Originally Posted by
343
Sadly, from what I hear (I would not know from personal experience since I only played on 'official' servers myself) - "private servers" are just as bad (if not worse). They almost all seek to get "donations" and players who DO "donate" get something out of it. This is just as bad if not worse than the "official" servers. Sure, you too can have the GM cape, for only a one time donation of $10,000 or more !!! See what I'm saying?
So, with P servers being just as bad, if not worse, this still leaves the game in an undesirable state. If I ever did run a server I either a] would not even accept donations/money/payment of any kind and for any reason. Although I do know running a server DOES cost a pretty penny (between a machine/bandwidth/upgrades/maintenance/repair) - or - b] I'd accept donations, BUT the "player" who "donated" would be doing so 100% on the premise that they're doing so to support the fact that the server exists and operated. They would receive NOTHING ("in game") in return for their support other than knowing they could play on a server that NOBODY could "buy their way" through the game (including themselves) !!!!!!!!!!
And I do have to question if a server like that would really be "successful" anyway, since there are very apparently so many people who like to just "buy" their way through a game (instead of actually PLAYING it) =\