Donating is ruining this game faster than the hackers

[BerkshireHunt 19]

Any thoughts on this?  People have been commenting on this since it started.  Between the over-powered load-outs and favoritism showed towards donors, this game is being robbed of the fun and entertainment it used to offer.  Not only that, but since people found that they could actually make money hosting a server, the DDOS attacks on profitable popular servers has become sort of a regular thing.  In the last two weeks I've drifted from one Overwatch server to another because the hacking and DDOS attacks from rival servers has made the game almost unplayable.  

 

I think people need to be A LOT more cautious about who they're giving their parent's money to...you're only supporting a system of admins who now have a financial incentive to do all the stuff they used to do just for fun (tolerating hacking by friends, scripting, ignoring their friend's combat-logging, ect).  The younger players and dumb-asses less savvy people donating often forget that because they're donating money rather than a paying customer, they've more or less given up their rights to expect anything in return for their money.  YOU'RE NOT A PAYING CUSTOMER....YOU'RE A DONOR.  HUGE DIFFERENCE.  YOU HAVE NO RIGHTS AS A CONSUMER.

 

You wouldn't give money to a complete stranger, nor would you "donate" money on good faith to someone you've only recently met...if you're going to donate, put the server on probation and wait and see how the admins handle their jobs before you decide to reward them for it.  

 

Expecting to get nuked by corrupt admins (of servers, not this site...unless of course they're the same people) and their friends...let's see.  

Edited August 18, 2013 by BerkshireHunt

[PK Richie 507]

I support donating towards server costs, rewards shouldn't have to be given but people wouldn't donate otherwise :( sad but true so they will most likely stay.

I do donate to my favorite server but don't take the rewards, I'm just happy to play on a stable server with decent admins :)

 

Admin abuse bugs me more than given custom loadouts.

[FrostDMG 398]

I also noticed this and agree that the DDOS backstabbing going on is out of control and pathetic. I myself avoid the donator focused servers like I plague - few reserved slots is fine and fair, it's the loot (and vehicle) buying that truly irritates me.

[rn_max 202]

No nuke from me, apart from suggesting this gets moved to the private hive discussion forum ... as this is not relevant to public hive servers.

 

Nobody is forcing those who donate, it is their money to spend as they see fit.

Edited August 18, 2013 by RN_Max

[FrostDMG 398]

No nuke from me, apart from suggesting this gets moved to the private hive discussion forum ... as this is not relevant to public hive servers.

Nobody is forcing those who donate, it is their money to spend as they see fit.

Tbh that's not the point. The DDOS shit is caused by server competition and only we the players get screwed cause there are less servers for us to play.

[rn_max 202]

There are private hives that don't run on donations and I get the impression it is generally only the ones of the same ilk that nuke each other.

 

Apart from many non-donation private hives, the public hive remains unaffected, which means that really there are plenty of servers to play on.

[applejaxc 2500]

Finally someone other than me is making a damn post about this. >.>

 

Donating benefits ruin all games. Pay-to-win is pay-to-fail.

[iluvcheat 1]

If I want to give 10$ to spawn with a DMR, why can't I do it ? Keep being butthurt about it. There's plenty of servers that do not give anything as a reward for donation. If you're unhappy with how a server is running, find another one, simple as that.

[OrLoK 16182]

Hello there

 

There's a difference with donations and pay to win etc.

 

If I choose to donate to server upkeep that's fine. But one should expect no preferential treatment or extra gear.

 

I LOATHE (yes caps) enforced donations or donate to get gear.

 

If a certain person has a server then they should let others play on it. Not charge to make folk feel part of their army.

 

Yes, servers can be pricey, but as long as one runs it well, it should be supportable.

 

I'd love a server, but I cant afford it so I don't run one. I'm not going to force folk to pay to play on my l33t server.

 

For me running a good server is a vocation not a mere hobby.

 

A personal bugbear for me is folk running servers without a real clue as to what's involved. It doesn't ever work out for the SA or the user.

 

A bigger bugbear is folk selling stuff for cash which don't exist. Ie l33t gear and helis.

 

I'd give those folk a dry slap with a wet fish if i could.

 

Rgds

 

LoK

[Fonebook 126]

It's like when people have signs saying free car wash and then ask for donations. It's like when people get tax breaks for donating things. Making donations is supposed to be out of the kindness of an individuals heart. The idea of donations is just as broken outside of the world of DayZ. If you donate to the police brotherhood associations or whatever you get a sticker on the back of your car and people expect preferential treatment from the police.

 

If you get ANYTHING in return for a donation, even a tote bag, it should called a purchase.

[colekern 1364]

I'm okay with donation rewards if they're balanced. The servers I'm corrently playing (BMRF DayZero servers) offer donation bonuses that are very weak. At most, a pistol, a map, maybe a skin and a backpack. Although I wish they didn't have to do this, it's a necessary evil as they would have to have shutdown several large servers without them (yes, they've tried not running donation bonuses, but they didn't make enough money to support their servers. They kept losing lots of money every month because of it).  Heck, most of the time you can't even tell if some is a donator or not, as the gear they give you is pretty easily obtained. 

 

My advice: find a server that has no donation bonuses, or very balanced bonuses.

Edited August 19, 2013 by colekern

[DanielTy88 133]

This is how I feel about donation perks...

 

http://youtu.be/fFHZoYxqtPg?t=18s

Edited August 19, 2013 by DanielTy88

[The Aquatic Land Walrus 565]

It's odd how they're considered "Donations", and yet they are really purchases.

These kind of "donations" not only support being a cheap scumbag, but they support banditry too.

Think. You spawn with all the gear in the game for a $5 a month payment. Now what? Kill zombies? Of course not. You'll sit on the coast like a bitch and snipe newspawns!

Fucking Pay2Play. This is why TF2's economy is flying around like a unicorn duing a shitstorm. (Completely off topic soz lel lolololololllllollo. Ugh. I need sleep)

[thelonewarrior 886]

One of the reasons I'm currently not playing, it pisses me off to play on a server for a few weeks and then see people talking on side chat about how they so bad ass because they spawn with an AS50 because they donated

It's not as easy as finding a new server, not when you've made a home and dedicated yourself without knowing

The worst I've seen was donators who were given a cheat menu to spawn helicopters, map hack and spawn with M24, would have just thought they were hackers had the admin not confirmed that I could also be "bad ass" for a small donation of $20

[goodmorning 0]

Yeah my old favorite sever had set up some ridiculous donating stuff which had gone from donate 10$ for a reserved slot to donate 100$ and get hacks pretty much.. (spawn anything you like and self blood bagging)

[phL (DayZ) 63]

filthy casuals^^

 

the purchasing totally ruins a server for me. never will play on one of them. pay2win is ruining many great games imo... money money... best part is it's often called "free2play" haha

[m.cab 83]

to OP:

 

1. Welcome to the economy in the western world! People are free to invest their money in who- or whatever they want. Thats called a free market. Its peoples decission what they do with their money, if they want to invest it in shit they are free to go! (;

.... Really not much more to say about this.

 

2. The mod has bigger problems then mircotransactions/pay to win. The microtransactions, "+999 guns servers", massive PVP and other stuff are just the result of the mod beeing stuck in development for more then half a year now. The mod is stuck and not evolving anymore which is obviously a result of the original developer (rocket) not working on it anymore. Which is not a bad thing since he is working on the "full" game ofc (;

[mzltv 2281]

I hate the donate-for-gear thing too.

 

Do you know what I do?
I don't play on servers where donate-for-gear happens.

 

There are plenty of good servers out there that are fair still. You've just got to look for them.

[Shabadu_ 66]

It's just sad to see what's happened to this mod as far as the pay2win crap goes.

Why bother playing if you want to be fully geared up at the start? Might well play BF3 or heaven forbid... Arma...

If there was any value in playing DayZ with custom loadouts, someone would produce a mod that allows you to choose your gear at spawn (unless I've missed that one).

This is just a cynical way of making money, not an effort to support the upkeep of the server.

[diddums 3760]

Having run servers for numerous games over the years, I can tell you that it does get frustrating at times because a solid income from donations can never be relied upon. People will inevitably lose interest over time, they might lose their job or have personal issues which prevent them from being able to contribute. This means that you are forking out the fees from your own pocket, which gets to be a bit much.

 

For people to ask for contributions is one thing, but as with many things which involve money, greed sets in and people find ways to squeeze every last penny out of their server. This is where things become a bit fuzzy. At the end of the day the server needs to run for folks to play on, but many people take these servers for granted and don't chip in, so the admins need to find an incentive for people to chip in.

 

Cosmetic stuff I think is perfect. The second you give someone something that others might not have, or take forever to find, that's when things are going downhill.

 

The reason I stopped hosting servers was because of the fees. I'd love to run servers for various games, but people don't commit to costs and when they get bored, I'm stuck with a server that I pay for which I have to shut down, losing all game progress in the process (which for games like Minecraft can be hundreds, if not thousands of hours across the playerbase).

 

Once you cross that threshold, people don't return because they have no security.

 

The moral of the story is that from an admin's point of view, you need to be able to run the server without it affecting your own life, and from a gamer's point of view, you need to chip in a bit now and then to keep the machine well oiled.

 

Giving people helis and weapons is not the solution, after all this is killing the very essence of DayZ to begin with.

[noreaster 41]

I remember the days when having your own server was something you did if you had the means to do so. It wasn't a money making thing. It wasn't a I put up a server now everyone else pay for it kind of thing.

 

You have all the retards running around spending thousands on servers to try and compensate for a horrible engine which is impossible. The things which break the game for DaZ and mods are hard coded into the Arma engine. The servers run smooth as silk up to 25-30 players, then it drops off into oblivion immidiately after.

 

Why would you even want 70 players on chernaurus? That is so fucking retarded it is rediculous. The only logical explanation for that is the server admins are trying pump as much donation money as possible out of each server instance.

 

Rocket has created an absolute nightmare with this game. He is going to have a hell of a time trying to fix all these issues by simply releasing stand alone. The game and it's community are literally cannabalising in a cycle or circle. Everyone wants a piece of the pie and they are willing to throw his game in the toilette to get it.

 

The game has become so fractured and repulsive no one I know even plays any more or cares when standalone is released. The donating. The scripting. The complete lack of attention to hacking in general (bandaid fixes, one after another). The stuff as many people into each server as possible. The 30 different mods spreading the players out to thin. The kill on sight even if unarmed.

 

The moral of the story here as far as the thread topic go's is stop donating. Let the people who can afford to run servers run the servers. There is no reason in the world why a group of a couple guys can't afford to host a game server without the whole not only donations, but REWARDS for donations thing. Cut this cancer off at the source before it spreads any further.

Edited August 19, 2013 by noreaster

[Fonebook 126]

to OP:

 

1. Welcome to the economy in the western world! People are free to invest their money in who- or whatever they want. Thats called a free market. Its peoples decission what they do with their money, if they want to invest it in shit they are free to go! (;

.... Really not much more to say about this.

 

2. The mod has bigger problems then mircotransactions/pay to win. The microtransactions, "+999 guns servers", massive PVP and other stuff are just the result of the mod beeing stuck in development for more then half a year now. The mod is stuck and not evolving anymore which is obviously a result of the original developer (rocket) not working on it anymore. Which is not a bad thing since he is working on the "full" game ofc (;

 

Investment implies returns. That is not in the spirit of donations. What you should have said is "Welcome to the economy in the western world! Where we say one thing, but mean another!" Don't dump your capitalist derision upon us. Everybody knows the only free market is the black market anyways, and that is kind of what is going on with these DayZ servers, as I am sure many of the donation schemes are illegal but have yet to be challenged in court, because they wouldn't be asking for donations if they were worth taking to court in the first place. The economics of the situation are beside the point. All these donators are going to have expectations when standalone is released, will they poison our community?

 

Donations should not give you perks! NONE at all. Knowing you support a good server should be enough. We recently learned from Dr. Cornel West that there are way too many servers...

 

The mod is stuck and not evolving? Where have you been? R4ZOR and his team have been working hard for us, do you not keep up with mod development? Stuck in development for half a year? Your claims are outlandish as there are pages just a few clicks away from here that prove the opposite is true. People act like they are OWED this mod, which is a crap attitude in my opinion.

 

EDIT: too many "anyways"

Edited August 19, 2013 by Fonebook

[SteveLord 32]

Majority of the servers I have seen offer things that you could likely find within the first hour of playing anyway. Pistol, slightly larger packback, crossbow, extra bandages, morphine, etc. And maybe a special skin. The only one I can think of that offered high level weapons came with a considerable cost. Like $50+ to get them, so they weren't popular anyway. And this was back when weapons were a lot easier to find and every other person had a DMR or .50cal anyway.

[thelonewarrior 886]

I'm going to say it again, it's not as easy as finding another server

The last time I played I spent a week on one server before finding out from the admin I could get "epic lootz" if I gave him some money

Quit that server and never looked back

Two more servers I spent some time on and a message popped up saying to donate for free AS50 on spawn

The last server I spent nearly a month playing on before I found out that a group I had been fighting against spawned with m24s and a live map showing all players

I had wondered how they had it and was told by at least half the server that if I want it I can donate for it, explains how they found me all the time really......

So I had spent months jumping from server to server finding those without the bullshit self blood and verchiles everywhere and npcs and whatever only to find people mostly playing to win

So maybe I should find another server?

It's hard enough to find a half decent server let alone one that's fully decent only to find out after weeks of playing about this bullshit

Finding a new server isn't a solution, stopping people from gaining profit from arma by doing this is the solution, but that's not going to happen is it?

It should be in the terms and conditions of the server hosting that they can not gain personal profit as a result of hosting this server

Edited August 19, 2013 by Regulator Lone Warrior

[SteveLord 32]

Why? It is their server that they pay for. To some extent, those costs go into the server hosting costs itself. What's next? Reserved slots? An even older tradition in server hosting.

 

I agree with you that it is lame. But you're making it seem like this is the next get rich quick scheme that is somehow plaguing the game, when it isn't. The best solution IS to find another server. There are ~2000 for vanilla DayZ alone.

 

Maybe for SA, there will be "official" types of servers that allow little to no modification. But for now I would say the community is enjoying that freedom. Even if it has a few consequences.

Edited August 19, 2013 by SteveLord