Why do you still come to the Escapist forums?

StatusNil

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PainInTheAssInternet said:
Thankfully, a subforum called Game Industry Discussion was created just for it, so it doesn't have to spread elsewhere.
See, this really ticks me off, because that's not what the GID forum is supposed to be. The idea is that "GamerGate" is not some extraordinary alien infestation, but a normal topic of conversation that people can discuss among other subjects pertaining to the game industry. The Escapist was pretty much alone among their peer sites in trying to be adult this subject among the shrieking ban fever that swept over the lesser gaming sites, and GID is a part of that shockingly radical experiment.

There are difficulties, though, since there is an element of this community (along with obsessive ban skippers) that seems determined to reduce the subforum into nothing but an arena for a Forum Death Match between Team "Anti-GG" and "Team GG", fought by baiting people into flipping out in a ban-worthy way. Some folks just won't stand for "normalizing" perfectly reasonable reservations about our media overlords and their pet crusades, I guess. And this thing that you do, of labeling GID some kind of a "Gamergate" quarantine zone, is just helping perpetuate a needless malaise.

OT: I came here since I could no longer pretend sites I frequented (like Polygon) weren't vicious pits of jockeying for "Top Inquisitor" status, complete with stealth censorship. Coming from over a decade of diligently avoiding Internet "communities" (after some bad experiences back in the day), I just couldn't acclimate to the caustic pH of those particular ponds. At least there are many cool people here, in many senses of the word.

N00b as I am, I cannot really understand nostalgia for forums so hectic that threads get buried in 30 minutes, though. I guess that's good for the site by sheer traffic measures, but personally I would find that kind of pace hard to keep up with, and thus not really something I'd prefer.
 

Drummodino

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Jan 2, 2011
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Mostly cuz I still have friends here. I am far, far less active here than I was in the past, I lost interest in pretty much all the content around here over 2015. I've been hanging around a bit more the last few weeks or so but if I didn't have people I like to talk to on this site I'd be long gone. I certainly wouldn't stay for the "quality" of the average forum thread.
 

Fat Hippo

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StatusNil said:
When you get gangrene in your foot, you got no choice but to amputate that shit. That's what the GID forum is in my mind: a gangrenous old foot...which we still carry around with us.

As for my own reasons for still being here: partially force of habit, though even contentwise, I consider The Escapist to be merely a shadow of its former greatness. I also participate in one or two forum groups and a forum game which helps keep me around. And I guess that like some others, I'm into some stuff nobody I know IRL is into, so this is where I go for that kind of discussion.
 

Canadamus Prime

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Jun 17, 2009
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I don't even know. Most of my favorite Escapist shows are gone and I can't muster the energy to comment on most of the current topics that float around so I'm not sure why I'm still here.
 

PsychicTaco115

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Because I want to hold onto the very little recognition I have on this site and wring it for all its worth. I made it on the fucking Wikipedia page, be-otch!

Well, that and the people I met are pretty neat. Even have a trip planned to see a certain someone c;

But the fact that this site is really... bad in management, I don't get the same wide-eyed sparkle visiting here I did earlier
 

Hazy992

Why does this place still exist
Aug 1, 2010
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User groups mainly, I've made friends on here and I don't want to lose contact with them. The forums are pretty much dead and there's almost no content that I actually care about anymore.
 

Dirkie

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Feb 3, 2009
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I'm mostly here to watch Yahtzee and zeropunctuation. The forum is added fluff i look into sometimes.
 

Dan Steele

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Jul 30, 2010
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Usually to check Zero Punctuation videos: and upon seeing no new videos, I just check interesting forumn topics for shits and giggles
 

necromanzer52

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I think this site still has enough interesting posts to keep me checking up on it. Maybe I only spend 5 minutes a day on here now rather than an hour or 2, but that's just as much to do me having a lot more going on in my life than I did back in the day. While this site still has an ounce of life left in it, I will stick with it.

Zombie_Fish said:
Because I still like many of the users here, particularly the ones I have met in person/am connected with on services off of this site. And besides, this place still provides me with distraction when I'm out of the office.

Redlin5 said:
I just have evolved since grade 12 Redlin, with work and university and romance...
It's really weird seeing us oldies change and grow older over the past seven years. I signed up for this site when I was still in secondary school at the ripe young age of 16. Since then I have gotten a degree. From a university. And I'm now studying to get another degree.
I know that feeling (except I stopped after one degree). I'm not just a different person to the one who joined this site all those years ago. I'm a better person. Yet, my enjoyment of video-games hasn't changed whatsoever since then. Being an adult is awesome.
 

Katherine Kerensky

Why, or Why Not?
Mar 27, 2009
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I come here because it's one of the tabs that opens every time I launch my browser. That, and I have to look at a mod queue that is slowly making me more disillusioned.
All the R&P nonsense kinda makes me miss the likes of Hubilub, Furburt & company. They were at least entertaining sometimes. Wading through posts people report because R&P is serious business and humour is not allowed is not entertaining.
Oh, and I guess a lack of alternatives also plays into why I stick around. Got involved in one other community, but things went a bit sour there.
 

CrazyGirl17

I am a banana!
Sep 11, 2009
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I still stop by every now and then to see if there's anything worth talking about in the forums, though there seems to be little going on in the RP section. And while I still enjoy some of the videos and comics... yeah, the Escapist hasn't had a lot of really good stuff in a while...
 

The Raw Shark

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes.
Nov 19, 2014
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It's fun getting opinions for things. With that in mind, this is the one place I can see won't have YouTube comment's syndrome of making your intelligence drop by 99.999999999%, its a nice change of pace. Plus the people here are fun and I think it says a lot that up till now I still see some of the same users posting around.
Like a sort of hang-out kind of feeling that you could get. We're all regulars at the same bar/cafe/diner where we get our daily doses of games, movies and other mediums for entertainment. Some of us aren't feeling much thrill from it anymore, some of us still are.
In the end we can at least agree that we had fun.
 

silver wolf009

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Jan 23, 2010
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Because a sick part of me is enjoying seeing it wither and falter. It's like celebrities, there's an odd sense of of joy to be found in seeing it go through hardships and, at this point inevitably, collapse in on itself.

That, and my address bar automatically fills it out whenever I type the letter T into it. That helps jog my memory.
 

linwolf

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Jan 9, 2010
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Almost purely habit, I don't think there are a single person of the ones I use to liked left.
 

runic knight

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I liked the community and the forum format for discussion. More depth than a youtube comment section, more controlled environment then reddit, and the willingness to host conversations. am I satisfied about the forums though? No, not really. The current rule and moderation system is badly in need of repair, as it is, it merely encourages a lot of the problems with the community mentioned in the OP and by other here, that of abrasiveness and thinly veiled hostility, of passive aggression and exploitation of flagging to punish disliked posters. That sort of thing is probably the largest cause of the decline in the community, after all.

Still, I do like the core of the escapist and think it can still improve, so I will stick around while I can I guess. Have some good, intelligent posters here and good discussion opportunities, and that is always fun.
 

sky14kemea

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Jun 26, 2008
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Redlin5 said:
My prolific nature is gone but I'll become the old man of the Escapist yet! All of you from 2005 onwards have got to start withering away! >:3
Pfft, I've got a year on you, young man.

OT: I'm not allowed to leave. I tried to once and they dragged me back in again.
 

Fox12

AccursedT- see you space cowboy
Jun 6, 2013
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It's a good place to visit on my lunch break.

Also, it's nice to connect with people who know about Berserk and Neon Genesis. I mean, I'm in the south, where am I supposed to find people like that outside of college? Besides, there are a lot of different people with unique experiences here, so I'm always learning something new.
 

NeutralDrow

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Partly inertia, partly the usergroups, partly the emotional connection to a site that still holds my user reviews.

The fact that I haven't found any other place worthwhile that's not either devoted to only a few subjects or behind a paywall also helps.
 

Drathnoxis

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PsychicTaco115 said:
Because I want to hold onto the very little recognition I have on this site and wring it for all its worth. I made it on the fucking Wikipedia page, be-otch!
Wait, really? I don't see mention of you on the current page. When was it, maybe there's an archive?