Some of you may already own one or more private servers; Some of you may still be starting out with your first private server, thinking, “wow, how can I compete with servers that already have 500+ players?” In general, this is not the case. Here are a couple of practical tips and information to think about.

Many mmorpg players

The reason most servers have a high player base is because they have been around for a couple of years, or because their owners already spent (a lot) of money advertising the server using different methods.

When starting a private server, your main goal should be to entertain your player base, to make them feel like a part of your community, not a money making machine. Many people want to create a private server because they think it will make them money, well; IT CAN earn you money.

Starting a private server is a lot like starting an internet business, I’ll take care to quote a line from an e-book that I’ve read, the line says “Know, Care, Benefit”, and these are exactly the steps you need. take to start a successful private server.

You will need to KNOW what tools are required to start the private server; tools can be money, hardware, knowledge, connections.

You really need to CARE about your server; this means everything that comes with it: players (community), scripts (setting custom content), server (maintaining a lag-free environment). Of course, this is not all, but these are probably the problems you will be most busy with.

After gaining all the necessary knowledge to configure the server, as well as showing that you really care about the players and the community by participating in the game or organizing incredible events, you can MAKE A PROFIT by requesting donations in exchange for items. or services.

Knowledge

Knowing also means that you know what kind of private server you want to run, this goes hand in hand with taking care of the content and topic your server is started for; If you don’t care about World of Warcraft, DO NOT start a World of Warcraft private server. You may want to be tempted to do this because WoW is very popular, but this also means that there are many other private servers trying to make money from it as well.

Another part of the knowledge is to dive into the documentation that comes with the private servers, setting it up is relatively easy, you can set up a Ragnarok Online private server in 15 minutes and have players access it. The main thing your server will need to compete remotely with others is “content”; yes, each game has its own content, but why would players come to a server that has 0-10 players instead of one that has more than 1000 and has some custom weapons? Exactly; they won’t.

This means that you will have to think of unique content that players would like to see, you can ask someone to create the content for a price or do it yourself. Depending on your financial situation, this may vary. If you choose to let others create content / scripts, it is always good to know at least something about it so that you can provide valuable information.

You could ask on various forums what players really want to see on a private server and work with that, once it’s done you can advertise your server along with the announcement that you have this ‘elite’ content that they wanted.

Not only the content is important, you will also need to know and keep track of the updates that the emulator provides, so that you can stay up-to-date on your server and have the latest bug fixes and content.

“Enthusiasm is the first and most critical ingredient in building a successful private server.”

Taking care of

As I said before, you will have to worry about all aspects of your private server if you want to benefit from it. This is exactly why you should choose a game that you feel comfortable with; maybe you have played the game yourself. You will have to be excited and have fun running the private server completely.

Look for enthusiasm, not money. Money is always good, but it shouldn’t be your main goal. If you like running your server, players will enjoy walking and jumping on it, and they will genuinely feel like they are part of your community. This results in these players inviting their friends to play with them on their server (word of mouth) and will eventually result in increased traffic on their server.

I’ll be discussing your private server marketing in an upcoming article, we’ll discuss how you can get starting players to get started and keep them coming.

“Enthusiasm breeds success and success will earn profit.”

As I said before, you will have to worry about all aspects of your private server if you want to benefit from it. This is exactly why you should choose a game that you feel comfortable with; maybe you have played the game yourself. You will have to be excited and have fun running the private server completely.

Patience is also a concept of taking care of your private server. Of course, you will want to have 50 players running on the server for the first week, but unless you have gained credibility through another source (friend / marketing / being famous) this is unlikely to happen.

Setting up a server is easy, maintaining a server is hard work. When you start, no one knows that your server exists, so obviously you will have zero or no players. You will have to raise awareness of it to attract players.

You need patience:

• As you win your first players
• As you win enough players to benefit enough to cover your monthly hosting costs
• For word of mouth to spread among players to come and play on YOUR server
• To see how well your publicity and awareness techniques have worked.
• For your reputation to happen to you

“Simply put, you need patience to achieve what you want to achieve.”

Benefiting

Once your server has a broad traffic base, you can start requesting donations. Perhaps you already did this when you started your server and received a few bucks in the process. The more players you have, the more benefits you will get from donations.

On private servers, donations mostly go hand in hand in exchange for items; the player pays an amount of cash in exchange for an item or credits, which can be used to purchase items within the game. This is probably the most popular method of taking advantage of a private server.

When you receive large amounts of winnings, do not start to neglect your server, remember that your income depends on the players, and when they leave; so does your cash flow.

Reinvest your earnings on the server:

• Create an additional ‘kingdom’ or ‘world’
• Redesign the website facilitating access
• Provide a 3-way system for players to join (3 steps “sign up, download, play”).
• Advertise your server on top list sites, like mmotop100.net
• Use Google AdWords to redirect players to your website.

There are countless methods you can use to invest your winnings and win even more players.

“Remember: Players = Profit = Players”

That’s all I have to offer right now, I’ll write an article on how you can improve your server awareness, market it, and attract new players.

Tell me about your experiences with private servers, what methods do you use to advertise it and raise awareness about it, how long did it take for your server to have a large number of players?