Inactive Server Owners

[bleu]

Server A
Server owner logs on once a month or so. All major decisions still requires his/her approval. So, you get a "Blame Game" scenario. Players asked why this has yet to be done. GMs comments - err.. owner has not given access, thus unable to take any action. We will have to wait until the owner is available. Easiest solution in the eyes of the player, lobby for more power for the GMs... so things gets done and we can move forward with or without the Server Owner. A bit of tussle for Power - Owners and GMs.


Server B
Consider yourself lucky, if you see the server owner logging on his/her forum; even if it's just once a year- most people new and old don't get to see/hear from the owner. Reason given was that he/she is really busy in real life. Fortunately, the owner has appointed an Administrator to oversee the server's day-to-day activities. As far as players are concerned, the owner has retired and is just a "figure head". 


1. Is there anything to worry about when your Server Owner becomes Inactive for an extended period of time?

2. How important is it for a server to have an active Server Owner?

3. How bright is the future of servers led by Inactive Server Owners? Are they more likely to pull the plug anytime soon?

[Relics]

inactive server owners that make decisions for changing stuff in-game is what bugs me the most. They can't possibly relate to what happens in-game because they barely check the server.

so imo, it's quite important for a server owner to know what's going on. The only problem is, if they hang too much in-game you're gonna get this admin/player friend circle.

If anybody remembers WolfRO from 2006-2007 ish, the admin from that server, Kevin, was absent for almost half a year but the server managed because it had a pretty good GM team.

[DeePee]

Like Relics said, it's really only a problem if that inactive server owner needs to give his/her approval on things. That way things never get done. Furthermore, seeing that the owner is inactive, he/she can never make important gameplay decisions as that person just doesn't know about what's going on at the server.
As long as there is an active GM that has the authority to make decisions and to access the server root, I don't see a problem with it.

[Lillium]

1. Is there anything to worry about when your Server Owner becomes Inactive for an extended period of time?
Yes
2. How important is it for a server to have an active Server Owner?
Vital

3. How bright is the future of servers led by Inactive Server Owners? Are they more likely to pull the plug anytime soon?
No future at all.


I played a server called ..actually I'm not going to say it., I donated $50 to it, the admin at first was on all the time, but once I donated that $50, the admin disappeared. Sure it could be a  coincidence, $50 isn't that much, but what does that say to players who donate more? This server has 0 GMs, and 1 inactive Admin, I check the forums once in a while, and Help Posts don't get any help. I am surprised there are still players there.

[Green]

I'd say it depends a lot on the GM team, and the powers they have.

The other big one would be where the server is hosted. Does a company have it? Is it dedicated, but at their house?
If the latter, then you have all sorts of issues with reboots, software/hardware and the such.


I was a GM on a server, that in the later days, the Admin wasn't around much. But he was still contactable, and willing to do what needed to be done, what we couldn't.

[Green]

Aye, the last server I called home was a home-hosted server. And had more uptime and less lag than a lot of other servers I tried out.

[Xarale]

Server Owners going inactive seems to occur a lot more in populated servers than it does on smaller ones.  However, these larger servers don't tend to die out providing they still have a decent GM team.

Of course, it's always a concern if the owner is away for long periods of time, since the other GMs/admins are often reliant on the owner to make changes/update the server.  It's even more of a concern though to new/growing/small servers, they have a lot more chance of dying out if their admin appears to have lost interest in being there for them.

Regarding question 3, I'd think that any larger server would still survive quite a while without an active owner, especially if they still had a decent GM team.  Smaller/newer servers though are more likely to die out if the owner is never around.

[bleu]

btw what happen to Kevin and WolfRO?

3. How bright is the future of servers led by Inactive Server Owners? Are they more likely to pull the plug anytime soon?

[Relics]

I don't know.. rumor has it that he just jacked the money and quit.

seriously though, i've no idea.

[CaramelToast]

Inactive Admins has been the number one reason almost of the servers I've seen fail.  If the Admin/Head GM isn't interested in the server, then what's to make the players interested? 

[Zelos]

1. Is there anything to worry about when your Server Owner becomes Inactive for an extended period of time?
There is, this could be the end of your server.
2. How important is it for a server to have an active Server Owner?
It is vital if the community wants to keep having updates,more quests,more customs,etc.
3. How bright is the future of servers led by Inactive Server Owners? Are they more likely to pull the plug anytime soon?
Not very bright. They might possibly pull the plug. Although I myself played a server with an inactive Admin, but never pulled the plug.

[SilverStream~]

You should remember that if you lose interest in something, you're probably doing something else that's more interesting.
And if you're losing interest in something, you find something else to do.


So if a server owner is away, he's most likely bored of it or doesn't have too much interest of the server other then the donations.

The server owner is important in my opinion.  If that person isn't there, it's like the server is missing something.  Almost like the server is stuck at one spot, even thought it's still moving forward and the gm's are releasing new things.

[Yuufa xD!]

I still prefer an inactive server owner then one thats greedy, a few servers I've played on people whined and complained about rates so the rates went from 20x to 45x, well thats not a big problem but then mid/highrate players started complaining about how THESE are low so they got bumped up to 100x/100x/50x then to 500x/500x/100x

I donated about $500 to the server when it first came out not getting anything just to make it easier for the owner to keep it open for like 3 years if they did good budgeting and such. Well they wasted $200 of that on advertising getting newer players that just whined and complained about everything and threatened to leave it nothing was done. I was still on this server at the time and I got really bad because the server started changing for the server owners greed.

Its sad when you put hours upon hours into a game and then they change it to something they never originally wanted it to.

All in all, it depends on how much founding they have and if it matters to them about keeping their players happy, if all their dedicated players start leaving you can expect the server to close down soonish.

Sorry for the rant fest but I just hope that future owners plan on keeping their servers not for a profit but for creating a friendly community for people who just want to hang out and meet others that enjoy the same game as them.

Dedicated players > Donators & Numbers
Live by this and you'll be open for a long time, eventually you'll get a lot of dedicated players who WILL donate to keep the server open. :]

[SilverStream~]

Most servers that open now open because of the donations.


Take a look at some of the new ones, one of the first things to get done is the donations.
Sure they might need donations for their computer rentals(for their expected 200 players which they will most likely never get) but they just want money.

Some open because there's maybe a group of players that think they will do a better job then the server they currently play on, but those also turn into donation servers after a while.


If you think about it, this whole new server for donations thing is like the Penny Arcade gambit.

They realised that they could make money of their webcomic(t-shirts etc), making the comic popular, and then suddenly everyone else wanted to do the same thing.

It's the same with all these donation servers.

[DragonHero]

I am an active server owner and i will always try to be active and change stuff but even i know jobs get in the way because without money the owner cant pay for rent or the internet bill to keep the server going and growing. although its not right to be fully inactive but its also not right for the owners to lose their jobs to keep the servers going.