Why not make donating more worthwhile

Goldfolk said:
I think the issue is more that a small minority of non-donators piss potential donators off by acting like they own the server and the forums.

The nature of this server makes many of the rules quite vague. If you are say a level 64 toon in Elds castle patiently and slowly killing mobs only to see a couple of 65+s waltz past and snipe the nameds then it puts you off a bit.

Even if u haven't been sniped u may very well have to wait hours until a duo stops farming.

Both of the above are perfectly legal but considered poor etiquette but happen enough to piss people off.

This is an inevitable consequence of a game that hasn't decided whether it wants to maximise the player base or cater to an ultra hard core of people. While the two aren't totally incompatible there are frequent strains.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure what the situation you described has to do with donating, or what reward for donators would address it. There are plenty of dickheads around who do and don't donate and we treat them equally.
 
Goldfolk said:
This is an inevitable consequence of a game that hasn't decided whether it wants to maximise the player base or cater to an ultra hard core of people. While the two aren't totally incompatible there are frequent strains.
Click to expand...

Neither one. We want the best player base, not to maximize it (we have no problem getting rid of undesirables), and certainly not to cater to a select few.

We DO however tend to cater more to grouping than to soloing (although we do try to support soloing to a greater extent than live). Get your 64 a group and you'll be killing fast enough not to have to worry about a couple of 65s rolling past.
 
Goldfolk said:
That business model just doesn't work, the issue is can something be done to attract more donators?

Anyway I made a suggestion thats all it was
Click to expand...


SoD only needs enough donations to keep the server running. There shouldn't be some massive incentive to donate unless the server really needs funds, and when that happens it usually results in more people donating because their exchange of value is keeping the game running versus the game dying. To be completely honest, this game won't be here forever, so there is not a lot of incentive to create a large reserve of funds.




Goldfolk said:
I think the issue is more that a small minority of non-donators piss potential donators off by acting like they own the server and the forums.

The nature of this server makes many of the rules quite vague. If you are say a level 64 toon in Elds castle patiently and slowly killing mobs only to see a couple of 65+s waltz past and snipe the nameds then it puts you off a bit.

Even if u haven't been sniped u may very well have to wait hours until a duo stops farming.

Both of the above are perfectly legal but considered poor etiquette but happen enough to piss people off.

This is an inevitable consequence of a game that hasn't decided whether it wants to maximise the player base or cater to an ultra hard core of people. While the two aren't totally incompatible there are frequent strains.
Click to expand...


This is called competition, and getting a little butthurt is just a general result of this no matter who does what. SoD is built on competition, so if a potential donator can't handle a little competition then they are probably playing the wrong game. If they want to donate they will, but if not then oh well. There are plenty of people willing to donate for a short time in exchange for keeping the game running rather than some uber advantage over another player.




Harazan said:
Why should there be any benefit for donating?...
There shouldn't be in a perfect world filled with selfless people. BUT.... we aren't in a perfect world and there aren't alot of selfless people (and the few that exist are usually aren't in the best finances due to their own selflessness). I agree that donators should get perks that are "fun" and save "some" of their time. In fact, thats how they are now with illusion items, etc and enhanced houses. Now, "fun" and "some" can have arguable meanings especially to what perks they refer. You aren't going to make every single player happy with whatever the devs pick and quite frankly I'm sure the devs know intimately the balance of what donators should and shouldn't get. The normal players don't know and can only throw ideas out there for the devs to consider.

As far as buffbots go, I don't see how implimenting them into pocket plane would disrupt anything. Even if the buffbots require donations, allowing the players to even have the choice of saving time from the use of a buffbot is a plus as it is a choice that most players don't get.

Besides, most donators aren't college students or high school students with variable income at best (like myself). Those that do donate have a steadier income and have less time to spend in Dalaya. Making it easier and less time consuming for trivial tasks is a great incentive to donate.
Click to expand...


The main benefits of donating to this server are as follows:
You get to play the game.

You shouldn't need to have any more incentive than that. When the server gets low on funds people will donate regardless of whether they can get huge advantages in-game. Most people don't donate because the pocket plane is just so awesome, or because those clicky SoW boots make their character a god. They donate because they want to play the game and the server needs funds to allow them to do that.
 
Donating also allows for more convenience than what a non-donator would have to do. As long as donator items or services do not give someone an advantage over someone else, then I don't see a problem with it. There aren't going to be super raid weapons to buy, or shortcuts to getting your relics or archaics, etc, but would offer perks because you're helping to keep the server alive.

And TBH, the more donators the better in my opinion. Maybe if we had enough of a surplus, then I wouldn't have to continue to pay $129 a month for one of our zone servers so everyone can play lag free and consistent zone crashing free. Anyone who has been in this community since 2004 until today, can remember back in those days the server had to be rebooted almost every other day or it would completely crash. Without donations we wouldn't have been able to accomplish the reliability of the server as it is today.
 
The main benefits of donating to this server are as follows:
You get to play the game.

You shouldn't need to have any more incentive than that. When the server gets low on funds people will donate regardless of whether they can get huge advantages in-game. Most people don't donate because the pocket plane is just so awesome, or because those clicky SoW boots make their character a god. They donate because they want to play the game and the server needs funds to allow them to do that.
Click to expand...

yeah, I'd agree in a perfect world... The fact of the matter remains that by nature, self interest reigns over all, it's just how the world works. It's how our economy works and it's how individuals work. For those less selfish people that donate, money is either easier to come by or is just valued less. Sometimes the donation made only by the less selfish players is enough to keep the servers, but not always and that's when incentives come into play. We just need to be careful with what incentives are implemented. I'll bet you that if pocket plane was removed, our donations will drop. That alone indicates that people aren't just donating to keep the server running. There are slot of reasons why people donate, not only the reasons I listed here. It's foolish to think otherwise and the truth of the matter is that self interest reigns over alot of issues and decisions must b made to deal with it in an appropriate manner.
 
When self interest overcomes donations, then the server will cease to be, and those who didn't donate will only have themselves to thank.

Again, these are simple concepts, and dressing up counterpoints about how donators should have "game breaking x" or "progression killing y" with pretty words won't change the simple concepts that the foundations of this server were built on.
 
Me said:
Woldaff said:
We are ideologically opposed to having donations = material in game benefits. That is why our donation items are fun and interesting and not powerful.

If we ever got into the financial position where we would have to start giving out stats for cash we would seriously consider calling it a day. Luckily we have never even gotten close to that.
Click to expand...

This post -- one that represents the staff's unanimous mentality -- makes me extremely confident and proud of the people who created and sustain this game.
Click to expand...

I won't be playing here anymore should that ever change. Given the responses in this thread, I doubt it ever will.
 
Harazan said:
yeah, I'd agree in a perfect world... The fact of the matter remains that by nature, self interest reigns over all, it's just how the world works. It's how our economy works and it's how individuals work. For those less selfish people that donate, money is either easier to come by or is just valued less. Sometimes the donation made only by the less selfish players is enough to keep the servers, but not always and that's when incentives come into play. We just need to be careful with what incentives are implemented. I'll bet you that if pocket plane was removed, our donations will drop. That alone indicates that people aren't just donating to keep the server running. There are slot of reasons why people donate, not only the reasons I listed here. It's foolish to think otherwise and the truth of the matter is that self interest reigns over alot of issues and decisions must b made to deal with it in an appropriate manner.
Click to expand...

This is no reason to increase the incentive. There may be people that donate for pocket plane privileges, but even if we removed it and server funds dropped low enough to cause the server to shut down people would donate to keep it alive. When threatened with the loss of the server, people's priorities will change from "wtf no pocket plane fuck donating" to "oh no i still want to play, let's donate."

There doesn't need to be any more incentive because the main incentive will always be there.
 
Yeah, but have you forgotten to take the devs' take on it all? Do you think that they want to deal with a temporay server shutdown on a semi regular basis? Do you understand how much extra work and time that would take? Better beleive it that people will let the server turn off before we kick into our more giving moods.
 
Harazan said:
Yeah, but have you forgotten to take the devs' take on it all? Do you think that they want to deal with a temporay server shutdown on a semi regular basis? Do you understand how much extra work and time that would take? Better beleive it that people will let the server turn off before we kick into our more giving moods.
Click to expand...

tbh i don't even think this would happen, some people would stop donating but more people care about the server being up.

400-500 people are consistently addicted to SoD, if all of a sudden they were faced with not being able to play enough of them would want to do something about it. A lot of people play SoD because of the lack of an expense, but there are well over enough people that would step up and donate if they were faced with having to go cold turkey on their game of choice.
 
Yeah, none o us really know how much it costs to keep the server up and we also don't know how much they get in donations each month. We can only speculate.
 
Allielyn said:
I don't know if its still there but a very long time ago when I was still a platinum donator there was a shaman buffbot in the pocket plane, I beleive usage was paid. It didn't do anything higher than Khura's Focusing (did I spell that right?) but it was there!
Click to expand...

Mystic Vulf still casts talisman of kragg and scale of wolf for a small fee. Though the latter is admittedly of limited utility.
 
Boehm said:
Mystic Vulf still casts talisman of kragg and scale of wolf for a small fee. Though the latter is admittedly of limited utility.
Click to expand...

Yeah, lol, Scale would drop any way you leave pocket plane unless someone else ported you, however, if you're in pocket plane, you have donator boots, so...meh :toot:
 
we should have halfling races round the circle and dress them using the fancy dress gear from the club house by the rat for team colors. Like roman chariot teams but with halflings.

I think if players knew we were drinking ripple and betting on halflings there would be more donors.
 
Last edited:
Well I have restarted donating again but that is because I am in a high end Guild and raiding almost everyday and enjoying the game more than ever.

Think the point I was trying to make is that the vast majority who post and determine policy are in that inner ellite Group with one or more toons geared to Tier 9 or better. Those who reliably donate in the longer term will almost certainly be in this group or close.

I don't know how critical server funds are but if you want lower tiered peeps to donate reliably longer term you have to give them some incentive or rein in some of the 'healthy competition'. Having spent a long time as a journeyman I know several people who stopped donating because of the 'dickheads'.

I know Bud feels that the server owes the intensive users a debt but the truth is that the server owes them nothing; they play and enjoy a great free game and should be grateful for that priveliege.

Conversely, by the server's own rules we don't 'owe' anything either. It's a sandbox which we play in and we take it as it is or we leave it.

Providing you can get enough people to donate that is fine but I can't help feeling that the server finances will always be precarious as long as such a 'pure' approach is used.
 
Think the point I was trying to make is that the vast majority who post and determine policy are in that inner ellite Group with one or more toons geared to Tier 9 or better. Those who reliably donate in the longer term will almost certainly be in this group or close.
Click to expand...

I must be in the minority then. I started donating (Gold) about a month after I started playing a little over a year ago. My reason was, I felt like $10-$15 a month was the least I could do after paying to play an inferior game (live) for over 8 years. And most of that time paying for 2 or 3 accounts.

I'm not in tier anything. Still belong to Dalayas Beginners with my main character. (Level 65 Necro with 125 or so AAs) It's a great game, what live should have been.

As long as I am working and the game is still fun for me, I will pay to play. Not because I am in an uber guild, and not because I want to help determine polices or feel like my opinion is worth more weight. But, simply because its a fun game worth the money. I believe there are others like me too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom