Should NWN EE servers be able to monetize?
EtherealVanity
Member Posts: 12
As the title reads.
Should any NWN EE server be able to monetize?
Be it with monthly or single-time payments.
E.g.
- Players pay for special privileges on the server.
- Players pay for in-game rewards.
Should any NWN EE server be able to monetize?
Be it with monthly or single-time payments.
E.g.
- Players pay for special privileges on the server.
- Players pay for in-game rewards.
0
Comments
And if they could, you couldn't get me to touch said servers with a ten foot pole.
They get their name on a "thank you, donors" sign in the entrance area of my PW and on the donations page of the website. That's it. No special items, no in-game or out-of-game bonuses, no special treatment.
There's a difference between accepting completely voluntary donations to help with costs without players getting a direct benefit for their money (which has always been allowed) and making money off the game simply to make money, with benefits available only to the players that pay (which has never been allowed).
As a builder and content maker, I think it goes against everything the community has stood for since the game was released.
As a player, I agree with @thryllkill .
Donations were acceptable as long as people were not paying for content in anyway.
I don't know if it is still the case for Beamdog. I'd tag Bengoshi (746) or even @Niv for clarification.
https://www.patreon.com/KnightsOfNoromath
You might find this hard to believe, but there are at least 2 such donors on that server.
Several more of the lower tiers. Should something like this be brought to BeamDogs attention?
Edit; I'd also like to point out about the 'first server of NwN:EE' thing- I forget where or who had said it, nor does it really matter. What does matter is the principle of the topic, which is that subscription models aren't a good thing to try- not just going by the ToS, but going by the whole principle of a beta. If something breaks, that's a mountain of work to fix. Most servers who've actually been around are slowly taking baby steps to get their servers in shape after each patch of the beta. If something flubs up with a subscription model? That's... Just...
TL;DR: Fire bad, tree pretty.
Disclaimer: Personal opinion, not official response, etc.
Personally I feel that taking donations to help with administrative costs/server fees or whatever you need to pay on the infrastructure side of the server is a completely different thing from paying for access, though.
or rather: and what?
Did you help out in the 2.5 beta? You get a forum title. Do we get benefits for purchasing the game now? (playing in the headstart program) PBS has the same sort of donation structure. They give you different gifts based upon your donation. This is all I see that this patreon is doing offering a few things that donate at differ levels. They have just chosen Patreon as a vehical of getting the donations.
This is not a pay to play (monetization thing)
That aside I don't think what they seem to be doing, covering the costs of server upkeep, as a big deal. Many servers solicit donations and offer forum badges or other content for those who donate.
I don't like the pay to win / pay for classes/content aspect of the higher tiers and think something like the newsletter should go out to anyone whose contributing but that's personal, I suspect there's plenty whole pay.
I think there's a huge gap between covering your running costs and setting out to make a profit off the back of the server.
Neither the Writ of Knighthood nor the bonus stipend per month sound like they're purely cosmetic like a forum badge. I actually wouldn't have a problem with the server if those things weren't offered to donators.
We are a friendly, sharing community, but that spirit could easily turn sour if there was money at stake. The ownership issues are very complicated, because many custom assets are not made from scratch by one person, and may have been tweaked by several .
No problem with donations, though, for the win-win.
Also: a pretty hilarious title for a NWN server dev and the type of tom-douchery I would expect from someone with a Patreon that hands out in game benefits for cash but that's neither here nor there.
I don't think it's a legitimately good idea to be charging people for bonuses, be they tangible in game rewards, etc. Donations to help the cause are fine. But as soon as you start setting up a 'storefront' as I've seen now multiple people push for (And yes, one -can- argue that getting various bonuses in game for paying money per month is a -purchase- of benefits beyond just helping the server out) I think this is the sort of thing the community should stay away from.
I understand that people put a lot of time, effort, and work into these things? But at the same time it's a labour of love. And I genuinely dislike the idea of peoples work being leveraged by others, just to make a quick buck by somebody who honestly may not actually own all the rights to the things they are claiming they made. It's a sticky situation. And hopefully, nobody informs say, WotC of these people who are potentially profiting off of their license or off of their IP, without the rights to do so. It could be a messy legal situation, and we all know how well WotC like's to beat back the vultures with a lawyer shaped stick.
Like, in the mail? With a stamp?
Or is it just an email?
Other than bills, nobody has mailed me a newsletter in 20 years. So maybe it is worth it just for that.
Maybe I can get an actual letter!
Think of the possibilities. I go to the mailbox and, instead of a flier, I get a letter in an envelope!!
On second thought...no
Overall, that's not a huge deal.
At the same time, I agree with the majority here that elements of pay-to-win don't seem to fit the NWN community well. I certainly don't plan on participating in such a setup.
Mwaahahaaahaaaa
https://neverwintervault.org/content/custom-content-authorship-guidelines