An example of youtubers to sponsor.

[FLS]

No staff to help new players. 

[ACE]

I tried to do this a few years ago to no effect. I've been posting AH videos since 2009 here is a playlist of 103 different videos of just AH3 this isn't counting all my other videos from AH2 and AH1. I use Sony Vegas Platinum then made the change to Pro Edit so from a 100 dollar program to a 500 dollar program.

But the issue you've always had is that HTC doesn't seem to care much or have the ability to actually market their product.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7VvGQQXDHVCq8SC0cqbC4o07_38zjUS6

I disagree with your last statement. They got me here from a history channel commercial I instantly jumped up and downloaded it.

[CptTrips]

To end even if you got 500 players tomorrow how do you keep them? You have no training no tutorials and no additions in content or gameplay. Getting players is great keeping them is a whole other matter that I think continues to be overlooked.

I've watched a lot of your vids Vince.  They are very good.  You do a good job of explaining things and they are fun to watch. 


Aces High has had a really interesting business model over the years.  They are really the final keepers of an online MMPOG tradition that started 30 years ago with Air Warrior.  There are other games that have pieces of that model, but Aces High is the last true example of that species.  They are the pinnacle of that tradition. I don't think there will ever be a better one.

However, from the beginning, I don't think Aces High has ever had to rely on growing brand new players from scratch.  Their business model was really luring over and converting an existing, experienced, already committed and trained flightsim community from other sims.  Refugees from Air Warrior, Fighter Ace, Warbirds. 

Sure there were some players who were new to flight sims and Aces High was their first experience, but the core of their clientele was really these veteran players who didn't need convincing, were familiar with the gameplay, had their expectations already formed by very similar games.  They were ready-made, pre-packaged player-base that just needed to map their controllers and swap their accounts, and they were good to go.

But that low hanging fruit has faded away over the decades, and it is a lot harder to convince a new generation of gamer's who have totally different expectations of pace and action and have never heard of Air Warrior and may not even own a joystick.  You can dismiss them, but their money is green.  That is going to a lot more work than HTC has traditionally had to do.  Well, maybe not "more" work, but different work.  It is a different kind of effort to convince players to come over from another game that has a similar pace and model, to convincing players that have never flown a flight sim that they should start.




In the Battlefield world you had several Youtube influencers that had separate channels.  Occasionally they would do cross-over vids where they would play together and each post a vid from their point of view and each provide one of those up "Click here to see the other guys vid" at the end.  That creates a sort of cross-pollination type marketing to introduce each viewer-base to the other.

Maybe you could setup some collaborative gameplay sessions with someone like DevilDogGamer where you wing up and introduce him to stuff.  Each could produce a vid of the action from their view with cross-links.  In exchange,  you could do another vid in a game he is familiar with and he can return the favor.  Again with cross-links.

Maybe that could help both your channel and Aces High.

,
CptTrips










 

[Shuffler]

No sir I would think the fact that they dont do any marketing would show they dont do any marketing. No ads that anyone has seen, no commercials. Even if you did draw new plauers they have to learn on thier own as you dont have dedicated tutorials or staff and so for folks who are younger the place they go is youtube and the only person who has videos on there for the most part is me. I link my discord where anyone can come in at anytime and ask questions or I can talk with them directly. You guys wait on someone to show up in the forums which most folks dont know or care to use and see if they ask for help.

So in terms of trying to generate new players with actively responding to questions and training folks through the use of videos and whatever the current sink or swim approach we have had for years I think the former works better. But if you dont advertise or market your game then single people here and there can only do so much.

To end even if you got 500 players tomorrow how do you keep them? You have no training no tutorials and no additions in content or gameplay. Getting players is great keeping them is a whole other matter that I think continues to be overlooked.

Got it! Today's young are not as smart as we were at that age.

[PanosGR]

PhlyDaily. He has about 750K(!) subscribers and he is almost exclusive war thunder type of guy.
He did though once  only a single vid about Aces High and that's about it. 


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJ2AEuEsm6U

[AAIK]

PhlyDaily. He has about 750K(!) subscribers and he is almost exclusive war thunder type of guy.
He did though once  only a single vid about Aces High and that's about it. 


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJ2AEuEsm6U

He would probably cost too much to run an effective advertisment campaign on. I don't know why he only made one video though, maybe he was put off by something?

[Vudu15]

No staff to help new players. 

I would laugh too if it wasn't so sad. Much like the sad state of the Trainer's Utility Forum we're both a part of, yet I never could make it to that vaunted position of trainer but I can do everything else around it. We both more or less want the same thing, to gain more players to make the game what it sorta used to be. But...the same reason the Utility forum died is the same reason the game is in the state it is along with numerous other environmental issues which are beyond control. Leadership. Leadership. No one was in control to delegate authority or jobs to players willing and waiting to do anything HTC and the Training corps could come up with, and so it died. Because we can sit in the room right here and come up with a fool proof plan that we know would work(just an example) and it wouldn't matter if HTC wouldn't do it or support us. A handful of times groups of players have stepped forward to update things about the game and then poof when it came time to actually direct and handle issues that arose during the doing of the task no one was in charge or something that was vital was someone else's job or HTC never got it sorted.

So laugh if you want to cause the joke's on all of us since the cat driving this thing never tells us anything.

P.S. I love this game, I don't dislike anyone. I still help anyone anytime. So don't take the above as some kind of me just bashing the game I want it to be the best it can and I always have.

[FLS]

'No staff' is funny because there is staff. Volunteer staff.

I ask volunteers I don't order them.

The staff is smaller but so is the community.

The utility forum is still available for any volunteer who needs it.

Leadership. There are different ways to lead. If you think leadership is controlling people that's certainly one way.

If you think a plan to improve the game is foolproof, as an example, I bet Hitech would be all over it, unless it was more wishful thinking than foolproof plan.

One of the nice things about the early years, before all the continuous improvements, was the lack of bored veteran players. 

I know one way to fix that but I don't think it's really a good idea. 

The bored players who need the game changed to have fun are mostly out of real ideas, all they can think of is controlling other people.

Just enjoy playing the game. Don't worry about saving it. 

[ACE]

'No staff' is funny because there is staff. Volunteer staff.

I ask volunteers I don't order them.

The staff is smaller but so is the community.

The utility forum is still available for any volunteer who needs it.

Leadership. There are different ways to lead. If you think leadership is controlling people that's certainly one way.

If you think a plan to improve the game is foolproof, as an example, I bet Hitech would be all over it, unless it was more wishful thinking than foolproof plan.

One of the nice things about the early years, before all the continuous improvements, was the lack of bored veteran players. 

I know one way to fix that but I don't think it's really a good idea. 

The bored players who need the game changed to have fun are mostly out of real ideas, all they can think of is controlling other people.

Just enjoy playing the game. Don't worry about saving it. 

May not be able to enjoy it much longer at the rate it’s going.

[The Fugitive]

I would laugh too if it wasn't so sad. Much like the sad state of the Trainer's Utility Forum we're both a part of, yet I never could make it to that vaunted position of trainer but I can do everything else around it. We both more or less want the same thing, to gain more players to make the game what it sorta used to be. But...the same reason the Utility forum died is the same reason the game is in the state it is along with numerous other environmental issues which are beyond control. Leadership. Leadership. No one was in control to delegate authority or jobs to players willing and waiting to do anything HTC and the Training corps could come up with, and so it died. Because we can sit in the room right here and come up with a fool proof plan that we know would work(just an example) and it wouldn't matter if HTC wouldn't do it or support us. A handful of times groups of players have stepped forward to update things about the game and then poof when it came time to actually direct and handle issues that arose during the doing of the task no one was in charge or something that was vital was someone else's job or HTC never got it sorted.

So laugh if you want to cause the joke's on all of us since the cat driving this thing never tells us anything.

P.S. I love this game, I don't dislike anyone. I still help anyone anytime. So don't take the above as some kind of me just bashing the game I want it to be the best it can and I always have.

I agree, a few years ago they were talking of revamping the trainers pages and I volunteered with a few others to help rebuild the page. There was no leadership at all. One of the volunteers had just retired and had lots of free time and built a number of new pages and designed ways of making a ton of information easily accessible and hosted it on his own server giving all of us who were working on it access.  The 'leaders" could never make a decision and so everyone just gave up on it.

We dont know what goes on at HTC. We dont know what they have in the works.... which may also be one of their main issues..... but the point is stciking to the status quo isnt going to keep things rolling any more. Changes need to be made, and the sooner the top dogs realize this and begin to make moves the better things will be.

[FLS]

I agree, a few years ago they were talking of revamping the trainers pages and I volunteered with a few others to help rebuild the page. There was no leadership at all. One of the volunteers had just retired and had lots of free time and built a number of new pages and designed ways of making a ton of information easily accessible and hosted it on his own server giving all of us who were working on it access.  The 'leaders" could never make a decision and so everyone just gave up on it.

We dont know what goes on at HTC. We dont know what they have in the works.... which may also be one of their main issues..... but the point is stciking to the status quo isnt going to keep things rolling any more. Changes need to be made, and the sooner the top dogs realize this and begin to make moves the better things will be.

Nonsense as usual. Rolex was leading that and he became too busy with real life.  Everybody else waited for somebody else to do something.
People like to strike a pose and admire themselves but it doesn't get anything done.

[The Fugitive]

Nonsense as usual. Rolex was leading that and he became too busy with real life.  Everybody else waited for somebody else to do something.
People like to strike a pose and admire themselves but it doesn't get anything done.

Then he should have turned it over to someone else. The point is there was no leadership and the rebuild never got off the ground. He couldnt decide what to do and then he bailed. What other definition would you use to say "no leadership". So no it wasnt "Nonsense as usual". You just cant accept FACT and must "spin" it.

[FLS]

May not be able to enjoy it much longer at the rate it’s going.

I imagine Hitech would like to retire at some point.   

Then he should have turned it over to someone else. The point is there was no leadership and the rebuild never got off the ground. He couldnt decide what to do and then he bailed. What other definition would you use to say "no leadership". So no it wasnt "Nonsense as usual". You just cant accept FACT and must "spin" it.

Turned it over to whom? You mean ordered someone to do it? Do you imagine there were volunteers willing to step up?

You spout nonsense, literally.

It didn't get done because nobody really wanted to do it. 

[The Fugitive]

Patches was willing to run with it. He had the time and the willingness and he had VOLUNTEERED to do it. I was there to put in the time to help him out. Spin it like you want, a little leadership would have made a whole new trainers site in months instead of sticking with the same old same old.

[FLS]

Nobody stopped Patches.  Nobody was prevented from stepping up.

Your point is that somebody else should have done something.

You did what? Put in the time to help him out? How did that work out for him?