I was under the impression Jim's separation from the Escapist was more cordial. It was very notable that Jim was allowed to keep just about every branding of the Jimquesition while Moviebob lost all his branding when he got fired.
Jim Sterling sheds light on The Escapist's previous parent company
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- Mar 13, 2020
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They should be forced to read this and other people’s comments on how messed up they are, until they either change or get shunned out of social media. It’s more than a bit disheartening - let alone ironic - how many people use these various platforms as an outlet for whatever toxic baggage they carry around in their lives.
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Ha, it was funny when I got dogpiled because I tried to defuse the situation and she just kept pushing it so I blocked her, then her friends started coming after me, so I blocked them too, and then they were mad that I blocked them and I was like, you do understand that I am under no obligation to pay any attention to you people?
They police the Twitters of people they don’t like, as do many others in the games media so I’ve pretty much shut myself away from all the people that are regularly dogpiling and harassing people just to protect my mental health at this point.
It can be really nasty and I, and my team are staying far away from all that negativity and toxic shit and charting our own path.
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Yeah it's weird, I remember distinctly having a weird situation with another user, that I suspected was a member of the escapist team. If I recall correctly, it was right around the time the first trailer for the PS 4 spiderman trailer came out, and I posted a link to the youtube clip, and started a thread saying "hey, new spidey game, what does everyone think?"
Like an hour later, if that, I got several PM's, from someone named happyninja69, with my identical avatar, and they were calling me an atheist godfag (one of my descriptions on my profile was that i am an atheist, who is also a godfather , thus atheist godfather), and basically just spewing a ton of bile shit at me. And then, like 15 minutes after I noticed that, I noticed an official thread from the site about the trailer, basically saying exactly what I did. "What does everyone think about the trailer?" and the only place happyninja69 would post, was in MY spiderman thread, and they just said shit like "Yeah i fucked your mom" and other dumb shit.
And while I can't prove it, it sure seemed odd lining up of events, and felt like whoever was about to post that thread, got pissed that I beat them to the punch on the site, and decided to be petty about it.
I disregarded it, because hey, surely people running a site like this wouldn't be that petty and vindictive right? .....right?
So...yeah, that was a fun event.
I will say, that most of my dislike of the old escapist, was soley in the camp of shitbag forum users spewing toxic bile at every opportunity. I stopped posting for at least 2 years I think as a result, because the site just didn't have anything of merit or value anymore.
Like an hour later, if that, I got several PM's, from someone named happyninja69, with my identical avatar, and they were calling me an atheist godfag (one of my descriptions on my profile was that i am an atheist, who is also a godfather , thus atheist godfather), and basically just spewing a ton of bile shit at me. And then, like 15 minutes after I noticed that, I noticed an official thread from the site about the trailer, basically saying exactly what I did. "What does everyone think about the trailer?" and the only place happyninja69 would post, was in MY spiderman thread, and they just said shit like "Yeah i fucked your mom" and other dumb shit.
And while I can't prove it, it sure seemed odd lining up of events, and felt like whoever was about to post that thread, got pissed that I beat them to the punch on the site, and decided to be petty about it.
I disregarded it, because hey, surely people running a site like this wouldn't be that petty and vindictive right? .....right?
So...yeah, that was a fun event.
I will say, that most of my dislike of the old escapist, was soley in the camp of shitbag forum users spewing toxic bile at every opportunity. I stopped posting for at least 2 years I think as a result, because the site just didn't have anything of merit or value anymore.
YEESH. After hearing what Nick had to say about her, and her comments on that thread (Which I vaguely remembered, glad ya had it archived), it sounds like they both had a very low opinion of all of us. Makes me especially glad we weren't all just nuked to hell and back. Could very well have been the reality if things didn't go the way they did
Yeah she definitely had something up her butt and vagina. I'm glad she's not in charge.
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My interactions were not pleasant. Shame, because Russ did give me some great advice on our Kickstarter campaign for Gameumentary, but working under him for the VERY short time I did was a completely different story. Was extremely condescending to both myself and my video editor, Omar, about our documentaries, commented on my character without knowing me, etc.
I'm happy with where things are now though, our team works very well together, we're having fun and we're not causing any drama, just creating content, interacting with you guys and our community on YouTube which has really made a big turnaround since I started working over there and moderating, etc.
Biggest challenge is keeping mental health in check when you feel like you've got a target on your back all the time with people like Susan and MANY others just waiting for that moment to try and fuck you over. Nobody really talks about that part of the business, and if you do they spin it and say you've got something to hide and it's like...no?
Most of us just don't want to be quote-tweeted and harassed by you and your X amount of followers for days or weeks just because you disagreed with something we said.
It's pretty surprising to hear the people that took over that was supposed to be our chance at a rebirth could've been just as bad as the alternative. Very glad to hear it's good now. As soon as I saw "scorched earth" from Susan and Kyle's... questionable community management, I started smelling a bit of a rat. Russ vanishing so swiftly basically put it all together that a good portion the new team was probably not what we hoped.
I hear ya. I've been making new strides for my mental health after the spot it was at around the start of the year. That gets priority, nobody else
If she were a guy, I would have just said up his dick and butt. Either way, an asshole is an asshole.
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- Whatever, just wash your hands.
All this is complicated enough to remind me why I don't really get involved with communities. Really the escapist is the only one I've ever been involved with and I've been here through good at bad.
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What I didn't understand about the whole thing, is why you would come in, alienate your most valuable (maybe not everyone obviously) community members, and just come in with a straight hostile attitude towards everyone. Like, what do you expect would happen, that people would welcome you with open arms if the first thing you tell them is they're all bad people and you're going to scorch earth them?
All of these gaming sites are openly hostile towards the people that visit them, unless they fit within a narrow ideology they deem acceptable and it just blows my mind. I'm not a big name on social media or anything, but I literally do not get people coming to my Twitter feed just to attack me and tell me how much they hate my guts. Even on YouTube that doesn't happen.
I don't understand the logic unless you literally think everyone that thinks even slightly differently than you is out to get you. I couldn't live like that and I'd never run, or WANT to run a community like that. It'd drive me insane.
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Everything seems fine for the most part? I don't spend my days worrying about the forums getting us nuked into the sun lol if that says anything.
I think we've got a lot of different people from different backgrounds here and everything for the most part seems to be staying civil. The mods haven't brought anything pressing to me in months, and aside from that Yoshi guy actually finding my personal Facebook page and messaging me (seriously, don't do that), all's been fine.
No kidding, I didn't understand it either. The two of them gave such a bad first impression right out of the gate. The attitude I saw was so backwards to what you'd expect a staff member and community manager to behave like. If I wouldn't risk a ban for it I would've told Kyle to fuck off. Pretty sure that they just wanted an echo chamber, or at least an opportunity to make the community exactly what they want and nothing more, just an extension of their followings that don't question them and love everything they say and do.
Considering everything you told me, I wouldn't consider this off the mark at all.
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Hoo boy, I saw that in the beta feedback thread. How much of a fit did that turn out to be?
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I "kindly" blocked him from existence and that was the end of it.
There was speculation about this back then (per Jim's reference of hints dropped), and now that it's been confirmed at long last, I'd just like to say....
WHERE ARE ALL THE "ETHICS IN GAMES JOURNALISM" FOLKS?
It's deeply ironic that gamergaters were flocking to this site, courted by Achron himself, and preaching about ethics and losing their goddamn minds about the alleged transgressions of another outlet while their own home base was pulling the very shit they were allegedly so concerned about.
WHERE ARE ALL THE "ETHICS IN GAMES JOURNALISM" FOLKS?
It's deeply ironic that gamergaters were flocking to this site, courted by Achron himself, and preaching about ethics and losing their goddamn minds about the alleged transgressions of another outlet while their own home base was pulling the very shit they were allegedly so concerned about.
How were we supposed to know? Are you blaming us for not breaking into Defy Media's private email server to find out this long-held secret?
We apologize for not being omniscient.