Help Me Understand the Numbers?

[Animl-AW]

I'm reading the chart like this;...
11/2001 is when the AWIII crowd migrated over to AHI, AH got a big boost from that.... and the game held a steady 4000 all the way through 3/2011, 10 years.

The rest is peaks and valleys. As I read it 4000 was the core high number, follow that over and War Thunder and IL-2 releases, which are a different breed. Quite a few games have come and gone since AH started. steady 1000 from beginning to present.

The drop of big numbers started during the great recession of 08. There was already a distinct downward pattern before AHIII and Steam was released. AHIII certainly stopped the hard spiral, and leveled out. Unfortunately IMO it was after most left, they didn't get to see it.

From what I read on IL-2 boards, it's not doing all that well, according to posts in their forums "great graphics, but this and that..". On steam they are offering 30%-85% discounts during winter.

AW-AHIII is a very strong dedicated base for 35+ years. Not sure I know any other game that can say that. We also have players that have aged playing AW through AHIII. Many core players are passing away.

It's not the game,... IMO it's the niche genre.

[Dadtallica]

I was in the moving and storage industry in 2008 and was laid off late that year. I also had a 3 year old and and a pregnant wife. I started before the crash so it was 2007 when I first started and then the rest is…

[RichardDarkwood]

  Also, when did AH drop its subscription price to a flat $14.95/mo from $29.95/mo?

I still don't know what caused the high spike in player count in early 2003.   But that matched the highest peak reached in 2008.  AH II was released in Q3 2003 (or was it early 2004?), so the early peak came before that.

It was always $14.95


The commercials on the history channel and the military channel are what boosted the numbers.

[Lusche]

It was always $14.95

Up to tour 19 it was 29.95. Price went down to 14.95 on August 15th 2001

The commercials on the history channel and the military channel are what boosted the numbers.

Well, until they didn't anymore

[Nefarious]

It was always $14.95

lol

we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two.

[oboe]

It was always $14.95


The commercials on the history channel and the military channel are what boosted the numbers.

I remember paying $29.95/mo back in the day, which was less than 1/2 of my typical monthly bill from WarBirds (@ $2.00/hr in the arena).   I wish I could add the commercial runs to the chart - would be interesting to see plotted against player numbers. 

If they were really responsible for boosting numbers, wonder why HTC would stop running the ads?  Unless they were so expensive the profit from the additional players didn't cover the cost of advertising, over the life of the average new player subscription?

The other thing I wish I could plot is the intro date of the significant added aircraft.  I wonder if many people held off subscribing until HTC released their favorite ride?  IIRC the P-51, 109, Zero and C-47 were here from nearly the start, but not sure what tours the other aircraft were added.   

I think I remember another player who said he negotiated with Hitech about moving his entire squad over from their then-current sim.  I'm guessing it was a multi-game mega-squad, like "The Damned", but not sure.  But that move added alot of people all at once...

[Dadtallica]

The commercials on the history channel and the military channel are what boosted the numbers.

It was the commercial that brought me in my first time. I can still hear the announcers voice. So of course I looked it up and now  it’s going to be stuck in my head all day. Good luck getting any work done today.

https://youtu.be/B4SVS3QOQzY

[oboe]

Thanks Dad - I searched YouTube for Aces High commercials and found three - with upload dates of Nov 2006, Oct 2007, and Jan 2008.   Not sure how well these dates correlate with air dates on the Military and History channels, but I've thrown them on the chart:

   

Without knowing the times and frequencies of the runs, I suppose its difficult to draw conclusions.  But it at least appears they added to player growth.   It also occurs to me that while Steam garners LOTS of D/Ls and account creations, its not reaching the "right" kind of people to become long-lasting players.  Maybe the History and Military channel ads were better at exposing AH to people who had more of an interest in history, and that aspect hooked them on AH, while most of the Steam people were interested in pure gaming, and AH falls short in appealing to that crowd?

[Nefarious]

Thanks Dad - I searched YouTube for Aces High commercials and found three - with upload dates of Nov 2006, Oct 2007, and Jan 2008.   Not sure how well these dates correlate with air dates on the Military and History channels, but I've thrown them on the chart:

(Image removed from quote.)   

Without knowing the times and frequencies of the runs, I suppose its difficult to draw conclusions.  But it at least appears they added to player growth...

I recall the commercials being earlier than that. I searched the forums and the #1 post was from Feb 2004. When I saw them it was about 2004-2005.

https://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,108500.msg1120459.html#msg1120459

[oboe]

I recall the commercials being earlier than that. I searched the forums and the #1 post was from Feb 2004. When I saw them it was about 2004-2005.

https://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,108500.msg1120459.html#msg1120459

Thanks Nef - no doubt the runs had to preceed uploads to YouTube.  Wish we could get hard dates for them, but we can probably safely assume they contributed to the upward trajectory of player numbers, from 2004 - 2008, and they were spaced approximately a year apart?  That could be a reach, but seems like a reasonable assumption to me...

[Nefarious]

Thanks Nef - no doubt the runs had to preceed uploads to YouTube.  Wish we could get hard dates for them, but we can probably safely assume they contributed to the upward trajectory of player numbers, from 2004 - 2008, and they were spaced approximately a year apart?  That could be a reach, but seems like a reasonable assumption to me...

I think it's fair to say that the commercials were part of an upward trend in player numbers in that time frame, yes.

AH2 had numbers and the game play to keep it #1. No other game had it. The other games maybe had the graphics and small multiplayer arenas and some still have that (IL2:BOX) but nothing could compete with the player numbers that AH2 had.

[Dadtallica]

Don’t forget that computer gaming and flight sims were nothing like they were in 2008ish from when AH started and ditto that exponentially for today. The increasingly number of other options has to be accounted for. The chart is awesome but it can’t account for all of that. It at least is not itemizing the options, the chart overall shows that diversity in my view.

For me, AH is all I play. I have so little time as is that I can’t imagine investing it into learning something new. The steeeeeeep learning curve of AH is probably my favorite thing. Learn new things daily. There’s planes and tanks I have never even been in yet. I couldn’t imagine trying to start all that knowledge into a new game.

[CptTrips]

I remember paying $29.95/mo back in the day, which was less than 1/2 of my typical monthly bill from WarBirds (@ $2.00/hr in the arena).   

Yep.  I started at $29.95 after the beta.  And yes, at the time I thought that was a great bargain.

 

[oboe]

Don’t forget that computer gaming and flight sims were nothing like they were in 2008ish from when AH started and ditto that exponentially for today. The increasingly number of other options has to be accounted for. The chart is awesome but it can’t account for all of that. It at least is not itemizing the options, the chart overall shows that diversity in my view.

For me, AH is all I play. I have so little time as is that I can’t imagine investing it into learning something new. The steeeeeeep learning curve of AH is probably my favorite thing. Learn new things daily. There’s planes and tanks I have never even been in yet. I couldn’t imagine trying to start all that knowledge into a new game.

Dad, if you're discovering things every day - here's something for you, which I don't know if you'll recall from before:  Do you know what happens if you go to the hangar, select the C-47 with the Paratroop loadout, and then just observe the troops for the next 30 seconds or so?    I think its from the character animations Pyro talked about working on for Tour of Duty.   Just sortof spilled over into a moment of silliness...

[Dadtallica]

Lol nope but will try it out!

Do I press Alt-F4 first?  I actually fell for that my first time in not gonna lie.