I cancelled my publisher's club membership yesterday when I heard about Bob leaving. I signed up originally to support content I loved to watch but The Escapist is not the community nor the content hub it was when I first came to love it. It is true that Zero Punctuation was one of the reasons I discovered the site, but shows like Escape to the Movies, Lisa Foiles, The Big Picture, The Jimquisition, even Extra Credits back in the day were the reason I stayed.
Instead of the laughs involved in tearing something down, I grew to admire The Escapist for supporting content that strived to push this medium and geek culture in general towards something more constructive, something that (funnily enough) told us this hobby we share could be more than just escapism. I'm sad to say that is no longer the case, and has been slowly moving away from that ideal ever since Susan Arendt left as Editor in Chief, and the culture of the forums has slowly changed to accommodate that shift to the point where I no longer read them beyond comment threads for episodes of things I watch.
But perhaps more importantly than the cultural divide between us, is the fact that The Escapist simply does not produce enough content I want to view for me to continue wanting to pay for it. The occasional chuckle from Zero Punctuation, Critical Miss comics, and an episode of Feed Dump I would rather get direct from LoadingReadyRun themselves are not enough to retain me as a consumer/reader/supporter. This website over the course of a year has gone from "A new reason to check in every day" to "Two things on Wednesday (one of which is non exclusive) and the occasional comic update."