State of the Patreon (important update)
Added 2020-04-01 03:24:06 +0000 UTCHi. Been a while since I posted here.
So, first of all, COVID-19 is wreaking havoc on the world, including on people's incomes, and since I've already had a couple of apologetic messages from people about cancelling pledges, or not being able to keep up their support, I think this should be said:
If you need to cancel or lower your pledge for any reason, no matter what it is, please do so without feeling guilt, and please do it as soon as you need to.
I try, at the end of my videos, to encourage people to support content creators, and talk about some of the reasons why we need that support, but please, please, please take care of yourselves first. I am grateful for all your generous support, but never feel like you have an obligation to support me, and never feel like you need to apologize for stopping Patreon support. I will be fine - I want you to take care of yourselves first, that is infinitely more important.
Second, I am (and have been) bad at keeping up with Patreon rewards. It's one of my flaws as a person that I tend to hyperfocus on the work right in front of me (the next Dark Souls video, that new lore thing LoL put out, that new animated short, etc) that I critically neglect long-term tasks like, for example, making sure I'm fulfilling my obligations on Patreon.
I apologize for that. I'm trying to get better at it, but my brain is bad at it.
I also don't have a great gauge of how much interest there is in the reward tiers - and without the pressure of "hey, people want this and are waiting for it," I slip ever more easily towards making things I know people want, like What's the Deal videos and the like.
It's always been helpful to me for people to poke me and remind me of things that they want to see, or which I may have forgotten or pushed back. Knowing that there is someone on the other side wanting it helps keep me focused on it. So if there's a reward you signed up for and it's not showed up for a while, always feel welcome to message me here, or on discord, or tweet at me - or, heck, even email me. It is not an undue stress, it's helpful feedback.
I'm going to put out some more posts in April trying to fulfil Patreon rewards, those should be showing up in your inboxes and feeds soon - I hope you'll take advantage!
Third, I'm going to try and post more actively on here, and try and fulfil rewards more, but if I can see that there is little interest in some of the rewards, I might revamp the reward tiers to try and create more interest - or close down some tiers where people just aren't using the rewards. To that end, if there's something you think I could offer that would be better/more interesting than what's on offer already, please let me know in a comment below.
Comments
I have no idea how long I've been pledged (maybe a year, maybe a bit more) but I agree with Zumi's assessment here: I'm here to support the content, not because I want a reward like personalised videos or art or anything. Although a Q&A video like there was on the Vlog channel a while ago is definitely something I'd appreciate every once in a while. Just to get some general thoughts out there, that might not come up in other places otherwise.
Doom Doot
2020-05-09 18:56:12 +0000 UTCI've pledged for almost 2 years now (changed my name recently) and I see it as support for the videos you produce, not as something that demands an extra reward. So rewards aren't really that important to me, as long as you still produce content. I am, however, a total slut for Q&A vids or literally any chance to hear someone say my usename out loud. So if you ever decide to read out some names at the end of the video (not all of them obvsly), then... uh. dunno. it would make me happy I guess.
Zumi
2020-04-22 12:31:12 +0000 UTCWhile I am mainly here for the act of supporting in adding my coin to the pile, I woud say you could make some use of the video topic voting, which hasn't really been utilized a lot, and could both make patreons feel engaged and give you these litlle nudges toward the thing you would then know people actually are the most eager to see.
Owen Wazdaka Chivot
2020-04-01 06:58:48 +0000 UTCI believe I'm in the minority, but I just want to support you and your content. I'm not in the habit of checking patreon rewards so even if there's benefits I get, I don't use them.
Max Landy
2020-04-01 05:13:21 +0000 UTCPersonally I am mostly here to just support you and your kick ass work. I love all the insight you offer into things and giving my self-teaching self a bit of insight into how art is framed and how there are these pitfalls that somethings seem to drop into over and over. Ultimately I am here for the ride. I would love to see how some of the rewards do play out, like character design reviews and such. I know I want to toss one of mine your way when the opportunity arises.
2020-04-01 05:05:07 +0000 UTCHmmm, I don't really have any specifics so I don't know if this will be helpful or not but here goes. You mentioned how it really helps you to have people poke at you and say "hey, how's that thing going you forgot about? I liked it and would like to see more." It's hard to say something like that without a starting point ya know? Like there are things I'd like to see more of! But which do I bring up? Is he already working on it? I wanna see more stuff of this type, but I don't have specifics in mind. Etc. I know you mentioned that it's not an stressor to have people say they want to see stuff but still, it's a hard trigger to pull. Another Patreon I support does monthly newsletters where they talk about what media they're consuming and whatnot, and it acts like a good conversation starter. I don't think that necessarily is the right answer for you and your Patreon, but perhaps something in that vein to invite suggestions in on a regular basis? Perhaps just something along the lines of "I'm thinking of doing this sort of content, what games would you like to see?" Or "I'm playing this game currently, would you want to see some content for it and if so what kind?" Anyway, I hope that's the kind of feedback you were looking for and that you're taking care of yourself as well during these times :)
Charles Johnson
2020-04-01 03:48:21 +0000 UTCDo what you gotta do, homie. I know I honestly don't give a damn about rewards really.
Big Dread
2020-04-01 03:38:18 +0000 UTC
