MovieBob leaving The Escapist

[thenightgaunt]

Yeah. I'll miss his videos over here. I'll have to head over to his blog or youtube channel now to get them. Its annoying as I liked being able to come to one site to watch/read content by some of my favorite reviewers and commentators.

While Bob has been polarizing at times, one of the big reasons why I like his videos is that his taste in film is about 95% aligned with my own. So that just leaves the odd news story, critical intel and zero punctuation for me.

 

[Mr. Omega]

A few months ago, this would have been shocking and just that. However, after all the other cuts and loss of content, I'm glad I decided not to renew my Pub Club subscription.

Jim's gone, LRR's on Patreon (and all the content they make that I like isn't even on this site), MoS posts his stuff on Bandcamp/Youtube early, the CM team admit they're looking into crowdfunding, almost all the podcasts are gone, the news has been coming in slower and slower and with Moviebob leaving the site loses nearly 1/5 of its weekly content.

I'm not going to cry doom and gloom yet, but whoever is in charge of managing this site's budget better start giving Yahtzee a lot more money.

 

[dalek sec]

I'll be honest, for the last months I've tried to see his works occasionaly, only to be angered and turned away almost every time.

This site is for geek nostalgia (I guess, definately not video games anymore) and it seems Bob just used it as a podium to voice his political opinions, so no, he won't be missed.

I think you and I are in the same boat. I really enjoyed his older works but now, I just can't listen all the way through them and I've honestly tried too.

Still, best of luck Moviebob.

 

[Belaam]

Good grief.

Extra Credits, Zero Punctuation, Rebecca Mayes, Lisa Foiles, and Bob were why I started coming here. Jim was occasionally interesting. Zero Punctuation got too repetitive years ago (though I generally like Extra Punctuation) but Bob was the last holdout that kept me visiting regularly.

No Right Answer being interesting every third episode is not going to be enough to keep me coming back.

Not really meant as a whine, but more a sincere question as to what the hell is going on. There are easier places to get twitches and podcasts than coming here to get them. I can see Bob setting up a patreon or spending some time at Penny Arcade like Extra Credits did before finding a home, but that seems likely to be it for the site.

Maybe new management has some master plan to transition to a different purpose (PnP RPG site?), but it really just seems like shooting yourself in the foot to get rid of so much content.

 

[Pinkamena]

Another nail in the coffin for the Escapist I guess. Bob was one of my favorite things about this site.

 

[Fox12]

My word...I... I don't know what to say. So many emotions are flowing through my body at this moment. So sad. I guess, well:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bG6b3V2MNxQ
http://youtu.be/PgBYGvImmvY?t=20s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daSG5fwdA7o


He won't be missed. I do worry about what this means for the site as a whole, though. I've seen this happen before, and it didn't go anywhere good. I hope the new new editor wasn't made captain of a sinking ship. Hopefully things may work out.

 

[Padwolf]

Wow that's an incredible shame, I liked Movie Bob's reviews a lot. I rather enjoyed his videos. Ah well, good luck to Movie Bob on his next endeavors! I shall miss you!

 

[Kevlar Eater]

Good. I've grown weary of his shit slinging, popular media insulting and fauxpologizing ways. It's not that hard to find places that do the same things he did, but without the hipster lens.

I used to enjoy the content he slung out, but ever since his love letter of an article about Sarkeesian and him all but throwing rose petals wherever Faraci stepped (or in this case, tweeted), he had gone from someone I respected to someone whose words I wouldn't acknowledge if it meant saving my life. Then again, he'd probably enjoy seeing me die, since I'm everything he hates in a human.

tl;dr - I'm glad his ass was canned.

 

[Thorn14]

While he says it has nothing to do with GG, and I believe that, I wonder if any site would really want to keep someone who has had such...."controversial" comments made on their twitter, for very long.

 

[Darks63]

Well, this is surprising. I mean, I guess the writing's been on the wall for a while, but even so...

Though has Miracle of Sound left as well? I noticed that Gavin's been left out of the lists of good content that's still around, and admittedly I mostly follow him on Youtube and Bandcamp now, so if there's been an announcement I must have missed it.

No, he's still here, but I heard secondhand that he said somewhere that he was looking into crowdfunding or getting work elsewhere. Critical Miss guys said they were looking into crowdfunding as a contingency back on all the layoffs three weeks ago.

Place is drying up then. And between this and the recent exodus from Channel Awesome, it feels like there's some kind of shift coming, but I just don't know what it is.

Oh well. I come here mostly for the forums anyway.

Patreon is what is causing the shift. If you have enough of a following you can break off and go to them and live off donations for your work. The Escapist isn't the only site who have lost talent to them Machinima and TGWTG have lost talent to Patreon as well. Why split profits with a site or youtube group when you can get the majority of them with Pat only taking a small cut?

Good riddance for all I care. He's too much of a fanboy to be a good critic. The condescension is strong in him.

My Sentiments exactly his attitude was pretty poisonous and while his loss is a blow I cant help think that it's ultimately for the best.

 

[KissingSunlight]

Want to know what I was chanting before I click on Escape To The Movies today? "Please no SJW. Please No SJW. Please No SJW." Sure enough. He went into another social justice rant. Then he backtracked and say he really enjoyed the movie.

AAARRRRGGGHHH!!! Good Riddance!

Want to know why that is so annoying? Imagine being in a restaurant. The whole staff berates you about social issues the whole time that you are there. It won't make a very good dining experience. So, why do critics (movies, videogames, etc.) think it is such a great idea to needlessly insert their political opinions in their reviews. If a movie is about a social issue, then it's fair game to comment about it. Even then, the main focus should be on whether the movie is any good or not.

I'm on the same page with a lot of people here. The Escapist really need to start putting up new content to replace the ones that they had let go.

 

[Baresark]

Well, I'm surprised by that. I have had my fair share of complaints about how ridiculously left he is and how he panders to a certain crowd... but I still value what he says. We all need opinions that are opposite of what we think to keep us grounded. And if you are open minded then even if you don't end up agreeing with someone else's opinion, you still have plenty to learn from things they say. I'll miss his videos and articles. Also... what the hell are they going to fill in his Tuesday and Friday videos with? I almost have no reason to come here all the time with all the talent that has left here recently.

 

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

Well, if they lose Yahtzee, the I will have zero reason to come back here. Jesus Christ this place bled like it's got talent haemophilia.

 

[l0lwut]

Not shedding a tear to be honest. He's been going increasingly off the rails for the past months and I have been avoiding his material here. His video's and column were pretentious, badly written, poorly produced and frankly often short-sighted, the interesting insights from his older reviews was long gone.

I agree the Escapist do need to fill this hole in content, because he produced like what, 3 times a week? They can only go up from Bob imo.

 

[Thorn14]

Well, I'm surprised by that. I have had my fair share of complaints about how ridiculously left he is and how he panders to a certain crowd... but I still value what he says. We all need opinions that are opposite of what we think to keep us grounded. And if you are open minded then even if you don't end up agreeing with someone else's opinion, you still have plenty to learn from things they say. I'll miss his videos and articles. Also... what the hell are they going to fill in his Tuesday and Friday videos with? I almost have no reason to come here all the time with all the talent that has left here recently.

You should always respect the opinions of others, but there is a tipping point where its like "Dude you are constantly talking shit about gamers and saying some pretty nasty things on Twitter and I don't think they are going to do my website any favors."

 

[Burnouts3s3]

...

I don't know. I generally dislike the idea as one should 'celebrate' someone they dislike being taken off a site. Bob, for all of his soapboxing and political talking, was someone I generally liked. He was a constant well of knowledge and even if I disagreed on him with something, he provided a perspective that I generally liked.

I loved Schlocktober, I loved listening to his Escape to the Movies articles, I loved listening to the background and history of Marvel and DC comics and how they related to the live action movie release this week and I really loved his Big Picture shows. Now, I'm not entirely sure if I will come to the Escapist, because I usually came for his shows. Even if Bob's opinions drove me crazy sometimes, I had respect for him. I'd rather have a critic who insults my tastes and makes me think rather than a critic how gives me a pat yay/nay response. That's more than I can say for a lot of critics nowadays.


Best of luck, Mr. Bob "Moviebob" Chipman. I wish you well.

 

[Vault101]

huh well sorta is and isn't surprising given the backgrouind upheaval I'll miss his articles about TV, they were always interesting

 

[Volothos]

Not going to lie, I'm somewhat glad he's gone.

I remember following him when he first started the game overthinker on youtube and, regrettably, followed suit with a lot of the crap he was spouting. The dudebro stuff was one thing that came to mind for me believing.

When he made the jump to screw attack, I followed suit and soon stopped following. Here's when he started becoming something of a nutjob and I sort of disregarded him when he claimed that if anyone didn't like Metroid Other M you were racist towards the japanese because of something regarding traditional values implanted in Samus.

When he came to the escapist, I rolled my eyes and would occasionally dip into some content every few months to see if he became sane.

He was pretty damn good when it came to movies and comics but with gaming I just kind of wish someone'd tape his mouth shut. The whole thing regarding how he said that Halo was inspired by Nazism that someone brought up above comes to mind, as does the entire ME3 debacle.

And especially these past few months with gamergate and #zerobiscuit, I honestly don't have much sympathy seeing him let go.

 

[Vault101]

Place is drying up then. And between this and the recent exodus from Channel Awesome, it feels like there's some kind of shift coming, but I just don't know what it is.

they aren't really related, just similar

producers having issues with management and deciding to branch out with Patreon <-which is probably part of it

 

[faefrost]

Read his blog. Him getting fired from the Escapist has got nothing to do with Twitter and any other hashtags. (http://moviebob.blogspot.ca/2015/02/all-good-things.html?spref=tw)

Also the Escapist is really bleeding. Badly. Only thing worth now is Yahtzee, Critical Miss and LRR.

Captcha: Fashion victim. Maybe Bob is one

Read that. But...but why? I would like some sort of reason. He's one of the main reasons I come to this site. Now all that's left is Zero Punctuation, and Experience Points (when it's not about tech stuff that I don't understand). I mean, even the news bit articles have been coming in less and less, and even those don't seem to focus on games as much as in the old days. I hate to jump on this band wagon, because I really didn't see it until now, but it does feel like the escapist is dying, or at least withering. I don't understand what's happening. Why would they fire MovieBob? Yeah, he seems to get a lot of heat in the comments, but there are just as many, if not more, people out there who enjoy his work.

I suspect that the truth is rather carefully being parsed there. Does it have anything to do with Gamergate? No not really. Does it have anything to do with Bob going on yet another Twitter rant yesterday calling gamers "Sub Human Shits" and implying they are for the most part rapists? After being repeatedly warned that the things he says and does on Twitter have strong negative impacts on the site, the community and the reader base? I'm going to go with yes on that one. The fact that Archon responded to his "Sub Human" Tweet last night and voiced his own opinion on the matter seems pretty telling. I mean at the end of the day no matter how you slice it "Gamers" all Gamers, Even the Gamergaters, are the audience around here. They are the consumer. They are the people that this site gets paid to attract and put ads in front of. They are the marketing target demographic. The staff and advertisers really prefer that when said audience arrives they are not carrying torches and pitchforks.

Part of the changes at the Escapist reflect a desire to take the consumer suggestions to heart, make changes, move past Gamergate, and return to a normal civil state of doing business. This is hard to do when one of your more prominent contributors is peeing on the audience.

I'm sure at the end of the day the reason for his departure is not officially Gamergate. It is likely "why can't you do the most basic simple thing we, your employer asks, and just act professionally and not bully and abuse the customers? We kind of need them."