Donations
Hello there, I'm Mgamerz, and I'm the owner of ME3Tweaks. For years, when people have asked me about donations, I've told them that I don't accept donations on my work. As ME3Tweaks has expanded over the years, the costs of running my services also has increased with it. I turned off ads on my website in 2020 when I started getting donations to help run the site.
I've been conflicted over accepting donations for some time. I do not want to make it appear that I am working for money. I do all of the work for ME3Tweaks in my spare time as a hobby. I never once have expected to be paid, I don't create mods or tools on commission, and I honestly do not like people who try to make mods for money, since the mods are built on top of the work of others. I stand by this stance still. However, I must also accept that running ME3Tweaks and providing services to users for free is not cheap either.
To be more transparent about what it actually costs to run ME3Tweaks, here's what I pay for on my own:
ME3Tweaks.com - $120/year
- All website pages including ME3Tweaks ModMaker
- Updater service for mods and Mod Manager
- Mod identification and importing services
- Log viewing services for multiple modding tools
- Mod showcasing for third party developers
- My site's webpages are not updated too often. It is used mostly these days for the backend of various modding tools
Physical hardware - (~$40/year)
- Maintenance for a small physical server I run that runs the NexusMods indexer and Test generator for ensuring mod compatibility (which would cost a lot in bandwidth when cloud hosted)
Code signing certificate ($180/year)
- Used to sign all of my software so you don't get as many warning prompts, and you know I'm the one who signed off on it. A code signing certificate increases application trustworthiness to programs such as antivirus scanners and can reduce the issues they introduce
Various software licenses (~$130/year)
- Software library subscriptions
- Google Drive for collaboration
- Camtasia subscription for video tutorials
- Icon and image licensing for various parts of ME3Tweaks
Occassional events and game purchases (varies)
- Sometimes I purchase a copy of a Mass Effect game for a skilled developer, such as when Gildor, when them owning a copy of the game will greatly improve modding for our scene. In this example, it enabled us to use UModel with Mass Effect Legendary Edition
- Occassionally I donate into a 'jam' session to help encourage tutorial development, which in turn makes it easier for end users to mod games
I would like to make clear that donations do not fund future development. These donations are to help pay for the services ME3Tweaks provides to users and some of the tools that I write. I do not work for pay on my mods or my site - it makes me sick to even think about that. Donations would be to only fund the infrastructure and software licensing for ME3Tweaks.
With all that out of the way, if you're still interested in donating, you can do so through Paypal at the link below.