Unity Gaming Network

The Cost of Unity

I know there's been a lot of negative feedback about the decision to shut down Unity, whether it be temporarily. Personally, I had nothing to do with making the decision. And if it were up to me, I would keep Unity up and running.

People don't realize the cost and time commitment of running a server. I know Cats has said this before, but I feel like it would be worthwhile to have someone other than the owner to validate the claims.

Server hosting is expensive. More expensive than you may realize. Unity isn't some shitty server run out of somebody's basement. The monthly cost of Teamspeak and TTT alone is ~60$. That isn't including the long term investment of buying scripts/plugins-- which many of you may not have realized even cost money. And don't forget about the website, DarkRP, and CS:GO servers. The monthly cost of all these is >100$. For those of you who say we get a lot of money through donations, each time we get a founder/platinum donator, it pays for one month. Only one. The rest is paid out of pocket by Cats.

I know it sounds odd to mention the last 3 servers, because I'm betting some of you probably believe there hasn't been a lot of progress on them. And I'm not saying you're wrong.

The fact is, Cats is the only one doing the coding of all these projects. By himself. Yes, people offer to help, but the fact of the matter is--

1. It's hard to trust someone enough to let them into the backend and mess with files, especially if we don't know if they are mature enough not to be vindictive if something goes sour (which has happened in the past) and
   
2. It's hard to know if the person even knows what they're doing. I'm a programming major, and even I'm not confident enough with my skills to not mess up the server.

I'm not belittling the moderators, admins, trusted, or anyone else who helps to manage the server, because your jobs are just as essential. So don't think I've forgotten about you.

So, not only is he coding/running TTT/CS:GO/DarkRP/website stuff by himself, he also has a job. He's an adult. I know a lot of you might be underage, and not understand the importance of being able to support yourself, and that's ok. Even I don't know what I'm doing.

Between his job, and Unity (which is essentially a second job), there's not a lot of time left. People have social lives, and need time to relax.

8hr workday + 8hr sleep + 1hr commuting + 2hr meals + 1hr hygiene + 1hr pooping = 21 hours.

This is a rough estimate, but you can see how this might be at least somewhat accurate. That leaves 3 hours for video games, dating, and social life. And I know a lot of users spend 3+ hours on the server per session.

We're a community based around video games, founded by a person who likes to play video games, for the purpose of having fun playing video games. Can you honestly expect the owner of such a community to not want to play video games in his spare time?

I love this community. I really do. It's gotten me through a lot of hard times, and I've had a great time with all the members I've met. And Cats does too. Whether you believe it or not, he's always expressed his vision and dreams for Unity, wanting it to become something great.

But right now, Unity is stagnating. There's not a lot of progress being made. And that's nobody's fault. Everyone gets busy. Everyone has lives outside Unity (I hope). Users are expecting new content and plugins and servers, and none of that is happening. And it can be frustrating.

But right now, Unity can't move forward being the way it is. It needs work. And when Cats says he's shutting it down temporarily until he gets stuff figured out, I know he means it. It's his dream.


TL;DR: Server is expensive. +100$month. Server is time consuming. People have jobs and lives, and no time. But Unity isn't going away forever.

*I hope this didn't seem condescending to anyone, for that wasn't my intention. And if it did, I'm sorry. I just wanted to try and give people a different point of view, a look behind the scenes.


-Grizz
Unity Director
Unity Admin
Unity Member