MovieBob leaving The Escapist

[Karadalis]

Good.
He can go sit in the same toxic trash dump that Extra Credits is in. Seriously there's only two guys who I consider absolute scumbags and it's Moviebob and James Portnow. Hopefully the escapist will get some good content to fill the gap.

Wait, I'm actually a little taken aback by this. How is James a scumbag? Genuinely curious.

During a convention and after on twiiter he trashed Total Biscuit; he accused Total Biscuit of being a GG leader, of corruption, taking money from developers and lying about it, lying to fans etc. Just a whole litany of toxic tweets and nonsense. TB replied and James's reply was pretty much if I cared for your response I would have @'d you directly, and I'm too busy for you I'm at a friend's wedding. During this slew of crap TB was at chemotherapy.

So, he had and voiced his opinion about one man that you disagree with and so that makes him a toxic personality?

Can you give me any links to some examples, because honestly without definitive quotes I'm not going to really believe it's as toxic as you say, not to mention that I do actually kinda agree with a bit of the sentiment. I personally feel TB is horrendously over-hyped and put on a far higher pedestal than he deserves.

http://i3.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/905/925/b2b.png

I wouldn't personally call him a toxic individual, but he did pretty much attack the guy over nothing. The "I hear what i hear" bit is what really bothers me, it shows such a lack of concern for the truth of what he was saying.

Scanned it to read the twitter quotes themselves, and I won't disagree that the tone is a little...questionable, especially since it does seem to have the vibe of forgone conclusions wrapped in a question, but really if this was enough for people to make people demonize James, I really do find that sad, since he's gone all over the world to genuinely help the games industry.

Feels a little bit like a storm in a teacup, which so much of this always is.

Want to say thank you though for actually providing a source with the twitter comments, even if it means I now have even more of TBs own writings to read just to see his side

Well he did accuse totalbiscuit of taking bribes... at a convention.. during a public panel... without any proof whatsoever... all based on hearsay... because TB tends to agree with SOME of GGs points.

Total dickmove and shows how arrogant the guy is and how highly he thinks of himselfe.

So while "demonizing" him might be over the top... he still is a hipster dick of a person who will gladly toss anyone under a bus if it helps his narrative. I for one would not want to asociate with such a backstabber. After all TB did help promote the guy. Even while doing extra credits barely anyone knew who he was and now that he got a tiny bit of internet fame he thinks he can take potshots at the big guy.

 

[The Bucket]

Regardless of what people think of MovieBob ... I actually enjoyed the majority of his content.

Reminds me of when people despised Jim Sterling at first because of his commentary + videos. Then by some miracle, the lad really improved and became an astounding member, if not a top tier guy on par with Yahtzee (is that why Yahtzee decided to do a series with him about making rhymes? Lol).

MovieBob is less or more the same. Love em, hate him... you can't deny he's done some incredible work around these parts.
It's really sad to see him go. At least it didn't go down like how Extra Credits went. Anyone remember that contravesty? Ugh .......

Still, he'll be missed. Least he can make a name for himself elsewhere and hopefully pick right back up.

I plan to support Bob by buying his book and watching his content on his site. Whatever happened to Extra credits anyway? I remember there was something about payment and an arm or something.

Alrighty, take a seat my boy. I'll try making this brief but ... *ahem*

It took place around June 28th, 2011... Portnow announced through the show's Twitter account that Theus had a radial tear in her shoulder (likely a separated shoulder) that could potentially end her career. A two-month crowdfund project on RocketHub was created with a goal of $15,000, which eventually raised around $104,000. The crew, overwhelmed at the response, decided to start an independent game publisher with the excess profits.

Around the end of July, The Escapist privately contacted Portnow with a disputing claim for the funds. Alexander Macris, content director for The Escapist and current general manager for Alloy Digital, led the claim and stated the money should have been used to create more episodes of Extra Credits and to compensate parent company Themis Media for donation incentives, such as premium memberships and T-shirts. As a result, Extra Credits broke ties with The Escapist, and after a brief four-week stint posting directly to YouTube, the show was picked up by Penny Arcade's PATV network.

Proof: Extra Credits History [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extra_Credits].

So in other words, Extra Credit's main fellow Alex decided to screw the contract over by using the money on a privately owned indie studio instead of improving their show on the website... that they ran. While both sides weren't exactly innocent, at least our CM at the time was very blunt with his reasons / actions while Extra Credit tried looking innocent and pointing fingers.

They lost my respect, and totally dissed all their fans on here without considering what was best. Sure we could just check them out on Youtube, but couldn't Yahtzee, Jim, and whomever else do the same? It's not a matter of where the content lies, but how they perform on the website with the topics relating to the community. If they went to Youtube, their episodes wouldn't revolve around Escapist member's interests. Now I barely if not HARDLY hear anything about Extra Credits anymore. Even one of their main buds left Extra Credits to do their own thing... so yea.

So, EC raises funds for Health reasons, they get more than expected and then they should pay to their employers?

What the fuck is this?

Its hard to tell what went on in that situation, but it was a joint fundraiser between EC and the escapist (The escapist provided pub club memberships and t-shirts as donation rewards) and they claim there was originally an understanding between the two parties that any money raised over the goal would be put into making more episodes of EC's

 

[Escapefromwhatever]

First Doraleous, then Extra Credits, then Jim, now Bob. You're getting rid of every one of your successes, Escapist. Why?

Next up, you'll be announcing that Yahtzee is leaving, won't you?

 

[wulf3n]

Don't you think it's odd, that rather then talking it out or simply coming to an agreement, that the first response was getting political men to defend your stance?

That's called being smart. Hell if what you say is true the whole thing only began because they simply "came to an agreement" without getting anything in writing or even a mutual understanding.

 

[Darth Rosenberg]

Yikes. Foiles, Sterling, Yahtzee, and Bob were my reasons for being here. Three down, one to go (I like the idea of Critical Miss, but it's not content you stick around a whole site for).

If Bob starts making most of his content available on his blog, then--- well, I hope that place gets a serious redesign, because it just looks like a strange blend of utilitarian and gaudy. Site aesthetics really do matter.

 

[jackpipsam]

The Escapist is really going downhill now.

Zero Punctuation and FeedDump are the only two programs left that I watch anymore.
With no signs of them bringing on new talent or new shows, I am seriously rethinking my Publisher Club membership.
The sites value has sadly dropped a lot now.

Like Destructoid, I used to go there all the time, I even signed up for HUGE (Their subscription thing), but I quickly unsubscribed after many key members of the site left.
It's basically worthless to me know.


Joystiq, WoW Insider & Massively were all websites I used to visit a lot, but now they're no longer a thing.
(Thankfully Massively staff have made their own site).


GameTrailers keeps losing members and their shows are slowly winding down.
(Like Escapist, another victim of Defy Media).


People can whinge about GamerGate all they like, but I don't think this has anything to do that nonsense.
This is a case of losing staff, losing shows, losing value and corporations not understanding gaming sites.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

5 years ago, this website was the bees knees of the internet. Doralingus, Apocalypse Lane, Movie Bob, Yahtzee in his prime, Extra Credits, great opinion articles etc. Even the member topics in the gaming section were pretty great which was the main reason I decided to join. But now it's just about social justice politics and reporting every single fuckin' rumor or geek artwork one can find. It's shit. Yahtzee is the only thing keeping The Escapist alive. And since nothing lasts forever, Yahtzee too will leave some day. You better think about that before it's too late, Escapist management.

 

[Verlander]

Well, let me put it this way:

They worked for The Escapist. The website you're on helped em out by spreading the word on Theus needing surgery, and would see to it that things worked out such as selling T-shirts and Club Memberships to help this cause. Main guy running Extra Credits promised that any money they earned over $15,000 would be used for the show.

Did he? I don't remember that bit at all.

It was not going to be used to put cash in Escapist's staff pockets but rather improve their own show, the Extra Credits so it'd benefit the Escapist AND Extra Credits.

What ended up happening was personal greed. Getting over $100,000 can change someone, and in doing so refused to benefit their own show whatsoever. Now I don't know about you, but if I helped (even by a little) someone get a fundraiser going to recover someone's arm but then they earned 4x the cash... but refused to benefit their own show on your website, wouldn't that rub you the wrong way?

When our old Community Manager confronted Portnow, the dude immediately hired lawyers to back him up, along with going right for that personal indie studio. Don't you think it's odd, that rather then talking it out or simply coming to an agreement, that the first response was getting political men to defend your stance? Clearly he never intended on improving Extra Credits nor showing any thanks to The Escapist, which again the staff helped set up that fundraiser and wasn't even asking for the money directly, but to be used wisely for performance / quality improvements on their own show.

Hopefully that cleared up any misunderstandings.

In your explanations, you've missed the bit where The Escapist hadn't paid EC, and owed them money, a debt which they expected to be cancelled out due to the success of the fundraiser.

Frankly, had the original $15k number never been mentioned, this wouldn't have been an issue. The Escapist saw that money, and got dollar signs in their eyes. So yeah, what ended up happening was personal greed.

 

[Lazy Kitty]

So... Jim Sterling left, MovieBob is gone, LRR are telling us at the end of every video about the other things they do on other websites (which makes me think they might not stay much longer either), we haven't had any animated series like Doraleous and Associates or something like Doomsday Arcade in a really long time...

Is the Escapist slowly getting rid of all of the entertainment?

 

[sky14kemea]

Does anyone know how exactly you delete your Escapist account anyway?

Go into "change password"

Open a notepad and smash your head into your keyboard several times.

Copy and paste random mess into password and confirm password field.

Click "Okay".

You have successfully locked yourself out of your account!

(This next bit is aimed more at the general userbase, not you)
_______________________________________________________

Seriously, we cannot delete accounts.

I get PMed this maybe once a month.
[HEADING=2]We cannot delete your account![/HEADING]

Ask for a permaban or just delete the Escapist from your bookmarks.

 

[Zontar]

Is the Escapist slowly getting rid of all of the entertainment?

Seems to be more a general restructuring (which all the major game sites seem to be doing lately). For one reason or another (financial, public relations, or other) either the management at The Escapist or Defy Media didn't think it was worth keeping him on. Personally I'm putting my money on financial, I know at least some of his viewers have stopped watching his work over the past six months (or at least reduced the amount which they have) so he may not have been bringing in enough traffic to justify the costs in their eyes. Just speculation on my part however.

 

[Vault101]

Anyway, with Jim Sterling leaving and now Bob, it seems clear to me that Escapist is trying to rebrand itself as being much less of a "SJW" site and more focused purely on games and nerd culture.

I highly doubt that (at least both of them said that wasn't the case)


nothing either of them said was in anyway THAT *radical* [footnote/]although it might seem that was to the oppressed gamers among us[/footnote]

Edit: Before someone labels me an SJW for liking Bob's content .

its really sad that you feel the need to say that...that Gators are so incended they throw "SJW" at anyone

who cares really? youre an SJW I'm an SJW Obamas an SJE My dog is an SJW or at least she would if she could hear but she doesn't agree with the abelist mentality of a lot of privileged people so she definitely is

Spoiler: EVERYONE IS AN SJW

[img/]http://i.imgur.com/9hAHlIL.gif[/img]

 

[Zhukov]

I mean because people are stating because Moviebob is gone suddenly theres a lack of content.

Obviously theres going to be new content made to fill the void. There will (hopefully) be a new person to review movies.

Obviously.

I mean, they've been adding so much new content recently. For example... umm... well... they added the, err... the thing with, uhh... with the... err...

...

Huh.

 

[Evonisia]

Given how controversial MovieBob is I guess I shouldn't be surprised to learn that the news of his departure has nearly surpassed the amount of comments in the official The Escapist goodbye to Jim Sterling from November: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/138617-Goodbye-to-Jim-Sterling

Unfortunately like any thread that exceeds 75 posts that little activity thing from August has to get brought up. Oh Escapist, how you never change... right?

 

[Colour Scientist]

I mean because people are stating because Moviebob is gone suddenly theres a lack of content.

Obviously theres going to be new content made to fill the void. There will (hopefully) be a new person to review movies.

Obviously.

I mean, they've been adding so much new content recently. For example... umm... well... they added the, err... the thing with, uhh... with the... err...

...

Huh.

At least they've got that one guy.

You know, that one dude, name rhymes with Nahtzee.

 

[Karadalis]

nothing either of them said was in anyway THAT *radical*

I dont know... in one of his tweets bob let shine through that he secretly enjoys all the "hate" that the escapist "apparantly" faces for letting him go but doesnt want the escapist to die off because there are still some people left that he likes. Because apparantly a couple of tweets in his hugbox echochamber where patting him on the back an announcing they would boycott the escapist now or such nonsense.

That tells me that there was a conflict there when they let him go, atleast with the decision makers. It wasnt as clear cut as "we cant pay you no more hence you gotta go im afraid" as both sides want us to believe or there wouldnt be that hint of bitterness, and glee about flack the escapist gets from his fans for firing him.

 

[Eacaraxe_v1legacy]

Don't worry guys, Bob joined Patreon!

This is a new development that is totally shocking, which no one could possibly have anticipated.

 

[Lono Shrugged]

Man, that Patreon video is depressing. Like legitimately depressing. He literally has nothing else in his life other than making videos.

I feel bad now.

 

[Evonisia]

https://www.patreon.com/moviebob1?rf=565637&ty=2

I am completely unsurprised, but hey that video though.

 

[wizzy555]

Well I don't think there's really anything wrong with patreon (or moviebob started one), it's just a source of frustration for many as you can see talented people making a lot less than the untalented.