Why did you join the forums?

[PainInTheAssInternet]

I was watching a show a few years ago called Review with Extreme Prejudice, something I just stumbled across which my friends and I really enjoyed. In the comment section, someone accused the creator of stealing Yahtzee's schtick. Curious, I googled him and found this site and have been a viewer ever since. I decided to join almost exactly 4 years ago, so I'd be in the last year of high school, but I had been lurking before that. I've become a lot more active recently, though it likely won't last.

My 1st post is one I'm not very proud of, but I would like to note that I posted it on the 30th of December, 2011. The previous comment was made on the 3rd of October, 2009. I think the laws of necroing are a bit harsh and old threads are basically landmines for newcomers to step on.

 

[Breakdown]

I was a lurker watching Zero Punctuation for a few months, and then when Gamergate kicked off I thought I might as well join properly.

 

[Vigormortis]

I'd lurked for a while, visiting the site primarily for Zero Punctuation. And while I don't recall exactly what it was that compelled me to join the forums, I do recall my first post. It was for a "Favorite VG music" thread.

I'd actually had the account for at least a month before posting. I was a little shy back then and wasn't sure how the community reacted to new posters.

Thankfully, I found the community to be fairly welcoming, with only a few exceptions, as well as (mostly) rational and level-headed.

I've seen the community have it's ups and downs over the years. Some more severe than others. But, through it all, most of the decent people remained.

Sadly, many have left as well, but at the same time the community's gained quite a few new posters, many of whom are just fantastic people.

In short, The Escapist can be an infuriating and depressing community sometimes, but at it's best it's a great place to be. I'm glad I've stuck with it for more than seven years.

snip

I, for one, am glad you stayed. I found many of your comments and observations on the recent controversies and the topics therein to be quite insightful.

It's always nice to see more reasoned, rational voices speaking up on this forum.

snip the sequel

You'll always have us, Shinji. Picture us all as a collective of cuddly bears wearing nerdy t-shirts.

Just, you know....keep in mind that some of us are a bit more cynical than others...

snip the third

You? Saying something like that?

Never! Not our Zhukov. He would never speak to someone with such a tone.

Nope, never. Not in a million years. Not a chance....

snip: the rehappening

Yes. You made the better choice.

The vastly better choice.

(I shudder even thinking about the GameFAQs forum.)

 

[visiblenoise]

Because my day job is not very busy. Also because this forum tends to be a little more civil than average, though it does lose a little bit of that unpredictable fun factor because of it.

 

[Bizzaro Stormy]

Like many here I came for Zero Punctuation and liked some of the other content as well. I first started posting when I saw a guy getting dog-piled for not having the correct social view. One person sneered that no one was coming out of the wood work to speak up for him. So I did. The result was ugly and I mostly read the forums for a while after that. I've recently started putting up more posts, but avoid the controversial stuff for the most part. I prefer arguments with real people who know that they don't know as much as they think rather than internet folk who think all wisdom is but a single Google search away.

The best advise I can give is to stay positive, keep any swearing and accusations to a minimum, and try the forum games. They can be fun!

 

[Queen Michael]

There was a debate where somebody made the idiotic creationist argument "if evolution is real then why aren't things evolving?" and I needed to tell him why that's not how it works.

 

[NPC009]

I started frequenting the Escapist for ZP, columns and some other stuff, and I think I signed up when I saw a quiz that looked kinda fun. After that I lurked for several years, just reading topics that looked interesting.

The reason I started posting is kinda GG related. I'm a game journalist. I'm from a non-English speaking country and I mostly review niche games, so yeah, not someone who was actually involved with the whole thing. Yet it hurt to see people rag on game journalist like we're some army of corrupt clones instead of a whole bunch of individuals. I guess I just wanted to set a few things straight. I was planning to back to my spot in the shadows after that, but for some reason I kept responding to other topics.

The fact that feminism, corruption and plain old conspiracy theories are such hot topics are something I'm still not used to (these topics are not much of a big deal where I'm from), but I have seen people post some very intelligent and insightful responses in threads like that, and that's enough for me to stick around.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

Welcome to the forums. I came here when ZP moved here and then liked the forums so I stayed.

 

[Gospelnut]

I came because a friend showed me a review Yatzee did for Red Dead Redemption (Green Spleen Submarine), lurked for ages, finally decided to join recently.

 

[Able Seacat]

Like most folk, I lurked for a while and felt that people seemed fairly nice on the whole so thought I'd join in. I don't post often and I've been visiting less since my laptop died. It's probably in my head but there seems to have been a heavy atmosphere here for a while now. Though I bet the long-term users probably notice trends here better than me and things will brighten up soon.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

GG was like two ME3 endings combined XD

Two? More like ten.

At least the ME3 thing was mildly entertaining, since we had Zeel trolling the forums around that time.
But all this GG stuff is just depressing.

It will end.

My God, it has to end.

And then, in 2020 when new users complain about their current, small shitstorm we can take them to task.

"BOY, LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT GAMERGATE"

 

[Tsun Tzu]

Like many here, I was a lurker first.

Wound up visiting at around the time Zero Punctuation started since a friend (now no longer one, heh) showed me a couple reviews and I kinda fell in love. Listened to the podcast for quite a while too, until Susan left, then it seemed to lose a good deal of its energy...even though I didn't particularly care for her opinions sometimes, she was still very animated and kept it engaging.

Lurked a bit after that then finally made an account, either to chime in on a topic I actually cared to or for a quiz. Now idea which!

I visit daily for the occasional interesting article or bit of geek/science news. Tend to get the bulk of my gaming information elsewhere though.

I will say that overall quality here has taken a dip.

Not to infer anything about Mr. Tito's leadership, I really like the guy as a person and all (disagreements aside), but it seems to be going the clickbait route in general and I'd like to believe that those particular marching orders (not from Archon, mind) are coming from on high.


As for tips? We're good for Sarkeesian threads. Thanks.

Captcha: time machine

I really wish I had one.

But eh.

The tiiiimes they are a-chaaaangin'.

 

[Sassafrass]

I dunno. It looked cool, I guess?
I may have joined to talk about Fallout 3 though. Not sure.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

I dunno. It looked cool, I guess?
I may have joined to talk about Fallout 3 though. Not sure.

I bet you were brought in by Yahtzee like me but just won't admit it. =P

OT: I've been here since 2007 because a good friend introduced me to Yahtzee on Youtube and then he moved to the Escapist for money.

Made my account in 2009 to comment on things and then have been here since. Others can probably tell you my posting habits better. Ask [user]Marter[/user] if you care. XP

 

[the_dramatica]

Migrated when my former board died. There are enough users with taste her that visiting it is good to me.

 

[Artina89]

The same story as many, I would wager. I would go on the site to watch Zero Punctuation, and went on to watch There will be brawl, Apocalypse lane and Top 5 with Lisa Foiles. One day, whilst bored I ventured into the forums and found it to be quite welcoming, so I sort of stuck around. I am more of a lurker than a poster though.

 

[Barbas]

I dunno. It looked cool, I guess?
I may have joined to talk about Fallout 3 though. Not sure.

Wow, did that game come out so long ago? Its replayability must have mucked with my perception of time. Sweet Cheesus, that game was great. Those vaults were such amazing little short stories.

Man, I must have still been in education back then...or in an institution, as I prefer to call it. Sometimes I wonder whether there's a single person here who found school to be the best time of their life.

 

[CrystalViolet]

Had an embarrassing question to ask so went to somewhere frequented by other weird people. Stuck around

 

[FalloutJack]

Pretty sure it had to do with Yahtzee. Not sure that's important right now.

 

[leberkaese]

At the beginning I was around for ZP and Critical Miss. But then I had to discover that these forums are nice and civil. So I stayed because it's possible to have good discussions on here - as long as you stay away from R&P.

The most other places I went before were filled with fanboys that thought their PC/WiiU/XBox/Playstation is the only important thing in the world and all people playing on different systems are stupid and need to burn in the fires of hell...
The amount of those peoples in these forums is... at least smaller as elsewhere