Matt Chat is dedicated to preserving and celebrating the history of the videogame history. I contend that videogames have become an indispensable part of our culture, and great videogame developers are just as historically important today as any great film director or book author. Instead of only enjoying games, I want to take you on my journey to learn where our favorite games and platforms came from--what kind of people made them, and what were they thinking?
Matt Chat began as a hobby project in February 2009. Starting off primarily as a way to promote my book Dungeons and Desktops, Matt Chat quickly evolved a life of its own. Each week, I feature in-depth reviews of classic videogames and interviews with famous developers such as John Romero, Chris Avellone, Tim Cain, Richard “Lord British” Garriott, and Rebecca Heineman.

I have fun doing these videos, and love humor and frequent references to my favorite 80s movies and games. However, unlike many prominent "YouTubers" doing videogame stuff, I'm dedicated to being factually correct and well-informed about the games and developers I have on the show. You'll never hear me throwing tantrums, disrespecting guests, or dropping the F-bomb.
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As you probably know by now, I’ve decided to take the advice of several Matt Chatters and set up my own Patreon page. Patreon is still new enough to elicit more head scratching than enthusiasm at this point, but I think once you understand it, you’ll agree that it’s a better way to support folks like me than PayPal or Kickstarter. Here are my thoughts on it.

The main reason I decided to go for Patreon was the payment structure. The problem with PayPal is that you’re limited to either paying a subscription (so much per week, month, etc.) or a one-time payment. The subscriptions are great, of course, but it puts me in a position of feeling guilty if I have to take some time off. If there’s no new episode that week, you just paid for nothing. I understand that most of you folks would probably say–”So what, Matt? Enjoy!” But I still don’t feel right about it.

Patreon, however, allows you to pay only when I release new content that I specifically label as “paid.” This maintains the pressure on me to continue to release new episodes (if I don’t–no money!), but I don’t have the dread of pissing off a subscriber if I don’t get it done on schedule.

The one-time payments from Paypal are probably the least offensive option for most people. Unfortunately, almost everyone who does that never donates again. I guess the mindset is, “I paid him $50, that’s enough for here to eternity!” I always appreciate, of course, these awesome gifts, but they simply aren’t a sustainable way to produce the show. I’d prefer, actually, for that person to do the $1 or $5 per episode deal instead; that way, I’d have a steady flow of income for quite awhile, and hopefully by the time I’d collected the $50, the person would simply let it continue. At any rate, I’d have a much better way to plan my spending and make sure I don’t blow my budget.
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