The Escapist...

[Ninja-Jordan]

Am I the only one that thinks the Escapist has been losing it's edge? I was starting to get a little annoyed with the EXTREME amount of advertising that has been slapped all over the site (granted I get that websites don't make a lot of money and advertising is necessary) but it was getting out of hand with the BS ads that were playing themselves during videos, despite pausing or trying to stop them. It still bothers me now seeing the Taco Bell logo slapped over every square inch of the site, and the ads you can't skip. Not only that, for a site that, in it's submissions section, clearly states they're not looking for reviews, has 6 or 7 whole portions devoted to reviews. Honestly? Archer, Arrow, Flash, Constantine, Legend of Korra, Star Wars: rebels, do we really need a review segment for every show out there right now? I dunno, it kind of feels like Bob and Yahtzee are holding this whole thing together right now and who knows how long before they pull a Jim and move to Patreon. (Seriously, he's rolling in dough on that site. Take a look, it'll honestly make you cry.)

Am I the only on who feels this way?

 

[tippy2k2]

Whooooo! Taco Bell!...sorry

I think part of it is that they are in the middle of a huge change. When Sterling left, Reviews dried up very quickly and I don't think they've been able to fix that situation yet. There were some behind the scene issues too (obviously we did not know of but it's pretty clear now after the ax fell on so many) so hopefully that will start to turn itself around.

As to the TV Shows thing, I've thought the same thing. Maybe I'm wrong and there's a huge audience for it but I can't imagine there are very many people who are clamoring for an episode by episode review of a TV Series. However, I think that's part of the money thing (reviewing episodes like that is probably really cheap and it makes it look like there's a ton of content on the site when the content has been drying up so much; see Sterling above). Again, hopefully that's something that can be fixed now that management has been put in.

As for the ads, I'll have to take your word for it. I got PubClub a few years ago so I haven't experienced what many have been complaining about. All I know is that if it's as bad as I hear, there's a solid chance I'd have left the site. The Escapist is kind of stuck in the shitty "We need more revenue so we'll put more ads on but that drives people away (or push them to use Adblock) so we need to put more ads so we can get more revenue". I'm not sure what new management can do to fix that but hopefully that's something that can be taken down a peg or three soon...

 

[PainInTheAssInternet]

Most certainly not. There's likely a large portion of users on this site on top of accountless visitors who use adblock. For those who don't use it and don't have a PubClub membership (yo!), it gets very annoying very fast. I've seen discussions on various sites saying they installed Adblock because of the Escapist, calling it especailly egregious in the use of intrusive and annoying ads.

Snipples

This site's ads were always pretty bad. Jim's episode seems to have been a turning point because instead of being a discussion of these issues, it became a trap for those who admitted they were annoyed with the site. I realize that it must be bad to have people advertise Adblock on a site reliant on ad revenue but censoring the most crucial opinions, those who have actively solved their problem against your interests, likely caused you the problems you're having, Escapist.

 

[Zhukov]

Is it really so hard to not read the TV reviews?

I manage. It's a terrible struggle to drag my mouse away, but I persist and persevere in spite of the odds.

As for the ads, well, I have Pub Club, so I don't see them any more. Last time I did they were pretty atrocious though. Auto-playing ads with sound that would start up in tabs behind the current one, glitchy pop-ups that you couldn't close and covered links. (Anyone remember Killzone Shadowfall and AC:Black Flag.) Are they still pulling all that shit?

 

[Ninja-Jordan]

See, I didn't want to suggest that Sterling was holding this whole thing together, but it really does seem like his absence has left some huge holes to fill.
And Zhukov, you're clearly very funny, but it's not a matter that people just can't pull themselves away from those tantalizing episode reviews, it's the problem that so much of the schedule is being given to episodic reviews. It's a problem with lack of real content. Just look at it, eight slots are given to tv show reviews. EIGHT! Isn't that a bit much?

 

[MysticSlayer]

Are they still pulling all that shit?

For the most part, I haven't been subjected to it. There was, however, a one week period where an ad for some beverage (I think Brisk) would pop up without me doing anything and not allow me to get back to posting until I was forced to watch like 5-10 seconds of the video. At that point I could send it back to the little out-of-the-way box that it should have stayed in. I even stayed away from the site for a few days during that incident because it made using the site unbearable. Thankfully, I haven't had that issue for a while.

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

I really don't know what timeframe you're comparing current-day Escapist to. It's always coated in in-your-face ads: on the sidebar, before videos, during videos, on the banner, on the bottom, in the middle of every article and every place else. I very distinctly remember one of the first two Dragon Ages being all over the sidebars the weeks (months?) before it was released, and those games came out in 2009 or 2011, which is at least three and a half years ago.

The reviews are legitimate. Pretty much every site has a great handful of regular reviewers for all sorts of media, and the Escapist is no different. Holy crap, Zero Punctuation is nothing but a weekly review series, and I bet you at least 80% of us wouldn't have heard of The Escapist if it wasn't for Zero Punctuation. For a website, especially one embedded in the niche of gaming news, you can't rely on random news stories breaking out to keep everyone interested, you have to have some sort of weekly schedule that you adhere to.

Also, this is for your closing sentence.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Oddly enough, as I read this there are only two ads on the page. I don't have any real problem with ads, except video ones, those are just intrusive. Another problem I have with the ads is their quality. More often than not, I get those ancient "You are the 100000000 billionth winner! Claim your prize here!" or just plain old clickbait.

I actually read the reviews, at least Archer and SW: Rebels, but I've always thought that they were just thing that they always have done. I didn't know they were dedicated review slots. That is pretty weird. Honestly, most of my time here in the Escapist is spent in the forums, Zero Punctuation, and the occasional interesting news tidbit. The "mainstream" content I mostly ignore, or they come out too sparsely for me to spend so much time on them. I guess this is the kind of thing that made Jim decide to leave?

 

[Random Argument Man]

As for the ads, well, I have Pub Club, so I don't see them any more. Last time I did they were pretty atrocious though. Auto-playing ads with sound that would start up in tabs behind the current one, glitchy pop-ups that you couldn't close and covered links. (Anyone remember Killzone Shadowfall and AC:Black Flag.) Are they still pulling all that shit?

The worst was El Shaddai adds from a few years ago. Those adds crashed my browser and slowed my computer for some reasons. I never had any problem with adds but that one.