Financial Side of CS

[Poserpanda]

At the risk of seeming curmudgeonly, I don't think any of this is fair to ask to be public. What people are paid for their participation in CS is their business.

Also, C$ purchases are completely just for fun and not required to enjoy the game. I've seen the sentiment that we as purchasers of C$ are owed some kind of explanation of how they spend the money and that's not how it works. We got what we bought, and what they do with that money is up to them.

It's completely normal to keep financials private and we aren't owed knowing about it.[/quote]I think like any financial investment, where the money goes into the site can be important if a person is worried about how their money is being used. There could be a disclaimer placed in the site that pops up whenever a user purchases C$ from the website.

'Users are to keep in mind that all money spent on this site is used for anything that the moderators and/or artists find necessary. This can range from frivolity to keeping the site running! Thank you for your contribution.'

Something like that.


On a side note that could be seen as...pedantic? I think that purchases are necessary to enjoy any game. It's like skins that a person has to pay for in a game they already paid full price for. The skins are there for the enjoyment and personalization of a gamer. This website is kinda the same, in my eyes. Here are some reasons why.

Some pets should cost money:
-Because the site is free
-Because artists should be paid
-Because lots of enjoyment is had from having the non-free pets and dressing them up

Is spending money literally necessary to have a good time? No. There are probably some users who[m] have spent no money, and are totally fine with everything they have. It also helps that C$ is easily traded between users without anyone paying anything towards the website. But some purchasing is required to enjoy some aspects of any game, including this one. Skins in Fortnite, or dress-up clothing on Chicken Smoothie wouldn't sell unless someone was enjoying them.

Do I want to know what the money I might spend on this site is being used for? Not really. I know that there is some "risk" in investing in any fun activity. But I can see why people would want to know.

[Pinky*]

Spending money on site currency doesn't entitle anyone to know how it's used. If you disagree, don't spend. No need for disclaimers; purchases work this way universally. There's also no need to discuss monetizing the site differently. If they needed more money, they'd adapt. However, many volunteer artists exist, proven by community adopts. We can't dictate how they run the game or demand access to their finances. CS is a business.

Enjoying the game doesn't require buying non-collection items. We had plenty of fun before C$ existed. Buying site currency isn't an investment; it's for enjoyment. CS could shut down anytime, making your CS worthless.

[owlbyr]

can confirm admins have said artists are paid with c$ and the entire staff (including said artists) are all considered unpaid volunteers. I'll go try and find the posts for you

Thank you very much for confirming and hunting those posts down! That answers one of my questions.

At the risk of seeming curmudgeonly, I don't think any of this is fair to ask to be public. What people are paid for their participation in CS is their business. . . . It's completely normal to keep financials private and we aren't owed knowing about it.

You are completely right about finances being the website's business -- and that is why I said at the end of my initial post that I understand if my questions cannot be answered. It is their choice if they would like to answer the questions or not.

Also, C$ purchases are completely just for fun and not required to enjoy the game.

I know I have not yet personally purchased C$ before, so I have no personal monetary investment. I am just hoping that it is actually generating significant revenue, and have considered purchasing in the future to show financial support. That is why I asked if it is successful in generating revenue to help with the costs of the website, and for supporting the owners of the website.

I think the posts are getting off topic of what I was intending to ask, sorry if I had worded it in a confusing way.

[bluestar11]

As a game dev this kind of information really interests me. It is of course their decision to answer these kinds of questions, but I feel it is fair to ask. Being transparent about it might even encourage more members of the site to contribute to supporting it.

[bark]

At the risk of seeming curmudgeonly, I don't think any of this is fair to ask to be public. What people are paid for their participation in CS is their business.

Also, C$ purchases are completely just for fun and not required to enjoy the game. I've seen the sentiment that we as purchasers of C$ are owed some kind of explanation of how they spend the money and that's not how it works. We got what we bought, and what they do with that money is up to them.

It's completely normal to keep financials private and we aren't owed knowing about it.

I think people are more worried about the current state of the site, the servers constantly lagging and there's not as many people on to cause it. So it honestly begs the question if the C$ funds are truly being used to upkeep the site, but from site performance we've seen; it doesn't seem like it. As a consumer, if C$ funds is being used for supposed server 'upkeep'; shouldn't we be experiencing little to no lag/server issues?

We're not asking for total numbers or tax documents, just assurance/transparency on server upkeep or more better updates regarding the current situation. If we're donating irl funds, I prefer to see it go towards site improvement rather than being 100% pocketed, and zero improvements

As a game dev this kind of information really interests me. It is of course their decision to answer these kinds of questions, but I feel it is fair to ask. Being transparent about it might even encourage more members of the site to contribute to supporting it.

^ this this this

[Schuyler]

I have no involvement in the financial side of the site and cannot address any of those questions (nor would I expect that kind of information to be made public regardless), but as it's already public knowledge, I can also confirm that all CS staff and artists are volunteers and do not receive a salary/compensation outside of CS currency.