CLOK BBS

Because I've received several requests from multiple people, I've added a PayPal donate button to the site wiki sidebar. Feel free to donate whatever you want. I'm going to risk sounding like a horrible person and saying that these donations are just that - donations. They shouldn't cause you to feel entitled to special treatment.

Donations will go toward paying part of the Internet and power bills (since we personally host the server in our home). If we find any good opportunities, they may go toward server hardware upgrades or another attempt at paid hosting (hopefully one where the "guaranteed uptime" actually guarantees uptime).

Now keeping the above in mind (donations not entitling anyone to special treatment), I wouldn't be against donations allowing for a few standard little niceties. Nothing that gives mechanical advantages, I think, because I don't want this to turn essentially into pay-to-play or microtransactions or something, where people feel they need to pay in order to keep up with others. Right now I'm thinking things like item alterations, feature alterations (unique descriptions for hair/eyes/special features/etc.), mount description alterations, stuff like that. I'm open to further suggestions.

That sounds 100% solid to me. Rewards for only cosmetic pieces is a great way to make both parties happy without feeling like people can/have to pay for power.

Though I might be bias because I have no problem paying for new skins in some other games.

/donates to the 'Buff Elemancers/Nerf Shar' fund.

Nifty idea. I've played MUD's before that have awesome bonus if you donate and I always felt it a bit unfair... I like the idea of helping out the game I enjoy, but it shouldn't make you super badass.

I love the idea of getting custom stuff, it's much better then paying to be badass.

I wanted to take a moment to thank the folks who have donated (anyone who wishes to make it known that they were someone who donated can respond to this post) and remind them that they're entitled to a cosmetic alteration as described in the original post in this thread. Please email rias@contrarium.net or find me in-game sometime to talk about ideas and details.

I'd like to take a moment to bump this thread for any newer players who might have been unaware of its existence.

There have been some minor changes since the original post. Particularly, the game server itself is no longer hosted in Rias' home but is now on a dedicated server out of an Orlando Florida datacenter, which I've assumed all costs for. However, Rias still hosts the wiki and BBS on his personal server at home, and spends a tremendous amount of time on CLOK development and I'm sure he would still appreciate any and all donations.

Here's the thread! So another other idea I was considering as a donations reward was a customized channel prep message. It would of course still have to fit within lore bounds.

For instance:

Vanilla version: Possible customized version: Or something like that, anyway. I'm sure people who actually like elemancers could come up with something more interesting, but you get the general idea.

Would it have to be hand/wrist focused?

TwistedAkai wrote:Would it have to be hand/wrist focused?

Primarily, yes. It's been established that, at least with humans, channeling tends to focus around the hands (likely because that's what they mentally think of as what they'll use to manipulate/direct the elements, based on the the fact that hands are used for most other manipulation/tool usage). I might be convinced to have some effects elsewhere in addition to primarily around the hands, though.

I look forward to sporting some neato channeling stuff soon then! Come on fun pay check from crazy job!

Please please please let us Rooks in on this sexyness.

It can be any channeling, as long as it adheres to lore restrictions.

Actually, I'd probably exclude thaumaturgy. Maybe. I'd at least be far more restrictive about it (no, you can't have a pair of angel wings unfold from your back as you prepare your thaumaturgy).

Rias wrote:(no, you can't have a pair of angel wings unfold from your back as you prepare your thaumaturgy).

How'd you know what I was going to ask for?

First, I just want to say that I really appreciate the donations that have been coming. Since late November 2012, CLOK has been running on a dedicated server that I personally lease from an Orlando Florida based company called HostDime. I've been a customer with them for over three years now, and they have always been very professional and reliable. It does come at a pretty steep $170 per month cost, but please note that CLOK isn't the only thing on my server. It also hosts my personal website with a vBulletin 4 forum, a Mumble voice chat server, and Shoutcast audio streaming server. Those things along with CLOK GMing are my hobby, and I have no issues paying that much for my hobbies.

With as much as I appreciate the donations and always will, I want to echo Rias' points in his original post that we don't want to turn this into a pay-to-play game where people are donating solely to receive benefits. So I wholeheartedly agree with sticking to "cosmetic only" perks. So to re-iterate what's already been mentioned, stuff we'd consider if you've made a donation and would like something in return are:

item alterations
character feature alterations
mount description alterations
customized channel prep messages

Everything would have to be subject to review and fit with game lore. We couldn't have a character request elvish ears or a thaumaturgy prep message about angel wings sprouting from their back or something like that. We also can't add any functionality or create something from scratch. We can change the appearance of an item or add a detailed description to it if feasible, but we can't make a new item, turn an existing item into something completely different, or add extra abilities to it like adding flares to a weapon or putting a visor on a helm.

So, if you want your name imprinted on the flap of your leather satchel or the hilt of your sword or something like that, we can probably do it. If you want a tattoo, that might be possible too. If you'd like a description about your horse's mane being braided, we can probably do that too. Or if you want rings of fire circling your wrists when you channel pyromancy, that's a thing too.

Again, we won't be able to make anything new, code up new systems, or anything like that. It just wouldn't be fair to the non-donors. Sure, if there's something that you think would be cool addition to the game that would be available to everyone, you can always suggest it in the Feature Requests boards and we may add it to our to-do list if we think it's a valuable addition to the game, but we'll still maintain our current priorities.

One final note, because I always feel uber guilty about taking donations, if we ever do run into a situation where we're receiving over $170 in donations per month, I'll be redistributing it to the other GMs. Though if you want a smaller donation redistributed, all you have to do is ask. I can't promise that 100% of everything coming in is going to the server, because, frankly, I'll be paying for the server regardless. It will help ease the financial burden of the server though, and the excess will go to the other GMs as a thank you for their hard work and contributions to CLOK.

I'm by no means soliciting here, this was mostly just to say thank you and to clear up some possible misconceptions of donor perks. However, if you are interested in donating, feel free to send me a private message for my paypal email address. I'd rather not have it publicly visible on a forum where spambots can find it.

Could we get a new donate link? It doesn't seem to work anymore!

Edit: removed paypal instructions

Just a quick point, but I think Paypal also might lock you out if you recieve too many non-business payments, because Paypal. *shrugs* I know some people have had problems with it.

Most of what I've read about such lock-outs are from minors, people that falsified or failed to provide full information on their account, people who refused to cooperate with them on an account issue, or people who tried to stop a charge back from processing.

I'm a very heavy paypal use and have been using it for over 10 years. I'm not overly concerned about it at the moment.

Also, I did stumble over "personal fundraising" instructions, I'll check those out later when I'm not on my cell phone.

Fair enough!

I feel kinda bad bumping this thread, but I think it could use a slight nudge.

Just FYI, the last donation was January 2nd. I never expected CLOK to pay for itself and I'm perfectly fine paying for everything. But thought I should point it out. The remainder of January combined with 100% of February, March, and April have cost me $630.00 out of pocket. Any help would be appreciated!

With the introduction of Rias' Patreon page, I'd like to request that you please use that rather than sending me money directly. I've removed the paypal instructions from my previous post above.

I do really appreciate the few of you who have donated towards the server in the past, but this is and has always been Rias' project, not mine, and I always feel guilty taking in donations directly as if I'm profiting from someone else's work or something.