Follower Forge

This is the Minecraft creator podcast.

This is a new episode that I just recorded
this week, I wanted to actually push out

the one that I had planned because I feel
this is important to discuss and it builds

on last fortnight's episode about burnout.

Pixlriffs is a large content creator
on YouTube, and this episode is mainly

focused around him, but also a wider
discussion that we can have with

a decision that he made recently.

As of today, which is the 9th of
August for me, Pixlriffs has decided

to close down his Patreon and all
of the associated tiers with that.

Now that includes a server that
he's been running for several years

called the Pixlrift, a Minecraft
server that's got a lot of members.

At the moment, it looks like about 130+
players, so it's quite busy and it's

become too much for him to maintain.

Now, I want the larger discussion
with this because I've seen this

pattern repeat with others as well.

Xisuma, or Xisumavoid, a couple of
years ago now closed down his Discord.

He still has his Patreon running,
but he closed down his Discord to

non-patrons to make it more manageable.

So only paying access whereas
previously it was open to all and

had hidden channels for patrons.

Now this decision was made as he was
growing to help cope with demand, instead

of just having a constant spam of messages
that you'd get with a small number of

patrons and potentially infinitely large
number of free people, joining the server,

being a fantastic part of the community,
but generating a lot of discussion.

It just makes it hard to keep up
with if you're also creating content.

Pixlriffs has done
something similar today.

He's not only closing down the Minecraft
server, but he's closing down the

whole Patreon, closing down the tiers
as he feels like he can't keep up

with it, and he's had to reject a
number of offers as a result of this.

Let me read part of this
snippet that he is written out.

And I quote, I plan to close down
my Patreon campaign by the end of

this year, this would include the
closure of the Pixlrift, the server.

We will continue to run the server in
1.17 until the Minecraft 1.18 update

is released, at which point the current
world will be made available for download

and the server will close indefinitely.

The decision has not been made lightly.

And he wants to stress, that it's not
the actions of a certain person, it's

just overwhelming amount of pressure
from everything that's coming at

him as a growing, really successful
(and well-deserved success) creator.

Now, Pixlriffs is the creator
of the Minecraft Survival Guide.

He's also the voice of
the Hermitcraft Recap.

He plays on the Empires SMP now
this year that you might've been

watching with others like fWhip.

He also commentated the Hermitcraft
Raiders or Twitch Raiders stream

that was happening recently.

And he's a co-host with Joel Duggan
on The Spawn Chunks podcast, which

is a fantastic, amazing Minecraft
podcast that I would recommend you

listen to, mainly aimed at players
rather than creators like this one.

Going back to burnout like the last
episode, we need to be careful that

we don't overburden ourselves and
these creators, I wholeheartedly

support their decisions they've made.

I think it's the right decision.

I think maybe at some point I might have
to make similar decisions, unfortunately.

At the moment I'm small enough
that I can be active in my Discord

server to a certain degree.

At one point, it's going to get that...

if you as a creator grow too big, and you
have too much coming in from all sides...

other creators, other viewers, maybe
brands - that kind of thing as well,

which he has, Pixlriffs has had a few
brand deals, so that makes sense too.

There comes a point where you need
to figure out, even if you're a

full-timer on content creation, you
need to figure out where your time is

spent and what you focus your time on.

And I'm saying this podcast
and all the podcast episodes

kind of for myself as well.

I want to go back and listen to this,
and the advice that I'd give is to

again, make sure that what you're doing
is sustainable as Plastic Scot said

last fortnight in the previous episode.

And by that, it means constantly
evaluate that even if the decisions

you've made in the past, like to
launch Patreon are still sustainable.

As things are changing, as the situation
is changing, you might grow to the

point where you need to change your
mind and do things that are better

for your physical and mental health.

And I think that's really important.

What do you think?

Let me know.

I hope you found this discussion useful.

I'm really looking forward to
seeing your feedback and your

comments and your thoughts on this.

Hopefully you support their
decision, just like I am.

I'm Leiger Gaming my link to
my channel is in the show notes

and I'll catch you next time.