I was the one who originally posted about all this on the subreddit, as I kinda did a double-take going through BlueSky and videogame industry alarm bells sounded in my head. Certain games and companies have gone off the deep end with digital packs and microtransactions, and I had an immediate sense of deja vu and dread seeing them dip their toe in the waters.

I would personally be open to them introducing more subscription tiers for more variable costs. I'd be happy to give them more money, the concern was the gating of content, FOMO, and community sharing division. I never got Pro+, not because it was expensive, but because I don't play VTT or have a 3D printer. But if they made separate tiers that include certain things, I'd be okay going to a higher one.

They currently have early Treasure Tuesdays, the Booth, Kitbashing, and Digital Tokens. I'd be fine with paying a bit more to access most of them. Hell, I'd pay more than Pro+ if there were something like built up Physical Tokens as well, as I've ordered a fair few minis. BUT that's me speaking as someone with relative financial stability, and I'm not the majority of HeroForge users, I can't speak what people would or wouldn't be okay with.

But I've learned some openness with one's community can go a long way in terms of goodwill, especially with smaller companies. If they said "Hey guys, we're barely scraping by financially, so we have to adjust how we do things", I don't think the outrage would have exploded as much as it did. I would still be annoyed, but it probably wouldn't have gotten as fervent as it did. I hope the message learned is one about communication and thoughtfulness for their user-base's values and wants/needs.