[Clarification] DayZ Server Monetization

[pilgrim* 3514]

YO !! I can personally provide you (the Player) with a Fully Fresh Brand New Spawned Character Previously Unplayed Equipped with Standard Underwear and any Facial Characteristics of Your Chosing [Full HowTo Instructions] for only 4 Dollars, 6 Euros,19 Pounds Sterling or 125 Yen.

This offer is limited to what server You On ?

for ONLY 10 additional BitCoins I will ALSO give you High Quality Secret Finger-Pointing guidance to Possibly The Direction to Go to Find Perhaps Military Gear and/or A Fight 98% Guaranteed or Your money Back. Includes Free Torch subject to availability.

Form a line.

[AlphaDogMeat . 493]

YO !! I can personally provide you (the Player) with a Fully Fresh Brand New Spawned Character Previously Unplayed Equipped with Standard Underwear and any Facial Characteristics of Your Chosing [Full HowTo Instructions] for only 4 Dollars, 6 Euros,19 Pounds Sterling or 125 Yen.

This offer is limited to what server You On ?

for ONLY 10 additional BitCoins I will ALSO give you High Quality Secret Finger-Pointing guidance to Possibly The Direction to Go to Find Perhaps Military Gear and/or A Fight 98% Guaranteed or Your money Back. Includes Free Torch subject to availability.

Form a line.

 

Shut up and take my money.

[q.S Sachiel 470]

Ah, it's no trouble at all. Basically, as long as items do not skew the balance between donating and non-donating players on your server, you're golden.

Along that path though, with modding support, would loadouts be acceptable (lets ignore weapons and focus on equipment perhaps) where certain flaws balance perks.  I'm not going to put words in your mouth, but like 'Lok mused - having a shirt or a cap is going to 'affect gameplay' but so slightly that the effect is quite minor.

 

But would BI be accepting of more drastic or impacting equipment if they came with a flaw, say extra heat generation or something to act as a balance, if this kind of thing can be modded?

 

Again, it's quite an open question, so the answer can only be limited, as i'm sure BI is reluctant at the moment to state what they will accept but is more likely to state what they will not as you alluded to, still, i'm interested to see what BI are happy to consider :P

 

Essentially, i feel the mod community may want to charge for their work on their own servers, and BI could stand to act as a driving force for item / object diversity on the matter if a semi-liberal approach is taken.  I'm not expecting a TF2 style marketplace, but with the already large diversity of items in game, and modding support to come it would be interesting to consider the full suite of possibilities.  perhaps better left for another thread/when modding support/DayZ release comes closer to fruition.

Edited December 11, 2015 by q.S Sachiel

[Funkmaster Rick 373]

I think the most important part of this argument is the context.

 

I got ArmA 2 for DayZ mod specifically, but afterwards went on to play many modded and vanilla games. ACE/ACRE were good times. But the same basic characteristics of the game's engine that made DayZ mod enjoyable also lent themselves towards a lot of other sorts of gameplay types. The Life games, basically a form of cops vs. robbers, are an example, and one that continues into ArmA 3.

 

On top of those mods, some servers had their own special mods. Maybe a metric fuckton of scripting to do some interesting things. Lot of work, that. Maybe they run a forum to go with it. It's basically its own little community. But it's not free to host.

 

It starts with donations. Money's tight for the hoster this month, so they ask if anyone can help out. Maybe someone does. Next time the same thing happens, maybe someone doesn't.

 

Eventually they'll reach a fairly obvious conclusion: there's a subset of players who will only donate if there's something directly in it for them. They have to see a difference. This is a fairly normal human way of looking at things - after all, it's what keeps people from getting conned by salesmen pimping out timeshares.

 

Sure, the 'difference' is really that without the money the server dies, but for lots of people this just means moving on to another server. So it's not infrequent for the hosters of such servers to sell power, because it's a lot easier and more consistent to sell power than it is to sell a dream. The fact that the server's already up and hosted right now seems to make a difference, and isn't processed in the same way as the difference between spawning fresh and spawning with gunz. The second one feels more tangible.

 

So people are going to do this, regardless. Some servers out there will sell power, and they'll call it donations. Sure, that's illegal, but who's going to prosecute.

 

Bohemia have done three things that I can see with this announcement:

 

1. Brought awareness to the issue, educating those who didn't know about servers like this

2. Set down rules on how they're allowed to operate, also educating players on these rules

3. Provided a clear-cut protocol for reporting those servers which abuse their status

 

They're even making a list you can check the server against to make sure it's legit. They're turning their players into police. I mean, they knew from experience that people would do this shit anyway, and it's not like one can realistically expect them to check it all on their own. The only obvious weakness in this plan is that the hosting companies might sandbag the reports, and really, you've got to give them a chance before condemning them on that alone.

Edited December 12, 2015 by Funkmaster Rick

[OrLoK 16185]

Well, they already had rules prohibiting monetization on ArmA 2 DayZ mod, yet ALL of the servers out there sell items for money.

 

There's just way too much servers for you to handle, the game will just end up like the mod, and eventually will die, cause people just cant stand P2W on the long term.

 

GG DayZ, will probably die before release.

Hello there

 

Do you think this will only happen because the devs have implemented these rules?

 

If people are going to sell stuff, they don't feel they *need* dev permission.

 

What this does is put in place a clear ruleset to halt that kind of behavior.

 

The proof of the pudding is in the eating, but I expect rules to be far tighter (enforced) once the game launches. I wouldnt compare the mod to the SA. Different beasts entirely.

 

Rdgs

 

LoK