So is the Escapist dead?
- Thread starter Zaydin
- Start date
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/6.1024592-An-Open-Letter-to-The-Escapist-Community
Although even the letter is partially outdated as the Community Content is essentially dead in the water as most of us have lost our ability to post news and articles (which is why I stopped doing the "New Game Releases" [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/171046-New-game-releases-for-the-week-of-December-17-2017] if anyone was wondering).
Although even the letter is partially outdated as the Community Content is essentially dead in the water as most of us have lost our ability to post news and articles (which is why I stopped doing the "New Game Releases" [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/171046-New-game-releases-for-the-week-of-December-17-2017] if anyone was wondering).
Dead?! Ha! Far from it! The Escapist can never die! Like a man involved in multiple car collisions, it may be quadriplegic, unable to breath without the aid of volunteers, and non-functional, but it can never truely die!
Does anyone know why the Escapist was gutted like this? It seemed to me to be one of the most well-known videogaming-related sites with some of the best content producers out there, so why was it decided to let everyone go, stop producing everything except the flagship format and let the site itself rot? It just seems like such a strange decision.tippy2k2 said:
My take is that GamerGate hit the Escapist pretty hard, in that the Escapist was one of the few websites that didn't disavow GG entirely. In the wake of GG the Escapist lost several of its' high profile content producers (whether it was because of GG is anyone's guess). To compensate the Escapist tried to ride that goodwill with the GamerGate supporters by hiring several new contributors that were vocal GG supporters and attempted to broaden the Escapist from just gaming into everything gaming related including Cosplay and Comics. These new contributors did not, apparently, get enough traffic and the diversification plan fell through, so the Escapist slowly bled out over the course of 2015-2017.HK_01 said:
And here we are today. Not so much because a conscious decision was made to pull the plug, but because many small decisions led to ever worse situations for the Escapist.
Plus Yahtzee what's totes a GGer. Just ask Sargon.Gethsemani said:
When people ask, "Don't pick side. Don't be political. Be a centrist. Be impartial" this site will be exhibit A of why not. Its actually the reason why I stay. Most people don't want to be challenged
Further to this, there is a general change in the way the public consumes geek culture; 10 years ago, youtube was kind of new, had little quality control, and could take you a while to find someone good, so you could use video aggregator sites like The Escapist or Channel Awesome to do that work for you. Unfortunately, besides the quality control issues (both sites bloated with some really terrible series), patreon and the incremental development of youtube has made it much easier for video creators to sustain themselves; they don't need a big website to find them an audience or pay them. Meanwhile, consumers would rather just go to their favourite youtuber's channel than to a website where they have to brush past all the content they don't care about. The Escapist put a lot of stock in videos, and unfortunately that's the one thing that's moved on. Other gaming sites tend to focus on articles or reviews more, which still benefit from being tied to a big recognisable brand, and they've faired a little better.Gethsemani said:
Because DEFY is a bag full of smelly butts?IceForce said:
Serious answer though, we don't know. Someone from DEFY may have drunkenly stumbled in and saw a bunch of names they didn't recognize and dumped them or hell, it may have been automated (like whatever is causing the quote system to die every Sunday). Personally, I'm more inclined to believe it was an automated function (whether it was supposed to happen or just another sign of the site falling apart is up for debate) but that's just my opinion.
One thing I am 100% confident in is that it wasn't a disgruntled CF. While I may be very irked with how CF decided to leave, that is something I would never ever see him do.
Ultimately though, it's all guesswork as we have no idea what actually happened and I doubt we ever will (see butts, smelly above).
Oddly, hadn't had a thread about the Escapist dying for a bit. Maybe those are dying off as well.
What is there to say?Thaluikhain said:
Yes, the site is dying.
Yes, everyone knows it.
No, when it dies the community will probably not migrate elsewhere and will just dissolve.
No, there's nothing anyone can really do.
As sad as it is it's just the way things are. The only time people talk about it is when someone who's been off the site for a while jumps back in and gets confused.
Though to be honest there were some behind the scenes issues going on with the site even before Gamergate became a hot button topic to discuss. I mean the whole Extra Credits scandal and a bunch of writers and contributors not getting paid comes to mind.IceForce said:
What's stopping ya from posting those in the Gaming Discussion thread? I missed those threads :ctippy2k2 said:
