New Billing?

[Wookie Panz]

If forgot to mention that if the server monthly bill isn't paid or if the websites/service agreements are not registered/paid on time, I'll have to create new websites for Alamaze games. So if things suddenly shutoff like not receiving your kingdom turns or cannot login to submit your orders, the bills weren't paid on time and I'll work behind the scenes to create new websites for Alamaze to continue. If something like this happens, check your email every once in a while as mentioned earlier.

This is great Mike as it keeps Alamaze alive.  It's just a matter of time before we have to look for something else to play if our games end and there is nothing here to replace them.
Thanks for doing this and all of the other things you do for Alamaze.
When do you anticipate you can begin starting new games?

[DuPont]

Yes, I think this is a great idea and bless you for being willing to set it up. I so move.

[Windstar]

Works for me as well.

[unclemike]

Since we don't have an automated billing system, the subscriptions will just expire (terminate) without further notice. You won't get an email or other notice about your subscription status. Rick was handling all of that manually and will restart them when he gets back but that may be months from now. Rick is a hard worker and he'll probably want to return sooner than later but his health is more important so it may take a while until he's fully back. Until then, we'll need an alternative to keep things going.

About players paying a token amount to the Alamaze PayPal account every month (to pay for the servers), Rick's wife mentioned that he uses his business credit card to pay for some things. So even if I had access to the Alamaze PayPal account and manually created invoices for everyone, I don't think this idea will work out for us.

About when we can start an alternative billing system (and launch new games!), I want to wait a week or two in order to give Rick some time to recover a bit. At least to the point for him to respond to what he wants done for his business. However, as I mentioned earlier, we can't wait too long or things will start falling apart on us so I would say a rough estimate would be mid-to-late January 2018 when new games may be started. Unless something extraordinary happens like all games end for some reason, I would like to wait a couple of weeks before starting something new without Rick's permission.

Until then, if you're dying to play Alamaze then you can always sign up for a free tutorial game. No limit or charge for those...

[Ohman the heartless]

As a means of keeping the game ongoing this plan is sound. I must remind everyone though. We are currently playing on Rick's monies. I don't think he has an automated billing system, so PLEASE do not be shocked when you finally receive an Invoice for 1,2 or more months services when Rick can finally return and get the accumulated billing sent out. I for one am playing a a max service level, and have not been billed in the recent past!

UM I agree with your plan.

[VballMichael]

Thanks for taking initiative. Hoping Rick rejoins us soon.

[Drogo]

Just FYI, my orders are now coming into my email spam folder so everyone be alert.

Also, should we get another game signup going?

[unclemike]

Just FYI, my orders are now coming into my email spam folder so everyone be alert.

Also, should we get another game signup going?

That's a gmail thing. They must have changed their spam function. Same happened to me. Their new rules could be triggering on our sender name of "ActiveGames" so try accepting the email as not-spam to see if it fixes the problem.

About new games, I understand that people want to play more but I would like to wait another week or two for Rick to get back to me about the alternative billing plan. His wife is sending him my messages whenever she visits him in the hospital but he's still pretty much out of it. Hopefully, he'll be better in another week or two so lets give him some time to respond.

If no word by then we'll have to do something because all of the players' subscriptions would have expired and hardware/service contracts need to be paid (or Alamaze shuts down). I'm trying to stay on top of the situation but my hands are tied regarding the hardware and website registrations/renewals.

Worst case scenario is as I described above where I have to create my own PayPal business account to charge players a signup fee and to pay new hardware/service contracts that I arranged by myself. That means that I have to migrate all the software over to a new server if that bill isn't paid and even more work is involved if the Alamaze/FallofRome/KingdomsOfArcania websites are not paid/re-registered on time. That would mean everyone would have to use new URLs to read the forum, submit their orders, ...etc. so I'm trying to avoid all of that hassle if possible.

[Strongwill]

UM, what about just using forum to get a game set up and ready to start, when you get the green light, it would be ready to go?

[unclemike]

UM, what about just using forum to get a game set up and ready to start, when you get the green light, it would be ready to go?

Sure discussion and planning is fine just don't actually create the game or I'll have to manually cancel it.