Root Admin Muratus del Mur Posted May 5, 2008 Root Admin Report Posted May 5, 2008 well, as you all knwo we recently moved on a new server, but it seems that this hosting company sent us the warning that they will close us down too because of to much CPU use .... i am going crazy with this, after setting up the server and losing countless hours of tweaking the site to work on this one now i have to move it again. Instead of working on actual features i stay after the damn server, this is frustrating. The best solution right now is to finaly get a dedicated server, not a reseller account, not a virtual private server liek this one, but a DEDICATED server where we wont care if the site is consuming 80% of the CPU. Unfortunatly i can not cover the costs of such a server, they are not that much but they still are. One possible option would be to switch MDShop to 1Euro instead on 1USD items that would give a 30% increase but i am very sure this will give a bigger drop in sales so i better dont do it. i dont know actualy why i am writing this post, but maybe some of you (the oldest players) will think of soemthing, maybe others jump in. I won't turn this into a payed game even if i will have to close it,..its supposed to be free and will remain like this, and i do everything possible NOT to give the mdshop buyers huge advantages over regular players but just a touch of quality to the game (premium creatures, features etc) The server costs about 5-900$/month, depending on what we will get, this can be more ore less. I am aiming for a dual quadcore with 4-8gb of ram so that we will never have this problem again. There are almost 7-800 active players that are constantly playing, with more joining in each day, such a cost divided could be almost nothing for each one, but unfortunatly its not happening. I am planning to add a something like a "support the server" subscription where each can contribute with whatever they want but on a monthly bases. 1$ for you means nothing but gathered monthly from 700 players means the server for all to play. Like i said there wont be so many people to pay, in fact things look totaly different, there are some loyal buyers that pay a lot and most use the free credits and wait days for their credits, so i can to the subscription thing either , not at 1$ at least .... also maybe some of you have experience with some good hosting companies? i am full of experiments..Any info is useful. i am waiting for a sugestion/ answer , whatever .... server is closing down in 48 hours.
A A T S E Posted May 5, 2008 Report Posted May 5, 2008 After a short thinking, I come up with the following suggestions: 1) Claim down, I know its stressful and frustration but really nothing can't be solved , we just need to find out the solution. 2) Reduce CPU usage, some features could be temporarily removed until we could afford the server we want, eg remove some of the regeneration counters like explore points, or make longer regeneration time with proportionate regeneration, or put things into several servers, eg a main server, an image server etc... I'm not a computer expert so you might know better. 3) Use ads... might help the income a bit? With the current active players the revenue wouldn't be great, but every bit helps.. I hope. 4) Stop getting new players, if there isn't a long term solution yet, keep getting new players won't really help (as CPU usage will keep rising) but might give them bad impression and turn them away. 5) Change the way things are acquired in MDshop, as you mentioned above, increasing the price might not help, but you could add additional precious items with higher price. But I think it's better providing items in a temporary basis is a better choice, like a pass lasting some time which will grant you 2x regeneration values or items/features that will last only a week. This way you could guarantee a more stable revenue. (btw im not a donator, don't cure me -.-) Hope you find it useful.
thrall Posted May 5, 2008 Report Posted May 5, 2008 nu stiu cum poti ajunge la asa ceva dar... daca ai putea atrage atentia unor companii pentru care sa le rezervi un mic spatiu de reclama o mare parte din suma, daca nu toata, va fi acoperita prea multe detalii despre asta nu stiu, tot ce stiu este dintr-un proiect de facultate facut de un prieten (din nefericire a murit acum 1 an), dar daca ne punem toti sa cautam detalii despre asta sunt sigur ca vom reusi in cele din urma din cate imi aduc aminte erau cateva cerinte pe care trebuia sa le aiba un site:nr de vizitatori, carei parti din consumatori i se adreseaza, influente ... pana acum, din cate vad la acest joc, companiile la care se poate incerca sunt cele de sofwere si cele producatoare de jocuri pc/xbox/ps etc scuze ca nu am scris in engleza
Root Admin Muratus del Mur Posted May 5, 2008 Author Root Admin Report Posted May 5, 2008 he was talking about placing ads on the game to cover the hosting costs ... i think that having ads on the game will make it load slower and also will look UGLY, we have to search for a better option, i want this to be good looking game, without annoying ads, pupups and stuff
Metal Bunny Posted May 5, 2008 Report Posted May 5, 2008 I have to agree with A A T S E, try and stop the flow of new players for a while and rerout the money for ads towards the server costs, do what it takes to reduce CPU usage and mayhaps even use ads, even if you do not like them. I have to say, this game surprised me in the start, that there was/is a huge lack of ads. Even if you do not like, it may be the temporary income you need. As for the uglyness and slow-loadiness, you could always put it an ad below the live chat, and only use fixed images, as in the ones that don't move and are just pictures, so that it will load faster. As for other temporary solutions, I can also only think of new objects for sale in MDshop. I guess in my opinion, the short term solution is to, sadly enough, as you put it, uglify the game, or put more stuff for sale ingame...
Root Posted May 5, 2008 Report Posted May 5, 2008 I don't know if this would help in any way due to the different currencies, but probably there are people that won't donate due to not having a paypal account. If there was other way to donate maybe they would, some years ago I played a game called Tibia, and they actually let people know their (developers) address so that people without paypal accounts and such could be premium members too, the thing is, it gets kind of expensive to send money to another country, you would probably spend more money sending the donation than you are actually donating, unless you donate like 7€ or $ (you get the idea), I have no idea how much money do people donate for each donation they make, maybe this could work, but then again, the currency can be a problem :S About the server hosting and stuff, sorry but I don't know what to say because I don't have experience with that kind of stuff, the only thing that occurs to me would be a different website/look for the game that would not require so much CPU (I don't know if this is even possible, I'm just trying to help >.< ) And yes probably the ads would help alot :S Btw happy birthday thrall
mysecka Posted May 5, 2008 Report Posted May 5, 2008 i love this game! its best website game i ever played, and i played many of them... i don't have no ideas but, please do everything that will keep game running, eaven it means to put on adds (the worst thing in the world)... i have fingers crossed, and hopefuly you will deal with it.
fiju Posted May 5, 2008 Report Posted May 5, 2008 im thinking that we could also trhow one day for searching a hosters all around the world and copy/paste their offers in excel or something and then chose anotherone .... one month... and then anotherone... and su on ... and maybe we even find a one that dont mind 80% of CPU or something
jaff Posted May 5, 2008 Report Posted May 5, 2008 un lucru e clar: 1eur nu e un capat de tara.. eu sigur mas abona
Shoeps Posted May 5, 2008 Report Posted May 5, 2008 Hi, Let us all get our wallet and pay him what you can mis at paypal. I will donate to. Who's next???
envy Posted May 5, 2008 Report Posted May 5, 2008 Can you use GoDaddy.com (they are huge in the US). I just got a dedicated (for work) and it was $350 US a month. I agree with the flow of new players. I joined a few weeks ago and I thought the site and lag was crap and I was looking to quit playing but the game is so much fun that I stayed on and I love it. Other new players may not READ the UPDATES to even know this is still in the ALPHA stages. I didn't know until a nice older player helped me with my questions.
Root Posted May 5, 2008 Report Posted May 5, 2008 I would gladly donate to help paying the server, but I don't have a paypal account, that's my problem
Morrel Posted May 5, 2008 Report Posted May 5, 2008 some thoughts...... - some more different values to buy credits.. example : 5 USD Credit pack, price 5$ + 1 free credit 10 USD Credit pack, price 5$ + 2 free credit ... now 20 USD is the minimum to get some 'extra' credits .... lowering this may encourage more people buying them - Maybe you could add some ads in the free credits page ... that way the game won't be ugly, and everybody would click them..... - another area in the MD schop, 'magic rituals', all items would be perminant on sale, but with a '1 a day' limit - 0.25 credits or so for small rituals like : - heal all creatures ...or heal all creatures for 50% - fill al heat slots - refill action points - Double regenaration for 2 hours - 12 hours idle instead of 6 - Double xp for 3 fights... - I know you don't want players to have to download a grafick pakkage, but you might make one for those who want to use it. well, thats all for now, I really hope this game stays, becouse I like it a lot. Cya, Morrel
freakidz Posted May 5, 2008 Report Posted May 5, 2008 I don't think adding ads on the free credits page would be detrimental to the game. also, donating. I just did.
Root Admin Muratus del Mur Posted May 5, 2008 Author Root Admin Report Posted May 5, 2008 well i found a server! ... its about 550$/mo but its the server i need, also speed seems faster than with the current one , so combined with the much higher speed of the server i think it will be much better overall. Now the money... i am setting up a new payment plan, please check it out, this will satisfy your needs for bonues http://magicduel.com/pages/info.serversupport.php If you plan to buy credits more often please use this page, it will offer you much better discounts and also it makes us know exaclty on what money we can count on for the server. At this moment the page is under work, the subscription links work , however the system is not fully automated, so i will activate your credits manualy within a few hours after you subscribe. Also subscribers get a medal for supporting, the medal is not available for regular credtis purchase. More changes will be made to that page in the next hours but all players subscribing there will be afected be them, so there is no need to "wait for me to finish it" I can only hope for the best. Anyway, i dont forsee that there will be enough funds to do this within 48 hours so espect the game to be down for at least one day
Grido Posted May 5, 2008 Report Posted May 5, 2008 when my wage comes through, finally, i'll sign up to the regular sub thing, wont be a huge amount as am a student but hopefully it'll help. Will there be a feature to stop it? if for instance (not that this is gonna happen to me anytime soon) you run out of things to buy and so just end up with stacks of shop credits and nothing to do with them.
Root Admin Muratus del Mur Posted May 5, 2008 Author Root Admin Report Posted May 5, 2008 yes you can cancel subscriptions anytime, its a feature from paypal actualy its not depending on me so you are not bound in any way. Just if you do so please let me know before so i wont consider you are trying to cheat the subscription system. Any amount is helpful, i appreaciate it.
rumcajs Posted May 5, 2008 Report Posted May 5, 2008 Here is an idea: Voluntary adds. Have a panel with adds (Google or whatever) on the main page that can be closed (opt-out) if the gamer doesn't want to see them. That's my two vp. Thanks rumcajs
Metal Bunny Posted May 5, 2008 Report Posted May 5, 2008 That would make the ads worth almost nothing, and some companies also want to be seen the entire time.
rumcajs Posted May 5, 2008 Report Posted May 5, 2008 Google has "per click" options, so they don't care if they are shown for everyone. MagicDuel would get paid $0.05 every time someone clicks on the link. The more people see it, the more chances someone clicks the add. But if you don't want to see the adds because it takes away from the game, you close the panel. It's not a lot per click, but it can add up. Just throwing a compromise option for the add solution.
Metal Bunny Posted May 6, 2008 Report Posted May 6, 2008 Yea I know about the per click option, but if we implemented that, I'd so spam it 20 times a day, lol.
cabbage Posted May 6, 2008 Report Posted May 6, 2008 sigh... i'd help out with the money issue too if i had paypal >.>
gaconkzk Posted May 6, 2008 Report Posted May 6, 2008 I'll help with subscriptions. I've think this is the best way we could do it now. Basically I don't like payment games. But this game is exceptional.
Root Admin Muratus del Mur Posted May 6, 2008 Author Root Admin Report Posted May 6, 2008 we have ads ont he credit page people are not botheering to actual vote (one reasen why i will remove that page soon) ...so NO NO NO ads , i want it to be a clean game, to look like premium version for all players, ads just make it ugly . Think that i almost have no space in the interface to put all things that are now, and i want to add more and mroe features, so ads realy have no place here. Maybe some well integrated ads for sponsors if ti will be the case , but now , its no way i will put ads on the game. you should be happy for that.
Braiton Posted May 6, 2008 Report Posted May 6, 2008 I need to get some cash Quickly lol xD Im not getting paid because my work project (We are developing a game) is on hold so im basically having free time in my hands and no money Im really thinking i should take neighbour dog's for a walk or just wash cars for extra cash. Good ideas
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