Elephant in the room.

What can I say, I do what I love. I still hope that Patreon sees reason in all of this and goes back to what we've had up to this point, but at the same time I'm looking at other options for how to support these projects. If I can find a couple of other viable platforms to share my work, I'll likely sign up for them and diversify things a bit. That way if one platform implodes, I'll still have a safety net through the others.

Aftermath Team

I applaud your dedication to your art. I wish that Patreon would provide a forum in which you might do so.

helvorn

I completely understand. These kinds of changes for anyone supporting multiple creators can be a burden. If you feel that you need to move on due to cost or principal with the change Patreon has decided to do, then that's what you should do. And remember, there's a free version of all my projects, so keep following for updates.

Aftermath Team

have only been on patreon for less than 2 months but it now looks like i might be paying more, this site has a lot of good game makers and would like to support more but my financial situation prevents this

I understand. If you feel you must drop support, it will be sad to see you go, but I feel that its important that we follow our convictions. I know that I've been doing a lot of soul searching over this the last couple of days, and even dropped my support of creators I pledged to. I've lost a LOT of support in the last couple of days, and I figure this is just the tip of the iceberg on the grounds that it hasn't even gone into effect yet, and I've already lost nearly as much support as Patreon claims I'll be making off of this change already. For me, I operate with a tight budget on the home front, and the fact that I am hemorrhaging earnings the last couple of days means I need to plan for what could become a fairly drastic change to my income over this. I had a pretty significant bump to my earnings after the new Inheritance build was released on the first of the month, and even with new pledges coming in fairly steadily, nearly half this month's increase has gone away already with no signs of slowing. At the current rate of loss I'm expecting this to be my first month since starting my Patreon page where my income shrinks. Its my hope that no matter how all of this pans out, that things will stabilize over the next couple of months again. Once I know what to expect and can plan better for it, I'll likely repledge to people that I have supported recently once things can start trending in the right direction again. We all need to do what's right for us, and if people can't afford to support creators, or they want to pull support over the principal of things then that is what they should do. I for one plan to forge forward and keep creating the best games I am able, . . . and when the day is said and done, I hope to come out the other side of this issue surrounded by a host of people who love my work. :D

Aftermath Team

I'm going to be dropping most if not all of my support to creators on Patreon because of the change. Getting charged a flat additional fee per pledge is crazy. It's not like they have a lot of overhead per pledge to cover. It's a money grab which is their right but the patrons also have the right to walk. I'd guess that they end up with less revenue and in impoverished community.

helvorn

Completely understand that. Nearly everything here has to be done electronically, they may need to pay server costs or software costs, but if its all automated, those should be largely one time costs from their perspective. I still think they should just take a 10% or even a 15% cut from creators and leave the supporters alone. As creators, we are effectively running a business, and if you are running a business, you will sometimes take a hit. If those costs need to be passed on to the people paying for the services you provide, then that should be the business owner's decision, not something unilaterally decided for us.

Aftermath Team

As far as conspiracy theories, the one I've seen a couple of times now is that Patreon is trying to create a shift, driving out less popular creators and instead focusing on a smaller group of more popular creators to generate their profit. I know I lost a few people when they changed up their NSFW rules, but that pales in comparison to the hit I'm seeing right now. I've always been of the school of thought that its better to have a larger number of small $$$ supporters over a small number of of big $$$ supporters. Even if it means I don't make as much money, there's stability in having a wide group of people supporting.

Aftermath Team

Do what is right for you guys, As I mentioned above, I understand.

Aftermath Team

Updates should actually be split pretty evenly. I alternate weeks working on Inheritance and Wanton Cove. I just finished up an Inheritance work week and will be shifting back to Wanton Cove this coming week.

Aftermath Team

Not gonna lie, I was seriously considering stopping as well. I mean, most of the updates are about Inheritance these days anyway, which I have never played and don't have much interest in from what I've heard about it

They have clarified it recently: <a href="https://blog.patreon.com/updating-patreons-fee-structure/?_ga=2.90219802.1445042393.1512118891-907754094.1510608333">https://blog.patreon.com/updating-patreons-fee-structure/?_ga=2.90219802.1445042393.1512118891-907754094.1510608333</a>

AbyssalEros

Ah, so they're intentionally decreasing the efficiency of their service? That justifies the extra charge I guess but it's still a terrible idea.

Ver Greeneyes

The new concept assumes that you will be charged 20 times. They have changed the process of charging that you will be charged immediately. And if you pledge at 20 different times (from now on) you will be charged at 20 different times. So in addition of being striped off your money you also lose the overview of the overall amount you are pledging, as it will be charged at different times.

AbyssalEros

I don't personally have a problem with the 2.9% increase - I already pay 21% in sales tax anyway so it's not a big deal. It's the $0.35 *per pledge* that's the real kicker. Look, just because I support 20 creators that doesn't mean I get charged 20 times, and it's not like they get paid the individual pledges of their backers separately either. I guess there's a $0.35 flat charge *per creator* per month, but there are surely way more backers than creators. So spread out the cost across all backers - either $0.35 * [number of creators] / [number of Patreons] per month or $0.35 * [number of creators] / [number of pledges] per pledge per month, I don't care. Simply charging the full $0.35 per pledge is not justifiable.

Ver Greeneyes

Nah, that doesn't make sense; this hits *all* Patreons and creators, not just people interested in NSFW stuff. What *might* have happened is that so many people left the platform after their new ("clarified") NSFW rules that they took a financial hit, and they're trying to offset it with a cash grab. But they have no business sense, and it's probably going to backfire on them.

Ver Greeneyes

Now I am going down the conspiracy path. Those SJW freaks (including the officials at Patreon) have not killed the business of the adult patreon games with there last lash out in banning some content and forcing the creators to set up a pay wall. Now they hit directly against the paying customers in hope they will leave so at the end all the creators of adult games here on patreon have to starve to death because lack of income.

AbyssalEros

You are speaking out my own thoughts. Not that I am a creator myself (at least not with my own Patreon) but those 38% punch in the faces of every patreon hits really hard. By the way you and all the other creators have missed one big issue. It is not a critism but a pointer, most of the patrons support more then one creator in my case I support several patrons for a sum of 43$. An increase of 38%, in $ this are 16,34$, would mean a total amount of 59,34$. (I know the math is not quite accurate!) And as hard as it is, that is too much to pay regularly for me so I will surely reduce my supported patreons because of the shit Patreon has now released as an innovation. And I cannot, not in the slightest, understand creators who have no issues with that. These creators who announce that they find this change good, because they will have more money at the end of the month for themselves and their creations will be the first I will drop and I hope that most patrons will do the same.

AbyssalEros

That's about 2 dollars extra a month, that's a decent steam game a year like this one <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/723090/agecheck." rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://store.steampowered.com/app/723090/agecheck.</a> Right now that money goes nowhere, the creators aren't getting it! It's a big deal! I had around 15-20 1-2 dollar backs, try to imagine how many Extra games I could by a year! Or two bottles of fine wine!

waffel

I respect that. I am one of those $1 Patrons to 6 people (I switch around occasionally because there are a lot of games I like and want to support) I have yet to decide if I am going to remain with 6, or if I will drop one to keep it closer (enough?) to the same number.

CLevGo

The people I'm most worried about are the $1 people. I think this sucks for everyone, but they are the ones who are going to be hurt the worst. Whenever I get a new pledge, I check out their personal page, I see people pledging to a dozen or more creators all the time, that HAS to hurt their ability to support the people they follow. I don't know what, if anything,, I'll be able to do about the situation from my end, but adjusting pledge levels is something I've been thinking about. At the moment, I'm just stewing over the whole thing and seeing what the community as a whole has for ideas to deal with this (Been spending a lot of time this evening (I guess its morning now) looking at different forums and seeing what people are saying about the change and how to deal with it.) Right now, I'm doing my best to gather the facts and avoid a knee jerk reaction. I suspect that better minds than mine are working on solutions, . . .

Aftermath Team

One of the other Patrons I follow sent a simaler message earlier, and they changed the price of there rewards levels to try and balance out this change in policy (except $1 patrons, not much you can do for them I guess) I don't know if this is feasable for you, but I thought I would throw it out there and see if it sticks to the wall.

CLevGo