I guess I view it differently. The way I see it I am giving a donation to the server, not buying an item. The credits and what you can get with them are simply a thank you for the donation.
Once server admin uses my donation to support the server's upkeep and operation that money is gone; they dont get more money from me the following month. If they spent the money on hardware and a year later have to either replace it or upgrade it, then dont get money back for that now "useless item".
The way it is seems fair to me.
Right now, we have a small pool for "ohshi" expenses (hardware failure). The rest goes to Hunter's widow and his son, in set amounts monthly. Akkadius and I work for free.
I agree with Chunka, there should be no expectation that if an item bought with credits is made obsolete, that you get credits back. The only possible exception I could see is if someone purchased something the day before the item was completely made useless.
If an item is made useless, I will absolutely refund the credit cost. The only item that has been "adjusted" was the Instant Cure ~2yr ago given a small cooldown to prevent spamming.
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Hate