Why doesn't the Escapist Review games anymore?
- Thread starter Ironbat92
- Start date
If you hadn't noticed yet, there's basically no regular content aside from Yathzee's stuff. Pretty much all other contributors and staff, including the tech team, have been laid off, or have moved to greener pastures. What remains is a skeleton crew barely managing to hold the place together.
Why is that, you ask?
Various reasons ranging from GamerGate to obsolescence to Defy not giving a crap, but I'm not going into that.
I'd be repeating myself.
Why is that, you ask?
Various reasons ranging from GamerGate to obsolescence to Defy not giving a crap, but I'm not going into that.
I'd be repeating myself.
Yet this is one of the heaviest modderated forums I have ever seen in my life. To this day.Chimpzy said:
Funnily enough, the Escapist chose to allow GamerGate discussion where many other outlets didn't. Which led to a gigantic clusterfuck of a shitshow that got many longtime regulars to up and leave, and is often cited as one of the reasons for its downfall.CritialGaming said:
I suppose there is some kind of irony in that.
Defy pissed off the internet gods, in doing so the Escapiest is heading to internet purgatory.A few brave souls are manning the forum holding back the tide of darkness that approaches. They thought are but mere humans and are now slowly starting to go mad and insane reliving their own eternal darkness.ShadowRatchet92 said:
The IT team had long succumbed to the insanity that is the Escapiest they were last seen running naked towards somewhere in Delaware. Reports were it might have been a furry-con, no one has dare to look.( might be for the best)
The content creators left in droves to escape the approaching insanity covering this sight. Some were reported to have left looking for the great G.G holy ground where they could frolic.
Yet,ShadowRachet92 if you wish to join, you must you like pain, tears and the random calls from Cthulhu. Who loves to call at all hours asking one simple question...... What My little Pony you think is the best?
(Defy is losing money on this sight , and doesn't care to keep it alive)
What the hell site is everyone on then?
Gamespot?s forums are a joke. Banned twice for no good reason, several years and IP addresses apart too. Couldn?t even get a response as to why the second time.
IGN?s forums are a joke. Never banned but they are deceivingly devoid of content, having dozens of individual game boards with next to nothing new, and lots of juvenile banter.
Neogaf?s forums are only good for those massive (new game) tribute threads or whatever.
That basically leaves a handful of random outliers or niche sites with less relevant activity than this one, unless I?m missing something?
Gamespot?s forums are a joke. Banned twice for no good reason, several years and IP addresses apart too. Couldn?t even get a response as to why the second time.
IGN?s forums are a joke. Never banned but they are deceivingly devoid of content, having dozens of individual game boards with next to nothing new, and lots of juvenile banter.
Neogaf?s forums are only good for those massive (new game) tribute threads or whatever.
That basically leaves a handful of random outliers or niche sites with less relevant activity than this one, unless I?m missing something?
hanselthecaretaker said:
That's where I go if I want to talk about a specific game now. Usually reddits dedicated to one game or series are more pleasant and less meme-heavy than the general gaming reddit
Everything went down because of exactly one thing and one thing only: #GamerGate. They captured all the news and content creators. You know, everybody who visited the site back then had to visit the forums mandatorily and all, _ALL_ they saw were pro-GamerGaters. It was a fucking battle like Hiro Shima.
Absofuckinglutely nothing else. Don't think about it. Too hard. I stopped, too.
Absofuckinglutely nothing else. Don't think about it. Too hard. I stopped, too.
it's definitely hit or miss but I've found the Dark Souls reddit to be a good place to go for anything from deep lore discussions, to tips and tricks, and for new interesting tid bits that people are still discovering about the game. Aside from the occasional meme-regurgitating wanker people are generally just normal people that want to talk about the gamehanselthecaretaker said:
Reddit is great if you want to talk about a specific game. However general gaming discussion or game industry issues are harder to discuss because of how faster everything moves on the site. Additionally try writing a negative review or criticism of a game on it's circle jerking subreddit and your post will be downvoted so fucking far you swear you'd gone back in time to before you even wrote the fucking thing.DrownedAmmet said:
This forum at least has a wide open topic range. So long as you don't break all 1,000,000 rules in place on here for some reason.
I think a lot of people just stopped. They realized gaming critics are a joke, and there's no reason to read what they think.hanselthecaretaker said:
It?s sad. First GT and now this site looks like it won?t last long. What?s a Gaming Discussion?er to do. It?s not like there aren?t millions of potential users to pull from.
The catch-22 seems to be, like nearly anything, good things don?t last like they should.
The catch-22 seems to be, like nearly anything, good things don?t last like they should.
You basically answered your own question. There's no money. Why Defy hasn't just pulled the plug is beyond me.
Silentpony said:
I meant more just message forums than anything else. Most review sites don?t seem to have them, and the ones that do, pretty much suck. Probably because reviews instigate too much drama. It?d just be cool if smaller sites had better support for things like forums. Instead there?s too much of following the money which pretty much always ends in a shitshow. It?s like a viscious cycle of excess, dysfunction and inevitable decline. How long will it take before people in charge realize that.
Funny you said that because I am finding it harder and harder to find "reviewers" that I can trust. If you look around to just about every major game site (Gamespot, Ign, Kotaku, etc) you can see all the reviews for Shadow of War. Yet in none of these reviews do they ever, at all mention the impact of lootboxes. It's like they all fucking avoid the elephant in the room and gave the game a score based on everything else.Silentpony said:
Look I understand that these sites live and die on support from the publishers providing early review copies, but all it does is negate any effect the review could and SHOULD have.
Which is why I wish the Escapist would fucking open up to community content. Let us users provide content for the main site and simply moderate it, it's isn't that hard really. They already sell add space to pay for all these pages and site size, let people donate content. It's a way to keep the community active, alive, and cheap as everything would be volunteer.
Take applicants, take submissions, do fucking something, otherwise just close the site down.
Plenty of them talk about it. I thought the same thing as you until I was corrected.CritialGaming said:
https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/middle-earth-shadow-of-war-in-which-tolkens-grave-provides-more-power-output-then-the-sun.498791/page-51#post-40137704
Right but notice that if you read those, they are all basically brushed off quotes. They don't talk about how severe the progression path slows by not using loot crates in Act 4. They don't talk about the effects of the creates or how it is IMPOSSIBLE to get the best orcs in the game without spending money.erttheking said:
I should have phrased my comment better, because yes they mention it, but only in passing as if they were allowed to really say shit about them.
I 100% agree! From what I've seen Lootboxes are a major part of the game, and reaching the 'real' ending. And not mentioning them in a review(I don't want to be cynical, but probably because part of the early copy deal was don't mention them) is like not mentioning the freemium economy in Candy Crush, or not mentioning lvl grind in WOW.CritialGaming said:
As far as community takes, no need for applicants or subs. Just have a subforum for reviews, like they do now, but a small little poll in every review if we found this review useful. If it reaches a certain number of Yes votes, say 20(that's about how many regulars there are left) it gets auto-featured on the front page as a 'Helpful Community Take' And you get a little badge saying 'Woohoo I helped!' with a tiny little thumbs up.