People News Matt Barton's Crowdfunding Campaign on Patreon

[Somberlain]

I would certainly donate if I wasn't a poor, currently unemployed, student myself. I really like the show and watch most of the episodes. It's actually pretty amazing, that he has made well over 200 videos, despite getting such a small amount of views.

 

[CSM]

Why do people need money to do the things they love doing?

Because you can buy stuff with money.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Tbh I just wondered why I've never watched his videos til the end. Could it be because they suck?

 

[Johannes]

Asking for money is fine. Donating money is fine. But acting like someone's entitled to money for putting out jewtube videos is silly.

 

[Monty]

I thought he was doing it to meet women.

 

[sstacks]

I think a point that should be stressed is that whether it's a PayPal tip system or Patreon or something else, this remains a voluntary system if people want to support Matt's efforts with the Matt Chat videos, his blog, etc.

For game enthusiasts and historians, he truly is providing an important service beyond just entertainment by getting this material recorded and in the public domain under a Creative Commons license. It really does take time to do so and yes, he does it because it's a passion but at the same time if people want to sponsor him or be his "patron" through Patreon that's their choice.

My 2, ballyhoo,
Shane

http://shaneplays.com
Twitter @ShanePlays

 

[Infinitron]

The idea that someone shouldn't be compensated for doing (good) work on the basis of "it's a hobby" is really kind of sad, especially if there is clear demand for it. Matt obviously puts hundreds upon hundreds of hours of work into his series (and his web site as a whole), and I don't blame him at all for wanting to generate enough money even to just keep the thing going.

I guess everyone wants something for nothing, but the real world doesn't work that way. It's really easy to have that mindset until you start being a content creator that has to pay bills as well.

https://twitter.com/mattbarton/status/428893685015539712

 

[Johannes]

You don't trust me Matt? Ok, fuck you too then.

 

[sea]

Asking for money is fine. Donating money is fine. But acting like someone's entitled to money for putting out jewtube videos is silly.

Perhaps, but Matt provides high-quality content and a valuable community and historic service. Acting like his work is "just some other YouTuber's" is needlessly reductive, nor has he ever struck me as "entitled" about anything (other than perhaps wanting some good RPGs to play).

 

[Humanity has risen!]

When I see people saying that his videos are too long or that the obscure designers talk for too long about their mundane life, l can't help but be reminisced of comparisons between old game design vs new. If he started making his videos more "edgy", it wouldn't be Matt Chat anymore. It's like people who say that all RPGs should have a quest compass nowadays, because who has the patience for exploration anymore?

His videos are unique precisely because more obscure designers are given a voice and a vitrine, and plenty of time to go on and on. And I have yet to see a single one who didn't have plenty of interesting anecdotes and musings to offer, stuff you would never see anywhere else.

 

[Excidium]

A bunch of people like his videos the way they are but not enough apparently.

 

[Metro]

And I mean interviewing people like MCA or Tim Cain is something most RPG fans would gladly do for free to instead of expecting to get paid for their time.

Sure. But when you do the interviews as a job...

He's a fucking college professor. It isn't his job. One of the worst things to come out of the whole YouTube/Streaming revolution is the birth of these internet 'shows.' I missed it when people did shit as a hobby. Now everyone has to be a 'professional.'

 

[Excidium]

This whole thing looks like him trying to compensate his perceived lack of popularity with steady financial support. Like "show me you care" or some shit.

I also never understood the frustration expressed on those blog posts. He's as popular and succesful on youtube as he can possibly be considering the nature of his content. His persona, the production values, the structure of restrospectives and interviews...none of that matters for shit when you're covering old computer games almost nobody cares about.

 

[AN4RCHID]

I also never understood the frustration expressed on those blog posts. He's as popular and succesful on youtube as he can possibly be considering the nature of his content. His persona, the production values, the structure of restrospectives and interviews...none of that matters for shit when you're covering old computer games almost nobody cares about.

 

[Broseph]

 

[Excidium]

I also never understood the frustration expressed on those blog posts. He's as popular and succesful on youtube as he can possibly be considering the nature of his content. His persona, the production values, the structure of restrospectives and interviews...none of that matters for shit when you're covering old computer games almost nobody cares about.

video

I knew somebody would link AVGN but it's completely different.

Actually if he wants to take a lesson from AVGN is to cover obscure games and systems, nobody needs a retrospective on Wizardry 8 or Dungeon Master or Might and Magic VI or EOTB...make videos about things like those CRPGs that SSI released before Goldbox, CRPGs that weren't released for IBM computers, etc.

 

[AN4RCHID]

No shit, it's different in all the ways you just mentioned - persona, production values, and structure of the retrospectives. Those things do matter for youtube views, a lot more than the things Matt Chat does bring to the table.

 

[Excidium]

No shit, it's different in all the ways you just mentioned - persona, production values, and structure of the retrospectives. Those things do matter for youtube views, a lot more than the things Matt Chat does bring to the table.

Yes but what matters most is the content, he could have all those aspects at the same level but the amount of people interested in hearing some old geezer babble on skype about how tabletop games were adapted to computer enviroments 30 years ago will always be much smaller than the amount of people wanting to laugh at a character suffering through a really shitty old FMV game.

 

[AN4RCHID]

Some old geezer babbling on skype about how tabletop games were adapted to computer enviroments 30 years ago is exactly the issue of production values and persona, though. AVGN is entertaining to people who don't care about the subject matter. Matt Chat isn't.

 

[Excidium]

Some old geezer babbling on skype about how tabletop games were adapted to computer enviroments 30 years ago is exactly the issue of production values and persona, though.

Well to me it was really informative and interesting to listen to the history of SSI and cRPGs in general, certainly better than seeing him play a game everyone already played or advertising kickstarters.

But the point is sure he that he could edit it better, and maybe with a lot of donations afford to fly there and do a face to face interview with professional equipment, but in the end it wouldn't really draw more viewers that it already has, certainly not to the degree of something like AVGN or other youtube personalities that have more viewers than there are people interested in niche computer games in the world.

 

[Morality Games]

People in the Matt Chat thread were saying he needs to have better editing and higher production values. Well, here's your chance to put your money where your mouth is. Maybe with the money he can hire someone to do editing for him. Also he could run contests / giveaways of rare game stuff (that might cost money to procure) ... stuff like that to increase participation and viewer numbers. And get a professional mic / camera setup.

I don't begrudge him wanting compensation for what he does. He's a great proponent of keeping classic PC game history alive and that's a cause worth supporting.

Yeah and aren't youtube videos monetized already?

I don't think Youtube videos are monetized by default - the creator has to opt-in for ads. Matt doesn't have ads, as far as I know.

You have to have 50,000 subscribers to get the lowest stipend. I'm also not sure how eligible Matt is because YouTube doesn't allow its partners to utilize unlicensed unoriginal material. Never been sure whether game footage counts as unlicensed unoriginal material or not.

 

[AN4RCHID]

in the it wouldn't really draw more viewers that it already has, certainly not to the degree of something like AVGN or other youtube personalities that have more viewers than there are people interested in niche computer games in the world.

It's just a question of how he prioritizes education vs. entertainment. Matt seems to be trying to create valuable/informative content, and I think it's pretty understandable that he would be frustrated when that is an order of magnitude less popular than 'silly' shows covering similar topics, when they both have a comparable level of quality (ie, a comparable level of work put into an episode of Matt Chat and AVGN, not necessarily production values).

In the end, Youtube is a great platform for content that a large number of people are mildly interested in, but a very bad platform for content that is actually valuable to a smaller group of people. The latter case is exactly what Patreon was created for.

 

[Humanity has risen!]

Just have a look at YouTube's front page, you'll see all the videos with so many views are immensely stupid, shallow, sensationalistic, and most of the time extremely short. For 99% of YouTube viewers it's all about getting an instant dopamine rush with no effort. Virtually everything else that has no sensationalistic value will disappear into obscurity.

I really wonder what an entire generation of people watching nothing but these things all day is going to become like. The impact will really be monstrous. It's almost idiocracy in the making.

It's no wonder that people are actually offended by the existence of hour-long videos that aren't filled with expletives, cheap jokes, screams, cringe worthy attempts at being edgy and funny, or frenetic editing.

 

[TheHistoricalGamer]

People in the Matt Chat thread were saying he needs to have better editing and higher production values. Well, here's your chance to put your money where your mouth is. Maybe with the money he can hire someone to do editing for him. Also he could run contests / giveaways of rare game stuff (that might cost money to procure) ... stuff like that to increase participation and viewer numbers. And get a professional mic / camera setup.

I don't begrudge him wanting compensation for what he does. He's a great proponent of keeping classic PC game history alive and that's a cause worth supporting.

Yeah and aren't youtube videos monetized already?

I don't think Youtube videos are monetized by default - the creator has to opt-in for ads. Matt doesn't have ads, as far as I know.

You have to have 50,000 subscribers to get the lowest stipend. I'm also not sure how eligible Matt is because YouTube doesn't allow its partners to utilize unlicensed unoriginal material. Never been sure whether game footage counts as unlicensed unoriginal material or not.

That's not true at all. My YouTube channel has less than 1,000 subs and only about 300,000 views and I'm a YouTube partner with videos that are monitized, heck I even have permission from pretty much every game dev I use footage for and the ones I don't have it for are reviews so its easy to argue they are protected under fair use. I make next to nothing on the videos with such view totals (I've got a couple over 20,000 but after that it tappers off dramatically) but I still make a little bit. YouTube really removed all the viewer and subscriber requirements with regards to becoming a partner. You don't get a good payout when you have low viewers, networks wont get you a high CPM nor will you have a shot with perks that maybe high profit YouTubers get but you can certainly monetize anyway.

Of course there is a great deal of uncertainty going forward given YouTube's clamp down on gaming video content but theoretically Reviews should still be safe and if a developer gives you permission (which most are happy to do) you should also be safe.

Matt could easily monitize his content but he'd probably only make a few bucks a month. I'm not sure how many monthly views he gets but I would bet he'd get somewhere between the $20-50 per month range, not sure if that's worth the ads on his content to him though.

 

[Alchemist]

I for one am glad that Matt stays classy and doesn't resort to the attention-whoring tactics that a lot of Youtubers (like AVGN) utilize. AVGN is popular, but so is McDonalds - doesn't mean they make good food.

It's like the difference between PBS (public broadcasting) and Spike TV. I'll take thought-provoking PBS programming over that lowest-common-denominator Spike schlock any day. I think Matt has come to terms with the fact that he is more for the PBS audience, and Patreon is indeed probably a better venue to promote and fund his efforts.

I really wonder what an entire generation of people watching nothing but these things all day is going to become like. The impact will really be monstrous. It's almost idiocracy in the making.

It's no wonder that people are actually offended by the existence of hour-long videos that aren't filled with expletives, cheap jokes, screams, cringe worthy attempts at being edgy and funny, or frenetic editing.

Attention spans in the younger generations are already dismally short. But yeah, it's only going to get worse from here out.