Give me 100 rubles, and I’ll make you a king!

Back in the day, I played a couple of flash games. Besides the exorbitant donations required, there was another option: bring in a ton of friends and exchange items. That was quite annoying. Sometimes, though, you could farm a decent amount of the donation currency, and it didn't really make a huge difference, but rather served as a way to support the developers, which is fine.
I can understand a reasonable donation system, but having to spend a fortune just to dominate some random player – that's just ridiculous.