Why Membership is Important for AJ

Hey Jammers! How has your weekend been so far? I'm really happy because I have Martin Luther King Jr. Day off. Do people in countries besides North America celebrate it, too? Probably not. 

Today's post will be for the most part, a rant– but before you turn around, just know that it's important! Or at least I think it is. Ah well. You be the judge! :O

Before that, here's the new item:

The Frozen Vanity! Despite its elegance, I think you're gonna need to use a crowbar or a blowtorch to thaw open the drawers. XD

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I'd like to think this isn't a true rant, rather... a persuasive essay, of some sort. But think what you want lol

Before I begin, I'd like to let all you newcomers know that I am a nonmember on AJ and I like being a nonmember. Despite members using "fat nonmember panda" as an attempted insult whenever I decline their trades or whatever, I like the simplicity of not having glitzy digital name tags or whatnot. I'm good with what I got.

A lot of times, I can see other nonmembers complaining about other issues, like not being treated fairly. I can really understand the annoyance of waking up one morning and not being able to view the chat-logs or type Jam-a-Grams and other seemingly insignificant stuff, but I don't believe Animal Jam itself is unfair to have membership as a whole. The reason being: it's necessary.

I'm fairly certain that the majority of AJ's revenue comes from memberships. Not from merchandise or donations. While everyone could do without the elitism from members (that means seeing yourself as "elite" and above others), AJ is in no way unfair for asking membership. Where else are they gonna get the money?

Besides, you don't even need to pay for membership to have access to the full game! For many browser games, nonmembers only get to do basically a third of what members can do. And for many more games, you have to pay to do anything at all!

Maybe I just really love AJ, but to me it's the most entertaining and visually beautiful browser game you can play for free. Maybe you won't be able to use the pet wash, be a crocodile, or play The Hive, but a lot of work and passion goes into AJ. It isn't like Club Penguin or flipping Webkinz or one of those big corporate games that are only around to advertise a product and then shuts down when it makes enough cash.

I'm not saying AJ's membership system is flawless. I still have no idea why AJHQ took away chat-logs and stuff from nonmembers, and I'm hoping that will come back. But, really, it isn't that terrible to have a membership system. It's pretty difficult– if not downright impossible to make such a beautiful game 100% free. 

Without membership, AJ wouldn't have enough money to hire such great artists.

Without membership, AJ probably wouldn't have enough money to hire such great coders. Its gameplay would be a lot more simplistic and boring.

Without membership, no extra money would be donated to conservation efforts. The Big Cats Initiative probably wouldn't have been involved with AJ.

Membership is not about being unfair, it's just about making enough money to keep AJ the way it is: a fantastic game. 

That being said, I can understand why kids who can't afford membership would feel left out and treated unfairly. There definitely needs to be more of an effort to reduce that whole "members are better than nonmembers" thing. That kind of mentality will lead to NOTHING good in any circumstance.

Thanks for reading, guys. If you wanna talk more about this, comment! I'd love to hear your opinion on the matter. :)

See you in Jamaa~!