Cutthroats AW Calculator

Air Warrior Online Provider Price Calculator

Memphis Belle by John Clark Please see the Notes before making any decisions or commitments.

Enter number of hours you plan to spend online in Air Warrior per month:

Click button to compute monthly total and hourly charge below

Service (click on link to go directly to pricing information where applicable)	Total Monthly Bill	Hourly avg
AOL ($19.95 for AOL and $1.99/hr tentative)	$	$
CompuServe ($24.95 for CIS and 20 free hours + $19.95 for a good ISP and $1.95/hr)	$	$
Earthlink Arena ($19.95 for ISP (doesn't have to be Earthlink!) and $1.75 per hour)	$	$
Earthlink Member Arena $1.75 per hour (ISP fee waved but 35 hour per month minimum)	$	$
Delphi ($19.95 for Delphi and 4 free hours (woohoo!) + $1.80/hr)	$	$
Gamestorm NEW ($19.95 for ISP, $9.95 GS plan and unlimited hours)	$	$

Connecting to Air Warrior
I think some folks are having trouble understanding what they need to connect to Air Warrior. Here's a graph I came up with to try and help you visualize it:

It's very important to understand that Gamestorm is just a billing system, you still need some way to connect to the internet (usually done through an ISP). Note that on the above chart I show AOL going through Gamestorm. AOL is going to be providing it's OWN Air Warrior service but they're charging $1.99/hr and Gamestorm is a much better deal.

Notes:

ISP means Internet Service Provider. This is your dial-in and usually this includes E-Mail and TCP/IP network access.
AOL has their own set of Kesmai servers. CIS, Elink, Delphi, and GameStorm all share the same servers. What this means is that if we go to AOL, we're all going to have to have AOL. But if we go to the "other" set of servers, we'll have a wide choice of ISPs and billing options.
You can use Earthlink as your billing system also as the arena pricing ($1.75/hr) is for players with any ISP. It is strongly suggested that you stay away from Earthlink as your connection provider. Past experience shows that their connectivity is not very good.
I've added $19.95 to the CompuServe deal because CIS makes for a terrible ISP. Also, keep in mind that there are talks of selling CIS to AOL or just disbanding it alltogether so I'd be wary of this choice.
CompuServe and AOL will try and force you to use MS Internet Explorer (can anyone tell me where our fair market capitalism is hiding?). With the other providers you have a real choice. Note, you CAN use other browsers with AOL and CIS but they make it most difficult for you.
Delphi is an interesting choice because they are a little more then just an ISP. They provide chat rooms and other full service online provider type stuff. Recently, Robert Shaw, author of "Fighter Combat: Tactics and Manuevering", held a very interesting conference on Delphi.
In order to get the special Members only Earthlink Arena pricing (ISP charge waived), you must chose Earthlink as your ISP.
All monetary amounts in U.S. Dollars. I have no idea what costs are like for folks outside of the U.S.

Boa's Conclusions:

I think it's pretty obvious that the Gamestorm deal is by far the best. Nothing comes close. Also, Gamestorm *is* Kesmai (the makers of Air Warrior) so you know they'll always have the greatest latest stuff. Now that Gamestorm has added non-Kesmai games (such as Quake) to their available games they are pretty much the premier online game service on the Web!

Getting your own ISP and Gamestorm is by far the best choice of all. It allows you the most freedom as to what browser, e-mail programs to use while still giving you the community feel that Gamestorm provides to gamers.

And if you're looking for a good ISP, use Netscape's ISP Select. Other ISPs to try are IBM.net and AT&T.

~Boa 7/29/97
last update: 4/25/97

Boa's prediction (8/16/97): By mid '98 AOL will drop AW completely and go with some sort of Fighter Aces arrangement with The Zone (Microsoft). Another reason to switch to Gamestorm now!