If a single person on your server is so annoying that he chases off others you should probably remove him.
Server play is useless if you play on a server without fun people. Then you're better off just playing in SP.
Communities opinion
- Thread starter MRHeavyMetal_SIR
- Start date
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If a single person on your server is so annoying that he chases off others you should probably remove him.
Server play is useless if you play on a server without fun people. Then you're better off just playing in SP.
I chose "Depends", because it literally depends on the question "What does this server offer me for those five bucks, that I could not get on any other given whitelisted, moderated server?":
- Chunkloaders? available from other servers (afos)
- helpful and responsive Admins/Moderators? usually not needed with <=20 members, otherwise afos
- Uptime guarantees or quick crashrecovery? nobody can give a 100% guarantee, plus.. afos
- up2date server hardware, upgrades incoming, lagfree surroundings and maybe even techsupport? again, afos
- A lively, friendly community, maybe with a person of interest among, that I would like to know? now we're talking^^
Thing is, about the only thing that would maybe make me shell out cash for an otherwise freely available service elsewhere online, is something the server cannot buy. It grows. And it grows rarely. And even more rare is the sight of an "old server" that still has an interesting community playing on it. I don't think I could count more than maybe a handful of those. Of course, this is highly subjective, as what I call a worthwhile community might gross someone else out. Which makes it even harder to put out a thought through request for money. And even if a community, helpful and whatnot is developing on a given premium server - who decides who may buy a ticket and who may not? Maybe the next person buying access is a griefer with too much time and money on his hands? How are downtimes calculated into the equation? If I can play 2 out of 4 weeks, I want a 50% refund. And I want it quick. Also, I don't want to wait two weeks from payment until I am whitelisted. That has to happen within hours at max. And so on...
As of right now, I could not think of a server that I would pay regular money for, just to keep playing Minecraft. I would NOT mind shelling out 20 bucks for, say a server upgrade or something. I would also not mind paying for a bigger/more stable server. As long as I see the money invested indeed ends where it's supposed to end - in a more enjoyable game.
Plus, those would usually be one time payments. Or maybe every quarter of a year or something. And it would definitely end up as some sort of donation feature, not a "pay to (keep) play(ing)" function. Grabby admin-hands before I even get to play? No wai!
- Chunkloaders? available from other servers (afos)
- helpful and responsive Admins/Moderators? usually not needed with <=20 members, otherwise afos
- Uptime guarantees or quick crashrecovery? nobody can give a 100% guarantee, plus.. afos
- up2date server hardware, upgrades incoming, lagfree surroundings and maybe even techsupport? again, afos
- A lively, friendly community, maybe with a person of interest among, that I would like to know? now we're talking^^
Thing is, about the only thing that would maybe make me shell out cash for an otherwise freely available service elsewhere online, is something the server cannot buy. It grows. And it grows rarely. And even more rare is the sight of an "old server" that still has an interesting community playing on it. I don't think I could count more than maybe a handful of those. Of course, this is highly subjective, as what I call a worthwhile community might gross someone else out. Which makes it even harder to put out a thought through request for money. And even if a community, helpful and whatnot is developing on a given premium server - who decides who may buy a ticket and who may not? Maybe the next person buying access is a griefer with too much time and money on his hands? How are downtimes calculated into the equation? If I can play 2 out of 4 weeks, I want a 50% refund. And I want it quick. Also, I don't want to wait two weeks from payment until I am whitelisted. That has to happen within hours at max. And so on...
As of right now, I could not think of a server that I would pay regular money for, just to keep playing Minecraft. I would NOT mind shelling out 20 bucks for, say a server upgrade or something. I would also not mind paying for a bigger/more stable server. As long as I see the money invested indeed ends where it's supposed to end - in a more enjoyable game.
Plus, those would usually be one time payments. Or maybe every quarter of a year or something. And it would definitely end up as some sort of donation feature, not a "pay to (keep) play(ing)" function. Grabby admin-hands before I even get to play? No wai! I'm okay with paying $5 or $10 a month for a good server, it's not a problem. It needs to be a pretty good server with the sort of mods and community I like though.
You do not pay $ to be a part of a community like that. Fans pay them via adclicks so they can spend the time on the game and not a normal dayjob or school.
Very interesting topic, as I'm in the process of making a mod pack, and if there's interest, I'll setup a server, which would cost me money to run. I'm happy to do this if I can get some donations towards the cost. I was thinking that donaters are given an ingame reward for their cash, like some rare resources, a difficult to craft item, etc, scaled to the value of the donation.
Key thing though for any server is to gain a core group of players. Usually friends of the server owner, and a few of their own friends. Total server population will fluctuate over time, but there will always be this core group. (Hell, even watching DW20 on Forgecraft, there's sometimes only DW20 on the server.)
If your server doesn't have this core group, then charging admission is pointless, and you should question is it worth keeping a server up and running.
All you can do is advertise at this stage, and try and get that core group. Also, interact with players on your server, make them feel "special".
Key thing though for any server is to gain a core group of players. Usually friends of the server owner, and a few of their own friends. Total server population will fluctuate over time, but there will always be this core group. (Hell, even watching DW20 on Forgecraft, there's sometimes only DW20 on the server.)
If your server doesn't have this core group, then charging admission is pointless, and you should question is it worth keeping a server up and running.
All you can do is advertise at this stage, and try and get that core group. Also, interact with players on your server, make them feel "special".
If you are going to do a pay access server (which IMHO I think is a bad idea) make sure your terms of service are vary will defined before you start.
Otherwise risk legal drama when something happens. Since you are taking someones money in exchange for a service. It is not like a donation system where there is no legal agreement for anything. Pay service you will be agreeing to give your players a service and you will need to have that service well defined as well as having provisions in it for various things. Like what happens when someone does get griefed? (you will never be 100% grief free). What is your comment to down time and roll backs. What happens if your forced to roll back a day, a week, or a month. What happens if someone gets banned. All these sort of things need to be spelled out in your terms of service. 5 and 10 bucks a month might not be much but it can be enough for a small claims case depending on how long they been paying you and someone pissed off enough can file for such.
But this goes back to my own pet peeve. You have nothing you are offering that can not be had for free on the uncountable number of other servers out there. Only a promise of "hey guys we are going to be so much better". Which is why I'll donate to a server at the drop of the hat if its an option but I would never pay a sub for it. Hell I don't pay subs for MMOs these days and they have a hell of a lot more to offer then your server would.
Otherwise risk legal drama when something happens. Since you are taking someones money in exchange for a service. It is not like a donation system where there is no legal agreement for anything. Pay service you will be agreeing to give your players a service and you will need to have that service well defined as well as having provisions in it for various things. Like what happens when someone does get griefed? (you will never be 100% grief free). What is your comment to down time and roll backs. What happens if your forced to roll back a day, a week, or a month. What happens if someone gets banned. All these sort of things need to be spelled out in your terms of service. 5 and 10 bucks a month might not be much but it can be enough for a small claims case depending on how long they been paying you and someone pissed off enough can file for such.
But this goes back to my own pet peeve. You have nothing you are offering that can not be had for free on the uncountable number of other servers out there. Only a promise of "hey guys we are going to be so much better". Which is why I'll donate to a server at the drop of the hat if its an option but I would never pay a sub for it. Hell I don't pay subs for MMOs these days and they have a hell of a lot more to offer then your server would.
I already payed £15 to play minecraft and have donated about £50 to modders so far.. paying to play sounds awful. Sorry but if you implement a "pay to play" system your server will die.
I would try my hardest tp stop said person from chasing players away a friendly server is what i want if i didnt i would make an anarchy server
I chose "Depends", because it literally depends on the question "What does this server offer me for those five bucks, that I could not get on any other given whitelisted, moderated server?":
- Chunkloaders? available from other servers (afos)
- helpful and responsive Admins/Moderators? usually not needed with <=20 members, otherwise afos
- Uptime guarantees or quick crashrecovery? nobody can give a 100% guarantee, plus.. afos
- up2date server hardware, upgrades incoming, lagfree surroundings and maybe even techsupport? again, afos
- A lively, friendly community, maybe with a person of interest among, that I would like to know? now we're talking^^
Thing is, about the only thing that would maybe make me shell out cash for an otherwise freely available service elsewhere online, is something the server cannot buy. It grows. And it grows rarely. And even more rare is the sight of an "old server" that still has an interesting community playing on it. I don't think I could count more than maybe a handful of those. Of course, this is highly subjective, as what I call a worthwhile community might gross someone else out. Which makes it even harder to put out a thought through request for money. And even if a community, helpful and whatnot is developing on a given premium server - who decides who may buy a ticket and who may not? Maybe the next person buying access is a griefer with too much time and money on his hands? How are downtimes calculated into the equation? If I can play 2 out of 4 weeks, I want a 50% refund. And I want it quick. Also, I don't want to wait two weeks from payment until I am whitelisted. That has to happen within hours at max. And so on...
As of right now, I could not think of a server that I would pay regular money for, just to keep playing Minecraft. I would NOT mind shelling out 20 bucks for, say a server upgrade or something. I would also not mind paying for a bigger/more stable server. As long as I see the money invested indeed ends where it's supposed to end - in a more enjoyable game.
Downtime would be minimal and the host im with pings the servers every 40 seconds and if its down then it gets restarted automatically and if that failed its vary rare im away from my comp anyway so downtime wouldnt be a problem and as for "Grabby admin-hands" any money from donations goes straight into the servers paypal which only i have access to.
I see your point and in my opinion its a bad idea to but i dont want my server to die.
My server is already dying
Look, as a fellow server admin let me offer some tips.
1. Your server is dying, making it pay to play could be the death blow to your server, servers exist that offer service for free.
2. There are servers that are run by people concerned about fun, and not filling all the slots. These types of servers get visited because of low lag and enjoyable community.
3. Coming from a use perspective now: What makes your server unique? Does it have nice things like VIP safe zones and automatic resets of the End?
4. Are items banned, if so, do they actually need to be? If your worried about griefing then you need to be more selective about what kind of players you invite to your server.
5. A server won't die until you pull the plug and stop paying for it. Just spend some time making sure things are working good and inviting players. You don't need to advertise a lot to get nice players, if you see people asking for a server to play on, tell them about yours in a PM for example.
6. This is my final point. Keep your stuff up to date, don't be afraid to run a custom mod pack. Make a Mumble or Teamspeak server, its good for communicating and moral. Create a website, you don't need to hunt down new often players if you can make the existing group tight knit with stuff like this.
1. Your server is dying, making it pay to play could be the death blow to your server, servers exist that offer service for free.
2. There are servers that are run by people concerned about fun, and not filling all the slots. These types of servers get visited because of low lag and enjoyable community.
3. Coming from a use perspective now: What makes your server unique? Does it have nice things like VIP safe zones and automatic resets of the End?
4. Are items banned, if so, do they actually need to be? If your worried about griefing then you need to be more selective about what kind of players you invite to your server.
5. A server won't die until you pull the plug and stop paying for it. Just spend some time making sure things are working good and inviting players. You don't need to advertise a lot to get nice players, if you see people asking for a server to play on, tell them about yours in a PM for example.
6. This is my final point. Keep your stuff up to date, don't be afraid to run a custom mod pack. Make a Mumble or Teamspeak server, its good for communicating and moral. Create a website, you don't need to hunt down new often players if you can make the existing group tight knit with stuff like this.
I would like to rephrase what I said, to be more a reply directed at you, Mr HeavyMetal.
Your server is on the edge of being desolated and dead. New members don't stick to it but move on. In order to get a juicy community, you think about turning your server into a pay to play server. As you can now read across all replies (as well as that superfluous survey), this is not welcomed by many. There was a post about a VIP service. Why not try that? Restrict ChickenChunkloaders to .. dunno 5 per FreePlayer and make that 15 for VIPs. Stuff like that. But first of all, NOBODY, guaranteed NOBODY is going to throw money out of the window. As it stands, I agree with another post (which eludes me atm) before: For now, make it (at max) a donation service. Let your players decide if your server is worth it. If you cannot afford hosting a server sans paying members on it.. well. Tough luck. Sorry.
Your server is on the edge of being desolated and dead. New members don't stick to it but move on. In order to get a juicy community, you think about turning your server into a pay to play server. As you can now read across all replies (as well as that superfluous survey), this is not welcomed by many. There was a post about a VIP service. Why not try that? Restrict ChickenChunkloaders to .. dunno 5 per FreePlayer and make that 15 for VIPs. Stuff like that. But first of all, NOBODY, guaranteed NOBODY is going to throw money out of the window. As it stands, I agree with another post (which eludes me atm) before: For now, make it (at max) a donation service. Let your players decide if your server is worth it. If you cannot afford hosting a server sans paying members on it.. well. Tough luck. Sorry.
No simple as that, I would not pay as I have no idea if its a server I would be happy to stay on, what you may now have guessed is the players migrate often, this is just the way MC is, its hard to hold the hearts & minds of younger players for long, & the old farts tend to congregate in groups & stick to the server group there with, just how you would solve this is open to conjecture but I do not have any really new ideas all the old ones hold true, friendly, helpful but firm admin is the best mho, the server should be themed, as in mostly one type, magic, tech, or basic vanilla with some complementing mods, if it was so easy we as players would not spend months hopping from server to server looking for a good stable home, one other thing that needs considering & that not all server adverts show, is the location of the server, the location is a big factor for most of us, if a server is ubber cool & great community but on the far side of the planet from the player!, but dont find this out until you join its just wasted time & list spot.
Oh & one more point players that leave a server it would be nice it you let the server staff know as then they can open the list spot to another & go clear up/remove your base.
Oh & one more point players that leave a server it would be nice it you let the server staff know as then they can open the list spot to another & go clear up/remove your base.
What you're saying is, "I don't want to be a member of a community, I want an impersonal consumer-retailer relationship". If a community that I am a happy member of is having difficulties with its hardware or connectivity, I am likely to commit more funds, not less.
And you are perfectly right with that - but: I am NOT part of said community, yet. I first have to shell out cash in order to become a member of said community in the first place. So - at the beginning, it is nothing(!) more than a consumer-retailer relationship. I buy a server-pass, I want to play on it. I cannot play on it, I want refunds. This is the deal for the start. I'm not saying I would never ever in a million years help out with a few bucks (or even a few bucks more) if my months/years-old--and-very-much-liked-server-and-community-that-I-am-a-part-of-since-forever-and-a-day would be in trouble. That's a whole different matter and definitely not the question asked. The TO asked: "Would you pay to play on my server?" and not "Would members that are already well-knowns on my server pay to stay on it?"
So, for a server I never played on before? That I do not know any of the members apart from what is written in the internet? That I have to (again) PAY FIRST in order to get to play? No, Sir, if that thing wants my money, it better be workin' from the getgo.
And you are perfectly right with that - but: I am NOT part of said community, yet. I first have to shell out cash in order to become a member of said community in the first place. So - at the beginning, it is nothing(!) more than a consumer-retailer relationship. I buy a server-pass, I want to play on it. I cannot play on it, I want refunds. This is the deal for the start. I'm not saying I would never ever in a million years help out with a few bucks (or even a few bucks more) if my months/years-old--and-very-much-liked-server-and-community-that-I-am-a-part-of-since-forever-and-a-day would be in trouble. That's a whole different matter and definitely not the question asked. The TO asked: "Would you pay to play on my server?" and not "Would members that are already well-knowns on my server pay to stay on it?"
So, for a server I never played on before? That I do not know any of the members apart from what is written in the internet? That I have to (again) PAY FIRST in order to get to play? No, Sir, if that thing wants my money, it better be workin' from the getgo.
I thank you all for your help and your responses i will put the server back to whitelist and hope that people start joining, i want a nice big friendly community so in a way it is about filling the slots but i dont want a server full of iirratating people
Then build a commuinty not an income stream.
I have donated to the server I play vanillaish on a few times, between $20-$30 a pop.
It has a team of active, knowledge admins that keep the server running virtually lag free. Plus a team of mods to handle the day to day issues like region creations and new player promotions off the newbie world when they become a builder.
Even having all of that support and management in place, I would never pay a monthly fee to play there.
Even if my yearly donations equaled out to double or tripple a monthly payment.
Monthly payments just scream of money hungry, and yes I know dedicated servers aren't cheep.
I would much rather play on a fun, well maintained, well managed server that accepted donations.
Just my opinion.
It has a team of active, knowledge admins that keep the server running virtually lag free. Plus a team of mods to handle the day to day issues like region creations and new player promotions off the newbie world when they become a builder.
Even having all of that support and management in place, I would never pay a monthly fee to play there.
Even if my yearly donations equaled out to double or tripple a monthly payment.
Monthly payments just scream of money hungry, and yes I know dedicated servers aren't cheep.
I would much rather play on a fun, well maintained, well managed server that accepted donations.
Just my opinion.
Not saying your is but, god I hate that type of server erm sit on TS & wait for some one to come talk to you, while your waiting you can look around a craping little town, there is no way on the planet I will be interviewed to be allowed play a game, & I would hazard a guess that I am not alone on that one, plus what about the players that dont use a headset?, or von software.