Alternatives to Patreon - Maybe for Adult games

[HiEv]

Can someone that is following the topic kindly sum up what actually are the *real* alternatives growing up (and if there's a sort of eta for those still in development)?
I really really want to stop giving my money to Patreon and their idiotic tos.

Currently the only alternative I know of is

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, which has a high-risk payment processor, thus can handle adult content. Beyond that, I know very little about Hutt.co since their website seems oddly secretive and I haven't heard from anyone using it.

There are a few other places with ambiguously worded Terms of Service or usage policies, but I haven't seen any that also have high-risk payment processors, so you probably wouldn't get away with using them for very long (see for example how

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).

As far as alternatives which are presently in development, the main two are

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(see also

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), which has an ETA of "Fall 2018" (though that was originally "Spring 2018", so take that with a grain of salt), and, believe it or not, Steam. Yeah that Steam. They've said that, once they get some proper filtering tools in place, they will allow all content "

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" There is no ETA for those filters, other than Steam saying that you should

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.

I have heard one person claiming they're making another alternative, but I haven't seen any evidence that there's anything behind their claims.

If anyone has anything to add, please let me know. I like to keep abreast of the situation, since I'm working on my own game (not yet ready for release).

 

[Yoshiiki]

Currently the only alternative I know of is

You must be registered to see the links

, which has a high-risk payment processor, thus can handle adult content. Beyond that, I know very little about Hutt.co since their website seems oddly secretive and I haven't heard from anyone using it.

There are a few other places with ambiguously worded Terms of Service or usage policies, but I haven't seen any that also have high-risk payment processors, so you probably wouldn't get away with using them for very long (see for example how

You must be registered to see the links

).

As far as alternatives which are presently in development, the main two are

You must be registered to see the links

(see also

You must be registered to see the links

), which has an ETA of "Fall 2018" (though that was originally "Spring 2018", so take that with a grain of salt), and, believe it or not, Steam. Yeah that Steam. They've said that, once they get some proper filtering tools in place, they will allow all content "

You must be registered to see the links

" There is no ETA for those filters, other than Steam saying that you should

You must be registered to see the links

.

I have heard one person claiming they're making another alternative, but I haven't seen any evidence that there's anything behind their claims.

If anyone has anything to add, please let me know. I like to keep abreast of the situation, since I'm working on my own game (not yet ready for release).

Hmm... Didn't steam already put some of the filters up and are ready to go? I think they did but not 100% sure.
Anyway... Oh boy, if patreon removed adult content and people would be forced to move to steam, it would be like nuking few project right away... Much harsher environment (meaning, with more demands and easy to anger), reviews and everything else. However, not saying it would be bad, quite opposite as the bar would be put much higher.

 

[seyfer110]

Currently the only alternative I know of is

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, which has a high-risk payment processor, thus can handle adult content. Beyond that, I know very little about Hutt.co since their website seems oddly secretive and I haven't heard from anyone using it.

"All hutt accounts are reviewed before going live. Typically only users with a social audience of 10k+ followers will be accepted, however if you think you have great potential please apply and tell us a bit about yourself in the comments."

I don't really think that's a suitable place to start a project on >.<

 

[HiEv]

Hmm... Didn't steam already put some of the filters up and are ready to go? I think they did but not 100% sure.

A filter? Yeah. All of them? Apparently not even close.

I've seen some people jump to the conclusion that 1 minor filter = all of the filters, but according to Steam, nope, still months worth of work to go on those. (See the PCGamer article I linked to above.)

Anyway... Oh boy, if patreon removed adult content and people would be forced to move to steam, it would be like nuking few project right away... Much harsher environment (meaning, with more demands and easy to anger), reviews and everything else. However, not saying it would be bad, quite opposite as the bar would be put much higher.

It will definitely be different. Probably better for some, worse for others.

I'm sure some genres will take a lot of heat from people with certain prejudices, so I hope the filtering tools help with that kind of nonsense as well. Even here you can't see someone post a gender-bender game without some people feeling the need to mention that they would never play that type of game every couple of pages. (As if we care.) I'm sure that will be even worse on Steam.

I don't really think that's a suitable place to start a project on >.<

Ah, interesting. Well, like I said, I wasn't able to find out much about them.

Gotta say, though, it seems like a bit of a catch-22 if you have to have the followers to get on the platform that would help you get more followers. Seems a bit silly to me.

 

[Yoshiiki]

(As if we care.) I'm sure that will be even worse on Steam.

If you don't care, you just ignore it and it goes away after a while with occasional few that will say something.
By actually caring, responding and giving attention, you give those people what they want.
Though, if you trash them hard enough, they go away too and it's the most fun way of doing things XD

As a fan of watching dumpsterfires, dramas, flamewars and everything bad... Good, want to see that on steam x'D

 

[NandabaCanti]

I think a big part of the equation left on Steam is the improvements to the Dev side of things for self-reporting and accountability regarding mature content, since that's the most important part of making effective filters. That's why they stopped accepting new adult games for the time being, so they can push them all through the new system when it comes time to start rolling it out. I'd imagine they also have to work on making the parental/filtering features more accessible and a campaign to bring them to the public attention when the time comes for the big reveal. I wouldn't be surprised if their legal team were slowing down the process as well, to make sure everything they are doing is legit and that they got their asses properly covered. Along a similar vein they could still be researching regional laws to figure out what can be sold where to factor that into the back end of their new filtering systems. Most of this is just speculation though, since Valve have always been notoriously close-lipped about the details of anything they are working on.

 

[Mwanted]

As far as alternatives which are presently in development, the main two are

You must be registered to see the links

(see also

You must be registered to see the links

), which has an ETA of "Fall 2018" (though that was originally "Spring 2018", so take that with a grain of salt), and, believe it or not, Steam. Yeah that Steam. They've said that, once they get some proper filtering tools in place, they will allow all content "

You must be registered to see the links

" There is no ETA for those filters, other than Steam saying that you should

You must be registered to see the links

.

Thanks Hiev, that's what I wanted to confirm.
I really doubt steam will allow something less strict than the actual (stupid) Patreon tos, so let's put our hopes in Sponsorion.
Btw, a comment of a dev on the recent changes on Patreon:

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[HiEv]

If you don't care, you just ignore it and it goes away after a while with occasional few that will say something.

That's nonsense.

First of all, I'm saying that I don't care that they don't like it. Don't confuse that for me not caring about the fact that they're tacitly putting down the people who do like it.

Second of all, no, it doesn't just "go away" if nobody says anything. In fact, it gets worse, because that behavior, unchallenged, makes others think it's acceptable. Change requires people standing up for what's right.

I'm reminded of the saying, "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."

By actually caring, responding and giving attention, you give those people what they want.

This assumes a lot about what they want. However, in reality, people can do the same thing for many different reasons.

I make no such assumptions, I simply point out that they've erred in social etiquette, usually in a humorous way.

Things don't get better in the long run by being silent. Only by discussing these things like adults can we progress as a society.

Anyways, back to the topic at hand...

Thanks Hiev, that's what I wanted to confirm.
I really doubt steam will allow something less strict than the actual (stupid) Patreon tos, so let's put our hopes in Sponsorion.

Steam has said that they will allow something less strict than Patreon. At this point I see no reason to not take them at their word.

That said, if Sponsorion gets their act together fast enough, they're going to make out like bandits in this nearly empty market. I'd have said that I'm surprised that nobody else has tried to take advantage of this market, if I weren't already aware of two or three groups that possibly did try to do that (the main two are now effectively gone).

Btw, a comment of a dev on the recent changes on Patreon:

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Yeah, they're clearly not welcome on Patreon. But this appears to be because they're beholden to their payment processors.

I had someone try to argue that Patreon wasn't merely pandering to credit card companies, and literally in the middle of that argument, the news of Robert Spencer getting banned from Patreon by Mastercard broke:
The Daily Beast: "

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" (Aug. 21, '18)

“Mastercard has a stricter set of rules and regulations than Patreon, and they reserve the right to not offer their services to accounts of their choosing,” Patreon wrote in an email to Spencer, a leader in the “counter-jihad” movement. “This is in line with their terms of service, which means it’s something we have to comply by.”

(Just to be clear, I'm not taking any sides here, Patreon and Mastercard were fully within their rights to do this, and I'm not saying I'm for or against Robert Spencer, I don't know enough about him to judge; I'm just proving the point that Patreon's rules are being dictated by their payment processor's rules. Sadly, rather than finding other payment processors, they've acceded to the will of their present payment processors.)

Anyways, Steam has said that their choice of what will and won't be allowed isn't dictated by payment processors, so hopefully they'll be good to their word.

 

[Yoshiiki]

I'm reminded of the saying, "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."

Such wise words found on the Internet, but no one gave a second to think. So, who is the good guy? You or them? I can bet you are the good guy in your mind, mister redditor. But that just depends on where you stand. If you hang around guys who like... dunno... incest, then in that group it's fine. You go and ask people outside of that group and who you are? A bad guy.
I wouldn't be jumping on a high horse whose legs are made out of clay, it's a long drop from there.

This assumes a lot about what they want. However, in reality, people can do the same thing for many different reasons.

What's your weird kink? Go outside and tell 30 random people you like it and see how they react. It will be the same. Now, the tables are turned and tiny chunk of those folks goes to such threads and whine. This is basically it and it's annoying because truth hurts as fuck.
Anyway, there are tons of people like you, so you aren't special and it's the part that will probably make you boil the most. Not feeling in the mood to turning this thread into shitshow, so I will drop it for now. Minus your response and probably few others. Then it goes away and that's all there is to it, mister redditor.

 

[HiEv]

Such wise words found on the Internet, but no one gave a second to think.

Huh?

So, who is the good guy? You or them?

Me. I'm not the one metaphorically going into a jazz club, where there are lots of people trying to peacefully enjoy jazz, and loudly declaring how I don't like jazz, as though there's something wrong with liking jazz.

I can bet you are the good guy in your mind, mister redditor.

LOL. Is this supposed to be an insult?

Yeah, of course I'm the good guy here. If you walk into a jazz club and loudly declare your distaste for jazz, you're just a jerk. Why should we act like that's any different anywhere else? You don't have to like jazz yourself, but let the people who do enjoy jazz just enjoy it in peace. They're not hurting anyone.

And what's the "mister redditor" thing about? I barely use Reddit, and when I do it's mostly free help and tech support for Twine. Is this some weird meme I'm unaware of?

But that just depends on where you stand.

If I'm standing in a jazz club, trying to enjoy jazz, then no, it really doesn't depend on where you stand. The guy who comes in just to disrupt and insult a bunch of people who aren't doing anything wrong is simply being a jerk, no matter where you stand.

If you hang around guys who like... dunno... incest, then in that group it's fine. You go and ask people outside of that group and who you are? A bad guy.

Utterly 100% irrelevant. That's not what was going on, nor is it what we were discussing.

If you have to make up a straw man argument to make a point, then you might want to reconsider the quality of the evidence for your argument.

I wouldn't be jumping on a high horse whose legs are made out of clay, it's a long drop from there.

WTH? I'm sorry, mixed metaphors aside, you appear to have gone off the deep end.

How exactly am I the bad guy here? I'm honestly confused.

Anyway, there are tons of people like you, so you aren't special and it's the part that will probably make you boil the most. Not feeling in the mood to turning this thread into shitshow, so I will drop it for now. Minus your response and probably few others. Then it goes away and that's all there is to it, mister redditor.

Again, WTH? I never claimed to be "special", I merely said that ignoring jerks doesn't create progress. You only have to look around to see how not calling people on their BS has lead to problems.

But whatever. Feel free to think that by insulting me or belittling me you've somehow won this argument, as if those things have any relevance to the actual point.

If you decide to come back with actual legitimate reasons why we should stand silently by, letting jerks continue to be jerks, rather than tossing a series of silly, confusing, and pointless admonishments at me, I'll be here.

Have a nice day!

 

[seyfer110]

Meanwhile:

Spoiler: Patreon email

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Looks like we'll see an other month with a lot of declined pledge....

 

[Yoshiiki]

Meanwhile:
Looks like we'll see an other month with a lot of declined pledge....

Looks like another set of spam mails from the devs about that. Ugh...

 

[NandabaCanti]

Valve posted a new announcement concerning the changes they've been working on. Looks like they've got an "adults only" filter now for sexual content, so it seems they are taking things in a favorable direction to allow more adult game devs to find a place on their platform in the future.

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EDIT: Looks like that filter is already in the Steam user preferences and it defaults to hiding adult content, so for all of you out there using Steam, make sure to go in and check the Adult Only box so those games aren't being hidden from you.

 

[knerre]

MakerSupport was mentioned a few times in this thread as an alternative, until they outright banned adult content. It seems that they've had their share of troubles since April

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as a payment processor. The last tweet from MakerSupport on Twitter

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, stating that Stripe has released the remaining funds and that MakerSupport will do payouts using Bitcoin in the future when (or if) the redesign launches. That message is met with a lot of frustration and messages from people who supposedly didn't get their money... As MakerSupport is run by just one person, they're already accusing him of running off with the remaining proceeds from Stripe.

This is going to be the hardest challenge for any 'adult Patreon' startup, having a rock-solid payment processor. There is some promising news from Sponsorion and AdultPledge (which will relaunch, I believe) in that regard, so fingers crossed.

 

[knerre]

Hatreon

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in trouble as well. They haven't been accepting pledges since February this year.

 

[redknight00]

Hatreon

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in trouble as well. They haven't been accepting pledges since February this year.

I thought you were messing with patreon, i truly didn't expect a crowdfunding based on hate :biggrin:.

 

[knerre]

No, not at all. :biggrin: This was (or is, that's unclear) a legit platform promising ultimate free speech. I guess the payment processors didn't like what all the nazis who flocked to Hatreon had to say on there.

 

[OhWee]

Just another Sponsorion update. Someone asked a question on their blog:

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Anonymous asked:

Hi, I've just came across this recently and I've been wondering if there's been any updates or anything going on regarding the website that is being built. Plus I've done my best to spread the word to help you guys but I don't know if it helped but I hope that the website will be completed!

Thank you for spreading the word! Don’t underestimate the value of getting our name out there, the more people hear about us the more likely they are to check us out.​

Site development continues to progress. There were some setbacks regarding the gallery system, but we’re getting over that hurdle now. The plan is to switch the landing page over from our temporary servers to a proper cloud platform later this month, and to replace the landing page with the still-in-development site so everyone can take a look at it as we get ready to go live. We’re still hoping to launch in the last week of November, but it’s going to be tight and there’s a couple things that must be done near the end that might push it back a few weeks.

-The Sponsorion Team

Oct. 2nd, 2018

So, we have a tentative launch date at least, although there's a good chance that they may miss that end of November target.

 

[OhWee]

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recently updated their webpage. Looks like they might be on track for a launch in the next month or two... at least that's what they are shooting for.

There's a few more details on their page now, including the fee schedule that they are planning on.

 

[gamersglory]

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recently updated their webpage. Looks like they might be on track for a launch in the next month or two... at least that's what they are shooting for.

There's a few more details on their page now, including the fee schedule that they are planning on.

Sponsorion Won't or can't allow content banned by Visa and Mastercard as there payment processing will get canceled and they will be blacklisted. NO EXCEPTIONS