Geek Native launched a Patreon last year, gives out occasional gifts to patrons and has three (wonderful) patrons. It’s not easy. Who has spare money every week to toss at a geek culture or RPG website?
The Trailseeker 2 Patreon from EN World has 91 patrons, earning $170 for each article it produces, but will now be wound down.
At EN World’s forums, Morrus explained the reason for the bad news. It’s straightforward; Trailseeker costs money.
Unfortunately, it has never gained real traction, and every month costs us more than we make from it. We kept it going for as long as we could (subsidized by our other publications), but the shortfall is mounting up to the point where we can’t afford to continue it.
We’re so sorry. We love producing this little magazine. We wish it weren’t so.
We have a couple of months’ worth of articles left to publish, which we will continue to do, but after that you can expect to see the magazine wind down this summer.
The closure isn’t due to Pathfinder 2e coming out, in fact, the launch of the second edition to the RPG didn’t impact subscription numbers at all.
In this case, EN World’s Patreon isn’t about offering some financial support to an artist sharing their hobby, it’s about supporting a business trying to be commercially viable. Projects that lose money for four years and show no signs of changing are projects that need to be wound down.
Do you support any projects or artists on Patreon? How do you decide where your money goes?
