Bandwidth inevitably costs 'someone' something. There is no such thing these days as a free connection and our connection does unfortunately carry with it an annual charge for hosting our service.
We seek to fund this cost through a number of means. By our very nature of being a .ORG site, we cannot profit from our service and any funding we receive is ploughed back into running costs.
The high-powers of Asylum (i.e. those designated with the responsibility of advancing the game and co-ordinating the efforts of those who administer it on a daily basis) have agreed in principle to fund up to 70 percent of our initial costs. We are looking to powers and players alike to help us raise the remainder and continue in our funding. In the next year, we hope to produce some merchandise to expand our fund raising activities. "Friends of Asylum" has been created to give players a chance to contribute to the running of the game. Depending on the level of contribution, we aim to commemorate this gesture by creating a reminder of that player, within our Sanctuary village. Think of this as rather like having a brass plaque on a park bench in your honour! Of course, Asylum is adamant that we retain the game balance, so therefore we cannot provide any extra advantage to players within the game.
"Friends of Asylum" are also given a special p-flag which allows them to communicate on a special "Friends" line,and use the Friends bulletin board. They are also invited to participate in the testing of various new concepts and code where appropriate. A new "Friends" area will be constructed for Friends only to socialise.
There are other such concessions planned for Friends and we look forward to expanding the concept to meet the needs of those who want to put something back into the game.
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