Donations ~ How Do You Feel?

[IvoryMouse]

So I bring this up since a good 99.9% of RO servers run off donations. How do you guys feel about it honestly? About donator's being given a prime advantage in PvE and PvP with gear they paid for instead of earned? Does it feel like Pay2Win? I myself personally would love it if I could find a server that doesn't accept donations and possibly in the future run my own server where I wouldn't accept donations, but run the server off my own income. I just never like donations personally as they give people a superior edge in PvP and most servers have overpowered donation gear for ridiculous prices. I have yet to find a server I was WILLING to donate to or even a server that's fun enough to hold my attention, ahaha.

So how do you guys feel about donations?

[snowblind]

I have no problem with donation items, as long as you can get them ingame without a stupid farming quest, preferably through BG badges and event coins. It's always lame to see items you can only get if a donator decides to vend them.

Other than that, I think it's only fair that people who don't have as much time to play, because they spend the time working, can balance out that disadvantage by supporting the server.

I have never donated and don't plan on doing that, unless there was a server I loved and wanted to stay alive (unlikely).

[Theny]

Donates should be something that doesn't put you ahead in the game. It should be a way to show that you care and love the server, so in return you get something back that is just a little helpful like use of the @go command if it's not there to begin with, or use of @font, just some fun stuff to show our thanks for donating, but definitely not like Donate and get a headgear that gives +60 to all stats! Or donate for Boss cards! That stuff just shows me it's a bad server right away.

[NovaRagnarok]

You can take donations and not be P2W.

In my server there's two things to counteract this, the first is everyone can earn donation points just by playing, and the second is that the shop is mostly filled with cosmetics.

[MrMystery]

I think pay2win is pretty subjective. Some people think that pay2win only exists when you're giving players access to headgears with +60 stats and bonus @commands. Others think that pay2win exists the moment you can vend your donation item for zeny in-game. And of course, it's going to vary server to server due to the expectations for low, mid, and high rate servers.

I don't donate to servers either, but I have no problem with donors getting access to items that have stats as long as I don't feel left behind for not having them. That's my biggest thing. I don't consider any game pay2win until I'm at a significant disadvantage by not paying.

For example, let's say the best DEX headgear gives +3 DEX with 0 def. Now the donation shop offers a headgear that's +3 DEX and 1 def. I'm okay with that because even though it's better than what I can get in-game, it's not going to make a huge difference in gameplay. Now if the donation shop has a headgear that's +4 DEX and 0 def, I might feel obligated to donate if I want to have the most DEX possible.

[Inochi]

As long as the donation shop has alternative items that can be given to players by other means then I guess. Not too many have 'money' in this world, and to pay ~$100~$300 USD(Decent server) out of pocket for your enjoyment is quite hard.

[Theny]

As long as the donation shop has alternative items that can be given to players by other means then I guess. Not too many have 'money' in this world, and to pay ~$100~$300 USD(Decent server) out of pocket for your enjoyment is quite hard.

Just out of curiosity, what server are you on that is costing $100 to $300 dollars to keep going?

[Inochi]

Just out of curiosity, what server are you on that is costing $100 to $300 dollars to keep going?

http://vivid-ro.com/forums/index.php?/topic/866-regarding-fundingtemporary-donation-promo/

[Reality]

You can reduce it down to around $50/month bare minimum with standard DDoS protection and rather okay server specifications, depending on where you order your hosting, with zero invested into advertising. Hell, I'd be down to $65/month without the RMS banner. And I get absolutely no complaints about lag or connection issues on our side at all (though, we do get issues with our webhost from time to time, admittedly). That's chump change for anyone with any comfort in their income in real life (rip me lel).

It's also kind of important to factor in startup costs too. A flux integrated website can be $75-350+. IPB is like $175 right now, I think. And then there's Harmony, which ain't cheap, and if you're dumb, Adelays too. And also a month of pre-release hosting for the server development and webpage/forum hosting. Additionally, an admin can and should opt for paid pre-release advertisements as well, which can be at a whole slew of price points.

Fortunately, as long as the server opens with 100-200+ players, the startup costs are usually made up for in a week or two after opening, with a rather basic mid-rate competitive headgear assortment in your shop. That's why certain (unnamed) admins like to open and close servers. It's the first few months that rack in dough (thousands, even, and in the case of a rather recent 1k+ population server, tens of thousands) until a stagnant or negative growth of population or an oversaturation of donation items in the market occurs. (The latter is very much dependent on how accessible donation items are to non-donors.)

Of course, a lot of this is just my own personal experience with these things. I'm sure others have an entirely different experience, or different methodologies. But I hope that helps to clarify it, a bit.

-Reality

[Esdese22]

I don't really mind donation item as long as it has no OP effects or nearly impossible to obtain even with intense farming zeny. No problem that  ppl get geared faster because they simply "pay" if non donators still can get the same items by farming zeny to buy credits or the exact items.
I dislike "pay2win" as well, i prefer a server that treats players equally although i'm not sure if that exists in this world. I mean like no ridiculous services exclusively for donators only that give them too much advantages.
I have never donated because i'm stingy lol. It maybe tempting sometimes but nah

[tellyourmomgotohell]

I don't think a server with no donation will be possible, unless the owner is capable and willing to do that. I mean people who are fortunate are more interested in making more fortune than running an RO server. It has always been never fair for everybody in any aspects of life, money and looks is a must have at least one of them. I feel bad that I can't afford donation but that just the way it is, in most server even hard work in game wouldn't still be able to keep up from donators. There is a pattern, most donators are polite, humble and secretive about doing a donation, while suckers like me fight for every MVP and talk a lot here and there. If the server owner can just at least minimized the stuff they are selling from the mall that will be good for none donators, but bad for donators because they don't really have much time to do farming and hunting as they have a busy life. If a server don't have a healthy donation it will fail and close and it will be bad for both. I say leave the malls to the GM as they are the ones who understand the needs of the server to run and learn how to accept for suckers like me.

[Asuka Connell]

All true, servers don't run on dokebi gold after all, so admins need help in the form of donations to keep it running. How they attract donations is the issue here. We cannot expect an admin to shell out all the cash and carry the financial burden all by him/herself just so we can play  for free, that's not realistic (and socially irresponsible) So, personally I don't care whatever items come out of the donate shop, they have to do what they have to do to keep the server up and running.

However, admins also bear the consequences if their donate items are too unbalanced or inaccessible to the rest of the players. If donors have too big of an advantage, the non-donors will leave the server and the donors will find the deflated population boring and leave as well. Donate items can make or break the server this way.

[Zleepy]

costume donations are fine as you will probably make enough money since ro is a pocket change game compared to most other titles
if a server honestly decides to start selling things like enriched, battle manuals, actual gear and such i assume you plan to do paid advertising because there isnt much reason to push for those funds on such a small game unless you have insane costs like the pservers with 8000~20000 online at peak hours over in the sea and japanese regions

if you plan to host a server dedicated to expanding the game through custom content such as monsters, npcs, maps, items, bg modes, skills in which it is wise you hire outside help having a more game changing list of donations is very acceptable imo but the success of such servers is sadly meh in the west at best

btw for the admins that try to make a "fortune" from ro pick a better game for a low 100 peak online in many other games you can easily pull 10,000~20,000 usd a month for probably the same amount of work or a slight bit more as long as you understand the game and the server files happen to be very open to edit

[Styx]

From own experience I divide donations a bit:

Only costume: not worth to donate, likely one or 2 big donators or a group will control the market for it.
In general I would avoid such servers having a high risk to be corrupt and certainly avoid donating.
Excessive shop: Risky to donate, server is likely to die very soon after a few months. Exceptions are around though.
If you find one, likely everyone there is able to donate.
Medium shop: Could be worth to donate but in all cases; if ingame features and shops are better. Avoid to donate.
Minium shop, that would typical be just a VIP system or something close to that principle. It might be worth to donate for it.
You don't see much of those servers lately though.
In general it is better to avoid making donations, you likely will not win anything with it at all and if you do, nobody will remember you for it.
If the community doesn't like donators, then don't donate to keep their needs or entertainment alive. It is their problem to solve.

[vashgibz13]

Donation = Pay to Win, nothing more, nothing less.

[agony023]

No Donation= No server=No Player=No one Wins

the so called donate items are just a token of gratitude from the server, Over Powered Donate items are the one's that is to be avoided by the server

Just think of this Official servers also have something they "sell" ingame for the use of paying players and non paying players don't give a !@#$%^, Private servers also have something they "sell" ingame for the use of donating players, and non donating players give a !@#$%^

difference is the use of word's pay and donate

[Styx]

Donation = Pay to Win, nothing more, nothing less.

Not donating is being a parasite, nothing more, nothing less.