errantsignal
patreon
No Charge This Month!
🕑 Added 2019-02-28 05:06:12 +0000 UTCHey folks!
Just a quick FYI: There won't be a charge this month, as I don't have anything ready to release. Normally about this time I'm in the last throes of editing a thing together and getting it ready to ship, but I bit off a bit more than I could chew in a single month with the latest project and it's just not ready yet even if I pulled a few all-nighters or wanted to push it out a few days. I'm looking at the nature of authorship of player characters and where the line is drawn between player expression and developer plotting in the context of modern big budget games, and it has required some actual research into the history of player characters, RPGs, the magic circle, and a whole bunch of other fun stuff... but it isn't ready yet.
I'd fill the gap with something a little bit lighter, but A) We're basically up against the end of the month and there's no time and B) I... really haven't played anything all that exciting this month? Resident Evil 2 is cool, Apex Legends is great fun, and Tetris 99 is an enjoyable if shallow good time, but the most "let's talk about this" game I've played all month was Art Sqool. Which is cool, and has some neat things to say re: assigning art a numeric score based on metrics, what it means when the thing in your head and the thing on the paper don't necessarily align, and the sense of progression practice can give to a craft. But I don't know if I could wring 10 minutes of arresting content out of it, especially as someone who has an engineering degree and doesn't have nearly enough insight into actual art school. Still it's... pretty cool, if you like Kid Pix and non-violent creative games that sometimes fail you for no reason and that's the point? Oh I also picked up Devotion, but I kinda want to save that for October.
Anyways, I'll be back next month with content proper - I promise I'll make it worth the wait! And as always, thanks for supporting the show!
- Chris
Comments
Llammissar
Just saw this update and I'm super excited for what you've got coming.
Marius Lobontiu
We pay to support your ongoing work, whatever form it takes. We're not "buying videos" by the piece. Everyone here understands that, as well as quality over quantity, otherwise we wouldn't be here in the first place. The authorship of player characters is absolutely fascinating (my old thesis subject too!) and I can't wait to see your video on the topic.
Agreed with Crissa. The only time it might be necessary to pause is if you're literally taking a break or something. As long as you keep communication open and it looks like you're actually working on stuff fairly regularly, I'd be really surprised if many patrons cared. Appreciate the thought, though.
Crissa Kentavr
Dude, if you want us to pay per produced video, why don’t you have patreon set to that? Anyhow, that does sound like a huge project. Like, an encyclopedia sized project. I’d kinda expect to pay more for larger video projects!
PC Escobar
Holy narrative vs. agency, Batman! I'm willing to wait for as a long as it takes for a deep look into the authorship of player characters. I hope you'll compare/contrast cases where you create a role, traditional RPG style, versus assume a role, like the Witcher or Deus Ex. And those odd cases in between, like Shepard in Mass Effect.
PC Escobar
Hear, hear. Work is work, the content comes when it's ready.
Sven
I have recently thought a lot about incentives and how I shape behaviour, so my instantly rephrased the above head as follow: "Hello Patreons, I recently took on a deep cutting project that requires lots of research. This caused me to miss my selfimposed rate of one video per month. Since you guys pay for me producing one video per month (per my previous selfimposed rate) and not for doing research I will try to prevent this from happening again. So in the future I promise to pick topics that are less demanding and/or experimental. - Chris" The wording above is obviously hyperbolic, but in terms of general topic direction I would encourage you to gladly accept donations in months where you are doing lots of research. The insights are what we are here for, not the steady stream of entertainment.
Sifferz
I’m kind of in the “charge even when a month lapses, you’re only human and work your ass off and deserve paid vacation” crowd, but w/e works best for you! Can’t wait to see what you’re making.
