While my instinct is to write some amusing joke that eventually meanders into a thoughtful post about joining LaserTime in an “official” capacity, I’ll instead cut straight to the sincere plight.

Working on goofy shit with the LT crew has been a consistent source of fun and fulfillment over the past four years. From VGMpire to Cape Crisis, from VGA all the way to Cheap Popcast, some of my biggest laughs and most memorable moments have occurred on this very site and its rapidly aging microphones. Then I saw all the stuff Chris, Henry and Dave are cranking out these days and realized… man, I miss entertaining people for a living.

So – after leaving Capcom and sitting on my thoughts for a week or so, I really want to join the team and bring some of that old (dare I say it) T-Dar fire with me. As a result, we’ve replaced the previous $10,000 Patreon goal (a 24-hour marathon, something you’ll benefit from exactly once) with something that’s basically “Brett joins the crew.” After all, I can’t walk up and start eating into the other guys’ wages. But what exactly are you getting once that milestone is reached?

Well, in a way, more everything. I’m organized af so part of my role would be to get a feature, stream and podcast pipeline a-movin,’ which would also free up the others so they can, in turn, do more. But more specifically, I’d be restarting things like Blunder Lizard, working on more comic features like this guide to the Infinity Gems, making the long-promised Ernest episode of LaserTime and engaging in some video ideas that I think will be a lot of fun to watch. Long story short, I want you to be excited to check LaserTime every goddamn day.

Additionally, I want to earn my keep with more VGMpire content (such as interviews and features). If you’re a VGM fan and haven’t donated to the Patreon because I made it QUITE CLEAR that VGMpire wasn’t part of said Patreon… well, now it is, and any amount of support you are willing to give, I appreciate. Your kind words were what kept this ship afloat for the past four years, so while I do not feel owed anything, your continued support will help keep it going. <33

VGMpire will continue to post its usual bi-weekly shows, and Rocktober will still be a thing. But please check out the new Patreon goals that include additional VGMpire content and other specific things I will work on beyond what I’ve outlined above.

$10,000 – Brett comes aboard!

-With our LaserTime Voltron fully assembled, the golden age of LT is here! Expect more everything, from Blunder Lizard to that goddamn Ernest episode!

$10,250 – VGMpire Uncut (Unplugged? Unreleased? Unresponsible?!)

-In-break reactions are cut to keep music as the focus and to maintain the PG-atmosphere. $5 patrons will get a bonus file each month of our live reactions to the music, plus we’ll dig through the archives and deliver moments from older episodes.

$10,500 – VGMpire Mini

-Bi-weekly mini episodes to soothe the savage audiophile. We’ll cover games that normally wouldn’t warrant their own episode, and highlight games that didn’t get their fair share before. This goes out to everyone!

$11,000 – Beat My Score

-Weekly livestream hosted by BrettleBot where we ask users to submit their scores and we try and beat them. Time to dig up your old Tony Hawk 3 saves!

$11,500 – Comic Book Dream Stream

– Brett and Henry play “classic” comic book games each Wednesday, before the Shit Show stream. Surely most of them have held up fine, this will be great, our memories are correct.

And as a reminder, here is what our $5 and $10 donors get exclusively through Patreon:

$5.00+ per month

-Exclusive WEEKLY Bonus Show!

-Access to Monday Night Movies Live Feed!

-WEEKLY MP3 Movie Commentaries!

-Exclusive Access to Season 1 of Talking Simpsons!

-Exclusive Laser Time stickers, shipped quarterly!

-Monthly VGM Uncut show! (New!)

$10.00+ per month

-All above rewards!

-Pick a film we watch for Monday Night Movies!

-Bi-weekly classic wrestling match commentaries!

-Exclusive Laser Time mini-posters released quarterly!

-Bi-weekly comic cartoon commentary. 90s X-Men, Spidey and more (New!)

-Choose a topic for VGMpire each month! (New!)

This is all on top of me joining in on the new show you already unlocked – 30-20-10! Each week we’ll look at at what happened 30 years ago (in the 80s), 20 years ago (90s) and 10 years ago (00s), covering movies, music, games, uh, I’m going to assume wrestling will come up a lot and why not, let’s try to mention a sports thing once in a while. Or not!

Not gonna lie – four people trying to do this thing as a full time gig is kinda ridiculous. I’m pretty sure we’re one employee away from requiring an HR department! But being supported directly by you, the listener, reader, contributor and all around beautiful human being, makes it possible AND something we can wholly control. We can course correct, we can talk to you, we can do better and have fun doing it.

So that’s my spiel. Please sound off below and of course view the Patreon page for all the updates. Thanks so much, everyone.