Jump to content
Sign in to follow this  
noblesteve

People profiting from donation servers with Ingame rewards?

Recommended Posts

A donation = giving money for a cause with the intention of supporting something. Most donations are free.

Let me start off by saying I'm an Island life kind of guy, I play lots and lots of Island life. Island life is a mod for Arma II/III btw. Pretty much all these servers have a donation thing going on, and some of these donations are asked for ingame by text that appears on the screen when you spawn in.

Now, I don't think it takes that much money to run an ArmA server, so I think its not really necessary. Still not really the problem. The problem is the ingame rewards.

The donator shop for instance, where you can spend ingame currency for unfair advantages and cooler items that only donators can access. Some servers give you lots of in game currency, and others will give you a house or somewhere unique to spawn in.

This is where I see the problem.

Getting ingame stuff when you send money to these Island Life communitys is not donating, its pay to play. When ever I go on an island life server, I swear a third of everyone is a donator, these guys must be making tons of money.

There basically charging people for extra stuff, and as far as I'm concerned, that isn't legal, is it?

If this isn't legal, then these servers must be taken down, its not right, they don't deserve to be making money just for hosting a modification that 90% didn't even create, just host.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I understand that it may be a problem, and I do not like it either.

But as long as they are not literally doing something like selling addons (ie: You need to "donate" 12 euros to download the custom addon package etc etc),

I do not think it seriously harms the ArmA community.

These servers seem to be kind of isolated, even if they do sometimes do scummy practices or something, I am not that worried.

Then again, I can foresee some Island Life servers (or whatever that thing is called) pulling some crap on the workshop....

It probably isn't going to end, this is not something that one can easily enforce, unless they are really breaking some countries tax laws, making like and doing more illegal crap with their server (Dosing other servers etc).

Overall, though it is probably illegal in many cases, what internet police are going to enforce this.

I think you see the point, let's just hope this doesn't spread to other types of servers.

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Unfortunately, its not just island life, but all life servers. Life servers are just more popular then wasteland, and just behind dayZ, they've been around for a long time and are now about to get bigger. Takistan life has the most players of all ArmA II OA servers excluding dayZ. Donations are a key habit to life servers now, and so are the rewards. Its just the beginning my friend. :(

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

That's what donations have become, dude.

DarkRP in Garrys mod has the ability to buy perma weapons or a VIP status

CS:Jailbreak servers have VIP Models/Abilities

Minecraft has the ability to "Buy" Certain items.

It's just a donation scheme for running a server. Also, it's 1-2$ per slot. That means a 50 slot server costs from $50-$100 Per month. that's a lot of money for a server you aren't making dosh from. Also, if you have a 100 slot server, thats from 100-200!

In other words, you need to have a full time job that pays well, and be able to manage an Arma community if you hope to have a server that's dedicated. A lot of servers run off donations, so if they want to add incentives, that's their choice. It's not illegal, otherwise a large majority of gaming communities/servers would be *shut down*

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Can I host game server and "sell or lease ingame items" or "pay to play" or similar gameplay monetizing methods?

No.

Is there any acceptable way I can make money on my server/website?

Yes. Voluntary donations are allowed and are not considered to be a commercial use. Nevertheless, in any way making the “donation†as part of a condition to receive access to/or getting any part of offered content would be in breach of the License Agreement. The content you create must be available to all whether they donate to you or not.

The fact that you are getting donations is not a problem, but they must be provided voluntarily, i.e. not providing donations must not prevent anyone from accessing the content, download it or store it in another place and operating it there.

To avoid misunderstanding, all access or the content has to be free of any charge.

http://www.bistudio.com/english/community/game-content-usage-rules

Dedicated server in the EU costs 50 to 150€/months; in the us 100 to 250$ a month.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

We have strict rules about what can and cannot be done to raise funds to contribute towards site/server costs they are clearly laid out here:

http://www.bistudio.com/english/community/game-content-usage-rules

If you feel that any site/person/mod is contravening those rules please contact Matt, do not open discussions about it on the forum as both sides have the right to express their opinions/stance etc in privacy.

Edited by Placebo

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Pinning this as it seems some are a little confused as to what is allowed. Restricting content until someone pays you money if not acceptable and runs the risk of potential legal liability which is something none of us want.

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
Sign in to follow this  

×