Poll: So some people don't like the Escapist...

[PoolCleaningRobot]

Heh. My other favorite site to frequent is knowyourmeme and they had an article about the pc gaming master race and cited Yahtzee as the source of it and they referred to the escapist as a "gaming tabloid"

OT: It could be the way the threads are arranged. There's no voting system and thus, no way to sort through the "fun" posts or get any feedback on your own post unless someone replies/quotes you. as such, most of these threads will consist of a few people going back and forth and posts like this one which will end up on the second page will get no attention from anyone other than silent lurkers (hi silent lurkers!).

of course, this also makes the threads feel like actual discussions as opposed to debates where the winner has the most up votes

 

[felbot]

i mostly just dislike the people that actually post here, mostly corporate apologists and prudes.

than and the fact that the site bans anyone for just saying they pirate stuff which just stops any debate about the subject of piracy unless someone willingly takes a ban hammer to the face.

 

[PsychicTaco115]

They may not like the site, but they don't dislike me!

That's the important part >.>

OT: Never heard much hate for the site... Don't know why, just never saw any talk about it on other areas

Good for me, I guess

 

[emeraldrafael]

I know rob has complained about some of the escapist's practices for their contributors like him, but I dont contribute in that way so I dnt really follow that stuff. I never really felt the sympathy for EC's illustrater that she may/may not (cant remember how it all worked out just cause I dont care enough) hav received all she raised when she raised well over what she needed and at the time didnt put it to something I thought was a good cause (but I think they changed it after that, i dont recall). Plus I can follow rob on his website and youtube accounts so I'm not really bothered he left.

I dont have a problem with the site itself. I have problems with certain members when they do dumb posts, and i agree some of them come off as being stand offish or elitist (particularly in the Video game threads like PC vs console, or any brand vs the others or new games vs old, and when cod is brought up. and in the R&P boards especially the ones about religion and why atheism is better or whats wrong with religion. Just in general it tends to be one sided). But I've come to accept that as people being people and int he case of the R&P boards that jsut being the nature of the beast.

I cant really speak for the mods, I cant really remember the last time I was in trouble (though I know have been. but I'm sure it was warranted even though I dont remember what for). I havent always agreed with a punishment but I've never really seen reason to challenge.

 

[anthony87]

As far as I'm concerned the place is a lot less "elitist" compared to how it was when I first joined.

Nowadays we're all just a big bunch of moans ^_^

 

[Commissar Sae]

Were you ever here for March Madness?[footnote]A tournament to see who the community thinks is the best developer. Users voted for the devs they liked best and see who comes out on top and see how many of the ones you picked won.[/footnote] Now THAT was pretty ugly, the amount of fighting that went on was pretty bad, they cancelled it this year because they want something more involving than just filling out brackets.

In 2010 the community pulled together in a collective 'fuck you' to Zynga, it was fun.

Remember how angry people were that Zynga got to the semi finals a few years back? That was not pretty.

Oh god, I remember that. Zynga bribed its facebook fanbase into joining the escapist and voting for them, then someone decided to inform 4chan... those were some messy weeks.


I can see how the escapist can get a reputation as somewhat elitist, but that is more because the mods actually do things here and the banhammer drops regularly. Honestly I still like it here much more than some of the other forums I used to visit.

 

[Snotnarok]

Honestly the reason I would up here was strictly Zero Punctuation led me here and my 3 attempts to talk about anything on the GameFAQs forums turning into flame wars in 3 posts, less of that here so here I stayed.

That's not to say the Escapist isn't a good site but that's how I wound up here. Though like any forum there's crazy people and I've met them, basically say something on a Nintendo platform wasn't fun for you and you may find people calling you a jackass.

 

[ninjaRiv]

Wait, I don't know what criticisms are aimed at the Escapist. The people who write for it have been called unprofessional? Fill me in so I can be angry/happy/neutral!

 

[w9496]

Because just like any other forums, people are capable of being dicks. The only difference that I see is that we can keep it down in terms of stupid and have a decent discussion on hot topics.

Unless you venture into the Religion and Politics section, because you'll just be ripped to shreds if you don't agree with the popular opinion in the community.

Really though, of the 2 forums I travel to, this is FAR better than the other(EPIC Games' Gears of War forum).

 

[Sirtety]

To all those who think poorly of the Escapist and don't like it, I have one thing to say to you.

You have the right to have and voice your opinion weather it goes with or against my own and I will respect it.

 

[Frankster]

Considering at one point this forum was really big on trying to pass itself off as "the last bastion of intelligence on the internet" (i am NOT joking) , maybe elitist isnt far off the mark. But haven't heard that saying used in a while so perhaps thats just 2010-11.

Otherwise a friend i tried to get on this forum got tired of this place rather quickly, characterizing it as "passive agressiveness central", which i kinda agree with and might be more relevant even in present day escapist.

 

[Murais]

Maybe it's just me, but I get a lot of rude responses here and it turns me off sometimes. I still come here for the news and videos, and discussions on industry occurrences, but I find when I pipe up about something, I get ignored or turned to shreds.

I understand it's a big community, so it's hard to be buddy-buddy with folk here, but it's hard to be enthusiastic about contributing when your positive responses are low or non-existent. It's made me think of jumping ship a few times.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[PoolCleaningRobot]

i mostly just dislike the people that actually post here, mostly corporate apologists and prudes.

Meh. There's also the people on the opposite end of the spectrum that scream about the end of world anytime a company does something stupid thinking that companies like EA can do whatever the fuck they want without consequences (EA's serious drop in stock value over the past 5 years for example). I'll take prudes over alarmists

 

[thethird0611]

Kinda funny how people knock it up to "Oh, moderation is all". Yeah... thats not it, especially since the mods are wonderful and much less 'talk downy' to people. The content is wonderful here, Critical Miss, ZP, Miracle of Sound, but the community is, well, is bad for the most part.

Look at most of the threads around here that try to discuss anything, anything at all. Now look at the discussions in them... Almost every person has an aggressive attitude because they have a 'Im always right complex', and try their hardest to insult the other person without getting banned. (that last part isnt as prevalent, but it is there). There are so many people who just throw 'Straw Man' or 'Ad hom' in your face with no explanation, and then theres the people who break your post down sentence by sentence to pick it apart without taking in context. Now look at the mob mentality of the site. EA is worse than Satan, DRM is worse than killing baby kittens, and the heavy whining of small things, like the ME3 ending (which many of us liked). Lets not even talk about R&P, because if you come in with a right leaning, religious influenced thought process, you are worse than EA, which is worse than Satan, and everyone seriously does nothing but tries to call you an idiot and talks down to you.

That is why I try to stick to the fun topics, because thats where the awesome people are, and the good side of the Escapist, and the only thing that keeps me looking at threads each day.

 

[Treeinthewoods]

Well, I do like it here but if I had to guess what might keep some other people away:

Seriousness - I love playing games, I do it for fun and to not be... well... challenged? I don't give a shit about gender "issues" in games, games being recognized as art and really hardly pay attention to publishers business practices (often times I don't notice who the publisher or developer is until the loading screen). I think the writing in many of the games I see criticized around her (Gears of War, God of War, Halo) is pretty darn good and characters like Marcus Fenix are entirely enjoyable and well developed. For example Marcus rarely expresses emotion with words, he is meant to be emotionally stunted by the brutality of his every day life and an emotionally distant father. This means his small facial expressions mean more and express more than an entire monologue by characters from other games (Final Fantasy characters like Hope come to mind). When Dom does what he does in Gears 3 and Marcus quietly whispers, "Dom...," it gave me chills. You see the pain in his face, you hear it in his tone. It packed punch and didn't feel shoe horned or forced at all to me.

Discrimination - I am a four year solid frat boy. ATO for life, not some "nerdy" honors frat but an honest to goodness bro-out, kegger loving, sorority chick chasing frat boy. Around here I am known as a "dude bro" and often find my enjoyment of masculine shooters and lack of interest in Portal, Braid, Hotline Miami or whatever "artistic, thoughtful, independent or original" game is responsible for the decline of the entire gaming industry (it's in decline because of increased accessibility? Really?) This brings me to the third thing that could hinder the growth of this community, it relates to the discriminatory things I noticed...

"Spunkgargleweewee" - I feel like an asshole for even typing that ridiculous phrase. How, in any way, is this term descriptive of Call of Duty or any of the other explosive, exciting shooters I love the hell out of? It's rude, it's mean, it's stupid. Somehow my love of blockbuster, AAA games with guns, violence and explosions gets this horrible term pinned on it. I am halfway to taking that phrase and using it is a point of pride the way the gay community took over he word queer. Don't make me do that... please?

Basically, this place is full of very vocal haters. Still better than any other site I have visited but the pretentiousness can be tiring. If this place was a little more mainstream friendly it would be perfect.

 

[Something Amyss]

I find it funny that people would call the Escapist community elitist because it's one of the most common words bandied around BY the Escapist. That and pretentious. Does anyone call the Escapist pretentious? That would be declicious.

but I call it thoughtful.

Wait, what? What am I missing? People actually ask for sources and to back stuff up? Because usually I just see waves of "that's your opinion!" and "entitlement!" crap.

 

[Joby Baumann]

Just read some of the posts in the forums.

That's why.