Post 1: The Idea
Post 2: Suggestions
Post 3:Bonus: Possibly Daily Activity
I’ve been thinking about the FRE drama, the ad-block stuff, and general site money issues. There is also a lot of “buying gems is not a donation” and all that. Yes, when we give money to the site, we are doing so to get gems, but I also like to think that deep down we feel good knowing that our money, no matter how small, helps keep the site going and gets the staff paid.
What if, instead of pushing people to turn off their ad-blocks and spend money to get gem market stuff, we found a way to make people feel like they truly were helping the site with their donation? This has nothing to do with suggesting a new gem item or the gem market place.
The staff doesn’t talk money with us (i.e. how much it costs to run the site, how much coders cost, etc.), which I think a lot of us appreciate. It keeps the illusion of a fantasy dragon world to escape to and we don’t feel stressed about their money issues. I think, without giving us real dollar amounts, there is a way the staff could be a little more transparent with us about how much money they need to keep things going or to get the desired site upgrades each month.
Meet Mallory. Mallory is a good enough guy, but he’s severely underestimated by his dragon peers, and not just because he’s unfortunately colored with basic gold and mulberry, or even the fact that he has party eyes (one blue, one brown). Mallory isn’t very bright and almost always finds himself in troubling situations (almost always caused by him). While he may not have many dragon friends, he has his trusty familiar, a black dwarf unicorn, named Svaldi. Svaldi has lost all of her magic and is underappreciated by human and dragon-kind alike. It’s a tough world, but fortunately these two have each other.
Mallory works for an unknown employer who always sends him out on deliveries across the various Flight-lands that other dragons cowardly (and perhaps wisely) refuse to do. What’s he delivering? Top secret scrolls (and other magical wares).
Mallory doesn’t have a set schedule – it all depends on when his employer asks him to make a delivery, when shipments come into his employer’s HQ, and how long it takes Mallory to actually make the trip. Mallory’s journeys seem to happen once a month, but sometimes we go weeks without hearing about him or Svaldi. His pop-ups seem to be random, but all eagerly await his arrival and the prizes he brings. The journey isn’t always easy though.
Below is a sample of how it could have played out last month. Let’s pretend the top secret gene Mallory had turned out to be crackle.
Oct. 15 small news blurb: Mallory and Svaldi were seen leaving the Windswept Plateau two days ago, or so says a little Emerald Webwing…
Nov. 2 blurb: A few Earth Flight dragons allegedly spotted Mallory and Svaldi crossing the Shattered Plains. What could they be doing there?
Nov. 18 blurb:Mallory and Svaldi just reached the Greatwyrm's Breach and have entered the cave! Could they possibly be heading for the Pillar of the World?
Oh no! Disaster has struck!
Well, one good thing to come of this rumble was the Earthshaker awakening from his slumber. Upon seeing no one injured, he decides to leave this trifling affair up to mortals.
A quick wander over to the “Purchase Gem” page would reveal nothing out of the ordinary, until scrolling down. A message from the Earthshaker makes buyers aware of Mallory’s plight, promising a random percentage of proceeds to go to helping dragons dig out Mallory’s wares, and gives users a link to the cave block.
Here’s where the staff becomes more “transparent” with their monetary needs and how many gems they hope to have purchased for the month. The rubble pile would work similarly to those thermometer goal graphic organizers that you have problem seen before:
The staff will have the goal in mind but they won’t tell us. Flight Rising is our fun little escape from reality and it’s more fun when we don’t have people talking to us begging for money. Instead, we’ll just have to wait to check back at the disaster scene and watch the rubble decrease as more gem purchases are made.
Let’s say the staff needed $100 during the month of November and they decided to set the rubble up in 4 stages (note, this works for any amount of money and any number of stages). At $0, we would see the full cave. When they reached $25, they would secretly update the image:
At $50, they’d update it again (we’re pretending the stalactites in the cave are too pointy so dragons can’t just fly in and grab the scrolls, okay?):
And again at $75 (stalactites are pointy and the majority of the cart still seems to be buried):
And would make a news announcement about it being cleared once they hit their goal of $100. At this time, Mallory and Svadi would be on their way. A day or two later, the crackle announcement would be made and we could all feel good knowing having either purchased gems to make it possible or followed Mallory on his dangerous adventure.
If the staff have enough scroll gene art and goodies piled away, they could really make it seem like *we* caused how quickly/slowly the item was released if they can stay on top of updating the “disaster” image to follow the monetary goals they have set. The idea is that they're going to release the scroll eventually, depending on how fast we can raise money to help Mallory. The disaster stages can be as simple (my scene only had 4 stages) or as elaborate (the staff, with better art skills, could choose a random number of stages each month depending on the complexity of the image) as the staff chooses.
Questions, comments, complaints?
Post 2: Suggestions
Post 3:
Introduction
I’ve been thinking about the FRE drama, the ad-block stuff, and general site money issues. There is also a lot of “buying gems is not a donation” and all that. Yes, when we give money to the site, we are doing so to get gems, but I also like to think that deep down we feel good knowing that our money, no matter how small, helps keep the site going and gets the staff paid.
What if, instead of pushing people to turn off their ad-blocks and spend money to get gem market stuff, we found a way to make people feel like they truly were helping the site with their donation? This has nothing to do with suggesting a new gem item or the gem market place.
The staff doesn’t talk money with us (i.e. how much it costs to run the site, how much coders cost, etc.), which I think a lot of us appreciate. It keeps the illusion of a fantasy dragon world to escape to and we don’t feel stressed about their money issues. I think, without giving us real dollar amounts, there is a way the staff could be a little more transparent with us about how much money they need to keep things going or to get the desired site upgrades each month.
The Incentive Idea
(This is where it gets good – I made illustrations!!!)
Meet Mallory. Mallory is a good enough guy, but he’s severely underestimated by his dragon peers, and not just because he’s unfortunately colored with basic gold and mulberry, or even the fact that he has party eyes (one blue, one brown). Mallory isn’t very bright and almost always finds himself in troubling situations (almost always caused by him). While he may not have many dragon friends, he has his trusty familiar, a black dwarf unicorn, named Svaldi. Svaldi has lost all of her magic and is underappreciated by human and dragon-kind alike. It’s a tough world, but fortunately these two have each other.
Mallory works for an unknown employer who always sends him out on deliveries across the various Flight-lands that other dragons cowardly (and perhaps wisely) refuse to do. What’s he delivering? Top secret scrolls (and other magical wares).
Mallory doesn’t have a set schedule – it all depends on when his employer asks him to make a delivery, when shipments come into his employer’s HQ, and how long it takes Mallory to actually make the trip. Mallory’s journeys seem to happen once a month, but sometimes we go weeks without hearing about him or Svaldi. His pop-ups seem to be random, but all eagerly await his arrival and the prizes he brings. The journey isn’t always easy though.
Sample Incentive
(If this were in placed this past November)
(If this were in placed this past November)
Below is a sample of how it could have played out last month. Let’s pretend the top secret gene Mallory had turned out to be crackle.
Oct. 15 small news blurb: Mallory and Svaldi were seen leaving the Windswept Plateau two days ago, or so says a little Emerald Webwing…
Nov. 2 blurb: A few Earth Flight dragons allegedly spotted Mallory and Svaldi crossing the Shattered Plains. What could they be doing there?
Nov. 18 blurb:Mallory and Svaldi just reached the Greatwyrm's Breach and have entered the cave! Could they possibly be heading for the Pillar of the World?
Oh no! Disaster has struck!
Well, one good thing to come of this rumble was the Earthshaker awakening from his slumber. Upon seeing no one injured, he decides to leave this trifling affair up to mortals.
A quick wander over to the “Purchase Gem” page would reveal nothing out of the ordinary, until scrolling down. A message from the Earthshaker makes buyers aware of Mallory’s plight, promising a random percentage of proceeds to go to helping dragons dig out Mallory’s wares, and gives users a link to the cave block.
Behind the Scenes Staffy Stuff
Here’s where the staff becomes more “transparent” with their monetary needs and how many gems they hope to have purchased for the month. The rubble pile would work similarly to those thermometer goal graphic organizers that you have problem seen before:
The staff will have the goal in mind but they won’t tell us. Flight Rising is our fun little escape from reality and it’s more fun when we don’t have people talking to us begging for money. Instead, we’ll just have to wait to check back at the disaster scene and watch the rubble decrease as more gem purchases are made.
Sample disaster for this scenario
Let’s say the staff needed $100 during the month of November and they decided to set the rubble up in 4 stages (note, this works for any amount of money and any number of stages). At $0, we would see the full cave. When they reached $25, they would secretly update the image:
At $50, they’d update it again (we’re pretending the stalactites in the cave are too pointy so dragons can’t just fly in and grab the scrolls, okay?):
And again at $75 (stalactites are pointy and the majority of the cart still seems to be buried):
And would make a news announcement about it being cleared once they hit their goal of $100. At this time, Mallory and Svadi would be on their way. A day or two later, the crackle announcement would be made and we could all feel good knowing having either purchased gems to make it possible or followed Mallory on his dangerous adventure.
Prep Work
If the staff have enough scroll gene art and goodies piled away, they could really make it seem like *we* caused how quickly/slowly the item was released if they can stay on top of updating the “disaster” image to follow the monetary goals they have set. The idea is that they're going to release the scroll eventually, depending on how fast we can raise money to help Mallory. The disaster stages can be as simple (my scene only had 4 stages) or as elaborate (the staff, with better art skills, could choose a random number of stages each month depending on the complexity of the image) as the staff chooses.
Questions, comments, complaints?
