EMC financial Situation?

I think everyone else has driven the point into the ground, but my quick and easy answer is this.

And this comes from me as a player, not as a mod.

Right now we've (krysyy and I) have 3 diamond supporter accounts (technically one moderator account). I'm lucky enough to be paid well as a network/systems administrator to not have to worry about affording it. As an admin, I manage 2600 users. 2600 users that I can actually talk to physically, that can come into my office. My work has around 150 servers (85% virtualized) but not all of them are actually actively used or even online.

What I'm getting at is I make my living supporting 2600 users and 150 servers and they are paying me a pretty penny to do it. Mod's do some of the work, but A MAJORITY of it is on Jeremy and Justin's shoulders. With 40000 users, or however many we're at, even if 1/4 are active that's still 10,000 people to support and 12 servers (SMP's - utopia - webserver - stage). At some point it would literally take someone their whole day to manage EMC, and that doesn't even include the programming that goes into keeping everything going and new updates coming out.

So I guess in sum, I'm fine if my money goes to their college, or buying them a beer. They earn it.

Personally I don't care if Justin and Jeremy make so much money off the server that they get to quit their jobs. Actually I think that would be great if they did. This is a business not a charity. As long as they don't force people to pay to be on the server I really don't care.

I support EMC because, it's the most fun I've ever had for 66 cents per day.

For sure, I shout , bicker and <hopefully constructively> disagree with the mods, but still... that is the important point.

IIRC, that was rule #1 - "have fun"?

And now aikar has 3 responsibilties! 1: EMC 2: Full time job and 3: making sure maxarias isnt eaten. She tastes like spicy skittles [Jack's words, not mine]

Copher's a gimp

I never questioned whether or not they should get money. I asked if they were making profit, or if they were puttign all money towards the servers -_- Why are people so stupid?

I never said they shouldn't make profit. I asked if they considered it a business or not. If their goal was to make money, and how close they were to it. WHERE in in ANY of my posts did I say ANYTHING akin to "They should not be making money off of this." ? I asked if they treated our money as a subscription, or as a donation.

And yes, It IS my business as it IS MY MONEY. I have a right to know where it goes and what it goes towards. It is called being a business. Companies release statements on their financial status, so that stock holders (People who pay money to help the company grow) know how succesful or not they are being. In essence, every Supporter in EMC is basically a stock holder, as WE are the ones paying for the servers to stay up.

Without us, you have no servers. Can you and JustinGuy afford to support every server if suddenly, all at once, EVERY supporter stopped paying? No.

There was at no point any condemnation in any of my posts about any of the staff. I never once said any of you were donig a bad job and never once implied such a thing. I never once questioned your commitment to the servers. I. Asked. A. Question.

And look what it has spawned. Are all of you happy? Does it make you feel good to act this way? Because it makes me feel disgusted to see how you reacted. Especially the staff.

Another flaw by the community is you assume you nkow what I mean by what I say, when you clearly do not. I can point you towards DOZENS of posts with good ideas in them that the community has SPURNED simply because it is a herald of change.

Do you have any IDEA how many posts there are saying something akin to "NO EMC WILL NEVER HAVE PVP EVER, THEY SAID SO BLERG BLERG BLERG BLERG"

But guess WHAT? EMC. Is. Bringing. Pvp. DESPITE all your flame and rage.

I have been told by the staff themselves that the reason they are slow to change and resist it so much is that their "Core players" feel like people are saying "Its not good enough, it needs to get better". Since the core players have been here since before it got popular.

You really belive that? Of course they benefit from supporters! The majority of people these days dont do something like set up a multi-server to benefit the players, they do it to profit. I am sad to say that that is what the world has come to but the truth hurts.

EDIT: not pointing ANY fingers

Nerone I sit and watch you post and listen to the stuff you say on Skype and it drives me nuts that anyone could come across as negative and rude as you do with things you say. I do my best to be a nice person to everyone but sometimes you push buttons. Calling people stupid right after telling people they're rude is the pot calling the kettle black. Instead of getting hateful explain yourself better in your posts. You're doing the very thing you complain about happening. I'm done.

So somehow Justin made enough money off supporters to move across country and then to the Virgin Islands? Well dang I need to go open up my own server then, I could buy a new house and car and not have to worry about anything ever again!

And I am a Pig

Yes, it is.

You just broke your own rule, in the very next line.

To whom was the first part of the post directed toward?

Mostly neurone94, I agree with you. But, one thing: can you please avoid the temptation to PUT THINGS IN CAPITALS because it's putting me off the message you are trying to convey. Shouting does not make something right.

I know, it was a case of

Fixed now?

I hate to be this guy. But your second post:

For this:

I think a lot of the "backlash" comes from the way you're trying to ask it. If you have a question about EMC's finances, why are you asking it here?

None of the moderators know EMC's finance's, and I'm fairly certain ICC doesn't even know all of it. I can understand if you didn't know that the mod's don't know, but still, why ask the community a question where there's a possible 2 people with the answer? If you don't know it, do you expect other members to have the answer too? I think you're expecting an intelligent discussion of modern physics from junior high students, you've targeted the wrong audience for it.

I won't deny that people fear change, but change is coming. I think much of the slowness doesn't have as much to do with the fear of change than it does with the time to program and setup those changes.

You certainly do one thing, young man, and that is living up to your avatar

Because it is an answer teh community deserves to know as well, not just one person. Again, I have direct quotes from staff telling me why change is so slow.

The difference is, if we are DONATING to them, there should not be profit in it. If we are PAYING FOR A SERVICE, I have no issue with them profiting. Those are two very different models. I never sadi "THey should never make money off of this ever". I said "We are donating, not subscribing. And if we are donating and there is PROFIT, then it is no longer a donation, but a subscription."

You do not "Donate" money to WoW to help them keep their services running. you pay them for the priviledge to play on their servers. You can donate to Microsoft if you want, but they will not be making profit off of that. It will still be a donation. You get nothing BACK from a donation. It is charitable.

The same as, when you "donate" money to a chest that charges you 500r for 1 dirt. You didn't donate. You PAID for a very, very expensive piece of dirt.

Sorry about that, I am really tired today.

I never post anything looking for a fight. I post controversial things, because I ASSUME the community can take it as adults and respond back with equally adult responses. I never escalate anything on these forums past the point of breaking. It is always other people. Whether or not I make anybody angry is not the point. I do not mean to, but it is not ME bringing the negativity to the posts.

Yes, maybe it could have been worded better. But I trusted all of you to be able to discern what I meant by it. Questioning anything is never a bad idea. Taking things in blind faith, however IS a bad idea. Why should you never question what EMC does with its money? What is so secretive that we should never know? There is no point in not asking, and it is a smal lenough company that the answer should have been simple.