MovieBob leaving The Escapist

[Johnny Novgorod]

Wow... let's See, that removes my reason for visiting the Escapist on Tuesdays and Fridays...in addition to the loss of Jimquisition on Mondays ... and never having a reason to check on thursdays.... uhm... WoW I guess Wednesday is the only day I need to visit the Escapist.

Your idea of giving The Escapist less of your time is creating an account and publicly announcing you will give it less of your time?

 

[faefrost]

[ If Bob sticks to just movie reviews and doesn't go after the actual cultures or consumers he may do ok. If he keeps up with his mo.re recent approach? 12 months tops.

Go after the cultures or consumers? What exactly does that mean?

Well just this week Bob publicly called a certain portion of undefined gamers "sub human shit" and pretty much said SVU is correct to portray them as rapists. While Bob is welcome to whatever opinion he might wish, this is directly attacking the audience pool and not the product the audience is seeking information on. (Ie games, movies, comics, whatever). While it may bring in viewers, over time it will drastically reduce curtail and erode the pool of PAYING viewers. People tend not to pay to be called rapists. And the cry of "oh no I didn't mean you I meant those other gamers, who absolutely aren't you." Tends to not stop the erosion of the paying public. People can be funny about things like that. He can call Michael Bay seven kinds of shit because under no circumstances does he or anyone expect Michael Bay to be paying for his work product. But you can't Attack one subset of your actual audience without generating erosion accross all of it.

This is a rather important business lesson that the gaming press has spent the past 6 months trying desperately to avoid learning. (See Ben Kuchera's tweets from today as Exibition A for "poor business decisions".

 

[MonsterCrit]

Wow... let's See, that removes my reason for visiting the Escapist on Tuesdays and Fridays...in addition to the loss of Jimquisition on Mondays ... and never having a reason to check on thursdays.... uhm... WoW I guess Wednesday is the only day I need to visit the Escapist.

Your idea of giving The Escapist less of your time is creating an account and publicly announcing you will give it less of your time?

Curious coincidence,. I'd created the account before that little forum thread popped up in the trending window.... Go fig.

Besides.. at least there's still ZP... for now ....

 

[Lono Shrugged]

Wow... let's See, that removes my reason for visiting the Escapist on Tuesdays and Fridays...in addition to the loss of Jimquisition on Mondays ... and never having a reason to check on thursdays.... uhm... WoW I guess Wednesday is the only day I need to visit the Escapist.

Your idea of giving The Escapist less of your time is creating an account and publicly announcing you will give it less of your time?

I read the other post he made and wow if it didn't sound like Bob. He is a monster CRITIC with a Nintendo avatar and the other post was in a thread about gender. I am gone from cracking a joke to believing it.

 

[KazeAizen]

Well just this week Bob publicly called a certain portion of undefined gamers "sub human shit" and pretty much said SVU is correct to portray them as rapists. While Bob is welcome to whatever opinion he might wish, this is directly attacking the audience pool and not the product the audience is seeking information on. (Ie games, movies, comics, whatever). While it may bring in viewers, over time it will drastically reduce curtail and erode the pool of PAYING viewers. People tend not to pay to be called rapists. And the cry of "oh no I didn't mean you I meant those other gamers, who absolutely aren't you." Tends to not stop the erosion of the paying public. People can be funny about things like that. He can call Michael Bay seven kinds of shit because under no circumstances does he or anyone expect Michael Bay to be paying for his work product. But you can't Attack one subset of your actual audience without generating erosion accross all of it.

This is a rather important business lesson that the gaming press has spent the past 6 months trying desperately to avoid learning. (See Ben Kuchera's tweets from today as Exibition A for "poor business decisions".

There is an equal trade off in there as well. The bad people leave and he brings in better newer people. Personally if people are actually getting upset at what he said in that article then I think that says more about them than it does him. People with brains would be able to tell the difference and maybe perhaps the people that get mad at it are the people that actually participate in some of that to one degree or another. Also yeah SVU was pretty dang correct this time around. The people he is "attacking" in the article actually don't deserve to be a part of the gaming community or frankly any social community what so ever.

 

[Archon]

A forum thread that's 17 pages long of arguments over the site's future tells me we have a loyal audience who actually cares whether we thrive. That is great to see. I appreciate all those of you who care enough to post here.

Those of you who are paying close attention to the game media know that it's a perilous time right now. Virtually every major gaming publication has had layoffs and some of the industry's most well-known sites have been shut down. The evolution of the advertising market is part of this. But it's not just the advertising market. It's more that what gamers want and need is changing. When I started in games media, print magazines that published reviews a month after launch were the most important coverage a game could get. Nowadays people can see game play in real-time before launch and decide for themselves. There are more platforms than ever. There are more games being released then ever.

As founder of the site, and publisher since Day 1*, I want The Escapist to succeed and grow. I think it is smarter to restructure now for the future that's fast arriving than to wait until it's too late. That means painful decisions now. That was our January and February: 50 days of pain.

Going forward I hope you guys like the content we have planned for this year. We're getting lots of great pitches, some from old veterans and some from fresh voices. I'm speaking to several content producers I'm really excited to be working with. And our product/tech plan for 2015 involves some long-overdue improvements - hi-res video, mobile optimization, and more.

*Pet peeve: Josh and I are not "new management". I wrote the Escapist's original business plan, raised the money to launch it, came up with name, and hired and managed all of its EICs. Josh, the new EIC, has worked for Themis-Alloy-Defy since 2004. So, yeah.

 

[Fox12]

Bob became my favorite reason for visiting the site once Jim left, now...shit. I mean Yahtzee will always be good (dude needs to renegotiate, he's got ALL the power now) but I'm not sure if his once a week game review is enough an excuse to keep showing up. The site has done next to nothing to replace Jim's content and if the same happens with Bob, I'm probably outta here.

Heck I would've been one of those people saying ZP is now my only reason for coming here. Except I don't even do that now. Yahtzee is way to sheltered and frankly too isolated from anything its shameful. He's also a bit of an emotionless lip turned up jerk type of person. Not even in the entertaining way like Jim was and he rarely offers genuine insight into stuff unlike Jim and Bob who always have something interesting to say about games when they put out episodes.

I wouldn't call it shameful, but it is rather boring. There's nothing morally wrong with keeping your head down and weathering the storm, especially if the controversy is over something that you're not invested in, but if you refuse to have an opinion on anything then you start to look rather manila after a while. I respect Yahtzee and his rather sober manerisms, but I wish he would shake things up a little. Even Zero Punctuation gets stale after a long enough time period. I'm not saying I want him to jump into the GG debate (I frankly don't) but it would be nice if he did... something. Throw us a curve ball every once and a while, Yahtzee.

 

[James Nettum]

this site used to be a veritable hotbed of big personalities, with strong opinions. Yahtzee, Jim, Tito, Susan, Steve Butts, Bob, Ross, Schuyler. love them or hate them theres no denying that all these people were a draw for the site. Sorry escapist but i doubt you've got anyone who can fill their shoes.
*Big snip*
they dont seem very concerned about holding onto these people who are capable of commanding an enthusiastic following

You nailed my thoughts with those sentences. Bob was a draw to this site (Proof being that we're already 17 pages into this thread and holy crap I'm not just posting via a Facebook), as was everyone else you mentioned. An enthusiast crowd is a must, even if the enthusiasm comes from disagreement. I'm becoming more apathetic to the content here. Most of the big hooks are gone.

 

[Joseph Harrison]

snip

I think that people get heavily invested in the communities of sites like this, I used to be a part of a Gmod Rp website and when that shut down I felt so lost. People make friends, find others with common interests and can even begin to identify with webistes. I understand where the cuts are coming from but I believe everyone is just worried that their favorite haven for gaming on the internet might be in danger.

It sucks that people have had to be laid off but hopefully things will get better and stuff can get back to normal. Thanks for posting in the thread, it's always cool to see higher ups getting personally involved in stuff.

 

[SteinarB]

Meh. Little to no reason to visit The Escapist anymore. The Loading Ready Run crew and Yahtzee are all that's left of any value, and you can get the content from the LRR guys on their own website anyways, so that leaves Zero Punctuation. That's it and that's all. Oh, wait. You can get the Zero Punctuation episodes from YouTube. Why the hell do I even have this site bookmarked anymore? It has nothing.

 

[Fox12]

A forum thread that's 17 pages long of arguments over the site's future tells me we have a loyal audience who actually cares whether we thrive. That is great to see. I appreciate all those of you who care enough to post here.

Those of you who are paying close attention to the game media know that it's a perilous time right now. Virtually every major gaming publication has had layoffs and some of the industry's most well-known sites have been shut down. The evolution of the advertising market is part of this. But it's not just the advertising market. It's more that what gamers want and need is changing. When I started in games media, print magazines that published reviews a month after launch were the most important coverage a game could get. Nowadays people can see game play in real-time before launch and decide for themselves. There are more platforms than ever. There are more games being released then ever.

As founder of the site, and publisher since Day 1*, I want The Escapist to succeed and grow. I think it is smarter to restructure now for the future that's fast arriving than to wait until it's too late. That means painful decisions now. That was our January and February: 50 days of pain.

Going forward I hope you guys like the content we have planned for this year. We're getting lots of great pitches, some from old veterans and some from fresh voices. I'm speaking to several content producers I'm really excited to be working with. And our product/tech plan for 2015 involves some long-overdue improvements - hi-res video, mobile optimization, and more.

*Pet peeve: Josh and I are not "new management". I wrote the Escapist's original business plan, raised the money to launch it, came up with name, and hired and managed all of its EICs. Josh, the new EIC, has worked for Themis-Alloy-Defy since 2004. So, yeah.

I'm grateful for a sober, honest response, instead of a spin heavy one. If someone had posted on here telling us everything was peachy, and going as planned, then I'd honestly be way more worried. I look forward to new content, and hope to continue coming to this site for many years.

There aren't any other forums I care to join on the web.

 

[faefrost]

Well just this week Bob publicly called a certain portion of undefined gamers "sub human shit" and pretty much said SVU is correct to portray them as rapists. While Bob is welcome to whatever opinion he might wish, this is directly attacking the audience pool and not the product the audience is seeking information on. (Ie games, movies, comics, whatever). While it may bring in viewers, over time it will drastically reduce curtail and erode the pool of PAYING viewers. People tend not to pay to be called rapists. And the cry of "oh no I didn't mean you I meant those other gamers, who absolutely aren't you." Tends to not stop the erosion of the paying public. People can be funny about things like that. He can call Michael Bay seven kinds of shit because under no circumstances does he or anyone expect Michael Bay to be paying for his work product. But you can't Attack one subset of your actual audience without generating erosion accross all of it.

This is a rather important business lesson that the gaming press has spent the past 6 months trying desperately to avoid learning. (See Ben Kuchera's tweets from today as Exibition A for "poor business decisions".

There is an equal trade off in there as well. The bad people leave and he brings in better newer people. Personally if people are actually getting upset at what he said in that article then I think that says more about them than it does him. People with brains would be able to tell the difference and maybe perhaps the people that get mad at it are the people that actually participate in some of that to one degree or another. Also yeah SVU was pretty dang correct this time around. The people he is "attacking" in the article actually don't deserve to be a part of the gaming community or frankly any social community what so ever.

That's an economic fallacy and ideological bullshit. There are no better newer people. If you mistreat group A group B will not line up to be your customers. It's a basic customer service and sales concept. "Don't accuse the customers as a group of rape". The only way to get better newer people is to treat the people you have with courtesy and respect and provide them with the service they are looking for. There is no winning strategy in tossing away your existing consumers in favor of some imagined holy grail better customer. Many businesses have tried. They generally fail horribly and quickly.

See the problem is the "internet asshole" schtick only works while you are getting paid on a per click basis. People will watch assholes. People will be outraged, but they will still watch. But the pool of people who will actively pay for assholes is far smaller and already stretched to capacity. Bob can survive on a site like the Escapist because he is part of a broader mixed offering. Different views, different opinions, an amalgamation that people find value in as a whole. But for Bob or Jim or any producer to provide value to an audience directly paying for them and only them, well the first thing they may find is the limiting factor on being an asshole.

 

[QUINTIX]

[---snip---]
Clearly you haven't really read or even understood what bob actually wrote in those twitters(sic) of his.

"There are no bad tactics, only bad targets"

And it wasnt people getting called out, it was people losing their jobs and getting threatened with murder to wich(sic) he replied

"if you lay with flea ridden dogs you shouldnt be surprised if you catch some"

So in short: Aslong as you disagree with bob, it is okay to receive death and rape threads, to lose your job and have your family threatened and be doxxed. Because that is stuff that happened to those who lay with those "flea ridden dogs"

Imagine he would have spouted out that vile garbage FOR gamergate instead of against it... yeah.. all of a sudden it doesnt sound that harmless anymore does it?

And you "respect" this man? Liberals nowadays look more and more like faschists(sic)... kinda ironic.

Let's try to contextualize the not-dot-replied tweets; they are far from standalone.

For example this one https://twitter.com/the_moviebob/status/521500772136415232 is part of the convo containing the fleas remark that got certain special reactionaries' knickers in a twist.

Choice quotes:

-There may be good PEOPLE rallying around the stupid hashtag, but the base goals are ALL toxic, backward and destructive.
-There's a VERY simple way for good people "in" GG to not be tarnished by association: DON'T ASSOCIATE WITH IT.
-I'm not [re:[link=http://inurashii.tumblr.com/post/99751399160/gamergate-and-the-golden-mean-fallacy
]Both Sides[/link]/"I refuse to judge a group by the ****."] That GG behaves badly is basically a garnish - it's inception, goals and philosophy is BAD, straight through.

So I doubt this has anything to do specifically with disagreeing with Bob.
He has amicable relationships with plenty of people he does not always agree with.

 

[Lono Shrugged]

*Pet peeve: Josh and I are not "new management". I wrote the Escapist's original business plan, raised the money to launch it, came up with name, and hired and managed all of its EICs. Josh, the new EIC, has worked for Themis-Alloy-Defy since 2004. So, yeah.

That does not mean that you are known by the community like everyone else was. To many, there is no one manning the wheel house right now and no one knows what is happening and why. A lot of people who were trusted by what they said or did are now gone. Yahtzee is the hermit who lives in a cave by the beach and delivers his column and videos without really getting involved.

To say that we should accept this gutting of staff in such an arrogant and combative way really communicates that the site has seriously deviated from why a lot of us started coming here.

To say that we care about this site is an optimistic supposition. Most people here came for the contributors and almost all of the ones from the last 4 years are gone. They are all on their own pages and the fans will visit them and pretty soon it's the death of a thousand cuts.

Brand loyalty only goes so far, people are loyal to content.

 

[Ickabod]

Don't know what happened, don't really care. What I do know is that I have a couple less reasons to come to this site during the week. Which stinks.

 

[Carrots_macduff]

*snip
To say that we care about this site is an optimistic supposition. Most people here came for the contributors and almost all of the ones from the last 4 years are gone. They are all on their own pages and the fans will visit them and pretty soon it's the death of a thousand cuts.

Brand loyalty only goes so far, people are loyal to content.

well said. i couldnt care less about the escapist as a business now that the people who originally hooked me are no longer attached.(see my earlier post about big personalities and how the escapist has tossed them aside without a care)

im confident that anyone still making worthwhile content for you could find another platform to give it to us, one that will give them their due and not kick them out without so much as a fond farewell

 

[SilverStuddedSquirre]

Pfffff I pity those of you who got offended by anything Bob ever said or did; the real world will chew you kiddies up and spit you out mercilessly.

Goodbye to Bob, I'll follow you where you choose to post your content. I thoroughly enjoyed all your stuff - even when we dis-agreed.

@ EscapistManagement: Hurry, there's still time to get rid of Bionic Trousers (LRR), Yhatzee and Firefilm (No Right Answer)thus completing your Quest to become a contentless wasteland of second hand news.

Looks like Ross Linciln is going to have to hold this website up on his own pretty soon, or did you want him gone too? I noticed he swears once in a while, that makes Jesus cry you know. Seriuosly, I enjoyed listening to my "Bob / Ross podcast" blast you!

 

[Carrots_macduff]

Looks like Ross Linciln is going to have to hold this website up on his own pretty soon, or did you want him gone too? I noticed he swears once in a while, that makes Jesus cry you know. Seriuosly, I enjoyed listening to my "Bob / Ross podcast" blast you!

Ross went at the same time as Tito, i dont blame you for not noticing since there was nothing on the site about it as far as i know

 

[Tsun Tzu]

Snippety Snip

Appreciate your candor, sir.

To say that we should accept this gutting of staff in such an arrogant and combative way really communicates that the site has seriously deviated from why a lot of us started coming here.

To say that we care about this site is an optimistic supposition. Most people here came for the contributors and almost all of the ones from the last 4 years are gone. They are all on their own pages and the fans will visit them and pretty soon it's the death of a thousand cuts.

Brand loyalty only goes so far, people are loyal to content.

...That was "arrogant and combative" to you? Were we reading the same post?

 

[SilverStuddedSquirre]

Looks like Ross Linciln is going to have to hold this website up on his own pretty soon, or did you want him gone too? I noticed he swears once in a while, that makes Jesus cry you know. Seriuosly, I enjoyed listening to my "Bob / Ross podcast" blast you!

Ross went at the same time as Tito, i dont blame you for not noticing since there was nothing on the site about it as far as i know

What the everloving %^&#%^& ??? Tito too? At least we know they have some REALLY good drugs at head office....


Captcha: well isn't that special? Well played again Captcha *slow clapping*