[spork]

If anyone has a metafilter account, please go here and quote the guy asking for a Privateer MMOG and give Jumpgate a plug. I was going to do it, but they want a non-refundable $5 "donation" just to create an account.

[Jump]

Originally Posted by spork

$5 "donation" just to create an account.

That's not a bad idea. Pay up you lurking scoundrels!

They must have had a hard time with comment spam.

[fluid]

Originally Posted by Jump

That's not a bad idea. Pay up you lurking scoundrels!

They must have had a hard time with comment spam.

It's not a bad idea. A lot of real-world services use credit card info to also act as identity verification. Like when you use the USPS to change your address (the most recent example I've experienced), it charges $1 to a credit card to both pony up for the service as well as verify your address (since it requires the billing address to be either the new or the old address). Unfortunately, Paypal and other online donation mechanisms aren't as ubiquitous as would be required to charge $1 for account signup to verify email address. I know a lot of people who refuse to use the service because they don't trust it.

[spork]

BTW, I tried playing original Privateer on DOSbox and it worked pretty good once I set my sound in the installation routine to just plain old SoundBlaster and did Ctrl+f12 (overclocking) a few times. Links to both of those are in the original article I linked.