* Participants will be able to spend money buying Sesterces during the Commercial Test. This is an entirely optional aspect of the test. Many people have been asking why our donations page was taken down in late 2004 and this is the answer. We knew that the testing of the VERM (Virtual Economics Revenue Model) was about to begin and we felt that it was fairer to offer something in return to those that wish to donate and we therefore decided to reward them with 'Test Sesterces'.
* Any real money which has been exchanged for 'Test Sesterces' during the Commercial Test will be automatically converted to 'Live Sesterces' at Full Commercial Launch using the latest exchange rates. This means that not only will your donations allow you to supplement your virtual in-game cash reserves during the test, but they will also be held in your account for you to make use of post-launch.
In other words if you spend £10 GBP purchasing §5,000 Sesterces during the Commercial Test (an exchange rate of 1:500) then, when the world is wiped at the end of the Commercial Test, your account will be credited with the current equivalent of £10 in Sesterces. So if the exchange rate at the time of the Full Commercial Launch is 1:1000 then your account will be credited with §10,000 Sesterces.
For example, we can adjust the difficulty associated to earning currency in-game to make sure that the majority of players need only make a modest purchase of Sesterces in order to supplement their in-game income and maximise their enjoyment of the service. Of course there will be those who choose the harder route of paying less, if anything and these players will have to work hard in the game in order to continue to survive and progress. And at the other end of the spectrum there will be those that spend much more when purchasing Sesterces so that they can buy extravagant properties, hire many NPC's and benefit from all the most expensive items and in-game services without necessarily having to spend days and weeks accruing these virtual assets.
