Beginning… uh, final week, we’re making a bunch of enhancements to the RPS Supporter Program, the super-special subscription service by which impossibly cool RPS readers can help our writing and reporting immediately. The catch? Ha ha! There isn’t one.
Earlier than stepping into the main points, I hope you’ll allow me some context dumping, as a result of my god some of these items has been bothering me for ages. It’s most likely not a secret that the RPS crew, significantly on the editorial facet, have needed to stretch ourselves in current instances. One of many casualties of that has been the Supporter Program, as re-focusing our consideration elsewhere has meant fewer unique articles and a normal lack of housekeeping. By way of occasional inspiration and Sin Vega’s glorious Scout Report sequence, we’d saved to the letter of our promise for recent Supporter articles each week, however for some time now, it’s felt like we’d solely discovered time for this naked minimal.
That needed to change. Moreover the beancounting, business-o-fact {that a} minimal providing would do little to draw new subscribers, we should always completely be offering extra to current Supporters: those that can get the overwhelming majority of RPS writing at no cost, and are beneficiant sufficient to fund us anyway. To that finish, right here’s what you possibly can anticipate from the Program going ahead:
Extra Supporter-exclusive posts, usually
Supporters on the Premium tier will now see extra frequent posts for his or her eyes solely, starting with final week’s double-hit of Sin-scribed Crabmeat impressions and my ode to a magnet. Count on further insights and nonsense from a wider vary of the RPS Treehouse, on a wider vary of subjects, in addition to continued indie sport spotlights from Sin herself.
Likewise, we’re additionally going to revive the traditional apply of reposting older Supp posts in order that they’re free to learn for everybody. This received’t be the case for each single unique, not least as a result of a few of them might be associated to time-specific occasions that will make them a bit bizarre to learn 12 months later. However we might be taking a curated method to those, so non-subscribers can get a style of our most interesting Supporter phrases..
Much more ad-free shopping than the earlier ad-free shopping
Hiding advertisements has at all times been a key perk to being an RPS Supporter, although till final week, we didn’t have the backend tech in place to increase this to the newer growth of sponsored content material. Now, we do. For those who’re logged into RPS along with your Supporter account, you must by no means see sponsored content material (until you discover and click on a direct hyperlink to it), and if you happen to do, you possibly can electronic mail Julian to get it fastened. And, in fact, each the Customary and Premium tiers will proceed to get the identical ad-free shopping they’ve had for years.
Letters from the Editor, for actual this time
This dates waaaaaaaay again earlier than our present staffing ranges, however no, we have now not been posting month-to-month Ed letters after we actually ought to have been posting month-to-month Ed letters. Julian and I might be sharing the responsibility of fixing that, ensuring Supporters are the primary to listen to of any fascinating RPS gossip, explanations of our considering behind sure tasks, or simply how every thing’s been going recently. Hopefully that sounds agreeable, although you might need to forgive the element of neither of us having the job title of Editor.
Lower content material and behind-the-scenes appears
Whereas a lot of this entire refresh deal is about bringing again Ye Olde Methods of the Supporter Program, we additionally wish to do one thing new, in addition to a bit completely different from what you may get from different video games web site subscriptions. Chief amongst these might be extra BTS-style articles, which is able to come along with the aforementioned increase in unique, extra conventionally game-focused options. These posts will both reveal a glimpse of how the RPS sausage is made, or reconstruct the cutting-room-floor scraps that a few of you sickos really like studying.
Extra common roundups, in case you missed all that
On the finish of every month, we’ll collect up all of the Supp-exclusive articles we’ve posted right into a handy listing, readable by anybody (and never in contrast to this). Supporters, you’ll get a useful one-stop recap of any items you will have missed, and Supporters But to Be… nicely, I imply, simply take a look at all this rad shit you’re lacking.
Pricing for each the Customary and Premium tiers will stay unchanged, and whereas that’s all of the confirmed enhancements we have now to share proper now, they aren’t essentially the one ones that could possibly be made within the foreseeable future. I will be operating a survey to, amongst different issues, discover out what you need from the Supporter Program, and am additionally investigating the potential of extra sport/merchandise code giveaways as nicely. We’re working in a really completely different trade to the one the place we might extract a whole bunch of free video games from publishers frequently, however whereas I can’t promise to safe this perk, I do promise to attempt*.
It’s a pleasure and actually sort of a reduction to be sharing this information; a number of of those modifications I pitched to administration virtually a yr in the past, and it’s thrilling to see them lastly take form on the location. Greater than something, I hope Supporters admire them, a fraction as a lot as we admire the patronage. Not signed up? You can also help us right here.
*Nowt I can do about reductions on RPS merch, thoughts. That Teespring retailer is deader than a complete asset library of Bethesda skeletons.
