I know it isn't/may not be up for a long time, just wanted to know if we as users might be able to make stuff (crafts, w/e) and sell our own group's stuff, as well as buying generic FMA swag to support the site.

I'm not sure what sales were like in its original incarnation, but if there's enough interest maybe Alex could put up another Cafepress store for FMA shirts & stuff.

The original store was at http://www.cafepress.com/fantasymarching but it doesn't look like there is anything available there at the moment.

I thought about trying CafePress again. There wasn't a lot of interest in it last time but there are more active users this time.

CafePress is too expensive I think. It would be cheaper just going to a local shirt/embroidery store.. but then again, you would have the up front cost.

Besides merchandise, have you considered doing FMA items? Say for example.. you can buy:
+100 max of energy for 24 hours for $10
+10 campaign for 24 hours for $10

etc... so you can pay to extend your playing on the site, but not make it really so that someone with a lot of money can ruin it for everyone else.. everything "bought" would be time limited, and in a way that would be helpful for the person, yet not too expensive or too cheap.. just something that would give temporary assistance..

so for example, say if you are in college and you have finals or mid terms coming up, but it's also right before important FMA shows.. you can pay the $x for 1 day, and give you a temporary increase in max energy, so you won't max out for the day. People might say that $x is too much, but then again you don't it to be too cheap. Keeping it at say.. $10 or even $5.. it's not like someone will be likely to do it every day, because that adds up quick.

Anyways, that would be my suggestion for the store. Keep it useful, not too cheap, not too expensive, and keep it fair so even people who don't use it will still be able to play the game and win.

That is my intention with the FMA Store. Its hard to balance, as you mentioned, but that was my original goal.

having real money influence game play is a bad idea... the top 12 would be people who put money into the game, and not who has the best strategy etc

I think you would have to put a lot of money in for it to really have that big of an effect. Especially if you take cire's example of for just so many hours.

Yes. It would have to be in a way where it would be a temporary help, and not something that you could realistically keep doing 24/7, unless you really have hundreds or thousands to blow.. It wouldn't give you an edge really over other users, it would more give the individual person a way to keep playing without actually missing anything that they normally would (ie, school finals, road trip, family, band show etc).

@Flamtap: "...the top 12 would be people who put money into the game, and not who has the best strategy etc."

I would have to agree that it would put an overemphasis on fundraising rather the strategy one uses to win the game. If it is put into effect then it would have to be restricted to one or two days use in order to make it fair for other players.

I will be monitoring the impact of the FMA Store on gameplay to make sure its not creating "God Mode" users. Right now the rewards are fairly minimal. Its more of a "have some small bonuses for helping keep the site up" type of thing.

From looking at it and playing around with it for a bit, it looks like in order for it to make a HUGE difference in the game, and to affect your score THAT much, you are going to have to spend some serious bucks in the game.

It is just a game, I don't mind supporting, but if someone really wants to put thousands of dollars into the game just to win a season.. more power to them. I doubt Alex would complain about it either lol

If there was an "outlier" that wanted to spend a bunch of money, I would probably implement something that allowed a certain amount of credits to spent per week.

Doesn't sound fair to me, cause I just spent $900 ;-)

You are banned for having large amounts of disposable income.

Cire should be banned for being Cire. Haha. J/k. I probably won't ever be able to do this being a poor college student and all.

I wish I had large amounts of disposable income... or any amounts of income that doesn't go straight to bills right now. lol

Thanks Alex for keeping an eye on if this would effect the game or not. Being a poor college I don't have money to donate to the site. I would like to keep the site going, but if it gets out of hand I more than likely will just leave due to the unfairness. We shall see what happens...

Did you really spend $900 on credits?

No one spent $900. No one should (or would) spend that much on this site, I would return the money.

Like I mentioned, the rewards are fairly limited at this point and I won't allow anyone to save up and spend ridiculous amounts of credits to game the system. You'll still be competitive and the game will go on as always. Its just a small bonus for helping with server costs for the site.

lol no I was joking.