How do you feel about donation bonuses?

[colekern 1364]

As most of you know, some servers have started offering bonuses to players who donate to the server. These can range anywhere from starting with guns, to a special skin of your choice,

However, I get the feeling that not everyone likes these, so I created a poll.

Personally, I think that bonuses in the form of cosmetic fluff (skins) are okay, but getting weapons for donating just crosses the line.

Edited May 11, 2013 by colekern

[Skinny_Man 7]

I do not play on servers at all, that have these bonuses.

[DemonGroover 8836]

As long as these bonuses cannot be used on other servers (ie they are completely private) then i dont see a problem tbh.

[Steak and Potatoes 13480]

I dont mind skins to add variety but I would prefer if you add skins to just make them lootable. As for any other spawn perks no thank you.

[Henryllex~ 407]

I dont mind skin and a makarov or m9, but no more than that.

[Skat3rat 1633]

I personally am just a fan of skins. I prefer getting all my weapons and items and legitly. Not spawning in with them every time I respawn.

[Inception. 9443]

No weapons or equipment, what so ever.

[Mos1ey 6301]

It's a low way for people to make money off the back of DayZ IMO.

[dhorseven 15]

I've been on public servers where donations can get you a heli and high powered sniper rifle upon SPAWN ffs lol.

Can't stand that.

edit: I think skins are okay because they don't offer much of an advantage in gameplay/ But spawning in with a DMR or AS50 is just ridiculous.

Edited May 9, 2013 by dhorseven

[dallas 5195]

Pay2win.

Admins charging money to add a line of code for a free mod seems hypocritical and unethical.

[chernojourno 226]

I thought this was a ridiculous money grab and pretty poor server with people abale to pay for As-50 and helis. Not surprisingly the owner did this multiple times and then after making almost $10,000 as far as I can tell the Zust server is no longer running.

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/keep-the-most-popular-day-z-sanctuary-server-running--36

I'm okay with skins and low end guns. Things that may take you an hour to find and aren't really game breaking. Anything more than that and it's becoming Wasteland.

Edited May 9, 2013 by Cherno Journo

[brzator47@gmail.com 524]

Pay2Win, it has no place in DayZ.

[jackghnnm78@gmail.com 23]

To be honest, I don't mind a skin, a servers got to make money, but anything more is pushing it...

[-Gews- 7443]

I don't like it.

It's not a true donation if you're getting something in return, in some cases it's blatantly pay-to-win.

[entspeak 374]

Of course, on private servers it's their own business. Personally, I'm not a fan of giving players anything for a donation. I can see that a skin might not be so bad (so long as it's not a ghillie or other skin that provides an advantage), but giving players an advantage over other players - weapons, vehicles, etc... - for payment just seems wrong to me.

Edited May 10, 2013 by entspeak

[colekern 1364]

It's a low way for people to make money off the back of DayZ IMO.

Its not one dimensional. Servers have to make enough money to pay the bills if they are to stay alive.

[rossums 2190]

Its not one dimensional. Servers have to make enough money to pay the bills if they are to stay alive.

That's what a donation is for, if you provide a stable well moderated server and it still doesn't make enough money then perhaps it's not economically feasible to host a server.

I played BF2/BF:BC2/BF3 with a clan, we had 4 or 5 servers ran purely through donations, we donated because they gave us a good, safe place to play and a sense of community - we didn't need any bonuses or free stuff given to us.

[Dreams_Of_Cheese (DayZ) 71]

Zust server is no longer running

Holy shit I used to play on there. They got taken down by a bunch of hackers, didn't know they we're such big pay2win fans. I would have thought that 1000+ vehicles and 50+ choppers would be enough.

[toxicsludge 406]

I dont mind skins to add variety but I would prefer if you add skins to just make them lootable. As for any other spawn perks no thank you.

What he said.

It takes money to host your favourite server to play on, so if you wanna help out and receive a "cosmetic only" reward, why not?

[jubeidok 495]

Too bad casinos didn't operate like this. Donate to the house and start every hand with a pair.

[_Anubis_ (DayZ) 139]

Could you please add a "I don't use/care" option?

_Anubis_

[Inception. 9443]

Could you please add a "I don't use/care" option?

_Anubis_

Well, the general implication is that one would only vote if they have a stance on the subject, and so an I don't car option isn't a necessity.

Edited May 10, 2013 by Inception.

[BongMcPuffin 8]

I'm fine with superficial changes like skins, maybe a star next to your name in the player-list, and maybe even a little starting kit to make the first few minutes easier like a can of food and a can of mountain dew... or if you were going to give any weapon out... one of the melee weapons like a hatchet or crowbar... something that will let you bash a zombie or two.

Personally, I'm a fan of the idea of putting all sorts of hats in the game, like TF2, but unlike TF2 where all the hats are serious hats and fit the look of Day-Z like....

Survivor Non-donating: Standard spawn skin, but all dirty and gross.

Survivor Donating-small amount: Standard skin dirty with dirty brown cowboy hat.

Survivor Donating-medium: Standard skin cleaned up with clean brown cowboy hat, or, Soldier skin with helmet.

Survivor donating-large: Nicer survivor skin, and a nice white or black cowboy hat, or, Soldier skin with a beret of your color choosing.

Hero: I've never seen one... so I have no idea what they should look like... but there should be a similar process, you have a dirty grungy hero... then as you donate more, that hero gets cleaner and shinier and nicer looking.

Bandit non-donating: Dirty skin with a dirty, ratty, gray towel or shirt wrapped around their head, NOT covering their faces.

Bandit-small: Dirty skin with a clean, white/tan/black towel, but sloppily wrapped around their head. Possible cheap ugly sunglasses.

Bandit-medium: Cleaned up skin with a clean, neatly wrapped towel around their head and Aviator or other Designer sunglasses.

Bandit-large: Black or camo tactical gear... imagine Army camo's or SWAT surplus for the skin. Ski-mask with sunglasses for the head.

I know the standalone will have all sorts of new and fancy hats and helmets and all that... but none of them indicate your donation rank.

Too bad casinos didn't operate like this. Donate to the house and start every hand with a pair.

This is a great quote right here folks... its bullshit that you can pay the house to give you a better hand... such as getting items and guns and vehicles for donating.

However.... wouldn't it be bitchin if you could pay the casino a few bucks, and they set you up with a bunch of fancy shit and let you strut around in a tux, wear designer sunglasses, and sport a rolex while you were in the casino, so you could feel like a big roller, without cheating? Spend a couple dollars to look like a million bucks... spend nothing and look like a broke joe schmoe... either way, when both guys step up to play blackjack, each guy gets an equally fair hand.

[_Anubis_ (DayZ) 139]

Well, it must be too subtle for you...

"I don't care" IS a stance: it means "if people want to give donation and get stuff, sure, why not. I personally do not use this option, but I do not see any reason why it should be criticized or limited."

Any further question, drop a PM if you are really interested (no trolling please).

_Anubis_

[FreshmeatDK 22]

I am as a matter of principle against any such privileges. Asking for donations is fine, and when I settle for a server I tend to donate. Until a year ago I financed a root server of several games. But if you take on setting up a server, you should realise that it is something you pay for, not a service you sell to others. I don't think that anyone runs a server makes profit from donations, but it opens up a slippery slope.

Five years ago, servers where hosted by geeks covered to their necks in game and server maintenance who did their job for the admiration they got from the community. While it was possible to donate, it was not expected. I feel a lot of the change came around Battlefield 2 BC, where you had to rent servers instead of being able to set up your own. This means that you have to pay for each game, instead of having a server and being able to have some game or other installed, depending on whatever your clan fancies at the moment. It also means that commercialisation is way more inbred in to the server, and since you pay the gameserver providers for a game they did not make, it makes more sense to recover the cost by providing incentives for others.

However, this mentality opens up for server admins who feel that since they pour hours of work into maintaining their game and talking care of cheaters and trolls, they ought to get something more tangible than gratitude. Especially if they do not feel the gratitude, but rather a boatload of complaints whenever the mess hits the fan on provider level. I do not think this is the case yet, but I know of a person (not from these parts) who had a community forum and the status it provided, but whenever bills had to be paid suddenly was broke and had to ask for money to cover the costs.

I guess this became a bit longwinded, but it sort of boils down to this (TL;DR): Shun any server with donation benefits, and show respect and gratitude towards admins on servers that don't. In the end, it will make for a healthier server selection.