One of the topics that doesn’t get talked about all that much in the MMORPG rogue server space is how old-school emulators get paid for. You’ll often have to go digging into forums to find out how much the servers cost and who’s paying for them and how you can contribute. Player groups are often stuck in a weird sort of limbo: wanting to be transparent, wanting to get the server costs covered, and wanting to avoid the perception of making money off, well, a rogue server they don’t technically own the rights to. Dodgier servers can usually make rent by selling convenience items in what is basically a cash shop, but clean servers have a bigger challenge relying on the generosity of their players.
And then there’s SWGEmu, which has traditionally been in the latter group. Earlier this month, the original Star Wars Galaxies emu group recently had to find a new hosting provider and re-evaluate its funding outlook, which had perked up in 2022 when the new Finalizer server was brought online but has fallen off since.
“[W]e had an influx of players when Finalizer launched (new server smell),” SWGemu dev Lordkator wrote. “At the time, I predicted it would fall off in 90 days, and sadly it did. We didn’t do anything in those 90 days; the new server smell wore off. The reality is this game died because there is no end-game, and shock, surprise, we experienced it again with the launch of Finalizer. About 10% of the population sticks around, and the rest go back to WoWÂ or Minecraft.”
Volumes could be written about a dev of a vanilla SWGEmu server blaming its retention problems on another new server because of endgame, but that’s not what this post is about; this post is about coin. Believing the team was running out of funds too quickly, the developers instituted an in-game pop-up that reminds people to donate, tells them how much they’ve donated, and asks them why they haven’t contributed.
Apparently, it didn’t go well, and Lordkator kinda opened up on the community in a follow-up post. He posted the exact stats on responses vs. account age: Apparently, 1,340 accounts answered the survey and 334 are closing it without answering, just of people who’ve logged in this month. A plurality of voters say they can’t afford to donate, while others suggest they’re clueless, just visiting, won’t use PayPal, or simply don’t want to donate. After the stats for each group, he expressed skepticism.
“You can afford a computer, internet, and beer, but can’t afford to donate to the project? I mean a small % of people would be totally understandable. This many is embarrassing, and look at the number of people with many years around the project. […] All I can say is ‘Dude get off our couch. I said you could stay for a couple of days, not YEARS {laughing emoji}. […] I get it, first week on the server and all, but the rest of you? WTF, how long you going to sleep on the couch for free? I’m sure we could keep slicing and dicing this data, but sadly what I see is that most people are happy to play for free and don’t care about the project if it dies. That is super motivating for the staff, who donate untold hours a month to keep this project moving forward. And for the most depressing news of all, to date, even after we started these surveys, only 82 of 2,242 accounts that play on Finalizer have donated, less than 3% of the active player base pays for all the rest of you to play, noodle on that for a couple minutes. So the next time you grab a (beer, burger, movie ticket, etc.) think for a second how that could have helped the project you supposedly love to see keep going. Meanwhile, to be frank, I’ve donated a ton over the years, both in real money and time and now I’m back on the hook again. It’s getting old, and I’m not sure how long I personally want to keep this project afloat while everyone freeloads off of us. Keep it in mind that one day you might get this the next time you come to the site [link to a Suncrusher-related rickroll].”
The playerbase didn’t take that well, complaining about a lack of regular monthly finance transparency, being labeled alcoholics, nag screens, lack of community management, communication issues, moderation, random bans, and server performance. The thread has since been locked, while over on Reddit, people again called for a full accounting of the budget and cast doubt on the provided costs breakdown given the apparently small number of people playing (reportedly around 300).
For comparison’s sake, City of Heroes Homecoming’s budget for June 2023 (which funded and closes when it funds every month) was around $4600.
