Subscribe to Highland Arrow - straight and to the point games journalism

We endeavour to do our very best at Highland Arrow to bring you excellent games coverage and criticism, and our team strives towards our key commitments:


Ethical Coverage

Highland Arrow has a comprehensive Code of Ethics we hold ourselves to, and we take great pains to be thoughtful, consciencious, and, of course, ethical, in both our news and our reviews. We strive to avoid conflicts of interest, errors or inaccuracies, and misrepresentations, but where we make mistakes, we own and correct them, and when we cannot avoid a conflict of interest, we disclose it fully.

Full Disclosure

Highland Arrow sets the bar for disclosure in games media, disclosing in full our games libraries, the length of time we play games we review, industry connections, when we receive games free for review purposes, and more. No other game publication goes to the great lengths Highland Arrow does.

Quality over Quantity

There might be a trend of clickbait-y "mill" articles in the industry, but we intend to be better. We at Highland Arrow would rather take the time to properly look at games before we review them - it's only fair, both to the game and to you, our readers. You are spending your hard-earned money on these games, and if we wish to be worthy of that same hard-earned wage, then we need to provide you with a superior service.

Fair Dealings

Many outlets of late have been very hostile - both to their readers and, surprising to some, their own writer. We try not to be. In fact, we try to be the opposite. All of our writers are paid a minimum amount per article, our forums are carefully managed to balance freedom of expression against keeping it civil, and most importantly, we value our readers. We wouldn't be here with out you, and you won't find us taking snipes at our reader-base , trendy though it may be.

Recognising that some people prefer to pay through different means or at different intervals, we offer a variety of options for people to subscribe to Highland Arrow, listed below:

PayPal

The leading web payment provider online, PayPal is the most flexible payment option we offer, as you can give one-time payments if you prefer, or subscribe to any of our subscription options per month.

Please note: Payments made debit or credit to Highland Arrow will appear on your statement as:

PAYPAL*HIGHLAND

Any other Paypal entry is not from Highland Arrow (and given the ubiquitous nature of "Highland", even one that does list that may not be)

Subscribe now via PayPal or Give a one-time pledge via PayPal

Please note: Paypal payments are manually processed the start of each day (every day not including weekends or not holidays), and as such the process is not automatic.

Bitcoin

BitCoin is an entirely-digital crypto-currency generated by running certain applications on your PC.  Though payment provider SpicePay, we can offer yearly subscriptions through it or a one time 5$ pledge.  If you would like to send a one-time pledge of a different amount, please email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and we can invoice you, since this payment provider does not provide for a "PWYW" option.

Please note: Bitcoin payments are manually processed the start of each day (every day not including weekends or not holidays), and as such the process is not automatic. For subscription levels and rewards, see the Patreon page.

Alternative Payment Methods

Highland Arrow also occasionally accepts alternative payment methods if you do not prefer to use one of the prior methods. Contact us for details


How is your money used?

We feel accountability and integrity of someone you're trusting to provide critical coverage of is important, and to that end, we outline all of the expenses and how the money for the reward level breaks down below.  This is a venture we've given a lot of thought, and we hope you'll help us make it successful!

Monthly Expenses

Here's the breakdown of the expenses:

  • Website server - 75$/mo
  • Website SSL certificate - 2.50$/mo (30$/yr)
  • Website domain name - .96$/mo (11.45$/yr)
  • Adobe CC - 21.49$/mo (we do this monthly, but if we got enough support, we'd buy yearly to save money)
  • Press membership - 6.25$/mo (75$/yr)

So in total, that makes our total expenses 106.21$/mo

Incidental Expenses

We also have occasional one-off expenses, including for example:

  • Software licensing (for eg, plugins for the site software we use)
  • Additional design charges (for example if we hire design for logos/ads for marketing)
  • Copies of games we want to review but do not receive review code for (this is becoming rarer and rarer however)
  • Travel and room&board expenses for conventions.

Long-term Goals

Goals if we get the support to accomplish them:

  • Get the site professionally redesigned to look much better (we like our v2 design, but its the limits of what we can manage ourselves, we're not design professionals)
  • Support the eSports community and the gaming community at large through sponsorships (this is win-win for those involved, we get the exposure and tournaments and interesting content creators get funding!)
  • Hire on someone to do video reviews in addition to our normal written reviews

And if we have extra beyond all that? It will go to two things - paying a wage to our writers so they can keep writing, and back to you guys in both content, and things like free giveaways! We already run free giveaways of things like bundle games that we have extra, and we would love to run them more often.


Goal Level Breakdowns

Here's how the money breaks down for each of the goal levels you can see on our Patreon page:

The Bare Necessities
Breakdown: 75$/mo server lease + 96c/mo domain name + 2.50$/mo SSL certificate +21.49$/mo Adobe CC membership = 99.95$/mo. After Patreon and Paypal processing fees, we need 104.95/mo to accomplish this.

Expenses Paid
Breakdown: 75$/mo server lease + 6.25$/mo press membership + 0.96$/mo domain name + 21.49 Adobe CC subscription + 2.50$/mo website SSL certificate = 106.21$/mo After Patreon and Paypal processing fees, we need 111.52$/mo to accomplish this.

In the Clear!
Breakdown: 107$/mo expenses + 200$/mo marketing/additional expense allowance = 307$/mo After Patreon and Paypal processing fees, we need 322.35$ to accomplish this.

Heroic Tier
Breakdown: 107$/mo expenses + 1191.6$ 1 writer's wage (3hr/day x 5day/wk x 3wk x 26.48/hr which is the average journalist wage) + 200$ marketing/expense allowance = 1498.60 After Patreon and Paypal processing fees, we need 1573.53$ to accomplish this.

Legendary Tier
Breakdown: 107$/mo expenses + 1191.6$ /mo x1 writer's wage + 483.23$/mo events budget + 200$/mo marketing/extra expense allowance = 1981.83 After Patreon and Paypal processing fees, we need 2080.92$ to accomplish this.

Godly Tier
Breakdown: 107$/mo expenses + 1191.6$ /mo x2 writer's wage + 483.23$/mo events budget + 200$/mo marketing/extra expense allowance = 3173.43$/mo After Patreon and Paypal processing fees, we need 3332.11$ to accomplish this.


Frequently-asked questions

Some commonly-asked questions about subscriptions!

How do the subscriber benefit reviews and the different goal level reviews work together?

You might be wondering how the subscriber benefit reviews work with the reward level reviews for something like the Director reward level, or Lifetime Subscription rewards. We count these rewards towards the amount we commit to in the goals if they are reached, but at least one of the reviews we commit to in those "chosen by Patrons" reviews will be one voted for in the Patron-only forums.

And just a quick common sense note about these reviews: while we take these requests, they're no guarantee we'll like the game! Our opinions are still our opinions, after all.

How does it work if I have access to the Patron forums and the special forums if my subscription lapses?

As you might notice below, there are higher subscription levels that offer you access to a Patron-only forum and possibly special boards.  This access is subject to our Community Guidelines and we will ban people are disruptive, though we hope we don't have to!  If you have a level where you keep Patron-only forum access and also have access to special boards, you will retain access to the forums in general if the pledge lapses, but not the special boards.