Big Update to Our Reward Tiers

Hey everyone!

I'll open by saying "thanks". We've been running this campaign for over 15 months now, and it's been more successful than we could have hoped. Your continued generosity and support has been life-changing.

In those 15 months, we've learned some things about running a campaign like this. We joined Patreon when it was still relatively new, and our observations have helped us revise our reward structure in a way that will help us deliver more of the cool rewards you like.

In designing these tiers, we had a couple of goals in mind:

1. We absolutely don't want to take anything away from you. If you were backing at a certain level, you will continue to receive those rewards.

2. We want to provide a bigger variety of tiers for backers to choose from, and to simplify what's available at those tiers so you can be sure of exactly what you'll get.

3. We want to make it clear that if you feel in any way burned by this change, you can email us at kole@duckfeed.tv and we will try to make it right.

With those things in mind, it's with great excitement that I announce the new Patreon Backer Reward Tiers.

$1.00+: Blog and Goodies

* Access to the backer blog. Every week, Gary and I write articles for our Backer Blog, detailing what goes into making the shows we make. Articles run the gamut from thoughtful pieces about games and culture, through to technical videos and writeups showing the ins-and-outs of podcast production.

* Watch Out for Fireballs! Polls. This tier also gets you access to our quarterly WOFF! game selection polls.

* Digital Goodies. Intermittently, we come up with cool random digital goodies or events. Being a backer nets you access to these.

$2.00+: Slack

* Access to the Duckfeed.tv Slack. Do you want to hang out in a cool chat room with Duckfeed hosts and fans? Backing at this tier or above gets you access to our public Slack channel.

* You also get all of the rewards from the lower tiers.

$3.00+: Early Release

* Access to our Early Release feed. Backing at this tier lets you download and listen to all of our network shows the day before they release to the general public.

* You also get all of the rewards from the lower tiers.

$5.00+: Duckfeed Live Question/Prompt Priority

* Duckfeed Live priority. Each month, we'll hold a public video stream where we answer your questions and respond to your prompts. Backers at this tier will get priority for their questions on the Patreon backer feed.

* You also get all of the rewards from the lower tiers.

$6.00+: Abject Suffrage / Premium Suffering

* An extra premium episode of Abject Suffering per month! And you get to vote for what game we cover! Each month we'll put out a poll of our most-requested Abject Suffering games. You get to vote on which one we play, and then you get exclusive access to that episode for a month. After that month, the episode will fall into our store with all of the other premium content. So it always stays special.

* You also get all of the rewards from the lower tiers.

$10.00+: Monthly Postcard

* You get a postcard from us each month. Pretty much what it says above. Each month you will get a special postcard with a funny design from the network on the front, and a personal message on the back. (NOTE: If you are a backer who lives outside of the U.S., you will receive a special package each quarter with the postcards you're owed... Sending postcards internationally each month is quite costly).

* You also get all of the rewards from the lower tiers.

$15.00+: Abject Suffering Determination Raffle

* You get a chance to pick a game for us to cover on Abject Suffering. Each month, we'll do a random drawing from the backers at this tier. The winner gets to determine a game we'll cover for Abject Suffering. (NOTE: If the game is unreasonably difficult to obtain or emulate, we will likely ask you to pick again).

* You also get all of the rewards from the lower tiers.

$20.00+: Quarterly Care Package

* Quarterly Care Package. Once per quarter, you will receive an envelope stuffed with network goodies. Pitch ephemera, stickers, actual notecards from our recording/playing sessions... It's all in play. (NOTE: This reward used to be part of our $25.00+ tier, but we're dropping it to $20 because we're now sending them out quarterly).

* You also get all of the rewards from the lower tiers.

$25.00+: T-Shirt Raffle

* A chance to win a free network t-shirt. Once a month, we'll perform a drawing to determine who wins a chance to get a free t-shirt with a network in-joke design on it. This design will be one-of-a-kind for three months before we potentially offer it up for sale.

* You also get all of the rewards from the lower tiers.

What about Duckfeed Live?

One big change we're making is that the Duckfeed Live video streams will now be accessible to everyone, in order to make the event more of a party. Backers at the $5+ tiers will still get priority for question/prompt answering, and you can follow along in the Slack channel as well.

What's This About Premium Abject Suffering?

We want to make more episodes of Abject Suffering. We also know that the people who back us on Patreon, our biggest fans, and the people who listen to Abject Suffering all form a fairly tight venn diagram. So we want to release an extra episode of Abject Suffering each month. It will be a premium episode chosen BY YOU in a poll put out to our $6+ backers.

This episode will only be available for a month, to the backers who funded it, before it falls into the Duckfeed store. This way, it always stays premium.

##In Conclusion

I'd like to say "thanks" again. You're helping us make the kind of show we want to make, on our terms. Your continued support is humbling, and I really hope you like the new stuff we have on offer.

Again, if you have any questions, concerns, or complaints, please email me at kole@duckfeed.tv.

Have a great day, everybody.

Kole