Quick Request and a Note About Changing Subscription Tiers Maliciously (Patreon)

Two quick things that have come up that I've put off talking about for awhile now:

Sharing the Game

I've never really requested this formally but I'm going to ask that those who subscribe to the game don't share it. I realize this is the internet and everything is pirated. Honestly, this game has done pretty well with piracy overall in comparison to others and I have you guys to thank for that. I'm going to remind the supporters that the financial support is still viewed as donation based as I currently release my own game for free within a couple weeks. The ultimate purpose of this game remains a significant reason that I'm offering the game for free because I want it to hit a large audience, regardless of how much money I make from it. There is nothing really extra provided to the supporters other than early access. The free version is the exact same version released to those who choose to support. While I'm not expecting to get rich off this game, the hundreds of hours that I put into it each month(s) helps compensate the time that I could spend with my own family or playing games that I enjoy playing. I'll also remind you that proceeds collected during the Patreon campaign have also been used to purchase and upgrade my own computer for the sole purpose of creating this game. Long-term, I would like to be able to hire other people to help, expanding the team to improve the overall quality of the game far beyond it's current state. Early sharing and less revenue severely restricts my ability to do that and essentially is slowing the growth of the game you're paying to support in the first place.

While I understand that the internet cannot--and honestly, should not-- be controlled, I will humbly ask that you don't share the game or post the paid version on other sites. I'll go a somewhat passive-aggressive step further and state this includes the guy who keeps posting it on gaytorrent every month within a couple days of release. This seriously stunts the game's ability to grow and in no way helps suggest the potential success others could achieve by creating their own games. While I'm open to the community publicly promoting the game elsewhere (and honestly encourage it), I would appreciate this to only be the current free version. 

Changing Patreon Tiers

The second issue to address involves people changing Patreon tiers between billing cycles to unlock content maliciously. Many of you have financial changes during the month and may wish to modify your pledge. The way things are set-up now, you are welcome to do this at any time and honestly I welcome this. The last thing I want is for someone to fall upon a personal hardship because they contributed to my project. Some of you have struggled with this in the past following a billing cycle and you contacted me. For those whom had interactions like this, I was able to refund your contribution and honestly, I wasn't worried if you got content for free because I'm not an asshole. 

The concern here is that some individuals will join the page, pledge a set amount and download the content and then quickly drop their pledge without being charged. For example, someone will follow the page until an update comes out then update their pledge to $5 or $10 to see the new update/pic then drop it back down again immediately. Because this occurs before Patreon charges on the 1st of the month, their account is never charged. This runs pretty frequent after update release as you can imagine. While it's annoying from a creator standpoint, the sad part is that some people do it repeatedly as if they've discovered a way to beat the system. I want to point out when a member changes tiers, I get a notification on my phone and an email every time this happens. In other words, regardless of what I'm doing in my day, I get interrupted by Patreon and notified twice of those followers who are trying to cheat including broadcasting your user name and email address. I've banned some of these asshats in the past because they did it constantly but I try to refrain from doing this, not wanting to incorrectly ban someone who genuinely made an error. 

The obvious solution to this is to modify my Patreon account to charge people upfront. While I'm ok with the theory of this, I have declined to do this because Patreon will not allow me to ever change the account back. Even worse, Patreon would not allow me to pause charges for a month if I were to change the account. In other words, if I want to take a month completely off, the community would still be charged!

Thus, similar to the first point, I'm going to humbly ask people not to try and take advantage of the system so that I can keep the current system in place. It gives supporters more options and is congruent with my vision of making this a donation-based system without pressure for supporters. Additionally, it protects you and allows you to drop support in the wake of dissatisfaction or even production delays. I want you to have these options because I would want the same thing if I was subscribing. Hopefully, for those who have been malicious about this in the past, the knowledge that it's impossible for me to go through my daily routine without knowledge of you quickly changing tiers will deter the activity. 

Conclusion

In conclusion, if you've posted the paid version elsewhere, I would appreciate if you removed it to help keep the integrity of the project here and not distract my attention to other matters that can slow game development and content. If you've maliciously taken content by manipulating the Patreon website, don't worry about compensation. I've already forgiven you; but I'll ask that you stop because it's distracting to me and it's insultingly obvious when it occurs.

If you have questions or comments, don't hesitate to hit me up. I seriously appreciate the support and I can never thank you guys enough for all you do to support me and the game development.

Sincerely,

-Aaryn