That's the thing - I do know. It's one of the simplest concepts there is... You offer a service or benefit, and people pay for it. If you remove said benefit, why pay for it? The biggest reasons most people support are being removed. While some are loyal to EMC and will support us to keep us going - it's not enough. I have experience with business here.... and it's pretty simple in logic to predict what's going to happen before it happens. It's naive to think everything will be ok and just gradually go with it. We are not your simple 20 man minecraft server, we have to PLAN for things like this. As I responded above, even a single bad month or 2 can put us at risk to shut down. We have to do everything we can to ensure it happens, and be proactive and not reactive. EMC does better advertising than many of those servers... Those servers are that big because most players want that style of play and no longer care about Survival. The big guys also likely will likely stay afloat by firing people instead of shutting down. So this change is not going to 'help' us really. Our core gameplay will still be the same. People aren't going to come flocking to EMC because our supporter options changed. You are confused. This isn't a price tier question. The new system is not Tiers, its 2 separate ranks that you can optionally choose either or both. So its harmless to have the prices close. Iron is the least purchased package and only represents around 5% of supporter revenue. And most of these people do it because 'its the cheapest and we want to support in some way'. Many will then still buy the 10$ package. So its not going to hurt us to remove the package, and simplifies things and keeps it easier to comply with the EULA.
That's too bad, but thank you for the commitment. Just bumping this up tehe. Also, with disguising, will it be normal or will names show above? Please no names haha.
I've now just lost a lot more respect for Justin (even more than I already did). Sorry but it's true. Anyway back on topic, I voted for 10/10. That it what I would see as justifiable for the perks to me. I'm not sure how I feel about the 'splitting' of perks but if I was to buy a package it would be the supporter one. Cosmetics mean absolutely nothing to me.
If I remember correctly, Aikar is still paying Justin the money he owes him for buying EMC. There's nothing wrong about that But, still, forcing Aikar to buy a thing he spent very little time on for the majority of its life is wrong. I'd understand if it was a small amount, but for Aikar to be having to pay it off for the next 2 years is wrong.
So regardless of the reason (and I'm sympathetic to the difficulties and what caused them), EMC needs funds to keep going. Let's keep focused on the supporter and perk packages and what we like about them or what can be improved. That is probably how we can be most helpful.
If you think your current supporters will leave because they will be receiving fewer benefits for the price they are paying now, how do expect to attract new players at a higher price for the same reduced benefits? Instead of getting a few players to pay more, I'm suggesting that you should be looking to get many more players to pay a little. Expand your base, don't put it on the shoulders of those who can pay $15-25 a month or more regardless of benefits. We'll see. The point is that many servers are going to start looking the same when they are put in the box that MOJANG is serving up. No confusion, one rank (tier, whatever you want to call it) is going to be preferred over the other. No harm in setting benefits to attract those who can pay a little and those who can do more. Also, the reduction for purchasing the combo isn't addressed, I think that would be valid. Sounds like you can't afford to lose any revenue. Again, find a way to keep and expand this base of lower lvl supporters, don't do away with them because they are "only" 5%.
Heh, while a choice would be nice, it would be really hard to implement... The idea was to create a "mapping" so when an auto payment comes in, it knows where to map it to. Letting a player choose would involve having some form of system in place before the deadline... and with my next 3 weeks schedule? I'm not sure I could make that.
Heh, what's done is done. Lets not bash on Justin. I was just trying to explain why our expenses are so high, not trying to bash Justin here. He took opportunity to make more money for his family. @Jake: That's the reasoning for splitting it. Some like perks, some don't. Just look at it 'pay for what matters to you'. Some want to pay 20(or more) just to support EMC. The cosmetics pack is meant to be a form of reward to those willing, but not like you feel obligated to.
also to everyone commenting... We WILL add a Player Setting to ignore Cosmetic Names. Will add that to Q/A now
There are quite a bit of "Quiet" supporters. Players that don't stand out in the community like others do. These people do support for perks (IE: Purchasing Rupees too). There will be some loss from these people. I wish EVERY supporter was doing it purely to help EMC, but we all know that isn't the case. I don't think so here. Most servers are popular for their overall gameplay, not the perks themselves of their support / rank system. While every server is going to be similiar in 'perks', their overall gameplay elements are still going to be unique. those who quit their favorite server over this have a weird mindset (pay to win crowd) that likely won't line up much with EMC anyways. Purchasing both is going to be similiar to Diamond as it is today. Its One set of Perks + the other. Supporter is very likely to be the most preferred... but Cosmetic is not meant to compete, but to compliment. As I said in the original post, the aim is to increase the price a little bit, as the people who are likely to purchase both are the players who are loyal to EMC and want us to succeed. I know many would of paid more than 20$/mo if given the option today, and this is our attempt to change pricing around with reason. a 10/15/25 option set is pretty flexible. I have more ideas than this thats not released yet, and ability to just spend 5$ will be possible through other means than the ranks. So if more than 5$ is truely too much, but they want to help EMC, they can purchase one of the other things I have planned (EULA Compliant...) Those will be announced in the final changes thread.
I was reading that iron becomes whatever comes out to be $10 (..but only costing $5/month should you have an ongoing iron contract already) and gold becomes whatever comes out to be $15 (..same rules applying for current ongoing gold contracts).. But what if what comes out $10/$15 doesn't really float your boat but you are unable to do the other because of financial or needed obligations. For example, a current gold member needs to maintain needs to maintain access to Utopia because it houses one of their registered outposts and cosmetic should come out to being $15 and it is what the gold member ends up with.. They would need to cancel their ongoing membership contract and make another..? Or say an iron member really wants reference really obscure games when people enter their residences but the $10 amount is the subscription rank and residence messages fall under cosmetic. They would also have to cancel their iron contract with that $5/month total and either pay the $15/month or they cannot reference those obscure games.. I blame the Milk Man. The gold member wouldn't really suffer in this situation because they would still be paying $10/month with the only setback would be cancelling their old contract and set a new one.. But the iron members would triple..
and this, you deserve every ounce of support we can hand you. you kept this going instead of it getting shut down months ago.. i've already told you many many many times how much i appreciate the things you did to keep this amazing place here for us to play. for players to complain they hate this and take it out on you, or throw a fit how something isn't fair.. they should really consider how there wouldn't even be this anymore without what you personally went out to get. and that my friend, is never ending thank you going your way! i'm really hoping this all goes smoothly and does great from here on out, i know i'm going to be heartbroken if EMC falls. i'm sure everyone here will be.
I believe Utopia will have to become fully open to all members. Don't think there's any way around it... And I'm pretty sure the whole people getting something from supporting would highly go for the package that has both at a discount. $7 - cosmetics $15 - supporter $20 - Super awesome both pack My thoughts on a layout ^ and yeah like Sky and prob others said, Donate any amount section for those who don't wont anything other than helping The Empire run.
=Ability to "rent" perks. >You want a different color name >10$ is too much money >Pay 5$ for the specific perk.
One thing I want to point out. If you seperate Utopia as Paid Access away from the free servers, then you cannot allow any transfers between other servers and Utopia and vice versa. The Vault cannot be used to transfer between other servers and Utopia or you will be violating the EULA. Gameplay changes in Utopia that aren't on other servers won't affect other servers because other servers have no access to this. I think it might be gray area to allow previous donors to keep perks, like Residences, by assigning an in game cost that is too high for anyone to have ever gotten. Its against the spirit of the EULA though it technically complies. I'm considering joining this server but only if it chooses to comply with Mojang's rules.
