So, we've been wanting to ditch Flash for an HTML5 player for years now. At first, they didn't support ad networks [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patronage] in any reasonable way, and later our two [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/profiles/view/ThyNameIsMud] programmers [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/profiles/view/paulgruberman] have had to develop a mobile site around other non-Escapist projects that help pay to keep the wheels [http://i.imgur.com/q2qumyP.jpg] turning. Luckily, Google forced the hand of our divine Granter-of-Funds, which allowed us to prioritize mobile development.
We don't go out of our way to detect things that disable ads, but we also don't make bypassing the things that literally pay for our food, rent, and insurance a priority. The fact that the new HTML5 player breaks when components of its playlist are disabled was a bit of a happy coincidence from a development effort perspective.
It makes me a bit sad to see all the anger, when everyone I've worked with [http://i.imgur.com/RwC1qks.png] here (for over [http://i.imgur.com/AHWpNG4.jpg] a decade [http://i.imgur.com/JKpUSp2.png] now!) loves playing [http://i.imgur.com/MsmtzmG.png] and talking [http://i.imgur.com/NeUYK4J.png] about games, and are doing our best to devote all our working energy [http://i.imgur.com/HOAGVpA.png] towards those goals (rather than much more soul-draining pursuits). We put up all the content we can find about the things [http://i.imgur.com/HSurtLm.jpg] we love [http://i.imgur.com/9JwDWI8.jpg], and do our best to make sure that content will be here tomorrow. If you want to customize what loads on your browser, we aren't demanding that you change your ways, but it's a bit insulting to come on our forums and tell us how you despise us personally for trying to ensure the people paying for our content get enough of a return to keep making more content. We want you to see the videos, which a significant part of why we upload to Youtube (which has more eyes, but pays significantly less per viewer). Youtube provided stopgap mobile support, while also introducing more people to our existing content.
If you're having an issue with the video player, we are actively working on addressing any reported difficulties. Please, if you are unable to view a video, follow the instructions outlined here (we need to remove the references to Flash, but the rest is still valid)
http://escapistmagazine.com/videos/help
Very few people have followed the steps on the help page to the end... less then 10 people over the past day (or year! [https://31.media.tumblr.com/1613d6bc53603560139edb5dac84c7a0/tumblr_inline_nktfoyHgNs1r66kub.gif])