Alternate Royal Points?

My friend and I were discussing the idea of alternate ways to 'earn' donor points which possibly would still earn the server the same amount of money but be accessible to people who may not be able to donate for any matter of reasons (wealth status, their position under their parents, paypal issues, etc.).
The idea here is to provide something along the lines of 'watch ___ ads' (however many ads it takes to earn the money it takes for a certain # of RP) and gain __ RP!
Of course, as a person whose never run a server before or done anything like this, I can imagine this being a) more complicated than it should be and this difficult to implement and b) having some cons that I can't foresee myself, but I think it would be a nice feature for people who may not be able to donate regularly. Maybe if you guys don't like the idea of ads, something else could be implemented - although my ideas for this would be 'pricier' for the server and more complicated so they aren't my first ideas - such as a complementary RP set of maybe 3-5 RP points on the player's birthday OR the server's birthday, RP given away for (rare) events (maybe twice a year), or more contests whose prizes would involve RP.
As someone who not only can't afford it but has issues with parents involving the idea of RP and some other complicated issues, I think alternative ways to earn RP would be a really nice addition.
Of course, it's all up the Staff and, of course, if anyone has differing opinions (like "I paid for RP and it would suck if others got the same thing for less after I spent so much" or something along those lines), I'm happy to hear them!

 

I dont think the revenue that ads would return would be worth the effort to the staff of the server and the annoyance to the players, and if it doesn't return revenue to keep the server running it should not be associated with RP by any means.

If you want to do something the equivalent of watching ads to get RP, go sign up for amazon's mTurk, fill out a few hundred surveys and buy the RP with that money.

 

I think it would be awesome to have an Ad Viewer option, if it's viable and made the server money.
I'm sure Matt would have to shed some light on how the whole process works (how and which businesses pay for such services). But I'd say this could be a way to make the server more money if say, they made it to where x amount of views = $10 earned, you get 5 RP instead of 11.

Basically, you get half of what you'd get if you actually donated because Matt needs an incentive to keep it going, while still giving players the incentive as well.

But technically speaking, I think it would take almost 100 views maybe more to actually generate $10 to the provider and I'm speaking in USD.

 

This would really devalue RP. Not a fan.

 

In terms of Plenty and Jmmainvi, I'd considered both of these ideas (couldn't remember the word for devalue, opps), so that's mostly what I was hesitant about so I understand your worries there.
Gangsta, I like the idea of if this sort of thing was implemented, it'd purposefully be at a much slower 'rate' than RP buying (so even if 100 ads was worth 1 'RP' for the staff, you'd maybe have to watch 300 to earn '1 rp'.)
Personally, I am broke enough and want RP enough to watch that many ads to get RP. I think if it was at a much slower rate it would devalue RP less and still encourage cash buying.

 

RP were introduced by staff as a bit of a reward for donating to the server. In the past, and for a long time, we didn't have any rewards whatsoever for donating. People just donated out of the kindness of their hearts because they wanted to see the server succeed.

There is a reason why items that you can buy with RP are just purely cosmetic, we didn't want to create a pay to win enviroment.

Personally, I just want to keep things the way they are currently. If you want to donate to the server and help the cause, you get a small reward for doing so. If you don't/can't donate then that is fine as well since you wouldn't be missing out on any OP items by not donating.

I am opposed to having any ads at all in the game/ on the website but that is just me. I feel like ads are obnoxious.

This is just my opinion, though. I do also feel like alternate ways of earning RP devalues the RP gained by people who actually donate.

 

This, basically. Let me also add that owning donator NX gives you a status; a status as someone who has faith in this server and thinks that it can grow, and that they support the server by giving it the chance to exist and improve (or you're just too rich). Ads or anything that devalues RP and makes it something anyone can get, essentially destroying the status of genuine donators as dedicated players, shouldn't be added to avoid this.

Now of course, not everyone can donate, but in the end, there's no real difference in terms of gameplay, and you can still gain that status in many different ways.

So a no from me.

 

Fair points by both of you. I think they make sense.

 

tbh I just wish there were more contests to get RP.

 

If the server was larger and had a greater number of staff I wouldn't mind if people could gain RP through watching advertisements or such.

As it is, I think the staff have more than enough on their plates and aren't in any position to arrange this.

 

we both know we're really just obsessed with making our chars look pretty, Marty.

 

Mostly you lol

 

There isn't really enough people on the server to make viewing ads a viable form of revenue. It might work on more popular games, but to even have a drop in the bucket will require each individual on here to watch an ungodly amount of advertisements. Don't do this to yourself!

 

You both fail at it though.

On a serious note, I prefer it the way it is now.

 

Adding to what @Tentomon said, no one would actually be paying any attention to the ads. It would be way too simple to play the ad and walk away or pull up another browser. I know because this is what I used to do when I played GMS. They have a similar option for earning NX. (And you know, logic)

I also think it would devalue RP. I go out and work for my money and decide to spend it on the server while someone else can just sit and pretend to watch advertisements? This is not really fair to the companies providing the advertisements or the people who donate real money to the server. Definitely not in favor of this. Besides, all you're missing out on is cosmetics which doesn't have to be an important aspect of the game if you don't make it out to be.

 

haha how frustrated are you when you have 5RP, and you need that 1 extra point to get a new look...

but then you gotta donate a whole 5 pound again

 

@Purrday I would be in favor of changing how much things cost in the donor shop, but I'm sure this has already been discussed and turned down before

 

well, my point was that maybe this idea would fix that problem... instead of donating again, you would be able to gain that 1 extra rp with other means

 

I see, I'd like to fix this problem as well, but I'm still not in favor of getting RP through any of the ways mentioned here. Maybe people should be able to decide the exact amount they can donate all while keeping the rates the same.
Instead of donating 5 pounds for 10 RP, you can donate 1 pound for 2 RP or 2 pounds for 4 RP etc. Then of course, as it is now, the more you donate in one donation the rate for RP goes up slightly.