Changing the donation packages

[Balkan Beast]

One of the bad things about LS-RP was that it carried donator packages with perks that influenced in game features, vehicles, and namechanges.

 

Under no circumstance should what you decide to roleplay be something that you should need to have namechanges for. There are better ways to handle it which I state here: https://forum.gta.world/en/index.php?/topic/890-namechange-adjustment/

What is speculated to be included is an almost exact copy of the LS-RP model. It includes ad perks and furnishing perks.

 

Furnishing perks influence the IC economy by giving others a serious advantage over other players. It also inflates the value of houses. These effects were already seen. It's aclear mixing of IC and OOC when it comes to interior design. It is irresponsible to include it.

 

Advertising perks allow people to have an edge over others when it comes to advertising for businesses. This is yet another thing that was seen on LS-RP. It led to only people who had a 'gold card' getting paid significant sums to spam ads. Everyone should be on an equal playing field when it comes to ad queues. At max any sort of advantage should come from the IC fact that a business will have better connections for advertising than a person who's just trying to sell a car. That can be reflected in the script. 

 

What the donation packages for LS-RP and now the ones planned for this server do is sell a feature. Two of these features influence in game currency because of that edge over others so we may as well say that it's selling IG money.

A donation should be exactly that. A donation made with earnest intent for features that do not influence IC matters or what you roleplay.

A donation system set up like that shows earnest intent from the server administrators. Rises and falls in donations reflect how well the server is being managed also. 

If other servers, clans, and so on have no problem keeping the lights on with that model then I doubt this one will. People are willing to support good service. The deciding factor in whether or not a donation comes shouldn't be: "Well, this server is the only choice and I need that package to do X." 

 

This server as far as I'm aware isn't owned by foco. That is a big reason why LS-RP would've had a hard time changing their model even if the staff wanted it. So, there's no excuse for sticking to the model that's been stated in announcements. 

 

 

 

[MalteseWolf]

So what you're saying is, "Remove all perks granted to donators and rely on the kindness of strangers to keep community services running" ?

 

What happens if strangers are not feeling particularly generous for a period of time? Should upper management shell out their own personal funds apart from the time and energy they already invest into running and developing a gaming community for these strangers to enjoy?

 

Look at pretty much every free-to-play game out there. Micro-transactions and cash shops are literally everywhere, and most often provide a clear (and often unfair) advantage with things through them. At least here they do not provide you with an obvious advantage like doubling your paychecks or allowing you to buy exclusive vehicles.

 

Not to mention the point of an RP server is not to have the most money or vehicles or businesses, right? So I don't see how being able to spam ads more frequently or have extra furniture in your properties grants you an unfair advantage.

[Orcaninja]

That's my old account.

What I am saying is:

Remove the perks that influence the in-game economy and character development. Cosmetic features such as how many outfits you can have, forum usergroups, character slots, teamspeak channels, and anything else is totally fine.

There should be perks yes but they shouldn't be selling an in game feature. That is akin to free to play games. They're free sure but you have to pay to do key features. On LS-RP that was furnishing and as a non-donator, you absolutely could not re-design a house unless you had at least silver, $10.

Microtransactions are not a good feature at all. If anything, these features ruin games for many people. Microtransactions are not beneficial to roleplay servers. If you'd like your donator level to influence something in GTAV there's a shark card feature in GTAO lol.

 

The point of an RP server is to provide a place where you roleplay a character and mixing IC/OOC is seldomly done. Having donator features that influence IC occupations does that.  
As for your first quote, there's no shortage of servers and clans as stated in the OP that do exactly that. If you want to keep something going and play you donate. You should not feel obliged to donate to influence your gameplay. 

[Justus]

Here's the thing, on GTA World we only increase furnishing slots, you have over 6000 furniture items to choose from, we don't limit certain features like walls or special items, we only limit the slots, if we let everyone have 800 slots .. well first people wouldn't even use that and the majority of players won't so it's not limiting them there, and if everyone had 800 slots we're gonna have to beef up the servers and storage which = $$$. The ad system can be revisited to a sort of queing system rather than a gold card spam fest but you must understand 80% of players won't contribute until we can give something cosmetic in return, we haven't limitied the cars you can buy either. We're really relaxed on our donations compared to the majoirty of servers out there but scrapping essential income-bringers would do a lot more harm than good.

[Nervous]

Done and modified.

[Notbond]

Moved to implemented suggestions.