tim rogers

Hello. I'm Tim Rogers. I want to make the most detailed, most wildly written, elaborate <a href="http://youtube.com/actionbutton">video reviews of video games on YouTube</a>. I made six of them in 2020 and 2021. I'd like to make seven more between 2022 and 2023. Thanks to having completed one full cycle of my product, I've luckily boiled my sales pitch down to just this: please back this page if you like Action Button Reviews. If you don't know for sure if you like Action Button Reviews or not, please go to YouTube Dot Com Slash Action Button, and watch whichever review appeals to you the most. If you have trouble deciding, I recommend the Tokimeki Memorial review.  <iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xb-DtICmPTY" width="560"></iframe><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xb-DtICmPTY"></a> In short, I want to make more videos like that. Your financial support directly pays me, two video editors, and many freelance contributors. In exchange, you receive a rank in my Discord server (discord.gg/actionbutton), access to somewhat lengthy (if irregularly timed) prose posts on this page, the occasional unpredictably bizarre physical gift, AND access to a continually growing secret playlist of bonus videos. In the near future, you'll also gain access to the new 202X Edition of Action Button Dot Net--my old website, now containing New Features. I won't spoil the New Features until they're in your hands. Please anticipate them. Backers also get access to occasional podcasts and Q&amp;A videos in which I answer backer-submitted questions. Season Two of Action Button Reviews begins with a review of Boku no Natsuyasumi and ends with a review of Earthbound. Though in a way, it's really going to be seven videos about something else entirely. I've announced some of the other season two games here and there during season one, though some people would probably consider it spoilers if I just spelled them all out. During Season Two, I'll try to be a little more active on Twitch Dot TV Slash Action Button than I was during Season One. However, I'd like to state up front that this Patreon is for videos. It's not for streams! If I stream and you watch it, however, that's fun. I like the Patreon pitch video I made for this page, though I'm still going to make a new one soon. For now, I strongly consider any of the Action Button Season One videos a sort of sales pitch in themselves. (You could watch the first fifteen minutes of the Final Fantasy VII Remake review for, probably, a better pitch than I gave in that old video). THE OLD PITCH My original Patreon pitch, which is quite out of date in some places yet still quite spiritually valid in others, lurks below this, posteriorititiously. For now, know that when I wrote the initial post, I had crunched all the numbers and determined that I'd make around $1,300 per month from these videos. I had a plan for an ultra-low-key approach to video making that would allow me to retain my dense scripting style while keeping the editing fast and fresh. At the time people first saw my Patreon pitch, I was at least five emails deep into correspondences with literally thirteen editors at different publications. I was trying to pitch them enough video content that I'd be able to afford to make videos for a living. I did not predict that this Patreon would reach a high enough subscriber count for me to actually focus on just Action Button videos for a living. So I changed up my whole plan, without asking anyone--even myself--for permission. I took my time on the videos and I made them much longer, weirder, and better than I'd initially advertised I'd do. Now that I have everyone's attention, though, I'd like to try to make the videos a little bit closer to the way I originally pitched them. Except, of course, I started to like making them the unplannedly weird way. So suffice it to say, unspoilingly, that Action Button Season Two has a new direction. I'll probably never actually make a video in the exact style I pitched on this page that fateful day I lay horribly ill with Covid. Though I'd like to keep the page as a time capsule. Between 2017 and 2020, I made over two hundred videos about video games for Kotaku Dot Com. Anyway, here's the old pitch, unaltered: Hello. I'm Tim Rogers. I want to make the most detailed, most wildly written, elaborate <a href="http://youtube.com/actionbutton">video reviews of video games on YouTube</a>. Maybe you saw my video review of Dragon Quest XI! <iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4iTbUGItU0s" width="560"></iframe> Or maybe you saw my <a href="https://youtu.be/sZHUY-nVXKU">hour-long, five-chapter review of Death Stranding</a>, my eleven-part, six-hour series in which <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsiJPoHlPqEEA07AKMQ2Hm2oRLiGkR_uJ">I reviewed Final Fantasy VII</a> by comparing my memory of playing it in English in 1997 to the experience of playing it in Japanese in 2017, <a href="https://youtu.be/A7HF7v9wUUA">my hour-long review of the year 1994</a>, or one of the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsiJPoHlPqEHueUQ2QvbEyVtKSLEBGdSE">200 or so other videos</a> I made over the past three years. Let’s talk about my favorite of these videos—the Dragon Quest XI review. It required a LOT of work—more work than any other video project I undertook at Kotaku Dot Com (except one). However, the work came painlessly, because it involved a game I loved in a series I love and know a lot about. An avalanche of positive comments told me that people loved this kind of video. The painless enjoyment I derived from making it told me that I could easily make more just like it. So I want to make more just like it. Once per month, I want to publish a video as thoroughly researched, written, and edited as my Dragon Quest XI video. I promise only to review games that I love and have loved for a long time. I will post these videos on YouTube. I will embed the YouTube videos on a brand-new, fancy, modern(, minimalist) version of my ancient website Action Button Dot Net. I will call these videos &quot;Action Button Reviews.&quot; As time goes on and your generosity flatters me, my videos will grow in elaborateness. I will conceive and iterate on program segments. I will buy a tailor-made suit. I will hire An Employee. I will travel to meet and interview developers on camera. The density of my self-referentiality may perhaps eventually accumulate until joke callbacks comprise more than a quarter the length of each video. However, I will never abandon my mission: to always deeply draw upon my bizarrely varied two decades of multifaceted experience thinking about, critiquing, developing, marketing, and advertising video games to explain each of these essential video games as thoroughly, loquaciously, professionally, passionately, and accessibly as possible. Thus concludes my sales pitch. SO IS THIS A WEBSITE? OR A YOUTUBE CHANNEL? It's both! I've been working with web designer Nick Splendorr on an exciting new look for my old site. Don't worry: we're just going to embed YouTube videos. If you hate websites, there'll also be a YouTube channel. The website is just for weirdos like me (and like you, if you want). Below is a concept illustration of what this website might look like. (Warning: This is the first draft. The Real Thing is coming along nicely.) <img src="https://www.dropbox.com/s/y3qcfu6ly71imq6/website%20sample.png?raw=1"> WHAT GAMES ARE YOU GOING TO REVIEW? I reviewed a lot of games back in the old Action Button Dot Net days, and I was a huge jerk to most of them. My stance back then was to find the worst parts of a game and yell about them. This tendency made me &quot;principled&quot; as a professional video game designer; zero-star reviews made me &quot;popular&quot; as a contrarian critic back in the days when an 8 out of 10 was the average. Today, as part of the natural human aging process, I find myself cherishing the opportunity to reflect upon experiences I loved, so that I may regale you with personal emotions from long ago. Most plainly put: I want to review only games I genuinely consider &quot;great.&quot; In each review, I will sell you personally on why the game I'm reviewing is absolutely, without question, one of the most important games of all time. Here is an alphabetical list of 36 games I would love to review for 30 to 60 minutes (or several hours). If you all keep paying me to do so, I'd probably end up reviewing all of these: • Alundra • Baseball • Chrono Trigger • Dark Souls • DooM (1993) • Dracula X: Rondo of Blood • Dragon Quest V • Earthbound • Final Fantasy IV • Final Fantasy VII Remake • F-Zero GX • GOD HAND • Ibara Black Label • Landstalker • Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals • Metal Gear Solid • Metroid Prime • MOON: Remix RPG Adventure • Nier • The Ninja Warriors • Pac-Man Championship Edition • Panzer Dragoon Zwei • Out of This World • OutRun 2 • Secret of Evermore • Solar Jetman • Spartan: Total Warrior • Street Fighter III: Third Strike • Suikoden I &amp; II • Super Mario Bros. 3 • TRUCK HECK • Undertale • VIDEOBALL • The Witcher 3 • Xenogears • Yakuza 0 I have, in fact, reviewed several of these games in the past, as part of the &quot;Action Button Dot Net Manifesto,&quot; a list of &quot;The 25 Best Video Games of All Time.&quot; It's been over a decade since I wrote that list. Now it's time to write it again. Die-hard old-school readers may consider this new video project The Action Button Dot Net Manifesto: The Next Generation. NO NEGATIVE REVIEWS AT ALL? Okay, let's say maybe I'll write one scathingly negative review per eleven positive ones. I may or may not have a short list of candidates already. WHAT'S THE RATING SCALE? In the interest of maximum structural gimmicking, rather than a star rating, I will end each review with a ranking of the game's place in the Action Button Canon (ABC). Naturally, the first game I review will be #1. This gimmick will become interesting maybe three reviews in, as newly reviewed games upset the established order. By about episode 20, the &quot;ranking&quot; segment will take on a sort of excellent level of terrible ridiculousness that I very much look forward to. (For old-school &quot;Manifesto&quot; readers, yes, Super Mario Bros. 3 is probably still going to be in the top two. And yes, I'm going to stall for as long as I can before reviewing it.) WILL THE OLD ACTION BUTTON REVIEWS STILL BE AVAILABLE? I hate most of them. However: yes. In fact, in preparation for this Patreon, we recently restored the website. You can currently view it at the old URL (Action Button Dot Net). We'll be moving it to a more archive-specific URL once we launch with the first video review. To be honest, I'd prefer it if you don't read those reviews. In most of them, I'm clearly just trying to get attention. If it's any consolation to those of you who dislike attention-seekers: it didn't actually work. What you see in that archive is a rat's nest of controversy-courting, hate-clutching weirdo behavior. If you want to read those reviews, go ahead, though do so knowing that you are going against my specific request not to. (Also, note that I did not write all of the reviews on the site—just most of them.) I leave the site there, in the public eye, because otherwise some jerk is going to dig up screenshots on the internet archive and try to make me look bad. Look, buddy, if anybody's gonna make me look bad, it's gonna be me. WHY DID YOU LEAVE KOTAKU? I found myself suddenly surrounded by numerous offers and opportunities to get paid more by doing less work to produce better content, while also reaching a wider audience. Ain't that the dream? Also, I want to be able to focus on our (Action Button Entertainment's) game TRUCK HECK more. Also, the CEO was an idiot. WHY IS THIS A MONTHLY PATREON AND NOT PER-VIDEO? DOES THIS MEAN MONTHLY VIDEOS? Some of these videos will take longer than a month to make. Some of these videos I will make concurrently with other videos. (Trust me: it's much faster that way.) Some months I might release two videos; always, however, I will strive to release at least one video per month, in the first week of the month. I'm thinking Thursdays? Sundays? Each video will require approximately 200 hours of work. I plan to dedicate at least 40 hours a week to Action Button Reviews. Here's where you might say, &quot;200 hours sounds like too many.&quot; You might say you know some other YouTubers on Patreon who deliver multiple videos per week, or even per day. To this I say, buddy, if you can't see the difference between their videos and mine, I don't mind if you just watch their videos instead! WILL YOU BE STREAMING? Yes! Once I've gotten equipmentally configured, I'll stream on a semi-reliable schedule on the <a href="https://www.twitch.tv/actionbutton">Action Button Twitch</a> channel. I will stream the games that are the subject of my current review, and I will use the footage being streamed as source material for the video reviews. So you can watch the streams if you want a little sneak preview of the reviews. Of course, I'll also stream hot new games as they come across my desk. Access to my streams will not be in a separate backer tier, because I feel like that's dumb. (Also, because I'd rather keep streaming casual. This Patreon is for obsessively lavish video reviews, not for streams. The streams are a free public service. (Unless I suddenly, inexplicably get, like, Ninja-Famous.)) WILL THERE BE A PODCAST? Okay, let's not get ridiculous! (In other words: maybe. Though the same &quot;I'd rather keep it casual&quot; rule that applies to streams applies here.) ARE YOU HIRING? YOU KEEP SAYING &quot;WE&quot; In brief: no. Aside from frequent consultations with a music composer and with web developer Nick Splendorr, I intend to do the playing, writing, recording, and editing jobs entirely by myself . . . . . . Until the *exact second* I deem it financially possible to hire a full-time editor / producer / cameraperson. What happens from there, I dare not spoil. (I mean, obviously it means &quot;more videos.&quot;) ARE YOU STILL MAKING VIDEO GAMES? Uh, what *else* do you think this whole project is a coverup for? #TRUCKHECK is still coming in 2021, 2022, and 2024, and this video series will play a vital role in its development in what I think is an exciting way. For a hint, notice that the (mysterious, temporary) logo at the top of this page simply says &quot;Action Button.&quot; I used to differentiate &quot;Action Button Entertainment&quot; (my game studio) from &quot;Action Button Dot Net&quot; (my game criticism website). Now I'd like to unite their missions: at Action Button, we love video games, and we communicate that love both by making games we ourselves love and by publishing elaborate, thorough video reviews. In summary: there's more to this thing than I'm willing to spoil in this Patreon page. I figure, if I'm going to die, I might as well die loud. WHO ARE YOU? Oh! I'm flattered that you read all the way to the bottom of this without knowing who I am. Prior to working at Kotaku Dot Com, where commenters yelled at me hundreds of times daily when they should have been calling the police about the gun-pointing burglar forcing them to watch my videos, I served various roles in both independent and triple-A video game development in Japan and the United States. I was in many bands, most of them bad because of my fault; I was a part-time fashion model. I have a condition that forces me to remember every event in my life in extreme detail. For five years I was (and today I am still) CEO of Action Button Entertainment, a video game development and user experience / product design consultation studio consisting of myself and my partners Brent Porter and Michael Kerwin. I speak multiple languages. I write novels in my free time. I do not share them. I will publish one someday. I have translated several video games (including Dandy Dungeon and the upcoming Moon: Remix RPG Adventure) and hundreds of comic books from Japanese into English. In summary, I was born stupid. However, I will not die hungry. Video games forever: Action Button.

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Look, I just want you to give me $3. That's a LOT less than Netflix! For this tier (and all tiers), you will earn access to our "Goblins" Discord role. What does that mean? I'll tell you later . . .

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Some people said they wanted to pay $5 instead of $3! On the one hand, it’s weird to have a tier between $3 and $10. On the other hand, I like it unconventional. This tier has the same benefits as the $3 tier, until one day, when I’ll think of something suitably bizarre to surprise all $5 backers with.

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Earn the most luxurious access available to the secret in-development feature of the Action Button Dot Net website. Look, let me just admit that the feature is dumb, though with this tier you're most poised to have fun with it. Also, I'll extravagantly mispronounce (or otherwise idiotically feature) your name during every video I make while you are subscribed at this tier.

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