some people hold needless grudges.....

[bensei]

If you donate to a person, you are willing to let them use your money, for their uses. Your NOT in a seller/costumer relation, so your not supposed to have any insight at all. If Gms do not want other people to know what happens with doantions, its their personal right pf privacy.

Wasn't the idea of 'donations' supposed to mean supporting the goal of it? In case of private servers it would mean the server itself, like new hardware, monthly costs and such? Anything else shouldn't really be called 'donations'.

Well of course, But who would donate to a server that has laggy servers anyway? The gms need to keep their hardware and such things up to date, in order to keep people satisfied so that they donate more.

However, what i mean is basically that it isnt our buisness what the gms do with the money.
If you see the server is crap and laggs, simply do not donate. Its easy as that.

[Krystalx]

If you donate to a person, you are willing to let them use your money, for their uses.

They claim that "Their uses" are updating the server, getting better hardware, etc.
If it's going to be money for whatever then make sure every1 knows your money goes to the GM's pocket for his personal life MAYBE the server if he/she feels like it instead of always saying that donations r for the server.

[Raruri]

I won't defend the motives for the donation system, I didn't mind the original system, where you donate, and based upon the donation you were qualified for a certain "gift".

I was, however against the Ad shop idea, if only for the ethics and the possibility of many more "donater noobs" popping up.

Do I think most of the money goes to the server? No.

Why?

Because I know individuals who have donated more than 1k in a single day. And I know if there are a few people doing that, than there must be many more. Anima has a large player base, and when about 6 out of every 10 players donates at least $10 every few days, it adds up, and adds up to quite a large chunk of cash. While the bills may be somewhat expensive for aRO, I highly doubt its anything near a few thousand dollars. I know what certain members of the staff are paid (yes, people get paid *gasp*) and even that, monthly added up, doesn't really damage the figures Anima can potentially make per month. Would I think less of Harken if I found out he pocketed some of that cash? Hardly, What the hell is he supposed to do with it all? Just throw it in a bank account for Anima, hell maybe he HAS done that. Anyway, I do know that the bills are paid, and the server is kept, for the most part, stable,balanced and fair. And as a player, thats all that matters to me. As long as I know that stuff is kept in check, I could care less what he does with the extra cash accumulated.

In my personal opinion, anybody who is going on a "crusade" to stop the "corrupt" AnimaRO, or to stop the "Evil" Harken, should really,really find something more productive to do. If you want to do something that has meaning, and is productive and will help people in the long run, do something that will actually matter, like public charity work, school charities,Red Cross, etc etc. Get out and actually help people. Because honestly, your "crusade" is against nothing more than a GAME Server. A Game server that gets at least 50 new players a week.You can argue and bicker, and show all the "proof" you want, but in the end its pointless, and you've failed in doing anything productive at all. All you've managed to do is waste a few minutes/hours of your life pursuing a failing, and pointless objective.

If at the end of the day, you just want a good RO server to play, then find it, and play it, if you don't like it, move on. If you think it is crappy and corrupt, and think people should know, then just make a thread about it, post what you observed and what you think about the server. Then Move On and find a different server that would better suit you, instead of wasting time with this nonsense.
Most of you are still kids, or young adults, you have a lot of life to live, stop wasting your few young years with this nonesense.
Either do the above, or if you haven't one already, go outside, meet friends, hangout, and get a social life with productive people.
Don't waste your life indoors playing games all day, or bickering with people on forum sites over something that has no lasting value.

Anyway, thats my 2..or 50 cents xD

Have fun and stay safe,
                                   Raruri

Disclaimer: I meant no offense to anyone in anyway in this post, these are my views and opinions based on my own personal experiences. If anyone took offense to this, or anything in this post, I apologize.

[BMontgomery]

Raruri, who do you suspect is on a crusade agaist aro? I don't know of anyone. I do see your point about playing RO and talking about RO being completely and utterly pointless and a huge waiste of time (and $ for those that donate). But, it can be fun. You sure do seem to do alot of both though. I don't see anything wrong with pocketing donated money either, but lying and/or not being up front about what the money goes towards is another story.

Mirandu, of course I know this is not the diamond industry. That was just an analogy and when I wrote that I had just watched Blood Diamond (good movie, I highly recommend it) and I had just read up on the subject of war diamonds so the subject was fresh on my mind, hence my use of the analogy. If caring about someones mom and whatever else is so rediculious then so be it....I am plenty rediculous in that case.

For the record, I have no problem donating, and I do donate some, as long as I know what happens to the money and I agree with what is done with it and I get what I payed for. And the whole "if you don't like it the don't donate - simple as that" logic does not work in some servers because in those cases the donators dominate....no donating means you are not competitive...and that is no fun.

[bensei]

If only donating enables you to be competitive, the server is build completely wrong.
In that case i'd recommend to just change the server?

The ONLY thing, player would need to know is if the server works well; If you experience a lot server side laggs and stuff. Also, i dont think the donation page says that the donations go fully into new hardware and stuff. It just says its needed to keep the server updated i think.

I mean, why do you donate in the first place?
You play the server; See it works well, and is laggless etc, So you decide to support the server with your donation.
Its just logical that the gms need to buy new hardware and stuff over time, Because NOONE with half of a brain, would donate to a server with crappy hardwares etc. :X

[Raruri]

Raruri, who do you suspect is on a crusade agaist aro? I don't know of anyone. I do see your point about playing RO and talking about RO being completely and utterly pointless and a huge waiste of time (and $ for those that donate). But, it can be fun. You sure do seem to do alot of both though. I don't see anything wrong with pocketing donated money either, but lying and/or not being up front about what the money goes towards is another story.

I'm speaking in a general sense regarding the "crusade" comments, Also, I never said talking about RO/Playing RO is a waste of time, you misinterpreted my post. I'm saying bickering and arguing and flaming, and making the destruction or disimagery of a game server your goal for the next few weeks/months is. Also, how is Harken not upfront about what he spends the money on? The site merely states that he spends the money on the server, that doesn't mean he spends ALL of the money on the server bills. He also pays the staff (which technically IS spending money on the server) and he might pocket some of the money for himself. What should he post?

"I make sure the donation money goes to the server, but the extra money, I pocket myself sometimes, like heres what I bought this week  ~"

Then again, you never know, maybe he DOES spend it all on the server, maybe that extra cash goes into legal issues and stuff, apparently  Harken has hired lawyers and has had the server "incorporated" or w/e, to prevent anymore thievery of the donation money from staff, etc. Because apparently one of the old GMs who just mysteriously disappeared, had switched over aRO's paypal e-mail over to his own or w/e for a small while during the tRO chaos, and ran off with the donation money, or a large chunk anyway. So now if anyone is foolish enough to attempt that kind of stunt, theyre going to be sued, and probably doing a nice chunk of time locked behind bars.
So you can possibly add lawyer/legal fees into the equation of the server upkeep costs. Truth is, we dont KNOW where all of the money goes for certain, not even the staff aside from, possibly, Gene. Either way it doesn't really matter, you join a Ragnarok Online server for the game, and 99.9% of you donate for the donation rewards, so it shouldn't matter to you where ALL of the money goes atm anyway. Just as long as you know the server is being maintained.

But, it can be fun. You sure do seem to do alot of both though.

I'm a general contractor, I work in carpentry/renovations + I do freelance work online. I don't work every day with hourly wages, I work when I get contracted. So as you can see, some weeks I have a lot of free time.

Not that it should really anyone's business anyway, no offense.

[Guest]

ummm just throwing this out there
its in human nature to assume things~

[Kurogasa]

but seriously: WHO CARES?

qft.

People keep flaming these pos servers because some zombies keep bringing them up. If you see that youre not wanted why keep trying to force your way into peoples mind? If you really think people talking about the bad things in those servers is due to them being banned, just be lucky that they are slandering you rather than reporting that someone is making money off of the server. The part where someone starts pocketing money is the part where it really gets illegal.

[Orguss]

Hahaha... you do know animaro has been reported to Gravity like 200 times.. Gravity doesn't care. Here is the standard response:

"We'll look into it"

[Kurogasa]

More than one way to skin a cat. If people always thought so linearly Al Capone would have never been apprehended.

Let me get it clear.. i dont wish this to happen.. im just making the point that you CANT stuff some generic version of a thing down ones throat until he complys. You are Lucky to only face minor resistance.

[Rbread]

Consider this topic locked too.

God, stop posting the same BS into all topics.