I hate the fact that people make this about money and the number of Patreons. Those things have never been important to me. Yes, I lost a lot of Patreons after Maltdors ego-trip, but that's not the main issue. The bigger problem is what this does for my motivation to keep this project going when I constantly need to fight trolls and people that take personal pleasure in sabotaging this project.
4 years ago, I wrote a story called 2nd Chance. I hadn't any plans of sharing that with anyone, but after spending more than a year writing the story, I was curious if anyone else would enjoy it so I published it on F95. I did not have a Patreon or did any effort to make money. All I wanted to know was if there were someone out there that would enjoy my story. As expected, 99% of the players on F95 hated the game/story because it was a amateurish game with no renders. However, a few people took their time to play through the entire game and found enjoyment from it. They encouraged me to continue writing and create another season of the story.
That lead to more people enjoying my stories. Suddenly just 98% of the players on F95 felt the need to tell me how much they hated my work. I never cared about those 98%, I wanted to create something for those 2% who liked my stories. The big problem was that I didn't have any talent when it came to creating art or have the economy to hire someone to do that for me. Some of my followers wanted me to start a Patreon site so they could try to raise the necessary money, and hesitantly I agreed to do that.
As expected, I didn't get many Patrons and I was fine with that. However, the few Patreons that I got were people that enjoyed my stories and wanted to support me. This was suddenly an arena where I could publish a story for those who enjoyed my work without putting it out on F95zone with all it's trolls and negativity. Suddenly writing was fun again and I found the inspiration that I needed to start planning and writing The Higher Society. This was supposed to be an exclusive story for my handful of followers.
Unfortunately, someone talked me into releasing a pilot on F95zone to try to get more followers. Suddenly all the trolls were back, and they sucked all the enjoyment out of this project. They couldn't respect that I created something exclusively for my followers. I tried to explain that I would release the story on F95zone when the story was finished, but that wasn't good enough. I then agreed to release the updates with a delay. The 0.4 version was published on F95 when the Patreons had been given the 0.5 version. Still, this wasn't good enough for the trolls on this site. So now the trolls become Patreons just so they can release the newest version on F95zone immediately when it's released there.
When I asked one of the trolls why he did this, his answer was "Because I can".
I have a full-time job. I have friends, family and other interests in my life. This project is taking way too much time away from things that I enjoy in life and if I need to fight troll who is trying their best to sabotage this project then it's just not worth it. However, I do feel bad about those people who have supported me from the start and was hoping to one day see my games finished.
Thank you for creating and sharing this game/story/fantasy.
I just finished playing up to day5 and really liked the game so far.
In fact I liked it so much, that I went back to this thread, the one where I found your game, to get more information about the creator and ways to support the project.
Now comes the part, where I have to state my confusion.
xxerikxx you say, this started as a hobby to release some of your creative juices and not in fact for the purpose of sharing/profiting, but still ended up posting your work for feedback. This part is believable and I am going to assume also true. Nevertheless here I am scratching my head over the following statements, where you mention negativity and sabotage from people like me, who are using this forum. Ok sure, not like me, because up to now I only thanked you and told you how much I liked the game, but it seems utterly hyperbolic when you talk about 98% of the people on here are out to get you.
I played some utter shit games on this site and even those had the veneer of being alright, because people wouldn't even bash objective trash (sorry, not sorry) to the degree witnessed by you.
So right at this moment I started to feel a little alienated by the one, who I wished to support and show appreciation.
Also, I couldn't help but wonder about your mental wellbeing, I am not saying this to be rude, those thoughts just started going off in my brain.
Your following paragraphs all left the aftertaste of a persecution complex and that is just my observation, not a fact.
There are also some contradictions in your behaviour - why do you have to "fight people" over anything related to this project? Sure, I can understand fighting someone who you, for example, perceive to be hurting your bottom line, but you stated with sincerity that you don't do this for the money. Even if this is in fact all about money it wouldn't make sense, because this "sabotage" was about to get you a new supporter. I and many others wouldn't have found out about you otherwise.
You don't necessarily have the control over what happens to be uploaded on this platform, but why has this to be a bad thing?
Like another member before had stated, people (with the financial means) pledge support to projects/developers they like and want to continue unimpeded. I don't want anything extra - just for you to continue as you have and I have to believe, that I am not the only one who thinks and acts this way.
If what you are looking for is an echo chamber, where only positive opinions are accepted, then you can't look in a public place like this, but you could create your own (discord as an example) and vet every member by their behaviour/opinions, not saying this would be healthy.
What really disturbed me by the end, was your emotional blackmailing towards me/the audience in form of "then I just quit".
It not only is unnecessary and incomprehensible, but also just unacceptable behaviour.
You don't have to do anything you don't want to do, but please reflect on your actions and behaviour - they seem out of whack.
Finally, let me repeat that I liked your game and thanks for giving me the opportunity to enjoy it. I hope you can continue at your own speed and with the same erotic drive you had when you started. I will have to postpone my support until I got clarity about your further actions, but still all the best to you.