[Suggestion] Upgrade and Add More Perks for Subscribers

I thought I'd explained my responses pretty clearly. What part of them do you find unfathomable?
Or are you merely saying this because you're frustrated that people are reading your statements and disagreeing with them?

Family and friends that share your particular perspectives are all well and good, but the internet is a little more open. People are going to disagree with you. Welcome to the World Wide Web.

If your interests were actually focused on supporting EMC, this wouldn't be such an issue, I think. Instead, your proposal is focused on ensuring that you get "more for your money." That isn't about EMC, that's about your return on investment, and trying to say "I am all for supporting the Empire," rings pretty hollow.

If it's happening consistently, perhaps you need to rethink your approach. I can say from personal experience that it's not always easy to convey your thoughts in a manner others will understand and agree with, and I've found myself on the unpopular end of public opinion more than a few times myself (see: Survival Update). If you're coming across like a jerk, then stop, reread what you've written (out loud helps) and if you listen to what you're saying and think "wow, that kinda does sound jerk-ish," stop and consider how you can say it better.

We're trolls now? Let me clarify something for you: "Trolls" as an internet concept, are focused on abusing someone for personal amusement. That is not happening here. This is a false statement and declaring us "trolls" because we disagree with you reeks of playing the victim. You are not a victim. You are a member of this community who brought forth an idea that some others disagreed with. It happens. Accept it and move on, rather than resorting to name-calling and derision.

Who is this directed towards? I understand your perspective quite well, personally, I just disagree with it on a number of points. That doesn't make your opinion "wrong" or mine "right," it just means we have different ideas. If you feel like you are being attacked directly, then perhaps you are taking this situation far more personally than is healthy.

Probably for the best, given the above statement.

Wow this thread xD

Its important Mr. B that you look at it in a certain way.

It comes across (maybe you're not doing it on purpose.. but give some thought) that you ONLY 'support' EMC for personal gain on it.

If this were the true intention, it would be called something other than 'Supporter'... or sold in packages much like other servers do.

The way supporter should be viewed is:

and then:

Like many others here have stated, a reevaluation is not out of the question. In fact, many have agreed in your thread that it is definitely needed. However, your reevaluation is:

'I pay EMC $20, and I dont feel like I get $20 worth of stuff'

The 'stuff' is just suppose to be a plus. Yeah, the perks are definitely there to encourage supporting, but if you are supporting EMC for just the personal gain it grants you, you honestly are supporting for the wrong reasons.

If it were about just making money and giving things to players, then EMC should just offer paid unbanning, paid moderation powers (/kick ect.) and a super paid creative.

People would pay for it. People would even pay a lot for it. But that would defeat the purpose of supporting. You would only ever be using it for personal gain. Yeah.. lots of people support for the swag bag.... but if you WANT to pay money to get what you think is worth the money back from it, well, the rupee purchase slider is designed for that.

IF you really do feel this strongly about it, the Empire Credit system will solve all of your problems anyways. As you will simply purchase a second level currency, to pick and choose perks you would like for that month or forever, or however it is done. With a system like that, Aikar and the team could offer all kinds of crazy things, and indirectly give them an exact fiscal value (1 orebuster = 30 dollars as an example). If that is the kind of thing you are interested in, then just hold patience because you will be able to that soon enough . If you want to pay a monthly fee that is labeled 'Supporter' and want a SwagFest 2014 in here... well.. thats not really in the spirit of 'Supporting'.

Maybe you should just gauge your statement and instead of asking for a Supporter rework, ask for 'Swag Ranks' which instead of having the feeling that you are 'supporting' EMC and getting a gift in return, you just get things based off how much money you provide directly in relation to the amount given.

You ever give a dollar to a charity? If you did, did you send them a letter when they did not give you a dollars worth of Thank You notes?

That quote was directed mostly towards you Kephras. I was tired of you taking every single sentence of what I had to say, break down what I meant, then use it against me in every way possible to make me sound like an illogical and stupid kid. It made me feel like I was being attacked for just an idea that I thought would be cool to add to EMC. Does it really matter my motives for why I want this? Are you are disagreeing with me because I want it done for "greedy" reasons? That is the part I could not fathom. I am going to take a break from EMC because this kind of thing happens to me numerously all because I try to make a difference in the EMC community...

My Opinion

I'm very much on the fence in regards to this issue.

On the one hand I agree with Mr B in the sense that you should get what you pay for. $20 a month is not an insubstantial amount of money. I'm an adult with a well paying job and even I had to give it some serious thought. And even though I enjoy supporting EMC for the fact that it is a fantastic server I don't always feel that I get my money's worth.

On the other hand it's important to maintain a balance otherwise the game feels like a pay to win. In regards to rupees and items I feel that those don't need much revamping. What I would like to see is simpler perks for high level supporters. For example flying on all server towns (trying to build a large scale residence anywhere other than utopia can be extremely frustrating). Also, maybe an increased inventory size for adventuring. These are little things that would make me feel more compensated for the amount I pay.

No matter what, though, I do not think that this is something that can be hashed out on a public forum.

Overall this is a fantastic server and I know that, with time, it can only continue to grow and improve. I look forward to these future improvements.

I dismantle walls of text to make them easier to process. You bring up a number of points, and it's simpler to address them in an orderly (and sequential) fashion. I'm sorry if that makes you feel like you're being attacked, but this is not the case. But as a courtesy, I'll leave this bit intact if it makes you feel better.
-The motives do matter, actually. I've tried to say it more tactfully but the point just isn't getting across. The bottom line is, you're not out to help EMC, you're out to help yourself. You want more for your money. That's not unreasonable, but it's been pointed out many times in this thread that such an attitude misses the point of being a Supporter entirely. This wouldn't even be an issue if you weren't also trying to take the moral high road and stating that you're "all for supporting EMC." You're too focused on what you get out of the deal.
...And then you have the nerve to call us selfish. Speaking of which,
-You have a tendency to phrase things in a very hostile manner ("Supporters are basically gods," "good little angels from heaven," etc), and then turn around and play victim like you're the one "being attacked" when you get called out on it, even while acknowledging that you "might sound like a jerk." You know what the solution to this is? Don't be a jerk. You're too wrapped up in your own ideas and too personally invested to even comprehend why someone might not agree with them. Then, when we take our time to carefully break down your arguments and point out the flaws and cracks (and outright failures of logic, like the TNT thing), you refuse to acknowledge it and instead label us as "trolls," and claim you're only trying to make EMC better. Better for who? Certainly not the majority of players who remain white-named...
-No, your response to them is "life isn't fair, this isn't communism." I'm sorry, but that is not a perspective I am going to argue in favor of. But your friends and family are 100% in favor of that, you say? My mom & dad thought I was a fantastic soccer player - clearly I didn't grow up to be the next Pelé. It might be a nice feeling, being surrounded by people who agree with and reinforce your ideas, but different opinions and perspectives are how we grow as people.

...However, you wanted "constructive" criticism, so here's some specific suggestions:
Iron Membership - $5 per month

• 1000r 500r per day
  -A slight bump wouldn't hurt, but 1k is excessive.
• 2 residences (Instead of 1)
  -The number of residences is fine. The more new players we get in, the more crowded things will become, particularly now that they auto-claim empty or derelict plots.
• 10 named residence locations
  -I'm fine with this one. The number of /res locations available seems kinda low.
• 10 residence tags (Instead of 5)
  -Again, fine with this one. At the very least, it might make "Iron" a good choice for prospective shop owners who want to set locations and tags for their stores.
• 5 stable slots (Instead of 2)
  -Disagree. Besides, voting grants you vouchers as it is. Or you could buy them with the extra rupees you're earning.
• Free to open stables
  -Disagree. Though I would support an option to make stables free after X slots (like /vault)
• 2 free copies of promotional items
  -Disagree. This is excessive and unbalancing, as has already been stated.
• Use tnt
  -No. Please tell me I don't need to explain this any further.

Gold Membership - $10 per month

• 3000r 1000r per day
  -Again, a slight increase wouldn't be too bad, but this is excessive.
• 3 residences (Instead of 2)
  -No, for reasons as stated above.
• 20 named residence locations (Instead of 8)
  -I see no harm in this one. The default values seem arbitrarily low already.
• 20 15 residence tags (Instead of 10)
  -Let's be practical for a moment - who is going to need 15 tags on their residence? I see nothing wrong with giving the amount an increase, but the practical applications have their limits. If your res is such a chaotic mess you need more than 15 tags to label it, you have bigger problems than the tag limit.
• 10 4 stable slots (Instead of 3)
  -10 is pretty excessive, unless your horses are habitual suicide jumpers, but I'm not adverse to a slight increase. My earlier reasoning stands, however.
• Free to open stables
  -Disagree, as explained above.
• 3 free copies of promotional items
  -Disagree. Already explained this.
• Use tnt
  -No.

Diamond Membership - $20 per month

• 7000r 1500r per day
• 30 residence tags (Instead of 20)
  -Agreed.
• 20 6 stable slots (Instead of 5)
• Free to open stables
• 4 copies of promotional items
• Teleport to players in town
  -Do I really even need to refute this one? We are not giving players (even paid players) moderator powers.

I erased the perks that "stay the same," as there's not much point to debating them. I'm not in favor of taking perks away either.

I think i know this is got nothing to do with it but say when u reach 100days u get a free iron voucher 200days gold
and 500days diamond

I don't think we need something like this. There's a lot of people now reaching 500 days, and so there's a lot of lost revenue coming out from this. And to make it fair, every member of 500 days would also have to receive this. That adds further lost revenue. Not that everything is counted in revenue, but you get my point.

but more players

I was going to read this thread... But the effort of reading spiels!

Reaching 100-300-500 days of voting streaks might be acceptable, and would encourage voting more. Maybe if you were awarded an iron or gold voucher on your 365th day on EMC, as a "sample" of supporting (if you haven't already become one) would be a good promotional move as well. Otherwise, I agree.

Awesome. I am psyched for those credits then I vote every day and I love to do so because the rupees really benefit me and my business and it supports the Empire at the same time which is the same concept I am trying to apply to supporting.

Kephras, thank you for finally giving me a view of what you would improve to the supporter system. That helps me a lot in seeing what should probably be done. The only part I don't really appreciate and the thing that was getting me upset was the fact that you were telling me what I was doing this for. I explained prior that I love the Empire and it is my home. Without it, I would not know what I would do. I love to support the server and I talk about it all the time with my friends and family that play with me. I am out to support the Empire. I vote every day and I help those in game with their needs such as spare tools and whatnot. I do what I can to be the best I can. I completely agree with most of your points. The only ones I would want to add onto what you had is a reduced price to open stables. I use horses like tomorrow will never come. I would like it to be like 10r or so to take a horse out or to just be completely free. Other than that, keep the other bonuses the same and I will be fairly content with it.

The other thing that might need fixing is my point about the donation system. The part where I discussed how donating $20 straight to EMC rather than subscribe produces almost 99k more rupees than going diamond for a month and waiting. I think that either A.) The daily rupees should be increased for diamond members or B.) Reduce the amount of rupees gained from directly donating to the Empire until they decide to do another event like the April Community Event. Other than all of that, I think I finally understand what everyone wanted to tell me. Again I apologize for my attitude and I hope we can just all be friends from here on out.

PS: Hey Kephras, is your picture just something you made? Or does it come from somewhere? Just wondering that, cause I like it a lot. It reminds me of my favorite MMO that went away for no reason at all 2 years ago (When I say no reason at all, this game really did go for NO REASON AT ALL haha). It was called City of Heroes. I dont know if you ever played that game, but I just figured I would share.

Let's see how long he can stay away from our swagginess

You said in a post on this thread that you were not going to support. Why then, are you trying to get our supporter perks changed?

I said that I was not going to subscribe again until the perks were changed. I have been diamond before and I have been diamond a total of over a year. I just wanted a little extra perks because some of the perks I can no longer make use of. For instance I don't plan on moving residences, so the four residence thing is useless to me now. I just wanted something to fill the holes. However, I have learned from my mistake thanks to Kephras and the others who tried and tried again to get me to understand. I was being selfish and greedy. I would still like to see the perks given a little boost, but not to the extent I was originally wanting to take. I know I said that I wanted to take a break from EMC, but that was due to the fact that I was not feeling good. Like EMC was out to shut me down and my ideas and not give me ground to speak. However, I learned from this experience that sometimes I am not always 100% correct and my suggestion isnt always the best one. I wanted time to gather myself, to cool down, and then come back to finish what I started but in a less hostile and aggressive way. I am sorry for everything and I wished I had come to this realization sooner. Thank you all. I hope to see you around.

You seem like an awesome guy. Stop apologizing for something that nobody is angry about! You had a suggestion, we told you why/how it could not work! No big deal!

Tech

W

Whoo a Penney a vote is a lot 500 votes=iron supporter= worth 40k of rupees

Can't believe i actually had an idea that's kinda being used

Thing I dont like about the idea is, I've voted a lot in the early days when I started playing here. And I never got something cool from that beside 100r. Im not saying its any1 fault. But I like the 365/700th day rewards.

You know that the voting recently got many new rewards, right?