We (Jeremy and I) run Empire Minecraft because we enjoy it and care about the community. We will always run a free server / community because we are not in this to make money, and to us being rich is being happy. However, as we have been growing the costs of running everything is compounding. As of today the total investment, not including programming time, is about $1,900. Additionally the monthly costs are around $350 (and that is with a heavy discount I get through another business relationship and borrowing some server power from GameKrib). As we are a community I wanted to have the discussion of introducing a supporters membership and see what everyone thinks. My idea is to offer this for a small monthly contribution, and you get a bunch of perks with it that the free players don't get. To me this is better than just begging for donations. Some ideas I have had: The ability to hide yourself on the live map (you can toggle it on and off) A monthly/daily rupee bonus Special colored name in game chat Special colored name and title on site A supporters only world Early access to new features A supporters only forum Lots of love for supporting the community So what does everyone think of this idea?
The perks sound amazing. and I for one would be more than happy to donate. I have been thinking about it for a while.
I think it's a fantastic idea. The perks sound awesome. I would be interested in helping out if I could. WITH MY ALMIGHTY AUSTRALIAN DOLLAR! lolz.
Hi jeremy its zztillma this server is great and i would like to build something epic to make the server have more of a PAZZAZ also i need permission from you to Justinguy i might need to be op so i can spawn stuff so i can make Dragon mountain with temples if would be a huge hit for the server if you posteed a video of it on youtube just saying if you would like to have more people on the server i would recommend something unique From:zztillma
Thanks for the enthusiasm! At this time we are keeping the server SMP (not a creative free build server) because most of us feel that the game is the most fun this way. Everything is built the good old fashioned way of trying to survive while building an Empire! I will be sure to let you know if we ever decide to do a creative free build server.
That sounds fine but my donation can only be like 15-30 Dollars and if your alright with just 15-30 dollars I'll do it
Tomorrow (8/27) evening I will be posting the details on the supporter upgrades. I want to thank everyone ahead of time for the overwhelming support, in emails and on the server, for this idea.
The supporter subscription feature has been added: http://empireminecraft.com/threads/supporter-subscriptions-support-the-empire.92/
