do you think the $10 a month charge is fair? If it were $3 I can understand your point better, but what some animators charge is a little excessive, some would say greedy .. $120 dollars a year you ask people to part with.
I totally agree with you. Pirating in mostly is a problem related to how things are sold/pricing. If you overcharge, people will find a way to get it for free. Who doesn't remember the frenzy of Napster? Now we can get our fav song for less than 2 bucks. No hassle, fair price and I personally don't know a single person that still pirates music. Does it still exists? Yeah, but not like it once was.
Now, Mike25, I don't enjoy seeing people desperate and afraid that their income could just disappear from under their feet, but you have to think about what you're doing.
If this is a business to you, treat it like a business. Plan the prices accordingly: with fair prices you can have more people pledging and that's how you should work on a digital market: the more people you have the better for you. It may seem great to have 10 people pledging 20 bucks, but you should aim at 100 people @ 2 bucks. At U$2 (as an example) people will rarely think about canceling something that costs less than a coffee and if 5 people drop you, you won't feel it. 5 people at U$20 is another story, right?
Also, build a relationship with the community, communicate, listen, give back some, and don't piss off the community being sarcastic and greedy. Not saying you are, but some creators have a terrible attitude. Plan on releasing some of your stuff after the 5 weeks like EA suggested.
I understand the fear that patrons would disappear if you shared your goods, but honestly if they are supporting you and they know what's up with what EA stated about paywalls, they won't mind. People are not as stingy as you may think.
Just looking at what goes on here, some people share things they pledged with us. They don't have to, but they do it anyway and I don't believe any one of them wants to hurt the creators. They do it because they want to help out some of us that can't afford to pledge at the moment, something that could be avoided if you guys did it yourselves in the first place.
Sorry for the wall of text friends, I need it to get it out of my chest. ::|: