue and Orange arenas only confirms this. I've shown AH2 to 6 of my airplane-saavy friends. All did their two weeks and loved it but all refused to pay the $15/mo. Quoting one of the: "paying $180 a year to play a game with sub-par graphics isn't much of a deal. I'll just wait for World of Planes to come out for free."
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15 a month is dirt cheap if you can't afford that well you shouldnt be playing in the first place.
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Quoting one of the: "paying $180 a year to play a game with sub-par graphics isn't much of a deal. I'll just wait for World of Planes to come out for free."
I went to the World of Planes website and the very first link I clicked on said that it will be a subscription-based game. Maybe your friends don't understand the meaning of the word "subscription?" :)
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I went to the World of Planes website and the very first link I clicked on said that it will be a subscription-based game.
The very first link I clicked on told me:
"Subscription free!
World of Planes is a subscription free online game with the same vast possibilities for any players." :noid
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so is WOT "free" but buy gold to get bigger and better equipment, the free players get slaughtered. WOP will be the same concept, but your flying as a third person views
( F3 mode like AH ) no take off's or landings.
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I went to the World of Planes website and the very first link I clicked on said that it will be a subscription-based game. Maybe your friends don't understand the meaning of the word "subscription?" :)
Yeah, they love their trailer footage don't they? Oh well. Posted a plug for AH in the comments section for any of them that want to fly something a bit more challenging than XBOX.
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No matter how many you people you get into this game, I see Aces High taking a major dump once World of Planes comes online. Basic economics- when demand goes down, prices must go down. Over the years I've noticed less and less people and the combination of Blue and Orange arenas only confirms this. I've shown AH2 to 6 of my airplane-saavy friends. All did their two weeks and loved it but all refused to pay the $15/mo. Quoting one of the: "paying $180 a year to play a game with sub-par graphics isn't much of a deal. I'll just wait for World of Planes to come out for free."
I guess you will need to go have a new perscription made for glasses then!
I am one of the Alpha Testers over at World of Planes.......... and the handful of people that might decide to go there from here would be those that have not transitioned well from FA or from wwiionline - ONLY !
some people think you must have magnificant graphics in order to have awesome gameplay....... this is where most people who have this belief fails......
If anything, one might see an increase of players to AH once WoP goes on the market, only due to the difference in the games environment........ probably those that flew FA or wwiionline, perhaps..... but noone knows this or how it will be......
I am under signed NDA, so I have to watch what I say........... all these different flight sims / flight games, have their differences, some of them people will like / some they will not.... all depending on what they seek out of a game......
I have tested & played them all... they all are different in their on way........ but to put a theory on it......... think of Aces high's offline missions with AI and throw in some real players, and limit the max to around 32 to 64 tops............ ( as of right now, anyways......... ) <--- not saying that is how it is in WOP..... just giving you an example to try and compare to.........
I will even leave the Flight Model stuff out of my post.......
btw I like all games ( or certian aspects of all games, rofl )
TC
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The very first link I clicked on told me:
"Subscription free!
World of Planes is a subscription free online game with the same vast possibilities for any players." :noid
Good Lord, someone pass me some reading glasses! I'm a moron. :rofl
(But someone is going to have to pay somewhere down the line. Are there Pizza Hut ads on the building roofs? Do I have to pay for flaps, bigger engines and guns?
Call me old fashioned, but those business models are grating to me.)
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I guess you will need to go have a new perscription made for glasses then!
I am one of the Alpha Testers over at World of Planes.......... and the handful of people that might decide to go there from here would be those that have not transitioned well from FA or from wwiionline - ONLY !
some people think you must have magnificant graphics in order to have awesome gameplay....... this is where most people who have this belief fails......
If anything, one might see an increase of players to AH once WoP goes on the market, only due to the difference in the games environment........ probably those that flew FA or wwiionline, perhaps..... but noone knows this or how it will be......
I am under signed NDA, so I have to watch what I say........... all these different flight sims / flight games, have their differences, some of them people will like / some they will not.... all depending on what they seek out of a game......
I have tested & played them all... they all are different in their on way........ but to put a theory on it......... think of Aces high's offline missions with AI and throw in some real players, and limit the max to around 32 to 64 tops............ ( as of right now, anyways......... ) <--- not saying that is how it is in WOP..... just giving you an example to try and compare to.........
I will even leave the Flight Model stuff out of my post.......
btw I like all games ( or certian aspects of all games, rofl )
TC
Same here Alpha tester to, ummm i'll keep my opinion to myself for right now....
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to put a theory on it......... think of Aces high's offline missions with AI and throw in some real players, and limit the max to around 32 to 64 tops............ ( as of right now, anyways......... ) <--- not saying that is how it is in WOP..... just giving you an example to try and compare to.........
I will even leave the Flight Model stuff out of my post.......
btw I like all games ( or certian aspects of all games, rofl )
TC
another way to help explain my theory is go to yuplay and register for free, then go and download the Wings of Prey demo, and play it......... it will be fairly spot on to what I originally posted......... and the Developers and officers at Gajin recomend "everyone" to do the same, download the "Wings of Prey" demo, to get a taste of what WOP will be like or close too......
I was thinking my post was more a factual post verses an opinion post... going by what I am allowed to say / not to say.... I have not posted anything that has not already been presented to the masses......
cheers
TC
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Maybe you could have organized a 'zany' mission in WW1 to liven things up since your such an imaginative guy reviving quah daily?
with 3 people? :rofl
pervert, people have already tried to get people into WWI with this type of stuff. fact is is that nobody wanted to fly 4 planes in predictable dogfights which the DRI usually won...
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with 3 people? :rofl
pervert, people have already tried to get people into WWI with this type of stuff. fact is is that nobody wanted to fly 4 planes in predictable dogfights which the DRI usually won...
i beg your pardon... the F2b has been the dr1's adversary for quite some time already.... so the dr1s aren't holding the pole
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i beg your pardon... the F2b has been the dr1's adversary for quite some time already.... so the dr1s aren't holding the pole
well then things have changed since i was last there because before i stopped going the DRI was the only winner <S>
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I remember eve-onlin when it was a small game back on late 04. It has grown a lot since then, and look at where it is now. i would hate to see AH2 take the same path. Personally, I feel that AH2 has a bright future in a niche market - and as long as it keeps its standards high, players who seek the challenge will come.
I have stated time and again to my old pvp-elite friends from SWG and EvE (and even wow, which did have elite pvp the first year) that AH2, in my humble opinion, was the most challenging, intense, and rewarding pvp out there right now - and every friend that tries it, ultimately agrees with me - of course they will never join my side because they want to kill me. And I would not have it any other way.
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I think there is a terrific opportunity coming up for AH with the opening of the movie "Red Tails". How could AH capitalize on that?
First thing, I'd have Cactuskooler use his excellent P-51 and P-40 skin bases and have him skin the planes used by the Red Tails group in the movie. Then I'd enlist LePape or Niros to use these skins in a short AH film with soundtrack and combat scenes similar to what's seen in the movie trailers, and get it out on YouTube as soon as possble.
I think Raptor has a gorgeous Italy terrain too. Would definitely want to use that in the film.
History Channel will no doubt be running some Red Tails related shows this February, and I think some spots purchased right around those episodes would be well-placed also.
My opinion is completely biased but I dunno how anyone could see the movie, look at the AH film, and not sign up to try it free for 2 weeks.
(http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd148/tjlaven/Red-Tails-P-40.jpg)
Yoou make me feel like I need to work harder.
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with 3 people? :rofl
pervert, people have already tried to get people into WWI with this type of stuff. fact is is that nobody wanted to fly 4 planes in predictable dogfights which the DRI usually won...
Well to start with there was 2 servers packed out each with 100 in them, by the time you started flying there 8 months after it started the numbers had declined vastly, that does not change the reason why people left, they left because once engaged they had to fight.
The DR1 has also had its FM revamped since then and the F1 is on a par with it now, theres been no resurgence so bang goes the theory about the predictable dogfight that DR1s always win.
You'll have to take my word for it but WW1 with plenty of victims was like crack.
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15 a month is dirt cheap if you can't afford that well you shouldnt be playing in the first place.
so if $180/yr is dirt cheap, can you list some of the other games that cost, say over $360/yr?
(assuming dirt cheap means at least 1/2 the price of the competition)
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Yoou make me feel like I need to work harder.
Wish I had half your talent at making films. That's another thing I'd be into!
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I would have to agree WW1 AH is a failed experiment right now interms of customer return.
The MA is the core product.
It would seem a reasonable responce to WoT and WoP to allow free access to the MA (only) for a limited sub set of rides.
Like Wo?? the player is motivated to sign up for better rides and more fun without a time limit on his/her decision.
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so if $180/yr is dirt cheap, can you list some of the other games that cost, say over $360/yr?
(assuming dirt cheap means at least 1/2 the price of the competition)
If you dont like paying 15 a month then don't, real simple isnt it? other than that nice troll attempt :aok
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IMHO it has been all downhill since they they split the MA. That's when I and a bunch of other people left the game. I remember glorious 600+ player battles. AH should go back to that...
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anybody with a marketing degree or Perice please feel free to contact hitech. I am 100% sure he will listen to you if you have a great idea.
rest please shut up as this "i know how to improve the player base" is getting old.
semp
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so if $180/yr is dirt cheap, can you list some of the other games that cost, say over $360/yr?
(assuming dirt cheap means at least 1/2 the price of the competition)
Almost every adult male in this place spends a buck eighty on beer every month...this is a horsesh t excuse.
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:lol hit wiktionary for the definition of excuse. that was a question.
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15 a month is dirt cheap if you can't afford that well you shouldnt be playing in the first place.
$15 a month is cheap. But $180 is not. I would hate to see your finances if you live on a month-by-month financing system. Heck, Xbox Live isnt even half of Aces High and you get 10x more stuff.
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$15 a month is cheap. But $180 is not. I would hate to see your finances if you live on a month-by-month financing system. Heck, Xbox Live isnt even half of Aces High and you get 10x more stuff.
$15 a month = $180 a year ......... btw this game only cost a person $0.021 cents per hour a day, or roughly $0.50 cents a day to play........
we are discussing WWII combat flight Simulation MMO games here........ find me one that is better than Aces high and has "at Least" a close flight model to Aces High
then tell me that game has the community structure of Aces High, has the special events and variety Aces high has to offer..........All the graphics , power ups, cheat codes does not = Great Game Play
or in other worlds, a pretty looking backdrop will not help someone be able to kill their opponent in the game any better....... but it just might get someone who isn't paying attention, get shotdown quicker because they were"enjoying the view" rather than playing the game, hehe...
if the gameplay is good you could still have fun even if you only had "stick figured drawings" for graphics......... "more stuff" only helps a single persons viewing appeal, it does not have any affect on community or on game play.......
YMMV.....
TC
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$15 a month = $180 a year .........
Yes I know, I was pointing out that initial cost does not seem much over long term. Do you buy a car thinking "well its only $350 a month, I can afford that."
Don't get me wrong, I love Aces High. But do I think the price needs to be lower? Yes. HT would've got more of my money if it was cheaper. Every so often I close my account until job outlooks are looking better or home expenses are down. I've had four accounts in the past 5 years. Do I think Aces High should be progressing more for a company of >10 people who make a little less than 10 grand a month in initial profit? Yes. The wishlist is full of ideas and I know HT and others are busy implementing as many as they can, but I think there is room to grow. I came on years ago when they first advertised on Discovery Wings. That is what got me hooked and many others. I remember the population was higher then than what it is now. Just my $0.02, but I think numbers will continue to dwindle until something else is done. Little patches with one or two planes isn't going to bring more customers.
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$15 a month is cheap. But $180 is not. I would hate to see your finances if you live on a month-by-month financing system. Heck, Xbox Live isnt even half of Aces High and you get 10x more stuff.
No one holds a gun to the heads of Xbox lovers forcing em to stay here. Heck even when I was living in Tallahassee making
$3.35 a hour <minimum wage in 84> I could swing it and not cry :D
I guess coming from the $6 an hour AW generation has influenced my perspective, but reading how $14.95 a month is too
much just cracks me up. I'm wondering how lowering the price would make HT more of your money? Would losing the money
from everyone else somehow magically by replaced by your increased revenue?
Frankly I'm impressed by the fact that the price dropped years ago and has been maintained for YEARS. Every other service
I use on a monthly basis increases their prices regularly.
Also HTC doesn't make us buy new aircraft like some other flight sim I could name. Of course you can always decide to
ruin Hitech's bottom line and vote with your feet! :rofl
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$15 a month is cheap. But $180 is not. I would hate to see your finances if you live on a month-by-month financing system. Heck, Xbox Live isnt even half of Aces High and you get 10x more stuff.
lol Xbox live, sure go ahead enjoy that crowd. hacks, aimbot and numerous other cheats thrive there. thanks heavens thats not put up with here.
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Yes I know, I was pointing out that initial cost does not seem much over long term. Do you buy a car thinking "well its only $350 a month, I can afford that.".
Most responsible adults buy a car if they can afford to,it wouldnt matter if it was $250 or $350 a month.why would anyone buy a car if they couldnt afford the payments. :headscratch:
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why would anyone buy a car if they couldnt afford the payments. :headscratch:
Really?
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Really?
Yes really.
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Yes really.
You really don't know why someone would buy a car if they couldn't afford it?
Heck, I guess I don't know either.
Yet they do it in droves.
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Is like I told my (2) Daughters when they recently went to get their newest cars this year....... Girls, don't just think about your car payment itself
that car is not costing you just $200 or $228 a month....... you got to add in your monthly insurance payment, your gas money to drive it each month, then the maint upkeep, then the Tags/Registration, and depending on what state a persons yearly vehicle property tax bill and also in certian states a vehicle inspection cost to boot....
then total all that and that is your TRUE "Actual Monthly Car Payment" ......... what onemight think that their car payment is only $250 or $350 a month really turns out to be well over $500 to $600 + monthly...... and that is for a cheap to average vehicle most of the time......
most people who buys a vehicle never take into account all the extra stuff needed to operate a vehicle......
back on the OP topic........ I do think oboe had a good idea regarding the upcoming movie of Red Tails and how to advertise Aces high around it....... just a lil ad campaign, that is if HTC thinks they really need it.........
but the HTC family has always seemed to know exactly what is needed and what the AH community most desires....... that is good enough for me
TC
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lol Xbox live, sure go ahead enjoy that crowd. hacks, aimbot and numerous other cheats thrive there. thanks heavens thats not put up with here.
Xbox has the highest anti-cheat service I've ever been. auto MAC-add ban and account autoban if you get caught with anything. I've been on all sorts of games ever since XBL's inception and I've never seen a aimbot/hack on XBL
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I know I'd run a stand at some of the air shows they have here in Thomasville.
(Who was it from Tallahassee btw??)
The "free partial game" DOES work. It may not keep a lot of people but it gets the game exposed. I see WoT crap on every single website I go to right now.
The Red Tails idea is also great as well. :)
Idk see why you guys can't just say what you do and don't like about certain things without getting into an e-peen fight. :|
Anywayyyyy, I'd like to see some new faces. :salute
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Well to start with there was 2 servers packed out each with 100 in them, by the time you started flying there 8 months after it started the numbers had declined vastly, that does not change the reason why people left, they left because once engaged they had to fight.
The DR1 has also had its FM revamped since then and the F1 is on a par with it now, theres been no resurgence so bang goes the theory about the predictable dogfight that DR1s always win.
You'll have to take my word for it but WW1 with plenty of victims was like crack.
i was there at the start of WWI also and saw the decline all the way through. i gave up on WWI over the summer. and if you honestly think the reason people left was because they had to fight, you should realize repetition can get boring also. ive heard many people who have said they never go there because either it is a ghost town when they are online or because doing the same thing 20 times over whether they won or lost got boring. for me, both reasons were why i stopped flying WWI.
and des had already reminded me about the FM of the DRI being changed. i havent flown there while the revamp had happened
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you should realize repetition can get boring also.
This is why I quit making regular visits. It's also why I don't stop in the DA as often as I used to.
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This is why I quit making regular visits. It's also why I don't stop in the DA as often as I used to.
:aok
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so if $180/yr is dirt cheap, can you list some of the other games that cost, say over $360/yr?
(assuming dirt cheap means at least 1/2 the price of the competition)
if 50c a day aint cheep i dont know what is :D
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I think there is a terrific opportunity coming up for AH with the opening of the movie "Red Tails". How could AH capitalize on that?
First thing, I'd have Cactuskooler use his excellent P-51 and P-40 skin bases and have him skin the planes used by the Red Tails group in the movie. Then I'd enlist LePape or Niros to use these skins in a short AH film with soundtrack and combat scenes similar to what's seen in the movie trailers, and get it out on YouTube as soon as possble.
I think Raptor has a gorgeous Italy terrain too. Would definitely want to use that in the film.
History Channel will no doubt be running some Red Tails related shows this February, and I think some spots purchased right around those episodes would be well-placed also.
My opinion is completely biased but I dunno how anyone could see the movie, look at the AH film, and not sign up to try it free for 2 weeks.
(http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd148/tjlaven/Red-Tails-P-40.jpg)
Unfortunately getting AH anywhere near the big screen would be out of AH's budget.
However utilizing cookies to hit people that search "Red Tails" or similar genre's in general is very cost effective.
Might get ad space on their websites, search engines, etc.
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but the HTC family has always seemed to know exactly what is needed and what the AH community most desires....... that is good enough for me
TC
agreed +1
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IMHO it has been all downhill since they they split the MA. That's when I and a bunch of other people left the game. I remember glorious 600+ player battles. AH should go back to that...
A bunch more signed on.
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A bunch more signed on.
Exactly.
As much as I hated the MA split (and still do), the player numbers did rise to new glorious heights after it. The downward trend started long, long time after that. (And can not traced to any specific single event or circumstance in AH at all) :old:
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I've seen some people note the price of AH and say it's dirt cheap... Lets put it in context;
Final Fantasy Online £6.99 PerMonth The FF11 was £7.95
SWTOR £8.99 pm
WoW £8.99 pm
AceHigh depending on exchange rate but averages around £10 pm
AcesHigh is not cheap as MMOs go.
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LCADolby just hit the nail on the head. $15 a month, relative to the competition is a pretty high premium for a game which at first glance appears to have very dated graphics.
And to take it a step further look at the other competition. There are a lot of newer games going with a free to play, pay to win pricing model (Need for Speed world for example). In these games anyone can get an account and play for free, albeit with several features cut down. Where they make their money is on the premium features that are often quite costly. But the point is this attracts a large and active playerbase that maintains interest in the game and for people with deep pockets it sells big. Again taking the example of Need for Speed world, they just passed 10 million accounts. And on the money side? One of my friends dumped over $500 USD in a one month period on NFSW, I myself am guilty of dumping close to $200 into it. HOWEVER, and this is a huge point, I *don't* ever have to pay again to play the game with the features I've unlocked. This is a very attractive alternative to maintaining a monthly fee endless under threat of losing access to the game if I ever stopped paying. It's for this very reason I haven't had an active Aces High account since since September. Over the past ~10 year since I discovered Aces High I've been on and off with paying for an account for several months at a time (4 months on, 3 months off, etc). When I didn't have an active account I used the free H2H feature while we still had it.
Here's the other catch. Aces High is not a persistent world game at least not in the sense of having any meaningful longterm stats. Another trend I've noted in video games in general is the tendency of all of them to start having player career accounts and level ups, particularly in first person shooters and such (Battlefield 3) for example. I guess for some people it doesn't matter what game they're playing they gotta have that gratification that comes with the level up treadmill and the next little goal to unlock some little perk. Generally, I am against this as I never enjoyed this aspect of gaming, but it has become so pervasive I have to think it must be driving sales for a lot of these games. In Aces High the *only* stat you carry with you through a map reset is your perk count and you don't even maintain this if you deactivate and reactivate your account. There are no level ups, no achievements, no medals. Nothing to indicate any history behind a player. In fact you see more of it on this forum with people driving up their post counts just a get a title like 'plutonium member'. While personally I don't take anything from these things, I can't deny they probably drive sales.
Finally, there is the realism and learning curve of Aces High. I've had a lot of friends I've tried to get into the game. But with no experience in what it is actually like to fly a plane, and the difficulty of actually successfully winning an aerial battle they typically give up after the first month or two. A lot of the time they never even managed a single air to air kill. This game is geared pretty hard toward a niche market because of this complexity and realism. Personally I appreciate that and it actually makes me want to play the game more than say Battlefield 3 where su27s loop around at 80 knots and pilots hop out mid flight to fire an RPG at their opponent's plane, then hop back in and fly away. My point is to the average gamer this game doesn't carry the same appeal.
When you put it in this perspective you can see why Aces High's playerbase has shriveled over the years. I don't know what could be done to really change this, although I think a pricing model change could definitely be in order. It might be interesting to make the base game free to play with all planes below say 40 ENY available with some sort of pricing scheme to unlock planes below 40 ENY. Perhaps even have some unlocked using an in game cash earned from successful sorties, or even require the payment of in game cash to use the heavier ordinance, or ammunition loads.
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I am one of the Alpha Testers over at World of Planes.......... and the handful of people that might decide to go there from here would be those that have not transitioned well from FA or from wwiionline - ONLY !
some people think you must have magnificant graphics in order to have awesome gameplay....... this is where most people who have this belief fails......
If anything, one might see an increase of players to AH once WoP goes on the market, only due to the difference in the games environment........ probably those that flew FA or wwiionline, perhaps..... but noone knows this or how it will be......
You're exactly right. I've made this point once in the past, but look at the example of another famous MMO (Aces High is an MMO btw, just not an MMORPG), Everquest. Until World of Warcraft came out, every time a competitor to Everquest hit the market, it stole customers from Everquest for a month at most, then many more than those who left returned a short time later.
It seems that the people who left to play "EQ-competitor-whose-name-is-no-longer-even-remembered-X", told everyone there how much better Everquest was, and when their 30 free days was up, returned to Everquest with a bunch of new friends. The EQ devs even commented that they welcomed and look forward to competition "stealing" their customers, because every time a company did so they doubled their subscription numbers within six months (or something along those lines, I don't remember the actual figures any more, but it was substantial).
The same thing should happen for Aces High. EQ had lesser graphics but superior gameplay. So will Aces High compared to World of Planes. Of course the "gotcha" in my example is World of Warcraft. When a truely superior game comes out, Aces High is screwed. But I see no indication World of Planes is that game.
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I've seen some people note the price of AH and say it's dirt cheap... Lets put it in context;
Final Fantasy Online £6.99 PerMonth The FF11 was £7.95
SWTOR £8.99 pm
WoW £8.99 pm
AceHigh depending on exchange rate but averages around £10 pm
AcesHigh is not cheap as MMOs go.
In August we were £8.97 pm
HiTech
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How about once per week ( Saturday prime time ) free one hour of play with dedicated people to help new players. I'm sure many old players would hook up again and one hour passes so fast :lol
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In August we were £8.97 pm
HiTech
and in Nov £9.70 according to my bill. Still good value IMO.
If someone wants the gaming experience AH can/will provide then they will pay the £1 or £2 a month extra. I don't believe folk will go hunting around for the game that costs a penny less than the others.
If its fun and they want it then they will pay the price even if it has a slight premium.
My point is that it also has to be convenient to get know you like it. I think the free intro level of WoT is an aggressive sales ploy but one that AH could not only compete with but profit from if structured appropriately
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It's too bad Lucasfilm would consider HTC a competitor.
I do hope that Red Tails generates more interest in WW2 air combat. Going off what I've seen in the trailers it does a good job of showing the unprecedented numbers of warplanes operating together and that's something no other war has ever had (Eat your heart out battlefield 3).
Now if we could only get some Iowa class battleships and leave the submarines on the drawing board....
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Here's the other catch. Aces High is not a persistent world game at least not in the sense of having any meaningful longterm stats. Another trend I've noted in video games in general is the tendency of all of them to start having player career accounts and level ups, particularly in first person shooters and such (Battlefield 3) for example. I guess for some people it doesn't matter what game they're playing they gotta have that gratification that comes with the level up treadmill and the next little goal to unlock some little perk. Generally, I am against this as I never enjoyed this aspect of gaming, but it has become so pervasive I have to think it must be driving sales for a lot of these games. In Aces High the *only* stat you carry with you through a map reset is your perk count and you don't even maintain this if you deactivate and reactivate your account. There are no level ups, no achievements, no medals. Nothing to indicate any history behind a player. In fact you see more of it on this forum with people driving up their post counts just a get a title like 'plutonium member'. While personally I don't take anything from these things, I can't deny they probably drive sales.
I was thinking a bit 'bout this stuff recently. In my own eyes, the "nothing really matters" approach was/is one of the big appeals -no need to log on daily, to play insane hours to "keep your level", much less importance of score or 'career advancement', no better equipment for those willing to spend more $$ and so on.
Hooooooowever.... and I know this is flamefest territory if there ever was one.... couldn't it hurt that much if HTC would try to add some "rpg" elements? I'm especially thinking about younger players. I don't 'need' that today, but when I think of how I played games like 'Elite' or the wing commander series, how very important 'immersion' had been, I know how much I would have loved such elements. And after all, I remember quite well that such things were indeed planned for the AH tour of duty.
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Now if we could only get some Iowa class battleships and leave the submarines on the drawing board....
(http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s35/68zoom/Funny%20posters/aceshigh.png)
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Is like I told my (2) Daughters when they recently went to get their newest cars this year....... Girls, don't just think about your car payment itself
that car is not costing you just $200 or $228 a month....... you got to add in your monthly insurance payment, your gas money to drive it each month, then the maint upkeep, then the Tags/Registration, and depending on what state a persons yearly vehicle property tax bill and also in certian states a vehicle inspection cost to boot....
then total all that and that is your TRUE "Actual Monthly Car Payment" ......... what onemight think that their car payment is only $250 or $350 a month really turns out to be well over $500 to $600 + monthly...... and that is for a cheap to average vehicle most of the time......
most people who buys a vehicle never take into account all the extra stuff needed to operate a vehicle......
back on the OP topic........ I do think oboe had a good idea regarding the upcoming movie of Red Tails and how to advertise Aces high around it....... just a lil ad campaign, that is if HTC thinks they really need it.........
but the HTC family has always seemed to know exactly what is needed and what the AH community most desires....... that is good enough for me
TC
tc my true cost of playing ah is around 100 bucks a month.
15---game
35---isp
50---price of keeping up my puter with lawndart.
total 100 bucks.
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and in Nov £9.70 according to my bill. Still good value IMO.
If someone wants the gaming experience AH can/will provide then they will pay the £1 or £2 a month extra. I don't believe folk will go hunting around for the game that costs a penny less than the others.
If its fun and they want it then they will pay the price even if it has a slight premium.
My point is that it also has to be convenient to get know you like it. I think the free intro level of WoT is an aggressive sales ploy but one that AH could not only compete with but profit from if structured appropriately
I get where you are going with that, but...how do you structure it for AH. In WOT, non paying customer are at severe disadvantages, not only financialy with credit buying but with the advantage one can get from say...premium ammunition. I play WOT too, enjoy it for what it is and even buy gold with my hard earned money. I use premium ammo in low tier tanks to farm XP and it's much easier with premium account(double XP/cash) AND premium ammo(can damage much higher tier with gold ammo). Once you discover what kind of advantages it gives you, you cant use anything else. Create an environnement in which "wallet warrior"(and dont get me wrong, I'm one of them) dominate everything around them. In AH, I like the idea that the pilot can and will make a difference. It's only you and your plane. Your credit card stays in the locker room. I think that's what make AH different. When you start playing, you cant buy your way up the ladder. You have to earn it, learn from every encounter and work on your own self. Not on upgrading your character/equipement. It's only you and the tools you are given. The very same tools everyone else are given. That is a concept that is not for the public in general that is for sure. It's neither easy nor quick. It make it that more rewarding to work toward. If one cannot wrap his mind around this concept, they will never understand what AH is about. That's why many are called and few are "chosen".
All in all, while I think publicity is a must for any game or company that desire to strive, I trust HTC to make the decision that are good for them. They have over 15 years( I believe) of experience in this business. They will do what's good for them in the end.
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The whole WoT format would not work in AH (well it might but it does not have to IMO).
The key facet IMO of the WoT customer capture point is the free at the point of base product use. I have WoT on my PC I don't play it but if I want to I can load it up and play it now, next week, next month and its free. But limited. If for some reason AH is not attractive to me then I am playing WoT in minutes at no cost (yet).
The AH revenue model is based upon subscription membership. Don't mess with this. Its a secure revenue platform that supports the company.
My view is that there could be a level at which free account holders could access AH much as free account holders can access WoT. When these free account holders want to access game play they flash the credit card and get a months full access (at a certain rate), or become DD account holders for say a minimum of 3 months (at another rate) etc etc etc. (may be they could even Paypal a day rate)
When the period expires they return to free account holders.
The point being is that they are eternally captured and it is easy for them to just make the payment and upgrade to full access.
The challenge then is to decide the appropriate level of the free access.
One example
The P40E is IMO the base line Fighter/attack aircraft and is well known by the core (US) market
The B25C is its equivalent bomber.
The M3 enables capture, supplies and a 75mm gun
The FP (Free Player) has
-no access to any arena other than the MA (No Scenarios, No Training, No Dueling, No Custom arenas)
-not the ability to score points
-not the ability to earn perks
-not the ability to use any other radio channel other than range and help.
-not the ability to form or join squads
-not the ability to steer task groups
-not the ability to create missions
-not the ability to join missions
If numbers soar and multiple arenas are again needed then access will prioritise subscription players in some way or form to ensure that subscription players do not suffer access to the game due to any quantity of FP's.
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What about working with controller manufacturers like Saitek, CH, Logitech or Thrustmaster - have them insert a free CD for AH2 inside the package, slap a FREE GAME! sticker on the side of the box and run a special price promotion?
(And for the sticker art work use some action image of Red Tails in combat - again trying to capitalize on the new movie's popularity).
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What about working with controller manufacturers like Saitek, CH, Logitech or Thrustmaster - have them insert a free CD for AH2 inside the package, slap a FREE GAME! sticker on the side of the box and run a special price promotion?
I'd love to know how much the manufacturers would charge for that.
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In August we were £8.97 pm
HiTech
Including the Non-UK commision charge, putting it just over £9.
I can only hope the pound stays strong against the Dollar, to help bring the average price per month down.
I'm sure closer pricing to other MMOs can only help increase the player base.
I'm sure I'm no the only one with the monthly subscription budget limited to 1 MMO.
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I'm sure closer pricing to other MMOs can only help increase the player base.
And of course if we made if free we might get even more people.
Of course we would soon be out of business with that model.
HiTech
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I'm sure closer pricing to other MMOs can only help increase the player base.
(http://www.netmba.com/images/econ/micro/supply-demand/supplydemand.gif)
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The best publicity campaign will accomplish nothing if the community is do not want to greet these new players and all they get is hotard/picktard/bomb****/vulchtard messages and people insulting each other in chest thumping contest and outright offensive behavior. How many new players were shoo'ed away like that? I bet too many to count.
:salute
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As has been mentioned, a booth at any airshow that has WW2 Aircraft, with some of the better AH films playing on a couple of screens, and 2 or 3 PC's set up that people can play an offline mission, or even a
custom arena against the other people in the booth would grab some new players.
Of course it'd cost, but I'm sure it'd be worth thinking about.
Steely
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custom arena against the other people in the booth would grab some new players.
Of course it'd cost (...)
And then think about how many new subscribers would be needed to offset that cost... and remember, most trial players won't subscribe at all.
I have the vague feeling that HT actually does think of such things, and unlike us giving all that 'advice', he has the actual numners to work with. It's highly improbable that there will be a "D'oh, why didn't we think of such a SIMPLE thing?!" moment in Fort Worth, TX ;)
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And of course if we made if free we might get even more people.
Of course we would soon be out of business with that model.
HiTech
I don't remember supporting AcesHigh being free.
In this thread with my 1st post I was just putting pricing in perpective.
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I don't remember supporting AcesHigh being free.
In this thread with my 1st post I was just putting pricing in perpective.
LCAdolby You completely miss the point, the statement that lowering the price will increase the player base is as Dead Man points out the basis for all business. But it is completely irreverent with out considering the decrease in revenue side. The goal is to maximize revenue / profit not the quantity of players as you state. And hence if simply increasing player counts as you state the best way would be free.
Some where around 2001 - 2003 we ran real test offers at different price points to be able to calculate the supply and demand curve, I.E. What is the optimum price point.
Strangely most other companies followed our price point about 1 year later.
HiTech
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I guess coming from the $6 an hour AW generation has influenced my perspective, but reading how $14.95 a month is too
much just cracks me up. I'm wondering how lowering the price would make HT more of your money? Would losing the money
from everyone else somehow magically by replaced by your increased revenue?
Frankly I'm impressed by the fact that the price dropped years ago and has been maintained for YEARS. Every other service
I use on a monthly basis increases their prices regularly.
+1
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Strangely most other companies followed our price point about 1 year later.
It's a beach to do all of the work, research and testing only to have other companies copy off of you isn't it?
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All did their two weeks and loved it but all refused to pay the $15/mo.
Heh! I guess they wouldn't have liked the earlier days of Air Warrior. $6/hour (and I think it was $12/hour before that). They are too weak to join our collection of Knights of the Sky! :lol
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you guys have it all wrong! :D :D :D
increase sub rate to $30/mo but release new planes/tanks every month!
say aye!
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you guys have it all wrong! :D :D :D
increase sub rate to $30/mo but release new planes/tanks every month!
say aye!
$30 :O
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You guys are mixing up 2 different games. There is 'World of Warplanes' being developed by Wargamming.net. The same designers of 'World of Tanks' and 'World of Battleships'. It is free with the option of paying for more stuff. Then there is a 'World of Planes' being developed by Gaijin Entertainment Corporation. The first post said 'World of Planes' but gave a link to 'World of Warplanes'. If Aces High II is going to compete with these other games, they're gonna have to do way more. They will have to do a Aces High III with better graphics, better equipment, and a tighter security on what the plane actually can do. Everything else they're doing like ground detail is just duct tape on an old program.
World of Planes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VTazV7Mizg (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VTazV7Mizg)
World of Warplanes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBHQMizctgY (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBHQMizctgY)
World of Battleships
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krPHTI42hy4 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krPHTI42hy4)
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tighter security on what the plane actually can do.
:headscratch:
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World of Planes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VTazV7Mizg (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VTazV7Mizg)
All other graphics / gameplay stuff aside, there is one single thing shown in this trailer I have missed in AH from day 1: The pilot - or more precisely: Seeing myself in the cockpit, the hand moving stick and my legs on the pedals. I have always found the empty cockpits to be very surreal. Bombers in particular remind me eerily of the Mary Celeste :uhoh
That would be my greatest wish for eye candy.
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You guys are mixing up 2 different games. There is 'World of Warplanes' being developed by Wargamming.net. The same designers of 'World of Tanks' and 'World of Battleships'. It is free with the option of paying for more stuff. Then there is a 'World of Planes' being developed by Gaijin Entertainment Corporation. The first post said 'World of Planes' but gave a link to 'World of Warplanes'. If Aces High II is going to compete with these other games, they're gonna have to do way more. They will have to do a Aces High III with better graphics, better equipment, and a tighter security on what the plane actually can do. Everything else they're doing like ground detail is just duct tape on an old program.
World of Planes definately gets my attention..
Wings of Prey as a MMO :O
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You guys are mixing up 2 different games. There is 'World of Warplanes' being developed by Wargamming.net. The same designers of 'World of Tanks' and 'World of Battleships'. It is free with the option of paying for more stuff. Then there is a 'World of Planes' being developed by Gaijin Entertainment Corporation. The first post said 'World of Planes' but gave a link to 'World of Warplanes'. If Aces High II is going to compete with these other games, they're gonna have to do way more. They will have to do a Aces High III with better graphics, better equipment, and a tighter security on what the plane actually can do. Everything else they're doing like ground detail is just duct tape on an old program.
World of Planes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VTazV7Mizg (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VTazV7Mizg)
World of Warplanes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBHQMizctgY (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBHQMizctgY)
World of Planes actually looks like it has potential if it doesnt stay Russian/German as it is in the trailer... World of Warplanes looks like a cartoon shooter...
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The one graphical advantage I saw in World of Planes over AH was the elevated terrain. The mountains in AH look like straight lines and pixels, whereas with theirs they looked like actual mountains.
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LCAdolby You completely miss the point, the statement that lowering the price will increase the player base is as Dead Man points out the basis for all business. But it is completely irreverent with out considering the decrease in revenue side. The goal is to maximize revenue / profit not the quantity of players as you state. And hence if simply increasing player counts as you state the best way would be free.
Some where around 2001 - 2003 we ran real test offers at different price points to be able to calculate the supply and demand curve, I.E. What is the optimum price point.
Strangely most other companies followed our price point about 1 year later.
HiTech
The price of flying aces high has actually gone down since then since our dollar keeps losing buying power.
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Hooooooowever.... and I know this is flamefest territory if there ever was one.... couldn't it hurt that much if HTC would try to add some "rpg" elements? I'm especially thinking about younger players. I don't 'need' that today, but when I think of how I played games like 'Elite' or the wing commander series, how very important 'immersion' had been, I know how much I would have loved such elements. And after all, I remember quite well that such things were indeed planned for the AH tour of duty.
I'm afraid it is not possible to add RPG elements to existing MA styles of playing the game. But IMHO it is possible to add alternative choice of playing on the Main Arena. Something like this:
You start with the early war planes (eny 40) only . If you managed to get streak 5 you receive a bonus - a drone wingman manned by AI (on the same plane). So you can fly together with wingman and if you managed to get streak 10 you can get a new plane (eny 35) with one wingman or continue flying the old plane (eny 40) with two wingmans, etc. Plus the level of AI might increase after successful sorties. (novice - normal - veteran - expert). If you lost you wingman you can get only novice next sortie. If you got killed or captured you have to start from the very beginning. So you always start in disadvantage but you can receive a bonuses the other players can not get if they do not play this way. Some sort of RPG (grow your squad) style with good use of an early war planes.
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I'm afraid it is not possible to add RPG elements to existing MA styles of playing the game. But IMHO it is possible to add alternative choice of playing on the Main Arena. Something like this:
You start with the early war planes (eny 40) only . If you managed to get streak 5 you receive a bonus - a drone wingman manned by AI (on the same plane). So you can fly together with wingman and if you managed to get streak 10 you can get a new plane (eny 35) with one wingman or continue flying the old plane (eny 40) with two wingmans, etc. Plus the level of AI might increase after successful sorties. (novice - normal - veteran - expert). If you lost you wingman you can get only novice next sortie. If you got killed or captured you have to start from the very beginning. So you always start in disadvantage but you can receive a bonuses the other players can not get if they do not play this way. Some sort of RPG (grow your squad) style with good use of an early war planes.
I was rather thinking of elements that are more about 'flair' than having actual impact on gameplay, mostly because I agree with you that more invasive elements probably won't work well with the MA structure.
One thing I could imagine (just toying around with a few thoughts) would be some kind of "pilot's homepage", which would be at the core a more stylish and much more extensive pilot's stats page. And it would track the whole career data for this pilot ID. The player could select a template, chose to mark some stats (like time played) as private and maybe there could be room for some (public) notes. And once the pilot ID is deleted, so will be this page... ;)
To some players (particularly younger ones, I suppose) this could add a little more immersion, add some 'history' to the pilot ID (which just is another word for 'character') and could give the (bogus) feeling og having 'achieved' something. All of this could possible help to draw some people deeper into AH, stay around for a bit longer and keep their pilot ID.
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I was rather thinking of elements that are more about 'flair' than having actual impact on gameplay, mostly because I agree with you that more invasive elements probably won't work well with the MA structure.
One thing I could imagine (just toying around with a few thoughts) would be some kind of "pilot's homepage", which would be at the core a more stylish and much more extensive pilot's stats page. And it would track the whole career data for this pilot ID. The player could select a template, chose to mark some stats (like time played) as private and maybe there could be room for some (public) notes. And once the pilot ID is deleted, so will be this page... ;)
To some players (particularly younger ones, I suppose) this could add a little more immersion, add some 'history' to the pilot ID (which just is another word for 'character') and could give the (bogus) feeling og having 'achieved' something. All of this could possible help to draw some people deeper into AH, stay around for a bit longer and keep their pilot ID.
I like this idea, and would like to see some templates themed along major air forces - so a pilot who prefers the LA-7 could choose a VVS-themed page, with virtual rank progression and achievement medals corresponding to Soviet ranks and awards. Might be nice to be able to switch display themes on the fly as well, so if the VVS player gets tired of Soviet system he can switch to display his information (scores, stats, achievements, etc) to some other theme, Luftwaffe, RAF, USN, FAF, or USAAF for example.
To -aper-'s idea, I think streak-oriented achievements and awards may turn pilots into timid flyers who resist to engaging without clear advantage, and run when the advantage is lost. So in that sense it may harm gameplay.
I do believe some sort of player-character persistence beyond having the same handle and perk account each time you login would add a deeper sense of immersion and make it a tougher choice when a player is considering whether to abandon the game.
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getting new players started up that steep learning curve would help alot too.
I imagine that when AH started most players would have come from a flight sim, and after a little conversion training they would have been pretty much up to speed. these days most will have come from playing Halo and struggle with the sim aspect (you have to control everything yourself, the game wont do it for you.)
some kind of structured basic training would help new players transition. maybe (offline?) mission modules that cover BFM and BCM. some sort of trainer booking system via the website might help too.
(this occurred to me last night when a new player on knits kept asking for someone to teach him "dogfighting" when I suspect he couldnt even take off or land manually)
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(http://www.freebabystuffforexpectingmothers.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/free-stuff.jpg)
I think I mentioned this 20 times about two years ago....and gave up on the idea......but I still think it's an awesome idea.
there are broadcasting sites all over the web......one in particular...called JustinTV. many.....many gamers broadcast on that site.....both live......and with movies they shot of their gaming.
it someone from AH wanted to....they could put together a nice loop of live action video from in the game.....in a variety of vehicles and planes.....and they could easily run the video live...as a broadcaster on JTV. (once you run a broadcast..it is saved as an archived movie..and viewers can watch it again and again from a menu) ...........and oh by the way......it's completely FREE. you can make a header to go over the broadcast that directs the audience to the AH home page.......and..they also have an attached chat-room next to the video casting...where AH staffers could chat ........and many of us could pop by to Pimp this place.
http://www.justin.tv/directory/gaming
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Finally, there is the realism and learning curve of Aces High. I've had a lot of friends I've tried to get into the game. But with no experience in what it is actually like to fly a plane, and the difficulty of actually successfully winning an aerial battle they typically give up after the first month or two. A lot of the time they never even managed a single air to air kill.
I think this hits the nail on the head. It really isn't that enjoyable to fly somewhere for 10 minutes and get shot down before you know whats happening. I think a breakthrough would be to develop someway of making the learning curve more fun without dumbing the game down.
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In WOT, non paying customer are at severe disadvantages, not only financialy with credit buying but with the advantage one can get from say...premium ammunition. I play WOT too, enjoy it for what it is and even buy gold with my hard earned money. I use premium ammo in low tier tanks to farm XP and it's much easier with premium account(double XP/cash) AND premium ammo(can damage much higher tier with gold ammo). Once you discover what kind of advantages it gives you, you cant use anything else. Create an environnement in which "wallet warrior"(and dont get me wrong, I'm one of them) dominate everything around them.
Perfect setup for the xbox type except for one thing...... the xboxer will look for ways around having to pay for the elite equipment. This mean shortcut codes and "you know whats".
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Re: The Marketing of AH - Ideas on how to increase player base
Custom arenas with 24/7 up time ability with stats/logging tools like FSO .. :aok
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LCAdolby You completely miss the point, the statement that lowering the price will increase the player base is as Dead Man points out the basis for all business. But it is completely irreverent with out considering the decrease in revenue side. The goal is to maximize revenue / profit not the quantity of players as you state. And hence if simply increasing player counts as you state the best way would be free.
Some where around 2001 - 2003 we ran real test offers at different price points to be able to calculate the supply and demand curve, I.E. What is the optimum price point.
Strangely most other companies followed our price point about 1 year later.
HiTech
I am glad to know your interested in this subject and impressed how quickly you have been able to distill the topic. Not suprized mind you Hitech has shown us(Players talking to you now) that he understands the question better than us. I expect this of all companys that they are directed by people who know as well or better what the comsumer needs (demands) are. Not easy to do, and its why many companys fail in every industry. Okay HT you can go here's a towel for your ankle.
Never ever mess with the sentiments of core customers by qweeking the value for new ones, ever.
Its not a company problem guys its a player's problem right now. They need to keep it this way because if it becomes their problem it might be to late.
Something should be done I agree. I would like to see more players, but only my kind of players. I dont want to see more players if they are snotty nosed poopy pants, or I will have to walk idiots around by hand from A to Z conquering the map like a caterpillar eating a leaf. Similarly motivated and like-minded competitors paying the full subscription prices (after the 2week trial) only. Or else I would prefer twisting in the wind with present company.
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i found a new, lots cheaper hobby!
(http://www.virginmedia.com/images/one-dollar-a-wash-431x300.jpg)
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I think this hits the nail on the head. It really isn't that enjoyable to fly somewhere for 10 minutes and get shot down before you know whats happening. I think a breakthrough would be to develop someway of making the learning curve more fun without dumbing the game down.
This is sorta off-topic, but I think it'd be cool if you could download the flight path information for a selected plane from an .ahf film recording and import it into an Offline training mode function. That way you could relive actual engagements you've flown and fly them over and over again and learn how to apply the proper ACM in situations you've actually encountered in the MA.
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i found a new, lots cheaper hobby!
(http://www.virginmedia.com/images/one-dollar-a-wash-431x300.jpg)
:rofl :rofl :aok
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LCAdolby You completely miss the point, the statement that lowering the price will increase the player base is as Dead Man points out the basis for all business. But it is completely irreverent with out considering the decrease in revenue side. The goal is to maximize revenue / profit not the quantity of players as you state. And hence if simply increasing player counts as you state the best way would be free.
Some where around 2001 - 2003 we ran real test offers at different price points to be able to calculate the supply and demand curve, I.E. What is the optimum price point.
Strangely most other companies followed our price point about 1 year later.
HiTech
I would pay more money per month for more freedom..
What about this Idea..
Custom arenas staying open 24/7 capable of stat/log collecting like we see in FSO?
With the freedom of choice to run 24/7 custom servers with logging tools folks could hold events have contests and generally be more dynamic.
All niches of playing styles would now be available .
Things like , Only tanks, Axis Vs allied like we see in FSO events or servers that specialized in say only PTO,MTO or ETO, arenas that were set up with any settings the operator wanted. Full icon ranges, no icons,short icons, externals enabled,WW1 arenas that pitted Pitted axis V allies plains on WW1 terrains. The sky is the limit.
The potential for new terrain development by server operators and involved players that all in AH could share would grow exponentially also..
Doing this would satisfy far more people globally. Opening up AH to meet the needs of more people has the potential for massive global growth.. Increasing the chance to generate more recurring revenue is the goal right? The more subscriptions the more growth.
Giving the players control and freedom to run arenas as they wish opens the floodgates to an unlimited player base.. No player would be limited in how they wanted to set up their arena. It would be far more inclusive, increasing the potential for more customers translates into more recurring revenue and a much larger market share from the fight sim community globally.
It would all be additional on top of the existing customer base on the existing 24/7 arenas we have now like MA ect..
The consistency that 24/7 operation delivers is the key. This way a server operator doesn’t have to be in the server for it to run. For instance if a popular US server is running and has developed a following in a custom arena and the arena operator has to go to work at USA day time... the European players will still have a server to fly. other wise the server would be down..
Not to mention the momentum that’s lost when an arena is shut down and restarted. Imagine if the MA was turned on and off all the time.. one day it was there in the menu and the next day it wasn’t.
The potential for custom arenas to grow is limited in my opinion because they don’t stay open 24/7 they fall out of the publics eye.
Each server or arena has the potential to take on a life and following of its own if allowed to stay open 24/7 especially if its interesting enough to hold and log events on. That’s why logging and stat tools are needed.
Web sites would form around each arena,, pages upon pages of content such as "Aces high" 'custom arena" "High tech creations", "flight simulation" ect. The reach across the internet would in itself perpetuate huge numbers of impressions directing potential customers to the free trial..
The organic marketing potential is huge..
Opening the doors to everyone to set up arenas limited only by their imagination combined with the fantastic flight model, fidelity and security(NO MODS) Aces high delivers would open AH up for a huge opportunity to grab the flight sim market share. Especially once that news hit Sim HQ.
Build a "Black box with freedom to move in" and they will come...
~S~
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2001 - 2003 :headscratch:
I have a bottle of Bordeaux Red that old hidden away, but since that time my tastes have moved on. ;)
To drinking Kopparberg. :cheers:
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The whole WoT format would not work in AH (well it might but it does not have to IMO).
The key facet IMO of the WoT customer capture point is the free at the point of base product use. I have WoT on my PC I don't play it but if I want to I can load it up and play it now, next week, next month and its free. But limited. If for some reason AH is not attractive to me then I am playing WoT in minutes at no cost (yet).
The AH revenue model is based upon subscription membership. Don't mess with this. Its a secure revenue platform that supports the company.
My view is that there could be a level at which free account holders could access AH much as free account holders can access WoT. When these free account holders want to access game play they flash the credit card and get a months full access (at a certain rate), or become DD account holders for say a minimum of 3 months (at another rate) etc etc etc. (may be they could even Paypal a day rate)
When the period expires they return to free account holders.
The point being is that they are eternally captured and it is easy for them to just make the payment and upgrade to full access.
The challenge then is to decide the appropriate level of the free access.
One example
The P40E is IMO the base line Fighter/attack aircraft and is well known by the core (US) market
The B25C is its equivalent bomber.
The M3 enables capture, supplies and a 75mm gun
The FP (Free Player) has
-no access to any arena other than the MA (No Scenarios, No Training, No Dueling, No Custom arenas)
-not the ability to score points
-not the ability to earn perks
-not the ability to use any other radio channel other than range and help.
-not the ability to form or join squads
-not the ability to steer task groups
-not the ability to create missions
-not the ability to join missions
If numbers soar and multiple arenas are again needed then access will prioritise subscription players in some way or form to ensure that subscription players do not suffer access to the game due to any quantity of FP's.
the reason wot is free for everybody is because they have a lot of people buying gold. you can easily spend 30 to 60 bucks a month just to upgrade your tanks. there's a fee of 2500 gold just to create a squad. that's about 10 bucks. now the guys who buy gold pay a lot more than if everybody had to pay just a minimum to play.
you create a level of free access with just a couple of planes and you will have some subscribers switching to free and hundreds of others that joining just to ho everything in sight.
there's about 10k people playing wot at any time. what do you think would happen if 10k people joined ah and only 2k were paying customers. those 2k would have to pay for ah to be available for everybody.
nothing in wot is free. somebody somewhere is paying for it. i dont want to be the sucker in aces high that pays for somebody's "free" access.
marketing 101: you have to make money somehow.
semp
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This is sorta off-topic, but I think it'd be cool if you could download the flight path information for a selected plane from an .ahf film recording and import it into an Offline training mode function. That way you could relive actual engagements you've flown and fly them over and over again and learn how to apply the proper ACM in situations you've actually encountered in the MA.
wow dude this is a great idea :aok
you should start a thread just on this
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Perfect setup for the xbox type except for one thing...... the xboxer will look for ways around having to pay for the elite equipment. This mean shortcut codes and "you know whats".
Stop stereotyping everything. I am an original Xboxer. I bought it when the original came out, then get Xbox Live when it started, upgraded to the 360 when it came out, etc. I have NEVER EVER touched a cheat code in ANY game EVER. By that definition I am an "Xboxer", not some punk 12 year old who just got one for Christmas from his grandma and goes online TK'ing and all the BS. You guys need to start using new phrases
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2001 - 2003 :headscratch:
I have a bottle of Bordeaux Red that old hidden away, but since that time my tastes have moved on. ;)
To drinking Kopparberg. :cheers:
Why don't you donate that Bordeaux to someone who can appreciate it . I'd love to get my hands on a St. Emilion Grande Cru. :D
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1st. Don't mess with the MA
2nd. this: Custom arenas staying open 24/7 capable of stat/log collecting like we see in FSO?
With the freedom of choice to run 24/7 custom servers with logging tools folks could hold events have contests and generally be more dynamic.
All niches of playing styles would now be available .
I'm sure HTC put the 5 minute timeout in because there would be a problem providing 100's of 24hr arenas.
Perhaps rent permanent arenas with 32 player or higher capacity for an additional fee?
I know that in IL2, some folks pay a lot of money to rent servers. I don't know how much space HTC has for this sort of thing, but if they could offer it significantly cheaper, they might be able to bring in some new business there.
I know at least a few players that couldn't hand their money over fast enough if this were available.
Again it depends on how much it costs to provide the bandwidth? for this, but then, no icon fans get what they want, GV only players get what they want etc, etc. It would help to have more AI development including for ships and ground vehicles so arena renters would have more flexibility for game design.
The player hosted arenas are going largely unused right now and I would guess part of that is because they can't be left up all the time and they have no logging/scoring.
3rd. Perhaps a revival of the Combat Tour concept or something similar. That would be a place for the RPG aspect.
In any case, I'm sure HTC knows what can be done in Il2 and other games and they know what their monetary and development resources are, and we don't.
EDIT: I see that AI aspects of #2 are in the works.
http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,324430.0.html
Ability to add the "offline AI" to custom arenas for scenarios
This is already planed.
HiTech
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You can do all the marketing you want, but until the game play has be tweaked to become something a bit less 1 dimensional you aren't going to hang on to these new players.
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Stop stereotyping everything. I am an original Xboxer. I bought it when the original came out, then get Xbox Live when it started, upgraded to the 360 when it came out, etc. I have NEVER EVER touched a cheat code in ANY game EVER. By that definition I am an "Xboxer", not some punk 12 year old who just got one for Christmas from his grandma and goes online TK'ing and all the BS. You guys need to start using new phrases
You are a rarety. BTW many xboxers are not punk 12 year olds..... some are punk 50 years olds too. Some are not punks...... you stop stereotyping xboxers.
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You can do all the marketing you want, but until the game play has be tweaked to become something a bit less 1 dimensional you aren't going to hang on to these new players.
Right and that's were custom arenas come into play were the host can make dynamic campaigns or incorporate any settings especially if there are logging capability's like seen in FSO were people can hold events or run campaigns. That would be less one dimensional and more dynamic.
Basically custom arena will allow you to do exactly what your asking for.. I would pay $16-$25 subscription To AH for this capability...
For the subscription fee you would have and keep all the existing arenas and have countless player controlled arenas to choose from that all would have settings that would appeal to a larger audience all play styles would be satisfied. Icons no icons short icon Axis V allies plane setts just WW1 anything you can think off.
Appealing or allowing a larger demographic to run servers how they want opens HTC up to far more potential subscriptions that translates into more recurring income and more players online at one time.
The possibility for global market share is huge.
I'm curious what is the obstetrical in the way of not allowing to remain open 24/7
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Instead of all play styles together your saying have them all in different arenas?
Player controlled arenas often change with the wind. Sort of the way the current AVA does. That is not always for the good.
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In the finaly analysis what sells Aces High is the Main Arena.
There has only and ever been the main Arena. The place where up to 700 players chase each other around going piu, piu, piu while yelling at each other on a common channel at the exact same time. Everything else has been to test the possiblity more than a small group of players will really spend time in another arena format. You were given the DA, TA, SEA, AvA, WWI and H2H arenas and what have any of you done with them other than a small clique in each? I will asume in the past they were begged for just like now. And where do 98% of you congregate? The MA..............
Instead of turning this as usual into a wish list for the fantasy game that tingles your leg, enumerate what works here and why. Or are you taking part in the greatest ongoing game in the history of our species? Kill the goose that lays the golden egg because you are bored?
Which has the real problem? You and your bordom, or the game?
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Which has the real problem? You and your bordom, or the game?
Well if you are bored before a reasonable period of playtime, then it is the game's fault.
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Well if you are bored before a reasonable period of playtime, then it is the game's fault.
What would be a 'reasonable period'?
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Well if you are bored before a reasonable period of playtime, then it is the game's fault.
It's a game, people are going to get bored of it sooner or later. I dont come here because of the game itself, I mean it's fun too, but what brings me back is the squadies and other good friends i have here.
semp
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Have you noticed that Aces High is often absent from websites that deal with WWII or flight sims? I've checked Aircraft of WWII, SimmersPaintShop, and SimHQ. And even though these sites support labelled discussion forums for games like EAW, IL-2, CFS, and Targetware - there is no specific forum for Aces High sim topics on any of the ones I've checked.
AH has outlasted Air Warrior, Fighter Ace, and Targetware. I don't understand why AH is left out, or grouped into a generic foum called "Other flight sims".
Of course, I have to say I didn't see WWII Online or Warbirds forums, either.
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Instead of all play styles together your saying have them all in different arenas?
Player controlled arenas often change with the wind. Sort of the way the current AVA does. That is not always for the good.
How can you have all play styles in one arena? How can you have ww1 plane sets flying with late war planes, or short icons flying with long icons, how could you have mid war style plane sets mixing with a late war style arena.?
My apology s if I wasn't clear What Im saying Is more like this. A custom arena or "Dedicated server" might be another way to phrase it. These could be set up to satisfy any style/preference of play.
Ie if you loved MTO theater and terrains one could build a server dedicated around that and folks who like that could fly there with what ever setings the operator desided to use like axis v allies plane sets or short icons what ever he wanted to do.
Say there was a guy that only liked tanks he could set up a custom dedicated arena that tankers would frequent.
Say there are guys that like to fly WW1 but they want to do it on a WW1 terrain and have Dr1 vs spads and they want something more than a furball set up. so the server operator could make a bunch of tables made up of different ww1 terrains and he could put objectives into his set ups like bomb some factory or take some strategic bases anything his imagination can think up. With logging capability's he can keep score just like FSO.
That server would be a server that specialized in only ww1 if its a quality server then many ww1 enthusiast would gravitate to it and it would have a following. pulling ww1 enthusiast into AH from other sims who don't like the furball ww1 arenas we currently see.
There could be a guy who likes PTO and all of his tables could be plane sets that were in that theater . There are guys that love just PTO. So that server would run all kinds of PTO set ups And be dedicated to PTO.
Say some guy likes to fly No icons at all then that server operator could build tables that were all theaters but run with no icons only.
that has the possibility to pull in and players that like no icon game play in other sims that dont fly AH now because all servers in AH currently use Icons.
But if there was a custom arena that always ran no icons those players could now come and play AH they wouldn't be excluded. That's new business.
Say there is a guy who like axis Vs allies plane sets but he likes to have external views and 10k icons then he would run his server like that and any who liked those settings would fly there.
The idea is that with all of those diverse servers and settings you open up much more of a possibility to satisfy more people around the world. So the chances of getting someone to set up an AH subscription increases.
The options would be limitless you are bound to satisfy more audiences that means more market share.
This would be all on top of our existing arenas it would generate more potential for new customers and new business.
These custom arensa could take on life's of there own with there own followers.
The other thing about all of these individual custom arenas is that web sites will build around them all with their own forums and be filled with content that would deliver millions of organic(free) impressions across the internet and direct new players to the door step Of HTC to sample free trials.
It becomes a numbers game and the potential for growth would most likely grow exponentially
Just look at how popular FSO and special events are now think about hundreds of servers being run this way but appealing to every taste under the sun there would be something for everyone. So why fly any other sim?
With the generation of more income there would be more money to pay for development of new
aircraft to be added and things grow in a positive direction.
But these servers need to run 24/7 so they stay in the public eye and have time to germinate so to speak.
It will give folks a chance to pop around from server to server to see what servers they like and see all the choices available to them in Aces High. If they turn off nobody will know whats available to them if they cant see it.
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I see a bunch of arenas and everyone in LW Main. They will always gravitate there where the numbers are. The only thing a bunch of arenas would do is thin out the main arena. Twenty arenas puling 5 each is 60 players. More? Less?
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IMHO: In the worst case, bigger and more persistent player arenas could lead to a fragmentation, taking away the biggest (to this date) asset of AH: The huge and relatively little limited main arena.
But then I also have to agree with the others that it also could simply end up as a dud, as numbers breed numbers. Even right now the other arenas have only a tiny fraction of the LWMA's activity, even when offering some really unique setup (WW1). The only other arena I see constantly having a number of players in it apart from LW is the DA.
And it's my firm belief: If you'd split up the perks so that those earned in EW could also only being spent there, you could shut it down completely ;)
And I also doubt it's just the lack of persistence and size which makes the custom arenas quite unused today. The custom arenas of old had been much more limited.. the reason they were more popular was simply: They were free. The basic core of players there were pure freeloaders, with the occasional regular subscriber hopping in or hosting. And those were simply in it because it was free.
The only thing I could imagine (no, this is NOT a wish!) would be taking the Lake Furball and building a more detailed "Furball Arena" around it and gearing the traditional MA even more towards a "war arena".
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What would be a 'reasonable period'?
Lets say six months.
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The LWMA, DA1v1, DAMultvMult, DA Furball Lake, Scenarios, AvA and Special Events work and sustain themselves over the years with a proven lineage directly from thier funky granddaddy AW. It's about people in adhoc large groups with a minimum of restrictions other than what they agree to for a common outcome in the company of freinds.
It's that last vestige of American sandlot baseball, pickup tackle football, cowboys & indians, armyman, or every kid on the block in 1962 showing up in the empty lot next door with a trash can lid and a mop handel once they saw "The 300 Spartans" to spend the day clobbering each other.
Otherwise no one cares about rules to aid the less talented, custom arenas and servers, mods, aimbot, cheats, or hosting their OWN littel disfunctional worlds. It's the best and most creative part of human nature to run over to the sandlot with all the other kids and make it up on the fly. Bumps, bruises, broken wrists, fist fights, bloody noses and cocky language is all part of the mix. But, no cheating because that's not how you play with your freinds. This is the secret to why it works.
There was always one kid who got his feelings hurt, who cryed to his mother, who screamed at her husband, and the sandlot was paved over a week later. A week after that another empty lot was discovered and the 99 other kids got back to happily clobbering each other.
If you are bored and unhappy find another game to play.
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May not be a market for this game. We just completed what most retailers consider a marketer’s dream period, Christmas, you must of heard about it. That period between the end of November and December 25. Where are all the new subscribers from that marketer's dream period? How many new players did AH pick up, if any.
I remember in prior years that there were always lot of new call signs and lots of people asking , how do you drop bombs or take off or what ever the newbe questions. Not seeing it this year. Anyone seeing a rise in newbe activity?
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Game must be dead we only had around 350 players on Xmas eve. About the same Xmas day.
Semp
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Clearly the numbers in the game are down from their peak and while I'm sure a part of that is due to the economy even the numbers on the BBs are down. It used to be that I could hardly keep up with the BBs. Today I look and my last post from the day before is only halfway down the page with no posts after it so it seems clear that players have drifted away from the game.
AH depended on players from other flight sims (AW, Warbirds and more recently FA). Sadly, some have passed away, others have become bored, others frustrated with "deteriorating gameplay", changes to the game or other reasons and left. This has always been a small community and losing those core "WWII flight simmers" is noticable.
There's not enough new players joining to offset the losses. I remember back in AW I always welcomed new players to my squad. It didn't matter what age or skill level they had, they were the future of the game. We needed them to keep things going. I've noticed that there aren't the influx of players during Christmas break or summer. I'm guessing many of them used their two week trials and, although they might like to give it another try, can't without subscribing. Others may have been frustrated with the learning curve, the Alt-F4 jokes or being derided as squeakers (guilty, but it is fun).
AH is not a very welcoming environment, particularily if you're young. Maybe rather than looking for more old folks we should be more welcoming of the young ones. They are after all the future of the genre. I'd even venture to guess they are the ones most likely to stick through the learning curve.
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Clearly the numbers in the game are down from their peak and while I'm sure a part of that is due to the economy even the numbers on the BBs are down. It used to be that I could hardly keep up with the BBs. Today I look and my last post from the day before is only halfway down the page with no posts after it so it seems clear that players have drifted away from the game.
AH depended on players from other flight sims (AW, Warbirds and more recently FA). Sadly, some have passed away, others have become bored, others frustrated with "deteriorating gameplay", changes to the game or other reasons and left. This has always been a small community and losing those core "WWII flight simmers" is noticable.
There's not enough new players joining to offset the losses. I remember back in AW I always welcomed new players to my squad. It didn't matter what age or skill level they had, they were the future of the game. We needed them to keep things going. I've noticed that there aren't the influx of players during Christmas break or summer. I'm guessing many of them used their two week trials and, although they might like to give it another try, can't without subscribing. Others may have been frustrated with the learning curve, the Alt-F4 jokes or being derided as squeakers (guilty, but it is fun).
AH is not a very welcoming environment, particularily if you're young. Maybe rather than looking for more old folks we should be more welcoming of the young ones. They are after all the future of the genre. I'd even venture to guess they are the ones most likely to stick through the learning curve.
Maybe HTC should start a "second look" program - offering a 2nd two weeks free to former players who tried it once but didn't subscribe. Maybe the game has changed enought to get them interested - especially with the focus on ground war and observation with the Storch, etc. And the B-29.
And I think new players should be given enough perks to try every perked ride in the game at least once, to whet their appetite.
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You were given the DA, TA, SEA, AvA, WWI and H2H arenas and what have any of you done with them other than a small clique in each? I will asume in the past they were begged for just like now. And where do 98% of you congregate? The MA..............
Clearly true; yet it's important to keep the smaller arenas around, because they are attractive to players who would otherwise have moved on to other amusements.
- oldman
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AH is not a very welcoming environment, particularily if you're young. Maybe rather than looking for more old folks we should be more welcoming of the young ones. They are after all the future of the genre. I'd even venture to guess they are the ones most likely to stick through the learning curve.
One problem is that many of us old ones are simply too stuck in our ways on many levels. It's not only HTC that has constantly to adapt to a changing gaming world, but us older players have to do it too. Not only that young players "squeakers" are often mocked just because they are (yessir, I'm guilty too), but 'we' are also very dismissive of anyone who didn't spend all of his life immersing into WW2 aviation stuff. Someone who takes this game as it is - a game - has instantly the 'Xbox' tag attached to him. (While in fact, many 'old purists' show much more of an allegedly 'xbox' behaviour, few monikers are as blatantly misused as this one).
Let's face it:
WW2 aviation knowledge is slowly fading. The inherent fascination of it that some of us feel for 20, 30 40 years is driving less and less players. Few of the young ones will have built countless model planes and read dozens or even hundreds of books before joining AH.
Gaming culture is changing. Joysticks are getting rare even among players. 20 years ago the stores in my area were full of them, now they are rarely to be found at all.
HTC has to to adapt on a technical level and make this game appealing and accessible to this new player generations to come. (The new GV system was such a step, among others which I noticed when I re-installed the game without a joystick recently.)
We old players have to adapt and help to provide a welcoming and helpful environment. And we have to accept that other players may be driven by different motivations. Or we end up as a grumpy, obstinate, ever shrinking 'elite' constantly reassuring each other how GREAT we are and how much everyone out there sucks... until Hitech finally pulls the plug. We would not be the first game ending up like this.
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One problem is that many of us old ones are simply too stuck in our ways on many levels. It's not only HTC that has constantly to adapt to a changing gaming world, but us older players have to do it too. Not only that young players "squeakers" are often mocked just because they are (yessir, I'm guilty too), but 'we' are also very dismissive of anyone who didn't spend all of his life immersing into WW2 aviation stuff. Someone who takes this game as it is - a game - has instantly the 'Xbox' tag attached to him. (While in fact, many 'old purists' show much more of an allegedly 'xbox' behaviour, few monikers are as blatantly misused as this one).
Let's face it:
WW2 aviation knowledge is slowly fading. The inherent fascination of it that some of us feel for 20, 30 40 years is driving less and less players. Few of the young ones will have built countless model planes and read dozens or even hundreds of books before joining AH.
Gaming culture is changing. Joysticks are getting rare even among players. 20 years ago the stores in my area were full of them, now they are rarely to be found at all.
HTC has to to adapt on a technical level and make this game appealing and accessible to this new player generations to come. (The new GV system was such a step, among others which I noticed when I re-installed the game without a joystick recently.)
We old players have to adapt and help to provide a welcoming and helpful environment. And we have to accept that other players may be driven by different motivations. Or we end up as a grumpy, obstinate, ever shrinking 'elite' constantly reassuring each other how GREAT we are and how much everyone out there sucks... until Hitech finally pulls the plug. We would not be the first game ending up like this.
Have to agree completely. Which also brings us back to the original idea of the thread. In a world where WWII avaiation knowledge and interest is gradually diminishing, how can AH capitalize on the surge in interest that should accompany the release of a movie like "Red Tails"?
What about deals with model aircraft companies? Just an AH coupon insert, advertising the game, giving the website and a two weeks free offer. Sortofa "you built it, now fly it online in realistic air combat" line of thought. Or maybe just AH flyers on bulletin boards in local hobby stores, with 'free' coupon codes. People love getting anything for free.
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(The new GV system was such a step, among others which I noticed when I re-installed the game without a joystick recently.)
So an entry level that gave players the
Storch & M3, (with all options)
and can be played with one of these out the box....................
(http://www.vesalia.de/pic/mstechls25.jpg)
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Wonder how many would try AH if there was PlayStation version? Be nice to use my 42" TV rather then my monitor.
With respect to AH not being instant gratification, i.e. has a learning curve maybe the "Dr. Pepper 10" approach can be taken. "Leave the kiddies at home, this game takes real skill" kinda play on it.
So you think think you're a baad azzz gamer. You can kill a 100 soldiers an hour in Playpen III...but do you have the right stuff? Are you good enough to shoot down a Bruv, Debrody or Ghi? Probably not. But if you think you might have the right stuff. If you can fly, really fly using REAL fighter jock skills - maybe you can join the ranks of the true elite in the skies of AH. Otherwise you best just keep them diapers on sonny and go back to your safe little Immortal Kombat girly games.
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... end it with....
"We don't need no stinkin' ZOMBIES"
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Wonder how many would try AH if there was PlayStation version? Be nice to use my 42" TV rather then my monitor.
With respect to AH not being instant gratification, i.e. has a learning curve maybe the "Dr. Pepper 10" approach can be taken. "Leave the kiddies at home, this game takes real skill" kinda play on it.
So you think think you're a baad azzz gamer. You can kill a 100 soldiers an hour in Playpen III...but do you have the right stuff? Are you good enough to shoot down a Bruv, Debrody or Ghi? Probably not. But if you think you might have the right stuff. If you can fly, really fly using REAL fighter jock skills - maybe you can join the ranks of the true elite in the skies of AH. Otherwise you best just keep them diapers on sonny and go back to your safe little Immortal Kombat girly games.
:aok luv it!
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On a serious note I have outlined a Marketing plan for AH. The first recommendations are free. After this I can be PM'd for an hourly rate or hired as a consultant.
You have to think outside and inside of the box here.
For the company, you have to ask several basic questions:
1) How can we increase fan base but not increase expenses in a disproportionate amount?
2) How can I keep my loyal paying members happy while increasing fan base (paying members) and income?
Remember, AH needs ROI..return on investment no matter what plan they put into effect.
ANSWERS:
1) Offer the Early War Free and remove the 2 week all access trial period completely. No cost to AH as the EW arena is already up and running. Alot of other companies and games are doing this. Free basic membership. This is basic. Free EW to get the taste of it and it's free to have time to complete a small percentage of the high learning curve. If someone is really intersted, they will salivate by seeing all of the other vehicles in the hanger that they cannot use then they will pay to play if they want more. Current and/or fullpaying players will have access to EW arena.
The only update would be to update the "How to Play" page into a simple version as the hardest part of learning AH is the learning curve. Remember, no one reads manuals and "how to" is either by trial and error and a combo of instruction by a friend/player, word of mouth or a quick 1 pager that can be printed.
2) Keep all other access to any other arenas on a pay account as we do today.
Do not add any other paying tiers, it's too confusing and too much work for AH. It's either free (1 EW arena) or it's not.
This keeps the paying core happy because the remaining WW1 (is this even used anymore?), MW and Late War arena or will not be infiltrated by the constant influx of 2 week free noobs asking a million questions. This also keeps AH from having to monitor 2 week subscriptions. The current 4 EW players can stay and play in EW or migrate to MW arena.... but by some of the EW posters they are looking for more players in EW so problem solved.
3) Advertising will be covered in the next Business Plan lesson
Is there a chart or information showing the amount of paying players, new players per month, etc etc or is that all kept secret in the AH vaults? If I had this info I can complete further forecasts and financial scenarios.
Thanks
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Offer the Early War Free and remove the 2 week all access trial period completely.
This idea has lots of merit.
- oldman
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This idea has lots of merit.
- oldman
how would that bring more paying customers? some current would quit to go play there for free.
semp
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Good question and point well taken. The answer is upgrades...people want more not less. Some may change but they would have already left and been playing EW already. AH players like the new planes and updates to the LW arena. EW will not receive "updates". The paying players will always have access so they can play there if they want but lose the benefits of all access if they play for free. The migration to free will be far far far less than what AH will gain.
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On a serious note I have outlined a Marketing plan for AH.
BTW, I meant it as both funny AND practical. With the marketing of Dr. Pepper 10 they are not singling our females without in depth knowledge of their demographic. :old:
That being said, Peyton you have some very good ideas sir. :aok
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Good question and point well taken. The answer is upgrades...people want more not less. Some may change but they would have already left and been playing EW already. AH players like the new planes and updates to the LW arena. EW will not receive "updates". The paying players will always have access so they can play there if they want but lose the benefits of all access if they play for free. The migration to free will be far far far less than what AH will gain.
you assuming that hundreds of players will join to see what it is like. or perhaps only a few will join and see an empty arena in other words get basically an offline arena, which is already provided along with a 2 week trial period.
you guys should let ah market the game as they see fit. I am pretty sure they are not just sitting on their hands waiting for players to fall from the sky. all this ideas have been submitted several times before, hitech actually replied to some a couple of years ago as to reason why not. I guess it got old for them to get unsolicited advise on their strategy.
semp
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Clearly true; yet it's important to keep the smaller arenas around, because they are attractive to players who would otherwise have moved on to other amusements.
- oldman
This is hugely important and why there is a continuing need for more choices.
I could have long ago moved on to Il2 where at any time of the day there are still Axis vs Allies games going that have 15 to 50+ people playing, except for : We still have AvA, I have friends here, I really like the FM, the clipboard interface and the native VOX.
AH still has to find ways to bring more players in. Maybe that's by allowing players to create 24/7 arenas to offer more choices, maybe that means getting back to the Combat Tour project and maybe that means advertising with AARP.
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how would that bring more paying customers? some current would quit to go play there for free.
semp
The first step is to make a promotional 1 month of free playing in EA without any subscription. Nothing to loose for HTC. If the EA becomes most populated arena during this month it is definitely way to go.
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you assuming that hundreds of players will join to see what it is like. or perhaps only a few will join and see an empty arena in other words get basically an offline arena, which is already provided along with a 2 week trial period.
you guys should let ah market the game as they see fit. I am pretty sure they are not just sitting on their hands waiting for players to fall from the sky. all this ideas have been submitted several times before, hitech actually replied to some a couple of years ago as to reason why not. I guess it got old for them to get unsolicited advise on their strategy.
semp
Gun crasher you bring up some good thoughts and thank you for your input.
I am not assuming players will come to AH in droves and or a ton of people will come over because they like what they see. What I am proposing is a strategy to acquire new paying players while creating income for AH with a "minimal" upfront immediate investment from AH using the existing technology and resources that they have. This enables them to compete for dollars in a large online market that is ever so existent in today’s online gaming world. This is a short term plan. AH then needs to think about a long-term strategic growth plan…..but that’s for another discussion.
Anyway, the idea of a Free arena is so people can try it and see if they like it. The biggest drawback of AH is the learning curve. 2 weeks is not enough to "learn" the basics of GVs, planes, ships, commands, etc. If it was, the forums would not be full of thousands of questions on how to play or how to get better.
If the game is hard to play or grasp in the short 2 week time, some people will not join (pay). If there is a longer free period in the EW arena as I proposed, you will have a lot of people trying the game, learning, talking with friends then hopefully switching over to a Pay for Play. Right now I am sure a survey would reveal that if AH polled the free 2 week accounts that did not keep their account, they would say; 1) game is complicated (large learning curve). 2) Free period is not long enough and 3) Mom won’t let me use her credit card anymore. My previous proposals help alleviate the top 2 roadblocks for new players.
After playing EW for free and seeing all of the vehicles you can fly or drive if you pay, I feel this will entice some people to switch. A gamer likes to get better, upgrade, have choices, and be able to use everything in game.
I cannot tell you everyone will switch and who will or won’t try AH. That is impossible to tell. I am simply outlining some changes that AH can do to acquire more players and be more competitive in the online gaming market.
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Too many people might simply stay in the early war arena and would not bother to subscribe because they would already be getting a decent variety of WW2 planes, along with full game play. Perhaps it should be more limited.
The oft-mentioned free WW1 arena might be better. Give them a chance at some basic aerial combat and they might develop a hankering to step up to WW2.
Or maybe a very basic, free wildcat vs zero arena.
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I saw an AH commercial on the military channel the other day. I hadn't seen one prior to that in quite some time.
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I saw an AH commercial on the military channel the other day. I hadn't seen one prior to that in quite some time.
Good point!
As HTC already knows Marketing takes a multiple pronged attack.
Over my 27 years as a self employed businessman I have lived with marketing, I'm volunteering this as what I see as a good approach.
Firstly I for one would pay more for more freedom
Keep the gorilla marketing going.
Those paid TV adds hit the target market for sure. Lets not forget the absence of AH on SIM HQ This is a venue AH needs to be in.
Anything and any sim worth its salt
has a forum or advertises there. http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/category/25/Air_Combat_Civil_Aviation.html
main
http://www.simhq.com/
If you were going to give a free arena
why not the AVA? It delivers more of a sampling of all the aircraft at variety of icon ranges with well balanced plane sets and a variety of terrains.
Or better yet HTC can quickly set up a free arena with the settings he sees fit..
for those that want to taste even more from there. Still keep the two week free trial option available
Only offering a free arena is limiting,
if there isn't more to AH that currently being delivered the new subscribers or free trials will not renew.
That's were a change in the custom arena approach comes into play
Turn the custom arenas on 24/7 and Provide operators logging and stat capability's so they can hold events and allow more diversity
The Idea behind this is many players in other flight sims don't like the MA model
because of the mixed plane sets ect. This isn't a criticism it just a fact. I know of many in other sims that don't join AH because of that.
AH's competition isn't war birds
its il2 and Rise of flight. that is a very big market. Its also a more mature market with more disposable income.
Allowing the custom arenas to develop 24/7 dedicated servers would help draw in a market share that currently is absent
Presently they are excluded or exclude themselves because of the MA model. With 24/7 custom arenas there are no limitations folks can do and set up servers as they wish with no limitations many of those settings would attract players from other sims to set up new subscriptions because there would be servers that appealed to them or they could set up their own dedicated server.
Just look .... Il2 stermvick.
They have a custom arena tool called "Hyper lobby". There are hundreds of servers running utilizing multiple playing styles and there are 700-1000 fight simmers playing nightly.
Many in that market wont fly AH because of the limitations of arenas and arena settings why cut that market out?
Thats only one example there is also Rise of flight.. a ww1 and the many other ww2 flight sims.
Our custom arenas would deliver a Buffet of dedicated servers
appealing to multiple playing styles and settings.
Who doesn't like a buffet.. :)
Lets not forget the web sites that would build around them.
Delivering content that would organically drive subscriptions to the door steps of High Tech Creations
through search engine optimization (self perpetuating free advertising)
The goal is to increase new subscriptions
by opening up the Custom arenas to a new market so all tastes can be satisfied .Ie pull folks from other flight sims that don't ordinarily flight AH because they just don't the limited arena settings that are currently offered.
By allowing these players the ability to start up dedicated servers
AH would open the doors to more player styles which translates into new subscriptions and more recurring revenue.
Combining the fidelity of AH and the great flight model of AH
with a variety of dedicated servers in the custom arena venue AH would eliminate the obstacle that stands in the way of a huge market share not purchasing a subscription.It would also turn AH into a very well balance flight sim platform that would be difficult to match
There would be limited fragmentation
because the target market would not be as interested in the MA style of play as much as they would in the multiple choices that would be available to them in the custom arenas. That along with the ability and freedom to run a server with the settings they enjoy.
Limiting arenas and limiting styles of play also limit the customer base.
Allowing players to use the custom arenas as they wish and giving them logging capabilities has the best potential to increase market share in a dramatic way.
making custom arenas 24/7 and providing logging and stat tools like FSO is a low cost solution to a potentially huge up side.
~S~ RaVe
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+1 to NrRaVeN's ideas.
And to that, I would like to see the ability for skinners to skin planes for use in those custom arenas without the requirement of going through the HTC approval/skin release bottleneck. Open it up! There are fine skins which have been on the shelf at HTC for more than a year.
I can see someone opening a Reno air race arena with P-51D and F4U-4, LA-7 racing skins, or a dedicated South Pacific or North Africa arena with all the important skins included for the theater, and none of the incorrect skins.
Same goes for terrains.
I think 24/7 custom arenas with the ability to use player-developed skins and terrains would drive an explosion in game content.
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+1 to NrRaVeN's ideas.
And to that, I would like to see the ability for skinners to skin planes for use in those custom arenas without the requirement of going through the HTC approval/skin release bottleneck. Open it up! There are fine skins which have been on the shelf at HTC for more than a year.
I can see someone opening a Reno air race arena with P-51D and F4U-4, LA-7 racing skins, or a dedicated South Pacific or North Africa arena with all the important skins included for the theater, and none of the incorrect skins.
Same goes for terrains.
I think 24/7 custom arenas with the ability to use player-developed skins and terrains would drive an explosion in game content.
+1 oboe
Exponential growth potential. All of those terrains and skins can be shared for the benefit of all. Cant forget Logging and stat gathering tools to allow the capability to run more dynamic events on the dedicated servers.. :)
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Someone jokingly remarked about marketing to AARP. That's actually a good idea as older folks might be more interested in AH than WOW. Marketing especially to veterans for obvious reasons as well. The free EW arena idea might work but planes like the Hurricane and others need a remodel if you're going to showcase them. HTC is investing in more terrain eye candy with the coming update, which is a good thing. But quite a few of the older model planes look very out of date compared to even models from years ago. The casual gamer will not be impressed with those AH1 era planes.
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Someone jokingly remarked about marketing to AARP. That's actually a good idea as older folks might be more interested in AH than WOW.
I was only partially joking.
Retirees are increasingly computer savvy and I would guess the core audience of the history and military channel are 50 plus.
Perhaps HTC should offer a small senior discount.
Might boost up the daytime numbers anyway.
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...Offer the Early War Free....
I would SO go there and perkfarm... :)
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I would SO go there and perkfarm... :)
Clubbing baby seals, hmmm, might not help bring in subscribers.
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Clubbing baby seals, hmmm, might not help bring in subscribers.
Like that doesn't already happen. Getting clubbed and wanting to be the club is what keeps me coming back.
AH isn't for the "99%, I get a trophy for showing up crowd". It takes work to get good. Thank God we still have something that works that way.
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Any free arena would become a narcasistic freeloader driven dysfunctional representation of the MA. And as SCCA just warned, the place where the most dysfunctional paying members of the MA would abuse the potential new customers for the sake of their own greed and small egos. The latter easily can be controlled by only allowing trainers access to a free arena to represent the MA culture. The former was only controlled by HTC eliminating the free H2H arenas thus kicking the bums out on their freeloading narcasistic posteriors.
If Aces High were the other games it would not be Aces High. Aces High is not a safe game for weak egos. You cannot trade cheat codes, purchase mods or pay someone to mine status for you. There are very few safe places in the game unless you like paying $15 a month to hide out near the HQ and play by yourself. You have to be euphemistically the same kind of kid who plays sandlot tackle football in a T-Shirt and doesn't mind getting hurt to enjoy the game to it's fullest.
So just like the Marine's you will only get a few who are naturaly oriented with tough egos. It's not fair, and the game is not fair, unless you want to kill the game and the heart of why Aces High is not any of the other games. Marketing is too often lieing to people with weak egos to take advantage of that fact. Laying down a trail of lies to boost a Mark's ego just long enough to get his money is throwing away money in bad feelings and bad person to person PR on the Internet over time.
How do you market playing tackle football in an empty lot with no pads and fewer rules?
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I agree with Bustr. I have no reason to believe that a free arena would work out any differently than free H2H, which for the most part was not a success.
I'm not sure how many remember free H2H, but in my personal experience it was usually filled with griefing chest thumpers. I'd venture that H2H chased as many people from the game as it attracted paying subscribers. It also served as a free laboratory for trying out hacks, cheats, and exploits. I imagine the amount of effort required to oversee the "free" H2H just wasn't worth HTC's effort.
I'd focus more on retention than marketing. The best way to hook someone, IMO, is to offer some basic off-line tutorials that detail controller setup, takeoff, landing, basic flight maneuvers, and a rundown of the view system. Some background on the planes might be nice too. For example, if you bring up a P-51D, you get a brief paragraph or two history of it, its years of operation, its capabilities, etc at the selection screen. Unfortunately, I'm sure that adding such functionality would unacceptably increase download sizes.
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And as SCCA just warned, the place where the most dysfunctional paying members of the MA would abuse the potential new customers for the sake of their own greed and small egos.
Ouch!
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Someone jokingly remarked about marketing to AARP. That's actually a good idea as older folks might be more interested in AH than WOW. Marketing especially to veterans for obvious reasons as well. The free EW arena idea might work but planes like the Hurricane and others need a remodel if you're going to showcase them. HTC is investing in more terrain eye candy with the coming update, which is a good thing. But quite a few of the older model planes look very out of date compared to even models from years ago. The casual gamer will not be impressed with those AH1 era planes.
No AARP would be terrible. That is just a politcal organization. In the short time I was a member they sent nothing but political vote for this and vote for that. Always something to do with handouts.
They made a lot of folks mad evidently because the folks leaving AARP even made the news back then. I was one of the folks who left.
We do not need more folks in game ranting their politics.
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As HTC already knows Marketing takes a multiple pronged attack.
Over my 27 years as a self employed businessman I have lived with marketing, I'm volunteering this as what I see as a good approach.
Those paid TV adds hit the target market for sure. Lets not forget the absence of AH on SIM HQ This is a venue AH needs to be in.
Anything and any sim worth its salt
has a forum or advertises there. http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/category/25/Air_Combat_Civil_Aviation.html
main
http://www.simhq.com/
If you were going to give a free arena
why not the AVA? It delivers more of a sampling of all the aircraft at variety of icon ranges with well balanced plane sets and a variety of terrains.
Or better yet HTC can quickly set up a free arena with the settings he sees fit..
for those that want to taste even more from there. Still keep the two week free trial option available
The Idea behind this is many players in other flight sims don't like the MA model
because of the mixed plane sets ect. This isn't a criticism it just a fact. I know of many in other sims that don't join AH because of that.
AH's competition isn't war birds
its il2 and Rise of flight. that is a very big market. Its also a more mature market with more disposable income.
Allowing the custom arenas to develop 24/7 dedicated servers would help draw in a market share that currently is absent
well years back AH did have advertisements on SimHQ and as TequilaChaser pointed out in the aces high for xmas thread, alot of the air combat articles written and posted at the simHQ link
http://www.simhq.com/_air/acc_library.html were written using aces high as its backdrop Andy Bush and Crenshaw and badboy all wrote articles and training lectures regarding aces high along with some other flight sims like lomac and il2
I am reposting this because TC posted he originally meant to post the following in this topic
I do not understand why so many on these boards thinks that the player base is so low.........
how do any of you come to that conclusion? do any of you have actual facts and documents to back up what you are claiming?
when I log in to the arenas, I see hundreds of new names / people, along with the old players that have always been around that came here from AW, WB, FA, wwiionline .....
yes, I do know that less are playing than their was back in 2007/2008 but the whole world went thru nd some of the world still is going through economical hard times...
but can any of you explain why i see hundreds of new people/names ingame on the roster ( and probably 70 to 80 % of them have not even joined or posted to the AH BBS )
some of you posting in this thread are all doom and gloom and act like AH is dieing off, yet when I look at the ingame roster in the different arenas I see the exact opposite of what some of you are posting here....
anyhows....... this same type of thread always pops up on this bbs at least once a year if not 2 or 3 times........
as for SimHQ, yes their is no forum over there for AH, but AH is well represented ( albeit they are older articles ), AH is well represented in the SimHQ Air Combat corner Library..... a lot of the articles in this SimHQ section is written based on Aces High Game play, etc...... although it would be nice to see some new articles regarding Aces high over there ( hint hint, Badboy ROFL )
take of those rose colored glasses each of you are looking through from yesteryear ! Aces high is still rolling along as it has always done..... someof you are just growing long in the tooth ( meaning you been here awhile and you are getting older and senile LOL )
those other online combat sim MMO's have to spend thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars for advertisement to get their game out in view of the public eye. some of the companies have over a hundred employees on staff trying to design the game ( to me this brings more buggy software in my personal view ), Aces high has done well with very little advertisement , and always remember word of mouth is always the best advertisement.......
<S>
TC
The Topic link > Who got Aces High for Xmas? http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,325890.0.html
funny thing I have noticed looking at all the different flight gaming forums and requests, is that alot of what aces high has now or has developed you see the others wishing for it or for examples the new world of planes are wishing to have air races like aces high has the extreme racing league. you see them requesting for different options like aces high currently offers to be designed to put into their game. You can watch what is typed here or posted here, then go to the WOP forum and it will soon pop up there as a request or suggestion. As hitech posted in this thread already how they did the pricing evaluations and research and then the others followed suit shortly after. now this is not just about aces high and users at world of planes requesting the same. this applys to all the other flight sims as well, including fighter ace and war birds 3 and the later patches for il2 and others.
what is funny is seeing some of the players on this forum, who are in a way vocal here, show up at some new up and coming online flight game and start talking crap yet they never post such drivel here on these boards. if you have a problem or do not like something why go to another flight sim and be all negative, why not express your concerns to the developers of this current game you have played in for 3 4 5 or more years? you look silly to everyone when you show up making posts like that on another sims forum
the players will always want more or want something different, hitech and company has always had a good finger on the pulse of their labor of love. They always read these threads to learn what everyone is thinking and the different opinions, they may even sometimes post in them. but you have to realize hitech and pyro are now the grand fathers of multiplayer online world war II combat flight sims since air warrior has long since been gone
they know exactly what direction their next step needs to be, and remember what is posted on the aces high website
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.
why is everyone wanting to make aces high into something like WoW or WOT or the next overly populated laggy unplayable unsocialable rpg or mmo. that is not what htc wants or desires. most here do not want that either to be honest
sincerely,
MoJo
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I had an idea, it came to me when I was watching "Enemy at the Gates" when the Generals adjunct says "Let them have their hero's sir". An annual World Championship complete with prize money advertised in a challenging way on G4TV and at gaming conventions. Probably beyond the budget it would be sweet to see a commercial that begins with the words "So you think you can game huh?
I know in my heart that if top tier elite gamers had any idea what a challenge this game is they would flock to us and never look back. :noid :bolt:
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Saw 530 players on last night in the LW arena. Someone is doing something right somewhere. :cheers:
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HTC Staff Bobble head dolls.
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IMHO it has been all downhill since they they split the MA. That's when I and a bunch of other people left the game. I remember glorious 600+ player battles. AH should go back to that...
Well seems it is better than that, there are over 700 players in tonight 12/30/2011, Kind if shoots your theory down right? :x
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Well seems it is better than that, there are over 700 players in tonight 12/30/2011, Kind if shoots your theory down right? :x
Actually you both are wrong to some extend. The numbers went substantially up after the arena split (2006), peaking 2007-2008. But today they are lower than even before the split. Must be for different reasons then ;)
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Actually you both are wrong to some extend. The numbers went substantially up after the arena split (2006), peaking 2007-2008. But today they are lower than even before the split. Must be for different reasons then ;)
I started playing in 2005 and have rarely ever seen more than 700 players on at a time since I started playing. But then I am sure you will have a graph to show me wrong. :x
In reality I have not seen that much of a change in players, there have always been hords there have always been HOers and there have always been collisions and vulchers etc. etc.
same as today. There is always a fight of some type in the MA be it tanks, hords, NOEs just look for them. Always find it humous when some on logs on and say "where is the fight"
pull up a map and there they are unless it from a CV and no one has upped yet. :banana:
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I started playing in 2005 and have rarely ever seen more than 700 players on at a time since I started playing. But then I am sure you will have a graph to show me wrong. :xht"
Graphs are out at the moment, but the numbers are there. You can even get a rough estimate yourself by looking at the plane statistics for each tour. (My AH stats 2007 showed about 9 million kills, this year we probably end up at ~5.3 million)
In players online we have something 2/3rd compared to the peak era. Years ago, we had up to 1000 players online in all arenas on a few golden days.
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Actually you both are wrong to some extend. The numbers went substantially up after the arena split (2006), peaking 2007-2008. But today they are lower than even before the split. Must be for different reasons then ;)
Peek was Feb 2009
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Peek was Feb 2009
I suppose that's about actual subscribers? (Something which I of course can not track, nor is this business aspect my concern.. I'm just looking at activity which is most interesting to me as a player ;)
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If I wanted to increase player base...
I would target the specific market that the more hardcore AH players, or future players would be interested in. I believe that AH is very much a niche market, geared towards someone who is fantastically interested in flight, and needs an outlet for their dreams.
What I would do:
I would specifically advertise towards young individuals that their dreams are to fly (tupac) for example. These people not only want to (or in his case do) fly, but also want something more, whether it be the excitment of combat, or the chance to learn/progress in their own flying ability. When I was 17 I went to an airshow and saw a B-17 at Pease Tradeport, I believe it was the 909. I was hooked, I wanted to know everything about it, how it worked, how it flew, everything! I got my subsciption to AW3 a couple months later. I also took my first flight in a cessna 172 soon after.
I would advertise towards the AKAK's and the Krusty's and the WrngWays. These people I feel love the historical aspect of the game, and can in effect be a part of the history.
I would advertise to the *cough* Midway's, people who have the only game I know that allows them to excell at what they do ingame, and have the ability to consistently improve with a zero cap on how skilled they can get.
I would advertise to the snails out there, who want to take a game, and be able to look at it as not just a game, but a wealth of knowledge, and a puzzle that can be solved, and by careful planning and due diligence can create their own game atmosphere.
I would not Advertise:
To the discovery channel. Watching a TV show about dogfights certainly might give you the arcade idea of shooting down me109's left and right in your spitfire, but this is not a game that allows that. Especially considering a 2 week trial basically lets you know you suck as a pilot. These people will probably like WoA.
To the general public, this is not that type of game. It's a niche audience, and must be treated as such. None of my friends understand, or will why I like this game so much. They also will never understand how excited I get about history, and the magic of flight, or how gratifying it is to get that ONE kill, that took 10minutes of climbing, 2 minutes of planning attack, and 15 seconds of scoring a kill.
So in summary, to increase player base I believe the best way is to target the specific indivudals that want to play this game, but do not realize it yet. I mean come on, you just went to an airshow and got to actually touch, and go inside an actual B-17?? Hell yes you'd grab your free trial if it was available to you! and you'd probably pay because what else allows you to continue that true excitement after the airshow ends?
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Has AcesHigh ever took a Demo Tent and put it up at airshows to showcase?
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MK-84, have you played in scenarios yet? If you haven't (or even if you have), please join us in the next one, which will probably run in March.
What the most-recent scenario was like:
http://www.electraforge.com/brooke/flightsims/scenarios/201110_enemyCoastAhead/aar_frame2.htm
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First up the majority of them guys will go to World of Planes, a lot of people equate realism or a realistic flight model to how a game looks, take IL2 for an example I'd describe it as an immersion game not a combat simulator. World of Planes looks pretty but not real in the same way IL2 does, it looks like your watching a painting of the scene, even watching the cgi in red tails trailers it also looks like a painting.
A lot of these people simply won't want to wait maybe a year or 2 or more to get reasonably compotent in a game. They want some success within at least the first few hours. In Aces High that won't happen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBHQMizctgY (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBHQMizctgY)
Funny reading up on this people are whining about how they hope this game will take skill rather than upgrades, you'd have to wonder why they didn't just go play Aces High, probably because they are full of it :lol
I was thinking back to the first time I played this game I actually logged off after an hour or so and forgot about it for about 4-5 weeks when I came back my trial had expired but there was still H2H free 8 player.
Gradually after about 10 or so new ids over the course of maybe 2 years I was hooked, when H2H went I found I had to subscribe to get my fix. Point being it was the fact that H2H was free that got me hooked, if I had been straight up asked for payment I would have forgotten all about Aces High and deleted it.
I'm working from memory here but I think H2H would have went in 2007 sometime?? I remember looking at one of Lusche's pie charts the peak of players was in 2008. Just saying free H2H might be the reason the numbers have declined.
Realism?
Flight Simulator X and its realistic commercial aviation enthusiasts, air control type servers speaking the jargon.
Here:
http://www.google.com/search?q=Falcon+4&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a
or here:
http://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/
hands down, realism! But not WWII.
I just bought a new Alienware Aurora to play the Warthog.
There are other sim games and other communities as large as Aces High.
You have groups of people that do varous activities with similar interests in many forms. I call it the "tribe" mentality, be it home hobby machine shop which I am a member, bowling, archery, rifle competition, flying RCs, various forms of flight sims, or one to one war gaming.
There are a group of dedicated people here that like Aces High, that will never leave, no matter what they do to the game, until the owner here decides to pull the plug or sell it to ABC.
The big GV change that killed the usefulness of doing the GV part of this game lost a few dedicated, long-life Aces High players. The S.O.A.R. squad does not exist and some of those players left the game OR are still here under other names, which the management could verify easily enough.
I am a retired machinist and toolmaker. I had my own business for awhile. You betcha' HiTech sits down, most likely weekly and has its meetings to re-evaluate how they are doing and where they are going.
Seems to me this sim, Aces High, is going the way of an arcade game, to pick-up the younger crowd, which is sad.
I tried World of Tanks. Realistic? Are you kidding? Stupid game and very much arcade. I expect anything put out by these guys will be similar. Not me.
The main draw I like about Aces High is their company owned, central servers; the text chatter, the radio, and the flying aerial combat. They lost a fan of doing the GV aspect of playing this game.
I wish HiTech would consider doing Korea, the F-86 versus the Mig as a separate entity to itself. I would spend another $15 per month.
BTW, $15 per month is nothing compared to most expensive hobbies. Sounds like that attitude is the kids talking...
Marketing and as Mel Brooks likes to say, "Merchandising!" is where the future of this game is. Economics theory: all products have a life span. If you do not re-think the equation and your future to new ways of presenting your product, be it Coke, Cheerios, Tide, Crest toothpaste, etc., you are going to eventually lose.
At least you do not have to bid on products by contract and lose by just a penny per piece!
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MK-84, have you played in scenarios yet? If you haven't (or even if you have), please join us in the next one, which will probably run in March.
What the most-recent scenario was like:
http://www.electraforge.com/brooke/flightsims/scenarios/201110_enemyCoastAhead/aar_frame2.htm
Yes, I have.
Fun!
Not done often enough.
I'm looking for a squad, but not using this username.
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I started playing in 2005 and have rarely ever seen more than 700 players on at a time since I started playing. But then I am sure you will have a graph to show me wrong. :x
In reality I have not seen that much of a change in players, there have always been hords there have always been HOers and there have always been collisions and vulchers etc. etc.
same as today. There is always a fight of some type in the MA be it tanks, hords, NOEs just look for them. Always find it humous when some on logs on and say "where is the fight"
pull up a map and there they are unless it from a CV and no one has upped yet. :banana:
I do not know the membership numbers. Google must have internet statistics on who uses Aces High.
Those 700 players I bet are not always the same guys. Aces High could have 5,000 members, they just do not play ALL the time.
The membership must be large to soley be the income of the AH crew. I doubt they live in caves or grass huts.
Lately, Late War averages about 400 players at prime time Eastern time until the Pacific timer's go to bed, then it drastically thins out in the wee hours.
The game I went to after the big GV change here, is, DCS: A-10C Warthog. GVs are done differently there and one of the drawbacks I dislike. That game has a large USA, British Isles, European and other countries following. Warthog when it was 1st marketed was $60. Several patches later and lots of guys buying, it is now under $40.
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I do not know the membership numbers. Google must have internet statistics on who uses Aces High.
Those 700 players I bet are not always the same guys. Aces High could have 5,000 members, they just do not play ALL the time.
That I understand, my only point was that at the moment I looked at players logged on it was around 700. Not sure what you don't like about gvs,
I know I do not like the fact that tanks can easily shoot dn an aircraft this is not a bit realistic. Not talking about anti aircraft vehicles.
The one thing I really dislike about a recent change is what has been done to my mouse control and getting my curser back
When I want it. :cry
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Well seems it is better than that, there are over 700 players in tonight 12/30/2011, Kind if shoots your theory down right? :x
After Christmas spike....just like gym memberships
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I agree with Bustr. I have no reason to believe that a free arena would work out any differently than free H2H, which for the most part was not a success.
I'm not sure how many remember free H2H, but in my personal experience it was usually filled with griefing chest thumpers. I'd venture that H2H chased as many people from the game as it attracted paying subscribers. It also served as a free laboratory for trying out hacks, cheats, and exploits. I imagine the amount of effort required to oversee the "free" H2H just wasn't worth HTC's effort.
I'd focus more on retention than marketing. The best way to hook someone, IMO, is to offer some basic off-line tutorials that detail controller setup, takeoff, landing, basic flight maneuvers, and a rundown of the view system. Some background on the planes might be nice too. For example, if you bring up a P-51D, you get a brief paragraph or two history of it, its years of operation, its capabilities, etc at the selection screen. Unfortunately, I'm sure that adding such functionality would unacceptably increase download sizes.
That's why EW should be free. H2H free is crazy. how can you fly H2H if you don't even know how to play the game? the learning curve is the biggest hurdle of the game, so if you allow players to communicate with each other, share knowledge, have their friends play, and/or use vehicles besides the planes, you allow people to overcome the learning curve but also allow them to communicate and learn. The EW free idea will give players the ability to see all the features Ah has to offer. If you want more, pay for full access. you can still have training in EW. Trainers can be online or go to a remote airbase. Or do what we all do, type a message on vox.
Retention while a good idea cannot be the only money maker for AH in the future. Yes keep the paying core group happy, but you need new players for more income.
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Aces High is the only active indie game I know off the top of my head that requires a subscription to play. Time of Defiance also used this method before shutting down their server. A lot of failing subscription based MMORPG titles like AION and DC universe recently switched to the free to play with micro transaction method and saw a huge surge in both membership and profit. See this artile for more detail: http://www.qj.net/ps3/news/dc-universe-free-to-play-and-profitable.html
"700% increase in revenue" - "We are at a 900% concurrent increase since we launched f2p."
There is no doubt that the free 2 play with micro transaction method could become the status quo in future. Buy to play will still have its place of course, mainly for AAA titles with huge overhead costs like Guild Wars 2. Aces High could make a profit from selling cosmetic features like plane liveries for example.
As a seven year consumer of Aces High, I feel the software hasn't evolved with the times and is now past its sell by date. Maybe it's time for HTC to start a fresh?
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When I first started AH, it was on a free 2-week trial. They had me hooked after the first day - not because of the flight model or graphics, but because I found some decent guys to fly with and we had fun. Single players will come and go, but get someone flying with a bunch of guys they like and they are hooked forever.
What this means as far as bringing in more NEW players and retaining them is that there needs to be an effort to locate new players and get them into missions and squads.
Suggestion: anyone on a trial account automatically gets a special invite to any mission posted in their country. Also make sure they have mission channel pre-programmed into their comms.
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Aces High is the only active indie game I know off the top of my head that requires a subscription to play. Time of Defiance also used this method before shutting down their server. A lot of failing subscription based MMORPG titles like AION and DC universe recently switched to the free to play with micro transaction method and saw a huge surge in both membership and profit. See this artile for more detail: http://www.qj.net/ps3/news/dc-universe-free-to-play-and-profitable.html
"700% increase in revenue" - "We are at a 900% concurrent increase since we launched f2p."
There is no doubt that the free 2 play with micro transaction method could become the status quo in future. Buy to play will still have its place of course, mainly for AAA titles with huge overhead costs like Guild Wars 2. Aces High could make a profit from selling cosmetic features like plane liveries for example.
As a seven year consumer of Aces High, I feel the software hasn't evolved with the times and is now past its sell by date. Maybe it's time for HTC to start a fresh?
you do understand that the people that pay, pay for everybody else to play for free. just like in wot, it is not free for some as they must pay more than if there was to be a subscription for everybody to pay. I would switch to free play and fly the free rides, let somebody else pay my way.
but where exactly are you going with these we need more players marketing campaign. sure you have more numbers, but numbers dont necessarily equal better game play, you just have more numbers. arenas will never have more than 400 or 500 players in them due to the fact that they become chaotic. if we get more players then, there will be just 2 LWA's just like before or maybe 3.
semp
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you do understand that the people that pay, pay for everybody else to play for free. just like in wot, it is not free for some as they must pay more than if there was to be a subscription for everybody to pay. I would switch to free play and fly the free rides, let somebody else pay my way.
but where exactly are you going with these we need more players marketing campaign. sure you have more numbers, but numbers dont necessarily equal better game play, you just have more numbers. arenas will never have more than 400 or 500 players in them due to the fact that they become chaotic. if we get more players then, there will be just 2 LWA's just like before or maybe 3.
semp
I'm in agreement with your first paragraph. People value content differently and will choose to pay accordingly.
I didn't understand your second paragraph, sorry.
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I'll say this about AH. At least it works. I bought IL2 COD and your lucky to find a server on this side of the pond with anyone in it. And even luckier to even be able to play it. ROF is a nice write but its a WW-l game and you kinda have to be a WW-l nut to play it a lot. WW2OL has turned into a vacant desert with all its bugs and hasnt had a new airplane since I started playing it. That game is on its way out.
Im not saying Im coming back to AH but at least it works and they have a vast selection to fly and drive. Unfortunatly the future of gaming is youth and the WW-2 genre is getting smaller each year. Kids would rather play Skyrim or BF3...ect then keep History alive.
AH is still a good game, with a good crowd. Graphics aint everything believe me.
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you do understand that the people that pay, pay for everybody else to play for free. just like in wot, it is not free for some as they must pay more than if there was to be a subscription for everybody to pay. I would switch to free play and fly the free rides, let somebody else pay my way.
but where exactly are you going with these we need more players marketing campaign. sure you have more numbers, but numbers dont necessarily equal better game play, you just have more numbers. arenas will never have more than 400 or 500 players in them due to the fact that they become chaotic. if we get more players then, there will be just 2 LWA's just like before or maybe 3.
semp
Well to clear the way of "moochers" like you I'd set time limits.
Early War arena becomes the free arena. Score doesn't reset in there EVER! Set a limit on score/kills. Once you hit that limit you get a pop-up when you try to join the EW arena that says you have exceeded the training period. To continue to play you must sign up for a subscription. If the numbers are set you could make it run a month of more before a player hits the limit. This gives a person time enough to figure out the game and be able to have more than half a chance in the main arenas. The limit would also keep the "sharks" out of the pond giving the new players a chance to fight players of a more equal skill and so not get discouraged as fast. It could even be set up so that those that already, or have had an account for the last 3 months are automatically locked out. They could make it so "Trainers" were always allowed in there to help out when they could.
This way you have a less hostel environment for new players to get their feet wet and test out the game. With a little coaching from trainers you could bring along a good crowd. As more people are added to the Mains, yes I'm sure we would see the 2 LW arenas or 3 LW arenas be put into effect. As long as the numbers support more arenas, I'm all for it. More places to find a good fight.
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another problem with the F2P model and AH is that quite a few of the guys who've been around a while only really fly high ENY/EW type aircraft. a significant number of long term subscribers could play the free game with the free aircraft. or just chuck in a few bucks one-off for their favoured MW ride.
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another problem with the F2P model and AH is that quite a few of the guys who've been around a while only really fly high ENY/EW type aircraft. a significant number of long term subscribers could play the free game with the free aircraft. or just chuck in a few bucks one-off for their favoured MW ride.
Not if they locked out players after reaching a certain level. After all you can still fly those planes in MW and LW too.
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Well to clear the way of "moochers" like you I'd set time limits.
Early War arena becomes the free arena. Score doesn't reset in there EVER! Set a limit on score/kills. Once you hit that limit you get a pop-up when you try to join the EW arena that says you have exceeded the training period. To continue to play you must sign up for a subscription. If the numbers are set you could make it run a month of more before a player hits the limit. This gives a person time enough to figure out the game and be able to have more than half a chance in the main arenas. The limit would also keep the "sharks" out of the pond giving the new players a chance to fight players of a more equal skill and so not get discouraged as fast. It could even be set up so that those that already, or have had an account for the last 3 months are automatically locked out. They could make it so "Trainers" were always allowed in there to help out when they could.
This way you have a less hostel environment for new players to get their feet wet and test out the game. With a little coaching from trainers you could bring along a good crowd. As more people are added to the Mains, yes I'm sure we would see the 2 LW arenas or 3 LW arenas be put into effect. As long as the numbers support more arenas, I'm all for it. More places to find a good fight.
how long till somebody installs ah on their second laptop and gets into the "beginers" arena and stars pawning everybody just for kicks? you gonna have sharks everywhere no matter what.
semp
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how long till somebody installs ah on their second laptop and gets into the "beginers" arena and stars pawning everybody just for kicks? you gonna have sharks everywhere no matter what.
semp
Exactly. I myself have 72 laptops with 72 unique IP address, and that's in only one of my 13 houses. That will give me almost unlimited hours to grief new guys with. I've heard other good players have dozens of laptops for griefing also.
(and just in case this was missed)
/sarcasm
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I've posted this before but I think a tiered system would work. Give everyone WWI for free to start to learn a few of the basics. Add EW and the TA for $5/mo., add MW, AvA and DA for $10/mo. and add LW, scenarios/events and access to perk rides (not available with lower subscriptions) for the full subscription price. This is just an example. Access, money and time can be tweaked.
This get's people gradually warmed up to the game, fills some of the emptier arenas and might encourage more high ENY plane useage in the LWA since many will cut their teeth on EW/MW planes.
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Exactly. I myself have 72 laptops with 72 unique IP address, and that's in only one of my 13 houses. That will give me almost unlimited hours to grief new guys with. I've heard other good players have dozens of laptops for griefing also.
(and just in case this was missed)
/sarcasm
check your pm's i dont want to get banned.
semp
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MK-84, have you played in scenarios yet? If you haven't (or even if you have), please join us in the next one, which will probably run in March.
What the most-recent scenario was like:
http://www.electraforge.com/brooke/flightsims/scenarios/201110_enemyCoastAhead/aar_frame2.htm
I have in the past, in AH and in AW3 and they BY FAR were the best flying experiences I've had. I hate to say it but the lower turnout makes it hard for me to justify flying for an hour or more with only 30+ players in the arena. I cant believe that so few don't drop everything they're doing and join in, but maybe its a self perpetuating problem that I'm now a part of :/
Gonna make it a point to be at the next frame!
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WW1 - free to play
TA / DA / EW / MW $7.50
MA $15
Another possibility make a discounted MA access with only 40+ ENY planes enabled.
For me the arenas are a little under-populated when I play so any incentives could even be time related.
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WW1 - free to play
TA / DA / EW / MW $7.50
MA $15
Another possibility make a discounted MA access with only 40+ ENY planes enabled.
For me the arenas are a little under-populated when I play so any incentives could even be time related.
And what happens if the "cheaper" subscribers think that that is all there is to AH?
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they can see the arena list/player numbers then curiosity will get the better of them and sub up the full price.
Or just put the player numbers visibly on the website somewhere. People will then be like wow 400 people playing together screw il2's 32-64 player nonsense.
It seems to me HTC wanted to spread the load across other arenas but everyone wanted to be sticks in the mud and play Main war. Continuing the gameplay related whines.
Reduced cost of the "empty" arenas is one way of getting more people in there.
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^ An excellent argument. I wonder if theres a way to prove/disprove this idea.
On one hand we introduce many people to the game :aok
On another, we feed them unrealistic information as to what it's really like :bhead
Will extending the proverbially carrot be enough to lead them into a paid sub.?
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I think that if HTC made a whole arena free then it would attract a group of free playing folk who have no interest in the the other arenas as may carry various charges. With respect to the WW1 arena the risk is that it is populated by WW1 players who have no interest in WW2 anyway.
For me logic dictates that any free access should be to either the late war arena or all arenas but severely restricted (by ride type) such that there is a strong motivation to upgrade the account.
I would agree(retrospectively) that any sort of war bird fighter would just create a massive group of players flying this fighter for free. The danger being that they start to horde in this type of bird alone. (thus ruling out even a P40B and even the c202).
In effect the Free choice could be severely limited to variances of the M3 and the Storch, maybe the C47.
In this way the free players take on the role of mechanised infantry.
If there were a "half price" account then this could be for Gv's only.
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I've posted this before but I think a tiered system would work. Give everyone WWI for free to start to learn a few of the basics. Add EW and the TA for $5/mo., add MW, AvA and DA for $10/mo. and add LW, scenarios/events and access to perk rides (not available with lower subscriptions) for the full subscription price. This is just an example. Access, money and time can be tweaked.
This get's people gradually warmed up to the game, fills some of the emptier arenas and might encourage more high ENY plane useage in the LWA since many will cut their teeth on EW/MW planes.
I don't think a tiered set-up would be good. While I think it would bring in more people I see one big problem with it. Whats to keep the sharks away from the new guys?
Learning this game is tuff enough, add in the frustration of getting hammer before you get a half mile from your base.
I think that if HTC made a whole arena free then it would attract a group of free playing folk who have no interest in the the other arenas as may carry various charges. With respect to the WW1 arena the risk is that it is populated by WW1 players who have no interest in WW2 anyway.
For me logic dictates that any free access should be to either the late war arena or all arenas but severely restricted (by ride type) such that there is a strong motivation to upgrade the account.
I would agree(retrospectively) that any sort of war bird fighter would just create a massive group of players flying this fighter for free. The danger being that they start to horde in this type of bird alone. (thus ruling out even a P40B and even the c202).
In effect the Free choice could be severely limited to variances of the M3 and the Storch, maybe the C47.
In this way the free players take on the role of mechanised infantry.
If there were a "half price" account then this could be for Gv's only.
The problem with limiting the planes but opening the arenas to the guys is everyone will be looking for those plane types as "easy" kills. This will add to the "shark" issue.
Opening a free arena like EW to ONLY new players and Trainers will give new players a chance to learn the game with out the top dogs, or even "average" players hunting them for easy kills. They must put a limit on the free part as they are in the business to make money. 2 weeks is too short a time. Most players today are gamers. Gamers don't read instruction, they don't do training, they don't practice. They jump right in and stumble n. Doing that in this game doesn't get you much farther than learning to fly in the horde.
If a new player is given time to learn the game with out having to hide in a horde to survive you may get two good things out of it. First, a player that becomes interested in the game, enough so that upgrading to the mains isn't even a question. Second, a player that moves into the main with a decent base in playing the game. Someone who knows how to take off and land, how to dive bomb and level bomb and knows the difference between the two, knows which plane "is the best" and why.
A lot of the players that have come here were from other flight sims. They had an idea how to fly.... well sort of :devil Now it's more generic, with a wider band of backgrounds. Giving the new players more time to get on to some steady footing BEFORE running into what "IS" the mains can only be a good thing.
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Said exactly what the Fugitive has just stated in my earlier posts....+1
Also I might add, tiering is too complicated and will turn AH into NetFlix.
Stick with simple solutions that pay off.
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I don't know why you bother. HTC will do what HTC wants to do. This thread is like the entire Wishlist forum... Allowed to exist so it appears that you have a voice.
You don't.
Even the times where it seems like you do have a voice are like cheap magic tricks where your decisions are made for you "Here are 4 planes we're gonna make anyway, why don't you vote on which one we make first".
AH gameplay will remain broken. AH will remain 10 years out of date. AH; "Working as intended".
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I don't know why you bother. HTC will do what HTC wants to do. This thread is like the entire Wishlist forum... Allowed to exist so it appears that you have a voice.
You don't.
Even the times where it seems like you do have a voice are like cheap magic tricks where your decisions are made for you "Here are 4 planes we're gonna make anyway, why don't you vote on which one we make first".
AH gameplay will remain broken. AH will remain 10 years out of date. AH; "Working as intended".
I agree.
I radio chatted to a guy today I've known for awhile. I found out another long time Aces High player, himself, is calling it quits after over 10 years loyalty to the game. I have known a few other game old timers that quit the game basically for the same reasons, the game has changed too much and they do not like to play it any more the way it is.
But that is OK. There are more newcomers to the game that do not remember how it used to be and they like it. One more old timer quits, 5 new guys join up.
I know these sentences will get a reply by an upper echelon guy that this is nothing more than nonsense and hearsay. My reply? Not true.
The freebie issue? Not likely and I do not agree getting it free. It is quite remarkable we get the offline version of the game for free.
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*MK rant alert* :/
I believe the marketing direction is attempting to cater to the "general public" <--I use that loosely, take it for how you want.
What I mean is subscription through numbers, If I can contact 1million people, X people will join. (Thats how I view the commercials on Discovery)
While this is certainly true and will get subscriptions, I would wager that it caters to MA players (which there is so much more) and that considering the very steep learning curve, and the tendency for the "veterans?" to make it difficult, tend to...leave frequently.
Lets face it, a commercial on Discovery is unlikely to yield a player who wants to fly for 3 hours recreating a battle in Guadalcanal. (in numbers)
Most of them would be better off with an arcade/style sim, WOA?
But ask any...ANY, pilots out there, Columbo, Tupac...others...would you guys even touch WOA? Or what about the people that want to be like them (the pilot part ;) I'm one, and for me this is a combat sim, that goes above what else is available in terms of the experience)
I would like to see more players with the same retarded enthusiasm that I have, and I think that this is what people mean by "it's not the same anymore"
I wonder if we are a minority or a majority vs the (loosely arcade players)
I wonder who is easier to recruit as a customer? I think it's the hardercore players. (the ones that want to fly for 3hours in a scenario, for 5min or less of combat, and then try to make it home)
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*MK rant alert* :/
I believe the marketing direction is attempting to cater to the "general public" <--I use that loosely, take it for how you want.
What I mean is subscription through numbers, If I can contact 1million people, X people will join. (Thats how I view the commercials on Discovery)
While this is certainly true and will get subscriptions, I would wager that it caters to MA players (which there is so much more) and that considering the very steep learning curve, and the tendency for the "veterans?" to make it difficult, tend to...leave frequently.
Lets face it, a commercial on Discovery is unlikely to yield a player who wants to fly for 3 hours recreating a battle in Guadalcanal. (in numbers)
Most of them would be better off with an arcade/style sim, WOA?
But ask any...ANY, pilots out there, Columbo, Tupac...others...would you guys even touch WOA? Or what about the people that want to be like them (the pilot part ;) I'm one, and for me this is a combat sim, that goes above what else is available in terms of the experience)
I would like to see more players with the same retarded enthusiasm that I have, and I think that this is what people mean by "it's not the same anymore"
I wonder if we are a minority or a majority vs the (loosely arcade players)
I wonder who is easier to recruit as a customer? I think it's the hardercore players. (the ones that want to fly for 3hours in a scenario, for 5min or less of combat, and then try to make it home)
Could be worse.
Startup on tarmac takes 10 minutes. Taxi to runway, CORRECTLY without going back to tarmac and starting over.
CORRECTLY taking off, flying out to target / engagement zone without hitting birds, random system failure, or that SAM you did not see coming, never even getting your 5 minutes worth.
Most of the guys I hang out with in Aces High (and other sims) but mostly here, are former military guys, the Southern gentlemen and they are most likely the guys answering the call from "The Military Channel" ad.
There are a few guys in here that are former military aviation pilots and quite a few real live pilots and a few guys that train real pilots; as is true with the other flight sim games.
We the minority? To Aces High? I've seen same, not arcade players, on the other flight sim MMORPGs. Try the other air combat sims, Aces High is not unique in finding dedicated, hardcore people to learn the game and fly air combat sorties, not arcade in nature.
The GV and ship-board gunnery has changed a whole lot is what I mean by "it is not the same anymore" . I really miss the ship board guns of 2 years ago.
HiTech said once, paraphrased, "if you can do better, create your game, go to the bank for money to get setup and business plan in hand and get going with your new venture".
It is his game, he will do what he wants to do.
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Could be worse.
Startup on tarmac takes 10 minutes. Taxi to runway, CORRECTLY without going back to tarmac and starting over.
CORRECTLY taking off, flying out to target / engagement zone without hitting birds, random system failure, or that SAM you did not see coming, never even getting your 5 minutes worth.
Most of the guys I hang out with in Aces High (and other sims) but mostly here, are former military guys, the Southern gentlemen and they are most likely the guys answering the call from "The Military Channel" ad.
There are a few guys in here that are former military aviation pilots and quite a few real live pilots and a few guys that train real pilots; as is true with the other flight sim games.
We the minority? To Aces High? I've seen same, not arcade players, on the other flight sim MMORPGs. Try the other air combat sims, Aces High is not unique in finding dedicated, hardcore people to learn the game and fly air combat sorties, not arcade in nature.
The GV and ship-board gunnery has changed a whole lot is what I mean by "it is not the same anymore" . I really miss the ship board guns of 2 years ago.
HiTech said once, paraphrased, "if you can do better, create your game, go to the bank for money to get setup and business plan in hand and get going with your new venture".
It is his game, he will do what he wants to do.
I really think you have your own agenda here or did not get the gist of my post at all.
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Daubie,
I would think anyone that has been in Aces High anywhere from 3 to 5 years or longer...... is truly subjected to becoming burnt out........... depending on how long they would play each day, each week, each month....... it is easier to say I am quitting because I do not like how Aces High is these days and blame it on that excuse than to man up and tell it like it is........ they are simply burnt out.......
I know many who have played multiple years longer than myself...... and I have seen them go , then come back....... then go again....... then come back......
I am not saying what your friends told you is not true..... they may very well feel like that and may feel it is time to move on....... I have seen some of my friends and squad members do the same........ but me personally, I still associate it with them having finally come to a full burn out of playing......
they can see the arena list/player numbers then curiosity will get the better of them and sub up the full price.
Or just put the player numbers visibly on the website somewhere. People will then be like wow 400 people playing together screw il2's 32-64 player nonsense.
I think that is a great idea, Bruv...... + 1 :aok
TC
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<snip> They jump right in and stumble n. Doing that in this game doesn't get you much farther than learning to fly in the horde.
If a new player is given time to learn the game with out having to hide in a horde to survive you may get two good things out of it.
I think the assumption that "education" will avert horde tendancy is fundementally flawed.
I would expect that you will find the same mix of free players in EW as you do "paying" players in LW each doin much the same.
"Sharks" are every where........ in every game and every noob learns stuff the hard way cos (in general) he/she is too lazy to learn any other an its all in fun.
Fundementally, IMO if a free player is in the same arena as account players but severely ride restricted then there will come a point when he/she wants what the other players are enjoying. Even if it is his/her dream to ride with the horde in his/her bomb toting cannon firing uber ride so that he/she to can become a "Shark".
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I think that if HTC made a whole arena free then it would attract a group of free playing folk who have no interest in the the other arenas as may carry various charges. With respect to the WW1 arena the risk is that it is populated by WW1 players who have no interest in WW2 anyway.
Players who weren't going to pay anyways playing for free and providing more fun for paying players who want to enjoy both WW1 & WW2 is not a risk. The risk would be paying WW2 players settling for a free WW1 arena and canceling their subscriptions. I can't imagine this being a high number.
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I don't know why you bother. HTC will do what HTC wants to do. This thread is like the entire Wishlist forum... Allowed to exist so it appears that you have a voice.
You don't.
Even the times where it seems like you do have a voice are like cheap magic tricks where your decisions are made for you "Here are 4 planes we're gonna make anyway, why don't you vote on which one we make first".
AH gameplay will remain broken. AH will remain 10 years out of date. AH; "Working as intended".
:aok
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Players who weren't going to pay anyways playing for free and providing more fun for paying players who want to enjoy both WW1 & WW2 is not a risk. The risk would be paying WW2 players settling for a free WW1 arena and canceling their subscriptions. I can't imagine this being a high number.
I agree. but given that premice what advantage is a free WW1 arena to HTC?
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I agree. but given that premice what advantage is a free WW1 arena to HTC?
1. Populated WW1 arena will allow for "something else" fun for subscribed customers to do in the game. This will help sustain active players longer before burning out and taking breaks potentially.
2. Would open the flood gates for players to come to the game. When you integrate guys playing for free and paying customers, the paying customers act as free marketing for the paying WW2 arena. They will say things "This was fun, but i'm back off to the WW2 arena". Many free WW1 players will inquire about WW2 and will realize that is where the fun is at.
This would be the smartest thing HTC could do, and advertise the heck out of it. We'd be back to split WW2 arenas in no time! :lol
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I think the assumption that "education" will avert horde tendancy is fundementally flawed.
I would expect that you will find the same mix of free players in EW as you do "paying" players in LW each doin much the same.
"Sharks" are every where........ in every game and every noob learns stuff the hard way cos (in general) he/she is too lazy to learn any other an its all in fun.
Fundementally, IMO if a free player is in the same arena as account players but severely ride restricted then there will come a point when he/she wants what the other players are enjoying. Even if it is his/her dream to ride with the horde in his/her bomb toting cannon firing uber ride so that he/she to can become a "Shark".
Most of us that are more comfortable outside of the horde have come from another flight sim. With that extra time and training we feel a bit more comfortable fighting with out 10 wingman, most prefer it with out all those wingman. Letting a new players get his feet wet fighting players with the same skill set will give them a chance to win now and then and not be so frustrated.
That is why the limits MUST be set. As new players excel and start to become "sharks" they hit that score/kill level that locks them out. New players and old players don't mix until the new as learned some skills and has gotten a number of kills under his belt.
Players who weren't going to pay anyways playing for free and providing more fun for paying players who want to enjoy both WW1 & WW2 is not a risk. The risk would be paying WW2 players settling for a free WW1 arena and canceling their subscriptions. I can't imagine this being a high number.
I don't think so either. I'm sure there are a number of clueless, skillless dweebs that would feel they have to "cheat" the system to get their "kills" but I think they would be few and far between. Also, I'm sure the skilled programmers at HTC would be able to monitor and curb that kind of action.
Daubie,
I would think anyone that has been in Aces High anywhere from 3 to 5 years or longer...... is truly subjected to becoming burnt out........... depending on how long they would play each day, each week, each month....... it is easier to say I am quitting because I do not like how Aces High is these days and blame it on that excuse than to man up and tell it like it is........ they are simply burnt out.......
I know many who have played multiple years longer than myself...... and I have seen them go , then come back....... then go again....... then come back......
I am not saying what your friends told you is not true..... they may very well feel like that and may feel it is time to move on....... I have seen some of my friends and squad members do the same........ but me personally, I still associate it with them having finally come to a full burn out of playing......
I think that is a great idea, Bruv...... + 1 :aok
TC
To me, I think burn out is there, but not as much as before. I think burn out is when a person has become very good at the one thing they do in the game and the challenge is now gone. The game is no longer fun because they "win" almost all the time. There is nothing new for them, so they get bored, burned out and move on. Some come back and once they knock the rust off they become as good as they once were and the thrill goes away again.
Some people have told me I am burned out :P I don't think so. I enjoy this game immensely ! I have for years. Of course I'm not "very good" at anything. I like to bomb, and while I can pretty much hit anything on the ground I'll NEVER be able to shoot like 999000. While I can fly a plane as good as anyone, my aim is so poor I'll NEVER be known as a killer. And GVs, well the best I can say of those is I can drive the crap out of them ... until I'm picked off :x There is so much room for improvement for me it isn't funny. Each fight I enter I haven't any idea if I have it in the bag until I see the system message come up.
Then there are guys like Grizz. He hasn't been playing for a bit, and I don't really know why, it's not my business. To me he is a perfect candidate for burn out. He his VERY good at killing. I'd bet in 90% of the fights he enters he could tell you that he has it in the bag before the first turn, he's that good. But it is all he does. Sure he does a few buff runs, maybe a couple of GV runs, but these things don't seem to interest him that much, and lets face it he is not as good at them. So he gets tired of the game once he can pretty much beat anyone. There isn't any challenge, and so maybe that is why he has taken a break.
I think burn out was seen more often in the old days due to the lack of options. Then as the game progressed more options were added and it flourished. Burn out was something you say only now and then. Today it's seems to be coming back because players don't explore any other options and do the same thing over and over. Yesterday I started flying about 11 eastern. There were a few "hordes" from the Bish that the Rooks beat back, and I joined a couple of missions and helped capture a base.... ya I know! Rooks capturing bases!!! :D Any way, the Bish were hitting the Knights pretty hard trying to push them back to the mainland so they could make a rush through the Rooks later to win the war. About 6 eastern the Bish numbers got high enough that they could work both fronts at the same time. As they started to roll... and the fun fights disappeared, I thought I'd go over and see how the Bish ran things. Chewie was leading the rush. He ran his "Hulk Smash" mission a few times in a row, and then a "Your in the Navy now" off a cv. I didn't run in the missions but half the Bish nation did. All of them were NOE, and the only instruction on launch was "Stay low please!".
That kind of repetition is going to burn out a player just as easily as being super skilled in one area does.
1. Populated WW1 arena will allow for "something else" fun for subscribed customers to do in the game. This will help sustain active players longer before burning out and taking breaks potentially.
2. Would open the flood gates for players to come to the game. When you integrate guys playing for free and paying customers, the paying customers act as free marketing for the paying WW2 arena. They will say things "This was fun, but i'm back off to the WW2 arena". Many free WW1 players will inquire about WW2 and will realize that is where the fun is at.
This would be the smartest thing HTC could do, and advertise the heck out of it. We'd be back to split WW2 arenas in no time! :lol
I think WWI would be too limited an area to draw in the new players. WWI planes are not flown like WWII as well as the game play options that are NOT available in WWI that some players ....buffers and tankers wouldn't get to try.
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I don't know why you bother. HTC will do what HTC wants to do. This thread is like the entire Wishlist forum... Allowed to exist so it appears that you have a voice.
You don't.
Even the times where it seems like you do have a voice are like cheap magic tricks where your decisions are made for you "Here are 4 planes we're gonna make anyway, why don't you vote on which one we make first".
AH gameplay will remain broken. AH will remain 10 years out of date. AH; "Working as intended".
Your comments sum it up rather well. :aok
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I think WWI would be too limited an area to draw in the new players. WWI planes are not flown like WWII as well as the game play options that are NOT available in WWI that some players ....buffers and tankers wouldn't get to try.
Anything that is free no strings attached will draw players with proper advertising. I agree WW1 is not flown like WWII but I don't think that matters. As for buffs and tanks, yeah these are part of the Ww2 experience.
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If you look at wiki definition of MMOG, strategy is part of most games with large numbers of players, the drug keeping them playing,even if is war sim or fantasy; AH has set game goals for first person shooter kind of games not MMO, rewarding individual players not teams. War win, map reset was made more difficult over years and for a new player the game is not attractive,has little satisfaction because needs many years to become good at this game in pressent set up. The game would improve if teams or group of players are rewarded and let every new player bring his part on team goal. The map rest /win war keeps many players, like myself ,fighting and still paying for this game, but the reset procedure are outdated and were made more difficult to achieve; I think would be easy to introduce strategy in game, reducing the % of bases needed for reset to 10-15% but,...adding HQ,City,factories damage in map reset formula.
"Real-time strategy"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massively_multiplayer_online_game
"But MMORPGs are dynamic worlds because of this diversity of motivations and because players are ultimately playing the same game. Adventures, alliances and betrayals emerge as players collaborate to achieve very different goals."
http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/gateway_motivations.html
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If you look at wiki definition of MMOG,
You may want to look at this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_massively_multiplayer_online_games
Search for Dale Addink.
Only they got 2 facts wrong, it was 1995 and was used to describe Confirmed Kill.
HiTech
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You may want to look at this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_massively_multiplayer_online_games
Search for Dale Addink.
Only they got 2 facts wrong, it was 1995 and was used to describe Confirmed Kill.
HiTech
Oh snap.
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While the concept of offering something free to bait the hook is not new in game marketing, the devil is in the details.
Limited plane set arenas at a different price has been tried before. The issue is that it does not integrate the new players into the same world as the paying players. Players form bonds / friends in the free arena and moving to the pay arena is not worth the loss of those friends.
Hence you almost completely cut off your influx of new players into the paying arena.
HiTech
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Hence you almost completely cut off your influx of new players into the paying arena.
And that explains the two week free trial, which makes sense given that context (i.e. forming friendships in the arena and then subscribing to maintain them rather than not subscribing to maintain them). If you don't mind my asking, how did you decide on a two week trial versus, say, a one month trial like many games use? Do you get diminishing returns on potential customer loyalty after a couple of weeks?
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You may want to look at this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_massively_multiplayer_online_games
Search for Dale Addink.
Only they got 2 facts wrong, it was 1995 and was used to describe Confirmed Kill.
HiTech
I corrected it for you <S>
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While the concept of offering something free to bait the hook is not new in game marketing, the devil is in the details.
Limited plane set arenas at a different price has been tried before. The issue is that it does not integrate the new players into the same world as the paying players. Players form bonds / friends in the free arena and moving to the pay arena is not worth the loss of those friends.
Hence you almost completely cut off your influx of new players into the paying arena.
HiTech
Making WW1 free would integrate the free player world with WW2 guys coming over for a change of pace and forming friendships with free players and convincing them there is a lot more to be had in the WW2 arena. There are a lot of subscribed players that would fly WW1 often if there were sizable furballs there.
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While the concept of offering something free to bait the hook is not new in game marketing, the devil is in the details.
Limited plane set arenas at a different price has been tried before. The issue is that it does not integrate the new players into the same world as the paying players. Players form bonds / friends in the free arena and moving to the pay arena is not worth the loss of those friends.
Hence you almost completely cut off your influx of new players into the paying arena.
HiTech
I can remember the pain trying to drag a squad from RR to FR in AW
HiTech you know where to put the hook.............
You may decide
1)if you need to bait such a hook
2)what to put on the hook
3)when to bait the hook
4)how to make sure the fish know the hook is there
btw what is the cost (to HTC) of an additional approx 200 limited access free players ? (dont answer that!)
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While the concept of offering something free to bait the hook is not new in game marketing, the devil is in the details.
Limited plane set arenas at a different price has been tried before. The issue is that it does not integrate the new players into the same world as the paying players. Players form bonds / friends in the free arena and moving to the pay arena is not worth the loss of those friends.
Hence you almost completely cut off your influx of new players into the paying arena.
HiTech
Thats why you still have to maintain that limit. Right now its 2 weeks for all the arenas. Give them EW free for up to a score/kill plateau, or 6 weeks time limit. At that point they have no choice, either they move on to a subscription, or they move on. I always thought it was easier to learn to swim in an area where I wasn't dodging sharks. :devil
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And that explains the two week free trial, which makes sense given that context (i.e. forming friendships in the arena and then subscribing to maintain them rather than not subscribing to maintain them). If you don't mind my asking, how did you decide on a two week trial versus, say, a one month trial like many games use? Do you get diminishing returns on potential customer loyalty after a couple of weeks?
Most games that use a 1 month are sold in a box. In our box version that is sold in Europe we offer 2 months, I.E. the approximate price of the box.
We simply look how long people who try the game continue to play the entire 2 weeks.
HiTech
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We simply look how long people who try the game continue to play the entire 2 weeks.
Thanks, I figured as much. Outside of Aces High, I haven't really noticed the two week thing, but my only standards for comparison are box games.
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We simply look how long people who try the game continue to play the entire 2 weeks.
I suspect the dropout rate may be dependent on the length of trial, due to the very steep learning curve. if you're just converting from another flight sim, 2 weeks will be enough for you to decide whether you like this particular flavour of game.
But it only takes a week of playing as a newb to proper flight sims (an increasing majority of potential players) to realise that you wont be even close to competitive in 2 weeks. given a month to trial it, more players might think its worth carrying on with the trial and learning to fly/gv/whatever. people are surely more likely to subscribe if they think they stand a chance of being competitive in a game?
and since the game is based on a monthly subscription it seems natural to give a months free trial.
but of course it would cost 2 weeks revenue for each new subscriber ...
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I suspect the dropout rate may be dependent on the length of trial, due to the very steep learning curve. if you're just converting from another flight sim, 2 weeks will be enough for you to decide whether you like this particular flavour of game.
But it only takes a week of playing as a newb to proper flight sims (an increasing majority of potential players) to realise that you wont be even close to competitive in 2 weeks. given a month to trial it, more players might think its worth carrying on with the trial and learning to fly/gv/whatever. people are surely more likely to subscribe if they think they stand a chance of being competitive in a game?
and since the game is based on a monthly subscription it seems natural to give a months free trial.
but of course it would cost 2 weeks revenue for each new subscriber ...
This is my point. First off you have a game that is tough to start off with, then add in getting your butt handed to you every time your log on by all the regular players and it makes for a pretty tough experience, when you should be shooting for one of fun and comradary.
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I think you have to look at things historically:
Air Warrior came out and helped develop many of the customers that eventually moved to AH. When I started it was Free to play and graphics were cutting edge for the time. It also offered an experience that was not available anywhere else. MMO combat. Very exciting. Maps were small. I think the best thing was newbie arena that you could only play in until you acheived a certain number of points/kills. Helped break you into the game.
AH now has better graphics but not phenomenal...also the game play hasn't really changed at all. No true "capture the flag" or win the war anymore. The community itself ridiculed the concept of "win th3 war" etc and the game has changed enough so it doesn't matter. Question is why play? Yes you can go out and shoot hoops but most folks our age want to play a game with a team winner and team loser. The game doesn't have this anymore. I think this is a big problem. More goals then simply being "l33t" ned to be developed.
the MMO market has exploded but honestly is more 15-25 yo folks i find play them. They like "grinding" and "leveling" and don't have the desire to stay at one "level" and develop skill based rewards. It's not HTC's fault they aren't getting this marketplace imho.....BUT there must be plenty of 30-50 yo who would love a fun non-20 yo mmo and I wish HTC marketed it better. I know they advertise but honestly it is rare to see a commercial.
I agree the learning curve is likely too hard for most...especially older folks without a big budget for gaming. I doubt the average new subscriber has a top gaming machine with a joystick with rudder control and plenty of views. Imagine even the training arena if you only had a really simple Joystick...how difficult it would be. I bet tons of folks are easily discouraged...you really need a newbie arena for long time learning. Similar to the old AW newbie arena.
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Not sure if this has been mentioned in this thread (no time to read the whole thing) but, what if a game disc was offered for free with the purchase of a joystick? After all, the game needs the joystick makers as much as they need a game that uses their product.
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I'm curious to know the reason why people stay at this game after 2 hours let alone 2 weeks. What ever that reason is, the more you can deliver it the more people will stay. What I mean is if you surveyed why people enjoy or stay with this game and found that, for instance, being in a 5 minute one on one fight was the reason then you might be able to figure out how to deliver that experience more often for new players. I said somewhere else that asking people to fly 10 minutes to get shot down before they know whats happening is asking a lot. In a way it screens out people who aren't that interested in flying but on the other hand it doesn't really encourage the development of that interest. As far as I'm concerned the best thing about AH is that the flying has something to do with reality, so I'm not suggesting that that core be degraded to make a more tempting game. Frankly I am surprised at how few people play this game. Maybe you need more 2 week leads but before you spent money on getting more of those I think the game would benefit from some improvement on new player enjoyment. I'm sure everyone has ideas on what that would be so I'm not going to give any but I would think that it costs something to get every 2 week trial in the door so anything that makes converting them to players saves money from one end and frankly the more players the better the game is,(IMO this is why the population clusters in the main arena.)
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No matter how many you people you get into this game, I see Aces High taking a major dump once World of Planes comes online. Basic economics- when demand goes down, prices must go down. Over the years I've noticed less and less people and the combination of Blue and Orange arenas only confirms this. I've shown AH2 to 6 of my airplane-saavy friends. All did their two weeks and loved it but all refused to pay the $15/mo. Quoting one of the: "paying $180 a year to play a game with sub-par graphics isn't much of a deal. I'll just wait for World of Planes to come out for free."
Subpar graphics is giving too much credit. J/K HTC. World of planes for free?
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you do understand that the people that pay, pay for everybody else to play for free. just like in wot, it is not free for some as they must pay more than if there was to be a subscription for everybody to pay. I would switch to free play and fly the free rides, let somebody else pay my way.
but where exactly are you going with these we need more players marketing campaign. sure you have more numbers, but numbers dont necessarily equal better game play, you just have more numbers. arenas will never have more than 400 or 500 players in them due to the fact that they become chaotic. if we get more players then, there will be just 2 LWA's just like before or maybe 3.
semp
More often than not the free play is below standard and those that pay get something more aligned to cheat codes... like tanks that disappear in the middle of a street or field.
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Lets make AH2 dirt cheap if not free, and let advertisers pay for our sub. We dont pay to use things like facebook, google, and youtube but those companies dont seem to be hurting for money or asking for donations. My point is, if enough people use your product, you dont have to charge money in order to profit. Its no big secret, companies like to advertise their product where people will see it.
I dont know how to implement this into the game without doing what the EA brand does with theirs. IE, Subway and Statefarm are big advertisers in sports related video gaming. You will see there logo more than you would want to. But atleast you didnt have to pay $14 that month. why not add a billboard of a $5 footlong and maybe a gieco lizard on the opening menu.
All this would piss me off if I had to pay to see these advertisements. But for free, I think I can handle it.
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Lets make AH2 dirt cheap if not free, and let advertisers pay for our sub. We dont pay to use things like facebook, google, and youtube but those companies dont seem to be hurting for money or asking for donations. My point is, if enough people use your product, you dont have to charge money in order to profit. Its no big secret, companies like to advertise their product where people will see it.
I dont know how to implement this into the game without doing what the EA brand does with theirs. IE, Subway and Statefarm are big advertisers in sports related video gaming. You will see there logo more than you would want to. But atleast you didnt have to pay $14 that month. why not add a billboard of a $5 footlong and maybe a gieco lizard on the opening menu.
All this would piss me off if I had to pay to see these advertisements. But for free, I think I can handle it.
AHII is already dirt cheap. I'd leave if I saw ads all over everything..... rediculous.
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I'll be willing to put an "i love the muppets" sticker on my pony if they gave me 1 dollar a month :D.
semp
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I'll be willing to put an "i love the muppets" sticker on my pony if they gave me 1 dollar a month :D.
semp
We don't think we'd get very good returns on that investment.
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Most games that use a 1 month are sold in a box. In our box version that is sold in Europe we offer 2 months, I.E. the approximate price of the box.
We simply look how long people who try the game continue to play the entire 2 weeks.
HiTech
With all due respect kind Sir, I do have some questions.
While these are not apples to apples comparisons:
How many people that try the 2 weeks continue to fly?
How many Europeans that have the free 2 months continue to fly?
Compare the 2 over a 1, 2, 5 year period.
How many accounts do you have that remain active (cc is being charged) but the player has no logged on for 6 months or more? Do you cancel accounts or keep charging?
WW1 I never see anybody in there. If you did that over again would you do WW1 or have spent the resources elswhere? Would you consider WW1 a succcess on drawing new players?
Last question: Is the game cheat protected?
Thanks
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With all due respect kind Sir, I do have some questions.
While these are not apples to apples comparisons:
How many people that try the 2 weeks continue to fly?
How many Europeans that have the free 2 months continue to fly?
Compare the 2 over a 1, 2, 5 year period.
Subscription data is NEVER released. The 2 month deal for the Europeans is a new thing. HTC just released a boxed version of the game over there a few month ago. They are only starting to get data on that.
How many accounts do you have that remain active (cc is being charged) but the player has no logged on for 6 months or more? Do you cancel accounts or keep charging?
They would be foolish to cancel accounts that are still being paid for. There are a number of players who "support" HTC that don't log any time on line.
WW1 I never see anybody in there. If you did that over again would you do WW1 or have spent the resources elswhere? Would you consider WW1 a succcess on drawing new players?
WWI was hot and heavy for a month or two, and then the numbers dropped off to a number of "hard core" WWI players. But with nothing in the arena but 4 fighters most lost intrest, and the few left just don't bother because there is never any one in there.
I don't think WWI was put up as something to bring in new players, but I'm sure they wouldn't have looked down on any that came in. I believe the WWI was a test bed to run things they wanted to add to the main game but wanted to see how it works out. Last thing I think was a new damage model.
Last question: Is the game cheat protected?
Thanks
Stupid question, you bet your @zz it is! There are always those that "think" people are pulling something but very few push the code and HTC is very good at banning any who think they get close.
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I've played in the WWI arena twice in the past two weeks. It's still fun as long as there are a couple other guys there.
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Last question: Is the game cheat protected?
For sure! Hitech's policy against cheaters is tighter than Skuzzy's policy against Flash! They know what they are doing!
Except there is that one guy who hacks in every christmas eve and flies around with reindeer. One of these days we'll figure out who that silly fellow is and how he gets around all of the security measures! :O
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Except there is that one guy who hacks in every christmas eve and flies around with reindeer. One of these days we'll figure out who that silly fellow is and how he gets around all of the security measures! :O
Me thinks his name is, HiTech! σ_ô
(http://i41.tinypic.com/2zqwn01.jpg)
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You may want to look at this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_massively_multiplayer_online_games
Search for Dale Addink.
Only they got 2 facts wrong, it was 1995 and was used to describe Confirmed Kill.
HiTech
Cool!
The Wiki for AH which links from your name is a little light on content :noid
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Subscription data is NEVER released. The 2 month deal for the Europeans is a new thing. HTC just released a boxed version of the game over there a few month ago. They are only starting to get data on that.
They would be foolish to cancel accounts that are still being paid for. There are a number of players who "support" HTC that don't log any time on line.
WWI was hot and heavy for a month or two, and then the numbers dropped off to a number of "hard core" WWI players. But with nothing in the arena but 4 fighters most lost intrest, and the few left just don't bother because there is never any one in there.
I don't think WWI was put up as something to bring in new players, but I'm sure they wouldn't have looked down on any that came in. I believe the WWI was a test bed to run things they wanted to add to the main game but wanted to see how it works out. Last thing I think was a new damage model.
Stupid question, you bet your @zz it is! There are always those that "think" people are pulling something but very few push the code and HTC is very good at banning any who think they get close.
Thank you Fugitive for your "wealth" of knowledge.
Does HiTech employ you as a spokesperson?
If they do I will take your responses as is.
If not, I will wait until HiTech responds.
Sincerely
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Thank you Fugitive for your "wealth" of knowledge.
Does HiTech employ you as a spokesperson?
If they do I will take your responses as is.
If not, I will wait until HiTech responds.
Sincerely
In a since he is a spokesperson, I.E. we have many times stated that we do not release information concerning subscriptions.
On the hacking question. Yes we do, anyone caught hacking is band for life. And we do not discuss what we do for detection because that would make life easier for the people who wished to try.
HiTech
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Thank you Fugitive for your "wealth" of knowledge.
Does HiTech employ you as a spokesperson?
If they do I will take your responses as is.
If not, I will wait until HiTech responds.
Sincerely
Anyone that has been on the boards awhile knows the answer. Search is your friend.
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Anyone that has been on the boards awhile knows the answer. Search is your friend.
Been on the boards a while and I've used the search function multiple times for a variety of reasons.....but it doesn't provide a listing to a family tree.
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In a since he is a spokesperson, I.E. we have many times stated that we do not release information concerning subscriptions.
On the hacking question. Yes we do, anyone caught hacking is band for life. And we do not discuss what we do for detection because that would make life easier for the people who wished to try.
HiTech
HiTech, Thank you for your response and taking the time to respond. Much appreciated.
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Peyton,
This forum is not the place to make what appears to be a business inquery to the owner of that business.
If you work in the Marketing Industry you know this avenue is usless and direct contact by phone or in person is the proper avenue. I've never met a Sales or Marketing professional who didn't want to be face to face with the person he was selling his shtick to. In this forum you reduce your sales pitch to one of the herd.
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Bstr,
Settle down. The whole inquiry started from post 1 which was how to increase player base. Go sift through the whole thread, read it, then comment. You are making your post more personal than it needs to be.
If Hi tech did not want to answer then he did not have to. Instead of speculating on how the business is run, I went right to the source and asked the question. Maybe if you have been in marketing you would know that besides doing some research if you want an answer to a question or to "seal the deal', you ask the decision maker. That is what I did, I asked the question to the "Man in charge"...HITECH. . Once again, if HiTech did not want to answer he could have graciously declined.
Maybe the marketing you are referring to is cold calling where you call the customer and are selling alarm systems over the phone, ad space for a local trade magazine or asking for donations for the local school play, but I can tell you where I do business we meet face to face to get things done. Unfortunately I can't meet with HiTech but if I could I'd take him/them to lunch and maybe they could show me around the place. Heck, let's have a tour and play a little AH2.
Moving on............since you have commented in shear defense of apparently something that has rubbed you the wrong way, and you have that it has led this thread astray
It's odd but I can't seem to picture a person with your attitude being in advertising/marketing. Obviously you must come across different in person.
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Thank you Fugitive for your "wealth" of knowledge.
Does HiTech employ you as a spokesperson?
If they do I will take your responses as is.
If not, I will wait until HiTech responds.
Sincerely
Well seeing as the owner didn't dispute the information I posted I guess I was right enough.
Your problem is you posted specific questions about a private business on a public board. This opens the door to any one responding with any information they like leaving it up to you to crawl through the crap to find the truth.
A bit of advice, if you want specific questions answered by specific people, maybe you should email those people a note. This way you won't run into these problems any more.
Many of us chime in here with what help we can give to better the game, good luck in the future.
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In a since he is a spokesperson, I.E. we have many times stated that we do not release information concerning subscriptions.
On the hacking question. Yes we do, anyone caught hacking is band for life. And we do not discuss what we do for detection because that would make life easier for the people who wished to try.
HiTech
you know what I really wish boss. is for people to stop being such convenient grammar nazis on the game and here on the bb. you have several mistakes on your writing and yet it doesnt matter, in a since, we all know what you mean. the only good thing that such come out of this thread is for people to relax and accept other peoples spellting even if it kills them.
semp
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you know what I really wish boss. is for people to stop being such convenient grammar nazis on the game and here on the bb. you have several mistakes on your writing and yet it doesnt matter, in a since, we all know what you mean. the only good thing that such come out of this thread is for people to relax and accept other peoples spellting even if it kills them.
semp
ah wed dis witaut hezitashun
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A bit of advice, if you want specific questions answered by specific people, maybe you should email those people a note. This way you won't run into these problems any more.
Many of us chime in here with what help we can give to better the game, good luck in the future.
ok sounds good...thanks
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you know what I really wish boss. is for people to stop being such convenient grammar nazis on the game and here on the bb. you have several mistakes on your writing and yet it doesnt matter, in a since, we all know what you mean. the only good thing that such come out of this thread is for people to relax and accept other peoples spellting even if it kills them.
semp
I'm in agreement with you're premise on this won. :)
HiTech
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What about an email to players that have cancelled letting them know about the coming update? If this has been mentioned in these pages sorry, not going to sift through all that at this hour. Just an idea is all.
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Peyton,
This forum is not the place to make what appears to be a business inquery to the owner of that business.
If you work in the Marketing Industry you know this avenue is usless and direct contact by phone or in person is the proper avenue. I've never met a Sales or Marketing professional who didn't want to be face to face with the person he was selling his shtick to. In this forum you reduce your sales pitch to one of the herd.
With 1 bottle of Whiskey, I hope to increase Hitech's business ventue with better grammar. Or Grammer, I can't remember because direct contact usually results in a ban since I use 3 and sometimes 4 letter words which arn't appreciated.
Wait what are we talking about again dude?
Dude? you promised an 8-ball of the worlds finest new zealand sheep wool, this is weed, not what we agreed on.
baaah, whatever.
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Dude? you promised an 8-ball of the worlds finest new zealand sheep wool, this is weed, not what we agreed on.
:rofl :rofl :rofl :rofl :rofl :rofl :aok
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Or, how about sponsoring a real Warbird pilot (somebody like Steve Hinton?)
How about someone more recognizable Like Chuck Yeager? Anyone read his first book, and his adventures in the P51 over Germany and France. I read that in middle school, and could not put that down.
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What about an email to players that have cancelled letting them know about the coming update? If this has been mentioned in these pages sorry, not going to sift through all that at this hour. Just an idea is all.
The fast path to getting all our emails blocked. Yes Virginia, players who have quite get an unsolicited email from us complain to thier ISP and BINGO!, we are blocked from sending email to anyone on that ISP.
We learned that lesson the hard way.
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The fast path to getting all our emails blocked. Yes Virginia, players who have quite get an unsolicited email from us complain to thier ISP and BINGO!, we are blocked from sending email to anyone on that ISP.
We learned that lesson the hard way.
D'oh! >.<;
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Gurgelsnort........... :)