121 replies to this topic

[Pandilex]

Hello! It's my birthday tommorrow (13th of July) so what better way to say 'Thanks for nightmist' than by making a donation?

As some of you may know, my laptop was recently broken, which is going to cost me an arm and a leg to replace, not to mention JLH and I being poor starving students!

Nightmist has been running for almost four years now, and we have strived to update it as often as possible, putting considerable time and effort into creating a game world that many people from across the world can enjoy. Despite considerable server and running costs, we've managed to keep it free.

However, we can only continue to do so if we receieve donations! So if you're feeling generous (or sympathetic) and want to repay us for the entertainment we've created over the years, then please make a donation by using the link below:

http://www.nightmist...ite/donate.html


As extra incentive, the largest two donations before the 31st of august may have any item they possess altered to have a new name, picture and description of their choice that is consistent with the theme of nightmist! Now is your chance to own a customised weapon, armour, or any other type of item you own!

Take a look at the game time for your characters, and think how much it costs for 2 hours of cinema entertainment, a slice of pizza, or a pint of beer. Even all those combined don't come close to the amount of entertainment we hope you've obtained from playing Nightmist, so donate now and keep this game free!!

[Tom]

i would donate but im not sure if it would be going to ronald mc donald

[.?.]

i could donate, i dont live far from u guys

[Payne]

what if a person mails u a big ammount thinking it will win but then at the final moment someone beats them does the other person have a chance to send more?

[Angelus]

Just incase people are wondering, donating does not get you any preferential treatment or special items that will unbalance the game in any way.

Also, this just makes me not wanne donate, it would feel too much like paying, which i won't do...

Edited by Angelus, 12 July 2004 - 07:18 PM.

[Exor]

nice way to get people to donate.i expect you will be getting a hella lot of checks in the mail soon lol..

[jurian]

hmm i'm see'n more and more stuff done that i couldn't do with ym donation.
and i've allways hated begging. and now your doing it.

no offence but this is kinda weak. the game ran fine before i donated. and i agree with angelus. this doesn't seem fair to ppl like me and angelus who allready donated. yeah we got a pic but so does everybody else who donates. this will only go to two ppl. it's lame.

guess i can quote george orwell again "all animals are equal but some are more equal then others"

edit: maybe ppl who donated before this don't have money now to donate more while others might ahve "saved up a bit"

aah screw it i just strongly disagree with this.

Edited by jurian, 12 July 2004 - 07:52 PM.

[Pandilex]

I prefer my quote.

do·na·tion    ( P )  Pronunciation Key  (d-nshn)
n.
The act of giving to a fund or cause.
A gift or grant.

[Angelus]

Exactly, giving, not paying...


Edit: I'm thinking you came up with this and JLH doesn't even know about it yet...he's so gonna put the smack down on you.

Edited by Angelus, 12 July 2004 - 07:57 PM.

[jurian]

yes giving. as in don't get anything in return!! now ppl buy something.

[BlueCrew]

/t Pandilex let me get this straight if I send you guys a big check I will get a item like....
my choice of
Boots of Haste
Ring of Misltoe
Haiberd
Cobalt Staff of the Winds
Blade of Time
Rune Blade
Rune Staff
Bracelet of Speed
Ring of Defense
Amulet of Pandilex
Sythos Amulet
Santa's Boots
Cristmas Blade
Onyx Bracelet
Barons Bracelet
Ring of The Wise
Ring of Defense
..........and ontop of that I can name my choice what ever I want (as long as it stays game appropriate)?

wow lol if you keep this updated on how much is tops lol I might manage to donate for this cause........and I guess you can say it is unapropriate but everyone in a perfect world would dontate its just some think its a waste of money and this adds the feeling your getting somthing more for your money.

[JLH]

it's any item you currently own modified, not a free item, to give you an item would be unbalancing the game.

[Squee]

If I had a job, I'd probably aim to get my Oak Staff renamed as a Haiberd or Coballt Staff of the Winds.

[Harky]

I don't see anything wrong with it. It's no different to a custom pic.

[Sneaky]

The only problem i potentially see is selling the item. Look at pike- 800 gold... Giant Carrot would sell for much more than 800 gold, simply because its a one of a kind.

[BlueCrew]

lol get my Oak Staff named a Bracelet of Speed then sell some one my fake Bracelet of Speed for 15 mil

[JLH]

can't rename it to something that already exists

[Deval]

Will you be posting the donations on any kind of page so that others may see the figure they need to top? Also, when specifically is the cut off date? Also, donations sent before the cut off date, but recieved after it, will they be disqualified?

[.·:§«²¹~Èñàñò~²¹»§:·.]

Will you be posting the donations on any kind of page so that others may see the figure they need to top? Also, when specifically is the cut off date? Also, donations sent before the cut off date, but recieved after it, will they be disqualified?

yes... i might donate if i kno i will win

[Xlithan]

in other words..... its a trick....even if you think you're sending the most, somebody might send 10p more, thus them winning the customised weapon and you paying an overly amount for nothing.

yes yes, i'm going to get alot of stick from that, but anyway....

I've played this bag of **** (j/k) for over 3 years, and i've seen alot of changes to the game, most of which are good, some of which are bad. There have been many dramatic times, but i've met some of the craziest people on here, and some of the kindest.

Going pay to play wouldn't be a bad idea, because like JLH said.. "if a game is pay to play, people take it more serious". Let me give an example.....

Halo: free to play online, therefore there are idiots who kill team mates, and lots of lag....

Diablo II: Free to play online, loads of weirdos and stupid idiots just out there to ruin it.

Nightmist: Pleanty of idiots and foolishness to last you a life time....

-------

PlanetSide: pay to play, around £12 a month, serious game action, great teamwork between opposing sides, no stupidness

EVE: about £10/M? Great game, very interactive, Roleplay at it's best, fun people.

Lineage III: Excellent roleplaying, you do get the annoying PK, but players are both helpful and serious about the game.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Lets see...

Nightmist: 30p/M per Character? (i dont know what the plans were), Lots of teamwork, solid clans (none of this 1 member in 70 clans crap), medium difficulty, good team work amongst players and the community, pleanty of things to do, and places to go.

thats how i see it, if nightmist went pay to play. I've had a good time, and although i have had my fallouts, and left for a bit of a break, i still enjoy popping on now again to see people.

Nighmist has become somewhat of a social chat room, instead of a growing community of dedicated roleplayers. People log on just to sit down south and talk......If the game was pay to play, people would concentrate on getting the most from the game with their character as possible, rather than spending 3 months down south talking, and then leveling up a few levels after, only to go back down south and talk for another 3 months......

My concern is nightmist as a game, and i'm only trying to provide my point of view as a suggestion into building the nightmist community into a strong game, with dedicated players, rather than full of people who just log on to chit-chat. Sure we will lose half the player-base, but people put effort into the game to help build it, people will see the point of paying to play, and the player-base will soon rise.

But to attract a player to a game, you'd need a nice sparkly website, some nice graphical interface, and MORE QUEST FEATURES available to players. All this can be done easily, with the dedication from players. Most of the suggestions on here are good, but never make it into the game. I for one think there should be NPC-based quests, where you would simply need to obtain an item or information, and bring it back to that NPC. The futher you venture, the hard the NPC quests would get.

so, how i see it....

DONATIONS HELP, BUT IT STILL DOESNT PROVIDE A SOLID COMMUNITY

Anyway, i'm gunna shut up, i've practically written an essay.

but Happy birthday Simon, and thanks for the game. (if i had a job i would surely donate, but im sure Nightmist will be round long enough for me to do so, so i have pleanty of time)

Edited by Zelimos, 13 July 2004 - 03:40 AM.

[Squee]

Though I understand what you mean...pay to play doesn't always mean a better community.

FFXI is $80 to buy and $15 a month (+$1 for Tetra master plus $0.10 for every extra character after the first).

There are still idiots who tell my friend not to cast magic while she uses her black or white mage. There are also idiots who like to cast Bind on monsters that can't move anyways. There are even people who just annoy you so much that you need to get rid of your Link Shells.

...Oh, and then there are those weirdos who will always hit on you if your character is a Mithra.

[Sera]

in other words..... its a trick....even if you think you're sending the most, somebody might send 10p more, thus them winning the customised weapon and you paying an overly amount for nothing.

For nothing? How about the fact that you are donating money to help JLH pay for the entertainment he gives you? How about a way of saying "Thank you for keeping me off the streets where I could be getting into a lot more trouble." How about a way of showing your appreciation for the fact that staff has to put up with emails/memos/pages/yells of people whining and complaining all the time. How about you finally say thank you for everything?


Donating isn't for "nothing" as you say... its a way of helping make NM a better place.. and keeping it from going to p2p ... As long as people donate, JLH can afford to keep it from going p2p. No one donates.. then your FREE MUD is going to become p2p...and guess what? Then you will either be FORCED to pay.. or forced to leave. You make the choice.

Btw... in all honesty.. if I could afford it.. I would donate. I was hoping to get some cash for my b-day so that I could... buuuut that didn't happen. I wouldn't have expected to have my item renamed/redescribed and with a new pic for it. The satisfaction of knowing I helped as much as I could would have been enough.

[Horny]

You tell them Sera! lol

[Angelus]

Btw... in all honesty.. if I could afford it.. I would donate. I was hoping to get some cash for my b-day so that I could... buuuut that didn't happen. I wouldn't have expected to have my item renamed/redescribed and with a new pic for it. The satisfaction of knowing I helped as much as I could would have been enough.

Exactly, but people will 'donate' more then normal because of the chance of getting an item. Plus, selling that item will make them richer ingame, so their buying wealth through donations, and a lot more then you could get from custom pics.

Also, this starts too look like a lottery, which is illegal for minors. Plus using an addiction to trick people into sending money...smells like illegal actions.

Then you have people who already send in donations, why would i donate now, i'd rather save up and send it all in when their giving away a town or whatever. Because slowly it will come to that.

Then to finalize this, what if your altered item gets stolen, you payd (i had enough of calling it donating, seeing as its obvioulsy just paying) real life money for it. Will staff help if you get it stolen?

[Payne]

Then you have people who already send in donations, why would i donate now, i'd rather save up and send it all in when their giving away a town or whatever. Because slowly it will come to that.

ROFL

[Xlithan]

Thank you Angelus, my point exactly. And it was JLH himself who said the community would take nightmist more seriously if they were paying to play the game. Unless you're rich, who's gunna pay to come online and sit around bitching to people and calling other people newb or "pwned"?

Excellent statement Angelus, thanks.

As for saying thank you to JLH, is not playing the game for over 3 years enough to say i enjoy doing the same thing time after time? (not a direct dig, just my ignorant thinking).

If people can afford to donate, SURELY they can afford to pay to play. The amount people are donating at the moment, that would pay off a character for a long time, JLH has already said this time and time again... "paying for nightmist would be less than paying for a cinema ticket or a can of coke", correct me if i'm wrong.

I do understand that JLH does not want to lose the enourmous player-base, but i also believe that with enough effort into making the game less repeatative, and to take more time to complete things, people would see the point in paying for a character, and more and more people will begin to play. Surely, anybody on this game that can afford to pay for a phone line or broadband internet connection, as well as the computer itself, and the chair they sit on (i've never heard of chair rent, but it might be true in some countries *shrugs*), they can afford to pay for a character. There are too many useless, and unused characters, and too many useless clans, and with pay to play, people would take playing time for granted, and use their payment time more effectively, on leveling and working with other people to create a solid community.

[Prophet]

What abouts those who can't donate and don't act like idiots?!?!

And yes I totally agree, whether you like it or not people will pay more for something with a unique name than something that has an ordinary name.

Therefore, it is unbalancing the game. The item will end up being sold for around a mill or more(probably more). Which boils down to donating 100$ or something gettting a couple of mill or whatever it was sold for in return which sounds to me very much like "Paying" and not "Donating".

[Pandilex]

I thought it through and I don't see it as any more or less unbalancing as someone opening the roller and producing a 6 stat in 10 minutes. Life isn't fair, the roller isn't fair, and having to pay to keep nightmist going isn't fair. Deal with it.

You're not donating for free stuff. The stuff is worthless. It has no value, you can't feed your family with it, you can't sell it for cash. It is however the only thing we can give back as a token of our appreciation for you donating money to help us keep going.

To clarify, each year we have this thing called rememberance day. You put a quid (£1) into the box, and you get a poppy to wear. The poppy is just a paper flower, it has a value of maybe 1 pence. However it's a token, something that shows you have donated and support the cause. A donation is something you do to better a cause, without receiving anything of value back. A custom image, or a renamed weapon has no value, as I mentioned above. It's a donation. It's supposed to be out of the kindness of your heart, just like keeping this game online for so long for free is coming from the kindness of our hearts.

Only a few people get 6 stats. Fate makes it so. And fate tragically makes it so that not everyone is in a position to donate. Pay to play isn't feasible because if everyone who had a 6 stat were the only people that could play, you can see that nightmist wouldn't be able to operate.

I don't care what you think about 'saving your money'. It's a donation. Donate if you want, or don't. If you think the game deserves money as a token of appreciation, then so be it. If you don't, then so be it. Don't make out you're entitled to some tangible asset of value, and certainly don't start the 'its not fair he got more than me'. It's not about who got the most, and it's not about who got anything at all. It's simply about a gesture of kindness, from you, to us.

[Deval]

Will you be posting the donations on any kind of page so that others may see the figure they need to top? Also, when specifically is the cut off date? Also, donations sent before the cut off date, but recieved after it, will they be disqualified?

Now we've cleared that all up, can staff please answer my question? ^^;;

[Flux]

Also, this starts too look like a lottery, which is illegal for minors. Plus using an addiction to trick people into sending money...smells like illegal actions.

Nice thinking there, detective. Better bring in Interpol.