Selling Ownership of my Ragnarok Online Private Server. [Serious Inquiries Only!]

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Dear reader,

I write you with pain in my heart. Fate has it that the Ragnarok Online server that I, and my friend and co-admin, have poured our hearts and souls into, unfortunately must proceed under different leadership.

Long story in short, I myself have landed a job at the government in a position that will not tolerate/allow me to proceed having earnings unapproved by the national authorities, and my friend wants to focus on software products/marketing models beyond Ragnarok Online. We both love the server dearly, but I cannot sacrifice my career for the sake of the server, and my friend can not run it by himself. It's too much of a burden.

So, we're looking for someone, or preferably a competent team of (2-3) developers (with excellent management experience!), to take over from us.

I'll get down to the nitty gritty details right away....


General Info

We launched early this year. The server is Pre-RE. The source dates back to January 2018. We have not done a git pull after that due to the many source mods we have. We are a mid-rate.

The server is moderately customized with extraordinary source edits and exclusively maps/territories, designed by ourselves specifically for the server. You will not be able to find some of our content anywhere else.


Population & State

Admittedly, we don't have too many players, but we're successful and completely functional. We've reached a peak of 120 and are now consistently at 45~55 during weekdays and 60~70 during weekends. The reason why we have lost a part of our community is simply because a few guilds have quit, which in turn has resulted in the lack of interest of some of the competitive remaining guild(s). What's left are casual players/PvM'ers, and a few (smaller) guilds. Our Discord however has about 350 members and is reasonably active.

We also have a wiki database fully maintained by a few Wiki Contributors, whom get paid with in-game currency for their hard work. Win-win.


Donations, Bills & Investments

The server runs well. It has never received below $740 a month in donations. During it's prime time (3-4 months ago), it has made $6000+ in one month. More than enough to cover the necessary hosting bills and use some of the excess in the server's benefit. We have invested in practically everything a server can invest into. I lost track of the total sum, but I dare say it's around $3000~4000 in total. Tons of sprites from Haziel*, Functor's* Gepard Shield 3.0, colored names + aura mods & LGP, AndRO, Stormbreaker, etc. We consistently run paid Facebook/RMS advertisement campaigns and have graphics and/or stream sessions commissioned.

We only pay $146 a month in terms of fixed bills. That includes our main host (OVH Dedicated Game Machine), a mediocre test server environment (PonyVPS), 4 proxy tunnels (OVH) and our web host provider (FastComet). We additionally spend a lot as stated above, but this is all voluntarily and not a necessity. Essentially for $146 a month you can keep the server up and running. I guarantee you, that can easily be covered with the incoming donations.

What you do with the remaining excess is up to you. However, I expect I need not teach you how to deal with money. But I want to be 100% convinced that you will use it wisely and not be surprised by unexpected disputes that endanger the server's health. Always be prepared for charge-backs, always!

* I'll need to speak with Functor and Haziel - known developers in the community - in order to see if they approve of me transferring ownership with their content as part of the deal. If they are opposed to the idea, you'll be informed accordingly and sent the package without their add-ons, for a cheaper price than I had originally in mind.


Trial, Transition & Benefits

So, you find yourself a potential candidate for the position? That's great and all, but you'll need to prove yourself first. We're not just going to give you a project that we've poured blood, sweat and tears into, just to see it abandoned/ruined one week later. We still care. Plus, our players - and ourselves as well - deserve better than that.

So there's going to be a one month trial period. In this month, you'll get access to the test server's FTP and be granted admin rights in-game, the forums and Discord; we'll proceed to pay all the bills and receive the donations. You'll run the show, while we quietly watch from the back, monitoring how you're doing. During this phase, you'll be granted a budget (of $100~200) that you may use to out-source/invest in that month. This also gives us an indication where your priorities lie and how well you cope with money.

We will be there to see you through the first one or two maintenance (push the test server's git changes to the main server and upload patch files). You may ask for questions or council but we will not provide assistance with development projects/tasks or anything of the sort.

If we deem you unfit during the trial, we tell you nicely first and even advice you how to do differently, if you're stubborn and go against our recommendations, don't be surprised to find yourself booted out. We want the best for the server. It's really simple as that.

Once the month has passed and you've shown your overall competency, we'll grant you access to the web server and main server. That's when you become the real owner. Payment/PayPal accounts will be transferred and you'll take full financial responsibility. You may change passwords and lock us out everywhere, then.

Note: The first month under your ownership (after the trial), we will cover - once again - all the bills that need to be paid. From the second month on-ward, it's on you. Effectively, the first two months you practically have nothing to lose.


Terms & Conditions

Other than what's specified above, we have a few more terms...

⦁ Successor must be at least 23 years of age.

⦁ Successor must have an excellent English writing and reading comprehension.

⦁ Successor must have a degree in Information Technology or Management & Business Administration, or have at least six months of experience running a successful RO/private server. (Note: Having ran multiple different private servers, totaling six months, does not count).

⦁ Successor must be financially secure, have no debts, and not rely on the server's donations as main source of income.

⦁ Successor agrees not to make any drastic changes the moment he takes over the reigns. I.e changing the level cap, rates, conducts wipes, etc.

⦁ Successor will not, under absolutely no circumstance, dispose of currently established staff without an acceptable reason (i.e evidence of clear-cut corruption).

⦁ Successor must be willing to turn to the ex administrators (my friend and I) when shit hits the fan and you get pushed to the edge to take down the server. We will seek for a resolution together in order to prevent that from happening, even if that means finding yet another administration team.

⦁ Successor must be willing to give my co-admin and I a lasting remembrance as the *RO founders. A special forum role as 'Founders' or 'Ex-Administrators' will do. No special rights are expected to be granted.


Price

Provided we get permission from the other developers to sell the server in it's current state (all paid mods, sprites, AndRO, Gepard Shield, etc), the total sum we ask for is $3000 but we're low-key willing to negotiate for a promising team. I dare make no claims, but as things have been for the past 6 months, you should be able to 'earn' that back in just 2~4 months. Maybe even less.

Please send me a PM and explain why I should choose you and your partner/team. After you've been selected, we'll have a chat.

Serious inquiries only. This is no scam. I guarantee you that. I'm a known member of the rAthena community and will verify my identity. If this is a scam, you could quite literally ruin my reputation after-ward.

[DarkOPM]

#moved