Is the Escapist dying?

[Janichsan]

I think it's becoming hard to ignore that there seems to be less and less content on the Escapist site. Just take a look at the Weekly Content Schedule: what was (more or less) completely filled in the past is now more than half empty.

What is going on? Is the site in trouble?

 

[Barbas]

If you really do want to know and this isn't one of those collective gloom and doom threads we get a few times a year, then OK:

DEFY closed the Durham office in North Carolina due to it not making them enough money (just about after the site devs had finished the latest update), and that meant most of the contributors and staff left. The site's run by a small handful of people, but it doesn't look like the biggest earners (Yahtzee shows) will be going. Sites like this generally don't seem to make enough money any more, a fact the financial crisis and the increased use of AdBlock probably didn't help with. On the bright side, it's probably a safe bet to assume that any show that wasn't hit by that last round of butchery won't be cancelled suddenly. Written article series are cheaper and faster to produce than a video series.

For more accurate information, you can ask [user]Encaen[/user] or [user]ffronw[/user]. They're definitely still here.

 

[Disco Biscuit]

Traffic estimates that I can find say that it's dropped almost half of its clicks in the last year, and since no announcements have been made that suggest a plan to deal with that...

 

[IceForce]

Traffic estimates that I can find say that it's dropped almost half of its clicks in the last year, and since no announcements have been made that suggest a plan to deal with that...

They don't need to make any announcements because they've already "dealt" with it.

Downsizing their staff and relocating to a cheaper office premises, is how they "dealt" with it. No announcements necessary.

 

[Disco Biscuit]

Traffic estimates that I can find say that it's dropped almost half of its clicks in the last year, and since no announcements have been made that suggest a plan to deal with that...

They don't need to make any announcements because they've already "dealt" with it.

Downsizing their staff and relocating to a cheaper office premises, is how they "dealt" with it. No announcements necessary.

Dwindling traffic, dwindling forum activity, and threads like this say otherwise.

 

[Elvis Starburst]

and threads like this say otherwise.

I came here specifically to ask why we had another one of these threads after only a few months. This topic has been done many many times before, so while the dwindling clicks and such are correct, there's always gonna be threads like this. The doomsayers have been saying this sort of thing since I got here

 

[Disco Biscuit]

and threads like this say otherwise.

I came here specifically to ask why we had another one of these threads after only a few months. This topic has been done many many times before, so while the dwindling clicks and such are correct, there's always gonna be threads like this. The doomsayers have been saying this sort of thing since I got here

Has this place been in steady decline since you got here?

 

[Souplex]

It died in 2013. We're the poor fools who refuse to leave.

 

[Thaluikhain]

We've been getting this sort of thread since I can remember, any time any popular contributor leaves or their works changes it's the end of the Escapist.

This time there are some stats to back up the claim, however, less views and less staff, and while it's subjective, I'd say lesser quality of content being produced.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

It died in 2013. We're the poor fools who refuse to leave.

What happened in 2013?

 

[Fox12]

It died in 2013. We're the poor fools who refuse to leave.

More or less my sentiment. I'll probably be whistling away my time here until the old site finally shuts down. She isn't what she used to be. Hell, I started out my time here blabbering about Berserk. May as well leave that way.

http://www.tubechop.com/watch/8066448

 

[Elvis Starburst]

and threads like this say otherwise.

I came here specifically to ask why we had another one of these threads after only a few months. This topic has been done many many times before, so while the dwindling clicks and such are correct, there's always gonna be threads like this. The doomsayers have been saying this sort of thing since I got here

Has this place been in steady decline since you got here?

While it may very well have been, my point is that, as Thaluikhain said, we've gotten this stuff constantly. The instant something changes, staff or otherwise, we get loads of "The Escapist is DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMED!!!!!!!!!" stuff rolling in. It's only now that this seems potentially true.

We know, the place is losing a lot of people it used to. Like, a lot a lot. Enough to be concerned. But let's leave these doom threads at the door, cause we're gonna see more of them in a month's time I'm sure

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Entropy infects everything we will ever love. Everything is a brief experience, change is part of what we are. It would be nice to keep this site though. But what can we do in the end, when the deciding factors lead to more political complications?

 

[Neverhoodian]

I'll believe it when I see it.

Fun fact: The Escapist has been around since 2005, two years before Zero Punctuation gave the site a massive traffic boost. If it could survive back in those lean times, surely it still has some legs left now?

 

[Canadamus Prime]

The site suffered a serious blow when the N. Carolina office was shut down and we lost a good number of the site's best contributors. ...and probably a good chuck of traffic too.

 

[Roboshi]

and threads like this say otherwise.

I came here specifically to ask why we had another one of these threads after only a few months. This topic has been done many many times before, so while the dwindling clicks and such are correct, there's always gonna be threads like this. The doomsayers have been saying this sort of thing since I got here

I think people keep making threads like this because we just haven't seen the activity of a healthy site in a loooong time. The front page has been lacking in improvements with some updates not appearing in the main bar until days after they are uploaded.

The internet has been moving more and more to video based content and this site thinks that involves buying the backlog of some guy they just found on youtube.

 

[JaKandDaxter]

Well traffic has actually bumped up a bit since April. And by a bit, I mean a thousand or so spots.

Social media, Reddit, YouTube, etc, has greatly decreased the need for dedicated sites across a variety of fields. But that doesn't mean that sites like the escapist is going away for good. As long as there's enough traffic to keep the site profitable. The E forums will still be here for years to come. And given that there are some things that forums do better than social media (such as in depth discussion with a community). Along with traffic not being zero. There is still demand for sites like the escapist.

We've been getting this sort of thread since I can remember, any time any popular contributor leaves or their works changes it's the end of the Escapist.

This time there are some stats to back up the claim, however, less views and less staff, and while it's subjective, I'd say lesser quality of content being produced.

Over at GT, we used to get random posters come back and make similar threads like "This site is still here ?", "Is GT dying", "What happen to GT ?", "Why are you guys still here ?" and others over the course of a couple of years. The final death blow turned out to be the staff releasing a botched redesigned site that was broken and nonfunctional. Then went on vacation, leaving the broken site as it was for a week. Scaring off a chunk of the traffic that was left. And it didn't help that it was a hassle to re-register your account.

And if IGN never took down GT for good, we would still have a little over 40 active posters at GT including myself. And more lurking.

 

[Elfgore]

That time of the month I see.

For once I will agree, this site is on a countdown to shutdown. How long is that countdown... no idea. Could be a few years, could be a few months. Either way, I'm going to get as much enjoyment out of it as I can.

 

[Mister K]

As gaming site, The Escapist seems to be in a steady decline.

As a forum about non-gaming and generally non-geeky stuff, it seems to be doing quite fine.

 

[Kameburger]

I really don't understand why there isn't more of an effort to bring in more content onto the site. I think as much as I hate to say it, the escapist never really recovered from GamerGate, and the series of people that left during that period, while opinionated, were enthusiastically delivering regular content to the site, and that was a good thing. The podcasts, the nearly daily video content. I didn't like them all, but enough of it was part of my routine web surfing. Now I come here out of habit but there is literally fuck all here to see. The news is dry, and the editorials and analysis is so not as interesting.