itmeJP Community


itmeJP Community

RollPlay Patreon: Year Two

Initial thoughts:

(1) The new tiers seem an overall improvement in terms of value offered, though the $1 change, while understandable, still feels like business trumping community for those who truly can’t afford the increase. Perhaps this can be mitigated by further explanation of the need for the increase, which leads me to…

(2) Are goal updates imminent? Not only detailing where each of the old goals is at, but new goals (at reasonable increments) should spur growth if we know how much is needed for what.

(3) The tier names seem a bit strange; Voyeur, Thief, Jester … not very positive labels for supporters, and only vaguely connected to their respective rewards. Not a big thing but stood out on first glance.

Anyway, the changes benefit me and I hope they work well going forward.

5 Likes

This is also a thing that i am interested in, Will anything with the current goals change?

We’re looking at other ways to reward everyone, but as far as simply posting the “Title Cards” like we have in the past, it’s totally something we can do!

Yeah. I was very angry with the lack of updates on Blades. They just kinda swept it under the rug and dissapointed me greatly with the quality of their PR. I can’t justify the increase for one or two videos I care about a month gone down to zero with their silent murdering of Blades.

3 Likes

We felt it would be a fun change to title the tiers rather than just label them what they are. Great feedback, though, and we might change them down the line!

As of right now, we’re pretty much set to still honor everything that was their before: 4 quarterly shows, animated shorts, monthly one shots, gear for cast members who need it, etc.

We’re looking to expand this year by offering things such as the signed poster and the party at PAX Unplugged. We’re always exploring different ideas, though, and open to new things as well.

Not trying to be rude, But did you see RollPlay: Blades Update 7/25 ? It explains the blades situation and what they are trying to do.

1 Like

Ok can we get some info about a few things. One, what experiments exactly will or have added costs to Rollplay? Two, I don’t know anything about the way Patreon works, but is it possible to lock a tier? I understand wanting to charge more for the work your doing going forward but was it impossible to grandfather these early adopters in at that old 1$ level? It leaves a really bad taste in my mouth that 600+ people(based on the poll) who supported from the beginning look like they are getting the short end of the stick. Finally for the extra 2$ a month whats going to improve? What exactly does a “increased dedication to producing behind the scenes content” mean for us? Does that mean less cancellations and shows disappearing unexpectedly? I understand things happen and some things can’t be helped, but as you expect more from us as consumers. I think its fair if we start expecting more from the show, in what has always been its biggest area of needs improvement.

5 Likes

I would be more willing to increase my pledge if we got a second full time DM running D&D once a week. The main thing the money should be used for is to hire talents GMs to produce regularly scheduled content. ~$170,000 a year is a ton of money, I wish we could use it for the more important things like shows that meet a schedule. I won’t lie the increase after half of the people in the Patreon poll voted against this puts a sour taste in my mouth.

7 Likes

I totally feel you on this however I do understand the lack of blades episodes isn’t on purpose. Everyone involved loves the show but sometimes things happen outside of their control. Honestly as long as Blades gets a live live show at some point i’ll be happy.

I don’t see a post from him in that thread so he may not have. It should be moved into the Blades section for clarity.

1 Like

^^^^ this. It wasn’t swept under the rug, JP tweeted a few times about scheduling issues and then they posted that thread about Blades when It seemed like a show wasn’t going to be possible.

3 Likes

Thanks for the info! I looked everywhere, Guess it’s my fault ofr not checking General instead of Blades forums :stuck_out_tongue:
Not rude, I was rude

It’s not like JP isn’t trying though.

he can’t just snap his fingers and get people to commit to a show, and find a DM he thinks will fit into Rollplay.

Especially seeing as they’re all content creators and content creators PERSONAL streams or businesses will logically take precedent for the most part over Roll play… This isn’t 2011? 2012? when Twitch was still a small site and streaming wasn’t the industry it is now. That’s what has happened with Blades (at least from where I’m sitting)

As content creators get bigger ll more opportunities open for them, paid events, etc. Wheat has a family and Twitch, Geoff has his own stream as well as Anne. Scheduling isn’t “easy”.

Going to echo some comments above for emphasis. This announcement leaves me with more questions than answers.

  1. What was the deciding factor in moving the $1 tier to $3? The feedback from the community was consistent and negative about that decision. If the answer is, “We still make more money losing 600 people” that’s cool . . . It’d just be nice to have some acknowledgment. Asking for feedback and disagreeing is totally in your purview (obviously) but from a customer service or communication sense, not showing you heard or understood those concerns is worse than not asking.

  2. Statements without a plan are pretty meaningless. So saying “increased dedication to producing behind the scenes content” means . . . What?

  3. What will content be going forward? Just CoS and Nebula Jazz?

I was looking forward to this announcement because I thought it would offer something better to supporters. For a second the battle maps bundled with the ezine sounded awesome–but the sample map was so plain/uninspiring that it undercut my interest in shelling out more money to see the other maps.

So I guess my point is: my take away from this post is

A) some higher tiers have been lowered, but are still huge investments.
B) Battle maps (based on 1 example) are not worth paying for (and the ezine is a fan mag, which is fine but not something I personally find interesting)
C) Low tier costs more money without justification
D) No concrete plans for how things will be improved

9 Likes

Agreed so waiting until a new resident GM is in place before raising the price seems like a smarter option.

3 Likes

I find myself watching DMs who are, or used to be, on Rollplay on their own shows on their own channels, more than I watch Rollplay anymore.

I think for Rollplay to be even more successful, JP has got to find a way to make sure the best content is produced here on Rollplay. That means working on GM retention, too.

Personally, I’m done with pledge/sub for now, but am not against pledging again later if Rollplay has the content I want to watch again.

3 Likes

To me the 1$-3$ increase is not justified at all. You want me to pay now just to look and see if I want to pay more? What kind of reward is that for pledging at all. Also you want people to pay three times as much for a service that they have been been getting for a 1$ pledge for a year now. You have nothing to show them with the new amount other than than saying we will do more. Well maybe do more first and then ask for the increase. Since then that would show that there is some kind of actually value in what you are say.

I have been subbed for a long time and also am donating as well on Pateron, but it’s starting to get a bit to much in my opinion. $5 sub plus $3 donation so $8 a month to watch shows and just see some characters made is asking a lot. I get you want more money to do more, but maybe don’t move the bottom end as much since more people can afford that amount.

Anyway thanks for the shows and the content, but I’ll be stopping my Pateron support more than likely it’s to much of an increase for no proven increase in content.

4 Likes

Welp, I’m out then. As I commented on the poll, I don’t even watch all the behind the scenes stuff, so $3 is not a price I’m willing to pay on top of a $5 sub.

3 Likes

[quote=“tangent42, post:26, topic:1819, full:true”]
Going to echo some comments above for emphasis. This announcement leaves me with more questions than answers.

  1. What was the deciding factor in moving the $1 tier to $3? The feedback from the community was consistent and negative about that decision. If the answer is, “We still make more money losing 600 people” that’s cool . . . It’d just be nice to have some acknowledgment. Asking for feedback and disagreeing is totally in your purview (obviously) but from a customer service or communication sense, not showing you heard or understood those concerns is worse than not asking.

[/quote] This is something i would also like answered.

4 Likes

Yeah I hear that. Well maybe we will get a solid answer about what they are supposed to be actually doing to make the money increase even worth it at this point.

2 Likes