I have some questions, and maybe the need of some feedback.
First of all; thanks to those of you who have donated! It has helped in covering the server costs - but it has also helped a lot in encouraging me. I am really grateful for that!
But my ambitions are larger than just this single server. In the end I would love to see lots of different realms with different themes. I want to implement lots of the features you’ve asked for. And to advertise this game so that our community can grow (albeit not too quickly! A steady growth is best ).
And to be able to finance this, I have plans of a supporter system, where you will be able to unlock some additional perks, such as:
Access to the supporter tag (Woohoo )
Increased character cap from 5 to 40
Increased character/room profile cap
Access to create bots
Multiple images per character profile (not implemented yet)
Custom client addons (not implemented yet)
… and more that I also haven’t implemented yet
My intention is to allow one time support, or to choose a monthly subscription. My thoughts so far are like this:
One time payment will make you a supporter for 30 days
A subscription will be a monthly recurring payment
Subscription can be cancelled at any time
When a subscription is cancelled, you remain supporter for the remaining duration
Subscriptions are automatically paused if you haven’t used the service for an entire month (I really don’t like the business practice of hoping people “forget their subscriptions”!)
When the supporter duration ends, perks are put on hold. Additional characters/profiles/images will not be active/available.
I’ve started to tinker with an integration with Stripe, to see how hard it is to accept supporter payments (Answer is: not too hard). But I ended up with some questions:
Monthly or 30 day subscriptions
How does other games like WoW do it? Is their monthly subscriptions:
on the same day every month, or
recurring every 30 day independent on what month you are in, starting when you first paid?
If (1), how do they do with the first payment if it is in the middle of the month? Do they just charge half the price for the first “half month”?
And what would you think would be best for Wolfery/Mucklet?
So.
What do you think? Any opinions? Any suggestions? Do you think this sounds fair, or is there something you would wish to see made differently?
Also, I haven’t mentioned any price, but I am considering something like €5, €10, or €15. (€1 ≈ $1)
Phew. This is really not my thing.
But thanks for your input!
I find it the most reasonable to have the monthly invoices the business style (a calendar month subscription that lasts until the same day the next month) rather than a patreon subscription (calendar month-to-month). I really hate that patreon subs aren’t pro-rated to the starting date and I occasionally have to go and juggle them to get the best value.
Whatever you do, just don’t make it the way Adobe did, though.
I really like the idea, maybe if you pay each month in the same day you signed up (excluding February the 29th where it would take the payment on march the 1st)
In terms of the price, maybe having each 5 payed monthly will gain you access to a selected perk?
And in terms of custom client add-ons, whatcha thinking? ^w^
Will the pay system be built into wolfery or on an off site system?
oouh? Custom client addons? It makes me feel so excited and more excited to want to support but at least I hope there will be a free custom color theme addon. I would like to have another color background than some dark blue QuQ
Finally! You might actually take the money I’ve been trying to give you since I joined.
As the others above, usually just a charge that rolls over every month on the same day. For subs that started on the 31st, or for a renewal in the month that doesn’t have as many days (I’m looking at you February), just bill on the last day of that month. If that’s too complicated, the next best thing is “Every 30 days”. Yes the renewal changes dates, but not much.
The other thing I’ve seen is the option to pay up for the year. If you normally do say $5/mo=$60, then paying for a year gets you $4/mo=$48.
I would also highly recommend taking Paypal as well. I try not to give my credit card out if I can avoid it, but I can pay a paypal thing once a year easily enough. And that’ll make it a lot easier for some international folks and the like.
Anyway, let me know when I can start giving you money.
Stripe supports a lot of different payment methods, where Card is just one.
However, they do not support PayPal payments, as PayPal in itself is another payment processor - a competitor to Stripe.
To get PayPal support, one needs to make a PayPal integration instead.
But with Stripe (and I assume the same for PayPal), Card info is stored and handled by them, and never even seen by Mucklet at all. Card info is directly sent from your web browser to Stripe. But I still understand the concern!
Well. Depending on how you see it.
Account handling and subscription will be somewhere under https://mucklet.com. But Mucklet is just the umbrella site where we later on will list all available realms, where Wolfery is one. And supporter perks is for all future realms, not just for Wolfery.
And while it will look like payment is handled by Mucklet :
This is just an example of what it might look like. Price and layout is not decided yet! I am just toying with Stripe integration and styling to make it look integrated.
it will really be handled by a third party; Stripe. Stripe is one of the big international players that handles payments for companies like Amazon, Apple, Walmart, GitHub patreon, etc.
So Stripe will handled all card info, payments, etc.
All I will be storing is an id to the Stripe customer, and info that may be relevant for you to see on the account page. But card info is something I don’t want to touch!
Yes! Well. Since the client is module based, with the idea that you should be able to “hook in” new functionality on the fly, I’ve sort of prepared to make it possible in the future.
So, Custom Client Add-ons would be able to do things like add custom commands. Maybe add a Pay character button to a character you are looking at, that would open up a dialog window where you can pay the amount… which then will be transferred using our Banker Badger in the background?
And custom color themes would be possible as well.
The custom add-ons would be stored server side, and downloaded and activated on your client when you log in/open the Wolfery client.
That is at least the gist of it.
Though, it will take a while before I get to that feature, I think. I first want multiple realms and scripting support.
I am looking forwards to the new realms and scripting. (I gathered you were going to add in this support due to your naming schemes ^w^, you have really thought everything through for a long time now… wow ^w^)
Indeed! I am international compared to you, but I was thinking of the broader audience anyway
Card processors are funny things. Just make sure to check out their T&C’s so you know what you’re getting into. Some are more flexible than others. I just know that generally speaking, Paypal dominated the online market for a while, and still does. Boosty seems to be a thing for some folks that either have banking problems, or have ‘content’ problems. So, expect whatever you pick to be convenient for some but not for others
I just personally like not having to type my credit card info into another box. Paypal gives me a bit of isolation from that, and I appreciate it. It also means I don’t need to go and remember where my card is used so I can change it when it expires or inevitably gets eaten by the dark web.
Yep! They seem very arbitrary. Since your sale is likely for “access to a gaming platform” of some variety, you can stay well clear of those rules. “Not responsible for content created by users of platform…” Just don’t make any enemies, as they can try to use server content that you may be hosting for them as a way to get your agreement canceled. Internet people are generally why no one can have nice things.
True true!
And I am trying to build it so that it will be rather easy to jump to another payment processor, or even have multiple ones at the same time. But… eh… I still think I’ll start with Stripe.
Why?
They have made it soooo nice for developers! It is actually really a pleasure to integrate with then!
Stripe is also the payment processor for Artconomy’s Shield system, who have gone through a lot of back and forth to make sure all of the furry smut being commissioned on their platform is above board.
I would really love to contribute, but my currency is horse****. Could I request a custom amount that goes off monthly and if it is less than the 10Euro there won’t be a supporter tag?
Sorry to hear! But I am afraid I can’t bug-patch that issue .
Yes, I know that €10/month is quite a lot for many. Especially considering the low amount of current perks that you get. But most current supports are not doing it for the perks, but rather to help out. And your comment shows exactly that; you don’t care about supporter tags - you want to help!
And I am so grateful for that, as it means my costs of running this will eventually be spread out amongst many people supporting it.
But, if you just want to donate, without gaining perks, there still is the PayPal donation link that I posted here:
I want to do anything in my power in order to be able to support YOU and this wonderful world I have watched grow since its little socket connection :3 Hehe.
To add to this discussion, it would be nice to gift other players supporter for a month, or even ongoing. If one were to want to contribute more to the community.
).
)
.