Patreon

[Onken]

It seem everyone is at it now. Four of the biggest twats including Gregg Miller who worked at IGN quit their jobs to set up Kinda Funny. Now they're pulling in £11,600 a month between them in patron donations and thats before YouTube and Twitch ad revenue is accounted. It baffles me how anyone would want to contribute money to hear the shit they spout.

VideoGamer are the the latest to introduce the Patreon system to financially help support them creating new content. As much as I love their YouTube channel and regular listen to the podcast I don't know if I would want to pay. It's one thing people giving PewDiePie and Stampy Cat millions of views but to dig into your own pocket for that access. Another example is Jessie Rogers (ex porn star) charing $4.99 to watch her play League of Legends.

Does anyone subscribe?

[Thursday]

I'm one of those subscribing to Videogamer and Matt Lees as well. It's not a huge amount a month, and as I see it, I used to happily spend lots of money on magazines when I was a teenager and could have saved up and bought actual games instead. Now all the best one's have long died out, so this is sort of a replacement for it.

[Kelvin]

It seem everyone is at it now. Four of the biggest twats including Gregg Miller who worked at IGN quit their jobs to set up Kinda Funny. Now they're pulling in £11,600 a month between them in patron donations and thats before YouTube and Twitch ad revenue is accounted. It baffles me how anyone would want to contribute money to hear the shit they spout.

Does anyone subscribe?

I subscribe to Miller and co. on youtube and I think their arrangement is perfectly fair. You can access everything early by contributing, or get it over the course of the week for free, with the complete shows released for free at the end of the week. Seems a legitimate and ethical way to run the business, as far as I'm concerned. They have to pay the bills some way. I don't really understand what you're problem is with the system, other than you wouldn't pay for some of the people using it. But then, you don't have to - not least because people like Kinda Funny are giving it away for free, as well.

EDIT: To clarify, I don't pay a penny towards Kinda Funny. I don't like them enough for that. But in principle, what they're doing is fine.

[syntaxerror]

I 'get' why people watch people play games and are willing to pay for it, I mean its no different to a podcast really is it...its just so much of the content is just, well, shit.

[Kelvin]

I 'get' why people watch people play games and are willing to pay for it, I mean its no different to a podcast really is it...its just so much of the content is just, well, shit.

People won't pay unless they like the content and think it's good enough to support or subscribe to, though. If people think they can use it to make money off people, they'll have to produce content entertaining enough for people to contribute.

[gmoney]

The VideoGamer stuff is good enough for me that I'm willing to pay a bit extra for a bit more. I'm not laying down a massive wedge each month so I can meet up with them or owt, but seeing as I use adblock on their site and youtube channel, I don't begrudge chucking them a few quid.

[Onken]

It's no coincidence that VideoGamer are jumping in after lost another member of staff to a rival with Bratterz going to Eurogamer. If contributing means helping the gang all stay together then I suppose it's a worthy cause. I was quite sad when I found out there would be no more Yir Auld Da episodes.

Matt Lees going solo has done pretty well for himself with a small dedicated audience. I wasn't aware he worked on Charlie Brookers games documentary.

[Thursday]

I don't know what you mean Chris Bratt is dead.

I think they had been planning it a while, and Jim said they'd find other ways to Auld Da.

God what a fucking nerd, being a fan of some video game journalists.

[Bored of Canada]

Matt Lees going solo has done pretty well for himself with a small dedicated audience. I wasn't aware he worked on Charlie Brookers games documentary.

He writes on the big 2014 and Weekly Wipes as well.   

[Onken]

Cool. He comes across as a decent fellow and it makes sense they would work together.

What do people make of Jim Sterling? I can only handle his videos in small doses and didn't really care for his reviews when he was with Destructoid.

If there's any other game jouros or websites I'm missing out on give them a shout out.

[Bored of Canada]

Cool. He comes across as a decent fellow and it makes sense they would work together.

What do people make of Jim Sterling? I can only handle his videos in small doses and didn't really care for his reviews when he was with Destructoid.

If there's any other game jouros or websites I'm missing out on give them a shout out.

I've always really respected his reviews, and don't mind his videos. I listen to a podcast of his once in a blue moon, but I think he's always been a fairly interesting reviewer. 
I really only use Rockpapershotgun for games stuff. All the writers on there are fantastic and genuinely align with my feelings on games, and if they don't, they're personal and written well enough and I enjoy them and see their perspective nonetheless. Not everything has to fit my opinion.

I used to read Destructoid a lot, but it's really gone off the rails in the last couple years. Not at all interested in anything it has to offer.

I check out PC Gamer and Eurogamer on random occasions but really , it's just Rock Paper Shotgun for me. I don't play as many games these days anyway, so that just shows me the interesting smaller stuff that I prefer.

[lazarou]

The more I see his stuff, the more I like Sterling. At first glance he seems like the usual loudmouth arses you get everywhere, but on further inspection it's obvious his work has a good deal more thought put into it than others of that stripe and often makes some interesting arguments. More than that, he's proven that he can take criticism of himself and his attitude, and has rethought his positions on major things when confronted with the right evidence, which doesn't sound like much but is vanishingly rare among modern videogame 'celebs'. He seems to delight in putting on the airs of an obnoxious arsehole, and that's going to make a lot of people bounce right off him, but I think he's one of the good ones. Probably best in small doses though, yeah. I won't bother with his stuff for ages and then end up watching something and being pleasantly surprised.

I'd seen some bits and pieces before, but looked into more of Matt Lees and Videogamer after all the chat on here. Man, when they're on form they're fucking tremendous. It's been a long time since I cried laughing at a games show. Very funny and unmistakably British, which counts for an awful lot for games writing, as it's one thing the yanks haven't even come close to getting right[nb]Except for the very great and long, long dead Old Man Murray.[/nb].

[Thursday]

Cool. He comes across as a decent fellow and it makes sense they would work together.

What do people make of Jim Sterling? I can only handle his videos in small doses and didn't really care for his reviews when he was with Destructoid.

If there's any other game jouros or websites I'm missing out on give them a shout out.

Chuckie Dreggs the internet show and the Gamewank podcast although you may have heard of them already. I think C&B's mcbpete knows them.

Also some people that are good on twitter and stuff

Andy Kelly who writes for PC gamer and did those "other places" youtube videos
Steve Hogarty who writes articles like this http://www.pcgamesn.com/infinifactory/here-are-my-impressions-of-infinifactory-please-trust-them and this http://www.computerandvideogames.com/343024/features/there-are-downsides-to-being-this-good-why-gamers-hate-me-for-being-brilliant-at-games/
Rich Stanton - mainly because he knows his Dark Souls.