Goodbye Patreon, Hello Ambassadors!
Hello Noxcrew community,
There was a big announcement during Avondale’s stream this week with a lot of big changes coming to the community side of Noxcrew, some good and some not so good. We wanted to make sure that everyone was up to date and knew what was going on before things got underway, hence this very long block of text. Please bear with us and read to the end, there is a lot of good in here even if it doesn’t initially sound like it.
As you are probably already aware, Noxite has halted his Monday night streams so that he can focus on our work commitments. I’m sad to say that Avon is doing the same, hence regular streams from the Noxcrew Twitch channel have been halted for the foreseeable future. This doesn’t mean that the boys will never stream again, just that it will be more sporadic, when they are free from work and feel inspired to do so, rather than playing at set times every week.
As with most of the less positive announcements in this message, this was not an easy decision to make, but it was the most logical. The streams took up vital time during our workday, particularly for Avon whose streams would take in the middle of his day, breaking his workflow and exhausting him for the rest of the day, for very little return. That is not to say that we didn’t love interacting and chatting with you all, but to set aside 2 hours of essential work time to entertain 15 - 20 people seemed a ridiculous waste of resources, especially when there are other ways that we can engage with you guys - more on that later on.
As a result, due to falling numbers and our personal lack of time to invest in the project, we are also winding down the Survival Server and in turn shutting down our Patreon program.
This was the hardest decision of all. The Noxcrew Patreon has been running for closing on 7 years now, and its’ support kept Noxcrew together during our darkest days when we weren’t sure that we were going to survive as a team. But with the winding down of the survival server, the main reward of the Patreon program, it didn’t seem right to keep it open, presenting promises that we weren’t sure we could always keep due to the hectic and fast-moving nature of our work.
As for the survival server, not to mince words, but of late, the server was only active during streams, making it difficult to progress storylines and find interesting things to do for the streams. This is difficult to say as it is hard to see something you have put a lot of work into not succeed, but without the streams to bolster player input, it seemed unreasonable to keep the project rolling as it is.
Now I know what you’re all thinking. ‘Noctis, this is a lot of doom and gloom, where’s that good stuff you told us about!’ Never fear, I promise good and I deliver.
First of all, the survival server is not going away right away. We promised a season 2 and we will deliver. As such the current survival server will remain open until the end of the March when this season will officially end. All players who had access to that server - provided they were not removed due to receiving a ban - will be whitelisted back onto the server to play out the last couple of months. The rules of the server will still apply, however, so don’t go breaking any fourth walls!
Secondly, to replace Patreon we will be introducing the Noxcrew Ambassador rank! This new rank, which will be given out on Discord, is open to those members of the Noxcrew community who are well known and well regarded and are in good standing with Noxcrew and the community. Also, no special selection here the rank is open to those who want it, we’re still working on the application process, but we’ll let you know how to apply at a later date.
As well as a fancy rank and logo showing yourselves to be reliable members of the community, ambassadors will have access to a new private survival server that they can design and designate themes as they wish, without too much intervention from myself or Avondale. We will also be looking into allowing ambassadors to become beta testers for our upcoming maps and other projects, but that is still in discussion and will be finalised at a later date.
As for those who don’t or can’t get Ambassador ranks, don’t worry! We haven’t forgotten about you guys! One of our patron rewards was access to weekly updates, detailing behind the scenes information and sneak peeks at projects we were working on. These post will be moving to discord, with more transparency on how we work and what we’re working on, giving you the scoop on everything we’re up to. Of course, this will be a fine balance between showing off exciting details and spoiling the project altogether, but we’ll be sure to walk that line so we don’t totally kill any excitement!
And that’s that. This is a very big change, but I hope you can all see why they are being made and are excited about what lies ahead for all of us. If you have any questions, concerns or just general thoughts about the whole thing, please do let us know, we’re always interested in what you have to say. Also if you have any ‘reasonable’ suggestions for Ambassador or Community perks, again let us know, we want to offer you guys the best experience we can :D
- Noctis