It’s a new year, one that has already been impressively terrible for both the video game and journalism industries. We need your help to demolish it.
Aftermath, as you’ve probably already heard us say a thousand times, is a reader-funded venture. We do not currently have any other outside sources of revenue. This route has provided us the freedom to cover stuff other sites might not touch in this age of hyper-cautious executives and Google-pleasing SEO spew, whether that means in-depth reports on the damage done by industry layoffs, calls for somebody to leak completed movies being destroyed by greedy companies, or Chris’ mind-bogglingly expansive odes to esoterica from days gone by. We’ve blogged about the harsh reality of what our jobs looked like at other sites, the slow degradation of the internet, and some of the most important trends shaping digital culture. We’ve also written about baseball players’ dicks and an Egg. Oh, and there was that time we interviewed a dog.
We’ve done all of that in only four months. Sitting here, reading this back to myself, I can’t believe it. It’s wild! We are so incredibly lucky that we get to do this, and we are tremendously grateful to every single subscriber we have. This site is a dream come true. It’s all thanks to the generosity of everyone who’s joined us for the ride so far.
We want to keep doing this forever, and we’re pretty sure we can. But the realities of running a business – especially a brand new one – mean that it’s a process, and we’re still working to get to the point where Aftermath can be fully sustainable in the long run. The financial obligations of… existing mean that not all of us can afford to work on Aftermath full-time yet, even though that is our goal. So, no beating around the bush, we’re asking you to help us. But! We also want to give you something – a lot of somethings, actually – in return.
Inspired by Defector and other independent sites, we want to share with you where we’re at and where we’d like to end up. Think of what we’re doing here today as a funding drive akin to what you’d see from Wikipedia, a Kickstarter, a Patreon, The Video Game History Foundation, a radio station, or basically any other even vaguely independent venture in this day and age. This is our version of that, inspired by all of those things and what we’ve seen people do on YouTube, Twitch, and other platforms besides.
As of November, we have around 4,100 subscribers at a mix of $1 per month (because of our anniversary sale), $7 per month, $10 per month, and in a few cases by which we are baffled but for which we are supremely grateful (thanks, Mom), $99 per month. (Our subscribers are split between monthly and annual plans; the annual plans are a big help to us and provide a discount to you.) That’s a really good number for being just four months old! I can only think of one or two babies who are that popular, and they’re not pumping out near the quality of work that we are. Now here’s where we think/hope we can get in the nearish future – and what you, our loyal readers, will get in exchange:
2,850 - Where we started this drive
3,000 - We’ll start running (paid) pieces from very cool freelance writers, albeit occasionally.
3,300 - One of us will write an in-depth piece on a topic of subscribers' choosing.
3,500 - Merch
3,800 - A new podcast.
4,100 - Where we're at now.
4,200 - We’ll throw an in-person party for subscribers, but Luke can’t come because we hate Australians (and travel is expensive).
4,500 - More frequent pieces from even cooler freelancers.
4,800 - We begin doing regular gaming events with the community. Maybe a ‘book’ club or a game night. You get to decide!
5,000 - We can all do this full-time and not be poor!
5,200 - We’ll throw an in-person party for subscribers, and Luke is invited to this one because if you pay us enough, we’ll get over our hatred of Australians.
5,500 - We can hire another full-time staff member!
100,000 - We will purchase G/O Media and fire somebody whose name rhymes with Spim Janfeller (out of a cannon, which we will also purchase with this money).
(Please note that these are ballpark figures. While delivering on the rewards for readers we’ve listed here is something we’re certain we can do in relatively short order, things like hiring an additional person might prove slightly more costly or time-consuming. UPDATE: As of July 2024, we also swapped the 3,800 and 4,800 goals for the sake of feasibility/workload.)
We plan to regularly update this page – and let everybody know when we do so – to ensure that readers can follow along at home. If you’d like to kick off that process by subscribing or going up a subscription tier (which will grant you access to our comment section and Discord), you can do so here. Or if you’d like to supercharge this whole operation, we also have a tips jar where you can donate whatever you want.
Once again, thank you. With your help, we can destroy 2024 once and for all.
