ONN Exclusive: Pay to Win or Just Pay Stupid?

[Solm]

Spending 100 dollars to annoy people when you don't have a lot of money is a comment on the character of the person - namely, that they'd consider it a worthwhile use of 100 dollars.

I, on the other hand, think that it is a very worthwhile use of money to spend 100 dollars to assist Max in keeping this game that we all play alive.

[The Bruce]

I can accept that some people are going to pay to play. It’s a growing trend in online games these days. NationStates 2 tried it, right out of the gate, and turned a lot of people off right away because it wasn’t as acceptable back then.

I just hope that NationStates isn’t going to be putting addicted players into economic difficulty though, especially by spending 1/3 of their paycheck. Even if they’re living at home and still in grade school that’s still money they could have been putting towards their education. Paying money for online games is something you should treat like money used for gambling. If you can’t light fire to money without being adversely affected, you shouldn’t be blowing it.

Some people might even be buying stamps to give back to the game after all the time they’ve spent playing it. I bought JennGov (the novel) after six months of being on NationStates, just to give a little back for the experiences I had thanks to the game. I even got my library to order Syrup for their collection.

[Mad Jack]

Spending 100 dollars to annoy people when you don't have a lot of money is a comment on the character of the person - namely, that they'd consider it a worthwhile use of 100 dollars.

I, on the other hand, think that it is a very worthwhile use of money to spend 100 dollars to assist Max in keeping this game that we all play alive.

Oh spare us this shit.

Max has his books, Max has his endorsements and his film. Max has the ad revenue from this site. So don't act like you're something superior because you have enough disposable income to drop $100 on this site.

It's just sad.

[The Blaatschapen]

I can accept that some people are going to pay to play. It’s a growing trend in online games these days. NationStates 2 tried it, right out of the gate, and turned a lot of people off right away because it wasn’t as acceptable back then.

I just hope that NationStates isn’t going to be putting addicted players into economic difficulty though, especially by spending 1/3 of their paycheck. Even if they’re living at home and still in grade school that’s still money they could have been putting towards their education. Paying money for online games is something you should treat like money used for gambling. If you can’t light fire to money without being adversely affected, you shouldn’t be blowing it.

Some people might even be buying stamps to give back to the game after all the time they’ve spent playing it. I bought JennGov (the novel) after six months of being on NationStates, just to give a little back for the experiences I had thanks to the game. I even got my library to order Syrup for their collection.

We mods don't know the players' income. So we cannot stop people from buying more stamps than they can afford.

There is a cap for buying 175000 stamps in one purchase in the store.

[The Dourian Embassy]

Oh spare us this shit.

Max has his books, Max has his endorsements and his film. Max has the ad revenue from this site. So don't act like you're something superior because you have enough disposable income to drop $100 on this site.

It's just sad.

So angry. Anyway, the point isn't Max, even if that's what you were quoting. The point is the game. If you want the game to improve, more quickly? Spending money on it is a good idea. It's really odd how often people with no money think that people who do have money must have unlimited amounts.

[Mad Jack]

In one purchase.

So someone could make several purchases of 175000 stamps?

[Solm]

I, on the other hand, think that it is a very worthwhile use of money to spend 100 dollars to assist Max in keeping this game that we all play alive.

Oh spare us this shit.

Max has his books, Max has his endorsements and his film. Max has the ad revenue from this site. So don't act like you're something superior because you have enough disposable income to drop $100 on this site.

It's just sad.

Nobody is arguing that anyone is superior, I am arguing that it is not right to make fun someone who does choose to spend their money that way. I am not buying any stamps, but I don't think people should be denigrated when they are supporting the site. Servers cost a lot of money. Max does have money, yes, but he also has a family to support and we shouldn't expect him to pay for us to enjoy his creation, the least we could do is not criticize those who are helping him out. If ad revenues were enough, then there would be no reason to have the NS store options, but obviously that isn't enough to keep the game alive.

[The Dourian Embassy]

In one purchase.

So someone could make several purchases of 175000 stamps?

I had to go over and under a bunch before I figured out that number. But yeah, you can keep buying stamps as much as you want.

[Mad Jack]

The problem is they aren't helping the game out. They're contributing to it's demise, and especially to the demise of mid and small sized UCRs.

In one purchase.

So someone could make several purchases of 175000 stamps?

I had to go over and under a bunch before I figured out that number. But yeah, you can keep buying stamps as much as you want.

So not only has NS gone pay to win it's also completely irresponsible with it. Great.

[Mad Jack]

If ad revenues were enough, then there would be no reason to have the NS store options, but obviously that isn't enough to keep the game alive.

Or they just decided that they'd make money off us...

[Omigodtheykilledkenny]

OK, confused. According to the revamped rules summary:

*Regional Advertising Spam: The only places where you are allowed to put region advertisements are: The Gameplay Forum (they will be deleted if posted elsewhere) and the regional message boards of the game-created regions (The Pacific, The North Pacific, The East Pacific, The South Pacific, The West Pacific, Lazarus, Osiris, Balder, The Rejected Realms and the Official Warzones). Note that it is not legal to advertise in copycat regions such as "West Pacific". One ad per 24-hour period or per 10 posted messages, whichever is longer.

Recruitment telegrams must be labelled appropriately. No 24-hour rule here - one per nation, period. It is your responsibility to know who you've attempted to recruit.
RMB Ads are allowed in player-created regions if and only if the region has a "Recruiter Friendly" tag; however, telegrams to individual nations are still not allowed.

Doesn't this mean that this kind of mass-recruiting scheme would be illegal? Is the warning against telegramming outside feeders actually referring to something else? Or am I missing something here?

[The Dourian Embassy]

If ad revenues were enough, then there would be no reason to have the NS store options, but obviously that isn't enough to keep the game alive.

Or they just decided that they'd make money off us...

I really don't see how this very unintrusive way is any sort of a problem. Scripts still work. Hell, if they said we couldn't use scripts anymore I still would not understand. I used to do my WA TG campaigns one at a time, in the snow, uphill both ways goddamn it. Why is this such an issue?

[SFBA wabbitslayah]

Or they just decided that they'd make money off us...

I really don't see how this very unintrusive way is any sort of a problem. Scripts still work. Hell, if they said we couldn't use scripts anymore I still would not understand. I used to do my WA TG campaigns one at a time, in the snow, uphill both ways goddamn it. Why is this such an issue?

Stop making sense Douria, it's bad for your current street cred.

[The Bruce]

OK, confused. According to the revamped rules summary:

*Regional Advertising Spam: The only places where you are allowed to put region advertisements are: The Gameplay Forum (they will be deleted if posted elsewhere) and the regional message boards of the game-created regions (The Pacific, The North Pacific, The East Pacific, The South Pacific, The West Pacific, Lazarus, Osiris, Balder, The Rejected Realms and the Official Warzones). Note that it is not legal to advertise in copycat regions such as "West Pacific". One ad per 24-hour period or per 10 posted messages, whichever is longer.

Recruitment telegrams must be labelled appropriately. No 24-hour rule here - one per nation, period. It is your responsibility to know who you've attempted to recruit.
RMB Ads are allowed in player-created regions if and only if the region has a "Recruiter Friendly" tag; however, telegrams to individual nations are still not allowed.

Doesn't this mean that this kind of mass-recruiting scheme would be illegal? Is the warning against telegramming outside feeders actually referring to something else? Or am I missing something here?

The rules have been changed. It's now open season on player created regions, in terms of telegram recruitment. You're now living in the dog eat dog userite NS World. That of course doesn't mean that players doing so aren't opening up their own region to retaliatory recruiting.

[Frisbeeteria]

OK, confused. According to the revamped rules summary:

Recruitment telegrams must be labelled appropriately. No 24-hour rule here - one per nation, period. It is your responsibility to know who you've attempted to recruit. RMB Ads are allowed in player-created regions if and only if the region has a "Recruiter Friendly" tag; however, telegrams to individual nations are still not allowed.

Doesn't this mean that this kind of mass-recruiting scheme would be illegal? Is the warning against telegramming outside feeders actually referring to something else? Or am I missing something here?

That's a mistake in the OSRS. I'll take it for review and we'll most likely edit it in a couple of days.

[Miyager]

So not only has NS gone pay to win it's also completely irresponsible with it. Great.

This isn't pay to win at all. Seriously. I think it's dumb, sure, but if this is classified as "winning" then we have a serious problem.

[Falconias]

The amount of judging in this thread is disgusting. To those of you that are slagging on this player because she's decided to drop $107 on telegram stamps, what God gave you the right to be the judge? The implication made by some people in this thread that the purchaser is an "idiot" with rich parents is baseless.

Most video games, in one way or another, cost money. There is no such thing as a free lunch and in today's world there is no such thing as free entertainment, either. If someone really wants to create a big region fast, dropping $107 would certainly go a long way. It's the consumer's right to make these kinds of decisions and there was ample information available to dissuade/persuade them into making such a purchase.

Personally, I've been playing this game for nearly 10 years and I think I've spent around $30 on telegram stamps since they came out. Why? Because I enjoy this game, and I do not have rich parents - it comes straight out of my paycheque, and it's certainly a hell of a lot less than 1/3 of my paycheque, that's for damn sure. So please don't cast stones.

Also, the "pay to win" concept is invalid - as has already been addressed, you don't need to pay for stamps to be able to recruit. Quite frankly, I am unsure whether I would continue buying stamps because of the massive amount that get rejected. Even when scripts were readily available a few months ago, I still preferred to recruit by hand because then I could weed out the obvious puppets and troll nations instead of wasting a stamp on them.

[Anumia]

I would imagine though that much of the anger/disparagement directed at them is rooted in their decision to blanket the world with the TGs, more than their actual expenditure.

[Falconias]

Even sillier. I don't see an issue with it. (Then again, I'm a very much free-market type person.)

[Vandoosa]

Oh.. hey!

No I don't have rich parents. I work in a chicken processing plant for 10 dollars an hour.

Capitalist Paradise inspired me to do this! My main reason for doing this was to be the first to send a recruitment TG to the entire world. Thought if I'm going to try what they did why not go all the way? Set a new record!

Plus helping to pay for the site is a good thing anyway. Can't imagine how much it costs to keep a site like this running. My sisters site https://www.iwakuroleplay.com/ costs us about 70 dollars a month to keep up. We are lucky to have a few members there that help donate too.


And was this mass TG worth it? Heck yea! We went from 95 nations to 260 (and still counting). And there is the infamy! Everyone thinks I'm evil now. Though look at my nations category! This is exactly what a Corporate Police State would do!

[Anumia]

I should think a Corporate Police State would do everything in its power to keep immigrants -out-.

[Vandoosa]

Nope! need more cute little nations to help take over the world!

[Wiesmann]

Just over a period of less than a day, we've tripled our regional size. Regardless of what other people are saying, it is a fairly effective recruitment strategy.

[Durkadurkiranistan II]

Good for Vandoosa.

[Cerian Quilor]

Just over a period of less than a day, we've tripled our regional size. Regardless of what other people are saying, it is a fairly effective recruitment strategy.

Come back after 32 days and tell me what your population is in relation to where it was when you started.