2022-01-13 FYI

[Wincil]

Aside from the war and conquest topic, I think it would be a lot more important to discuss the questions that Haxus asked us. How should empire creation work and what business model would work.

I assume Haxus still wants to have a small monthly subscription fee. Since he mentioned that it kept some of the more troublesome players away and lowered the chance of a player creating many accounts for malicious intent.

With the idea of buying the right to create an empire for something like $10, the monthly subscription fee could probably be lowered to $2-5 or something.
Or maybe an account could be a one-time purchase too, and then you buy the right to create an empire after that. Taking donations while having the game/account/empire be a one-time purchase does however seem like a good idea.

The point is, Haxus hasn't liked the idea of taking donations alongside selling the game in the past. I am not sure if there are legal reasons for this or if it is just personal principal.
The Patreon did do pretty good last time, even if the reward tiers were a little mismanaged. I am sure that a new Patreon could work fine if just left as optional and to the side. It doesn't even have to have any other rewards than "name in credits" for starters. The first milestone could be "if we reach $1000/month (or whatever) we won't need a monthly subscription fee for the game".

I would agree with what you said there