Escapist heading in "a new direction"

IceForce

Is this memes?
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Dec 11, 2012
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Uh oh. Escapist's parent company is being merged with another company.

Ever get that feeling of deja vu?

[tweet t=https://twitter.com/ajohnagnello/status/1148272392604663808]
 

Saelune

Trump put kids in cages!
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Mar 8, 2011
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I think I deserve a warning reset with all these changing owners.

If Zontar can get banned, then unbanned and have his warnings all cleared, surely I do too?

Or do I need to get Drathnoxis to get everyone to change their avatars to bunnies first?
 

Red Sentinel

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May 20, 2014
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Saelune said:
I think I deserve a warning reset with all these changing owners.

If Zontar can get banned, then unbanned and have his warnings all cleared, surely I do too?

Or do I need to get Drathnoxis to get everyone to change their avatars to bunnies first?
When they move the forums to a new forum system (although when that'll happen is anyone's guess), they will probably just allow everyone back in again with clean profiles, because it'll be too difficult to keep track of all the users who've been warned/banned on an old server that's been switched off.
 

CrazyGirl17

I am a banana!
Sep 11, 2009
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I think I would want to wait to know more before I make my judgment, but that's just me.
 

Batou667

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Oct 5, 2011
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Firstly: who the heck is/was that?

Second: A new direction? You mean this place has somehow gained enough momentum to break free from its decaying orbit around a plug hole?
 

Johnny Novgorod

Bebop Man
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Feb 9, 2012
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Batou667 said:
Firstly: who the heck is/was that?
The guy that stepped in after the previous editor got laid off.
Not that you would know from anything posted by the site. Either you hear from a forum user or you don't at all.
 

Armadox

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Aug 31, 2010
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Kyle Gaddo said:
Hi, everyone.

I know many of you are concerned regarding Anthony's departure. We were informed internally last week, but the news was made public today. The circumstances regarding Russ Pitts' departure from the company and Anthony John Agnello's are worlds apart. The loss of Anthony is just an unfortunate side effect of doing business.

The merger between Enthusiast Gaming and Aquilini GameCo did unfortunately see a reduction in staff at Escapist Magazine proper, while we slowly integrate the crew from Gameumentary to produce more video content. That means in addition to Yahtzee's Zero Punctuation and Dev Diary, as well as Bob Chipman's Escape to the Movies and The Big Picture, we're going to see an expanded lineup of content on our video streams. We launched a new video series, actually, with a review of Sea of Solitude [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwmwyGFvsc8].

There's still more to come beyond this and we'll be rolling out new features over the coming weeks, with planned updates including:
-major adjustments to the website, including functionality (yes, this will include navigation buttons)
-Version 2 forum integration
-and, of course, more content of all sorts

Please note that my word isn't gospel and things may change as we evolve our strategy.

Here's Menashe Kestenbaum, CEO of Enthusiast Gaming, talking numbers regarding the merger [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRSc3fy0Ad8], if you're interested, and here's some relevant text [https://www.enthusiastgaming.com/enthusiast-and-luminosity-merg/] if you feel so inclined.
You really don't have to put a spin on this. It's cool. Enthusiast took out a big honking loan from Aquilini. It paid off, now it's got to trim off anyone who it can to push that share dollar amount up to sate the blood thirsty stockholders and get the big bucks when the merger finishes. After that the CEO can grab up them big bags with the $ signs on his way out, and leave Aquilini to have to support this tire fire. We'll have you to hang out with for, maybe three to six months, before we hit peak Defy and this place turns back into a ghost town. Though, man this does go a long way to explain why you killed R&P. Oh wait...

Armadox said:
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Hard as fuck to get new advertisers with that sub-forum open huh? Then you slowly squeeze the rules juuuust so that R&P becomes a quick way to get banned on Off-topic. Something something, aggression towards others. Ah. Honestly? I mostly feel sorry for Selune. This place was probably providing some catharsis considering how garbage other places are right now. Ah well. Can't feel sad about it now, as I've actively argued for R&P to be closed up before.
I almost called it in the thread where you closed up the R&P board. I thought EG was trying to scoop advertisers, but this was a much bigger fish. I take it forum 2.0 will have an iron grip of an End User Agreement and Code of Conduct to minimize potential issues that might arise from the forums, but you just can't kill them without losing user retention which has to be a decent figure into the ad revenue for this site.

Your account says you've been here since 2018, but you'll find a LOT of those-who-remain's accounts say they've been here more or less since 2010. We've been on this ride a few times now. So mommy Escapist brought a new guy into the house. Cool. Maybe we'll get a new x-box out of this instead of the usual beatings. Time will certainly tell.
 

Red Sentinel

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May 20, 2014
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I'm curious as to what this "new direction" is.
Escapist has already pivoted twice in recent years. And they were substantial pivots, basically complete 180's.

One pivot was to abandon a traditionally progressive editorial style and left-leaning userbase in order to entice and pander to an alt-right harassment campaign that completely took over the site. Its tendrils invaded nearly every aspect of the site, from the forums and forum moderation, to the shifting userbase, to the editorial content, to the hiring and firing and selection of staff at the time.

The next pivot was to do the complete opposite and basically try to undo all of the above. The topic and name of the aforementioned harassment campaign was completely banned from all discussion, forum rules were tightened up to ensure that certain views are unwelcome (for instance, I doubt Lunatic's post would've gotten him a ban under the previous regime), and even some old staff were brought back into the fold (such as MovieBob).

So what exactly is this "new direction"? Because if it's yet another U-turn, I doubt the site will survive it.

Every time the site pivots like that, the userbase dwindles. People leave when they see the site's direction going somewhere they don't like. And the site has tried two very different directions already, and each time a significant number of users disappeared.
 

IceForce

Is this memes?
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Dec 11, 2012
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Red Sentinel said:
Every time the site pivots like that, the userbase dwindles. People leave when they see the site's direction going somewhere they don't like. And the site has tried two very different directions already, and each time a significant number of users disappeared.
Not meaning to derail my own thread with 'that' topic, but the users who that campaign lured here really had no business being here at all. They should never have been welcome on the site in the first place. The caliber of the site dropped dramatically while they were here, and abuse was rife (from both users and moderators; the moderators at the time I mean, not the current crop). I even witnessed an instance of doxxing, and despite my protests apparently that was considered a-okay at the time.

It's good those people have left.
 

Red Sentinel

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May 20, 2014
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IceForce said:
Red Sentinel said:
Every time the site pivots like that, the userbase dwindles. People leave when they see the site's direction going somewhere they don't like. And the site has tried two very different directions already, and each time a significant number of users disappeared.
Not meaning to derail my own thread with 'that' topic, but the users who that campaign lured here really had no business being here at all. They should never have been welcome on the site in the first place. The caliber of the site dropped significantly while they were here, and abuse was rife (from both users and moderators; the moderators at the time I mean, not the current crop). I even witnessed an instance of doxxing, and despite my protests apparently that was considered a-okay at the time.

It's good those people have left.
Be that as it may, the site needs to stop having an identity crisis and actually settle on something.

As I said, the site's done two 180's, basically a full circle and ended up back where it started, but it seems none (or very very few) of the original users who left have come back again.
And correct me if I'm wrong, but I haven't seen any new blood either in quite a while.
 

Armadox

Mandatory Madness!
Aug 31, 2010
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Red Sentinel said:
And correct me if I'm wrong, but I haven't seen any new blood either in quite a while.
That's not true, there is Kyle Gaddo. And also... um...

edit: I literally had to hunt for it. jacjon joined in May 2018 and proceeded to stop posting in May of 2018.

You know, we had a ton of new users when the spambots was rolling over this place. I'm sure they saw a bunch of ads before deletion. Really helped the bottom line for a while.