paying for slots....

[hoolio]

ok, once again our kingdom monarch has paid for a slot for an active, willing player, once again this player decides we do not war enough (this was less than 3 days after a long war that we won at a canter) after he joined mid war and he defected.
to be honest we have won 3/4 wars and have what i would consider an active 'mid range' kingdom with plenty of IRC use especially during wars.
can there not be some sort of 'rule' to go with a paid slot?
ie: a time limit where the paid for player must remain with a kd (end of age, maybe) or maybe if the player decides to move on/become inactive/delete in less than 2 or 3 weeks the slot can be retained without having to pay again?
this happens quite regularly and while we do not mind helping the game in this way there surely needs to be some safeguard that spending your money will give you a reward rather than what is turning into a 'spend and lose it' scenario.
if it continues in this manner i can see a lot less being willing to contribute to the game.

[Palem]

Try evaluating your recruits more. Find out why they left their last kd. Get in touch with their last monarch, see what kind of attitude the player had with them.

[hoolio]

while i agree with that Palem this is not always possible, many of the paid for players come from the forums and may be returning to the game or will not say what kingdom they were in.....besides, many leave kingdoms due to an argument or falling out somewhere and the resulting PM's from any former kingdom tend to be a tad biased.
we do get prospective players into an open IRC room for a while first to 'vet' them but it seems the only way some will stick with any kingdom now is if that kingdom is 'top ten' and win every war or have the 'protection' of an SKD type kingdom.
it just seems a shame that some monarchs (i am not monarch of my kingdom by the way) are doing what they can to build their kingdoms up and supporting the game by buying slots only for players to totally disrespect this fact.
i am in no way suggesting that paid for slots should last age after age as this would defeat the point of having them, just a little security for those paying.

[Palem]

eh, scum players are scum players. They're in every game. Just need to do what you can do minimize their scumminess.

[goodz]

you get several free moves each age and unlimited between ages. I would only spend credits recruiting players if you know for sure they are going to stick around...

[hoolio]

ok, i am not suggesting there is anything wrong with it all as it stands but the free slots can be used and lost as easy as the paid slots, hence the need to use the paid slots.
all i am suggesting is that with some guarantee that paying for a slot will at least mean players have to give a kingdom a chance before they can flit away could result in more actually paying rather than not bothering, surely this would help the game in general?
no one can be sure a player will 'fit' and a player cannot be sure until he has spent time within a kingdom, not every recruit will work out as we all know from experience.

[Landro]

I agree with Hoolio. It would be a nice courtesy if kingdoms would receive a new invite if the person who accepted a paid invite leaves after a very short time

[Tha Legend]

I make my recruits pay for their invites.

[goodz]

Some sort of refund if within a week would be ok. I think forcing a player to stay would be a bit lame / cause him to create a multi account and now you have an inactive in your kd...

[metroins]

I make my recruits pay for their invites.

This. Make the recruits pay for it.

[Angelus]

doesnt this belong in the suggestions?

[Madchess]

you are to desperate for new players or not dooing things right

I only ever recruited two players after much hesitation, one from a much larger kingdom, one from the adverticing.
Even went there and lost the first war after this straigth away but everyone stayed including the recruits so we are on our way to a possibly win now

I don't plan on paying since I'm still sceptical about the concept, but I do have an invite left and intend to use it if the war goes well

[Anri]

This. Make the recruits pay for it.

Always pay yourself and let people know whos the boss. We forced players to pay, then they never realized all accounts belong to the KD of Simians.
They say something like this: I paid the account, i can do what i want with it. This have happend even if they agreed to follow plans, orders, strats and they promised to share phone number, keep activity etc etc. Its mostly empty words for some. If they paid accounts they always tend to use it against you. I will delete cause it is my account. I will do this and i will do that. Sick and tired of such behaviour. I think it costed my KD 3 deletions in 2 ages and had some other close calls.

My former recruiters of Simians forced all players to pay. Now we try to avoid that and make sure we pay for all accounts to get around that problem.

It sucks if something happens and the players turn out to be scumbags but thats just how it goes.

[hoolio]

Anri, yup....this is the obvious downside of having recruits pay for themselves.
this last guy was with us less than a week, forcing people to stay is not a great idea i suppose, they could just drop inactive and then you have a 'feeder' in your midst.
would like to see some form of time limit though where should a player leave the slot becomes 'free'.
a few are looking at it as a 'utopia rip off' but utopia cannot control how people react and they do need to generate some kind of income for the game and i feel a time limit of say 4 weeks in which the slot stays active should a recruit leave would benefit both parties, monarchs will feel as if they are getting value for the money and utopia will not be seen as 'rip off' merchants.

[Bishop]

A time limit will mean they will multi rather than stay in a kd they do not want to be in - resulting in 2 deleted provinces.