Re: audio-based medieval virtual world
Karate, there are different places where you can rent server space for your game, but those would all come with a monthly fee. In my opinion, they are expensive.
The cheaper option is to have your own server, which still costs you money each month, but it ends up being much cheaper. You may already have a computer you would want to dedicate to this task, or you can buy an inexpensive refurbished desktop or something. Find a nice cool place to keep it plugged in at your home, and just leave it running 24/7 with the server software you've written. The reason this has monthly costs is because you'll notice a rise in your monthly electricity bill.
If I remember correctly, the server I'm using would have been $450 refurbished, but I got the same one for $280 because it was still considered "broken". I fixed it myself and saved some money. For me it costs about $30 per month to run the Swamp server in electri city. Next you might need to pay for more speed or bandwidth from your internet company, and that price will depend on things I can't help with. I had already been paying for pretty decent internet at my home, so I'm only counting the Extra I started paying when I had to also run the Swamp server. The company's prices go up and down a little over time, but I think it's about an extra $60-$70 per month.
So for me, hosting the server myself costs me about $95 per month. Companies that will host servers for you typically show you the lowest prices they can, but you find that they are missing things you need and each thing adds a bit more to the price. Like almost every company, they nickle-and-dime you until you're paying a lot more than you expected at the start. I haven't shopped around everywhere, or read through every fine-print about charges, but running this from my home was the best combination of price, con trol, convenience, and power.
Oh I almost forgot that you'll probably have to pay for website hosting as well. That isn't really part of your original question, but it's at least something to keep in mind if you will be keeping your company free. There are free website options after all.
I kept Swamp free for 3 years myself, so I truly do understand why you'd want to keep your game free. People were generous and many donated a little here and there to me to help with server costs, but of course it's really hard to get $95 in donations every single month. There will be times when you would be paying for that out of your own pocket, so you'd need to be prepared for that. I didn't make Swamp paid because of the server costs (It was for security reasons), but I will say it is nice to have Swamp paying for al l of its server costs without me ever worrying about "will more donations show up before the month is over?", hahaha!
I hope this helps.
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