payment options

[skypi]

I see your point flathead and I would agree that sponsors are the future. Look at the warbirds convention site, there must be ten or more major sponsors plus Im sure alot of kick backs from the advertisers.
   I saw a post in another thread regarding Yahoo buying wing art on certin planes maybe thats too crazy or is it? Imaging an openning screen with multiple tag ons Thrustmaster, Microsoft, CH Products all offering specials to AH members, and kick backs on sales to AH. That would be a way to control the cost of flying and in a best case senerio it might even be free!  

[Dekker]

Main Arena and events.
20-30$/month unlimited.


Hard-Core Realism Arena.
50cents / life. (If you land alive, you keep flying at no cost. ) (If you disco without being damaged you keep flying at no cost. )
(If you ditch alive you keep flying at
no cost.)

If you crash or are killed or pilot killed, your new plane and pilot is 50c again.

(Just like an arcade, you get to stay on
if you don't screw up. I think such an
arena could be at least attempted. Log the
kills and lives and then charge after the
game session is done. Most people die about
4-5 times an hour. (10 minutes climbout, a death. Another 10 min climbout and setup,
a kill then 5 minute rtb after a fight.)
Unless they are flying silly, ackstarring
or suicide field defense.

etc.  (They'd make more money than 2$/hour
on a 50c per life plan =) And very few
would be able to make 50c last an hour. =)
But they would all spend 50-100$ trying
to become one of the few who can =)

Dekker

[popeye]

"Hard-Core Realism Arena.
                    50cents / life."

This would give new meaning to, "alt monkey" and "runstang".  

popeye

[Flathat]

I'd be against Yahoo! wing art or a swoosh lake, in spite of the potential savings. I want to sim WWII, not the Winston Cup.   But that's just an expression of personal aesthetic preference, and my opinion is no more valid than anyone else's.

I've played AW and WB as well. I played AW three times in free Mac beta and trashed it, which should tell you everything you need to know regarding my *opinion* of AW  . The problem with any comparison of AW and WB price models has to account for the "you get what you pay for" factor.

Flathat

[Flathat]

(For Skypi) I'd be against Yahoo! wing art or a swoosh lake, in spite of the potential savings. I want to sim WWII, not the Winston Cup.     But that's just an expression of personal aesthetic preference, and my opinion is no more valid than anyone else's. I'm all for making the game affordable, though. If it turns out that flat rate will be a sustainable price model I hope to heck they go for it.

(For T2^) I've played AW and WB as well. I played AW three times in free Mac beta and trashed it, which should tell you everything you need to know regarding my *opinion* of AW     . The problem with any comparison of AW and WB price models has to account for the "you get what you pay for" factor, although relative value is also a matter of opinion. As I said in the previous paragraph, I'd love a flat rate, hope we get one, but I ain't holding my breath.    

On the whole, I think Downtown's graduated pricing idea has a lot of potential. It's the best compromise that enables pay-as-you-go with strong incentives to go longer and pay more.  

Flathat

[This message has been edited by Flathat (edited 08-05-1999).]

[This message has been edited by Flathat (edited 08-05-1999).]

[This message has been edited by Flathat (edited 08-05-1999).]

[Dekker]

Hehe,

alt-monkey has to come down to play.
And often they die when they can't maintain
their E correctly. =)

Sure they may fly around all day for 50c,
but it won't be any fun and they'll let
their guard down sometime. And doesn't
everyone want higher alt fights? This
would encourage that.

I've been at 30,000 feet, and there is no
one to kill there. You do much better at about 15,000 feet and maintain your alt
between 10 and 15. =) And you need the
experience to know when to bug out. =)

Dekker

[fd ski]

I think you're forgetting one VERY important thing gents.
As it is there is going to be at least 2 or 3 companies competing for the market and this community:
1. IGMK with WB ( assuming it stays afloat )
2. Playnet - with their sim
3. HT with AH.

Now let's see: They're products should be relatively comperable. I'm sure community will find faults in all of them,  but you can bet your bellybutton that cheapest one will be the one where community will move.
This will be a price war between 3 and we will benefit.
Question is not "per hour" vs "flat rate", it's "flat rate" vs "free beta"

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Bartlomiej Rajewski
S/L fd-ski Sq. 303 (Polish) "Kosciuszko" RAF
   www.raf303.org  



[This message has been edited by fd ski (edited 08-05-1999).]

[Downtown]

Dekker,

with your pay for a life plan you can garuntee that everyone will fly the "Hottest, Fastest plane out there.

This besides Alt monkeys and runstangs.

One big complaint in WB now is the preponderance of Spitfires.  And there are a few there.

As the RPS rolled through what ever the best TnBr was would be snapped up by all the TnB guys, and Whatever the best BnZr was would be in the hands of the BnZ guys.

You would end up with basically P-51s, P-47s, 190s and Spits.  You would rarely see a different plane.




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"I could feel the 20MM Cannon impacting behind me so I made myself small behind the pilot armor" Charlie Bond AVG

[svk]

I like Dekker's idea.
Also I'd like to imporove it a bit. If you killed some guy and iMOL/HTC/Playnet gets their cents, why dont they pay YOU for that kill 1/2 of their money ?! Probably they may ask you to pay for loaded fuel/ammo, plane maintenance and parking. And if you cant properly park your smoking wrecks on the runway - you must pay for that ! Certainly you never ever can afford ditching on the sheeps.

I'd sell this idea for 10% of the total income or free unlimited play... and may be AH alpha/beta :-)

[-floo-]

30 bucks a MONTH i CAN DO....but 100?!?! I too am a die hard flight sim fan..but I'm not rich. I guess we'll see what happens  

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333rd Red Dawgs
JG 5 Eismeer

[bod]

I think maybe you are forgetting something. HTC clearly stated that they wont grow to be large, they are not going to make an "online gaming empire". They are going to stay as small as possible and consentrate on only one thing; making AH the best online sim.

X-Plane, a superb "underground" - engineeringish kind of sim, cost 150 US$ or something, and then you get updates for life. This sim has been in development for  years, and still is. 150 US$ is considerably more than any other sim.

I stopped playing WB partly because it was unplayable (on my machine) when 2.6 came, and partly because of the "grand plans" of Wild Bill. There is no way i am going to pay $2/h if 50% or something of that money is used in developing a "gaming empire". What use have i for a gaming empire when i only play flight sims?

I mean we should think a bit less about how *much* we are paying compared to what, and think a bit more about what we are actually paying *for*.

As far as i'm concerned $2/h is a fair price if i am reasonably sure that the money is used in my interrest. If that money is used for something totally unrelated, it simply means that i am being used as a "milking cow". With more online sims on the market, i think the costs will regulate themselves anyway, and we will get what we are paying for.


Bod

[Dekker]

Downtown:

They fly the best planes anyway, no matter
the price.

And if you want to fly the other planes,
go to the per hour arena, instead of the
hard core one.

Wouldn't it be nice to be a bomber pilot
at 50cents a plane? =) =) Wouldn't that
encourage high altitude, careful flying and
fighting. Careful landings,
(a actual initial!?),
proper escorting, (2:1 to the bombers)
proper attack profiles, (10ocl,2ocl attack
instead of dead 6 to a bomber, and spending
20 minutes to get into position first)

The only issue I see if if you get hit,
then you disconnect on the way home.
But that would be a rarity and I'd take a few
of those for a better combat atmosphere.

Wouldn't you like to cost your enemy 50c
when you shoot him down? =)

If that's too hardcore, pilots can go back
to the per hour and unlimited arenas,
why not? =)

Dekker

[-blk--]

  Dekker:  love the idea.

  Of course, to stop the flow of the spits, one could charge different amounts for different aircraft.  If the Me-262, Fw-190D, And other uber-planes cost $1.50 per life, I highly doubt we'd see many dweebs a flyin in them.  The best thing about such a structure would be that HTC could encourage an arena to fly witht he correct planeset.  Much better than simply limiting fields (because this way they could control the ratios of aircraft...sorta).

-blk--  <JG5>

PS-I'm not sure why I posted this, since it's all speculative and a dream right now...

[Flathat]

Cost-per-life is certainly a different concept, and there might be something to it. I'm completely against the idea of giving a kickback per kill, though...you think vulching is a problem in online sims now, wait till it can be done for a living.

Flathat

[oooo 111th Fighter Group]

You go to the Market, you set up your booth and you charge what the traffic will bear. It's not that complicated...

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Otto CO 111th Fighter Group        ziggy2@home.com          
111th Fighter Group     www.cris.com/~ziggy2/