i miss the escapist

[CpT_x_Killsteal]

After watching a a certain video on youtube about something similar last night (It was way better back X, the golden age is gone), I think the best way to frame it is this:

The Escapist has changed. It hasn't died, thought for some it may now be a lot worse, for some the 'golden age' might be gone, making it 'worse'. I think I'm one of those people, though I haven't been around as long as some. For others it's gotten better, for some newcomers it might be amazing. Everything changes as time goes on.

For me personally things seem a bit more confrontational. I just can't help but read things on this site in a disdainful, or angry way ever since the whole gamergate thing happened. For me it's soured, but I come here out of habit since I used to visit the site 10 times a day before. But oh well, that's just me. Things change, and so have I.

 

[Bat Vader]

Kinda agree with Zhukov here.

Mods and the editorial team are too... cold I guess. Too professional. They dont engage much with us.

Which is a feeling I personally do NOT like.

I can understand why they do it though. If a user and a mod are friends and that user gets a warning, probation, or suspension it could cause the user to get angry at the mod. I don't think it is cold at all. I find it to be a smart thing to do.

On Topic: I miss the events The Escapist had every couple of months. Like the haunted house thing they did for a couple of Octobers a few years back. Something that I wish to see happen again would be another puzzle adventure. I found that to be extremely fun.

 

[Dandark]

I do actually agree with @Zhukov though, I wish that the Staff and Mods actually participated more, seeing them in a thread here or there kinda makes them seem more distant.

Considering that whenever mods do participate some people promptly start shitting themselves inside out while howling about collusion conspiracies, I'm don't blame them one bit for standing at arms length.

As for not changing, there's absolutely no denying that forum traffic has dried up to a trickle from what it was in 2011-2012.

They stopped participating far before those complaints arose. But I don't think this is a thread for us to discuss moderation like this so I'll leave it here.

I think it's people avoiding traditional forums in favor of "social media" which is the cause for a lot of the decrease in forum traffic. And now we are seeing Facebook beginning to become seen as uncool and Twitter beginning to move from an open platform to a curated platform I think we might see users moving from them onto the next "Big thing" when it emerges. Hopefully communities like this one can also scoop up some extra traffic from that transition period.

I'd agree with this. I think many people are just preferring to use other things instead of the traditional forum like image-boards or social media, I used to visit this site multiple times daily but now I find myself enjoying anonymous imageboards more than the traditional forum.

I usually came here more for the forum than any particular content and while their has always been some controversial hot topic causing arguments like the ME3 ending, Feminism, friendszoning, gun control and I even remember the morality of bestiality being discussed on the R&P forums for a while. While there have always been all kinds of heated topics discussed in various heated ways, it does seem as if a lot of the users are more hostile now and the froums come across as less friendly and welcoming than I remember them.

I hope that when GG starts to eventually die down due to either being successful or it's opponents learning how to stop fueling it then perhaps people will lay off with the vitriol and become a bit more friendly again.

 

[Evonisia]

I think in 2014, there was a large slump where the forums became increasingly toxic and unfriendly: littered with controversy threads and counter-controversy threads to feel better that felt forced (got to see Zhukov's face, though, so there's that). Since about March, once the Escapist is dying attitude died down (Moviebob n' all), I'd say this place is about as pleasant as it was in late 2013.

I do miss some of the content, though. The Jimquisition has only just started recovering quality wise (watch the Splatoon episode's epilogue, and cry with me), and Moviebob has become increasingly bitter post-Escapist.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Eh, used to be all Skyrim and whirlpools and the red button and saying it's unfair that people don't take gamers seriously and wondering how those women thing work.

First two are gone, we sometimes see the third, otherwise much the same.

 

[baddude1337]

I would agree to an extent. A huge amount of the actual original content I first signed up for has long gone.

Although controversies have always been spoken about on these forums, GG really did explode and, IMO, made the community quite toxic for awhile, and IMHO tainted the forums a bit. At least it is segregated to it's own subforum, but there are very few 'fun' anymore topics and way more complaining about gaming ethics or discussing political issues than actually talking about, you know, games.

 

[Bat Vader]

forum participation would almost require taking a side, though maybe two people could participate and take either side. the escapist currenty has no real mission, and obviously is saying something through recent hires and a serious lack of care or basic maintenance on the main site. i have no idea why i still come here, but the escapist was an every day destination for me for at least 5 years. i probably even bought sponsors things every now and then. i hate seeing the escapist logo when i navgate here. watch your back everyoneandbody. love you!

Side in what? The whole GG and anti-GG thing? That's pretty much been kept to the Game Industry Discussion forum. People who don't care about it can either avoid the gg and anti-gg threads in there or ignore that forum altogether. I frequent the GDF and I have never picked a side.

 

[Darks63]

Kinda agree with Zhukov here.

Mods and the editorial team are too... cold I guess. Too professional. They don't engage much with us.

Which is a feeling I personally do NOT like.

At least the team now is a little more talkative that the previous administration was.

OT: The site has changed along with gaming culture and gaming culture is heading towards becoming a more mature medium. This is what some folks always wanted to happen with gaming by pushing such narratives like " games are art". Unfortunately is usually a painful and stressful experience on the whole. I would say we are solidly in the early to mid teen years atm growth-wise. You just gotta wait a decade or so and we as a culture can get in to the early to mid twenties much more fun years .

Gaming culture has gotten more political as a result and it unlikely to go back to way it was. We have replaced The silly PC master Race v. Console peasants type conflicts with the more serious SWJS v. #GG type conflicts.

OP: Complaining about it wont do much of anything in the long term. You could go on hoping and praying for Saint Daystar to descend down from snark heaven and save the forums or you could do something about it yourself. Makes some threads in the old Escapist spirit and see if you cant flush some of the old guard out from their user group bunkers.

 

[CrystalShadow]

Yeah... I miss the 2011-12 and earlier era Escapist.
It went downhill after that, kinda recovered a tiny bit, then fell apart again, and so on.

Honestly though I think if you're at all referring to all that GG stuff, yes it occupies a lot of space, but I somehow don't think it's as prevalent amongst the actual community here as it might seem from how noisy that bunch is.

And you know... I've been watching, and keeping an eye on the users around here, and honestly? While the people I now spend most of my time with aren't nessesarily from ages back, I see more and more familiar old faces as I go.
(Or at least people with join dates way back)

Join dates alone won't tell you the whole story of course. I lurked around here for ages. Been here since 2007, if the 2009 join date doesn't seem ancient enough for you yet... XD

Gah. Has it really been that long?

I do actually miss the old 'magazine' style this place had in the early days. As in a bunch of articles released weekly as if this were a print magazine rather than a website.
It was interesting...

Oh well. Stuff changes. I'm guessing that model was difficult to keep going reliably, and wasn't all that responsive for something meant to be online...

Times change, unfortunately.

 

[Cowabungaa]

Ayup.

Forums were friendlier and busier, the staff were a bit more personable and there was a ton of content.

RIP.

Though strangely, as of now I'm more involved with the content then I ever really was. They got some good new shit.

The forums have changed though. The whole GG affair was just the culmination of something that had been going for some time already. Something that permeates 'geek culture' as a whole, not just our forums.

 

[Daymo]

I understand the freelance costs must have been insane for the old magazine format, but the article were always of such a high standard, it's what made me stick around for ages and probably has most of my posts on them. The site didn't even do that much breaking news, you had to rely on the forums or other games websites to cover it all.

 

[Strazdas]

Ah, the eternal complaint of "This forum is dieing and is at fault". I remmeber this kind of posts all the way back to 2009 when i started lurking.

Thing is, contraversies happen, they get discussed for months, take over forums, die down, new contraversy comes, cycle repeats. this happened for as long as i remmeber on the escapist. nothing new on here. Perhaps the only difference is that many oldtimers now seem to lurk more and new blood is pouring in. which is a good thing. communities that dont get new members while old members dominate end up eating themselves.

I largely agree with this, I remember when MLP was the hot topic of the day on these forums, although it is somewhat concerning how sectarian much of the new intake is. Hopefully people will leave that shit in GID where it belongs, otherwise this forum will become the perfect setting for a fated romance between a Gamergater and an SJW, whose forbidden love will inevitably end in tragedy

I dont really see a big problem with this. People both pro and anti gamergate arent just that. they are people with differing opinions on many things and im sure are capable of discussing ideas outside GG as well. And those that dont will get modded-out anyway.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I have to agree regarding content, but there's always been some hot topic or other flying around.

 

[Josh123914]

I have to agree regarding content, but there's always been some hot topic or other flying around.

"I miss the Old Escapist, get rid of this Gamergate crap and bring back Jim"
"I miss the Old Escapist, get rid of this Yahtzee rip-off and bring back Bob"
"I miss the Old Escapist, get rid of this Bob guy and bring back Extra Creditz"
"I miss the Old Escapist, get rid of this Extra Creditz crap and bring back Unforgotten Realms"
"I miss the Old Escapist, get rid of this URealms crap and bring back March Mayhem"
"I miss the Old Escapist, get rid of this MM Zynga shilling and bring back There Will Be Brawl"

I can't wait to see which big scandal is next. One day, people will wish Gamergate was a thing, which is hilarious.

 

[Drops a Sweet Katana]

I agree and disagree. I think the forums (well at least the topics that show up in the sidebar) are a little too dominated by GG and related things, however those are kept in Game Industry rather than spread throughout Off-Topic and Gaming. Actual content is pretty thin on the ground as well. Most of the stuff other than ZP just seems to be stuff from youtube, like 8-bit philosophy, game theory, etc. which I think is hurting the website. I didn't always like the original stuff, but it was there if I wanted to give it a try.

All that being said, I feel as though the forums are on the mend. GG stuff is off in its own little world, leaving room for other topics in OFT and GD, although there seems to be certain lack of levity as of now. I do think that will change in time though. I miss seeing some of the more prominent people from back when, but that happens.

Just as a thought, I wonder what effect taking GID off the sidebar would have on things?

 

[Halla Burrica]

Damn.... And I just got onto this b#tch. Seems like I missed something wonderful. Ah well, this is still a pretty okay site.

 

[Muspelheim]

A lot of the spark has gone out of the site, that's for sure. It isn't what it used to be. But it's still chugging along, at least. It's rather stagnant, but it haven't rotted, if that makes any sense. The face is still smiling, but it's turned into marble.

Of course, nothing lasts forever, and content is always coming and going. And things were good while they lasted, which is what really matters.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Perhaps the only difference is that many oldtimers now seem to lurk more and new blood is pouring in. which is a good thing. communities that dont get new members while old members dominate end up eating themselves.

Eh. Forum traffic is down from a couple years ago. And not just a little down. It's way, way down. A fraction of what it was.

It's disingenuous to blame GG, although the toxicity on the forums during the height of that was something of a final nail. The decline was well underway long before that became a thing.