Would you donate monthly for a server?

[vaden]

Who has the most financial incentive to have a really great PW on a really good server? Hasbro does (Hasbro owns WotC). It has the possibility to increase their revenue by quite a bit... Now we just have to figure out a way to make them see that.

[davidb]

Honestly I would prefer to make a year or 6-month donation to have a guaranteed time of hosting, month by month would be a hell to manage. Many people would end up not paying, and surely the admins would find themselves urging people for donation, and sometimes using their own money most of the time.

I think that going to a non-free server endangers the continuity of the PW, because if the admins need every month another $120, and for some reason the people stops donating, or current admins suddenly find that due to work/family situations they need to retire for a while, we may be in trouble.

Also, if people donates for a long term, they are more likely to be stable players afterwards.

Not to mention the cost of hosting can be up to 40% cheaper if you go for a year instead of a month.

So either make it for at least 6 months or stay with the free one, is my advice.

[davidb]

Forget about sponsors unless your website has tenths of thousands of monthly visits.

Even in that case, stick with Google ad-sends.

[DEV Jlf2n]

Yeah thats what I was thinking to Dave. Sponsers prolly won't work, especially this early in the game. I do appreciate you looking into it though and helping us out. Every little bit helps.

And who knows, if we can get enough for a 6 month rent out that would be great, and for all the reason you stated. I honestly don't see why would couldn't do it. Once this new beta is released this week I think we are going to really take off. Its a major update with all the new merchants, quests and NPCs. It will definitely give people a reason to log on more. I would say its around a 25 to 30% leap foward.

[borton]

the severe i came from were giving a way a i pod say u donate and more u donate it increase their chances at wining perhaps we can do something like that

[Raist]

I think that the donation should be kept optional,
that said donation is a very good idea since it will not only assure that the server is kept up and optimal. but also takes a load of worries off the mods and dms,
letting them focus on more important stuff. Like running quests for ME

[DEV Jlf2n]

Yes Raist it would always be optional and no one would ever be looked down on for not donating.

[DEV Jlf2n]

Thanks for all the support guys. I have in touch with a server hosting company and we should have a test server set up soon.

[DEV Akavit]

Great! It will be fun to have it up and running. With all the new people showing up, it is not unreal to think that we may have over 50 people logged in at once someday.

[Jiszo]

I like this is a great idea. I think there should just be a link and we can donate when ever we want and/or can. I also liked the idea with the icon that says that we donated and a link that says how much is donated for the month would be awesome. that way it show that I have donated which to me means something and when I do decide to donate I can see what is need for the month and what remains to be donated for the year. this way people can see where the money is going and don't think that people are just making money off of them. also since it will be optional to donate people wont feel pressure.

Sept 17, 2008 10:42:07 GMT -5 derf said:

Actually just taking "donations" is sort of boarding on the EULA with Bioware and Obsidian, however they have said before they are not against it as long as it remains a donation and not a subscription fee to play. If players want to donate...fine, but do not request that players MUST donate for anything in game or for the priviledge to play.

Plus you better not ever use those donations for anything other than paying the bill for the service. Granted it would be 100% impossible for OE or Bio to ever know you used 41 dollars of donations to fill your car withe current gas prices, but I feel it is bad form and if I was to found out I would drop that server like a dirty bad habit.

Plus awarding players who donate with an in game item, is also boarding on the EULA, but several servers have done it in the past with only a slight whine/groan, because it "could" lead to going against the EULA.

For example if you already have Player Housing in game, but the cost in gold is rather large, BUT you decide to let a player have a house (skipping the gold requirement) because they donated for a professional server service, that's probably only boarding the EULA, but anouncing to the players on your forum, they can get X if they donate Y amount, or they can get Z if they donate Y amount or if they donate A amount they get B IS breaking the EULA.

The biggest problem you may have is other players may feel your "favoring" certain players only because they are financially better off than another.

At most I would simply add a special ICON to their forum name that appears on all their posts that says something like "Donation Member" or "Founding Member".

This way you stay outside of the scope of the game for rewards for donations and the donaters still get recognized for helping your player base.

Sept 17, 2008 8:09:42 GMT -5 DEV Driller said:

I wouldn't give anything in return for a donation. That would possibly break the EULA.

Thanks,
-driller

[xanthors]

Stable server without lag? sure i can donate for that