Is there any server out there managed with passion and not for profit?

Started by Suspension, Sep 15, 2016, 01:30 PM

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Suspension

I remember back in my good RO days, private servers running off from real donations (not cash shop disguised as donations) and ads, struggling for survive. Best servers ever.

But from some years ago, people are just opening servers just for the profit. They don't even care about offering something unique, almost every server is equal: woe servers, non renewal servers and even those focused on a real "classic" 2-2 experience are just copy pasted, just seeking money, managing it like they were Gravity itself, treating you like a customer instead of a user who is enjoining the time in the server - which is a problem too, as this kind of servers produce the most toxic and condescending community; those who think they have the right to criticize everything and demanding anything they want because otherwise, they'll go to one of the other copies. Eventually admins accept those term and in the mid-run, the server gets boring, people no longer "donate", and the admin closes the server to open another one and earn more.

As a Spanish player (from Spain), I've seen this in both, the spanish and the international community. I remember back then famous spanish servers like SaltitosRO, AnaedasRO, etc. And even a bit more recently but still old, international servers like Eternity RO (they had pay-for-donations, but at least I felt there was passion in the project, I might be wrong).

But now, it's just kiddos running an internet business. Trying to gather users like they were selling shampoo. It's a bit sad.

Sorry for my English.
Quote from: exii on Jun 27, 2015, 06:07 AM
If you think casting quag is a good idea you or your guild heavily failed to create a viable guild rost.

snowblind

hmm I don't really feel that way. I think maybe half of them are for money. They just get more attention because they know what they're doing and how to get players. It's not that hard to avoid those.

yC

There are servers that come up from time to time that are not-for-profit and have a heart/passion in the project.  The problem is sometimes the owner got busy or other situation cause the server to close.  There are people that start out a project and have put a lot of effort into it, not for money however after a while they feel that managing a server is too much work for them so they decide to step down.  Good server have as many reasons to close as bad servers (such as competition driving players away / undeserving players + toxic community / missed the target group result in not many players = discouraged etc).

If you ask me, from the look of it I feel heRO has been around for so long (10 years?) so the owner must have a passion to keep the project going for so long.  Nova RO has been gaining a lot of attention this year for having updates close to kRO which is ahead of most of the emulation projects.  This shows me they put in the effort to be unique and spend time into research + development.  There are also a few servers in different languages that I have seen around for many years (Russian and Thai servers at least but I can't remember names).

If you want to place your bet on new servers, you can tell their effort starting with how much time they put into their website.  Anything more than a template website with default/broken links is considered good these days though. 

You can also try the official iRO server, it's slower but it is free to play and definitely not run by kiddos.

Suspension

Quote from: yC on Sep 15, 2016, 02:41 PM

With real life(TM) issues and a job, I have no longer time for playing since some years. I have look up some servers time to time, but not appealing and, of course, focused on money.

IRO (Ragnarok online itself) is crap to me, the game nowadays feels like a cheap private server.

If I had time and I didn't mind managing users, I would have created my own server long time ago. I had a project in mind, but not the patience of an admin, nor the social/marketing skills to make it full of people (if I can't enjoy the game with a lot of people, it's no use).

I'll wait for the right guy who can make my dream come true, even if he needs my development skills for free (former Hercules code contributor).
Quote from: exii on Jun 27, 2015, 06:07 AM
If you think casting quag is a good idea you or your guild heavily failed to create a viable guild rost.

Cyan Hijirikawa

If you are familiar with rA and want to check us out (I believe even one of my newest addition to the team thinks the project would be a great success with all the ideas we have pooled and the ideas are slowly being implemented into the project).

While others may think their project is so good that it's on another level, we do maintain to be sublime with our achievements and what we tend to do with our project. We are doing this for enjoyment and not to boast to others.

If you are interested, please drop on here to view the project. Click me~

If you wish to know more, please send me a PM and I'll gladly explain to you what we have in mind(me and my team)

DarkDevine

The only server I know that's not a pure business machine is TotalRO. That's just because I know the two admins well and I can tell that they want to do things differently, they invested a lot of hard work in it. I'd give it a try.
TotalRO - 10x/10x

Yuzo

whatever you do dont play iRO. absolute mud of a server and it's what the damn game's supposed to be.


don't be fooled by some of those bigger servers, too. some of them found their lovely formula, snuggled into it and became milk machines.

Bue

But what if you have a passion for both ragnarok and profit?

That new surround sound system or attic insulation replacement ain't going to be cheap.

Yuzo

Quote from: Bue on Sep 15, 2016, 09:27 PM
But what if you have a passion for both ragnarok and profit?

That new surround sound system or attic insulation replacement ain't going to be cheap.
Well first you hire Cookie.
Then you need to somehow dupe him into thinking he'll have access to the paypal.
Motivation leveled up!
++profit$$$

apochi

The only truly passionate server I know: http://originsro.org/

There are no donations for items, only real donations... best server ever, they have even been up for 3+ years.

Suspension

Quote from: Cyan Hijirikawa on Sep 15, 2016, 04:32 PM

So you are basically creating a server for changing the already anime-like sprites to other anime sprites and make the game play a lot of songs and sounds from anime?

I don't find it really interesting tbh...
Quote from: exii on Jun 27, 2015, 06:07 AM
If you think casting quag is a good idea you or your guild heavily failed to create a viable guild rost.

Cyan Hijirikawa

Quote from: Suspension on Sep 16, 2016, 10:11 AM

Nope, the main focus of the server is pretty much to add "universes" per se, to extend the contents of the game using anime inspired content is what we aim. For instance, our custom classes could derive from anime universes such as SAO, Chrono Crusade and whatnot. Which is why I'd invited you over to check out what have done so far and what we plan on doing.

Sachimi

Quote from: Suspension on Sep 15, 2016, 01:30 PM
And even a bit more recently but still old, international servers like Eternity RO (they had pay-for-donations, but at least I felt there was passion in the project, I might be wrong).

Eternity was always run with the profit mindset. Karei ran it like a business and had no real interest in the game itself. He was in it for the money and he certainly put out a lot of gold-plated sh*t to make it seem otherwise. There were a few members of the team who truly cared about the server and its players, but Karei himself was never one of them. For all my many faults, I was in it for the players ( v3 ). Those donations were put in by Karei without consulting anyone else, and he set the prices - but the server was not in any danger of being underfunded by the existing donations. There was always an excess in donations after the server costs were paid, and all that excess went into Karei's bank account. Sorry to burst the bubble, but that's the truth of Eternity since v1.

I feel like there's more consideration for the players on TalonRO, and the focus is on keeping the players happy without demanding their money to do so. I know Boreas and Seiren ( and the rest of the team ) have put in a lot of work and time into doing their best for the server.

snowblind

Quote from: Sachimi on Sep 18, 2016, 02:45 AM
I feel like there's more consideration for the players on TalonRO, and the focus is on keeping the players happy without demanding their money to do so. I know Boreas and Seiren ( and the rest of the team ) have put in a lot of work and time into doing their best for the server.
That's kind of hard to believe considering the amount of donations. I'm not saying they weren't passionate when they built up their server, but now that it's such a money-making machine, they probably treat it as such. No idea how you got a caring impression about Boreas in particular.

Atis

Quote from: Sachimi on Sep 18, 2016, 02:45 AM
Eternity was always run with the profit mindset. Karei ran it like a business and had no real interest in the game itself. He was in it for the money and he certainly put out a lot of gold-plated sh*t to make it seem otherwise. There were a few members of the team who truly cared about the server and its players, but Karei himself was never one of them. For all my many faults, I was in it for the players ( v3 ). Those donations were put in by Karei without consulting anyone else, and he set the prices - but the server was not in any danger of being underfunded by the existing donations. There was always an excess in donations after the server costs were paid, and all that excess went into Karei's bank account. Sorry to burst the bubble, but that's the truth of Eternity since v1.

I feel like there's more consideration for the players on TalonRO, and the focus is on keeping the players happy without demanding their money to do so. I know Boreas and Seiren ( and the rest of the team ) have put in a lot of work and time into doing their best for the server.

What OP donations were there at Eternity v2? I cant remember a single one. It looks like bitter talk about Karei for stealing  big part of English speaking RO community.