I'm not saying donations are bad, and I do appreciate that they are necessary for the server to keep running. However, my point stands. When you have things that seriously affect gameplay that only people who give you money can have, how is that any different than TQ? People who pay will always be stronger, except on TQ servers at least the things that actually affect the game are, for the most part, still accessible simply by playing the game. Yeah, you'll get better faster if you pay money - which is fair, in my opinion - but you're not going to get much that I can't get just by playing the game, even if it takes me 10 times as long. That's not true on so many private servers I've seen. Casuals with stats? Gear with higher bonuses & eles forced onto it? Yeah, you know what I'm talking about. Look, I am not an idiot. I realize you have to make money to keep the server online. I get it, I do. However, if I am going to work my hiney off to get somewhere on EO, I at least want to enjoy my efforts, and if I wanted to work hard and still come up lacking because I'm not going to put a car payment into a free game I'll go to TQ first where at least I can be reasonably sure it's not going to disappear into the ether one night never to be seen again. Oh wait... I already did that. I'll look at private servers again when I don't try for over a month to get help to actually play on your server only to never get it, and the drama & favoritism doesn't outweigh the fun, and when I actually have a chance of enjoying the game without having to sell a kidney. I wish yall the best of luck in the meantime. ♥
TL;DR:
Donations are necessary but shouldn't affect gameplay in such a detrimental way, and there's more wrong with the current scene than just the cashflow.
You know, on a side note, I think one of the reasons this game is so close to dying is because people aren't working together to make it better. Hold up, hear me out before you go all flame-happy. I'll draw a comparison here to the WoW private server scene. There are groups of coders working together to data mine servers and essentially rewrite stuff to be usable on the private server scene. They then release this info to the masses, so that it can be built upon and further the entire project as a whole, enriching the community and helping to ensure its continuing growth. Anyone who knows about WoW has probably heard of Trinity; they're good folks and they are truly community-driven. Comprised entirely of volunteers who love and play the game (and who also happen to be able to code), they are taking that game and making it everyone's and sharing what they learn. Every time I look into EO private servers, I keep searching for something like that but I have yet to find it. Yes, there are guides for this and that and even a few server releases, but has any group of coders gotten together to make as current a game as possible? No. I am not trying to undermine or cheapen anyone's contributions, quite the contrary. I have nothing but respect for people who take the time to try to contribute to this community. But it's a lot of dang work! No one person can do this alone. I understand this game is hard to code, and I cannot even begin to imagine the amount of work that would entail, to try to mine or create a "current" game. That's the biggest reason that it would take a considerable amount of cooperation to do. And so we're back to square one - that is, with everyone in their own little square. Until the community truly comes together, nothing is going to change.
TL;DR:
Donations are necessary but shouldn't affect gameplay in such a detrimental way, and there's more wrong with the current scene than just the cashflow.
You know, on a side note, I think one of the reasons this game is so close to dying is because people aren't working together to make it better. Hold up, hear me out before you go all flame-happy. I'll draw a comparison here to the WoW private server scene. There are groups of coders working together to data mine servers and essentially rewrite stuff to be usable on the private server scene. They then release this info to the masses, so that it can be built upon and further the entire project as a whole, enriching the community and helping to ensure its continuing growth. Anyone who knows about WoW has probably heard of Trinity; they're good folks and they are truly community-driven. Comprised entirely of volunteers who love and play the game (and who also happen to be able to code), they are taking that game and making it everyone's and sharing what they learn. Every time I look into EO private servers, I keep searching for something like that but I have yet to find it. Yes, there are guides for this and that and even a few server releases, but has any group of coders gotten together to make as current a game as possible? No. I am not trying to undermine or cheapen anyone's contributions, quite the contrary. I have nothing but respect for people who take the time to try to contribute to this community. But it's a lot of dang work! No one person can do this alone. I understand this game is hard to code, and I cannot even begin to imagine the amount of work that would entail, to try to mine or create a "current" game. That's the biggest reason that it would take a considerable amount of cooperation to do. And so we're back to square one - that is, with everyone in their own little square. Until the community truly comes together, nothing is going to change.