AP makes me sad. TLDR

[StemsAndSeeds]

If this subject was covered in another thread, i apologize.

As a player who donates to Skial i am a little offended that regular players are receiving some of the same benefits just for playing. Okay, maybe not offended.... i guess mildly annoyed would be a more accurate statement.

I get the reasoning, and i have to admit it is a really good way to get people to comeback and play on your servers on a regular basis. On the other hand though i have been donating for a while now (drugs prohibit me from remembering just how long) and my first reaction was "Well what the fuck is the point of donating anymore?". After thinking about it i decided i will continue to donate because i do enjoy the Skial servers on a daily basis. Being able to join a full server, and swap teams is still a very nice benefit. As much as i play on Skial servers i can justify donating money to the people/person who run them.

My fear is will other players who donate look at this the same way i am? I am not going to pretend i know the cost of running servers. I don't know how much money is made from donation as compared to advertising. I guess my question is if you piss off enough of your players who donate will it affect the quality and quanity of your servers? Also are there other benefits you could offer to your donating players that your are not yet offering? Is it really wise to allow AP players to dodge team scramble?

I hope Skial is around for a long time. I enjoy the community and its players (with the exception of Cinic). I just hope that you havent forgotten about your donating players. There is a reason we all donate, unfortionatly allot of people probably only donate so they can feel "better" then other players. As stupid as that is, i feel that giving AP benefits to regular player will feel like a kick in the balls to some donating players.

 

[DeadHerald]

Bea Arthur?

 

[Staying_Classy]

I kind of agree with this, but the things they get access to are some of the lesser important commands imo.
It's just reduced vote cooldown and hat effects right?

 

[KillerZebra]

I believe bottigers long term goal is to be able to run skial without donations. The purpose of AP, is to reward people who constantly play on our servers, keeping them full. Without people making our servers full most of the day, we would be barley be making any money through the in-game ads.

Some people cannot donate. To young, too poor, or whatever the reason. This AP is to reward people who help out by keeping the servers full.

 

[Boldat]

Side note, to get 500 or 1000+ AP isn't quick, not any old scrub will be able to access these benefits.

 

[Maddo]

I kind of agree with this, but the things they get access to are some of the lesser important commands imo.
It's just reduced vote cooldown and hat effects right?

No, it has been extended to protection from end of round humilation, and something else which i can't remember now (perhaps immunity from auto balance).
Thing is to get enough points for some of these options is not easy, you do need to help seed servers, or play 18hrs a day.
Loyalty to servers, in my eyes, is just as important as donating cash, and as zebra stated, some cannot donate, but then you have some players for which a few dollars a month means nothing to them, the point i'm trying to make is who gives more? in my opinion its an even balance.

 

[MilleNX]

Were the points retroactive, or have I been really playing that much lately!? -_-

 

[GhostDragon505]

I get round end immunity because I have 1000+ points. If i had the money, would i donate? Fuck yeah.
It's nice that regulars get some donor perks, yet not all of them so that there are still more benefits to them donating. I agree to what zebra said about being too poor to donate. Broke as hell, but damn it when i get at least 5 bucks i know where it's going

 

[KillerZebra]

Don't get me wrong. We do appreciate the donations. And it has been taken to account that donators still should have some abilities AP do not offer.

such as a reserved slot
immunity to afk
and i think swap.

im sure they are more that i am forgetting. Donators are not forgotten. nor will they ever be. Bottiger made sure AP points did not give all donator benefits.

Keep donating. it does help :D

 

[Bottiger]

It takes a lot of playtime or seeding to get and maintain these benefits.

This is a good thing for donators because they are populating the servers so you can have a real game of TF2 almost any time you want. No one wants to join a server with no one in it.

You will never be able to get certain benefit like reserved slots through AP.