Collaboration with Gay Harem

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As you might have noticed, we’ve started to collaborate with the commercial free to play game Gay Harem.

Of course, this game monetizes itself, just like any F2P game does, using in-game currency needed to advance quicker in the game.

We agreed to do a story context or challenge in this collaboration. This is a shorter challenge than usual (just 12 days) and it has some special rules. In return, all participants and the 5 best stories get awarded in-game currency. Details see here: Story Challenge Gay Harem Story Contest - Gay Kinky Stories

You might wonder why we’re doing this. I always promised not to run ad banners on the site, and I stand by that promise. I don’t believe in ads, as they’re a nuisance and they’re blocked by most people anyway. Still, exposure and word-of-mouth are everything, and we, GayKinkyStories are looking to attract a wider audience and become more exposed.

So we both, Gay Harem and us, have something to gain from this collaboration. The game is actually quite good, I’ve spent some time playing it. Of course, it’s built around spending coins, like every F2P game, but the content is surprisingly hot and juicy, too.

I know some of you might have issues with this, and that’s ok. Please use this thread to ask questions and give me your comments.

Thank you!
Martin

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Are there parameters for the contest I’m not seeing? Things like due date, what to write about, who is judging, etc.

I’ve not played the game yet but I’m invested in promoting GSS and this seems like it could be fun. Good exposure for contributing authors too, not just the site as a whole.

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Oh, very stupid, totally missed the link. Disregard! (Would delete but I own to my mistakes.)

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I played the game some ages ago and it looks like this might be a good excuse to get back to it :grin:

My support to this collaboration. I think it’s a cool way to promote GSS and the kinks we like. Also, the money will come in handy and it is indeed very well deserved.

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So most of the stuff i feel about this i summed up under the contest post with the name uuuuggggggggggghhhh (posted there off account because i don’t check the forums often to see this existed and because i’m usually just too lazy to log in) But i’ll repeat some of it here too since this is where it’s supposed to go. I don’t really have that much of a problem with the story contest or that you are doing a collaboration with a mobile game, the site costs money and this helps you make it. totally fine, that’s just life. my problem is that there have been “stories” posted that are literally nothing more than an ad for the game. The one “story” they posted is barely over 300 words and like… nothing happens in it? You chase a guy down a hall and then wake up? I’ve read 100 word stories that had more detail than the one story they posted here.
Which is all just a roundabout way of saying that, at least so far, everything i’ve seen from them has basically felt the same as a banner ad but just not as a banner ad. And that’s what sucks. I don’t like that a mobile game company with a marketing budget can pay you and it’s treated the same as if I were to pay you to promote a story i wrote. It makes the promoted story feature feel just like, generally lesser and tbh it makes me see gay harem in a worse light since it’s now taking up space from content i care about. Especially when i’ve played a ton of other gay erotic games that have been both free and paid and didn’t have play to win mechanics and better writing than what i saw in the one story posted here so far.

If it was just the story challenge thing i wouldn’t care. I would just see it as you partnering with a game i don’t care about, say “good to see he’s able to get sponsors” and move on, it’s why i’ve also been mostly trying to avoid talking about the game itself since it’s just not what i’m interested in anyways. But it’s harder to ignore it when it’s at the top of the story list and looks the same as regular site content by independent creators.

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I get what you’re saying. I actually asked them to write a story, but they said they don’t have the necessary creativity and/or skills for that.

It’s still not a banner, because a banner would be up on the main page or on every story all the time. Banners are way more intrusive and could and would be blocked by many people.

I agree, though, that it’s totally an advertisement. If it’s worth it in the long run, I can’t say at the moment. As for now I actually earned a bit of money, enough to cover my loss for the first quarter of 2023. If it’s going to remain that way depends on how many people coming from GSS are going to play the game over a longer period.

But as I’ve always told, I don’t look for money, I want to get our sites to become more known in the community. For this, this story contest is way more useful - because they promote this on their Discord and on their blog.

Unfortunately, the reaction is very disappointing so far. I can’t ask them to do contests, though, if I’m not willing to give something back to them in return.

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I just realized the deadline is this Friday! :fearful:

I’ll try to find a moment and the inspiration to write :muscle:

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It’s Sunday night. But still, not much time.

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wait lol, they told you they didn’t have they creativity or skills for that??? legit nothing against you btw it’s just hilarious that a porn game would just straight up say they don’t have the creativity or skills for like, idk a few thousand words story. that really does not inspire a lot of faith in the quality of their game. Thank god this site is filled with talented writers.

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my impression was that this was a private message for Martin.

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i know

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Hey, 6 submissions! Not bad given the time and context! :star2:

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Still, I’ve asked them to push the deadline back a bit. Writing a story is not something to in a day or two…

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I see the contest was extended to the 14th of March, that’s great!

And not only that, it’s got 11 entries at the moment. Head to head with the site’s ongoing challenge :grin: I hope the company is happy and that this results in the decision of a longer term partnership.

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Hi!

There seems to be some glitch in the Challenge’s space. The story in the first place appears with a negative score.

And, since I’m here, any comments on how the collaboration is going? I hope they’re happy with the participation :heart:

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Thanks!

I’ll check it out at fix that asap.

Well, they are happy enough, I guess. Problem is that some of the submitted stories fall a bit short of the usual standard of the sites. Which is to be expected, I guess. I’m not sure if we’re going to repeat that, and then maybe in a different way.

But they were very generous with the prizes they handed out. So everyone who participated should be happy :slight_smile:

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Ok, guys, here’s the thing:

Gay Harem just sent me my first payout, and for the first time since I’ve taken over GSS, I’ve made a small profit in the first quarter of 2023. Over all those years I’ve been paying around €50 per month out of my own pocket on top on the money coming in from Sponsus, because AWS’ hosting is just expensive and the donations, as generous as they are, still just don’t quite cover the monthly costs.

I’m not complaining, this is a hobby, and I’m doing it because I like doing it. I like this community, I like reading those stories, and I like working on improving the websites technically. But I’d be lying if I said that I’ve got money lying around to throw out of the window.

I’ve promised never to run commercial ads on the sites. And this is why this is so hard for me. I hate to break promises.

I haven’t decided anything yet, but I’ve been asked once again if they could place a static banner on the site.

I know privacy is a huge issue, so the ad image would be hosted from our own server without any magic in the background, so opening the GSS site itself would NOT make your browser connect to their server and allow them to track you. Only when you click on the banner itself, you would be connected to their server, of course. This is one of the major gripes I personally have with all the ads on the internet, as they allow the ad companies to track you, which would not be the case here.

And I also would show the banner only to users who are not already sponsoring the site, of course. As that’s only fair.

Still, I feel rather bad about this. And again, I haven’t decided anything, yet.

I want to hear your opinion on that first. So please be honest and candid with me.

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You shouldn’t feel bad about this.

The people who tried to guilt you over this were being incredibly petty.

Full disclosure: I tried out their game for about five minutes, which was long enough to see that the art style is not for me and I don’t like the game.

And yet somehow I can survive seeing the banner ad and story contest and it didn’t hurt me.

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Agree with amul. Doubt I would ever use it. So if it helps keep this site going, I’m all for it.

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I’m fine with a banner as you described. I’d like it even more if I could turn it off as a paying supporter of the site.

Checking the sponsous gauge, it looks like the site is funded. Maybe increase the amount you’re looking for — if people truly hate the banner, they can put their money where their mouth is.

Things cost money. It’s sucks, but it’s the way the world works. You’re incredibly generous with your time, we shouldn’t expect your wallet to take a hit too.

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