Pay-for-membership servers?
FrenchDude59
Join Date: 2011-06-16 Member: 104696Members
Join Date: 2011-06-16 Member: 104696Members
Hi all,
This may have already been answered somewhere else but I can't seem to find the EULA for NS2 anywhere in the game files or on the website so I guess I'll ask...
In NS1 servers took "donations" sometimes to fund their costs and in exchange provided members with certain features (icons, possibly some fun mod commands, sometimes even admin access, etc...).
I was wondering if this model was still ok for NS2, and also if we could potentially modify the source code to add certain features and allow access to some subset of those only to paying members, or even make people pay for access to certain mods installed on the server?
Basically my question is what can we "take donations" for (or charge for, let's not be all tongue in cheek about it) and where UWE would draw the line at what's acceptable or not acceptable (although I guess they make money only off of people buying the game, so maybe they don't care about a profit after that, heh... :P )
This may have already been answered somewhere else but I can't seem to find the EULA for NS2 anywhere in the game files or on the website so I guess I'll ask...
In NS1 servers took "donations" sometimes to fund their costs and in exchange provided members with certain features (icons, possibly some fun mod commands, sometimes even admin access, etc...).
I was wondering if this model was still ok for NS2, and also if we could potentially modify the source code to add certain features and allow access to some subset of those only to paying members, or even make people pay for access to certain mods installed on the server?
Basically my question is what can we "take donations" for (or charge for, let's not be all tongue in cheek about it) and where UWE would draw the line at what's acceptable or not acceptable (although I guess they make money only off of people buying the game, so maybe they don't care about a profit after that, heh... :P )
Comments
If you were to add new features (like 'VIP' server slots or some mega laser gun for paying customers) then I don't see any problem with it.
As a player though, I don't see why I'd visit your server since there are others available etc (granted I'm not that into gaming as I use to be!).
This sort of server was very popular in CS for example (warcraft mod severs).
I personally wouldn't use them though, not a fan of pay-to-play servers.
But usual benefits as a donator should be fine, one can already observe on a few ns1 servers.
I'm pretty sure I got as much of an un-official answer as I'm going to get so I'll probably start working on this :)
Stay tuned...
I'm one of those people who would just avoid your server alltogether simply because of that feature, and I avoid warcraft counter strike servers for the same reason, I've come here to play natural selection 2, not warcraft.
But, you should go ahead if people are genuinly interested in it. See if anyone else replies to say whether they would like this sort of thing and actually pay to play on your server.
EDIT: I should also point out that if there were donator benefits that don't actually add to the gameplay, but enable me to have an icon on the server, or be able to boot people out of commander (like a moderator), I would be fine with that, as it's still ns2, just with a few rewards for helping you pay for the server.
The type of people that want to pay for admin access are inevitably terrible admins.
Perhaps just making your vote have some additional weight compared to NSPlayer when it comes to ejects\mapvotes\kickvotes.
I'd also presume it to be legal based on UWE's openess to mods, but I haven't seen any NS2 EULA yet so we couldn't say for certain. UWE could certainly put some non-profit based clauses in there preventing this from happening if they so wanted.
Edit:
Remembering you're using someone else's work, it's not all yours. Thus charging for it without permission voids the copyright.
Edit:
Remembering you're using someone else's work, it's not all yours. Thus charging for it without permission voids the copyright.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
But he's charging for a service, not a program. So really, he's not using other peoples work other than the software, which he bought and has the right to use.
I work probably about 50-60 hours a week and don't have time to play necessarily a gazillion hours as I used to when I played NS1. So having the ability to have my previous play rewarded and that kept somewhere so when I log back on I have maybe a tiny bit of an edge over other players in a server, that's kinda nice.
Being able to fork $10-$20 bucks instead of having to play 50 hours or so to accumulate the same amount of experience, maybe something I'd consider doing... And I know I'm not the only one.
Now the teenager (that I used to be) who has the time to spend 50 hours on the same server racking up kills, he'll have the same bonuses as I will without paying a thing. Bottom line, the server owners can use the extra cash to fund the server and maybe even buy a second server etc...
Some of the other "for pay" features could be votemap, votekick, votegag for example...
Obviously this, all you can technically charge for is your server maintenance(or another words donations). Unless UWE says otherwise at some point, which is doubtful. I hardly remember any games where you had to pay for a mod(besides TF2, CS:S, etc but those Valve supported).