I'm personally not into this game, and do hate the speed at which he does stuff, but I'm honestly fascinated by all the milking accusations.
The way I see it milking can only occur if there is something offered in return (eg. patreon games which do not provide any content unless you pledge a 5$ or similar). In the case of Akabur that's not the case since he always gives the games for free, thus creating the situation where milking can only occur as a self induced process (giving him money of your own free will, since you get everything everyone else gets no matter if you give him money or not).
I'm interested in hearing why exactly do people see it as milking since he is, essentially, providing a free service not directly connected to the money.
I also believe the 1$ tier makes a huge hell of a deal in the money department. 1$ per month is affordable and psychologically doesn't seem like much, simply because you can't trade it for much, while 5$, aside from being unaffordable in some places, feels like it has actual value since you can use it for some quite important stuff (bread and milk spring to mind instantly).
To be clear I should elaborate I'm not trying to rile people up, I study philosophy and social sciences so this kind of stuff fascinates me and I like to hear peoples opinions.
From a philosophical and psychological point of view, Akabur's "tip jar" policy is quite interesting, as it does create the feeling that here we have a guy who's main love is creating, so naturally we want to support him if possible.
It's ingenious if ya ask me, because I'm pretty sure that many, like me, doesn't mind sending him $1 a month without ever thinking of removing that low support.
If he had shown to care more for money, shown greed, people would expect a lot more in return, make demands of him.. which could have evolved into the "pay more get more" tiers of patron value.
Such is a lot more fragile, people are faster to cancel their support if disappointed.
Let's be clear about a few facts: Every developer want's to make money. Every artist would like to be able to make a living doing their art.
Some more than others, true, but you won't find the opposite anywhere.
Another fact, is that people support products they like, if they can afford to, even more so if they admire the creators ideology.
So when Akabur tells us that he care less for money than his own free will and work pace, that's the bigger hook in itself.
I'm pretty sure he understands the way peoples minds work and have to admit to admire him a bit for that as well.
Also enjoy his work of course and would like to see more of it a lot more frequent, on the other hand I also don't want to see him burn out and abandon his projects completely.
