SecondWindGroup
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$5 Tier Update - Dropping Early Access Model, Replacing with Ad-Free Podcasts & Columns
🕑 Added 2023-11-14 02:26:58 +0000 UTCHey folks!
After a big organization meeting today, the team has decided to make a few updates to our tiers on Patreon, namely the $5 tier currently called, Early Access.
As a reminder, we did not plan to launch the Patreon as fast as we did lol. Someone found it before it was ready so we had basically just copy pasted the previous tiers we offered back at The Escapist over.
After some consideration, we want to make sure our videos are released to the widest possible audience and so we are going to forego the Early Access model and just release our videos at the same time for everyone.
With the amount of support we've already received we want to make sure we're not segmenting our audience, and feedback from those of you in the Discord made it clear you're in favor of this change and didn't like Early Access anyways.
What's the $5 tier updating to?
You didn't think we were just gonna remove something and not give you something back, did ya?
The $5 tier will be renamed to the Podcast / Columns tier which will provide you with completely ad-free podcasts (we're figuring out delivery method on that, stay tuned) and we're moving our written columns out of the $10 tier and into the $5 tier.
So that means if you're at the $5 tier you will now receive TWO Darren Mooney columns a week. One on Monday and one on Friday, and soon Marty Sliva will also be adding a column to our Patreon. We'll have more details on that soon.
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We hope these changes make sense and that you're happy with them. It's going to make our lives a lot easier not having to deliver videos to a bunch of different places all the time.
Sponsor-free videos will have their own playlist which will be unlisted and delivered to the Sponsor-free tier ($10) and above when they're available, but comments will be disabled on them so that we drive engagement to the public version primarily. Again, this is to make sure we're not segmenting our audience.
Thanks everyone and if you have any questions about these changes, leave them below!
Nick Calandra
Director of Content
Comments
Aladin_Run
Hey there, fellow LSM fan :D
Elonchan
Only heard about you guys from your appearance with Colin and Gene over at LSM. Glad to sub here as well :) I may not have delved enough or I’m not as Patreon literate as I’d like: is the as free podcast just on Patreon or is there an rss link or Spotify integration?
Sylfest Strutle
Do what you think is best, I trust you guys. Just tell me what to pay for the videos again:)
Nick Calandra
Done! Thanks for catching that
Jeroen Ruigrok van der Werven
Hi Nick, can you folks please adjust the content of the € 10 tier? It currently still lists early access as a boon.
luke simpson
How do I go about joining the discord for the 5 pound members ?
Wheezy Jogger
Same, never signed up to anything like this before
Wheezy Jogger
I'm absolutely thrilled to get the columns at $5. Yay!
Kp84
Excellent news, glad to get Darren’s writing at the $5 level
Craig Horsnell
First Patreon I've ever signed up for is Second Wind. I only learnt this morning about the demise of The Escapist. So happy to see how quickly Second Wind has come together and looking forward to see how high you can soar!
Chris McElligott Park
Definitely seem like good changes. And I agree with Jak, I am happy to support you guys in this form, but when it was at The Escapist it never would have been on my radar. Really happy for you all that this is going so well so far!
Jak Lawrence
I'm genuinely, albeit ambivalently, happy all this happened. Happy to send money to you folx when I was not happy to send money to the escapist - no more listening to gacha game ads before ZP videos and wondering which aloof marketing director hadn't taken their pills that morning and greenlit that shite. Long live Second Wind!
Matt88g
Ya early access just complicates everything
Yiorgos
I assume private RSS feed is one said method? Very excited for this
Renton Treznor
Good changes, appreciated!
Conor Mc Cann
That's great news. I thought us on the $5 tier were just getting a preview of one of the columns to entice us to up our tier when you posted the Loki column before announcing this! :D
TaintedStrike
Good luck to all of you guys in your new endeavor! Not that you need it :) I deeply thank you for over a decade of fun and entertainment you brought to me and millions of others!
Pedro Catinari
This just made me want to support. I really enjoy Darrens columns but 10$ was more than I could spend
William Alexander
Hi Nick. I like this idea and will bump up to $5 for Darren (and to support y'all: years of ZP, a true community of writers and creators, and all your behind-the-scenes work).
noggin-scratcher
I miss Darren's columns, but $10/mo was more than I could see spending on a subscription. Bringing it down to $5 though... now I'm tempted.
Tony G
Nice changes. I like the idea of keeping your community together in one unit. That must be where the word community comes from; a common-unit - a communal unit with unity in common. Unity! Erm...... Lost my train of thought....... Oh yeah, good changes, well done guys!!
Beagle boy
Sounds great
MajorFiasco
Dropping Early Access is a good call and aligns with the 'spirit' of your endeavour (imo). I'm here to support because I believe in the 'content comes first' ethos of Second Wind, something which is seriously lacking in the gaming industry right now. Revenue is a by product of great content which in turn is a by product of a great team, clearly you have an amazing team who are prepared to follow. I have one question, did Yahtzee stand up and shout "No!, I'm Calandra!" Good luck!
JR
Sounds like a good thing for everyone. Thank you! The decision about the comments in particular seems very reasonable too. Please keep us updated so we know when the podcast question has been resolved (and Marty's column drops). I'm currently in the supporter tier and will reconsider when then. Keep up the good energy!
Alexander 'Kav' Kashev
I'm feeling positive about dropping of Early Access. I prefer voluntary support by the community with bonuses like names-in-the-video rather than gated content, even if it's only temporarily exclusive.
Nick Calandra
We’re not paywalling uncensored videos.
noarch
What about a Darren Mooney daily wake-up call? That should definitely part of the tier!
Wills
The reason the columns are Patreon exclusive is that Second Wind has no-where else to put them as they are not doing a website.
Stoke me a clipper
Early access for a series which is often about recent releases never made much sense anyway. Happy with this change, and even happier to be getting the columns! I do just want to say though, while Darren's columns of course make perfect sense in the absence of a website and are a nice bonus, pretty please don't ever make content Patreon exclusive just for the sake of having exclusive Patreon content. Not a fan of Easy Allies or Kinda Funny locking off some of their best videos, permanently making them undiscoverable. It feels like it's a significant piece of work held hostage instead of what they intended as a cool bonus for supporters. And you know what would make a neat bonus for the $10 tier? Take it old school and collect all the columns in a monthly or quarterly (simple!) digital magazine. And finally... I demand Extra Ramblomatic.
SteampunkSalad
I believe they said on the first stream that Yahtzee is gonna swear as much as he likes in his videos, regardless of whether YouTube likes it or not. So basically, "uncensored" is now the standard.
Jonathan Foot
Positive reaction! Early access sucked anyways. Will we get uncensored videos still?
Stephen Jackson
Fair enough. I guess these are the kinds of changes which happen when growing a 'new' site.
Top Floor
Nice ^_^ I get to see what these columns are all about.
van_Zeller
Hope yahtzee can deal with it lol. Thanks!
Nick Calandra
Nope, not paywalling swear words. We still have to abide by culture standards and community guidelines on YouTube so we're not going overboard lol.
van_Zeller
How will you deal with the swearing & censorship issues with youtube? Will that factor in to any of the tiers?
Scott Romo
Love ditching early access. Now we can help spread the video to new people right when it drops!
Matt
Huge fan of this! Love how focused on the community all the decisions are
SCP 3887B
Thanks for the clarification
Nick Calandra
Yea, we're dropping Early Access model entirely to release videos at the same time.
SCP 3887B
So is early access being romped from all tiers or just $5?
Larry Fix
I like the removal of the early access model. This way the discussion each week isn’t bifurcated between early access and non early access. I’m sticking with the $10 tier. I started watching the escapist for ZP but subscribed to this Patreon because of adventure is nigh. Can’t wait to see what’s next!
Soaring Spoon
Sounds great! Ad free podcasts are an outstanding replacement
teh dave
Those don't really interest me... They might be excellent work but it's just not something I'm interested in right now. Ah well I seem to be in the minority so I guess I'll just have to deal
JR & Annie Laurie
YES! Always hated Early Access.
Dinte
Gladly stay at $10 even though it was for early access and support. Keep making the great content.
Coey Ohwow-Godsey
Good choice! I'm glad to hear more people will get to read the columns. Staff deserve to get eyes on their work.
BodoFragins
Good move. Early access stuff always adds confusion in my opinion... nice for the whole community to be on the same (content) page. :)
Antiphar
Definitely a good move, for all the reasons. Keep up the good work!
Dylan Fletcher
Thanks for the update. I’m still keeping my $10 tier but it’s cool to see how committed you are to providing people with tons of great rewards even at lower tiers!
Chris Moore
Great change
Brian S
Fair enough
Joe Donnelly
I was waiting for a change like this. Love it!
Robert Gendron
Very much appreciated. I tend to cap my contributions per channel to around the $5 level so I can support as many of the creators I follow as possible, it really starts to add up when you have 20+ channels you want to support. I couldn't really justify dropping another channel to get those columns and keep to my patreon budget.
Zap
I have a couple Patreons I'm a member of that provide Podcasts, they just give access to a private RSS feed of audio posts that needs to authenticate with your Patreon login. Although now that I read a bit more about it in the Patreon documentation, you only get 1 feed.
Joseph Seaton
I strongly approve of not splitting engagement wherever possible, will make discussions more lively not that this was a concern with how fast the group has grown.
Jono H
Sold!
Tyler
Woooooo
James McGivern
Yeah this feels like the right move. Makes the 5 dollar tier feel even more valuable
Ashton Fehlman
Looking forward to it!
Nick Calandra
We have two new podcasts in the works right now. We'll announce when we're ready!
Maur Razimtheth
Seems sensible to me. Great job balancing the interests of the audience and the creators.
Thomas Waring III
YES YES YES!
Ashton Fehlman
As far as podcast what can we look forward too (mainly asking if a Slightly Something Else type show is gonna be in the menu)
Sam_is_no_longer_enby
I like this change. Good job
Kyle Scheffler
Sounds like a good plan to me, I thought $10 for the columns was too much, though I am subbed to that level. Also, just putting it out there, I'm all for Nick "Big DOC" Calandra as your official title!
Tyler Hildebran
As someone who was already on the $5 tier, big fan!
Edrialyse
Fantastic stuff!
Jeff Griffin
Thats fair. Can't wait to see your first review
