I bet you (Bytro team) know the average amount of gold that's spent on a 10player map. Let's call this sum X.
Now imagine you offer an option at creation of a 10player map for the creator to pay X gold to disable all gold buttons within that match. Also offer the same option for 22player maps for about X * 1.8 times the prize.
This way wealthy players with a sense of honor could donate a gold-free match to themselves and the community.
Heavy gold spenders never would join such a match - they would go to the other ones and would keep spending the same amount of gold there, just like they do now. But additionally, Bytro would get something from the wallets of wealthy players, who have morals and/or want to play strategy games as a challenge.
To explain this: Clicking a gold button for in-game advantages yourself isn't a challenge at all. And not ethical, because you grant yourself an unfair advantage over your fellow players in the same match. On the other hand, never clicking it while often having to face opponents that cheat by more or less often clicking it is a tough challenge, but no fun at all.
Maybe you think nobody would pay sum X for that? I can't tell you that, because I don't know how high it is. But I can tell you that if it's not higher than 150€, I would pay it every time I feel like creating a new match. Whereas I've so far never spent a single cent to be able to click in-game gold buttons (and would only do that in case I really dislike some other player who attacks me with very big masses of gold... reasons already described).
So wouldn't it make sense to offer a pay-to-play feature like the above to get money also from guys like me? I'm not the only one.
Now imagine you offer an option at creation of a 10player map for the creator to pay X gold to disable all gold buttons within that match. Also offer the same option for 22player maps for about X * 1.8 times the prize.
This way wealthy players with a sense of honor could donate a gold-free match to themselves and the community.
Heavy gold spenders never would join such a match - they would go to the other ones and would keep spending the same amount of gold there, just like they do now. But additionally, Bytro would get something from the wallets of wealthy players, who have morals and/or want to play strategy games as a challenge.
To explain this: Clicking a gold button for in-game advantages yourself isn't a challenge at all. And not ethical, because you grant yourself an unfair advantage over your fellow players in the same match. On the other hand, never clicking it while often having to face opponents that cheat by more or less often clicking it is a tough challenge, but no fun at all.
Maybe you think nobody would pay sum X for that? I can't tell you that, because I don't know how high it is. But I can tell you that if it's not higher than 150€, I would pay it every time I feel like creating a new match. Whereas I've so far never spent a single cent to be able to click in-game gold buttons (and would only do that in case I really dislike some other player who attacks me with very big masses of gold... reasons already described).
So wouldn't it make sense to offer a pay-to-play feature like the above to get money also from guys like me? I'm not the only one.