The Patreon is something I am glad we have and something I am proud to be a member of. But I think it has been forgotten about.
- The Patreon seems to be inactive.
There have been no posts for over 2 years. I almost didn’t join when I saw how long it had been inactive. I think this is dissuading some from joining it.
- Some rewards are not being implemented
The reward tiers state that a perk of joining is getting your name in the in-game credits. I have been a supporter for a few months now and I haven’t seen my name in there. This isn’t a big deal to me personally, but I think it would be for some people and may cause them to unsubscribe.
- Lack of financial statements
In the about section of the Patreon it states
In addition to providing rewards, we will also regularly post a financial statement that shows how our income is being used in the game’s development. We want to give our patrons full trust and confidence, and we believe that being 100% transparent about how the money is being used is best.
I want to be clear, that I am not accusing anyone of misappropriation of funds. There are a lot of fine people in this project, and I am putting my faith in them. That being said transparency IS still important. Reading the above statement and then seeing that a Patreon making $1200 a month and having no posts for 2 years can be quite a bit of a red flag and a turn off for some people that are looking to join. This is what made me hesitant to join, but after interacting with the admin team, learning about the community, and falling in love with the game, I decided to join in spite of this and to trust the community leaders.
In conclusion, the Patreon has some issues. We all want more Patreons because we love this game and we all know that more funding means more development and supporting the servers we play on.