Re: spiral arm II

From: Enno Rehling <enno@despammed.com>

Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 20:00:09 +0000

Carol Mulholland wrote:
>>Actually, maybe there's room for a basic utility library to do something
>>along those lines. Not having run a game, I don't have a great deal of
>>expertise on that end of it - any GMs fancy telling us stuff that's common
>>to all games? (Okay, I get billing and stuff, but how about the non-obvious
>>bits?)
>
>
> Hmm, I'm not so sure about billing being obvious... The most useful tip that
> I can give about billing is not to make the apparently obvious decision to
> deduct the charge for a turn at the point where the game is being processed.

Definitely good advice. I usually run the billing a couple of days after
the turn, when I'm *sure* that there's not going to be a rerun.

Also, keep your billing information in a database where you can easily
make changes. You *will* need to edit the data in ways that your billing
system didn't anticipate. Being able to just say "DELETE FROM
transactions where DATE='2004-01-04'" has saved me once or twice.

Put in verification. Make sure last week was billed before the next turn
can run. Make sure you cannot accidentally bill for the same turn twice.

In addition, send an email for anything that's unusual. I don't send
email notifications when the player is billed, because there's a webpage
where players can look up their info. But when the account balance is
dropping below a certain level, when the account gets cancelled, when I
have gotten a bank transaction, etc. all those events trigger an
automatic email to the player so he/she knows what's up.

All in all, our billing has been working really well. We have two
different payment methods, 3 running (and 2 finished) games, and all the
things are extremely traceable.

Enno.

References

Re: spiral arm II
Carol Mulholland <carol@pbmgames.com>
Fri, 30 Apr 2004 18:18:06 +0000
spiral arm II
"R.J. van Loon" <nieuwsgroep@rjvl.demon.nl>
Thu, 15 Apr 2004 08:32:12 +0000
Re: spiral arm II
madcentral@aol.com (MadCentral)
Thu, 15 Apr 2004 09:35:44 +0000
Re: spiral arm II
Paul Walker <usenet@blacksun.org.uk>
Sat, 17 Apr 2004 14:55:26 +0000
Re: spiral arm II
Enno Rehling <enno@despammed.com>
Tue, 20 Apr 2004 15:56:48 +0000
Re: spiral arm II
Paul Walker <usenet@blacksun.org.uk>
Fri, 23 Apr 2004 23:02:34 +0000

Referenced By

Re: spiral arm II
Carol Mulholland <carol@pbmgames.com>
Fri, 30 Apr 2004 18:18:06 +0000
spiral arm II
"R.J. van Loon" <nieuwsgroep@rjvl.demon.nl>
Thu, 15 Apr 2004 08:32:12 +0000
Re: spiral arm II
madcentral@aol.com (MadCentral)
Thu, 15 Apr 2004 09:35:44 +0000
Re: spiral arm II
Paul Walker <usenet@blacksun.org.uk>
Sat, 17 Apr 2004 14:55:26 +0000
Re: spiral arm II
Enno Rehling <enno@despammed.com>
Tue, 20 Apr 2004 15:56:48 +0000
Re: spiral arm II
Paul Walker <usenet@blacksun.org.uk>
Fri, 23 Apr 2004 23:02:34 +0000