I’ve noticed people in several threads talking about WIPs for HGs where most or even all of the content is basically behind a paywall, since it’s only available to Patreon subscribers or whatever other subscription services the writer in question requires them to pay to if they want to access large portions of the WIP content. And recently I noticed people in the forum talking about a WIP where all the WIP was only available to Patreon subscribers. From what I understand, the written rules for HGs are quite strict about HGs making most or even all of the content of WIPs freely available if writers want to release it under the WIP umbrella. Yet, if the people commenting about this are to be believed, it seems that many writers who break these rules can do this without any serious consequences or repercussions.
So what I’m wondering is what the current COG policy towards WIPs who break these rules are these days? Do these rules no longer apply and it’s just that the people responsible have yet to write down the rule changes?. Have these rules been relaxed, so that people can go against them under certain circumstances or that it’s okay to do so up until a certain point. Is it just that the people responsible for policing those rules have too much on their plate/are too overworked to do anything about it. Or is it some other reason that I haven’t thought of?
I’m writing this both because I’m curious and because I think clarity about the current policies here would be of great benefit for both current and aspiring writers and also for readers/players. There’s no doubt that an increasing number of IF writers are using Patreon for their WIPs. While I’m not necessarily against that( I even follow a COG writer Patreon myself), when this leads to to some HG WIP writers making some or even all the WIP content available only to Patreon subscribers even if that’s against the rules as written, I do think it’s important to have a clear and explicitly stated policy in place, whether that is removing those rules, relaxing them a bit or enforcing them strictly.
I don’t think the policy has changed - anything written in ChoiceScript that’s exclusive to patrons has to be made freely available to the public within a certain period of time afterwards, unless you’ve made some other specific arrangement with CoG. I just think it’s easy for people to get away with breaking the rule, since the company pays very little attention to the vast majority of HG WIPs. They’re not going around and looking at the Patreons of people who haven’t published with them yet.
If you’ve seen the rule being violated, you can report it. There may be a better address for this, in which case I hope someone will share it, but support@cog will get the job done.
I think it’s very unlikely that the company will officially relax their rules, that would be virtually giving away a free license to the engine. On the other hand, I think they know this is the only way some authors can keep working on their projects. So they are probably operating under the rule of “we don’t ask, you don’t tell”. And there’s not much to it than that. Also, definitely true they have a lot on their hands already. CoG is a small company. They probably have more productive things to do than hunting down offenders and issuing cease and desist legal notices.
You would think they would regulate on Patreon when its kinda killing publishing in cog. Why make money selling when you can make money from subscription. Mind Blind was supposed to be one of the biggest COG but now the finished product is Patreon only.
People can theoretically get a Commercial License for a 25 % fee (at least I think so?) with which you can publish yourself, though I can’t say which authors use that for their Patreon content …
Unless I’m much mistaken, that only allows publication on itch.io.
A true commercial licence to publish anywhere is very expensive.
Given the crazy word count expectations these days, they probably figure letting the popular games get crowd funded via patreon is about the only chance many of them have of getting done. And if they get abandoned, well they haven’t put any money into them so no loss to them. It’s not killing their publishing or they would have done something about it.
People complain periodically about it and others on reddit. Sounds like it’s likely still choicescript behind a paywall for a long time. Example: Reddit
@AletheiaKnights does this apply to closed demos? Are authors required to provide access to the general community if they’re trying to run a closed demo of their story
This is an interesting topic for me cos I plan to release a portion of my WIP very soon. Thanks in advance for the reply
Look at their main site. The info is all there. If you’re not making money from it you can keep it closed forever. If you’re putting it in patreon to make money, you are in theory supposed to release it. From memory it’s one month (two tops).
Patreon isn’t a stable concept, the subscription model + The FEEES !!! = People going on and off depend on their mood/finance. It attract more problem than solving it.
The concept Choice of games have is more align with the artistic mind that goes into stories. More stable. People can read WIP at their hearth content.
If they are invest in the story they can pay the authors/artist to see more recent work. And authors/artist can publish more is they want the stories to live.
The paywalls are a laughable concept, it never work (DRM vs pirate scene, Linux vs windows…). People will always go to the better work and the freedom. If they see the work and the dedication they are free to pay. Or not. Either way free stuff always sell more. Free marketing.
If authors/artist keep releasing their work behind paywall, only a few will see their work. And the authors/artist will struggle. Thing fix themself in the end.
As for me, if i see work behind paywall for more than 6 months i stop paying attention to the work. I know for sure that the work isn’t worth it. People that do good work tend to share for free, their stuff are too good to be burden by monetary gains.
As for the policy, its delicate to tell people to share their work for free. Even if its in rule of the license. Its easy to jump behind another license than to deal another problem.
Till next.
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Again see the history in linux vs windows license. Its hilarious and fun.
People that do good work want to be paid for their good work, enough to at least not starve to death and to have a roof over their heads, wild stuff I know.
This. I never understood the mindset of some people.
If a writer struggles to make ends meet they won’t have the time to write.
Are there bad apples that milk their patreon without the intention of writing? sure.
but the majority has this for various reasons, and a little financial boost is just one.
I know there have been warnings given, at least. It was brought to the attention of CoG a few years ago that this was going on, and they very clearly weren’t okay with it. But the details of what exactly they did in response weren’t made public.
Back when this was new I got an e-mail explaining how long the demo could be behind a paywall, and when it would have to become public. The info was pretty clear, and I agree that is the best way to do it.
Not sure what’s happening if people don’t obey though…
I assume that the company don’t have any idea about many of those demo patreons though, it seems unfeasible that all of them will be paying CoG to keep their stuff private. I assume nobody has notified them yet, unless they get a tip I guess they have no idea.
Periodic complaints about content from multiple patreons being locked for extended periods behind paywalls, or released over multiple months depending on how much you pay, or other issues like beta testing only available as a “perk” of subscription has been going on for many years and never really goes away. It’ll keep happening while people continue to pay to support the patreons that don’t follow the rules set out for everyone else. If you don’t like it, unsubscribe. It’s that simple. Nothing else will change that behaviour.
Another PoV: a hypothetical author wants to open a patreon. They know about the rule. Now they either have to knowingly break it, or handicap themself compared to those who do not follow it.
If the rule isn’t enforced, imo it shouldn’t be there.
