Barrybank

[old.Azoic]

Yes, BW will definatly get a griling if they are the first to impliment Pay per play .... gimmie tie and i will think of alternatives to post up and "hopefully" BW may take them on-board ?

Public opinion counts

Ian

 

[old.Kez]

Originally posted by Durzel

Then theres the payment issue. How do you process and handle payments? How (if at all) do you handle payments from people who don't have Switch or credit cards? How do you handle payments from countries other than the UK.. etc..

Obviously unsure of the specifics, but judging from what I've stumbled and read into in the past, thats part of the point of barrybank (however this will work is beyond me however)

The other GSPs have two routes to follow, the "blah blah we're still free come to us" one, or the "lets hop on the bandwagon now and get a bit of the brunt too"

tbh, while it'd be wise for them to hop on the bandwagon (at the end of the day free lunches have to end, and the GSPs left know this) I doubt they will.

The main problem is, as Durz said, the whole security issue.
Gone are the days when you could've been forced to dialup (ala wireplay) to play (making it pay per play or subscription, etc) due to broadband being widely spread (fucking lpb lamer cunts >:/ )

There will almost inevitably be lamers who'd hack a client side thing, meaning automation on the server side is more likely a prospect, which would (as I see it, being slightly náive on the subject) be a huge task?

End of the day, I doubt I'll pay for any GSP, Purely because I rarely play games online (once, twice a month?) and I'll inevitably be able to find a server thats not subscription orientated (people running them from work, etc) - good ping or not, they'll be there.

At the beginning of this post I was trying to outline something, I think I've failed. So I'll give up.

 

[Durzel]

It's a logistical nightmare.

Being a coder I know it is possible (anything is possible) to do something like this, but it isn't easy. Or rather, it can be easy - but you sacrifice a lot of security & flexibility depending on what route you take.

(This might be a long post)

Relying solely on IP addresses (Mister X is allowed to play, and his IP address is 129.101.209.1) means that there has to be some mechanism (perhaps a webpage?) for allowing the registered person to change their "registered IP address". Whilst for broadband users this wont be a massive inconvenience, it will be for dialup users..

Additionally, what kind of secure system do you use to allow people to change their registered IP address? You can't use their REMOTE_ADDR IP address as authentication as for many ISPs this will be the IP of the web caching server (eg. BTi). So you need a password to change it, which of course introduces a whole other layer of security to think about.

I would personally rather not see a system of client/server authentication since:

• it will be inconvenient/annoying to have to install a client-side app purely to use a GSP (one of the reasons I dont play on Wireplay)
• it will be subject to reverse-engineering and the like by people who would rather not pay at all. If you rely on some kind of client/server authing procedure, you can guarantee people will packet sniff the connection, hex the binary, do anything they can to afford paying..

The key thing to remember here is that unlike AO (for example) - the games that are played on BarrysWorld were not designed as AO was from the ground up to incorporate authentication (other than plain password). Whereas you cannot run AO without first authenticating yourself with their servers (which know whether or not you are a paying subscriber) - there is no such luxury available in CS, T2, etc. So long as you can see the IP address of the server - you can connect to it. It's as simple as that. These games were never designed to be run inside a "pay per play" business model, and therefore don't support it in any way.

..Therefore, it will be necessary in some capacity to have some kind of daemon program running somewhere on BW systems that scans every server for every player, ensuring they are on the subscribers list. This is necessary because right now I could open CounterStrike manually (ie. without Gamespy or any other utility), type "connect <ip>" and in a manner of seconds I would be on the server. Since you cannot intervene in this procedure (even with a client-side app, unless it takes over certain elements of Windows) you have to do the next best thing - run something that scans the servers instead.

Also - the main problem with relying on IP address alone (apart from the dynamic nature of them on dialup accounts) to determine eligibility to play on the servers is that what's to stop someone running a TCP/IP proxy on their machine, allowing their unsubscribed friend(s) to bounce off their IP and onto a server. Limiting simultaneous connections is one solution - but its one that will probably bring cries of outrage from people who run mini-networks at their houses, etc.

There is another issue: usage. Gamesplayers are not all alike, some play for hours a day, some play for a few hours at the weekend. If you charge a flat fee you risk certain gamesplaying factions feeling a bit put out by having to pay the same amount as someone who is on 24/7. I assume from the term "BarryBank" that you buy "credits" (please dont call them "BarryBeanz" or something like that) to play on the servers. One would assume these credits buy you time on whichever BW servers you see fit to use. The question is - how do you cap this time?.. What happens when a player uses up their BarryBeanz (argh) - do they automatically get kicked off?.. How do they get kicked off, etc.

Finally, payment...

The point I was trying to make in my previous post was that whilst I take on board the principal of having "BarryBank credits". There has to be some means somewhere of handling the real currency that is used to pay for these credits. Merchant services aren't cheap, particularly where they involve processing foreign currencies... Ok I just made that bit up, I have no idea how much merchant services cost, but I suspect its not cheap .. In any case - how do you account/allow for students with no credit cards/Switch cards.. children with no cards at all.. do you allow people to send cheques in the mail? Who processes these cheques?.. etc.

There is also (heh, another issue) the issue of "service". If people are paying to use BW, you can pretty much assume that they will expect a certain quality of service for the money they pay. Whilst I am not debating this isn't available at the moment, most people will assume that an admin will be available to sort out a dispute, kick off a cheater, etc whenever the subscriber needs them (ie. 24/7). You also run into the problem (which is prevalent already) of people expecting a certain (usually "low") ping time when they play. If people start getting lag/packet loss nowadays (irrespective of the cause, whether it be their ISP or BW) they already complain their little hearts out on #barrysworld. Imagine this complaining were someone paying for the service. Suddenly its not their "supa frag skillz" that is being comprimised by their "big laggg", its their wallet as well.

I tell you something, I wouldn't want to be the person having to support all of this.. all the incredulous users who will magically expect (you cant really blame them) an amazing level of service 24/7 from BarrysWorld. Who is going to provide this support? How consistent will it be? (assuming the current system is used)...

I could ramble on but... oh, I just did.

 

[Summo]

Too many words!

Get... OUT... of... my... BRAIN!

 

[old.Azoic]

OMG Durzel, ur my hero .... I CBA to type that much and you have just summed up nealry all of my fears into 1 huge compilation. Ta m8 =) i owe u a b33r.

It seems that there is ALOT to be considered and answered for, and yes if i was paying to play i would expect better quality that BW are offering at the moment (eg i get 210 average ping on BW but 140 average ping on Jolt??).

My only advice to BW is think very very carefully about taking this pionering step in to our wallets ...

 

[mank!]

Muhahahaha! how wrong you all were!

 

[MYstIC G]

mank!: be less gay pls, thx.