What made you join the Escapist?

[FPLOON]

Well, first, a bit of an abridged backstory...Found out about Zero Punctuation through G4TV's X-Play...Found out about The Escapist by actually watching the Zero Punctuation videos...Invisibly lurked through the forum years later (between 2012 and 2013) out of sheer boredom...Created an account just to take <link=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/quizzes/view/266-Pacific-Rim-Week-Which-Mecha-Are-You>this quiz...Ended up with a free year of PubClub because of one of the first friends I made in the forums, specifically in the Forum Games section...Only keeping the [current] PubClub subscription just to keep the video tabs opened at all times...Now, as to why I keep coming back to the forums in particular? Uh... I think I forgot the original reason[footnote]Probably had something to do with Skype, HTML, and/or Badges... I think...[/footnote], but nowadays, it's because I can't think of any reason of mine that wouldn't make me not keep coming back to the forums... especially the Forum Games section...

 

[L. Declis]

Lurked because of ZP like everyone else, joined because of the great conversations.

And then the Mass Effect 3 ending came.

And these lands changed. What was once a place of kindness and love for video games became merely the first great war of the Escapist, the first bloody bitter battle of piss, strawmen and poorly thought out opinions.

And then the endless whirlpool threads...

And when the Anita bomb dropped onto YouTube and Twitter, it had become death (of fun).

Now I come back every so often and tend to avoid threads with large thread counts, only coming to get what is needed or interesting and then leaving before the core high thread populars decide to bully someone for fun. I try not to watch, I leave because I have better shit to do then be dogpiled and then PMed with insults by people who are apparently better than me and open to discussion unless it doesn't suit them.

Sigh.

 

[laggyteabag]

Came for Zero Punctuation, like many did, and I stayed for the forums.

Strange to think that this will be my sixth year on this site.

 

[ArcadianDrew]

As you can see from my join date I didn't actually join until april 2009.
Why? Because I'm not very sociable, and I had other forums to occupy my time.

I seem to be of a similar mold, though I actually started lurking in late 2008. Look at my join date, it took years to actually want to post something on here and weirdly, I chose the moment when shit hit the fan on these forums. Timing, eh?

 

[Zombie_Fish]

I first came to this site when a friend showed me Zero Punctuation. After seeing various ads on the videos for other content my viewing history expanded to four series (Zero Punctuation, Unskippable, Doomsday Arcade and There Will Be Brawl).

I finally created an account when I saw video ads for March Mayhem and was curious what it was about. I then found out about the forums later that night.

 

[Shocksplicer]

Well I came here for Zero Punctuation, predictably.
As for why I joined, going through my post history it seems I joined the forums to say that LA NOIRE is shit.
4 years on, and do you know what? I stand by my words.
That game is balls.

 

[King of Asgaard]

I joined near to 4 years ago because of the forums, but recently they've been a dearth of the good natured fun they used to be. Gone are the hilarious threads and no more do threads hit the 100+ post mark because of a few users joking between themselves. I rarely post much any more because the topics have been rather uninteresting or depressing. Which is a damned shame because what I came to the site for is slowly but surely leaking away. I show up for the occasional quiz or ZP video, quickly scan the forums, then log off. I just don't have the incentive to stick around for longer any more.

 

[Barbas]

The increasing desire to rid myself of soul-destroying depression and to stop being the most terrible human being I knew. I like it here. 'S'nice.

 

[Dirkie]

Just to inform you, I also came here for the steady feed of Yahtzee's ZeroPunctuation.
I have not been dissapointed.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Found out about the site thanks to Zero Punctuation. Lurked for a couple of years, finally joined because I wanted to comment in I don't know what thread, and the ball got rolling.

 

[Slenn]

Um, I think I found out about this place because of Yahtzee.

I decided to join the forums a few years later because they seemed pretty decent, and honestly, compared to most places, they are.

Same reasons. Although add on forum games to my list of reasons for staying.

Can I just say I love your avatar?

 

[thesilentman]

I've lurked in the shadows for quite a bit before I joined. Then I actually joined since you guys looked to be fun group.

Huh, it's more than two years already.

 

[DOOM GUY]

Same reasons. Although add on forum games to my list of reasons for staying.

Can I just say I love your avatar?

Ah, forum games is also very nice, one of the reasons I stick around as well.

Why, thank you! Are you a Touhou fan?

 

[happyninja42]

Zero Punctuation is why I came here. Stayed for several of the other contributors at that time. They're all gone now though

 

[the_dramatica]

I came and stay for the forums.

 

[Neverhoodian]

Like many others, Zero Punctuation is what initially brought me here. I was a lurker for a few years, but as time passed I became increasingly curious about the forums. I kept seeing genuinely interesting topics under the "Popular Forum Posts" tab. The discussions seemed to be more rational and level-headed than the vast majority of gaming forums. Turns out I was right.

tl;dr: I joined because of you guys. You're awesome (well, most of you).

 

[PainInTheAssInternet]

Zero Punctuation and the forums. I'm mostly here for the forums now, but I don't check as much as I used to.

I finally created an account when I saw video ads for March Mayhem and was curious what it was about. I then found out about the forums later that night.

What is it about March Madness that makes many an Escapee quiver in fearful memory?

 

[Zombie_Fish]

What is it about March Madness that makes many an Escapee quiver in fearful memory?

I didn't pay attention to the 2009 March Mayhem forums,[footnote]I only found out about a kerfuffle after the event finished.[/footnote] but the general source of discontent over the years has been new users joining solely to vote for their favourite developers (typical fingers were pointed at Turbine and Zynga). This led to hostility due to the 'old guard' regarding these new users as treading on their ground. Some of the voting threads subsequently turned into a war zone between these two groups.

And that's ignoring some of the nastier details. Someone one year asked 4chan to vote in order to prevent Zynga from winning, which resulted in the thread being flooded with shock images.

Some people take that event far too seriously in my opinion.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Zero Punctuation got me to be on the site regularly ever since 2007. Then one day I made an account to see what the forums were about although I mainly thought I'd just be responding to content in the comment sections.

Oh how wrong I was... :3

 

[dr_what]

like a lot of folks, here because of ZP. joined the forums but have been really inactive, but now I'm seeking to change that; there's a wealth of great discussion here and I'm looking forward to jumping in and taking part