Patreon - Better Servers, More Devs, And Awesome Rewards!

(Note: I have no idea if this was suggested before. If so, tell me please)

Introduction:
We all know that Wynncraft could certainly do with better servers (though it's not as bad anymore), more developers, and more funding. While VIP and other shop sales seem to be keeping the server afloat for now, more money can't be a bad thing. So why doesn't Wynncraft have a Patreon account?

What will this do?
As I said above, Patreon would bring in more money which in turn would result in:

• Better servers (which would support more than 60 people each with less lag. This does have some downsides though, discussed later on)
• More developers (IIRC they are paid to work on the game. More developers, which includes not only programmers but also designers and such, would certainly improve and speed up the game development)
• Rewards for players, such as two days of double XP when the next goal is reached, +50% XP weekends once a month if a certain amount of funding is reached, and of course special convenience perks for supporters such as receiving forum alerts in-game.
• More coke for salted

Examples of goals and rewards:
Keep in mind I have no idea how much wynncraft costs to keep up, so I am going off a guesstimate taken straight out of my arse of 1500 USD per month which is obviously way off (if anyone has any better estimates then please tell me). These may be horribly unbalanced so please suggest any changes.

Goals:
(each time a goal is passed, the next weekend day will be a +25% XP day for 200 and 500 USD and +50% for 1000+ USD)
These are suggestions, so I'm not demanding any of this :P

• 200 USD/month - 10% XP bonus weekends once a month
• 500 USD/month - 15% XP bonus weekends twice a month (replaces 10% XP bonus weekends)
• 1000 USD/month - a sneak-peak video from a developer every few months or before a major update such as the Gavel follow-up update (e.g. of a new quest like the one of An Iron Heart which was released before Gavel)
• 1500 USD/month - Official tournaments organised by mods (or specifically-chosen community managers just for these types of things) like PvP tournaments or riddle-based hunts.

There could be a few more tiers but the ideas I have could be quite a hassle (open-betas before major updates?) so I decided to only include the more manageable ones.

Patron Rewards:
These are rewards for people who chose to support the server by becoming a patron.
Once again, these are just suggestions.

• 5 USD/month - Free global shout every week, free party bomb every week, free item bomb every 2 weeks (equivalent to 120 GC or 5.45 USD a month if buying 330 GC package)
• 10 USD/month - Get forum alerts in-game (great for people with shops)
• 25 USD/month - Access to special always-on beta-testing server (If possible. It would be a separate world with warps to cut-outs of areas with WIP mobs, puzzles, etc. so GMs can get feedback on parts of their quests. No leaks allowed ofc) + Access to beta-testing forum section.
• 50 USD/month - have something in-game named after you, like an item (Only once per person), have yellow text in chat (in-game it would be bright yellow, but it's hard to see on the forums with light theme. Possible to toggle on/off), have a [Generous Donor] tag on forums.

If you have any suggestions for goals or rewards, please tell me!

Pros & Cons:

Pros:
- More money!
- Better servers
- More devs
- Rewards for supporters and normal players!
- Faster development, hopefully
- Beta-testing for GMs

Cons:
- More people on a server means grinding spots can be taken more often. Possible solution: Give an XP and loot boost for killing mobs near others.
- Some of these rewards or goals may take some time to implement (especially beta testing servers)
- Rewards and goals may be unbalanced, so please suggest changes :)

So there you have it, my suggestion for helping out both the staff and the players! Once again, if you have any suggestions then tell me, and vote in the poll to tell me if this is a good idea or does it suck :P Thanks for reading!

 

well this is a good idea but i think that the implementation will take a while but i'd be a donator via patreon
(I could buy more gc but i have too much bombs and shouts)

PS: FIRST

 

I like it. The patron rewards aren't very EULA-breaking either.

 

Yeah, I tried to make them as fair as possible :)

 

Sign me up.

 

This would cause more complications than it's worth. For one thing, there's always the risk that someone will leak the info. Maybe not directly link to the clip/information, but perhaps accidentally let the information slip by. The fact that it's expensive does not mean that the donator will be trustworthy. Plus we'd have to go through the trouble of making the presentation, which is a TON of work. Just deciding what's too spoilery and what isn't is already difficult enough, which is what makes teasers so hard.

 

The video could be seen by anyone, it's not a donor-only reward (as it is a goal). I guess that not even a video but just a few images could be released, so as not to spoil too much but still reward the community for their support.

 

Ah, fair enough, but most of the same problems would occur with the beta server idea.

 

While the whole thing seems like a pretty good idea, there seem to be a fair amount of flaw in it :

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Well if a feature like that would ever be added (And that would probably required an astronomical amout of work), I don't think having it as a patreon only feature is a good idea :
I guess it's better to have it as feature for everyone to use.
And by the way, while it may seems good for a few weeks, I think this would get pretty annoying after a while

Well as @Tantibus stated, the leaks chances here can't be underestimated

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I guess that would be the owners work to decide the Patreon rewards.

And by the way, don't you think that a Patreon has already been considered by them ?

 

1. I never programmed minecraft plugins so I don't know if it would be hard to implement, but many servers with voting systems announce whenever somebody votes so it is possible. I think it's best if only supporters get this because it gives a fair but convenient reward for the supporters while the regular players don't really miss out on anything. But if it were to be implemented as a basic feature, then that would be fine too.

2. That's true, but seeing as not many people leak ??? because of the consequences, I don't think too many people would leak info about WIP things on the beta server because not only will they be banned, but they also payed a considerable amount of money for it. And of course major spoiler-y things wouldn't be put up for testing. Though it is true that leaks would inevitably happen.

3. It probably has, but why not make a suggestion just in case it hasn't been considered, or just for the fun of it?

Thanks for the feedback :)