GODWIN Rebrand (Patreon)

Hey, this has been kind of bubbling under the surface a bit of late but I've finally decided to pull the trigger and rebrand. It took me a while to figure out what I would change to; some truly terrible ideas were considered; but in the end I decided to change to GODWIN, which is my family name!

For anyone curious (and as a eulogy of sorts), the name "Nero" is one I started to use way back in 2005 or 2006 when I joined my first roleplaying group. At the time it was actually a relatively uncommon name and it was during the time when you were supposed to keep all your personal information, even your name, secret. It was when the internet still felt small, and I took pride in having a cool, unique username. It became my Xbox gamertag, then eventually my art handle with Nero44, which became NeroXLIV (XLIV being 44 in roman numerals and 44 being my favorite number).

But, not too long after taking on that latest version everything sort of started going to shit. I started to spiral into a depression that frankly I'm still struggling with. COVID happened. Shitstain Elon took over Twitter - my primary audience - and made it so fucking awful that I can't justify using it anymore thus effectively costing me the vast majority of my audience. To put it bluntly, I had no positive association with the name any more, it was just a reminder of bad, negative shit. And as for a business perspective, "Nero" is not at all as uncommon as it used to be in 2006 so much so that I scrolled past an account today that effectively does the same sort of shit I do but with tens of thousands of followers and to be honest that was kind of the straw that broke the camel's back. I don't hold that artist's success against them in any way, but it really just felt like even if a miracle happened and my art "broke out" as it were, it still wouldn't be enough to stand out or be unique. And so the name must die.

Now, it won't die immediately all at once. The URL for the Patreon here will stay as /neroxliv for a little while until the new one takes off, and I'll have to redo the banners for Reddit and whatnot. You're still welcome to refer to me as "Nero" if you really wish (though, if you call me Godwin then you're just calling me by my family name, so don't feel weird about it!), and I'll have to do a bunch of BTS business admin shit, but for now you'll see new watermarks on future content and who knows what else! 

Cheers to (sorta) new beginnings!