Abusing Patreon.

[Drathnoxis]

Matthewmatosis has been making analytical videos on games for about 5 years. On October 30, 2015 he quit his job to make videos full time. Let's take a look at how this affected his output. I'll be listed the videos he has made, as well as their total runtime, from October to October to line up with his career change.

January 2012 - October 2012

9 videos - 5h 5m 42s

November 2012 - October 2013

14 videos - 9h 34m 46s

November 2013 - October 2014

11 videos - 4h 13m 28s

November 2014 - October 10, 2015

5 videos - 8h 34m 20s

Full time video production starts
November 2015 - October 2016
4 videos - 3h 28m 16s

November 2016 - Present Day
3 videos - 42m 45s

It sure is strange how working full time on something caused his output to go down, you'd think it'd be the other way around. After almost 2 years combined, he hasn't managed to match himself from any single year that he was just doing it in his spare time. It's almost like now that he has a steady paycheck he isn't interested in actually doing the job he's being paid for.

I think when you start accepting money to do a thing there's an obligation to have a certain level of output just to show that you are actually doing the thing. Going months on end without a single update is just unacceptable in my opinion. There's 320 working hours in a month, if you can't come up with a single video of any length at least once a month there's something seriously wrong with your workflow.

I don't get why people continue to support stuff like this. It's like with Spoony, people were giving him thousands of dollars a month and he was literally doing nothing.

Thoughts?

 

[tippy2k2]

I'm of the mind that if people are silly enough to keep giving them money then there's no real obligation (outside of what you actually set of course as your obligation; if you say you're going to make X videos per month for Y dollars, once that Y is hit, you should be making X videos).

Then again, I'm only supporting one person on Patreon [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/groups/view/2-50-Reviews] as I am very picky about where my money goes so maybe I'm the wrong person to ask...

 

[Zhukov]

*shrug*

If the people supporting him don't think he's earning their money they can just stop giving it to him.

 

[Saelune]

Some people like to say "Quality over quantity" I mean, sometimes I agree. Not always though. I miss 20+ minutes of Jontron a day on Game Grumps than one 20 minute video every 2 months.

 

[Zontar]

The Spoony effect. There's probably a psychological explanation that once you get the same amount of money regardless of your work you wouldn't try much.

.....Like Communism.

Pretty much this. If you're going to get money either way why put more effort into it then you need to? That's just human nature: if you reach the same outcome with less energy, you take that route.

This is why I trust YouTubers who make their patreon "per video" rather then "per month" more, since while they're incentivised to push out more content that could potentially be lower quality, they're also given incentive to keep it quality enough that people will pay for it to begin with.


Though now that I look at it, I have to wonder how he's even living, since those videos can't be braking 100$ a piece, and I can't imagine how someone making less then half what I do can manage to get by (and yes, I am converting that into my own nation's currency to make that assessment).

 

[loa]

The downward trend started before patreon tho.

 

[jademunky]

Never heard of the guy but if he can get people to pay him more for putting out less content, more power to him. Hell, for all I know, maybe the per-episode quality is better. (but probably not)

I still trust the Patreon system a lot more than the idea of monetizing Youtube directly and being essentially beholden to them. Admittedly, I've only given money to one person on it but still.

 

[Sonmi]

Heh.

I trust Matthew well enough.

The fact that videos have stopped coming out as frequently is a shame, but I suppose he's busy, or trying to find a new topic to cover.

 

[Wintermute_v1legacy]

Never heard of this guy, but if people are willing to pay, can you really blame him? I mean, reading his last post on Patreon from September, he says he wants to upload a new video every 1 or 2 weeks, and since then managed to upload 5. If he followers don't care, well...

 

[CaitSeith]

First: What did Matthewmatosis say about that?

Second: This assumes that every minute of his videos have a consistent level of quality. It's funny how this part is often ignored when talking about content length.

Third: Does he have extra channels or does he stream frequently?

Fourth: the level of obligation is determined by his Patreons. If they think he isn't fulfilling his obligation, they remove their pledge. That's how capitalism works.

 

[CaitSeith]

The Spoony effect. There's probably a psychological explanation that once you get the same amount of money regardless of your work you wouldn't try much.

For that you first have to assume that he is getting the same amount of money than before; and maybe game development isn't a very well paid field, but it's average wage is certainly higher than $800 a month!

 

[gigastar]

I just think that some people are incapable of treating thier fanbase like theyre thier supervisor.

Not excusing what this guy has done, but if im right it could explain why people who try to live off of patreon shekels just drop off, because they arent being directly pressured anymore.

 

[Drathnoxis]

First: What did Matthewmatosis say about that?

Second: This assumes that every minute of his videos have a consistent level of quality. It's funny how this part is often ignored when talking about content length.

Third: Does he have extra channels or does he stream frequently?

Fourth: the level of obligation is determined by his Patreons. If they think he isn't fulfilling his obligation, they remove their pledge. That's how capitalism works.

Say about what? I haven't actually spoken to the guy.

Personally I think his videos were a bit better before he went Patreon, but then he hasn't done anything on a game I've been interested in for a long time.

He does have another channel with just as inconsistent posting. But come on, people aren't sponsoring him so he can stream anyway. He made his name on in depth analytical reviews and that's what people want.

Some people would say that capitalism doesn't work all that well, but that's another discussion entirely.

 

[-Dragmire-]

At one point in 2015 it sounded like he only got money when vids were released.

https://twitter.com/matthewmatosis/status/634135203615756290

I only watch videos from him when it's about a game I care about/am curious about so the state of his patreon doesn't really concern me(I just happened to remember this twitter post and googled for it).

 

[Vanilla ISIS]

It's not really abusing Patreon.
The people who support you have the free will to stop at any time. If they aren't stopping then either they're fine with the product they're being given or they don't mind losing a bit of money every month to support the creator.
Sometimes, people forget that they're donating, especially if it's a small sum, like $1.
Lack of content will bite you in the ass anyway since you won't get any new Patrons.

 

[Drathnoxis]

At one point in 2015 it sounded like he only got money when vids were released.

https://twitter.com/matthewmatosis/status/634135203615756290

I only watch videos from him when it's about a game I care about/am curious about so the state of his patreon doesn't really concern me(I just happened to remember this twitter post and googled for it).

That was before he went "full time." He turned it back to monthly after his Dark Souls video game out. There's a post on his Patreon about that too.

 

[Trunkage]

The Spoony effect. There's probably a psychological explanation that once you get the same amount of money regardless of your work you wouldn't try much.

.....Like Communism.

Currently, Triple A publishers as well. Hence everyone not like thier games.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

Second: This assumes that every minute of his videos have a consistent level of quality. It's funny how this part is often ignored when talking about content length.

Precisely. If he's putting out fewer videos, but those videos have higher production quality, explore topics more deeply, etc., then is he actually slacking?

 

[lacktheknack]

I have high tolerance for this.

Lindsay Ellis (Chez Lindsay, no long The Nostalgia Chick) has always had a slow output, that gets slower and slower over time. However, when she puts out new videos, they're GREAT. Fantastic. You can see where all the effort went.

To be fair, her Patreon pays out on a video-by-video basis, so it's harder to abuse like this.