Work & Status Update (May 2022)

What's up gamers? BGE here, and I wanted to give you guys an update on a few things.

Getting right to the point: the ol' BGE work output has been a bit slower than I'd like lately, as the goal of this Patreon has been to produce at least 1 substantial, quality video per month. While I have several projects in various stages of completion (wish I could tell you guys about them, it's stuff I'm confident people are going to love, but also I know it's best for me to not overhype things significantly before release) and I've been streaming more including producing TALKING PIRATES, still, the fact is still that right now my intended primary output, BGE channel video releases, are coming quite slowly. Therefore, I’d like to clarify some of the reasons for that here for current and prospective Patrons, as some of them do relate to changes that have gone on behind the scenes. Forgive me for the ramble I'm about to embark on, but you guys enjoy those right? I sure do, so here we go!

To begin, since it was established, I've always made it clear the goal of 1 quality BGE video per month was indeed a goal, but not an iron-clad guarantee. It’s always been up to every individual backer to judge if they are getting their money's worth and take action accordingly (raise/lower pledges, quit, join, etc.), which I frequently see people doing, gladly so. I'm not happy to be behind schedule, but I've never considered this outright unfair to the backers based on that principle, which I also extend to other deliverable rewards like the BGE Monthlycast (partially inspired by Bill Burr's famously inaccurately titled "Monday Morning Podcast," yes, that was in my mind when I came up with the name since I always thought the misnomer was funny, though in retrospect that name might have been somewhat irresponsible and perhaps should be changed, let me know what you think). After all, some popular video producers release one video every 6 months, or even per year, and many people seem happy to financially support them in doing so, even if they would prefer to see more. You can make arguments about needing a certain level of quality to those products to justify the long wait times, but I simply think that if the backers find value in a creator's releases for whatever reason, however infrequent, and choose to continue to support them, then that is between those parties exclusively and no one else's business (though having opinions about the extreme cases is perfectly reasonable). I find that reasoning to be a satisfying closed moral circle as long as no party is lying or deliberately exploiting the other. If you don't see things that way, you can quickly find yourself in a strange game trying to calculate the monetary value of projects and communities that can’t really be quantified, and I see little point in engaging in that exercise. In my case, if I were to abandon the Patreon or my general video production work knowingly, no longer working to produce what people are paying to support and leeching of backers' goodwill knowingly, that would be a more dubious matter.

I go through all of this to clarify my views on crowdfunded online video production business and, most importantly, the business philosophy of this Patreon, so that we're all on the same page. However, there is one particular change that I feel is necessary to address regarding its operations, pitch to backers, and raison d'etre, that being that until recently I had been doing it full-time as my primary source of income, which, in short, is no longer the case.

As many of you know, I began doing YouTube full-time shortly after MIAMAFV 2 in 2019. I stuck with that for years, but unfortunately, as time went on, with my particular content and at my generally slow rate of output, I was not able to reach the breakthrough success I was hoping for. Therefore, recently I made what I believe to have been the right choice for me: to find other income to support myself going forward.

It wasn’t my ideal vision for how things would turn out, but overall I am glad to have had the opportunity to give full-time YouTube-ing an honest go and, as you can see, I haven't let it get me down. Rest assured, I'm in a very good place in life and very happy with my current situation, including my YouTube output, which I still love creating (possibly more than ever), even if I would love to have more time each day to work on it. As a matter of fact, having your YouTube production NOT be your main financial pillar in life, as was the case when I started, has some advantages, including lowering the pressure on you for immediate success and allowing you to make content for its own sake instead of chasing viewership (which I continue to speculate ironically leads to more SOULFUL production and long term success in and of itself, but I digress). I sincerely believe this, but of course I know how this comes across and would have preferred to have simply been more successful doing YouTube full time. Regardless, I'm gonna keep on truckin’ and the only thing that has changed on your end, the consumer end, is that projects may take longer to come out, which I want backers to be aware of, as I have less time to work on them. Nothing else has changed and I still intend to live up to my obligations on this Patreon, just perhaps with more wiggle room on the release schedule.

Having read that, perhaps you're wondering, what's the reason for this long post exactly? The answer to that is my other reason for writing it, which is to explain why I didn't post about it sooner. In short, it’s because I have developed a desire to keep discussions and information about my life that don’t relate directly to content creation to a minimum in my online presence. However, with the nature of this business model as I had previously established it, it felt necessary to clarify, and so I had an internal debate about how to handle the issue for a time, ending with the post you're currently reading. Below, I'll tell you more about that.

Checking the record, the last major public update to my Patreon operating procedure was in July 2019 with this video, with an update in the description in January 2020 regarding which shows were being produced and at what rate, with a few more sporadic updates on the Patreon later. With those updates, that video has become completely outdated, as various shows I've worked on have stopped, started, I've joined and left, with the non-full-time change being the most significant one since.

Shortly after making this switch, as of December 2021, the Patreon was updated to remove all mention of it being my primary source of income, including in the BGE Support Pitch Document which clarifies in detail the operations of the Patreon (the updated version of which you can find at that link). As the situation had changed, I updated the Patreon accordingly aiming for, in general, 1 quality video per month with no further caveats. Strictly speaking, this resolved the bulk of the issue in my mind, however there were people out there wondering about this, understandably so, because I hadn’t clearly announced anything to the contrary. This sentiment is what I’m making this post to clear up. I’m still making videos, same as ever, but if your current or potential backing is being influenced by the notion that I’m doing it full-time, I want you to be aware that that is no longer the case and act as you see fit. If it influences your thoughts on my rate of output as well, I welcome you to take whatever action you feel is appropriate.

To reiterate, my reason for not bringing up this issue previously is because of my desire to keep a strong, solid barrier between my offline life and my online work, with this subject falling into something of a gray area. To a degree, I feel silly even making this clarification, and perhaps it's unnecessary considering almost nothing has actually changed on the video production side, IN ADDITION to the fact that I have several projects in the works I hope to come out soon in quick succession, and so this whole post could easily be overkill. However, I take very seriously the fact that anyone financially supports me in my video creation and want to make sure no one does so under false pretenses. I absolutely recoil at the possibility of being the beneficiary of someone’s kindness who might part with their (unironically) precious $5 a month because they falsely think it’s helping keep a guy from starving, as opposed to my desired relationship of someone pledging simply to support the creation of content they enjoy that everyone understands isn’t exactly a life or death situation. As always, I just want everyone to be able to make clear-eyed judgments about how they spend their time and resources regarding my work here on Patreon in a good-faith exchange, so here we are to make sure that’s happening.

However, let’s be clear about what has NOT changed: that backers’ funds are still supporting the work I do on BGE, because they very much are. To be frank: I could use more money (who couldn’t?) and I’m happy and proud to take what I can get from my supporters, not to mention I would love to invest more capital in my projects to produce more and better content (as I’ve already begun to do). For example, being able to pay for the efforts of my long-slaving editor NoNeedBruh has been a godsend and a major help in increasing the speed of video output, which is just the sort of thing financial support will continue to be used for. But more generally, the income I receive from supporters is one of my main signals that I’m making something they consider worthwhile, and I’m thankful to have it as my guide. One day, if I were to continue to grow as a creator, I may even use this income to do YouTube full-time again. It’s certainly possible. However, having had this experience, I would refrain from making that fact part of the main marketing pitch of this Patreon again, as I no longer believe that to be the ideal relationship between creators and their supporters. 

Furthermore, with this established, you won't be surprised when I tell you that you are unlikely to hear much more from me on the status of my life situation beyond the scope of this Patreon and my online work, as has been the case for some time, as it will continue to be a totally unrelated matter (though to be clear, things like behind-the-scenes work and info about project development is something I'm planning to show more of to patrons and viewers, just in a professional sense focusing on project itself, not beyond that). Therefore, the Patreon should be judged solely on its promises, stated goals, and delivered products, with all other factors being irrelevant to those considerations. I want that to be what guides backers' decisions on whether to support the work or not.

Tl;dr - Pity and/or parasocial bucks are overrated. I prefer to rely on individuals’ rational self interest, choosing to pay to support something and getting value back for it, instead. I’m convinced it’s a much healthier relationship to have long term.

On the subject of separating one’s online work from the rest of their life, while there are differing schools of thought on the subject, I don't consider myself what is referred to as a “public figure” and think many online content producers are wrongly labeled as such. For some time now I've thought of myself as someone who releases products, namely videos and streams, as packaged, finite units with clearly defined boundaries, beyond which I am perfectly content to keep all other aspects of life to myself. In my mind that makes me about as much of a public figure as the guy in the factory that canned the tuna you put into your tuna salad sandwich, i.e. not one. In any case that debate can be continued elsewhere, that is simply my perspective and how I will continue to operate going forward.

That about sums everything up, and I hope it’s been helpful. The takeaway point here is: you’ll be getting the same ol’ BGE stuff you (hopefully) know and love, but I’m no longer doing YouTube as my primary source of income, so things might come a bit slower than before. At the same time, the particular pressures that come with making this kind of work your lifeline are gone, which will give me more freedom to make the projects I want to make, so perhaps it’s for the best. Producing, writing, and editing videos is my passion and my primary creative outlet that I've been addicted to since 2013. I'm happy to have been able to entertain people, make them laugh, introduce them to things they might love, and maybe even spread messages that do some good in the world. What I'm getting at is: I'm not going anywhere. I'm in TOO DEEP and OUT OF TIME!

If you are a supporter and have questions about any of what I’ve discussed, feel free to send me a direct message here on Patreon. That’s where I’ll look for them. I’m sure we’ll be able to hash anything out.

Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in the next video,

-BGE