Poll: 2015, The end of The Escapist?

[Ironbat92]

So, with guys like Miracle of Sound, Jim Stirling, and Movie Bob now leaving or being fired from the escapist, do guys think that 2015 (or 2016) will be the last year the escapist will stay in business or will Yahtzee, Unskippable, No Right Answer, or any other new content creator will be able to keep them going?

 

[madwarper]

Hard to tell.

They either lost or let go several of things that I came here to see. However, there's always the chance, unlikely as it may seem, that the new content they bring on will be as good as, or better than, what used to be here. Only time will tell.

 

[Sleepy Sol]

To The Escapist ending. Content is coming.

However, there has already been a number of users who have decided to leave the site...and more will probably follow. Due to that event that shall not be named because goddamnit, this should be the positive-ish forum. Sort of.

It won't make me leave, but more power to them if they don't like the direction they feel the site is going in. Though I wish more thoughtful discussions were possible, shit-flinging seems to be a more popular option as of late.

 

[The Lunatic]

Very unlikely.

I mean, sure, some content some people liked is gone, so, I suppose for them, "The Escapist is over", however, given most of them are still here, and posting on the forums and giving The Escapist ad revenue...

It seems there's still a long time to go yet.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Yes, but due to a coincidental machine uprising.

Honestly, why give toasters the option of killing people? You have to go to much more effort to do that.

 

[tilmoph]

Nope. We're gonna lose some users, gain some new ones, lose some content, gain some content, and eventually things will settle down and some kind of balance will be restored again. Right now it seems a lot more up in the air since we're in the shifting stage of the cycle, but the Escapist won't die. Hell, even the current shitflingy, hostile mood is only really in Off-Topic and R&P, and OT will calm down sometime in the next week or two, providing nobody does anything or digs up anything to get any other factions all war blooded. There just won't be any fuel left. The Gaming forum is still about gaming, and is pretty damn civil and drama free. That'll spread to the other boards eventually.

For myself, already renewed pubclub, still have it set to auto renew, and have seen nothing to make me change that.

edit:

Yes, but due to a coincidental machine uprising.

Honestly, why give toasters the option of killing people? You have to go to much more effort to do that.

Oh come on, like you've never seen a toaster toast and thought 'I wonder if I could turn that into a death ray. That also makes toast." Now why we gave them AI... kinda hoping they'd be able to make and butter the toast.

 

[DOOM GUY]

Nah, I don't really believe so, hell, I'm actually kinda liking it more around here as well.

 

[KyuubiNoKitsune-Hime]

Well it depends on something rather important. As far as I can tell one of the largest traffic draws is Yahtzee, and he has a huge following all on his own. So, as long as they can hold on to Yahtzee things aren't quite too terribly bleak, and the site could stand on Yahtzee alone for a little while at least.

Now as a transperson I'll be staying in spite of Mr. Morse and I'll give him a chance. If he can keep his personal views on certain subjects to himself, then I might even partake of the content he posts, because I can understand his position on some things, being a libertarian my self. If he can't, I won't partake of his content, and I will voice my discontent with the Escapist on the forums. It's far too early to tell what's going to come from his content, so I'll reserve judgement on him for the time being. I strongly disagree with the man personally on at least one major subject and I think he needs to have long personal conversations with people in the situations he's addressed.

I'm quite excited by the other contributors coming to the escapist though and if this hiring trend continues we're going to see lots of great new content from great new talent and that makes me quite happy.

The forums here are also great, for the most part they're civil. Even if they can get a bit filled with drama from time to time, it's still quite a wonderful place. Especially thanks to the efforts of the very fair(as far as I've seen) moderation staff. The people here are usually pretty good about censoring themselves form becoming, to any degree, hostile, mean spirited, insulting, or offensive. These really are some of the nicest forums I've ever been to and it's thanks to the usually very nice community.

Anyways barring Yahtzee's departure in the mean time, and the total break down of the forums, I'm staying, and so are a lot of others.

 

[Colour Scientist]

Probably not.

The site has had "the end is nigh" moments before. This definitely feels like the biggest shift and I imagine the user base is going to change but I think the dust will have to settle before anyone makes any calls on the end of days.

The end of The Escapist as we know it, possibly?

 

[Vault101]

So, with guys like Miracle of Sound, Jim Stirling, and Movie Bob now leaving or being fired from the escapist, do guys think that 2015 (or 2016) will be the last year the escapist will stay in business or will Yahtzee, Unskippable, No Right Answer, or any other new content creator will be able to keep them going?

that depends

I feel like the site is clearly going in one general "direction" which may cause some users to leave if the loss of their favourite content didn't

personally to me the death of the site isn't when the content I like goes or EVEN a shift in general attitude (but still that depends)

its when traffic slows down to the point where the forums die

that's the REAL potential death

The end of The Escapist as we know it, possibly?

I'd say definitely. ships got a new captain and crew..it might have the same name but its not the same ship

 

[BathorysGraveland2]

No, but lots of things are changing, and it's up to each individual to decide whether for best or worst. As someone who never was invested in any of the content (being a purely-forum guy), the departure of content creators doesn't impact me. So I'm not too concerned, and fortunately the big forum stink is mostly contained in a single prison. So I'm not really worried.

 

[IceForce]

The end of The Escapist as we know it, possibly?

I'd say definitely. ships got a new captain and crew..it might have the same name but its not the same ship

The ship might also be taking on wate-...

NO, NO. EVERYTHING'S FINE.

 

[Sassafrass]

I mean, it won't die.
But the site I knew is waaaaaaaaaaaaay dead.

 

[Caiphus]

I remember in 2012 there was a group of people at my University who, for about a month, spent their valuable free time warning passersby of the coming Rapture that was definitely coming.

I wonder if the same thing will happen.

Coming.

Lol

 

[Andy Shandy]

If ZP were to leave for whatever reason, then yeah. Before I said we would have had other stuff that could carry the site - Jimquisition - or there was enough other content that would bring different people in. Since I don't have precognition, I have no idea whether this new content would be enough either.

But that's all rather moot at the moment, anyway.

 

[Scarim Coral]

The question I liked to know if the worse were to happened, will The Escapist become the new WarCry?

OT- Maybe, I mean we're near the end of Feburary and Bob is gone. How the hell are going to cope with ten more months if they're not alreadying struggling?

 

[Ieyke]

It won't die completely, but it's certainly DYING.
Wherever it stabilizes will be a sad and pathetic "life support" shell of what it used to be.

All respect to No Right Answer and LoadingReadyRun (love those guys), but Yahtzee is the only thing keeping this boat afloat.
If Yahtzee goes, the site will collapse into....just another glorified forum.

LoadingReadyRun has loads of clout on their own, and can stand on their own or easily find a home elsewhere.
No Right Answer has more than enough friends and connections from the former GOOD version of The Escapist to continue life elsewhere and quickly rebuild.

There's not much tethering them to this site except each other.
Every contributor that leaves is one less reason for the others to stay, because they're both friends AND they mutually generate traffic for each other.
The Escapist's last bits of support are tenuous at best.

 

[Dragonbums]

I'm really not gonna make such a bold claim as that even after recent events. Content wise they can still find more content editors. Granted it may take a while to get used to, but it's not like there aren't other people out on the web that can't bring quality content to the table. Remember that Jimquisition himself was hated a lot when he first started up on this site and look how far that's gotten him.

I mean, I suppooooooooooose the Escapist still has the forums, which bolsters a moderately healthy regular user demographic. If worse comes to worse though they would probably just drop down to Polygon levels of activity.

They wouldn't be failing, they will just be a relatively quite, small community that for the most part is in tune with it's readerbase.

 

[Ambient_Malice]

The Escapist flourishing or dying will depend on two factors. One, the quality and volume of the content. Two, the forums striking a balance.

 

[major_chaos]

The ship might also be taking on wate-...

NO, NO. EVERYTHING'S FINE.

Just because you want the site to die for not making certain opinions bannable doesn't mean its happening.

OT: This isn't the first time people have declared the Escapist dead, and I doubt it will be the last. We may see the site get smaller and some people will certainly leave (although some of the recent departures have reduced the overall toxicity measurably, so that isn't even always a bad thing.) but death is still a ways off.