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vedic · 02-02-2003, 03:07 PM

In regards to Materia Magica, did you notice that most of the items have little to no impact on gameplay? There are some items that do, of course, but these are not "priced" as items, they are donations that players give and they get the item as a gift in exchange. Not everything is available for donations, either - you can't buy experience or anything like that, because there are internal limits set by the game Administration in an attempt to provide a source of support for the game, advertising, and hardware upgrade costs, balanced with making the game fair for all players.

You would have to spend a small fortune, as well as many months, if not a year of gameplay, in order to suddenly have a better character than someone who has played for two years. The available donation items are limited in scope and many of them have duplicates in the actual game that can be discovered by any average player through normal gameplay.

Materia Magica also is not "nagware", in that it's up to the players to decide if they want to donate or not. It doesn't bug its players to donate every 10 seconds like some games, and it doesn't make any false pretenses and have "under the table" deals or such.

You also seem to have missed the "donation dollars" programme where players who do not have money can write stories, poems, articles for the Alyrian Chronicle, etc. in return for virtual "donation dollars" which they can then use to get gift items, if they happen to want them.

It's a fair system, I don't know if you have any idea how much it costs to run a popular game with an average of 250-300 players online at once (multiplaying is not allowed), but it's expensive. Unless you have a spare couple of thousand dollars a month (as well as hardware upgrade costs and advertising costs), donations are necessary in order to avoid becoming "pay to play" or shutting down entirely, once you reach a certain point of popularity.

The donation/donation dollar system is a good one, in that the players that can afford it, pay for it, and the players that cannot, either trade in-game items with the players that can, or they can donate with their time and make the game better for everyone as a whole. Or, they can choose not to donate, and still have just as good a character as someone who has donated a few times in the past. Charging a monthly fee would cut out a lot of people who don't have credit cards, so it's easier said than done.

02-02-2003, 03:07 PM	#4
vedic Member Join Date: Jan 2003 Posts: 39	In regards to Materia Magica, did you notice that most of the items have little to no impact on gameplay? There are some items that do, of course, but these are not "priced" as items, they are donations that players give and they get the item as a gift in exchange. Not everything is available for donations, either - you can't buy experience or anything like that, because there are internal limits set by the game Administration in an attempt to provide a source of support for the game, advertising, and hardware upgrade costs, balanced with making the game fair for all players. You would have to spend a small fortune, as well as many months, if not a year of gameplay, in order to suddenly have a better character than someone who has played for two years. The available donation items are limited in scope and many of them have duplicates in the actual game that can be discovered by any average player through normal gameplay. Materia Magica also is not "nagware", in that it's up to the players to decide if they want to donate or not. It doesn't bug its players to donate every 10 seconds like some games, and it doesn't make any false pretenses and have "under the table" deals or such. You also seem to have missed the "donation dollars" programme where players who do not have money can write stories, poems, articles for the Alyrian Chronicle, etc. in return for virtual "donation dollars" which they can then use to get gift items, if they happen to want them. It's a fair system, I don't know if you have any idea how much it costs to run a popular game with an average of 250-300 players online at once (multiplaying is not allowed), but it's expensive. Unless you have a spare couple of thousand dollars a month (as well as hardware upgrade costs and advertising costs), donations are necessary in order to avoid becoming "pay to play" or shutting down entirely, once you reach a certain point of popularity. The donation/donation dollar system is a good one, in that the players that can afford it, pay for it, and the players that cannot, either trade in-game items with the players that can, or they can donate with their time and make the game better for everyone as a whole. Or, they can choose not to donate, and still have just as good a character as someone who has donated a few times in the past. Charging a monthly fee would cut out a lot of people who don't have credit cards, so it's easier said than done.