The base game in Anarchy Online has been free for years, but up until recently there was no way to pay Funcom for the game except with a $15 subscription. A $5 option is now available as well, but as with the full subscription option this means never being able to play free again except by creating a second account.

Shadowbane was supposed to be funded with advertising. After losing its one advertiser, the game continued to be free for about two years, even with large segments of the community requesting it go pay again. This month it went belly up. Even the website and forums have been taken down.

Ryzom reopened a year ago. Not until this May did the billing system come back up. Again, players overwhelmingly sympathetic and even grateful to its new owners begged in the meantime for some way to support the game they loved, and were brushed off.

Unauthorized private servers often operate at a profit. They do it with a simple PayPal button on their front page. The model works for MMOs because paying customers would rather play alongside freeloaders than play alone. Why have so few legitimate operations learned from the example?

I don't even know what to say to someone who thinks a entertainment corporation deserves your charity. You are aware that there are actually starving people all over the world at this very moment begging for the mercy of a simple meal, right? Thousands of people will die tonight because they don't have food to eat, and you're begging to pay charity to a FTP MMO? I beg you to re-evaluate your priorities.

Originally posted by windstrike1

I don't even know what to say to someone who thinks a entertainment corporation deserves your charity. You are aware that there are actually starving people all over the world at this very moment begging for the mercy of a simple meal, right? Thousands of people will die tonight because they don't have food to eat, and you're begging to pay charity to a FTP MMO? I beg you to re-evaluate your priorities.

In this day and age there is no reason for anyone to go hungry..But hey i guess its more important to fund military like bombs and nukes and chemical warfare to kill off millions.Tell the country to go and eat that..For another word put the weapon (Funding) in to plow share (Farming)..Then everyone eats...

Mod Edit addition

As for donation to a gaming company to save a game..Why would you?The (game company) will milk everything they can then let the game go..Then you probably see some other company pick it up to do the same thing..We seen this all ready happen to allot of free games..

usually free MMO will have a cash shop for players to purchase items...! i guess you can purchase an item in the cash shop and treat the transaction as a donation

on the other hand, windstrike1 has a very good point... maybe donate your money to a homeless shelter charity organization.. they probably need the money more than free mmo

Originally posted by windstrike1

I don't even know what to say to someone who thinks a entertainment corporation deserves your charity. You are aware that there are actually starving people all over the world at this very moment begging for the mercy of a simple meal, right? Thousands of people will die tonight because they don't have food to eat, and you're begging to pay charity to a FTP MMO? I beg you to re-evaluate your priorities.

I beg you to not be so self rightous.

Charity is a corporation in it self. BIG money is involved in so called "charities".

Further more, why should he be "guilted" into charity? He's talking about assisting entertainment.

He isn't discussing "How can I help try save a world".

Thousands will die tonight, More so tomorrow, and even more later on. 

Charity will not save over population. You cannot believe that throwing food and money at a situation will fix it.

Teach one man to fish to feed his family? With his 6 children, those 6 children multiply down the line, so on and so forth.

Now that one man who has fed his 6 children has created 36 more people, those 36 have displaced and added to the problem.

Now lets teach those 36 people how to fish and feed their 6 children.

Now 216 people are fishing. 

Lets teach those 216 people how fish.

Now we have 1296 people fishing. 

Throw money at that.

Look I know natural selection should of WTFPWNT my ass long ago. I've been in some bad breaks in my life. But I AM PART OF THE PROBLEM. I by all means should of died countless times. 

I have empathy for people who are in deep trouble but I'm not about to simply say "oh hey, even though I follow in that category.. I'm not part of the problem". 

Too many people think that by helping EVERYONE you are doing good. Tell that to the fact we have a over-population issue at hand. It may not seem so in the USA (even though it's starting to) but look at India, look at China, look at Russia. 

We must think about every single consequence at hand when we choose to help people. Too long have "bleeding hearts" not seen the bigger picture. If you effect the natural flow of things , the flow will bite back. Right now you can't even take a deep breath of air without getting a cigarettes worth of carginogens.

NO MATTER WHERE YOU ARE.

Too many people. Thousands must die tonight so hundreds can be born tomorrow.*

*figures may vary.

Originally posted by hoopty

 

In this day and age there is no reason for anyone to go hungry..But hey i guess its more important to fund military like bombs and nukes and chemical warfare to kill off millions.Tell the country to go and eat that..For another word put the weapon (Funding) in to plow share (Farming)..Then everyone eats...

 

In this day and age...if we try to feed everybody...many more will go hungry. There is not enouph decent farmland left in the world to feed the world. Every year, cities take away more farmland for more buildings. We work harder at feeding more, then cities will need more and more land, giving less and less farmland...see how that works?

Originally posted by talismen351

Originally posted by hoopty

 

In this day and age there is no reason for anyone to go hungry..But hey i guess its more important to fund military like bombs and nukes and chemical warfare to kill off millions.Tell the country to go and eat that..For another word put the weapon (Funding) in to plow share (Farming)..Then everyone eats...

 

 

In this day and age...if we try to feed everybody...many more will go hungry. There is not enouph decent farmland left in the world to feed the world. Every year, cities take away more farmland for more buildings. We work harder at feeding more, then cities will need more and more land, giving less and less farmland...see how that works?

 

You're right but tbh all this extra money governments 'have' to spend on military and other projects to make people live in luxury, the unfortunate suffer. I bet there are loads of scientists with ideas to help world hunger but aren't getting funded for sh*t.

Originally posted by windstrike1

I don't even know what to say to someone who thinks a entertainment corporation deserves your charity. You are aware that there are actually starving people all over the world at this very moment begging for the mercy of a simple meal, right? Thousands of people will die tonight because they don't have food to eat, and you're begging to pay charity to a FTP MMO? I beg you to re-evaluate your priorities.

I presume you donate every last cent that you don't spend on food, clothing, and shelter to charity, then.

Please try to avoid getting your bleeding heart all over the boards.

Originally posted by windstrike1

I don't even know what to say to someone who thinks a entertainment corporation deserves your charity. You are aware that there are actually starving people all over the world at this very moment begging for the mercy of a simple meal, right? Thousands of people will die tonight because they don't have food to eat, and you're begging to pay charity to a FTP MMO? I beg you to re-evaluate your priorities.

I'm not sure where to start right now. If you are so concerned about the masses dying without food, then why are you on a MMORPG forum debating this problem that you are not even attempting to fix?

To the OP: I'm not sure why the companies don't have that option. That is bizarre; especially considering the circumstances like Shadowbane or Ryzom's financial situation.

edit: added a word for clarity

I'm not an expert, but it may have something to do with the way their business is set up.

In a private server situation I doubt any money or profit made is reported in a earnings statement given to the IRS for tax purposes. It could be as simple as being a hassle for a organization to set something up like that without actually being non profit. Something a small private server can pull off because its earnings fly under the radar most of the time.

Again this is just speculation on my part.