MovieBob leaving The Escapist

[Gorrath]

As for the health of The Escapist, I reserve judgement until they fill the creative void. Just because Bob and Jim had some very interesting content they are hardly the only two men capable of creating good works. I'd love to see a guy with Bob's chops come on board if he comes without Bob's worst faults.

The issue is that a lot of content creators are looking to youtube and paetrons to make money now and sites like The Escapist might have a harder time grabbing the more successful ones. To find someone who isn't making it all on their own, can make high quality content and keep a fast past schedule will be hard.

OT: I'm going to miss Moviebob. I always liked his Big Pictures and I often found his movie reviews to be pretty informative (reviews about The Amazing Spiderman, The Expendables etc usually being the exception). It really hit me today when I realized that there will be no more Big Picture on The Escapist. Things are disappearing so fast and with nothing in sight to replace them it is kinda depressing. The next few months will be interesting to watch.

I certainly don't disagree with you that it's a tough environment but I imagine there are talented people who have not yet hit their stride and just need a structured support system to help them bloom. There are really creative people who flounder without the guidance of an editor to bring out the best in their work. I don't doubt identifying this talent and helping it mature is a tough job and I"m not certain The Escapist is up to the task, but that's why my judgement is reserved. I'll give them a chance before I sound the death knell.

 

[Davroth]

...extremist?...really?

His twitter is full of extremist rhetoric as well. Not sure how you missed it.

 

[wearesoneutralthatithurts]

I do think its a bit low that nobody of the staff seemed to care enough to write a figgin Article about his firing.. I mean jim got one, Susan too (if I remeber correctly) but even after this thread is like 19 pages long, teh team seems to take the-sorry-lazy or easy route out and just use this thread.

Thats not a fine thing to do, serious. For me it puts the staff of the escapist in a bad light, because it seem that they do favor certain people and seem to be happy to have other people gone-and for 4 days dont even try to make the effort of doing a goodbye posting or some official statement like "hes gone, he did fine work here, we wish him the best, kthxbye"

so, sorry that i have to be so frank, but thats a low.

I might be wrong, but nothing on the page even TRIES to seem like they care about a bit of basic human decency.
(As i said, for other people we got such postings, but here we know the facts for 4 days-time enough to do a little post, dontchathink?)

 

[McMarbles]

...extremist?...really?

His twitter is full of extremist rhetoric as well. Not sure how you missed it.

Define "extremist". I find that a lot of people who use that word don't know what it means. Like "corruption" and "ethics".

 

[IceForce]

I do think its a bit low that nobody of the staff seemed to care enough to write a figgin Article about his firing.. I mean jim got one, Susan too (if I remeber correctly) but even after this thread is like 19 pages long, teh team seems to take the-sorry-lazy or easy route out and just use this thread.

Thats not a fine thing to do, serious. For me it puts the staff of the escapist in a bad light, because it seem that they do favor certain people and seem to be happy to have other people gone-and for 4 days dont even try to make the effort of doing a goodbye posting or some official statement like "hes gone, he did fine work here, we wish him the best, kthxbye"

I think the main difference with Susan, Jim, etc, is that they all resigned their positions and stood down themselves. They left of their own accord, in other words. So it was prudent for The Escapist to write a 'farewell' article/thread in those cases.

In Bob's case however, as far as we can tell, he didn't leave of his own accord. He was fired.

Hardly seems right for the site management to fire someone, and then do a big write-up on how much they'll be missed.

 

[Lono Shrugged]

Define "extremist". I find that a lot of people who use that word don't know what it means. Like "corruption" and "ethics".

I defined it earlier in the thread and it applies.

 

[faeshadow]

There is a huge difference between disagreeing with your audience, and saying that most of your audience are rapists.

As I said, I don't care what anyone says on twitter. It's twitter. Also, I don't believe you for one second.

Disbelieve all you like. Go look at his comments after the airing of that L&O SVU episode.

 

[Nixou]

you make him sound like someone who got locked up for breaking into peoples houses and eating their pets

Well, he did maul a few beloved sacred cows.

 

[Silverbeard]

Well we all knew that this day would come within our lifetimes. No-one stays forever and all things must end before the day is out. I'm just grateful that Bob left on his own two feet rather than to prostate cancer or abscessed lungs or something equally life threatening.

To the Escapist management: It depresses me that the only way I could find out about Bob's departure from your site was to Google 'Moviebob Escapist' and be directed to this thread. Whatever the circumstances of his departure or your reasons for making that so, your readership deserves to be plainly notified that one of your performers/writers/contributors is no longer preparing content for your website. Making an announcement and leaving it up for a week from the day of the confirmation would be ideal.

 

[faeshadow]

I don't really have a complaint about The Big Picture he said from the start it was about expressing himself on anything he wanted and it was exactly that. Sometimes I agreed (Sucker Punch)

Oh man, you just reminded me of the straw that broke the camel's back for me when it came to having any respect for the man. When he went on a two episode rant about how if you don't like Sucker Punch, you just "didn't get it".

That was one of his more mild moments of insulting his audience, but it was one of the more pretentious and self-righteous ones. Yes, whatever you say, Bob. If we didn't like Sucker Punch, we just don't get "real" art.

 

[CD-R]

There is a huge difference between disagreeing with your audience, and saying that most of your audience are rapists.

As I said, I don't care what anyone says on twitter. It's twitter. Also, I don't believe you for one second.

Disbelieve all you like. Go look at his comments after the airing of that L&O SVU episode.

You don't have to go that far. I managed to find the "lay down with dogs" and "no bad tactics" tweets with a simple google image search. They were the first couple things that came up when you searched "Bob Chipman tweets"

https://i.imgur.com/yt8WDJy.png

http://i.imgur.com/lmpzfbl.jpg

 

[A Journey To Wander]

I find the amount of gamergate rhetoric still being used in discussions like this to be kind of sad and unfortunate. That ship has sailed so far that it's not even funny. If you didn't like Bob because of his specific tact or his less than respectful jabs at the movement, that's totally fine, and in many cases, I may agree with you. But if you've got gripes against him for taking the side he took, (or taking a side at all,) then I'd suggest taking a look at what the fallout from that movement has been. Good luck, my friends; I think you will need it.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

...extremist?...really?

Define "extremist". I find that a lot of people who use that word don't know what it means. Like "corruption" and "ethics".

Here's my definition of "extremist": a person that says the ends justify the means.
To be fair he had the common sense to throw in an "almost" now and then.
Maybe he thought he otherwise sounded a little too extremist.

 

[MonkeyPunch]

Damn. Only just cottoned on to the fact that his shows are not in the schedule.
Going to miss his video shows. Big Picture and Escape to the Movies were part of my staple diet, dammit!
First Jim and now Bob... eek. Now I've got to click more links ^^

 

[Ralancian]

I don't really have a complaint about The Big Picture he said from the start it was about expressing himself on anything he wanted and it was exactly that. Sometimes I agreed (Sucker Punch)

Oh man, you just reminded me of the straw that broke the camel's back for me when it came to having any respect for the man. When he went on a two episode rant about how if you don't like Sucker Punch, you just "didn't get it".

That was one of his more mild moments of insulting his audience, but it was one of the more pretentious and self-righteous ones. Yes, whatever you say, Bob. If we didn't like Sucker Punch, we just don't get "real" art.

It's funny you say that because one his major things that drive me mad is about snooty other critics not realising he's one himself.

Like I said I like Sucker Punch and agreed with Bob's assessment of it. Does that make people who disagree with us not getting it? No it means they disagree with, lets talk about what we disagree and have active discourse about it.

Movie reviews and reviews in general are for me not about getting an opinion on whether I should watch buy something or not but as springboard to talk about topic of discussion.

Catcha: bon voyage.....hmmmm

 

[Archon]

I do think its a bit low that nobody of the staff seemed to care enough to write a figgin Article about his firing.. I mean jim got one, Susan too (if I remeber correctly) but even after this thread is like 19 pages long, teh team seems to take the-sorry-lazy or easy route out and just use this thread.

Thats not a fine thing to do, serious. For me it puts the staff of the escapist in a bad light, because it seem that they do favor certain people and seem to be happy to have other people gone-and for 4 days dont even try to make the effort of doing a goodbye posting or some official statement like "hes gone, he did fine work here, we wish him the best, kthxbye"

I think the main difference with Susan, Jim, etc, is that they all resigned their positions and stood down themselves. They left of their own accord, in other words. So it was prudent for The Escapist to write a 'farewell' article/thread in those cases.

In Bob's case however, as far as we can tell, he didn't leave of his own accord. He was fired.

Hardly seems right for the site management to fire someone, and then do a big write-up on how much they'll be missed.

Two quick points. One, Bob wasn't fired; you can only fire an employee, and generally the term firing suggests some cause. In Bob's case, he was an independent contractor with whom we had production contracts. We terminated the contracts as part of our 2015 restructuring. I clarify this because (a) legal gets mad at me when I'm sloppy with language and (b) I don't want to allow an impression to stand that he had been fired for a cause other then our 2015 strategic restructure. That said, you are correct that when a corporation terminates relationships or lets people go, it generally is constrained it what it can and ought say.

Two, I offered Bob an opportunity to make a goodbye post/video but he declined for personal reasons. I certainly wish him the best and he has made it clear on his site that he wishes his friends here the same. Yesterday I tweeted out a link to his new Patreon to encourage folks who missed him on the site to check it out, which I hope you'll do.

 

[Hades]

Bob's departure won't effect me very much. I'm just not that much into movies and the big picture was very hit and miss for me, my enjoyment of it depended on it NOT being about comic's or cartoons from the stone age. Neither of those are part of my little world.

I did watch Bob's content when it interested me and while I found him less entertaining and thoughtful then Jim or Yahtzee I did like his work.

Gamergate did sour me on Bob despite being neutral on the whole thing. Bob's stance didn't bother me, it was his unwillingness to behave professionally that lowered in in my standing. There are plenty of reasons to support or oppose gamergate but calling your audience subhumans just crosses a line. The Escapist must be a really lenient boss if they accept someone representing them spouting that crap.

I hear his ''the end justifies the means'' and ''There are no bad tactic's only bad targets'' come up a lot here. I suppose I somewhat agree with Bob that sometimes the end does justify the means and bad actions taken against bad people is just in some way. I fiercely disagree with bob's use of this standpoint as it should not be used so loosely. This stance is one you can take in regards to ISIS or the Nazi's but if you try to use it on what's essential internet drama?...That's messed up! Bob's use of this type of thinking turns it into nonsense and makes me worry he has an obsession that's seriously unhealthy for him.

 

[boag]

I used to be a fan, then ME3 happened.

I stopped visiting the site a for a long time, until Ethics Happened, now I find myself visiting the site more and more.

 

[Archon]

snip

it still blows my mind a bit Jim could earn 10k a month...I always imagine these people scraping by on say 30k at best

obviously there's probably expenses and/or he wouldn't get all of it,(not to mention the pratron system is not exactly rock solid) but still

and I'm not complaining, I'm sure some people would get their panties in a twist over "silly internet people" making that amount, but if people want to pay for what you do then great! plus lets be honest in this business people rarely make what theyre worth

Plus Jim's done the rounds...why shouldn't he earn as much a s a seasoned professional?

While it was once the case that website talent and YouTuber stars were dismally compensated, this is no longer the case! Some of the top video stars earn 6 figures and the very top earn 7 figures+.* However it is very much a power-scale distribution. The very top (Pewdiepie, etc.) make a huge amount, the next 10% make a good living, the next 20% an average living, and the lower 60% make very little.

*Edited to provide hard data rather than metaphor

 

[TaboriHK]

There is a huge difference between disagreeing with your audience, and saying that most of your audience are rapists.

As I said, I don't care what anyone says on twitter. It's twitter. Also, I don't believe you for one second.

Disbelieve all you like. Go look at his comments after the airing of that L&O SVU episode.

Yeah, I don't see anything that says "most of my audience is rapists."