Why even call it donating?

[coolcid]

I don't understand why they call it "donating" When it clearly isn't. Donating wouldn't allow token, if you are reciving something, you are then buying. The only exception is if they offered something with a chance, maybe a lottery. I'm pretty new and never really thought about it until I looked up a bunch of pokemon I wanted, 70% of them being only through tokens. Also, what is this with 200% exp? I don't mind how hard the game is, if I knew everyone was playing this difficulty. They should rename it from donating and just have it "Buy tokens." No hate to the site or any users, I just remember seeing a thread where the topic started got upset about donating with the recent crashes, to where one replied with "I'm not even going to explain the idea of donating."


Input is prefered, inbefore replies of me crying about exp and token buyers getting butthurt.

 

[HeavyPetter]

I agree that 'Donating' is a bit of a weird choice of words since most of the people who donate actually think of the tokes as merchandise that they're buying. It's very convenient for the staff to call it donations though, as it puts no responsibility upon them to deliver the stuff that people pay for. That is as I see it the reason for calling it 'Donations' instead of 'Buying/Selling Tokens'. It would be very, very questionable to 'Sell' a service in PWO for real money because the current state of the server and everything makes it impossible to guarantee successful delivery of the product with any degree of certainty.

 

[Bluerise]

A play of words. ~

By the way donating isn't the only way of getting tokens and they'll be a few more in the next few weeks.

 

[coolcid]

A play of words. ~

By the way donating isn't the only way of getting tokens and they'll be a few more in the next few weeks.

How long has it been like this?I really wouldn't mind the system if so many pokemon were tokens. The ability to get tokens for ingame achievments and having poken obtained by those would be beneficial. Also, providing me a way to spend 3 million pokes is not a new way for me to get tokens. It is simply a way for me to waste my time.

The only reason I assume they kall it donating is because of paypal? but idk. I like payment systems in F2p, but calling it "donating" and making me pay 15$ for a pokemon is rediculous.

 

[HitmonFonty]

If they gave you nothing for donating would you donate? Obviously not by the way you're talking. A lot of charities give you something when you donate or become a member. When I donated to become a member of a local vegetarian organisation they gave me vegan chocolates and a little card with additive info on it. There's nothing wrong with offering incentive to donate to a cause, even if it is a game. This game won't run without donations, and the money that is donated goes toward hardware and running costs- not wages or profit. To my mind that makes it even more legit than some other organisations that ask for donations. I've worked for more than one of these so I know what I'm talking about.

You can play the game quite easily without donating. I've been doing so for over three years now. So you don't have to pay $15 for a pokemon, that's your choice to do so.

 

[Merse]

There is one unbeatable reason why they must call it donating.
They are protected by the law against Nintendo only as long as this game is free. Donations are not considered as payment for any product, but as charity or appreciation of their work. If they would rename "Donate" to "Purchase Tokens", that would mean that they are trying to make commercial activity and try to gain money, by illegally using the intellectual property rights of the Pokemon Franchise. There is no country in the world where this would be legal.

 

[coolcid]

If they gave you nothing for donating would you donate? Obviously not by the way you're talking. A lot of charities give you something when you donate or become a member. When I donated to become a member of a local vegetarian organisation they gave me vegan chocolates and a little card with additive info on it. There's nothing wrong with offering incentive to donate to a cause, even if it is a game. This game won't run without donations, and the money that is donated goes toward hardware and running costs- not wages or profit. To my mind that makes it even more legit than some other organisations that ask for donations. I've worked for more than one of these so I know what I'm talking about.

You can play the game quite easily without donating. I've been doing so for over three years now. So you don't have to pay $15 for a pokemon, that's your choice to do so.

They left the world of incentive by making more than 20 pokemon token only.
Incentive would be, donate this month and get X. Not, here are some tokens come get all the good pokemon.
Really, if they simply called it buying tokens, I wouldn't even mind. Explain what you mean by "it being more legit" I really don't know what you mean by it.
I'm just saying, 200% exp, and all those pokemon avalible for ONLY TOKENS is too much. I mean really, can you tell me how many pokes are locked e.e? I do hope they get donations, I get tired of the server krashing, so whatever helps them maintain stablilty i'm fine with, it's just "donating" being thrown around so much... It's like why even call it that when everyone knows it's just for tokens... again, not a complaint. Just pondering why so many pokes are token, not even HR, and still called donating.

@Merse, thanks mate. Appreicate the reply. I thought it might have been this or a PP scamming problem. ^^

 

[HitmonFonty]

Well people donate to 'non profit' organisations and their money goes exclusively to executive wages. To me that sucks when they are also taking money from the workers' wages and are in many cases more concerned with maintaining their wages than offering good care to their clients.

Also if you play the game and compare it to the handheld versions the token pokemon are mostly- or nearly all these days- pokemon that aren't usually catchable in the regions we have playable right now. You prefer the more recent pokemon to be available but the ones that are in the token store are mostly third gen and the game hasn't progressed far enough to have those pokemon in it yet. When it has you'll be able to catch most of those in the store now I believe and the fourth gen pokes will go into the store instead. That can't happen yet, but when the volunteers working on the game get up to that stage we'll reap the benefits.

To me, it's a donation and not in word only. I don't understand how you see it differently. Just because you are being rewarded for the donation doesn't change the fact that that is what it is. It's a free game and as has been explained it has to remain so. We have to be patient and wait for the content we all want in the game to be created.

 

[GhostOfSanity]

If they gave you nothing for donating would you donate? Obviously not by the way you're talking. A lot of charities give you something when you donate or become a member.

Hammer on the head of the nail, buddy.

 

[Professor.Oak]

Like HitmonFonty already said, most the Pokemon in there are generation 3 and wouldn't even make sense for them to be in-game right now. Kanto should be basically be - Gen 1, Johto - Gen 2, and then Gen 3 with the next region. The Pokemon that are gen 2 or 1 that are in the Token store are there because they have to be there, because
1) It wouldn't make sense for them to be in-game.
A good example being Porygon which is supposed to be made out of computer data. It wouldn't make sense for it to be anywhere in the game, grass, water, or even the Power Plant since those are electric type Pokemon.
or 2) There's no way to obtain them in-game.
These are Pokemon that should of been there but arent because of the limitations placed.
Pokemon like Flareon, Umbreon, etc, which require multi-line evolutions aren't there because PWO just cant do that, this at least gives the users a chance to get them. Theres other examples like fossil Resurrection for Aero. I''m sure if they could add them, they would.

The Token Store at least gives the users a way for them to get 3ed Gen Pokemon and not leave them in the dark which they can easily do. As far as the membership goes I don't know where you're getting that Xp is 200 percent? I'd read more about it here (http://iblamelee.co.uk/pwo/wiki/index.p ... Membership) It's actually 50% more. Being a member myself, I can say that that really inst that big of deal, with membership for 100 xp that you get from a battle, that's only 30 or so XP that you get extra from membership.

What you're doing IS donating, and not only that you're getting amazing things in return. Would less people donate if their wasn't these "amazing things" ? Probably. But in the end of the day it is donating, almost reverse donating actually, where in traditional donating you're giving money to some cause that might not effect you, donating here keeps the server running which in turn lets you play your beloved game. So if you really think about it, the Users themselves are getting almost the 100% benefit from donating. So really, I think you should appreciate the efforts of donaters,for whatever reason they might donate, and if their getting extra perks, I say, They deserve them.

 

[coolcid]

Mate, Really tho, This game didnt strive for realism. So to say porygon/others avalible at certain spots is invalid. To have 10 or so pokes that maybe the admin likes be token is fine, 20+ is rediculous. It ruins the economy. Although someone kleared out why it's donating, why i have to fight the same pokes over and over because deploying a zigzaggoon in the starting area is taboo.

 

[Merse]

Then let's put it this way: This is how PWO works. Love it? Stay. Not agree with it? Fine, then don't buy tokens. Hate it? Leave. Period.

 

[Guest]

Eh, I'm fine with it. I appreciate the people who take the time to create this game and make it run. You don't have to donate if you don't want to. So thank you PWO staff!!! :]

 

[Chocobo7]

Mate, Really tho, This game didnt strive for realism. So to say porygon/others avalible at certain spots is invalid. To have 10 or so pokes that maybe the admin likes be token is fine, 20+ is rediculous. It ruins the economy. Although someone kleared out why it's donating, why i have to fight the same pokes over and over because deploying a zigzaggoon in the starting area is taboo.

Actually, when new spawns are made, be it on a new map or revamping old stuff one of the main descisions are which pokemon would fit there based on their characteristics and the pokemon lore. Its also never been a secret that all pokemon are planned to be catchable eventually, its just a matter of reaching the point where we have the areas ingame that support them, and for a lot of the current token pokemon that does mean needing Hoenn.

 

[mad30]

I know at one point you could donate to the game and not receive any tokens simply by not being logged into pdex when you went to donate. I assume this feature was removed as a way to help players make sure, if they wanted tokens, that they would do it correctly and get their tokens.

Over time donation system has been adjusted for various reasons to help players out and has became the system you see today. It's no secret that we need money to keep the game operational and I personally think that if we went to a system where no tokens were given for donating, or any sort of thank you gift, that people simply wouldn't donate enough to keep the game going.

A few months ago tokens were only given away via donations. Then bluerise started doing random giveways for tokens. In the future there will be other ways for tokens to be given out.

 

[CheckeredZebra]

Pokemon that were once UC and have since been added to my recollection (2010ish). Note that many of these were added once appropriate room could be found for them:

Togepi
Houndour
Kingdra
Scizor
Steelix
Bagon
Murkrow
Natu
Smeargle
Magby
Crobat
Tyrogue (By extention, hitmontop)
Hitmonlee
Hitmonchan
Omanyte (I think?)
Kabuto (I think?)
Misdreavus
Duskull
Wobbuffet
Gligar (I think)
smoochum (Could just be limited time)
Glalie
Nincada (Tickets at the raceway)
Makuhita

Staff don't hold valuable pokemon over your head to get money. We can't even get paid. None of this is done out of greed.
The pokemon that are not in the game are UC because there is no way to put them in without overcrowding the 2 regions we have. It also just so happens that some of the most wanted 3rd gen pokemon work the best in the currently broken battle system (EG: Metagross/Slaking). Others, like Dratini, are naturally rare in the games.

At the same time, I will vouch that it is possible to get UCs/Valuable pokemon without donating. Up until recently, I had only donated...once? To the game (a measly $5) and well..I have a couple of Rares and a ton of UCs. No it's not from staffy stuff, and I'm not a good haggler. It just takes a lot of hard work and some luck.
A lot of the pokemon are priced halfway on current viability/how desired the are. This is why Bagon, even though it is an HR, is still as costly as a completely UC slaking. Absol is also high priced because it is a favorite of many people. It, however, is NOT good at battling.