Patreon Reorganisation Plan (Patreon)

As you may recall, one of my 2018 new year resolutions was to start treating Patreon more seriously and to give a bit of love back to the amazing (and amazingly patient with me <3) Patrons who have been supporting yours truly despite her silly antics and lack of discipline. Improvisation has never been my strong suit and when I started this little page I was completely unprepared to receive all the attention and generosity you've given me!

I mean aside from running around in panic, waving my hands and screaming like a madwoman because I think I have that totally mastered by now! If there is one prodigious talent I possess, it's doing a headless chicken impression!

Thank you for putting up with me, I have no idea how you're doing it... (⁎˃ᆺ˂)

But silliness aside, I wouldn't fault you for also expecting a degree of professionalism n_n

So over the last couple of months I've been thinking and trying to come up with improvements to the way I manage this whole Patreon thing. However, while I've had a lot of ideas, deciding which ones to actually implement  turned out to be more complicated than I expected. There's a lot of things I could do to deepen interactions with Patrons, offer better incentives, attract more attention, be more receptive to requests and such.

But... as you might imagine, a lot of those things could turn this Patreon into something... else. Something which I'm not sure I would be comfortable with...

I'd like to believe that my principles are made of solid neutronium but the truth is, I'd be afraid to actually put it to the test. Pursuit of money can get to anyone's head and corrupt even the most idealistic foundations. There is a thin and blurry line between accepting support to offset the expenses of modding and becoming entitled to and dependent on "payment" for "services". I've seen too many of my fellow modders ending up on the wrong side of that line, becoming greedy and out of touch with the very community that elevated them. I wouldn't want to become that and I'm sure nobody else would like it either!

The Prime Directive

Which is why I've established a set of rules which I won't allow myself to violate to ensure that the upcoming improvements to my Patreon serve only to make it better, not worse.

• Access to mod content must remain free. Our mods, or any of their components, will never be available for purchase on Patreon. They will be released for free and no one will be able to buy access to them. This Patreon's purpose is to facilitate voluntary donations, not to serve as a storefront.
• We cannot accept paid commissions regarding IP-related content. It is only through our adherence to Fair Use and by the grace of relevant copyright holders that we continue to create fan works of existing Intellectual Property, motivated not by a promise of profit but by our own passion and love for it. While we know that others share our passion and might want to commission a specific work or works related to it, we simply cannot accept or be influenced by payment with such intent. It would constitute directly profiting off an IP we have no rights to and therefore nullify fair use.
• Patron rewards are an expression of gratitude. They are meant to be, above all, rewards for those who choose to support us, not irresistible incentives. Nothing offered as rewards should be so attractive as to make non-Patrons or lower-tier supporters feel like second-class citizens but it should still make those who are being rewarded feel genuinely appreciated.
• Patreon maintenance must not interfere with modding itself. While I love interacting with Patrons and I always take time to personally reach out to and greet new pledges, I must not forget that everything is secondary to the reason we're all here: mods. Likewise, the form of rewards and their delivery shouldn't be so demanding as to cut into development schedule and priorities.

Considering the above limitations (which I'd like to think are common-sense) I believe that the fairest thing I can offer as exclusive rewards are immaterial things such as information, early sneak peeks and unconfirmed plans that we normally wouldn't share publicly. But I also enjoy delivering it in fun and creative ways (such as the moe roleplay... b-baka!) So far this approach has proven to be successful and (hopefully) as satisfying to the Patrons as it's been to me! So going forward I want to do more of it which brings us to...

The Future of Unannounced Projects

The recently announced Omega, previously known as Project Chocolate Toffee, was our first and only easily definable secret project so far but, admittedly, the format we decided to go with wasn't as conducive to regular newspost delivery as we thought it would be. Since it wasn't in production yet (despite all the production that took place regardless), we didn't have quite as many updates and WIP previews as we usually do for ongoing projects. So the entirety of Chocolate Toffee ended up compressed into only two posts. Not ideal.

So going forward, I'd like to try a different format for Unannounced Projects. Rather than focusing on one project at a time like we do for existing mods, I'll just be posting general updates on what we're interested in doing at some point in the future, where it's currently at and how it relates to our current priorities.

The standard disclaimer applies that due to the nature of unannounced projects, nothing we (un)announce has a set timeframe or is guaranteed to see the light of day at all. And there is no regular schedule for when one of us has a bout of inspiration so the news will continue to be irregular. However, they should at least be more frequent n_n

Speaking of ideas...

Feedback and Polls

We develop mods on our own time and according to our standards and direction. We don't always know what the end result will be but do generally plan well ahead and for the most part stick to that plan (even if sometimes... or quite often... we take liberties with the order of operations).

But it doesn't mean we don't gather feedback or adapt on the fly! Having constructive discussions with users often help us get our priorities straight. As a team, we tend to work well together because we agree on most things, but that occasionally blinds us to things outside our range of perspectives and experience.

Or, in less vague terms, we sometimes come up with the silliest ideas and can be so amazed by out own genius that we don't notice the Xenocidal trait depopulating entire worlds in a matter of months n_n

I want to use polls to help kickstart discussions on features even while they are still in development. Some of those polls will be public, others may pertain to unannounced content or require a smaller sample size.

And when I say "polls" I mean not only multiple choice votes but also open-ended discussions. The idea behind this whole thingy is, after all, to promote communication.

Which actually leads us to...

Senpai Really Likes Your Hair And Can't Wait To Tell You All About it

After an embarrassingly long time, I'd like to finally give the Senpai Loves You tier a fitting reward. Aside from my love <3 I mean I love you but I want to love you more!

...

...umm ~(>_<。)

That... didn't come out right. Let me rephrase it!

Having come to the conclusion that the best and fairest way to reward my Patrons is by interacting more with them, I'd like us to decide on this reward together! I don't want to propose anything that would make anyone uncomfortable or something that's simply not interesting. One idea I had was to invite Patrons of the Senpai Loves You tier and above to Team Nessassity's Discord server where you'd be able to interact with me and other developers (if they wish to) directly and we could get to know one another better and talk about anything, maybe play games together or, the most likely outcome, be harassed all the time by me and my trusty bot ◕ヮ◕

But if that doesn't sound like something you'd be interested in, please let me know! I'm open to other ideas and I do want it to be something we all find fun and rewarding n_n

In any case, I'm tentatively planning to put all of the above Patreon improvements into effect sometime after February. Depending on how much work Team Nessassity is in for post-Cherryh, March may be too busy but hopefully it won't take me too long! It is my New Year resolution after all!

Lunar New Year can have resolutions too... r-right? >.>