NF Magazine 2016 Crowd Funding

[ctophil]

Hey Everyone,

It's that time of year again when NF Magazine (Nintendo Force Magazine) gets its crowd funding for the year! This year, they are switching from Kickstarter to Patreon in order to make it easier for ongoing projects like NF Magazine. I love this magazine and here's for another awesome year of Nintendo goodness. Pick up your 2016 subscription today! This is your friendly Public Service Announcement!

Make a donation here: https://www.patreon.com/NintendoForce?ty=h

[E-Day]

I was reading the Patreon FAQ. They use monthly pledges. Nintendo Force has their subscriptions as $4.99 per issue (in the US). Are they actually able to only take a pledge when they put out a new issue? Is it averaged out? I don't want to pay $5.99 (for Canada) every month only to get seven issues.

[twiztor]

i pledged for the digital subscriptions. this magazine is fantastic, and offering a pledge-exclusive on a Zelda issue was the deal-sealer.

[ctophil]

I was reading the Patreon FAQ. They use monthly pledges. Nintendo Force has their subscriptions as $4.99 per issue (in the US). Are they actually able to only take a pledge when they put out a new issue? Is it averaged out? I don't want to pay $5.99 (for Canada) every month only to get seven issues.

Yes, Patreon is a monthly crowd funding service. This is why it is easier for Nintendo Force to create subscriptions--by going monthly. On Kickstarter, they could only get all the money at once for the 6 - 7 issues. But for people jumping on board later in the year, it was a hassle for them to include new folks, since they had to change the subscription amount and number of issues for each individual. With Patreon, they can just charge people a per issue basis via a bi-monthly pledge (since it's a bi-monthly magazine).

Here is a direct quote from Patreon during the pledge checkout process:

You will be charged $5.99 to support each paid post (issue) made by The Nintendo Force. Going forward, all of your pledges on Patreon will be grouped into a single charge at the start of each month.

I used Paypal to make my pledge. And Paypal asked me if I agree to use the payment method specified for my monthly charges. So that does confirm that it is a per issue charge (in this case, each time NF Magazine makes an issue, they will charge you). I know it's kinda odd; but I don't really mind it if I get my NF Magazine issues on time.

Just a reminder, similar to Kickstarter, Patreon is not going to charge you until the funding goal has been reached. Even then, it is only $4.99 (US) or $5.99 (Canada) on a bi-monthly basis for the print subscription.

Finally, after doing the math, it is about the same as last year if you add up all the issues. Except this time, you will be paying for 7 issues instead of 6. So it may seem like it's more expensive.

Update: Added some Q&A directly from Patreon's comments section to clear things some more about the pledges.

Published Jan 14, 2016

I've never Patrioned (is that a word) anything before. I just pledged the $4.99 pledge. am I going to get charged the $4.99 every time a new issue comes out, or was I supposed to pledge a bunch of money up front to cover a year or so worth of issues. I'm kind of confused there. Either way, Hooray for more NF!

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Kris Randazzo

Jan 14, 2016

Glorious. Thanks for clearing that up.

Jason Hunt

Jan 14, 2016

Patreon bills at the end of a month in which something was released. So come March when issue 20 hits, you'll get billed $4.99 that month. You won't have a charge for February or April since nothing is released from NF in those months.

Kris Randazzo

Jan 14, 2016

So I just pledged $4.99. The magic of Patreon will just take $4.99 every time a new issue comes out?

The Nintendo Force

Jan 14, 2016

Yep!

The Nintendo Force

Jan 14, 2016

Nope, no pledging a big chunk of money up front here! That's the way Kickstarter does things, but Patreon speads things out over time so no one's ever hit with a big $30 hit to their bank account in one shot.

[E-Day]

I queried them on the Facebook, and they explained the system to me. I actually prefer it this way as the cost is spread out over the year instead of in one chunk. That make it more managable for me since the exchange rate is crap right now and that $5.99 is actually $8.70 Canadian, and since PayPal doesn't use the exact exchange rate so they can make a few pennies too, it will be closer to $9 Canadian.

[theatermike]

Even though I enjoy Nintendo Force and had multiple subscriptions, I chose not to renew since they do not respond to anyone's subscription inquiries. A severe lack of customer service and possibly even not sending issues out to some people at all, is intolerable. The publications I have been involved with have never had these issues.

[E-Day]

I never had a problem getting a hold of them about my subscription.

[HowardBware]

I just pledged moments ago. It was pretty unclear about how many issues a year to expect, when to expect them. We'll see. Hope all goes well.

[HowardBware]

I asked sent them a message about the subscription and got a clear response withing an hour.