You all miss the Escapist's glory days, what are your ideas for how could they come back?

FalloutJack

Bah weep grah nah neep ninny bom
Nov 20, 2008
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Wareve said:
You know, "If you build it, they will come.", rather than "If they come, they'll be pretty disappointed in this corn field."
I never actually saw or read Field of Dreams. The cornfield reminds me of Bill Mumy playing an omnipotent child on The Twilight Zone. That's neither here nor there, really. I have a simple-but-honest question on the matter.

The Escapist has been his hard and pretty much has to crawl for a while before it can walk again, physical therapy if you like. What exactly can they build to speed things up? What's our crutch to hasten the process, as it were?

Strazdas said:
Most things on Youtube aren't even worth the uber-high resolution. I say that because Youtube is You-Tube, meaning your videos that you put on the tube. It takes more professional work to make that worth it, and while some of that does exist on Youtube, I'm not sure why they bothered. For that matter, 720p doesn't make Zero Punctuation more special, so no worries on that front, either way.

What I'm pointing out here is that there doesn't seem to be alot in the way of ideas that the current status of the site can remedy. The problem before was money, and the problem is still money, but more obviously. What you need is to solve your years-long revenue problem without annoying folks, making things loud or intrusive. This content doesn't come back until the money problem is rendered stable, period.
 

Strazdas

Robots will replace your job
May 28, 2011
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FalloutJack said:
Strazdas said:
Most things on Youtube aren't even worth the uber-high resolution. I say that because Youtube is You-Tube, meaning your videos that you put on the tube. It takes more professional work to make that worth it, and while some of that does exist on Youtube, I'm not sure why they bothered. For that matter, 720p doesn't make Zero Punctuation more special, so no worries on that front, either way.

What I'm pointing out here is that there doesn't seem to be alot in the way of ideas that the current status of the site can remedy. The problem before was money, and the problem is still money, but more obviously. What you need is to solve your years-long revenue problem without annoying folks, making things loud or intrusive. This content doesn't come back until the money problem is rendered stable, period.
Its true that the quality of youtube videos is very poor. They use a very bad MP4 codec (they use it because pretty much any device with a screen can natively play it without additional codecs) with too low bitrate for both video and audio. If they used something like X264 or even X265 with same bitrate the quality would be vastly improved (at the expense of requiring more powerful devices to play it because decoding these are more CPU intensive). However escpist video quality is not really any better than youtubes, so its hardly a point in escapists favor. I do agree that Zero Punctuation wont become more special (though it does get more pleasant to look if you look at the youtube version) because of this, but there are other content here (such as GoodBadFlicks) that would benefit from that.

I remmeber when Escapist used to release a PDF document that did a news-paper style news articles and columns. They used to have very good quality material in there. They stopped doing it, because turns out most people didnt read the good quality content and it ended up unprofitable. (something we only got told years later because escapist staff communication seems to be nonexistent). Annoyed a lot of folks back then i remmeber. The point is - good content is not profitable. Cheap easy to pump out content like Twitch streams - is.
 

Redlin5_v1legacy

Better Red than Dead
Aug 5, 2009
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Souplex said:
It can't.
I organized the closest thing to a successful attempt and it only lasted like a month.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.389042-Poll-Fellow-Oldscapists
Dammit, you're making me nostalgic for those jerks.
 

WhiteNachos

New member
Jul 25, 2014
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Get rid of the game industry discussion forum. It's just bitter debates about feminism and gaming and gamergate and it's just bad.

A forum layout redesign maybe

And more importantly fund some original video series. I remember coming here often in anticipation of lrr, extra credits, unskippable the big picture (as much as I disagreed with Bob's politics it was entertaining) and Doomsday Arcade. I know they probably can't bring those exact people back but those things were what made the series great. I don't just want to watch people play D and D and I don't want to watch Honest Trailers here when it's the same videos on youtube released on the same day.
 

Sylocat

Sci-Fi & Shakespeare
Nov 13, 2007
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I remember back when every week, there was a publication of numerous columns on game design topics (that's how I got the "Read at least 1 article in 52 weekly issues of The Escapist").

In an age when oversaturation of gaming videos is not only killing separate sites but even causing popular YouTubers' viewer counts to stagnate, the solution isn't to try and make more videos or even comics, it's to bring back long-form articles. Stop trying to be YT/TGWTG and go back to trying to be Gamasutra or EC. There is still a market for in-depth written articles, and as a bonus they're cheaper to hire and commission.
 

Webb5432

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Jul 21, 2009
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Let's see. I would think the following would be a good start:
- Make old content easily accessible
- Reviews of more games - especially indie ones or ones that don't get much attention
- More editorials about game design, the game industry, etc.
- More unique content and style (i.e. the poetry slams with Jim and Yahtzee)
- Bring on someone to discuss the video game industry in greater detail, and analyze the strategies that these companies use (which is, IMHO, what the Jimquisition became about. Still makes it interesting, whether you agree with Jim Sterling or not [I only think he has some interesting points])
 

Redlin5_v1legacy

Better Red than Dead
Aug 5, 2009
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WhiteNachos said:
A forum layout redesign maybe
They don't have a tech team to do that anymore and I don't think another redesign is going to make a difference in their revenue. As it is, the premium account has lost all value it ever had, hence why people like me are unsubscribing to it.

I don't know what the answers are.
 

Wareve

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Aug 17, 2008
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Sylocat said:
I remember back when every week, there was a publication of numerous columns on game design topics (that's how I got the "Read at least 1 article in 52 weekly issues of The Escapist").

In an age when oversaturation of gaming videos is not only killing separate sites but even causing popular YouTubers' viewer counts to stagnate, the solution isn't to try and make more videos or even comics, it's to bring back long-form articles. Stop trying to be YT/TGWTG and go back to trying to be Gamasutra or EC. There is still a market for in-depth written articles, and as a bonus they're cheaper to hire and commission.
I agree with this completely. They need to be about games JOURNALISM again. Not just game stuff. Articles, think pieces, analytics, that sort of thing. Bring in an economics person, a few designers, a few producers, a tech guy, a programmer girl, someone from Marketing, HR, QA, have them discuss games and who and how and why they get made. Have them discuss how to get into the industry. How to improve your resume, what new programs to try, what basic stuff you need to do to break in from a variety of angles, why QA is hell, why it's all hell, why people still do it after all these years.

THERE IS SO MUCH TO TALK ABOUT AND EVERYONE WANTS TO SEE IT!
 

SweetShark

Shark Girls are my Waifus
Jan 9, 2012
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Sub-categories of specific videogames/anything. Having a specific thread for a specific subject is a must which Escapist is missing. Also we need more monster girls.
 

IceForce

Is this memes?
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Dec 11, 2012
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I'll be honest and say that I don't think a 'comeback' is possible.

Laying off most of your news writers, most of your content creators, and ALL of your tech staff, are not actions that are indicative of a healthy site that's on the up-and-up.
 

Politrukk

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May 5, 2015
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It can't the power lay in the slow build up of quality content to a peak and then afterwards selfdestruction.
They booted any relevant content creators themselves and the rest left in disputes.
Now this site has Yahtzee and Critical miss whilst it is reaching critical mass.

Oh and absurdly arbitrary moderation standards which honest to god is bleeding the site dry and yeah sure "this may not be the forum for everyone" but moderation has cost this site quite some traffic and they know it.

Honestly watch me get banned for stating that in this thread.
 

Mr. Popplewick

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Aug 4, 2016
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IceForce said:
I'll be honest and say that I don't think a 'comeback' is possible.

Laying off most of your news writers, most of your content creators, and ALL of your tech staff, are not actions that are indicative of a healthy site that's on the up-and-up.
It's not indicative of a site that cares either. Nothing here speaks to that, just station-keeping. The bare minimum number left who can draw a paycheck until there is nothing left that's it.
 

Wareve

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Aug 17, 2008
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I honestly don't think the Forums are what will bring people back though, not without substantial renovation, particularly with integrated Facebook comments under every video and article.
 

Caedite Eos

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Aug 2, 2016
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I just joined here because I've tried three other forums, and none of them are as active or well formatted as this one seems to be. This is probably an issue of forums becoming less of a thing these days, so it's good to see one still going like this.
 

bluegate

Elite Member
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Dec 28, 2010
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Wareve said:
I honestly don't think the Forums are what will bring people back though, not without substantial renovation, particularly with integrated Facebook comments under every video and article.
Want to know something interesting though? Videos, articles and pages already have Facebook comments underneath each page.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/vid...st&utm_medium=index_carousel&utm_campaign=all
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/art...st&utm_medium=index_carousel&utm_campaign=all
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/art...st&utm_medium=index_carousel&utm_campaign=all

Just scroll down and you'll find the Facebook integration somewhere in between all sorts of other junk.

My question would be, though, how inclined are people on an anonymous forum to start using the less-anonymous Facebook for interaction? One drawing point of forums such as these is that they allow for a great amount of anonymity, whereas Facebook is often used in conjunction to people's real lives, they have their real life friends, family and parents on Facebook, people might feel more restricted using Facebook than a relative anonymous Escapist account.

Aside from that, yeah, as it is now, Facebook comments are squished in somewhere on the page, there is no focus on the comments, nothing that invites people to use them.
On the Yahtzee video, there is a whole screen's height ( running 1920x1080 ) worth of junk between the video and the comments. On the other two pages the Facebook comments section is 30% of site in width, squished between a flurry or colorful and distracting images.

Wareve said:
bluegate said:
I feel that the set up of forums such as these are a bit outdated in terms of means of communication. Say what you like about sites such as Reddit, Up Vote and Down Vote systems and sub-threading of comments can be used to great effect to keep conversations concentrated, efficient and more importantly keep people engaged with eachother.
So we can add "Updated Forum Functionality" to the list of upgrades that would make the site more appealing.

On that note, what do you guys think about the importance of Content vs. Community?

Like, if you were to go to The Escapist's owners and pitch to them, would you say they should first focus on creating Content so people will come in the first place, or that they should focus first on updating the profiles/forums/accounts in order to facilitate the growth and sustaining of the community?
Personally I would say that both are important, both content and community. Content is what attracts people to your site, but you should have the appropriate infrastructure to facilitate the people coming in, and by that I don't mean server bandwidth and such, but a decently running, well designed website.

For example, mobile websites have been happening ever since around 2010, know when the Escapist went 'mobile'? 2015 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/140536-The-Escapist-Launches-a-New-Mobile-Friendly-Site-Design], and it isn't even a proper mobile website, quite a few bugs and icky parts, the forums are just the same, but squished into your phone's screen, it is very lackluster and a product that I would have expected in 2008, not 2015.
I made some mentions of things I ran into in their forum and even mentioned some things in the Tech Team, but nothing was ever done with it. In the end I just created a custom plugin [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.932165-The-Escapist-Mobile-Userstyle] that I now personally use on my mobile device to browse the escapist somewhat properly.

Hero of Lime said:
I definitely agree, there needed to be a way to up vote comments you like at least. That way, you could communicate that you are reading people's posts. I see lots of posts I could respond to, but it would likely be more trouble than it's worth. Say if I agree with a post, being able to upvote it would be better than just saying "I agree with you." like you mentioned.

Adding such a system for better feedback would make the forums here so much more fun to peruse.
Seeing how the Tech Team is gone nowadays, such a system could easily be added through a browser plugin, I whipped up a small PoC the other day for funzies, but a plugin would require people to use a browser that supports plugins ( ex. Chrome or Firefox ) and only people having the plugin installed would be able to see and make use of it, so it wholly depends on community participation whether such a system could work out or not at this point.
 

Wareve

New member
Aug 17, 2008
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It'd also be helpful if I could figure out how to make the site notify me when a threat i'm interested in gets posted on. That'd be great.
 

09philj

Elite Member
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Mar 31, 2015
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Put that "most recent" forum bar back on the main page where it belongs.
 

bluegate

Elite Member
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Dec 28, 2010
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09philj said:
Put that "most recent" forum bar back on the main page where it belongs.
Although a stop-gap measure, you can use this to tie you over until they reinstate it properly, if you absolutely need it.
Mind you, this relies fully on the escapists own back-end, so if they decide to remove the back end for the feature, well, it's gone.

https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/22151-re-add-popular-forum-posts-widget

This does, however, require that you use a browser that supports plugins that can run "UserScripts"
Chrome - Tampermonkey [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/tampermonkey/dhdgffkkebhmkfjojejmpbldmpobfkfo?hl=en]
Firefox - Greasemonkey [https://addons.mozilla.org/nl/firefox/addon/greasemonkey/]
Opera - Tampermonkey [https://addons.opera.com/extensions/details/tampermonkey-beta/]
Opera - Violentmonkey [https://addons.opera.com/extensions/details/violent-monkey/]

Mind you, I only tested it on Chrome and Firefox.
 

Addendum_Forthcoming

Queen of the Edit
Feb 4, 2009
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Can't you miss something and not have an idea on how to change things? Market dynamics have changed. That doesn't require people to like it, also doesn't necessitate that there is an answer.