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Greetings Genesisians,
It's a glorious day! Today, we officially launch something that could
very well be the most important launch in the history of the game. Or,
that is my hope anyway. I could be a spectacular failure too, but let's
hope it's option one.
The world of Genesis has always been created and maintained by countless
volunteers. It has never, and will never, cost anything to play. However,
Genesis would never have survived since 1989(!) without real-money
donations from its players. We have run two "manual" donation campaigns
in the past, but for the first time in our history we now have a way
for players and wizards to continuously contribute. So, if you're enjoying
the game and want to help ensure Genesis will continue to exist and
flourish we invite you to become a Genesis Patreon.
To become a Genesis Patreon, simply visit our Patreon.com page and hit
one of the 'join' buttons to support us with a monthly donation.
https://www.patreon.com/genesismud
If you are unfamiliar with Patreon.com, it's a very trusted and safe
website that allows fans to support their favorite creators by making
donations. What makes it different from other crowdfunding sites like
Kickstarter and Indiegogo is that on Patreon you do not make one big
donation for a specific project or product, instead you sign up to support
your favorite creator on a monthly basis. In short, it works like a
subscription.
You can choose to make a monthly donation of USD 1, 3, 5, 10, 25, or 50.
(Or the equivalent in your local currency).
But what if you don't want to sign up for a subscription, and would prefer
to make a one-time donation? That's perfectly fine too. All you need to do
is pick an amount, subscribe, and then immediately cancel your subscription.
WHAT WILL THE MONEY BE USED FOR?
Since Genesis is run by volunteers who all used to be (or still are)
players of the game, no money will ever be used to pay wizards (developers)
for their work. We all create and maintain Genesis because we love this
world - not because we want a paycheck.
The money we receive from our Patreons will exclusively be used for
promotion, and mainly for paid ads. We're one of the oldest, or perhaps even
THE oldest, MMORPG in existance, and with your help a new generation of
players will get to see, experience, and fall in love with Genesis. Just
like we did.
If you want to know how things are going when it comes to our fundraising
and our paid ads, please check out the "Promotion" section on our forums:
https://www.genesismud.org/forums/viewforum.php?f=5
THE TOROID APPRECIATION CLUB
While donating to Genesis will never give you any benefits in the game,
you will, just like in previous campaigns, receive a small token of
appreciation from us wizards. This time, you will be invited to join a
club called the Toroid Appreciation Club. The club can be found in the new
donations office in Sparkle, and the purpose of this club is simply to
celebrate this one-of-a-kind donut we all call our home.
As a member of the Toroid Appreciation Club you will get a club item (a
medal), a few emotes, and for some members also a title in your character
description. Which metal your medal is made of, how many emotes you get
access to, and whether you get a title or not depends on your Patreon
membership level. More information about the club can be found in the
treasurer's office in the donations building.
Speaking of toroid-shaped things, a slightly plump(!) kender has setup a
very special donut shop inside the new donations office. So, even if you
don't plan to donate, stop by and treat yourself to some very unique
donuts - or have a refreshing glass of donut juice.
WELL DONE WIZARDS
This project, which may look small, has been quite the effort by a lot
of people. Getting patreon.com to communicate with Genesis proved to
be quite the project, and we've had to figure it out ourselves since,
"how to get patreon.com to communicate with a MUD" isn't exactly something
you can find much info about on Google. This is likely the only connection
like this that exists in the world(!) Another special thing about this
project is that during my time in Genesis I have never been involved in,
or heard about, a project with so many wizards working together. Here is
the list of everyone who helped out with this:
Cherek Project lead, Patreon page fine-tuning, creating the new
donations office, design of the Toroid Club (and a little
coding).
Nerull Most of the advanced coding for the Toroid Club.
Greneth Initial Patreon page setup and creating/running Facebook ads.
Tapakah In charge of the Patreon to Genesis connection and improving
our capabilities of tracking our promotion results.
Cotillion Assisting with the Patreon to Genesis connection.
Ckrik Making sure the data we get from Patreon is securely stored
and accessible to as few people as possible, assisting
with the Patreon to Genesis connection, assisting with the
Toroid Club code.
Varian Assisting with some of the club emotes.
In addition, some of the emotes in the Toroid Club originated from player
suggestions. All in all, SEVEN wizards and FOUR players wrote code or
created content for this project, and a few more players and wizards also
helped test the club and the Patreon connection. Well done everyone!
NOTE: If you find any issues with the Patreon page or any bugs/typos related
to the club or donations office, please send a mail to me (Cherek). Like I
said, the connection between Patreon.com and Genesis has been quite tricky
to sort out, and while we have tested it as best we can, we're running out
of credit cards to test with - so, there may still be some small issues
left to work out. If you find any, let me know.
Finally, please remember that donating is completely voluntarily and you
should never feel that you have to donate anything. Just being here and
enjoying the game is more than enough. But if you do have some extra money
to spare and want to support us, the money will be put to good use, and
every donation helps, no matter how big or small it is.
100 players online before x-mas? Why not. Let's make it happen!
Cherek Whiteguard, the Proud Keeper of Genesis