As an opening, I'd like to say that donations are doing fine overall, and I'm satisfied with how the server finances are going. Still, maybe there's something more that could be done to provide new options to our player base, so I'm considering options.

There's something that came up before, mostly in a joking matter, but I'm wondering if there isn't more to it: targeted donations. These would have a player (or group of players) donating to allow a specific new addition to the server.

Ideas that have been sent my way from various players include paying for:
- A RAM upgrade, allowing more players at the same time
- An extra map render, showing the 3D map from another direction
- An amplified world set to Normal difficulty instead of Gondwana's Hard mode
- New worlds with only islands, as people love their islands

Right now, I accept donations and assign the funds received as I see fit, mostly to cover the ongoing fees with an occasional disk space increase and RAM upgrade. Maybe having set targets for some items, along with a known price, would be useful. For example, adding an extra 3D map render would currently cost about $40 for a year. Could attaching a monetary cost for each potential addition cause some people to commit to them?

Fun fact: the server's RAM was upgraded by 25% last weekend, leading to our new cap of 30 players!

I'm not asking about if YOU would personally donate, but rather for your opinion on if this is a good idea or not. Maybe you've been on another server or community (or even in another game) that implemented something like this and you have thoughts to share. Maybe the current model works well enough. Maybe there's room for something more detailed.

I'm throwing ideas, here. Got anything to share?

Good points all around. To cover this specifically, it's clear to me that I want to keep on enjoying the game itself. Unless this somehow became a full time job with revenues (wouldn't THAT be a thing!), I can only do so much in a given day, and I find the game fun: I want to keep myself as an active player.

Also, I should specify that whatever options I'd offer are additions that I would be able to put into place quickly. I wouldn't want to receive a sum of money only for me to take 2-3 weeks to ready a request due to the preparation work required.

Edited by Dr. Cossack on July 14, 2014 at 19:46:02

If we limited it that far, your family would overtake the whole server, Uncle Salad. xP It'd just be you guys and the trumped-up triumvirate. Do you REALLY want that?

I've got a way to save on RAM though! A command block rigged to a timer that runs the command:

./kick Salifax Less players = Less RAM!


In all seriousness though, I can see a lot of the points you're making about the possible downsides and almost dangers of setting donation goals. I have this terrible vision in my head of the constant question "Have we reached the goal yet?!" getting slammed around the chat.

The segregation of different 'cliques' of players is a little worrisome too, but I would guess that if the connections between worlds could be maintained it wouldn't be too much of a burden. I'd just really hate to see people splitting off from the larger, more open communities for the sake of jumping into a different world, though even as it is Gondwana sees much less use that Laurasia and Avalonia sees barely any by comparison.

The state of the success of the donations has and always will be something only you know about, Doc, as well as the stability of the server. That you'd be able to front these changes immediately definitely settles some concern.