Oh hey, MovieBob got fired (Or let go)

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Avnger

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Of the Escapist itself?
Yeah. I think it was towards the very end of the Defy ownership that they realized if Yahtzee left the whole thing was done for. They made the deal to give him a stake in the site's success and prevent him from bailing like the other creators.

Since the ownership changes, I have no idea how much it still holds up, but I'm assuming it's still a thing since he's still here.
 

Nick Calandra

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Just to clear some of this up since there seems to be a lot of speculation and I've held my tongue from commenting on it. The site is fine, the decision did not come from us, but from our parent company and Bob as indicated by the original post. Over the past year we've brought in a lot of new faces who have been creating great content and are doing well, we're working on our next Games Showcase for November, etc.

There's a lot going on, a lot of negativity that came from this that I'm handling the best I can, so I and the team would appreciate not having to read through all the doom / gloom stuff and keep looking forward toward the future. We have nothing to announce right now on that front out of respect for Bob, but we're doing fine.

Just dealing with all the YouTube grifters that picked up on this and spread a lot of misinformation about it that I've had to moderate for the last 48 hours.

We've spent the last year doing our best to build something positive and fun again, so feeding into this stuff really just doesn't help, your personal feelings about the situation aside.
 
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Avnger

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Just to clear some of this up since there seems to be a lot of speculation and I've held my tongue from commenting on it. The site is fine, the decision did not come from us, but from our parent company as indicated by the original post, over the past year we've brought in a lot of new faces who have been creating great content and are doing well, we're working on our next Games Showcase for November, etc.

There's a lot going on, a lot of negativity that came from this that I'm handling the best I can, so I and the team would appreciate not having to read through all the doom / gloom stuff and keep looking forward toward the future. We have nothing to announce right now on that front out of respect for Bob, but we're doing fine.

Just dealing with all the YouTube grifters that picked up on this and spread a lot of misinformation about it that I've had to moderate for the last 48 hours.

We've spent the last year doing our best to build something positive and fun again, so feeding into this stuff really just doesn't help, your personal feelings about the situation aside.
Thanks for the official update!

To be honest, a lot of this is continued gloom and doom from the vets who have been around since the original Defy gutting of the place. It's less a critique of you and the rest of the staff than it is an "abused puppy" instinct to what we've seen happen several times now.
 

Nick Calandra

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Thanks for the official update!

To be honest, a lot of this is continued gloom and doom from the vets who have been around since the original Defy gutting of the place. It's less a critique of you and the rest of the staff than it is an "abused puppy" instinct to what we've seen happen several times now.
Yea, I understand. It's been exhausting dealing with the people that are proclaiming they are coming back, and then immediately posting extremely hateful things on the channel and I feel like I have to keep going back and forth to indicate we don't endorse it. Then you've got people on Twitter constantly telling us how awful we are, how we don't get a ton of viewership on our other shows (even though that's the whole point of the subscription service, so we don't have to worry about gaming the algorithms (and it's working).

I'm just exhausted, so I'd much rather see people giving us feedback about what they'd like to see "next" instead of harking back on the past and stirring up unneeded drama.
 

Elijin

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I think you and most other people are missing my point here. Deadpool had cancer, but that's a tragic backstory that explains why he signed up for nasty, illegal experiments. The conceit of his character isn't "Cancer is funny, yo!" in the same way that Harley Quinn's conceit is "psychosis is so quirky, funny and sexy, yo!". No one would ever consider a character who's characterization is to make fun of and portray a somatic disease as funny or sexy, because the idea is off-putting and upsetting (as it should be). But mental illness gets a pass here, so we get a whole movie of Harley Quinn being quirky, fun and sexy, when that's absolutely the opposite of what psychotic people tend to be.
Comic Deadpool absolutely plays the cancer card as a joke. You also compared it to morbidly obese people, to which I pointed to not only supers with that power set, but the nineties being rife with that being a primary aspect of a film.
 

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Not surprised in the slightest. I already know about the whole Cuties situation. This is the same guy that defended Zack Snyder's Sucker Punch, James Cameron's Avatar, and Scott Pilgrim to hell and back while insulting others that had any criticism, legit or not. The same dude who says should not be allowed to vote if you're a fan of the live-action Transformers. The same person that calls others sheeple for liking the Expendables over Scott Pilgrim.
Sucker Punch was okay, but I never wanted to see it again, I do not like Avatar, and Scott Pilgrim I liked for the time, but I can't even watch anymore aside from a few scenes. And I get all of the references. I am not big on the original comic either.
I am ashamed to say that I bought the first Bayformers on DVD because I was just "woah dude, the CGI on the Transformers look awesome yo"

Never cared for Sucker Punch.

Thought Scott Pilgram was WAY too full of itself. And too self aware and TOO Nerdy even for me.

James Cameron's Avatar I would only watch the Extended Cut.
 
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BrawlMan

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I am ashamed to say that I bought the first Bayformers on DVD because I was just "woah dude, the CGI on the Transformers look awesome yo"
You have nothing be ashamed of. It was 2007, and there was nothing else like it at the time. First film is a C+. RotF: is a quadruple F minus. DotM is a C. The 4th film is a C+. I refused to see the 5th film. Bumblebee is an A. I liked the first one at the time, and have some fondness for it, but so many other films do things better than the crap Bay puts out. I'm glad they gave Bumblebee to someone else who actually cares.

Thought Scott Pilgram was WAY too full of itself. And too self aware and TOO Nerdy even for me.
Hence I cannot watch it anymore. Plus, Scott and nearly all those he associates with are complete dicks. My brother and I would never hang with them, at least three of them would deserve an ass beating.

James Cameron's Avatar I would only watch the Extended Cut.
I can't enjoy any cut of the film.
 

Gordon_4

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Not surprised in the slightest. I already know about the whole Cuties situation. This is the same guy that defended Zack Snyder's Sucker Punch, James Cameron's Avatar, and Scott Pilgrim to hell and back while insulting others that had any criticism, legit or not. The same dude who says should not be allowed to vote if you're a fan of the live-action Transformers. The same person that calls others sheeple for liking the Expendables over Scott Pilgrim.
Sucker Punch was okay, but I never wanted to see it again, I do not like Avatar, and Scott Pilgrim I liked for the time, but I can't even watch anymore aside from a few scenes. And I get all of the references. I am not big on the original comic either.
I remember his review of Avatar; he called it pretty damn good and it seldom got mentioned after that aside from casual nods in discussions about 3D and a wink nudge reference in reviews for John Carter of Mars and Valarian.

That’s not defending the movie to hell and back. Hell I’ve probably launched stauncher defences of it than he did.
 

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I remember his review of Avatar; he called it pretty damn good and it seldom got mentioned after that aside from casual nods in discussions about 3D and a wink nudge reference in reviews for John Carter of Mars and Valarian.

That’s not defending the movie to hell and back. Hell I’ve probably launched stauncher defences of it than he did.
Bob got hot and bothered early on when anyone, jokingly or not, criticize the film and called it Dances With Smurfs. This was especially true early on in a few weeks after the film first came out. He did a couple rants of this for a while.
 

Dwarvenhobble

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Yea, I understand. It's been exhausting dealing with the people that are proclaiming they are coming back, and then immediately posting extremely hateful things on the channel and I feel like I have to keep going back and forth to indicate we don't endorse it. Then you've got people on Twitter constantly telling us how awful we are, how we don't get a ton of viewership on our other shows (even though that's the whole point of the subscription service, so we don't have to worry about gaming the algorithms (and it's working).

I'm just exhausted, so I'd much rather see people giving us feedback about what they'd like to see "next" instead of harking back on the past and stirring up unneeded drama.
Ah so you upset what I'm presuming are some of Bob's more dedicated fans I've had the pleasure of running into or at least what I'd call the "Twitterati" who are taking Bob's non renewal as some political attack on them or something then?

I can see the decision coming from above would be annoying also I'm guessing you can't actually say much about the decision even if they gave you a reason.

I mean some seem to think it's Bob's twitter hot takes again but it could just be Bob has been deemed "Not the right look" as he's a mid Thirties short haired white guy not a 20 something beanpole with neon coloured hair like their demographic info says plays best with the best advertising demographic of teenagers.


 

Dwarvenhobble

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What I'd like to see next?:

The answer will always be Boobs but failing that I'd say the Escapist should have some kind of film critic stuff going other than the Podcast. I dunno maybe give Jack a show called something like "Second Showing" and have him talk about or showcase some films he thinks deserve a second look from audiences after being considered box office flops.

Alternative titles.

"The New Cinema Cult" - because kind of the aim is to highlight old films that were seen as flops or didn't meet expectations and make them into a new generation of cult classics

"Box Office Blowback"

"Box Office Bounce Back"

"The Dead films society"

"Top Flops"

"Forgotten Flops"

+Positives of the show idea
  • Makes more use of Jack as a cinema fan and he gets his own show as such
  • Doesn't step on RLM's feet much as they tend to look back at existing cult classic films or ones that did well in cinemas not lesser known ones
  • Works well while the Plague is still going on so you can have a show about films without needing to have people go into cinemas
  • It's not joining the algorithm race.

-Negatives of the show idea
  • From writing something similar on my own blog I will say the interest can wildly swing based on the algorithm E.G. I write one for The Last Witchhunter and it got lower hits than most other things I've written but then the film was added to Amazon Prime and suddenly almost overnight the hits on the blog doubled. Or the fact I covered little know UK Sci-Fi Comedy FAQ About Time Travel which didn't see a big flurry of hits but ticks over about 4-5 views a week regularly which doesn't sound much but it's consistently getting hits while other stuff I've written sees nothing. Admittedly I was writing it not doing videos so who knows.
  • The possibly copyright worry, I mean it's films and as was seen with other places even some little indie features suddenly getting massive attention will stupidly copyright claim reviews and stuff.
  • Getting people to try the show. I mean, here's a weird film you've probably never heard of or heard of and decided not to go see. Could be a bit of a tough sell to get people to try, though done well it can be quite enjoyable to discover some fairly decent film that have been forgotten

Other than that well


And no that's not me saying bring Jim back it's a video kind of explaining that we don't really know what we want truly
 
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Gordon_4

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Bob got hot and bothered early on when anyone, jokingly or not, criticize the film and called it Dances With Smurfs. This was especially true early on in a few weeks after the film first came out. He did a couple rants of this for a while.
You’ll forgive me if I put sod all stock in Twitter slinging from over a decade ago because a shitload of people were butt-hurt that James Cameron managed to break his own box office records by using the ancient technique of “Everything old is new again”.
 

Dwarvenhobble

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Comic Deadpool absolutely plays the cancer card as a joke. You also compared it to morbidly obese people, to which I pointed to not only supers with that power set, but the nineties being rife with that being a primary aspect of a film.
The Blob & Big Bertha spring to mind......
 

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You’ll forgive me if I put sod all stock in Twitter slinging from over a decade ago because a shitload of people were butt-hurt that James Cameron managed to break his own box office records by using the ancient technique of “Everything old is new again”.
For the record, this was before Twitter took off, and Bob did not have account at the time. Bob did his thing where he would go on off tangent rants in his videos. Not his worst examples, but sign of it becoming what it was later in the years.
 

Johnny Novgorod

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I'm just exhausted, so I'd much rather see people giving us feedback about what they'd like to see "next" instead of harking back on the past and stirring up unneeded drama.
If Gabe could join Yahtzee in any capacity for any kind of content, that would be Christmas every week.
Probably an impossible fantasy reunion but I've heard Yahtzee casually bring it up here and there in some streams over the years.
 

Nick Calandra

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Ah so you upset what I'm presuming are some of Bob's more dedicated fans I've had the pleasure of running into or at least what I'd call the "Twitterati" who are taking Bob's non renewal as some political attack on them or something then?

I can see the decision coming from above would be annoying also I'm guessing you can't actually say much about the decision even if they gave you a reason.

I mean some seem to think it's Bob's twitter hot takes again but it could just be Bob has been deemed "Not the right look" as he's a mid Thirties short haired white guy not a 20 something beanpole with neon coloured hair like their demographic info says plays best with the best advertising demographic of teenagers.
Can't really comment on it. But on YouTube it was a lot of Yahtzee's older fans celebrating Bob leaving and posting some really hateful shit, and then Bob's fans turning around and pointing how awful "we" are because of those comments, and then telling us how the writing is on the wall for The Escapist and all that bullshit. It's quieted down now, was just a lot to go through in 48 hours.
 

Specter Von Baren

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Just to clear some of this up since there seems to be a lot of speculation and I've held my tongue from commenting on it. The site is fine, the decision did not come from us, but from our parent company and Bob as indicated by the original post. Over the past year we've brought in a lot of new faces who have been creating great content and are doing well, we're working on our next Games Showcase for November, etc.

There's a lot going on, a lot of negativity that came from this that I'm handling the best I can, so I and the team would appreciate not having to read through all the doom / gloom stuff and keep looking forward toward the future. We have nothing to announce right now on that front out of respect for Bob, but we're doing fine.

Just dealing with all the YouTube grifters that picked up on this and spread a lot of misinformation about it that I've had to moderate for the last 48 hours.

We've spent the last year doing our best to build something positive and fun again, so feeding into this stuff really just doesn't help, your personal feelings about the situation aside.
Hhm? I consider it a positive change and don't think it's doom and gloom at all that Bob is no longer with The Escapist.
 
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