16 - Do you want Pledge Rewards?

I think it could change some people's minds because they like to read their name in the video, on the other hand I don't consider a reward as necessary to be able to pledge. The reward shouldn't be the reason to pledge in the first place. I still think it could get more people on the board, viewers and those how pledge. I stumbled opon your videos just yesterday and fell in love with it instantly and I think most of the viewers do - to be able to do YouTube as a job it might just need to access more people.

Lucas Dietrich

Rewards are optional at any pledge level (that is, you can always opt out), so there's not really anything to lose in offering them, besides the effort put in the rewords themselves, and are in general very accepted, and a very easy way to raise a number of pledges. If you can find anything to offer, more power to you!

Riccardo Broccoletti

I half agree with Ryan and Anguel. I'm not personally motivated by reward tiers on Patreon, especially in your case. You spend TONS of time making unbiased reviews, and it's so refreshing. That's why I pledged, personally. But with that said, it's probably fair to say that some people are motivated by reward tiers, although it's hard to know for sure without some statistical analysis. I wonder if Patreon has these kinds of stats? It could be as easy as making 3 tiers. 1 would be no reward, 2 could be getting the video a day early, and 3 could be allowing the opportunity to vote between the next two or three games you're deciding to make your next video on. You could curb any potential disaster from tier 3 by limiting the number of games to vote on, and making sure that they're games you definitely want to review. Just my 2 cents! Keep up the great work. You have the best game reviews on YouTube, in my humble opinions!

Rewards are neat, but I don't really back for rewards. I see your content as sort of ancillary to game development and furthering independent thought on games. I really view it as patronizing(in the old sense) something socially valuable. To me, the biggest reward is your general interaction in the comments. That the videos aren't just the final word on your opinion. Keep that up. I think fielding random questions from backers could be amusing, "Do you like pie?". You ARE an internet personality, so people are innately curious about the man behind the message. Or it could just be the opportunity to ask for a brief answer on a specific point like....nothing brilliant comes to mind atm, maybe "Has your preferred weapon type changed through the Souls series?". Something really minute that someone may be curious about that you're unlikely to answer in the normal pace of the video. Just a couple things tacked on the end. You could ask preemptively, or answer about the previous video. Another thing some people do is one day early access. Of course, that's really just delaying it one day for everyone else. But I've never heard any complaints over this practice, since it's an invisible delay for the non backers. It also promotes discussion within the Patreon page and I imagine bolsters a sense of community among backers. Hope that helps!

Roumenov

I want to be fair about it. I also need to be fair to myself. I'm putting about 60 hours a week into the videos at the moment. Some weeks were going higher than that if I was pushing to make a deadline. That's the main reason I said I wasn't going to give estimates anymore. I don't want to complain about this to the people who are helping support me so please don't take it the wrong way. It's all about trying to attract new support in a fair, responsible way.

I think a scrolling list of names would be preferable to me reading them aloud, right? Not to mention all the names I might mispronounce.

I like this idea but I think it would be too time consuming. I don't want to take away time that I could be using for other videos. Even if it's only a few hours--that's going to add up.

Well the issue is: that exposure isn't happening. The channel grew more in the time between Bloodborne and Uncharted than it has since I published the Uncharted videos. They did next to nothing for attracting new viewers. The channel is growing lately because it's reached a critical mass of people who are telling other people, so the sub number is climbing steadily--which is fantastic, don't get me wrong. But I put in hundreds of hours into the last three videos for so little growth that I can't justify doing it again for a while, unless things change.

Yeah I think pledge anything = early video. And $5 = name at the end of the video. Leave it at that. If I think of something cool that I could do after that then I can add it later.

Thanks! I see your point about 2 dollars but I think it's cleaner just to have it be an early video if you pledge anything. I know it would encourage more people to add another dollar but I want to be able to tangibly say thank you to anyone who's giving any amount of money.

That's one of the biggest drawbacks. I don't think having to add names and a early-access list will be too time consuming. At least I hope not. Maybe some fussing over adding names to the list. I'll have to look into whether it'll be email based or something else. I'm going to make a video in September talking more about this sort of thing. The channel is reaching the point that I can't afford to make long videos like I have since Bloodborne onward.

It's more about giving some token back to people who are contributing some money. And also to encourage some future pledges--just so there's SOMETHING as a thank you since it means a lot. It's also necessary for me to keep making the videos. I'm not sure if I agree about a brand. I definitely don't have an overarching channel theme or mascot or anything like that. But I think people understand that they're going to get an examination of story and/or gameplay in all of my videos. Some shorter ones on how games work in general might help. I choose games based on what I think I'll be able to find something interesting talk about. And what I think will be popular enough so people will want to hear about it.

What kind of Q&A? Like, a chat invitation thing? I don't think that would be good. I've seen that ask.fm site used a lot. I don't think that's a good reward. If I did that it'd be open to anyone.

Rewards are a great way to get more money. Real talk WHY NOT get as much ethical money as possible. Just don't burden yourself if the rewards become too much work. Also the first two tiers you mentioned seem awesome.

Ryan Moye

Yeah I think rewards are a good idea and may attract additional supporters. As long as the rewards stay simple and don't become a burden on you/your work. Day early videos and name in credits are good ideas

You could start with those two tiers you mentioned, they seem very fair. Maybe at >10$ you have "behind the scenes" videos?

Your content is good enough on it's own; all you need is exposure.

video requests and ad space never hurts

arthur D. gonzalez-martin

I don't mind if there are rewards or not, though it would help incentivize others to pledge as well. Personally I don't really have any suggestions on what rewards there can be.

I'd say pledge anything=videos a day early couldn't hurt, but since you seem to be struggling to come up with anything beyond that, don't try to force it.

Rewards don't make me contribute to Patreons but they will make me likely to give a dollar or 2 extra. I'd suggest putting the early videos at 2 dollars. brb going to throw money at you :)

Rewards work for certain types of gaming channels but not for others. If fan involvement is already a feature of the channel, say through twitch or youtube streaming, then it makes sense to add escalating rewards for patrons. For instance, one gamer I watch is going to play Overwatch with his patrons soon. But in games analysis, fans don't contribute much to the process. So, what rewards would make sense? A poll on what game you should analyze next? A Q&A on certain topics? That would encourage comments, but you don't generally give controversial or political analysis on games. If you try a Q&A and it fails, that might have the opposite effect, discouraging discussion. Risky. It all depends on your ultimate goal for the channel. I think you need more of a brand than just "Hi, I'm Joe" before you start pushing patron rewards. Right now it seems like you choose games on a whim rather than on a production schedule. I think the best way to grow your viewership is more consistency, a clearer theme (like "Hi, I'm Joe and I tear apart AAA games), and more videos. Until you can offer tangible stuff, I think you shouldn't worry about patron rewards.

Both seem like pretty good ideas and as they are both pretty standard it seems like they'd draw little flak. The only other pledge rewards I see consistently from videomakers is usually Q&A related which may or may not be something you're interested in doing.

SlayerN

Yeah i think rewards are pretty neat, they attract more people too

Ossian Olausson