important! just hear me out...
 

ah, grab some popcorn and relax. it's time to take a trip back into the midbie days of graal...

P2P servers:

back then, you had the oppurtunity to create a P2P world and use your own tileset, NPC-server, multi-directional ganis and other P2P only functions. that was the only plus, not too many people ever played these servers, Graal2001 was the only good server at the time. too bad no one ever made a half decent P2P server, why? they had no incentive or motive...

if Stefan/Unixmad would have paid the playerworld owners even a check of $40.00 a month, i'm sure people would have invested more time into creating new exciting content for graal. afterall, the players are the ones benefitting from playing graal. they pay to play, pay to create worlds, pay to play half-organized and disfunctional playerworlds. so now, now we get to pay for everything. great idea!

Free servers:

these servers were the playerworlds that got the most traffic, i remember every server up had at least 10 people online. heck, there was something for everyone!

the players were creating new playerworlds for free and who was gaining? Stefan and Unixmad. now, they decide to make you pay a one time fee for "unlimited" classic. so basically, people have to pay to make these playerworlds now? call me stupid, but one would think Stefan was getting more playerworld potential when the level makers/NPC scripters/graphics artist were at least getting something out of the deal; a free account.

so yeah, i guess what i'm saying is what's wrong with the old system? just because you have Graal2002 Alpha doesn't mean the players are going to start pouring in. graal has lost a lot of customers due to lack of content and severe changes in the game's policies and the alike. hell, Stefan hardly ever even posts anymore or interacts with us. i remember when that's what graal was all about.

also, there is a lack of talent now. you are losing potential playerworlds and game content that could bring in more new paying (P2P) players in the long run. if you just offered the players more than a, "thrill of creating their own world." come on, gimme a break.

if nemesis would contact me over aim, i'd be happy to share my "PW Regulations/Testing System" with him or whomever is in charge of this matter. have a good day. over and out!

Hah, I would work for Stefan full-time for 40 dollars a month.. Too bad he never picks people willing to work for his staff team. They all probably charge him like 100 bucks a week or something for their paychecks:\ All I ever wanted was to have, and manage a quality playerworld of my own. Nowadays everyone has one, even if they suck.

Rob:
You'd be paying Stefan $ 40 for how bad you are

if this turns into a flame thread, i'll have both of your heads on a silver platter!

honestly though, it wouldn't even have to be full-time or whatever... just for general management and keeping a steady population on the playerworld at peak times.

Just ignore him, he doesn't have the brain capacity to post something intelligent.. or relevant..

I heard something about Personal Servers, where people could host their own servers or something. Are they still going with that plan?

I think the opposite will be occouring, where servers with barely any people online will have to pay a fee to keep their server up because it simply doesn't have the potential.

err
 

Then they could just make another 1

who in their mind would do that?

Stefan

AIM = Nemesis Rain

Leave one or something. Share some of that popcorn too =D

Ideal setup:
PW Manager is paid 10% of ((average # of players on PW/average # of players total)*monthly profits).
10% of the monthly profits go towards the PW Managers. It is split based on how many paying customers are spending time on their world.
So, if UN has (on average) 100 players, Classic has 90, and G2K2 and G2K1 together only have 60 (or we might exclude them altogether), Un gets (100/250)*10%, Classic gets (90/250)*10%, and G2K1 and G2K2's share goes back to the admins. It won't be much - maybe ten bucks - but over time it's enough to cover your subscription. As Graal improves, so does your profit margin. If you have an awesome PW, you can afford to pay your LAT Admin 25% of your profits, your GP Chief 25%...

The 10% of the net, I dunno if Unixmad would go for that. If things get desperate, if the talent suck continues the way it's been going, maybe. Maybe he could take a 5% reduction in profits to make for happy managers. Either way it's gonna be messy, there's gonna be corrupt PWs with a gazillion bots - but if said bots are globally banned, hey, that's $15 a bot account, profit.

yes! that would work, maybe a little more profit though. that's only a month, (10 x 12 = $120/year) and you're going to have to deal with jealousy, corruption, and the deciding factor that other high admins; LAT Chief, NAT Chief, and so on would also want a part of the share.

tyhm, i demand you give me your aim sn!

Nope. Even if I told you, I wouldn't answer it. Too many people have my AIM name, it was supposed to be just for my old friends. =_=

10% going to the players may already be too much. Remember, Unixmad's invested a whole lot in this game, he should ideally be paid back for his investment at some point. Dun screw the venture capitalist.

so true....:(

however you KNOW that paying PW managers would cause MAD corruption, and more crappy playerworld's would try and get up...

Hm. Touché. Yeah, everyone's gonna want to own their own world.

Oh well. I suppose it could be mandatorially distributed among the staff, but all those tiny checks...

Practically everyone already wants there own world..
Imagin when moneys involved... HOLY SHIZNITS...:megaeek: