That sounds way worse and incredibly tedious to be honest, I honestly doubt there's enough users here for a paywall to do anything but drive the majority of users away.
Well that is a problem in and of itself. There are less users here because LC doesn't have much that separates it from other pirate sites. If LC can't get by with general monetization like ads, then leveraging it's unique aspects is the only solution I see. Zonegfx gets away with it because they frequently acquire assets earlier than other pirate sites and quite often aren't available to pirate anywhere else. All I'm saying is exclusivity can be monetized.
I wouldn't mind this if the paywall was reasonable
It's $5 for 1,000 points on zonegfx, it would take 10 days to accumulate that for free. At 50 points per download (or I guess per thread in this case), a free user could download 2 games per day, which is 20 games in 10 days. Plus, the access doesn't expire either. There is some variability in price when it comes to user created content such as conversions, models, textures, etc. and they charge varying rates (usually 250 and under).
Plus, I'm sure donors would be exempt or given a truckload of points.
Ask for donations with a banner? That's annoying and begging.
Forcing threads asking for donations? That's even more annoying and even more begging.
Ads? Fuck no.
Paywall all download links? Yes, that's fine.
I have no words...
I didn't say paywall all download links, just the restricted section. No one is going to bother with points or paywalls for regularly leaked games like Grandma's House. They could just go to Z95 or Patreon/whatever.
I'm well aware it's futile talking to most pirates about paying for stuff, but LC can't pirate their way into server hosting. Money has to enter the equation at some point, and something has to be offered that is worth paying for without being so instrusive as to drive everyone away.
Based on the math I laid out in another reply, how many people here are playing 20 restricted adult games in 10 days? In addition, how many games in the entire restricted section are they playing total? After a month they would have access to 60 games for free. Are there even 60 restricted games they would want to play? I signed up for zonegfx in mid-July and have over 7,000 points (after using 1,700) without spending a single penny, that's 140 games assuming LC uses a similar system. The objective isn't to recreate the Berlin wall, a points paywall should be a speed bump that limits how fast free users gain access, not limit access entirely.