Server for Network Games

October 17, 2010, 12:41:15 pm

[I hope the topic fits here. It not: Admin, please move it. BTW: What
about "network games" board?]

As some friends from the German community have started some tests
with network games recently, I tried to pursuade potential sponsors
to donate a server for this purpose. Today I received an
interesting answer from a an experienced admin, working for an
online game hoster. He does not want to see his name here.

Quote from: german

As long as there is no entity able to send tax deductable receipt
[translaters note: a specific German problem] (and I don't expect
a "normal" online game reach this status) it won't be possible
to get donated services by the usual suspects (as in Hetzner
Strato, UI [translators note: German hosting companies]).

It should be possible to host some thousands, as a minimum some
hundred player on a piece of standard hardware - which means
to finance some 50 to 100 EUR a month. A paypal account and a
request for donations should work if people like that service.

At our company less than 10% of the players are paying small
amounts a month - but ****uming 100 out of 5000 player are donating
1 EUR a month the break even would be reached. Having a look on
the website I think nobody wants to include paymant features on
it. But it will be difficult to find a sponsor for a service wich
is a profitable business modell for him.

In my eyes, his arguments are valid. Nevertheless I will go ahead
checking the options.

BTW: A coworker of mine, admin and Simutrans player, saw a
server at a reasonable hoster by 30 EUR a month. Yes, extensible.

Re: Server for Network Games

Reply #1 – October 23, 2010, 03:57:22 pm

I'm interested in this, as I'd like to be able to provide a server for Simutrans-Experimental games some day. €30/month seems reasonable to me.