The great donation debate

Dorf · Aug 19, 2009

Now this isn't a flame thread, so please don't turn it into one. I played euro from start to finish, I was paying for 2 accounts so basically £20 a month. Am I in a minority when I say I am prepared to pay that, and NOT expect any ingame favours? I'd like a server where you can donate, but you don't get any extras. You see, I understand running costs, but I also understand once you start down that road, it is one hell of a slippery slope. Eventually all items become available to buy, then the server ends up knackered, either because the economy is ruined, or the people with the biggest wallets not only have rediculous kit, they also are able to have people removed from server. (I read a thread that a certain server owner did that.)

I would like a server that you can donate, but don't get some 'advantage'. I think that idea believe it or not, is actually attractive to players who like the game, but want to play it on a fair playing field. For me £5 a week is nothing, what do you folk think?

Zen2 · Aug 19, 2009

Some people cant afford to pay monthly. Some people wont pay monthly. The games very old now and wouldnt seem worth paying for in my eyes. If i wanted boosts i would probly donate.

Pete107 · Aug 19, 2009

Mir was NEVER about donations back in the early days but as the community grew some people had the idea to make some money from it, I personaly don't see why them people who want a server work out the costs BEFORE signing any such contract, If you CANNOT afford it then don't bother I personaly don't see why people should pay for somthing that the server owner should pay for.

Prai · Aug 19, 2009

I see it as, If the owner has put time and effort into a server. Why not be rewarded with cash. Silly fault the people who are donating mind you.

But if I had a successful server, Id rinse donations. Not gonna lie..

Hone · Aug 19, 2009

The point is that with the majority of servers, it's no longer just about covering server running costs. I believe to some degree that a server owner shouldn't run a server if he/she can't afford to do so. On the other hand if they are putting their time and effort into making, updating and running the server, then why should they also have to fork out the costs involved as well.

But server running costs are merely pocket change in the grand scale of what some servers rake in on a monthly basis, regardless of what they try to make you believe. All in all my opinion is mixed, but I don't agree or believe in making profits out of a game which essentially isn't yours. If the self satisfaction and gratification of running a server isn't enough for you and you need to make money out of it to make it worthwhile, then you shouldn't be running a server, imo.

It's catch 22 really.

Zen2 · Aug 19, 2009

Depends, If you want a donation free server go play one, Theres gonna be barly any players it will probly have a laggy and unreliable host. The server wil probly be ran by people all under the age of 20 and they will most likley be corrupt. Atleast with a donation server you know its going to last and there will be updates and it wont be laggy.

I know what i would prefer, Btw this is all from previous experience of playing servers and so forth.

Orphanmaker1 · Aug 19, 2009

Zen2 said:
Depends, If you want a donation free server go play one, Theres gonna be barly any players it will probly have a laggy and unreliable host. The server wil probly be ran by people all under the age of 20 and they will most likley be corrupt. Atleast with a donation server you know its going to last and there will be updates and it wont be laggy.

I know what i would prefer, Btw this is all from previous experience of playing servers and so forth.

I'm assuming by 'donation' you mean items for cash? The word 'donation' seems to get thrown around a lot here in the wrong context and becomes confusing to people like me who actually know what words mean.

It's down to preference at the end of the day. I'd rather play a server with less players than a server full of doleys who spend all their money on a game to be 'the best'. Preference.

Pete107 · Aug 19, 2009

Zen2 said:
Depends, If you want a donation free server go play one, Theres gonna be barly any players it will probly have a laggy and unreliable host. The server wil probly be ran by people all under the age of 20 and they will most likley be corrupt. Atleast with a donation server you know its going to last and there will be updates and it wont be laggy.

I know what i would prefer, Btw this is all from previous experience of playing servers and so forth.

Personaly in my experience there aint been that many servers in the past with to much lag/down time when hosting on a home connection it all depends on how well the host/owner's upload speed/comp specs I think I looked on a thread for 100+ people 1-1.3 mb upload speed is desent enoth but people such as me with 0.4mb upload shouldnt host a server or even think about it, an about the corruption side I've not really thought about that much but there wasnt much of that before an wouldnt play a server with some1 who is likly to corrupt the server.

People are just finding "holes" in running a server and making profit from it, fair enoth they put time and effort in but alot of people did that in the past and never asked for any sort of payment or had the option to give money so why has it changed? people want money people think that because they made a server they deserve somthing in return.

But its upto the players if they wanna be stupid enoth to donate for a server that could be hosted for free without anyone having an advantage.

Orphanmaker1 said:
I'm assuming by 'donation' you mean items for cash? The word 'donation' seems to get thrown around a lot here in the wrong context and becomes confusing to people like me who actually know what words mean.

It's down to preference at the end of the day. I'd rather play a server with less players than a server full of doleys who spend all their money on a game to be 'the best'. Preference.

I see any sort of accepting money as a donation.

Orphanmaker1 · Aug 19, 2009

petesn00beh said:
I see any sort of accepting money as a donation.

Then you sir, need a dictionary.

A donation does not involve anything in return. What we're talking about is item shops.

Pete107 · Aug 19, 2009

Orphanmaker1 said:
Then you sir, need a dictionary.

A donation does not involve anything in return. What we're talking about is item shops.

The title says "The great donation debate" not "The great item shop debate"

I stand by my comment no matter what a dictionary says Donations are normaly mostly used for charitys not for people to exploit getting free money for somthing that can be done for free, if there was a set limit and the server own contributed towards the costs them selfs say owner pays 50% or 75% an the rest can be worked out according to how many people normaly donate or simply dont run a server you cant fund your self

Zen2 · Aug 19, 2009

Fact: Donation means you get nothing in return, The word donation was used to cover up the word BUY anyway.. i think we all understand that, I also have 0.4mb upload speed, I was recently hosting a server on a 1.8ghz amd 64 2gb ram 300gb hdd 256mb gfx card, The server reached 59 users with what i remember little lag, Its possible yes but with servers such as Four Heroes and OldSkool theres so many players a home connection such as mine wouldnt handle, Also you need a decent spec CPU too keep up with the mass amount of chars data ect, E.g TrustMerchant uses alot of CPU, with over 1000 items it rapes your cpu. The fact that a dedicated server stays up 99.9% of the time too in most cases makes the server more likable to play in my opinion.

This debate is going no where really everyone has thier own opinions its not going to change peoples minds or thier *donation* systems either.

Gezza · Aug 19, 2009

The thing is if a server is good and people enjoy playing it, i for one would donate to a server and expect notyhing in return to help with server costs and i'm sure other's would also. This is how it should be imo but never gonna happen :P

Weikster · Aug 19, 2009

Why is there even a debate? Obviously nobody cares about who does what with "their" server files anymore.
On this site "Open Source Files" means rape as much cash out of it as possible.

afshangrudar1 · Aug 19, 2009

A while back when euro closed I offered hosting on my home workstation (8 core x64 Xeon, 20gb RAM) from home for someone who would open up a euro style server on the condition no donations/item shops etc would be needed as it wouldnt cost anything to run. Only one or two people were willing to take me up on my offer but both subsequently pulled out over other issues which is a sad state of affairs. Its not like people are gonna get stupidly rich from a private server, it should be something done out wanting to create something or love of games/gaming and design/coding imo

kyndigs · Aug 19, 2009

• donate - To make a donation; to give away something of value to support or contribute towards a cause or for the benefit of another

Orphanmaker1 · Aug 19, 2009

petesn00beh said:
The title says "The great donation debate" not "The great item shop debate"

I stand by my comment no matter what a dictionary says Donations are normaly mostly used for charitys not for people to exploit getting free money for somthing that can be done for free, if there was a set limit and the server own contributed towards the costs them selfs say owner pays 50% or 75% an the rest can be worked out according to how many people normaly donate or simply dont run a server you cant fund your self

You seem to have the wrong end of the stick - I am in agreement with you with what you're saying, I was merely pointing out the fact that "donation" is incorrect terminology.

afshangrudar1 said:
A while back when euro closed I offered hosting on my home workstation (8 core x64 Xeon, 20gb RAM) from home for someone who would open up a euro style server on the condition no donations/item shops etc would be needed as it wouldnt cost anything to run. Only one or two people were willing to take me up on my offer but both subsequently pulled out over other issues which is a sad state of affairs. Its not like people are gonna get stupidly rich from a private server, it should be something done out wanting to create something or love of games/gaming and design/coding imo

I don't remember seeing that, otherwise I know someone who would have been interested. Though servers that don't expect donations are few and far between, there are still some. We never accepted a single donation for Dragon and I know Hone doesn't do items for cash.

afshangrudar1 · Aug 19, 2009

Orphanmaker1 said:
I don't remember seeing that, otherwise I know someone who would have been interested. Though servers that don't expect donations are few and far between, there are still some. We never accepted a single donation for Dragon and I know Hone doesn't do items for cash.

I didnt know about lomcn at the time really, i tried to register but it downt allow hotmail so i never posted on here. Unfortunatly i work from home once a week now so I cant offer it for use anymore but I may again if the situation changes.

Pottsy · Aug 20, 2009

petesn00beh said:
Mir was NEVER about donations back in the early days but as the community grew some people had the idea to make some money from it, I personaly don't see why them people who want a server work out the costs BEFORE signing any such contract, If you CANNOT afford it then don't bother I personaly don't see why people should pay for somthing that the server owner should pay for.

Gunna have to agree with this guy.

When this forum was alot more populated, servers were made for the fun of it, no money was ever made and no items were ever given (Unless corrupt of course lol).

Granted the server files to run a server these days require alot more than what they did before.

I just guess somewhere along the line Mir servers stopped being fun or a hobby and ended up being a money maker.

Bon · Aug 20, 2009

reason private servers were made were cause ppl couldnt afford the monthly fee's of euros

donations or not, priv servers are still free 2 play

The great donation debate

LOMCN Veteran

LOMCN Veteran

🐑[E]dens-[E]lite🐑

Most Importantest

LOMCN Veteran

LOMCN Veteran

Dedicated Member

🐑[E]dens-[E]lite🐑

Dedicated Member

🐑[E]dens-[E]lite🐑

LOMCN Veteran

Golden Oldie

LOMCN Veteran

Dedicated Member

LOMCN Developer

Dedicated Member

Dedicated Member

Legend

Legend