matthewmatosis
patreon
An Actual Blog Post
🕑 Added 2018-03-05 00:26:33 +0000 UTC Hello everyone, I don’t have any major news this time, I just thought it might be nice to give a little update on how everything’s going.First of all I want to say thank you for helping us reach the goal on this page. Over the last couple years I’ve been dipping into my savings which have depleted a fair amount. I realise that’s my own fault but I hope it’s clear that my sparse updates came from a place of caring too much, not too little. That hardly makes it better but it is what it is. I suspect when we’re done with this batch of videos there’ll be another hiatus but at least for now I don’t have to worry about the bank statements going down, so that’s a load off my mind. I know I come off like a robot sometimes but your generosity is much appreciated, thank you.
If you’ve read my older posts you’ll know that I moved out of my apartment back in October. The new place is both cheaper and bigger, with the only major downside so far being that there’s no internet connection yet. At first this didn’t bother me but it is starting to grate on me a bit now that it’s been several months. I have to do everything over mobile internet. The Devil Daggers video took 16 hours to upload, although thankfully I was able to get a 4G connection for the other two videos so they only took a few hours each. Anyway I’m in the process of getting that sorted out now and hopefully when I get up and running I’ll be able to do some streams. I’d like to do shorter, more frequent streams but we’ll see how it turns out.
Apart from that, the new place is working out very nicely. The number of little improvements to my day to day life is too numerous to list but suffice to say it’s been a huge deal. Perhaps most importantly of all, I now have a dedicated office/game room. I’ve been able to put most of my games on clear display on shelves for the first time in about 15 years which is just wonderful. Being able to see my games at a glance reminds me of the things I want to talk about so it’s already been kind of inspirational. I find it much easier to get into a good play session now which has helped me to make some dents in my backlog too. This year I’d like to cross off my most shamefully unplayed games in an effort to expand my knowledge and maybe find some good video fodder along the way.
Being out in the country, the new place is much more quiet. I was actually able to record some audio for the Devil Daggers video in the middle of the day which would’ve been unthinkable before. We lived overlooking a busy road which meant constant noise until about 10pm most nights. I still haven’t gotten used to it here. Recently I decided to record a tutorial video for Bayonetta on a whim and was able to get it over and done with in no time. That’ll be going up on the second channel whenever I get a proper connection. Most of my consoles can stay set up and the cables are much tidier and easier to swap out. I can browse a shelf, pull a game off and play it. Overall there’s just so much less hassle between thinking about doing something and actually doing it.
As for what’s next, I’ll be starting the Zachtronics series soon. The SpaceChem script needs some work so there might be a small delay as I get that one ready but after that it should be smooth sailing. The Infinifactory and TIS-100 scripts are complete, Shenzhen I/O and Opus Magnum are very far along. I’m hoping to finish up these videos in quick succession then release them every two weeks as normal, freeing up some time for me to work on the following videos and hopefully tackle a commentary I’ve been wanting to do for a long time. I actually recorded the footage for it back in January 2017 but decided it would be too indulgent to disappear for many months just to come back with one video so soon after the DMC commentary. Anyway, I don’t want to say what game that one is about - I’m still not even sure I’ll be able to turn it into a good video - but you should probably assume it’s one that doesn’t interest you, that way you won’t be disappointed.
With a more stable environment, I’m thinking I might do a live version of one of my commentary videos. The idea would be to play and commentate at the same time which might allow me to show off some stuff more naturally on video. Then I’d edit the best parts down and post it on the main channel. I don’t know if it would work but it might be useful to help me get over my perfectionist tendencies regardless. I have some games in mind for that one but if you want to suggest a game you think would work well with that format, feel free to let me know. I have some other ideas I’d like to try as well, I’m interested in experimenting more with the types of videos I make right now. The trick is trying to branch out while staying true to the core of the channel, so far I think I’m finding that balance.
Now that this page has hit its goal I feel like I should do something more with it but I don’t like the idea of locking anything behind a paywall. I’m very conscious of the fact that this is a global audience I’m speaking to and $5 can be a vastly different amount depending on circumstances. For all I know, my biggest fan happens to suffer from terrible living conditions, I’m not going to lock them out if I can help it. I also don’t see the point in putting up any more goals because working on this stuff basically consumes my life as is. Any incentive I could put up would just subtract time away from the other stuff I’m working on so that doesn’t make sense to me. There's always more equipment I’d like to buy so that’s something. Right now I need a new external HDD and in an ideal world I’d like a high refresh rate and/or 4K monitor, a 4K TV, a 4K capture card and a new gaming PC. If I was loaded I might even be tempted by the VR mistress. But it would be a stretch to say any of those are necessary, at least for now when I’m covering smaller games. Plus if you put something like that as the goal then you’d really have to change it all the time, where does it end, I wonder? Anyway, I’m happy with how things are now but if you have any suggestions on how I can incentivise more pledges, let me know.
I suppose I’ll sign off here. It’s nice to be able to talk about what I’m doing again. If all goes well I’ll have my internet set up within in the next few weeks and the extra channel will get some more activity so keep an eye on that one. I’ll be back with the next video in about a week, see you then.
Comments
Matthewmatosis
That's fine. Everyone's free to donate whatever way works best. Thanks for the support, I'll try not to let you down.
I wasn't intending to donate monthly, I just had to give you something because you deserve it. I must point out that I deleted my pledge not because of disappointment but because I intended a one off payment.
Matthewmatosis
The commnetaries take way too much work to let anyone else decide what they should be, I really need to be passionate about it to get it finished. I play a lot of games and only a fraction of them turn into videos because I end up doing the ones I think are the most interesting. You could be on to something though, if I was torn on which idea I wanted to do a vote might be a useful tiebreaker but I don't think that really justifies it being a donation incentive. I don't know, I'll think it over anyway. Thanks for the suggestion.
Matthewmatosis
I took your suggestion and looked at a bunch of other patreon pages but I don't see anything I'd be comfortable with. Seems like it's basically all paywalls of one kind or another. I'll keep looking though. Thanks for being here regardless.
BearicTheCleric
Perhaps some goals that are based on the number of patrons, rather than amount of money pledged? Like you'll put up a Twitter vote for what next big commentary you could do if you reach a certain number of pledges. That way it grants an incentive for more people to donate while not donating a particularly high amount, and it doesn't keep people that don't donate out of the voting process.
Not saying I'd necessarily stop pledging if you were to offer incentives for certain pledges, but I support you partly because you don't do that sort of thing and the focus is placed entirely on the quality of your work. That being said, you are probably losing out on a lot of money for integrity or the idea of integrity. I'd recommend looking at Patreon accounts for mid-sized twitch streamers. There is a good number of ideas out there that could probably be implemented without having to sacrifice impartiality.
Matthewmatosis
The other two uploaded much faster so it's not a concern anymore. Just missing the ability to stream and download large games.
Andy Schreiner
16 hours to upload?! Is there a library nearby that you could use, I feel like that'd be a more viable option.
'Perhaps most importantly of all, I now have a dedicated office/game room. I’ve been able to put most of my games on clear display on shelves for the first time in about 15 years which is just wonderful. ' This is truly living the dream.
Cletus, the angry pro-life fetus
Happy to see you're getting back into the groove. Your latest videos have been surprising, and really great. Keep up the good work.
