A Note From Your Friendly Neighborhood Editor in Chief

[Andy Shandy]

I wish you luck Josh. Judging by how long people have been lasting in this position, you'll need it. And welcome to The Escapist, Ron!

A bit of advice to help with the "enthusiast" idea might be to have some enthusiastic content. I enjoy Zero Punctuation and Critical Miss - and in the past, Jimquisition - but it's mostly telling us how shite stuff is. And yeah, that's needed and can be funny, but part of the reason I liked Top 5 with Lisa Foiles was that it was bright and fun.

[sub]And then it stopped D:[/sub]

Also why couldn't this collab stuff have happened before Jim left. I would've loved to see him and Bosman do something together.

 

[Sixcess]

?Don?t ever become a pessimist? a pessimist is correct oftener than an optimist, but an optimist has more fun, and neither can stop the march of events.? ?Robert A. Heinlein

You have a readership that was brought to the sight mostly by Zero Punctuation.

Good luck forging an optimistic community out of that metal.

captcha: spin doctor

Oh, captcha. How I love you so

 

[Sleepy Sol]

I don't know anything about this new CM.

Oh wait....

Me either, I'm wary of new people and strangers (please don't point out that they're pretty much the same thing). NEW STRANGERS DOUBLY SO.

Spoiler: I don't like change!

 

[vitamint]

Hope it won't be taken as an insult that I am sad to see Mr. Tito leaving.
Nonetheless, congratulations on the new position to Mr. Vanderwall, looking forwards to seeing his ideas for the site.

 

[Sassafrass]

Good luck and congrats on the new gig.

[sup][sup][sup][sup][sup]Although it feels like this is said way too often around here as of late. [/sup][/sup][/sup][/sup][/sup]

 

[Fat Hippo]

?Don?t ever become a pessimist? a pessimist is correct oftener than an optimist, but an optimist has more fun, and neither can stop the march of events.? ?Robert A. Heinlein

You have a readership that was brought to the sight mostly by Zero Punctuation.

Good luck forging an optimistic community out of that metal.

captcha: spin doctor

Oh, captcha. How I love you so

Honestly, I don't even think Yathzee is all that terribly negative. He's long gotten past humorously describing why a game is shit as his shtick, and is rather just a funny, irreverent games critic. Judging by his last article, he seems less fixated on telling us what is terrible about video games than a lot of other people, which is something I honestly never thought I'd be saying.

Unfortunately, I've read that the corporate overlords aren't entirely happy with Yahtzee (because he has opinions about things) so I wouldn't be surprised if he got the boot in a similar manner to Jim sometime within the next 6 months. Which is funny, considering that the Escapist as it is today wouldn't even exist without Yahtzee's influence, as you pointed out.

On a different note, are we going to be informed who exactly was let go? I'm sure Defy would prefer if their editors were all just faceless and interchangeable, but that's not really how this works. People actually do give a shit, as critique is its own kind of creative medium, so it very much matters who is going to be writing articles and so on in the future.

 

[Aerosteam]

Damn, we're back to an Editor-in-Chief who doesn't have a surname that doesn't sound like a body part.

Anyway, hope you do great things for the site!

 

[Fox12]

Moving forward, The Escapist is eschewing the "curmudgeon" mentality that is so pervasive these days in favor of the "enthusiast" mentality that we want to foster among our community, and geek culture at large

Soooo... No more Zero Punctuation and sharp cutbacks to MovieBob? XD

Exactly what I was going to say. I'm curious what they intend to do, since The Escapist basically defined the funny pessimist attitude. Not that I'm complaining, I could use a little more optimism. I wouldn't mind seeing something similar to Extra Credits make a return. That always left a smile on my face.

Yahtzee will be displeased.

 

[tippy2k2]

I never had any problems with Tito (I didn't love him like Susan but I certainly respected the man) but if there is one piece of advice I can give as a random user of The Escapist, it's this (especially you new CM!):

Be involved with the community

Tito did a relatively good job of this (although I might be biased since he was in our "Night before Christmas" [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.837656-Twas-the-Night-Before-Christmas-on-The-Escapist#20544838] video) but the last CM might as well have not existed. I don't think I EVER saw him around except for a handful of news postings and whatnot.

Hell, I put a question to him on January 2nd in the Publisher's Club forum about a contest he was running (or at least announced) and I never saw anything ever. To me, a community manager should be at least a little involved in the community that they are managing...

It would be nice if our new EiC got the job in happier circumstances but what's done is done. Either way, good luck to both of you.

 

[erbkaiser]

Good luck with the new job.

I'll miss some of the people that are now gone but hopefully good content will continue.

Is there a listing somewhere of every one that's lost in the reshuffling?

 

[circularlogic88]

This letter about optimism doesn't give me any.

Oh well, where Yahtzee and Bob go, I'll follow.

 

[Neverhoodian]

In all seriousness, best of luck to you on your new position.

As an aside, I find it amusing that a message of optimism is being presented on a website best known for its pessimistic reviewer personas. Not saying it's a bad idea or anything, it's just a bit different from the norm around here. May take some getting used to...

 

[Pyrian]

Unfortunately, I've read that the corporate overlords aren't entirely happy with Yahtzee...

I could see that easily enough:
Escapist salesman: "Hey, how'd you like to advertise on our site?"
Game publisher: "We might've, but your reviewer just called our game something unmentionable."

 

[Eclipse Dragon]

Congratulations to our new Editor in Chief, I appreciate the optimism and good luck!
Also welcome to the Escapist Mr. Ron Whitaker, I hope you find our community comfortable.

 

[wizzy555]

Unfortunately, I've read that the corporate overlords aren't entirely happy with Yahtzee...

I could see that easily enough:
Escapist salesman: "Hey, how'd you like to advertise on our site?"
Game publisher: "We might've, but your reviewer just called our game something unmentionable."

If Yahtzee pulls in the numbers that shouldn't matter.

 

[Pyrian]

Unfortunately, I've read that the corporate overlords aren't entirely happy with Yahtzee...

I could see that easily enough:
Escapist salesman: "Hey, how'd you like to advertise on our site?"
Game publisher: "We might've, but your reviewer just called our game something unmentionable."

If Yahtzee pulls in the numbers that shouldn't matter.

Wrong numbers. It's not enough to simply be seen (though that's basically required). They want customers.

 

[Teoes]

Good luck sir. Best of luck to those who have unfortunately lost their jobs over this change.

I would like to think that the Escapist continues to be a place I want to frequent.

 

[Aerotrain]

I really appreciate the sentiment and stated goal of positivity and enthusiasm about our hobbies being the guiding principle of the website. Although I'm always up for analyzing, reviewing, critiquing and more often than not lambasting the media I love I'm also not ready to engage in any crusades in my spare time. Take Yahtzee, for example, who's a harsh judge of the gaming industry and its products and yet never fails to show his passion for the medium and give me a good chuckle while he's at it.

Personally, I'd like to see more stuff like LRR's Unskippable and Zero Punctuation riffing on games and other media. I'd like to see more column's like Yahtzee's Extra Punctuation and Shamus Young's Experienced Points from diverse personalities. I'd like to see the return of the more creative content instead of just reviews after reviews of television shows (a segment where funny charismatic people debate finer points of plot and lore from the recent wave of super-hero TV shows in a spirited way seems like a much more interesting proposition that just a plain review for example). I'd definitely like to see more done regarding streaming content (take heed of LRR's masterful work at LoadingReadyLive) and an association with constructive projects and organizations that promote inclusitivy in gaming and "geek" culture in a positive manner. Well, I think you get the drift.

Also, I hope it doesn't seem rude to say this but if Defy decide to let Yahtzee go or he leaves of his own volition I'd likely lose all interest in the place rather fast. To me, he's the single main attraction and will likely remain so for the foreseeable future.

Best of luck for this new endeavor and I do hope you bring us some fresh new content.

 

[Darth Sea Bass]

Yikes! Reasons to hang around here sure are getting thin on the ground.

 

[Thunderous Cacophony]

Unfortunately, I've read that the corporate overlords aren't entirely happy with Yahtzee...

I could see that easily enough:
Escapist salesman: "Hey, how'd you like to advertise on our site?"
Game publisher: "We might've, but your reviewer just called our game something unmentionable."

If Yahtzee pulls in the numbers that shouldn't matter.

I doubt Yahtzee can pull in enough to keep the site afloat on his own, though, and I'm not sure that reducing the amount of content is the best way to bring in new people. Unless Vanderwall has a bunch of freelancers in the wings, it's not looking great.

However, I'm betting that publishers would be willing to work with the Escapist if there was a deal for Yahtzee to do a piece on them. All press is good press, especially something that humorously skewers a work. He hasn't stopped the ads in the past.