Over the years that emulation has developed for the World of Warcraft, it has undergone many catastrophic "events" that have changed it for the better, or for the worse.
Recently emulation has changed significantly, and for the better or for the worse has yet to be determined.
My blog will help newcomers and returning experts of emulation get a quick insight into how you can prepare yourself for the modern-day emulation, and how you can set an example and become a leader for the next generation. Let's make emulation better, together!
Recently emulation has changed significantly, and for the better or for the worse has yet to be determined.
My blog will help newcomers and returning experts of emulation get a quick insight into how you can prepare yourself for the modern-day emulation, and how you can set an example and become a leader for the next generation. Let's make emulation better, together!
Emulation is a fast-changing environment, and often developers have troubles keeping up.
What is even more disturbing, is when server owners are unable to keep up with modern day ethics.
I will be focusing on everyone's favorite argument today...
No more donations!
Donations originated as an innocent way for players to give back to servers that they enjoyed, and in turn, the server owners would use that money to upgrade server hardware and the like. However, there have been many "scandals" in this regard, the most famous of which being the WoWScape Treadmill.
Many emulation advocates will immediately argue that donations should not exist in any form for server owners - possibly for emulator development, but that is another topic altogether - because it just creates the chance for fraud and misuse of players' money, and then in turn often rips off emulator developers who do not see a single penny of that money. In 99.9% of servers, not all donation money goes back into the server. Sure, servers with alright ethics will put the majority back into the server - but there is NEVER complete transparency of what the donations are used for, and for good reason. Anytime a server owner, especially one who isn't directly involved with server hosting, is taking a cut of donations, it can almost be guaranteed it's being pocketed. I know what a lot of you are probably thinking by now -
"Wait Hellgawd, you were a server owner.. and you took donations multiple times, and every time, your servers never came online. Did you scam people's donation money?"
Well, if you didn't already know, yes, I have been accused of being a donation money swindler. This is a false accusation though, and once again, this is another topic altogether. When I was running a server, I was also renting out an outrageously expensive dedicated server - WAY too powerful for the closed development server I was working on; so every penny actually DID go towards the server, and yet I still ended up being in debt.
So wait - what's the problem here? Donations for the most part go into helping keep servers online, right?
This is true. However, there are many, MANY alternatives for server donations. And if emulation is going to progress at all anytime soon, server owners need to adapt to these alternatives. Help create the wave of change - if you are a server owner reading this, try my useful tips to helping reduce or even eliminate the need for donations on your server!
Tip One: Necessity only!
This was a mistake I have made in the past. If you are working on a server with a few buddies, and you don't plan on having it public for a few weeks; or even, you have a public server, but its only got a few dozen players? Then don't waste your money. A simple 50$ dedicated server, or even a VPS in most cases, should be able to handle you. This will cut expenses down immensely, and make it more handle-able for you / your hoster.
Tip Two: Save your spare change!
When you go to the store and buy that extra Coca-Cola.. do you really need it?
Principles like this apply to everyday life budgeting, and they should to your server as well. When budgeting your expenses for your server, take this same idea into account. Do you REALLY need to upgrade your server bandwidth? Purchase that expensive forum software? Hire what web designer?
Extra expenses for frivolous server addons can be extremely costly. A new website might be nice, but not if there isn't any server up and running!
Tip Three: Alternative Revenue
Even when you do spend wisely, you might still need additional revenue to keep up with your server hosting so that it does not cause you to go into debt with your life -
NEVER LET YOUR SERVER DRAG YOU INTO REAL LIFE DEBT. EMULATED SERVERS ARE A HOBBY, NOT A LIFE.
And you do NOT need to resort to donations to keep up!
As a web developer, I have experimented with many forms of Advertising revenue programs over the years, and especially for high-traffic emulator servers, these can be very profitable. Look around at your options (Google AdSense, AdBrite are a couple good ones) and evaluate your choices. Non-obtrusive advertisements will not lessen the image of your server whatsoever, and can provide quite a hefty sum if done correctly.
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Well, that's it for my first blog, both in my whole general blog but also in the Ethics of Emulation series. I hope you enjoyed it, and leave comments below! I respond to every one!
As well, any servers who take the Donation-free approach, leave a comment as well with your server name, URL, and some information about it. I will be spotlighting these servers as a reward for their contribution towards the proper ethics of emulation in a future blog posting.
Cheers,
Hellgawd
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