just want to say i have never played SoA and have no idea how things are there. just saying this so my post wont be understood as an attack against somones hard work i havent personnaly experienced.
that being said, it does seem that A-LOT of people build there own servers not so that they can do what they wont to do specificly but also in large part so they can have a place to "be #1". Pvp servers seem especially guilty of this. All this work goes into soooo many servers then gms/buildiers give themselves a few nudges as reward for their hard work. i donno, i disagree with this practice and certainly will not be giving myself on my builder buddy (or anyone else who joins in time) any bonuses or freebies whatsoever "IF" (keyword!) our server even makes it off the ground. i always kinda figured if you really put any effort into building the server you have enough inside knowledge that you should already have a massive advantage over anyone who joins up out of the blue.
anyways, i hear ya bro, sucks to be outside of a servers inner circle. (AGAIN please remember im NOT taking about SoA as i know NOTHING about them guys!) but i reckon thats one of the many reasons we make our own sandboxes i reckon.
