Zero Punctuation: Axiom Verge & Stealth Inc 2

Mike_Kocsis

New member
Sep 11, 2011
4
0
0
This is definitely goodbye escapist. I understand that you need ad revenue but when my ghostery blocks 80+ things on your site, when no other site even comes close to that, I will not turn it off. I honestly wouldn't use adblock on your site if you didn't have ads that play on the page after I watch an ad before the video. It's especially annoying when the majority of your video ads cannot be muted. I hope Yahtzee does what Jim did and leaves you to start a patreon. Love his work, hate what you've turned this site into. You killed Extra Credits, you killed Jim Sterling, you killed MovieBob, and now you are killing every single video on your site.
 

Rad Party God

Party like it's 2010!
Feb 23, 2010
3,560
0
0
The video loaded perfectly fine for me, but then again, I use Chrome, I have Ad-block disabled (for this site) and the most maligned ads mostly never work for me (as in, these ads never show in my region), so it's pretty much the same as having Ad-block enabled, so *shrugs*.

It's not the end of the world people, you can be such insufferable drama queens sometimes... >.>'
 

Strazdas

Robots will replace your job
May 28, 2011
8,407
0
0
Silentpony said:
Anyone else having loading problems? Its like they made the page, but forgot to actually load up a video.
yeah. reloaded coulpe times, seems to have fixed the problem. it looks like third party quantserve.com which is ad related agency is timeouting and bringing the entire thing down.

on the other hand at least quality improved.
 

Kross

World Breaker
Sep 27, 2004
854
0
0
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])
 

Stefan Duberley

New member
Apr 13, 2015
2
0
0
Can you imagine a state of affairs where youtube, or literally any other video player, demanded that their entire user base follow an eight step technical diagnostic process before being able to view a four minute video?

I maintain a whitelist and am active under the hood of my web-browser, so I could; but won't owing to laziness. It's a four minute video about video games, if it's not convenient to watch then I just won't watch it. A lot of quote unquote "normal people" won't even be able to get that far.
 

Kross

World Breaker
Sep 27, 2004
854
0
0
Stefan Duberley said:
Can you imagine a state of affairs where youtube, or literally any other video player, demanded that their entire user base follow an eight step technical diagnostic process before being able to view a four minute video?
I don't believe anyone is demanding anything [http://i.imgur.com/nDdafsv.png], but we do try to provide thorough troubleshooting instructions. They seem to be working, as I can count on one hand the number of users who have come to us with video issues that were beyond the scope of the help page ...across the entire history of the site.

We are sorry for non-"script blocker" related issues on the new player (either in the playback, or in the layout), and are actively working to rectify them. Apologies for any inconvenience, but please do use the feedback form to provide us with the details of your configuration if you are still having issues (and are so inclined), and thank you for any patience you may have while we work out the remaining kinks.
 

vagabondwillsmile

New member
Aug 20, 2013
221
0
0
Thanatos2k said:
Hey, if someone wants to make a game exactly like Super Metroid, I'm down with that.

The people who actually own Metroid sure as hell aren't doing it.
It's kind of crazy, after a whole day it looks like you and I are STILL the only ones that have bothered to actually talk about the games unless I missed an ot post (I would have quoted you but I initially missed yours)!

And you make a good point. As much as Axiom Verge is aping off of Super Metroid, maybe I can't blame the devs too much. I would love to see Nintendo back in form with the series but I don't see that happening anytime soon. I watched gameplay of The Other M to see if it would interest me, and the gameplay looked great - but there was no getting past Samus suddenly being all fragile, or the painful story, or following orders, or any of the rest of it.

AV does seem interesting, and that drill looks rad.

Stealth Inc. might be neat too, but I'm not quite as interested in it for whatever reason.
 

Nazulu

They will not take our Fluids
Jun 5, 2008
6,242
0
0
Oh c'mon Yahtzee. We should encourage Super Metroid type metroidvania's, since there are hardly any of them. Especially matching the quality of it. Well thanks for bringing it up so I can get it later.

I want to see more developers copy SSB Melee since Nintendo isn't doing it anymore.

Edit: Works on my Firefox now which is good. So thank you.
24/4/15 - 1:53pm
 

Odoylerules360

We're all just folk now...
Aug 29, 2008
166
0
0
If your new video player is causing so many problems for you that you have to put up a notice for it, you should switch back to the old one.

-- A Former Viewer
 

Alleged_Alec

New member
Sep 2, 2008
796
0
0
Kross said:
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
I agree with you here, but be honest: the Escapist hasn't had the best track-record with adds.

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])
It may help if you guys post a link to show people how to delete cookies for a single site. Many people will probably not be familiar with how to do this and may think you're expecting them to delete all cookies, which is, understandably, unacceptable.

EDIT:
By the by, did you guys also change how spoilers work? I can't seem to open those any more on my home computer since a week or so.
 
Jan 10, 2013
31
0
0
So, that's that then. Since Yahtzee is the only content worth looking at, aside from Critical Intel, and it won't work without fiddling about under the hood of my set-up, I just won't. Seems like fiddling about isn't a guarantee to get the video to work anyway, by the looks of it in this thread. We part ways now, Escapist. Best of luck, but I don't see this going well. I hope to see Yahtzee free of the shackles of an outdated business model soon. Until then I'll just catch him with a week's delay on youtube.


So long and thanks for all the fish.
 

Stefan Duberley

New member
Apr 13, 2015
2
0
0
Kross said:
Stefan Duberley said:
Can you imagine a state of affairs where youtube, or literally any other video player, demanded that their entire user base follow an eight step technical diagnostic process before being able to view a four minute video?
I don't believe anyone is demanding anything [http://i.imgur.com/nDdafsv.png], but we do try to provide thorough troubleshooting instructions. They seem to be working, as I can count on one hand the number of users who have come to us with video issues that were beyond the scope of the help page ...across the entire history of the site.

We are sorry for non-"script blocker" related issues on the new player (either in the playback, or in the layout), and are actively working to rectify them. Apologies for any inconvenience, but please do use the feedback form to provide us with the details of your configuration if you are still having issues (and are so inclined), and thank you for any patience you may have while we work out the remaining kinks.
My use of the word demand is based on the fact that, unless we take the time to hunt down your not especially well advertised troubleshooting instructions, and go through the steps listed, we cannot watch the video. It simply doesn't work - and unless we hunt around we have no idea why. When I posted before there wasn't even a banner on the video explaining why it might not be working, which is a road block to most of the population. Yahtzee has an immense viewership, and by my count less than 7000 people bothered to investigate the forum to find out what was wrong.

I might be in a minority in that I have no problem with you hozing ad-block. I think it's misguided and will hurt you, but that's just my opinion. It's your business, not mine, and I respect that. I still won't go through the troubleshooting steps because it's more inconvenient than a four minute video justifies. This is ultimately a service website, the service being entertainment, and when a service requires me to work before it functions, I'll just go watch a youtube cat on a trampoline. I very much doubt I'm alone.
 

IceForce

Is this memes?
Legacy
Dec 11, 2012
2,384
16
13
Ignoring the new video player and all that; the thing I find the most interesting about all this, is that this thread hasn't been carpet-bombed by the mods, like Jim's adblock thread was.

Maybe lessons were learned that day, it's hard to say.

Twattycake_Fancypant said:
So, that's that then. Since Yahtzee is the only content worth looking at, aside from Critical Intel,
Critical Intel has already left the site. (Unless you mean Critical Miss?)
 

major_chaos

Ruining videogames
Feb 3, 2011
1,314
0
0
Really? This much anger over adds? Alt tab over to reddit, or lolcats, or some really short porn, its 30 fucking seconds guys, I am absolutely 900% positive you can weather the loss. "HOW FUCKING DARE THIS SHITTY WEBSITE TRY TO KEEP THE LIGHTS ON AND THE EMPLOYEES PAID!!! I"M LEAVING AND TAKING ALL THE NOTHING I GAVE WITH ME!!!". running a website isn't free and pubclub costs pennies, how exactly do you think Defy is supposed to fund this place?

OT: I would have tossed Axiom Verge aside as a unambiguous Metroid clone if Nintendo actually still made Metroid, but as it stands the last Metroid games of worthwhile quality came out over a decade ago, so I say bring on the clones. It also helps that while Axiom Verge doesn't have a huge amount of originality, the quality of execution comes damn close to Super Metroid levels. Certainly a game I would recommend, even if the last hour or so drops off in quality a bit and the final boss is terrible. Almost as if the game was somehow rushed despite being in development for god only knows how long.
 

malestrithe

New member
Aug 18, 2008
1,818
0
0
Kross said:
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])
I'm glad for you that you've found a way to ditch HTML5. I have no idea what that means because I don't particularly care about video players. I also get why you feel your hard work is unappreciated. Because you know the 77 people who've bothered to complain must be really upsetting compared to the millions of people that posted nothing and got on with it or don't care.

I've followed your video suggestions page, but it doesn't solve my specific problem. I don't like watching these in full screen. Is there a way I can watch in a smaller format? The lower quality button at the bottom of the video only refreshes the video I'm watching. It doesn't make things smaller. There was an option yesterday morning to make things lower quality for people with DSL lines, but when I asked about that ability it disappeared in the afternoon. While you were getting upset at the 77 people complaining about adblock not working on their system, and a few of them followed your steps and it still didn't work, my specific concern was ignored. I'm fairly certain it won't get talked about again because you have already stopped listening because of all 77 complainers made you cry.

Here's the thing you need to be aware of. There's a reason why youtube doesn't disable adblock on their site. The moment they do, youtube dies. Some other site will come along and take over. Guess what? Youtube knows this. That is why in 2012, they paid adblock a lot of money to place youtube on a permanent exception list. Doing that saved Google almost a billion dollars a year in server costs.

Maybe pay adblock plus money to have your site on the exceptions list instead?
 

Yahtzee Croshaw

New member
Aug 8, 2007
11,049
0
0
Alleged_Alec said:
It may help if you guys post a link to show people how to delete cookies for a single site. Many people will probably not be familiar with how to do this and may think you're expecting them to delete all cookies, which is, understandably, unacceptable.

EDIT:
By the by, did you guys also change how spoilers work? I can't seem to open those any more on my home computer since a week or so.
I can spend some extra time making the instructions a bit more detailed.

We've changed Spoilers to be jQuery based recently, mobile layout was having some issues which were recently fixed as well.

Thanks for the feedback.
 

EvilTelephone

New member
Apr 23, 2015
1
0
0
Kross said:
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.]
Kross, I certainly don't mind ads. I understand their importance. But it's also important that the ads aren't intrusive to the point of being irritating. The Escapist hasn't exactly had a solid track record in that regard.

To give you a fresh and relevant example, while reading through this very forum post, I decided to disable "That Plugin" and after a page refresh I was immediately greeted with loud audio of someone talking about a product. It took me a few seconds to figure out it was coming from this tab, at the bottom right of the page. Yes, there was an auto-playing video ad with sound. This is not acceptable.
 

Yahtzee Croshaw

New member
Aug 8, 2007
11,049
0
0
Stefan Duberley said:
I'm not 100% clear on the issue you're having about the help page. The 8 steps more or less say "Make sure you're using latest browser software, clear your cookies/cache, we don't support third-party browser extensions, and if that doesn't work let us know". This page has existed since we got a video player back in 2007 and is simply out attempt to help users having issues.

If I can offer any more clarity or help for you please let me know, or feel free to file a ticket [/contact/subject/tech] if you'd like to let us know privately.

Best,

-Mud
 

Yahtzee Croshaw

New member
Aug 8, 2007
11,049
0
0
malestrithe said:
I've followed your video suggestions page, but it doesn't solve my specific problem. I don't like watching these in full screen. Is there a way I can watch in a smaller format? The lower quality button at the bottom of the video only refreshes the video I'm watching. It doesn't make things smaller. There was an option yesterday morning to make things lower quality for people with DSL lines, but when I asked about that ability it disappeared in the afternoon.
I should have the format selector in the player within the next week or so. I understand that's an important feature and we're totes gunna get that in soon.

-Mud