MovieBob leaving The Escapist

[Auron225]

Not gonna miss him. Don't miss Jim either. All I care about is Yahtzee. And the only one I really miss is Lisa

I'm in the exact same boat. Never really a big fan of either of them, but Lisa leaving just flat out sucked. If Yahtzee were to leave now...

Well I guess I'd still come back now and again for Unskippable. They're a little hit & miss, but when they hit they're hilarious.

 

[Silvanus]

If I went on Twitter called "JtyranFromDFDS" (not my real name obviously) and kept ranting about how the companies customers were awful, subhuman fascists I would expect to get sacked. Probably after the first occurrence too, when you associate your employers into your social media entity in any way you have to maintain standards.

I recognise fully that the term "subhuman" is a shitty thing to say. Definitely. Agreed.

But he said that term in reference to "college-age conservabros", not simply applying it to gamers, not applying it to "those of us in the forum". Does that excuse the language? No, of course not. But I'm getting equally sick of this persistent false narrative that he was insulting each and every one of us, or gamers as a whole, when he said this stuff.

 

[Nixou]

If this happened a year ago, I think I would have been disappointed. Now, after so many forceful opinions and antagonistic comments, I'm just shocked it didn't happen sooner. I'm glad now

You know, the most surprising thing here is the sheer number of people who, like you, openly state that they want their internet browsing to be a complacent echo chamber where they won't see nor hear opinions inimical to their own.

 

[Itchi_da_killa]

I've heard a lot of people say "Now that X is leaving I have no reason to come to the escapist", never thought it'd be me. And it won't! At least not until Yahtzee gets the boot. And even then I'll probably come out of pure habit and for general gaming news. The only videos I watch at this point are ben and bob's. So weird to have lost all the shows I did come here for. What is it about this place that drives everyone away? Gonna miss ya bob, and by that I mean I'll probably have a hard time tracking you down but when I do we'll be back in full swing.

I agree with you for the most part. Yahtzee is the last reason I come to this site since every other video series I came her for is now gone. I think most of the gaming news sucks despite having killer click bate titles.

 

[vviki]

I'm starting to lose faith in the Escapist. They were great once. I would hang on the forums, watch Yahtzee and check articles. Then I got into Moviebob and later Jim Sterling. I stayed, even became a publisher. But then Jim left. Now Bob. The VPN I use is banned, so I have to log out just to visit the site, making me visit less and less often. If Yahtzee leaves, I fear I will stop coming here all together.

This is all just sad. Despite disagreeing with Bob on some things (PC gaming is dead, Salt review, Interstellar being bottom 20 and Gamergate) I still enjoy his content and would listen to his opinion, even if it ends up with me going Fuck you, Bob at the PC screen. I hope he's ok and I hope that the Escapist can get their shit together and at the very least, please for the love of FSM keep Yahtzee on!

GabeN!

 

[Itchi_da_killa]

If this happened a year ago, I think I would have been disappointed. Now, after so many forceful opinions and antagonistic comments, I'm just shocked it didn't happen sooner. I'm glad now

You know, the most surprising thing here is the sheer number of people who, like you, openly state that they want their internet browsing to be a complacent echo chamber where they won't see nor hear opinions inimical to their own.

Nice hit-back, couldn't agree with your facetiousness more. Bob and I shared many of the same conclusions from careful analysis on movies and "geek" cultural observations, but it was so refreshing when our conclusions would collide.

 

[DocMcCray]

I haven't been a fan of Bob's for a very long time. I disagree with him on a vast number of things. So I won't miss him.

Nevertheless, I'm not a D-Bag so whatever he chooses to do in his future endeavors, I sincerely hope it serves him well.

Here's to you, Bob. May you find folks that disagree with you respectfully.

 

[Ratty]

If I went on Twitter called "JtyranFromDFDS" (not my real name obviously) and kept ranting about how the companies customers were awful, subhuman fascists I would expect to get sacked. Probably after the first occurrence too, when you associate your employers into your social media entity in any way you have to maintain standards.

I recognise fully that the term "subhuman" is a shitty thing to say. Definitely. Agreed.

But he said that term in reference to "college-age conservabros", not simply applying it to gamers, not applying it to "those of us in the forum". Does that excuse the language? No, of course not. But I'm getting equally sick of this persistent false narrative that he was insulting each and every one of us, or gamers as a whole, when he said this stuff.

Bob has a long history of viewing people who disagree with him as "dudebros" though, like anyone who played CoD. He specified that they were college aged because of the SVU episode, but it's pretty clear his view of them as "subhuman" comes from their political beliefs. Thus they are "conservabros". And as you say, calling someone "subhuman" is an awful thing to do no matter how many qualifiers you put before it.

If this happened a year ago, I think I would have been disappointed. Now, after so many forceful opinions and antagonistic comments, I'm just shocked it didn't happen sooner. I'm glad now

You know, the most surprising thing here is the sheer number of people who, like you, openly state that they want their internet browsing to be a complacent echo chamber where they won't see nor hear opinions inimical to their own.

I think Bob would agree that freedom of speech is not freedom from consequences of that speech. No one is saying Bob should not be legally allowed to say whatever he wants, as he is. But most employers in any field would have little patience with an employee belittling and publicly antagonizing customers. The escapist wants to be a positive place, Bob has spent the last six months hurling a lot of negativity towards Gamers who disagree with him.

I'm a liberal, I agree with many if not most of Bob's general political beliefs and I was a fan of his for years. But I cannot condone the scorched earth "with us or against us" authoritarianism he and many like him have spent months spewing.

 

[J Tyran]

If I went on Twitter called "JtyranFromDFDS" (not my real name obviously) and kept ranting about how the companies customers were awful, subhuman fascists I would expect to get sacked. Probably after the first occurrence too, when you associate your employers into your social media entity in any way you have to maintain standards.

I recognise fully that the term "subhuman" is a shitty thing to say. Definitely. Agreed.

But he said that term in reference to "college-age conservabros", not simply applying it to gamers, not applying it to "those of us in the forum". Does that excuse the language? No, of course not. But I'm getting equally sick of this persistent false narrative that he was insulting each and every one of us, or gamers as a whole, when he said this stuff.

The fact that there is a "persistent false narrative" (I'm not claiming there is or isn't) is enough a problem by itself, perception is often more important than the facts and if your employee repeatedly, continually creates enough controversy with comments that cause a "persistent false narrative" sooner or later the hammer will drop if you cannot get them to shut their mouths.

Besides which the "conservabros" thing is damning enough really, anytime you start generalising groups with prejudicial pronouns you're playing with fire.

 

[Insideout Ink Demon]

Don't remember in recent memory his slagging off all gamers on his twitter, jus what he referred to as the GameBros. Which isn't all of us. That said, could see why the would offend GameBros

 

[Ratty]

Don't remember in recent memory his slagging off all gamers on his twitter, jus what he referred to as the GameBros. Which isn't all of us. That said, could see why the would offend GameBros

He made many posts claiming that "bros" had co-opted his hobby, and that he was an "original" gamer because he started with the NES and many of them only started with the Xbox. I seem to recall he may have blocked someone after they told him they started with the Magnavox Odyssey, disagreed with his views and called him a 3rd generation n00b lol.

 

[faefrost]

<tweet t=https://twitter.com/archon/status/566640911250370561>

Maybe news, but mostly not much news at all.

And lots of hugs to those who want me to fill the position. We'll see. ;D

I can't avoid the feeling that a major element of said restructuring is to use a readership relationship approach that at a minimum avoids calling them "sub human shits". Just saying there are a lot of polite and neutral ways of saying things. Y'know "we have restructured around the guiding principle that we should not be openly insulting and contemptuous of our readers" is in fact a corporate change of direction that could lead to some specific layoffs. And it means and results in the same thing as "we really prefer that our identifiable employees and content providers not be complete assholes to our target audience on social media." I think we all agree that if we had tweeted out some of the stuff Bob has been, we would not have lasted a day at work, let alone months.

 

[Silvanus]

The fact that there is a "persistent false narrative" (I'm not claiming there is or isn't) is enough a problem by itself, perception is often more important than the facts and if your employee repeatedly, continually creates enough controversy with comments that cause a "persistent false narrative" sooner or later the hammer will drop if you cannot get them to shut their mouths.

The existence of a false narrative can mean that the subject is being careless or misleading, true... But it can also mean nothing more than that another person or group of people has un/intentionally created a false narrative for silly reasons. False narratives are usually primarily the fault of the people creating or pushing them.

Bob has a long history of viewing people who disagree with him as "dudebros" though, like anyone who played CoD. He specified that they were college aged because of the SVU episode, but it's pretty clear his view of them as "subhuman" comes from their political beliefs. Thus they are "conservabros". And as you say, calling someone "subhuman" is an awful thing to do no matter how many qualifiers you put before.

The fact stands that the idea that Bob was talking about gamers/ forumites/ us is either a misunderstanding, or a fib.

 

[Amaror]

If this happened a year ago, I think I would have been disappointed. Now, after so many forceful opinions and antagonistic comments, I'm just shocked it didn't happen sooner. I'm glad now

You know, the most surprising thing here is the sheer number of people who, like you, openly state that they want their internet browsing to be a complacent echo chamber where they won't see nor hear opinions inimical to their own.

Nobody here said they want everyone to agree with their opinion. What they didn't want is to be viciously insulted for their opinion, which is what bob did. And quite frankly i expect any professional to act, you know, professional. Spewing vicious insults is not professional in the least, exspecially when these insults are directed at your customers.
I work in IT and it can be quite exhausting sometimes how stupid some people act with their computers. But i don't go onto twitter and say "Boy, all these people needing IT support sure are stupid. They should all die in a fire, subhuman vermin that they are!"

 

[J Tyran]

The fact that there is a "persistent false narrative" (I'm not claiming there is or isn't) is enough a problem by itself, perception is often more important than the facts and if your employee repeatedly, continually creates enough controversy with comments that cause a "persistent false narrative" sooner or later the hammer will drop if you cannot get them to shut their mouths.

The existence of a false narrative can mean that the subject is being careless or misleading, true... But it can also mean nothing more than that another person or group of people has un/intentionally created a false narrative for silly reasons. False narratives are usually primarily the fault of the people creating or pushing them.

Which I wouldn't disagree with but the fact remains that he has been shit slinging, whoever or whatever his targets might have been his rants aimed at the "conservabros" are examples of him using a public persona associated with his employer to shit sling at the public.

Whether the overriding perception of his comments is false or not thats enough for any professional, responsible media outlet to lose patience with. Especially as it isn't the first time, the tone and language used left criticism and commentary a long way back and are simply shit slinging so thats not a defence either.

Some of his Big Picture stuff? Criticism and commentary, some of his Twitter stuff? Pure shit slinging.

 

[Bizzaro Stormy]

I never saw much of Bob's work. I tried watching one or two videos and just couldn't get into them. It's hard to have strong feelings about someone who's work you didn't watch. With that said hopefully he will find something new, improve himself and his work, and be able to move on from his work at the Escapist.

To everyone moaning about the end of the Escapist, why not try making content for them? Seriously. Write a few articles, try your hand at making a video and see if they find it interesting enough to accept, or to at least encourage you to improve your own work. The forums indicate to me that there are lots of people with thoughts on a wide variety of "Escapist" fantasy. So why not put it out for others to see? Fill the gaps in the line up.

Or if the Escapist is in need of new talent, there are lots of people making interesting videos as hobbies on Youtube. I really enjoy Caddicarus, GGmanlives, and sometimes Lazy Game Reviews. Right there are three guys making videos as a hobby that with some polishing could fit right in here. If they aren't a good fit there are plenty of others who would love the chance. If the site offered to reimburse them for the games/hardware they buy so long as they make a timely review of it and provide a receipt, than they could also get hobbyist content at bargain prices. It's a thought.

 

[Silvanus]

Whether the overriding perception of his comments is false or not thats enough for any professional, responsible media outlet to lose patience with. Especially as it isn't the first time, the tone and language used left criticism and commentary a long way back and are simply shit slinging so thats not a defence either.

It's not meant as a defence.

It's right to call out falsities when they're repeated, time and again, particularly when those falsities support certain political narratives. Whether Bob said bad things is beside that point. I'm sick of misrepresentation altogether.

 

[Insideout Ink Demon]

Don't remember in recent memory his slagging off all gamers on his twitter, jus what he referred to as the GameBros. Which isn't all of us. That said, could see why the would offend GameBros

He made many posts claiming that "bros" had co-opted his hobby, and that he was an "original" gamer because he started with the NES and many of them only started with the Xbox. I seem to recall he may have blocked someone after they told him they started with the Magnavox Odyssey, disagreed with his views and called him a 3rd generation n00b lol.

who ever that was Bob blocked, I gotta give them a pat on the back for one hell of a shut down.

I'm a Second-Gen myself, 2600

 

[Tono Makt]

If this happened a year ago, I think I would have been disappointed. Now, after so many forceful opinions and antagonistic comments, I'm just shocked it didn't happen sooner. I'm glad now

You know, the most surprising thing here is the sheer number of people who, like you, openly state that they want their internet browsing to be a complacent echo chamber where they won't see nor hear opinions inimical to their own.

Reading a hell of a lot into things there, bucko.

Bob was an outright asshole on Twitter in particular. Wanting to punish assholes isn't trying to create a "complacent echo chamber" or trying to silence opinions they don't share. It's looking to kick an asshole in the nuts because he's an asshole. Referring to [strike=1]GamerGate[/S] Most Internet Arguments In The History Of The Internet, there are assholes on all sides of the debate who deserve to be kicked in the nuts, but rarely for the actual opinions or positions they hold. In almost all cases it's the way they conduct themselves, the actions they take and the way they treat their opposition. Take out the assholish behaviour and leave the opinions and positions, and you'll find that a large number of people involved are willing to actually discuss the issues being expressed.

But when people are acting like assholes, their opinions and positions only matter inasmuch as they determine if the person is "Our Asshole" or "Their Asshole". And if it's "Our Asshole", we defend them (generally by becoming assholes ourselves). If it's "Their Asshole", we attack them (generally by becoming assholes ourselves)... huh.

Now, is his conduct on Twitter what got him fired? Seems like that's not the case, but I'd imagine that if he had either held his fingers or respectfully disagreed (enduring all the assholes who were opposed to his opinions), maybe he might still be around the Escapist.

 

[Thorn14]

You seem to have conveniently missed three tweets previous to that one: https://twitter.com/the_moviebob/status/566598584116576256

"Just wanna be clear about something: I do NOT "want" any fans/followers of mine to stop reading/visiting The Escapist.....obviously, I'm unhappy with how A LOT of things worked out there, for me and in general, but I can tell you with 100% sincerity that....good people work there, whose livelihoods depend on your traffic. And I don't endorse "punishing" THEM because you're upset about me.!

My mistake then. Sorry. Thats good to hear. What I get for taking things at face value in a rush.

So much for it being amicable of a leaving. He also retweeted a bunch of "Fuck the escapist!" tweets, too.

That's literally him encouraging people to not stop visiting the Escapist.

Good to hear. I just meant to focus more on it probably not being an amicable leaving.

Bob insults people who disagree with him, it's the end of the world, Yahtzee does the same and it's funny -.-

Its how you insult them. When its just teasing "Fans are crap. But buy my tee shirt!" joke from Yahtzee, its obvious ribbing or at least the occasional disagreement. What Bob was doing was a stream of very toxic comments that few companies would want coming from their employees.