IMPORTANT NEWS: We have to rework our Patreon
Added 2020-10-26 23:44:44 +0000 UTC[See end of post for the edits!]
Hello folks!
Patreon requires us to remove content that is in violation with their community guidelines and of course we will follow suit and remove said content.
There was a lot back and forth and apparently several misconceptions about the content we offer, so it took a while to sort things out and figure out the scope of the changes that had to be made.
The following is a rough summary.
Deathblight RPG - Operation Thunderfang:
Despite the non-consensual content in the game, we always believed our game content falls under "survivor stories" and thus, according to Patreon's community guidelines, it would be okay.
But apparently this is not the case and we are required to take the game down from Patreon.
As it is a free game, the latest build will be made available on the blog for free as usual.
There will be no further progress made on the game due to the lack of funding, as we stick to our promise of never selling this game and thus it makes no sense to put our own money into it when we can't sell it, it was a purely Patreon funded project after all.
We will however release the Catheline Job update sometime in the future on the blog for free, as all the graphics for this one had already been completed, and it would be a waste to not release it, even if it takes additional time, I (Wolfenstahl) will work on it during my free time.
We sincerely apologize for these additional delays, the last couple months have been truly wild and this is just another bad news for us in 2020 that keeps bogging us down, but we will push the long awaited update out eventually.
Past this there will be no further updates though.
Monthly speedpaints:
There will also be changes in regards to our speedpaints.
Since some of them are not 100% clearly consensual and due to the nature of a single artwork lacking context and thus being debateable, we will basically remove almost all NSFW speedpaints from Patreon as well, so we are surely on the safe side.
It is simply too subjective and unpredictable for us as what kind of NSFW artworks are okay and which ones are in violation, as for example BDSM or rough sex can be viewed as "non-consensual", and there is no truly safe way to be on the safe side but removing this content entirely.
Patreon did not ask us to remove all the NSFW content, but due to us being unable to clearly identify which ones are in violation or not, we decided it is safer to remove most of it to be on the safe side.
After all, we do not wish to get into trouble, and we do not wish to get Patreon into trouble either.
The future:
We will rework our Patreon page completely in the next couple days to reflect these changes.
Furthermore we will be offering the Deathblight webcomic plus a new SFW webcomic which will be both funded via this Patreon campaign.
Speedpaints will most likely become SFW or "ecchi" (nude/sexy) only.
But there will be no full on sex to avoid any sort of potential trouble.
We understand that people will be upset about this and we sincerely apologize for this, but please understand that we merely want to stay on the safe side and we believe this is the only way to guarantee it.
We are thinking about potentially handing out SFW versions of our future games as loyality bonus on Patreon as well.
This is however not a main reward and really something you shouldn't pledge to us for, as our games will also be sold on platforms like Steam, as usual, where you can pick them up at a cheaper price.
So please only support us if you wish to support us for other reasons, or if you like to support us because you love our characters and stories, or simply want to support us as people (by us I mean: Cres and Wolf).
Outside of Patreon we will still do NSFW games since we are traditionally a self funded hentai game developer.
(since 2012, years before Patreon existed)
You will be able to pick these games up on DLSite or other storefronts as usual.
A Subscribestar campaign will also be upcoming for folks who want to pledge to us for lewd speedpaints without restrictions.
So you can get your usual content over there.
This content will NOT be made available to supporters on Patreon due to us separating these things.
So you have to go over to Subscribestar to be eligible for it.
Here is the link to the campaign that is currently being set up, it's not done yet, but keep an eye on this one:
https://subscribestar.adult/deathblight
Finally let me say:
We understand that Patreon needs to enforce these changes in order to not get into trouble with payment providers, so we will of course follow through with the necessary steps.
We apologize to everyone who is disappointed by this turn of events, but unfortunately things are as they are.
Since these changes happen all of a sudden, we need a couple days to set everything in motion and also announce the new webcomic.
After all, every end is also the start of something new.
Keep an eye out for these changes and announcements, and we hope that most of you stay on board with us.
We are very thankful for your support all these years, but we can perfectly understand if some of you are leaving because of these drastic changes.
It is perfectly understandable if you don't want to support us any longer, and as always, please think of yourself first and foremost.
We can only hope that you check out our future content if you come across it, and perhaps there's something you enjoy among it.
At any rate, thank you very much.
We love all of you!
Sincerely,
Wolfenstahl & Crescentia
P.S:
We are currently waiting for permission to make the correspondence we had with Patreon available to you, and will upload it in full once we heard back from Patreon.
Since we believe that transparency and honesty are the most important things, we feel it is only right if you get insight into this, as well as understand that Patreon is not "the bad guy" here.
They simply have to do what they are required to do by payment processors in order to stay in business, even if the process itself is a bit clunky and could need a bit of refinement.
Please be understanding of this, thank you very much.
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EDIT:
We have now recieved permission to share our correspondence with Patreon with you.
Names and email adresses were blanked out for privacy reasons.
You can find the zip file in the post attachment.
Furthermore we have completed setting up our Subscribestar campaign,
so you can pledge over there now too if you like:
https://subscribestar.adult/deathblight
EDIT 2:
Hoi, I just wanted to let ya all know that we aren't under review anymore since we completed removing the content Patreon asked us to remove.
Also in case you haven't noticed yet, we also reworked the reward tiers, so please take a look at them if you haven't done so yet^^
I guess I will make a seperate post about the reworks, once we are ready to start off our new projects and reworked the frontpage and stuff.
Also I added the complete story of screenshots in the attachments, in case ya folks are interested in reading the whole correspondence we had with Patreon.
Comments
It's because PayPal has been known to cut people off their accounts with no warning (they bend the knee to the sjw crap)
FlareRazor
2020-10-29 05:13:31 +0000 UTCReally sad to see things go the way they are. I use to like patreon. Going to start canceling most of my pledges on the service and start to look into signing up for subscribestar. I hope most people do follow you over to the new and safer platform ^^
silvarknite
2020-10-28 16:00:52 +0000 UTCWell I heard bad things about patreon for a while now, this is just a retelling of a tale I heard so many times... Good thing though that the alternative is allready set up. I'll just change the payment channel and be done with it, I would even say that they harm themself with this policy, but whatever. I guess I won't just speak for myself if I say that I continue to support you guys, be the platform we use called patron, subscribestar or something else. You do amazing work and that is what counts!
Akira Nekory
2020-10-28 11:03:35 +0000 UTCYea talking about the graphics Cres has already done. If you don't plan on continuing it would be nice to share; some of us have been waiting so long and its sad we'll never see it completed
Klaustraphobic
2020-10-28 01:26:59 +0000 UTCI am extremely sad to see this. I had always looked forward to more Deathblight RPG, it was actually how I originally found you guys. and it breaks my heart to never see it finished. I'll still support you all on subscribestar because of love the art and characters.
Akio Senpai
2020-10-28 00:36:41 +0000 UTCWow, I quickly went through the Patreon email screenshots you uploaded and I felt bad just reading them. I can't believe Patreon have become this vile - they would go so far as to link specific pieces of your work, along with their descriptions, environments and even speedpaint poll titles and JUDGE you (and by extension us, your patrons) as to how that content is considered unacceptable. The icing on the cake was that the guys/gals acting as your judge, jury and executioner weren't even capable of downloading your game to "review" it because it is only available for Windows and they had a Mac...just WOW. They even asked you to give them a Let's Play/walkthrough of the game instead, hahaha, holy shit. Since these people apparently have the time and willingness to dig through NSFW creators' archives, it makes me wonder how many times they have jacked off to content that they themselves are banning...I can't believe you are trying to defend Patreon as it is obvious from these humiliating emails that you are frustrated as well. It is good that you posted this correspondence, however, as it will serve as the ultimate warning to any aspiring NSFW creators who think Patreon has their best interests at heart.
MartinX
2020-10-27 22:10:42 +0000 UTCWow. Im about ready to up and leave Patreon. Subscribestar is looking really nice...
silvarknite
2020-10-27 22:01:16 +0000 UTCI still can't believe they're censoring fantasy. The internet isn't safe anymore. What's next? Pornhub gets taken down? For fucks sake.
Brandon Pike
2020-10-27 21:25:46 +0000 UTCyes, unfortunately subscribestar doesn't support paypal payment :/
Crescentia
2020-10-27 20:44:05 +0000 UTCPlease re-submit your speedpaint suggestion on subscribestar^^
Crescentia
2020-10-27 20:43:22 +0000 UTCI just see that you can't pay with paypal ...
KakashiHyuuga
2020-10-27 20:15:02 +0000 UTCJust found the answer to my previous quesiton, so I will ask this. Will we need to resubmit speed paint suggestion over at subscribstar or will if we have the same account name they will automatically be transfered over?
Sir Balto
2020-10-27 20:04:50 +0000 UTCWe are known to be honest and transparent people. Which means we are honest to everyone, including Patreon, we're not having double standards or picking who we want to be honest towards or not. We're just plain honest to everyone, and believe that this is the correct approach to matters. We already do the thing you suggested with the supporter only channels. However! Note that has been in play ever since we made the Discord 2+ years ago. It's not meant as a means for loopholes and in fact, as we speak, Wolf is seperating he Patreon and the Subscribestar roles into channels, so the Patreon ones do NOT see NSFW related content that could potentially be in breach with Patreon's guidelines. Besides, a month more or less would have made absolutely no difference. And this isn't a defeatist style of post, it is just the truth and a reasonable approach to the matter. I understand you're angry and disappointed about the changes. But there's literally nothing else we could have done. We are well aware that some people who had been asked by Patreon to make changes in the past, made a stubborn "last stand" and reacted unreasonably and I'd almost say "in a childish manner". There's nothing gained in acting cool and tough, and just picking a useless fight and having your entire Patreon shut down rightfully so. We are interested in a reasonable, stable, long term solution. After all Patreon enabled us to do what we do for years now. Losing the entire support from Patreon would just mean we won't create ANY sort of content (SFW or NSFW) at all anymore. That would truly be the end. And I'd argue that a reasonable compromise is to be prefered instead of ending things completely. Furthermore, we didn't present the post as if it was the end of the world. Because the show will go on. We're working on new things as we speak. And we do hope that folks look forward to these.
Crescentia
2020-10-27 19:46:16 +0000 UTCUnfortunately I do not think everyone would move over. And we do need the support to be able to stay afloat. The SFW webcomics were planned for months now, so it's not that we're being forced to do something we didn't already planned to do. As for DB RPG, we already explained in the post why this doesn't work out. There's nothing we can realistically do about this. Thank you very much for your support!
Crescentia
2020-10-27 19:30:29 +0000 UTCI don't really understand the defeatist style of this post and the approach taken. What prevented you from essentially continuing operations as normal for at least a month by switching to Discord as the main method of communication with your patrons? You could have created Discord channels only accessible to verified patrons where you could temporarily conduct the speedpaint polls and post the NSFW stuff, while still getting the funding from a technically SFW Patreon. Of course, verifying pledges every month via a Discord bot or manually is not really sustainable, so like I said, it could have just served as a temporary buffer while people learn about the situation and switch to Subscribestar (which honestly you should have set up long ago knowing that Patreon fucks its creators harder than your own characters get fucked). You didn't have to present this post as if it was the end of the world - the platform doesn't really matter to the patrons who want to see your content.
MartinX
2020-10-27 18:52:32 +0000 UTCHonestly, its a shame. I love your content and i will still support you, never the less it makes me supporting people via patreon kinda a questionable affair, given you are certainly not the only ones having to deal with those changes.
Andreas Klärner
2020-10-27 18:15:22 +0000 UTCTime to switch. See you on the other side.
Todi
2020-10-27 18:00:54 +0000 UTCHmmm. now the question is whether I use patreon or the new site. because i want to support all projects. and a shame about the rpg. because i would have been happy about a finished version. but it would make sense on the new page. because one has more freedom than patreon.
KakashiHyuuga
2020-10-27 17:19:35 +0000 UTCPatreon is a slowly sinking ship at this point. They've removed everyone and everything from it that had any value to me whatsoever and not even all of it was sexual. To be frank, I fully believe you should close up shop on patreon entirely after the bulk of people have come and seen the switch. The more people allow them to have a cut of their money the more they will continue to do this. Frankly I urge everyone here to drop patreon in it's entirely and jump to subscribestar. I also would love to see Db rpg moved to there since that is a large drive for many of us to be here and even if progress has to take a dip during this transitional period I really doubt many would mind. Good luck with the transition and I'll hopefully see all of you on the other side .
A Random Dood
2020-10-27 16:01:47 +0000 UTCWe don't want to promise anything we can't keep. So we'll just have to wait and see. Potentially, anything is possible. But realistically it's probably not going to happen.
Crescentia
2020-10-27 14:23:58 +0000 UTCThe graphics alone won't do much for the game. If you mean posting the graphics online? We haven't decided on that yet. As I explained in one of the comments above, continuing DB RPG with Subscribestar funding isn't feasible, we estimate funding of less than 1000 USD per month on Subscribestar, but a single CG scene costs more than that. Progress would be even more painfully slow than it already is. That's just the mistake of picking soft-shading over cel-shading and going completely overboard with the project. So I'm afraid that's no option. But thank you very much for considering to support us over there!
Crescentia
2020-10-27 13:49:36 +0000 UTCThe SFW content will be posted on Subscribestar too. Basically our idea is to turn Subscribestar into funding NSFW content, and Patreon only gets the SFW stuff. So you don't need to pledge to both the get all the stuff we do, you only need one^^
Crescentia
2020-10-27 13:40:09 +0000 UTCWill the SFW stuff be posted to subscribestar as well, or is that Patreon exclusive? Gonna support you guys eitherway, most likely on ss
Omega_Advocate
2020-10-27 13:08:51 +0000 UTCi'm ready to pledge on your subscribestar whenever its really ready now, since i'm here for basically why patreon want you to remove, if you move it to subscribestar, i'll just follow
Quentin Overlord
2020-10-27 11:05:31 +0000 UTCYeah I'll be taking my support off here and supporting twice as much on subscribestar out of spite. Patreon is being hilariously hypocritical about all this, and I know you don't want us to hate them but... They've kinda earned it at this point...
Spectral Waltz
2020-10-27 10:20:01 +0000 UTCALL Game Canceled Webcomic SFW soon 5 years of fidelity screwed up We have nothing left I have no more confidence, Subscribestar is like Patreon 5 years ago they are not yet popular, but they will take the same road as here one day...
Oaken
2020-10-27 08:43:44 +0000 UTCSucks to hear about the RPG. Any Chance you will continue to work on it in the Future, if there will be enough Revenue through Subscribestar for example? I personally wouldn't mind paying for it, either. Nevertheless, godspeed in your endeavors and stay healthy :)
Jim Panse
2020-10-27 07:12:42 +0000 UTCI've been here since the beginning, but let me say I'm getting real tired of every site pulling this. I plan to stick with you guys as long as I can, do what you have to. I get why they have to do it, but just really ticks me off.
Kai Zoegret
2020-10-27 05:08:53 +0000 UTCWhat about the stuff that's already done? Seems like a waste to never release it. Would you guys ever consider getting it funded on subscribestar? Would legit do it to let you guys continue
Klaustraphobic
2020-10-27 03:51:39 +0000 UTCWe haven't decided if we want to use pixiv fanbox too
Crescentia
2020-10-27 03:02:24 +0000 UTCAs I said in another comment above: Only about 30% of the graphics for Esmoda are done. With no funding we can't finish work on Esmoda. And we also can't sell the game due to our promise.
Crescentia
2020-10-27 03:01:43 +0000 UTCThat's the plan^^ Patreon will more or less become SFW. You have to follow us on other plattforms to get NSFW content
Crescentia
2020-10-27 03:00:30 +0000 UTCOnly about 30% of the graphics for Esmoda are done. With no funding we can't finish work on Esmoda. And we also can't sell the game due to our promise.
Crescentia
2020-10-27 02:59:18 +0000 UTCWe wrote in detail about the future of DB RPG in the post above. Please read that section for the full answer.
Crescentia
2020-10-27 02:57:24 +0000 UTCyes, we will upload the archives to Subscribestar after we set everything up^^
Crescentia
2020-10-27 02:55:44 +0000 UTCPatreon isn't forcing us to not sell it, this has nothing to do with Patreon. We promised our supporters years ago that we won't sell it. And we do stick to our word.
Crescentia
2020-10-27 02:54:18 +0000 UTCThis will likely mean all my funding will be removed from patron and go to subscribe star.
NGW
2020-10-27 02:52:09 +0000 UTCwell this sucks. ever think of opening up a pixiv fanbox or no?
Brian Bayot
2020-10-27 02:19:21 +0000 UTCSo what about the Esmoda stuff then? Will that ever be released?
Klaustraphobic
2020-10-27 01:56:54 +0000 UTCPatreon has become cancerous and betrays it's own community more and more every day, just like youtube has. Jump ship, head for elsewhere like subscribestar. No reason to stick with this trash when the people that made this site are unwanted. Patreon wants to be the next tumblr? They can die like tumblr did.
Tokamara
2020-10-27 01:30:31 +0000 UTCIt’s really sad what they are doing to you. Honestly I think a lot of people would follow you over to another platform. Even if you split the platform this one for SFW the other for nsfw
sib
2020-10-27 01:14:15 +0000 UTCPatreon was quite happy to have hentai artists when he was not yet popular, he was not so selective ... Now that they're well established, it's time to play shock and a shot at all hentai artists and sexual content... this site has become unliveable and bad For Deathblight rpg will be stopped with Catheline? won't there be a new dungeon with Esmoda ?
Oaken
2020-10-27 01:03:40 +0000 UTCwill you still be doing the normal DB RPG? i really hope so that game was alot of fun
Beta Helicon
2020-10-27 00:45:50 +0000 UTCHow can patreon force you to not sell the game offsite? If they want it down so bad, they can't dictate what you do with it once they ban it from here. I can understand if there was some legal stuff if you were using some known IP, but this is YOUR creation, not theirs.
Esteban Ramon
2020-10-27 00:22:00 +0000 UTCI know the feeling, going to find a different way to support them.
Archer
2020-10-27 00:20:52 +0000 UTCBeen here since paperheads. Never leaving. Best content and creators.
Brandon Pike
2020-10-27 00:20:00 +0000 UTCBye bye patreon, my sole reason for using you is gone rofl
Brandon Pike
2020-10-27 00:18:52 +0000 UTCUnfortunately we do not plan to fund DB RPG via Subscribestar. Our estimation is that our Subscribestar will be below 1000 USD per month, and a single DB RPG CG scene costs well over 1000 USD. It is not sustainable unless we get a really generous amount of support over on Subscribestar. This is due to the soft-shading and over the top variations that need a lot of time to be drawn, compared to cel-shading which is much simpler and only eats about 33-50% of the time a soft-shading artwork needs. Furthermore our promise of not going to sell DB RPG is shooting us in the leg here. But we do not go back on our promises. We will work on other, similar projects in cel-shading though, but as we said in the post above, you will be able to buy these on websites like Steam or DLSite.
Crescentia
2020-10-27 00:17:32 +0000 UTCIt’s unfortunate, but you’re doing what’s best
Roland Knight
2020-10-27 00:12:30 +0000 UTC"We understand that Patreon **needs to enforce these changes in order to not get into trouble with payment providers**, so we will of course follow through with the necessary steps." BULL SH*T! It's their own policies and behavior that got them into the current sh*t they are in and they still keep digging further... If you keep sawing the branch you sit on, you will fall. Do not believe for a second they aren't where they truly deserve to be. To any artist: I really recommend making Patreon the "additional" way of making money than the "primary" way.
EnterTheNameHere Bohemian
2020-10-27 00:07:16 +0000 UTCIt's a shame that the payment providers force Patreon to come down on awesome creators like you guys. Once you give the word that your Subscribestar is ready, I'll drop the support here and switch over immediately. Looking forward to everything you continue doing!
Game Salamander
2020-10-27 00:01:33 +0000 UTCThe jump to subscribestar is good. Will the archives be posted over there?
Ethranoch
2020-10-27 00:00:58 +0000 UTCUnfortunate to see this, but Patreon's really been getting their panties in a twist lately. I'm ready to support you on Subscribestar the minute it goes ready.
Genis94
2020-10-27 00:00:28 +0000 UTCIt's a shame that it's come to this, a true end of an era, but onwards and upwards and I look forward to supporting your future endeavors too. Very excited for Muramasa which was going to be SFW anyway, just means I also create a Subscribestar account now haha
MadChemist19
2020-10-26 23:59:40 +0000 UTCI hope so, if its on subscribestar I will immediately head there, I already dropped one on here for Remarry
Esteban Ramon
2020-10-26 23:54:54 +0000 UTCSo patreon support will be used to fund the webcomic and a SFW comic now correct? No games or anything ? Will the RPG game be supported by funding from a different source?
Archer
2020-10-26 23:51:05 +0000 UTCSeriously, what a fucking drag. Will you do the same on subscribestar, if so I will provide support there. I like yours and the prison one from another creator a lot. Fetish aside it shows a lot of creativity. I hope you can continue the RPG because its super interesting, and willing to help if you try on the other one
Esteban Ramon
2020-10-26 23:49:37 +0000 UTC
