Operating Expenses

Opening, building, and upkeeping an organization as large and diverse as the New Team of Weapons and Tactics is no small task, and it certainly isn't cheap. We hear many newcomers and people abroad who think it's possible to run a clan or an organization of sorts and make money off of it. While there could certainly be some notable exceptions in some fairly large communities, in our experience, doing such a thing is not easily accomplished and is, in practice, rarely ever achieved. In-fact, people running organizations or clans typically lose money rather than gain any.

People have seldom asked how much it takes to run an organization or a clan and in general, operating costs will vary greatly depending on what resources the organization or clan wishes to have and the quality of resources which the organization or clan is willing to pay for. In some cases, free resources might be an option. While we encourage people to save money as best they can, we also do caution people that, while financially appealing, free resources might be scarce, unreliable, or completely unavailable in certain circumstances. In order to run a successful organization or clan, we recommend assessing cost on a case-by-case basis, based on organization or clan expectations, requirements, and so forth.

Here at the New Team of Weapons and Tactics, our operating expenses grew with our community. When we began in 2008, it was at a time where our founders were too young to hold employment in any official capacity. Our startup costs therefore had no choice but to be non-existent at the time. Due to this, we had to make use of certain resources, such as free webhosting services, that were not as reliable as most paid services, which resulted in certain imperfections, such occasional website outages and the like. As the years went on, our founders were finally able to legally acquire employment. Much of the funds gained from employment was used to fund paid hosting environments, upgrade servers, and even occasionally deploy game servers. Fast forward to a decade later, and while certain prices have not changed much, we have employed many new features and services that we provide to our members, which has dramatically increased our operational costs.

As of 2020, our operational costs are fairly steady. In the spirit of transparency, the New Team of Weapons and Tactics has decided to openly disclose our routine operating costs. In doing so, we hope to be able to provide some insight on the expenses that our founders incur in order to keep the community completely operational. All of the resources that we use are completely and genuinely licensed to us for use, and all applicable resources are paid for by our founders and by any donations that we receive. Pirated or "nulled" resources or software is completely illegal and is strictly prohibited here.

Website - $50/mo

Our website costs consist of the total cost of ownership and renewals involving our domains, security certificates, and servers. The majority of the monthly cost comes from the cost of the servers, as domains and security certificates are typically paid for on an annual (per-year) basis, translating to smaller monthly costs.

Website Software Licenses - $460/mo

This category consists of all the software that powers our website. Our website is powered primarily by the Invision Power Community Suite. Within the suite, a number of additional applications and plugins are required to add and extend the functionality of the core software in order to be able to bring everything that we currently offer to our members and visitors. In addition, we offer a number of custom themes to help the site stand-out and remain unique.

Lab Software Licenses - $2,780/mo

Many of our members have access to a virtual lab of various virtual resources and computer systems, which are packed with tools and software to help enhance the member experience. This category entails the licensing costs for the software that these computer systems and resources utilize.

Game Servers - $160/mo

What good is a gaming organization/clan without game servers? Just kidding. Sure, organizations and clans do not have to own their own game servers, but it does generally help for them to have their own. While the actual number of active servers we have at any given time varies based on population and general player demand, on-overage, we typically have two active game servers.

Service and Backend Servers - $80/mo

Our service and backend servers power the various services that we offer, such as VoIP servers like TeamSpeak and Ventrilo, and other services such as e-mail and cloud services.

Total Operating Expenses - Over $3,500/mo

It may seem crazy, but as you can see, these operating costs quickly add up to a considerable price. At over $3,500/mo, our operating expenses are by no means cheap. Yet here at the New Team of Weapons and Tactics, we are dedicated to providing premium, quality services to our members and visitors to ensure the best possible experience. While expensive, it's a price we're willing to pay to keep our members and visitors happy.

Nonetheless, keeping an organization operating at this size with these costs is no small hurdle, and friendly donations provided by members or visitors help to keep us running. Those who wish to help alleviate us of some of the operating costs can donate to help! To get started, please visit our Donations page.