SteamGamers Growth Plan, Finances and Transparency concerns

[Amit]

One thing I intend to do at SG, is to have a long term sustainability and growth plan. I know some of you might be thinking I'm driving this community towards being a business. I'm not.

 

I've seen enough plenty forums go down the hill due to lack of funds, resources or any sort of growth. SG was within 24 hrs of being shut down by iweb, and that is an unthinkable scenario for a community as big as this.

 

SG is set to grow. By growth, I do not mean merely in numbers. I don't really believe in stats, since they are misleading. By growth, I mean having better in-house features, better and more active gaming servers, better gaming experience, sustainability, and a bigger audience to interact with.

 

We will continue with the same donation (now called Supporter) system, similar price....but more features and perks in return. Paul will soon be introducing a series of goodies to interest you (all his idea, mind you). We will be setting a target for each month in contributions. That target will include the expenses incurred in running SG, as well as costs for custom development to enhance the site/gameplay. Any surplus of donations will be carried as a running total, even though the monthly goal will remain the same. Thus if we are doing things right for you guys, we should have money building up to run monthly competitions, start customly scripting all our servers (hiring sourcemod coders) and any other imrpovements that can be made such as server upgrades.

 

To make sure we make full use of the contributions, we will be enhancing our donation module and implement a more automated and transparent system. All transactions will be publicly logged, and all expenses explained.

 

We do not make a profit. Any surplus money will be put to good use and spent in order to better the community. The PayPal account we will use will be operated by Paul, or any other capable staff member. But certainly not me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, to answer a very genuine query you might have. Many of the members might be thinking - "why on earth Amit spent thousands of dollars to acquire SG, if he did not want to earn from it". TBH, not every site in my network is meant to generate a profit for me. A community like SG is a brand in itself, and helps in more ways than one by just having it in the portfolio. Also, I am not a selling owner, and it is not my intention to sell SG to make some quick buck.

[Jake]

Cool thanks for teh updatez

[vorter]

Interesting, especially the part about the sourcemod coders.

Do you think we could have something similar to MAUL from EdgeGamers?

[Paul]

Yup as amit mentioned we have a !store plugin coming very soon to the servers. In short; you will gain credits in game which you will be able to purchase in game items. I will open up a thread about it script comes closer to completion.

 

Im not going to start saying that garfield was bad when it came to payments, but I beleive transparency in donations is vital for a gaming community. Its your money that helps our servers, vent and SG improvements keep on going! And that only.

 

A Running Total is always something I thought is cool too. Supporter will soon not be the only way you can gain stuff in return for donations, so stay tuned.

[vorter]

Yup as amit mentioned we have a !store plugin coming very soon to the servers. In short; you will gain credits in game which you will be able to purchase in game items. I will open up a thread about it script comes closer to completion.

 

Im not going to start saying that garfield was bad when it came to payments, but I beleive transparency in donations is vital for a gaming community. Its your money that helps our servers, vent and SG improvements keep on going! And that only.

 

A Running Total is always something I thought is cool too. Supporter will soon not be the only way you can gain stuff in return for donations, so stay tuned.

 

I'm excited about the store

 

Care to explain what you mean by "transparency"?

[Paul]

Care to explain what you mean by "transparency"?

 

You can see directly where the money is going too; outlined bills will be listed, every donation will be listed for anyone to view. Any money we achieve over the goal will be seen in the "rolling balance" figure on the donations page (will be used for competitions, improved server plugins etc). Pretty much what im saying is, everything that is donated will be fully viewable. Everything spent will be fully viewable.

 

Theres no hiding missing money... thus enstilling trust in people who donate that we are striving to bring imrpovements to steamgamers everytime they donate.

[HZK]

Yup as amit mentioned we have a !store plugin coming very soon to the servers. In short; you will gain credits in game which you will be able to purchase in game items. I will open up a thread about it script comes closer to completion.

 

Will it be money AND time or just money?

[Banana Joe]

Damn, you guys are really doing a great job! Thanks for the updates!

[Paralyzed]

Sounds good, so then you can see where your money goes to.

[Suicide]

Amit, your a good man. Had to say it... for someone to not know anything about the community, still bought it, people weren't happy about it, and you still bought it, why? To save the community. You'd have my hand in justice anytime.