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Panda Box Loot thread


Jain

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1 hour ago, Mistery14 said:

 

You do make valid points, the problem with asking for donators to do this for you is that you have to have ties with them somehow OOC'ly or, in turn, ask through the advertisement system to put up an advertisement.. For.. An advertisement? If you don't know them IC already, that is. The reply for this comment, above, also makes great points about blips being essentials for running businesses, advertisements does more or less half of the job, the blip does maybe 70 percent of it, really. Nowhere near enough people are going to look through other means than the in-game map to see which business is actively open on the map.

 

Pay to win on an RP server is different - You don't "win" an RP game per se, but you do get advantages above others when you do pay for a given perk such as blips and /bad, which can be considered "a win" for your character,because it allows you to run a successful business for example, something that you couldn't have achieved/would have a very, very hard time achieving IC without paying through OOC means. Because getting a business that would generate IC profit which would only realistically work after paying money is far different from getting a custom interior overhaul - That interior is not going to get you much money at all, it's there to look good, it's an aesthetic, or cosmetic asset as opposed to a business which generates revenue. This applies to cats, dogs, license plates, custom numbers, etc. They're more cosmetic than actually useful, practical perks that could see you generate IC income. Unless you make your pet some circus animal or something.

 

All in all I really do believe that while yes, generating income to fund the server should be one of the primary focuses because GTA:W is most definitely not cheap to run, doing so by putting actually functional and sort of, essential perks behind a paywall is a bit of pay-to-win, yes. But then again, some people unfortunately do find ways around that factor, by playing with the technicalities of rules, like car ownership limits, essentially flipping cars without owning an actual business is one of these examples. - But that's another issue.

 

I just really think perks from donations should stop at more cosmetic changes (pets, plates, phone numbers, clothing slots, etc) than practical perks that are actually useful in terms of in-game monetary gains and the likes.

 

Edit: To add to this, I think that having the whole business scene relying on a handful of players that are able to do so at any given time is not very good. It makes the business scene fluctuating. On some nights, you might get 3 - 8 businesses opened, which happens to be mostly bars, because that's the most profitable, while on other nights you might get 0 bars and 4 clubs, vice-versa. I think making business blips and business advertisements free or at the very least more accessible but limited for regular players could see the server become more lively, allowing more varied businesses on the table that don't focus primarily on generating the most income possible, because while yes, some donators do provide us with RP-focused businesses, the majority of businesses are going to be something that'll fall into the GTA:W trend, like bars, clubs, casinos. We need these, but we also need other things to make it all believable. It's unfortunate to see so very few businesses opened at peak hours, because a majority of those 500-600 players are going to be mostly dependent on those few active business owners for interacting with other people.

 

More active businesses means more people on the move, means more interaction, more RP, more choice, more playability, makes people spread out on the map because there would be more businesses everywhere, and might in turn revive some dead RP like Paleto, Sandy, Grapeseed. Because people would have less incentive to want to put their businesses in LS solely because that's the most profitable option to them in relation to what they've paid for OOC'ly.

 

 


What's the solution, then, when most people only purchase these "donator" statuses for the blip?

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1 hour ago, DLimit said:


What's the solution, then, when most people only purchase these "donator" statuses for the blip?

 

There is no real clear cut solution because it's not seen as a problem, since it's a decision from the server's part that has been widely accepted. Purchasing donator for blips is something the server has had from the get-go as far as I know, it's something that brings good revenue to the server and is unlikely to change because of that, as many said. Not to blame anyone of course, the sever has to be paid for, but if people don't really mind and keep paying for those blips without question, there's no real incentive to change it.

 

An alternative would be to, as I've stated, maybe bring something else on the table in replacement like another cosmetic perk in exchange. But sadly it's a less profitable option and just isn't really realistic even if the server gets money from other sources. And that's exactly the point, blips and /bad are profitable because they are actually needed. Because they're useful and contribute greatly to RP, RP which people want to provide. 

 

Maybe a more reasonable option would be to bring access to blips and /bad to everyone, with limited use. For example one or two /bad a day, and two blips a day, it would at the very least help in making the server feel less reliant on donators alone for the business scene. If people want more, they'll be free to donate.

 

It's a little bit like the /cim system where non-donators can only place one. - Yes, it serves a different purpose, yet, non-donators still have access to it.

 

Did it make donations go down even though /cims are also available to non-donators with limited use? No, because it's included with other functions, like the blips and/bad systems. And that's exactly where I was getting at. Is there a reason for non-donators to be completely cut off from those functions now?

 

 

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Locked as it derailed to a blip debate.

 

Panda points in their current form are meant to have a value of around 6-7 WP as shared on discord since the beginning, for 100 PP. The system wasn’t designed to give you unique or insane rewards, as it’s not meant to force people into « buying », but instead to get more people receive free rewards or namechanges.

 

However we’re working on a new 100% cosmetic feature that’ll be available through this system and will be very fun for many of you, we’ll share more details soon!

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