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The Escapist staff resign following termination of editor-in-chief Nick Calandra
- irrational 3y agoThe article doesn’t have any context about what the Escapist is, or who or what anything else mentioned is (zero punctuation?). Anyone have an ELI5?
- willk 3y agoThe Escapist is an online magazine covering games and the gaming industry. Zero Punctuation was a weekly series by reviewer Yahtzee Croshaw. ZP is a video essay given in the format of no punctuation. It has been around for a long time and probably was the only thing keeping The Escapist afloat for a while.
- distortedsignal 3y agoTo give context for "a long time" - I believe it was started in 07/08. I remember when it was still "Fully Ramblomatic Reviews". To give context for "only thing keeping The Escapist afloat" - this isn't the first time The Escapist has imploded. Around 2013/2014(?) there was a big blowup, I think The Escapist was bought out, and the new owners terminated a bunch of people and only (really) kept on ZP. The owners basically bought The Escapist for ZP. They ran as a skeleton for quite a few years, and recently (2021?) they started doing more stuff. Their 3 Minute Reviews have been pretty good, and the Cold Take series has been great. This is disappointing for me. I thought they were going in a good direction. It's too bad that management decided that they didn't want to keep funding interesting, well considered voices.
- loganfrederick 3y agoIt was officially started in 2005 with a format much closer to traditional magazines. It was a phase when people were making "e-zines", high quality PDFs distributed monthly: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Escapist_(magazine) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Escapist_(magazine) *Edit: I'm referring to the whole publication, parent comment might've strictly meant the Zero Punctuation show.
- WorldMaker 3y agoThat PDF-based "The Escapist" had some really great content some issues. Well researched, highly intellectual, and sometimes fascinatingly deep. That was the era I most followed The Escapist. Somewhere after that was when it fell out of my RSS feeds for being too shallow, I might have even blamed Zero Punctuation a bit for that at the time. That was always a weird dichotomy to me of well researched magazine on the one side and shallow, fast-paced, rambling video reviews on the other. I enjoyed some of the ZP takes at the time and I appreciate Yahtzee's ability to deliver interesting points sometimes, but it was always something I felt was of the vanguard of "shallow clickbait" that every game site had to be soon after that. Anyway, I thought The Escapist died a long time ago, it's fun to reminisce about the one that I liked the most and to hear from everyone else about this later The Escapist that has died even to the point of angering the golden calf of ZP itself.
- distortedsignal 3y agoYeah - sorry - I was referring to ZP exclusively. I had an indefinite reference (entirely my fault, I’m having a tough week), but I appreciate the history on The Escapist! Good info!
- quchen 3y agoIt’s a computer game thing most commonly known for Zero Punctuation, a review format. It sets itself apart by no punctuation and no pictures of the game being reviewed. Here’s Elden Ring: https://youtu.be/BW_h1zD2luY https://youtu.be/BW_h1zD2luY
- schrijver 3y agoThanks! I feel cheated though, there’s plenty of punctuation! If you switch on the subtitles, it features periods commas and question marks more or less where I hear them. It’s just someone talking annoyingly fast.
- delecti 3y agoThe website is "games industry biz", and the first word of the article is "journalists". If you aren't familiar with Yahtzee, Zero Punctuation, or the Escapist, then that's really all the background you need.
- MDGeist 3y agoDamn I've been watching zero punctuation since my college days. I suppose it is remarkable that it went on unchanged as long as it did.
- adamzochowski 3y agoZero Punctuation is youtube reviews of games done in a funny fast way. As if the read text had no pauses, commans, periods. Hence zero punctuation. Some people said it made them think Charlie Booker was making game reviews.
- oakesm9 3y agoCharlie Booker did do game reviews https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Brooker%27s_Gameswipe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Brooker%27s_Gameswipe
- s_dev 3y agoYeah, I'd say Charlie Brooker's stint at PC Zone was more notable. That was the best gaming magazine ever and the world is shitter without it. Dave Woods, Jamie Sefton, Will Porter, Rihanna Pratchett. I'm genuinely amazed PCGamer beat it in the market and continues to this day.
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- waveBidder 3y agoone of a few YouTube channels I have to watch at normal rather than 2x
- sickofparadox 3y agoHopefully Yahtzee will get his own youtube channel or at least one that shares the spotlight with other creators of his caliber, I only watched ZP sparingly because subscribing to the Escapist would have meant regularly getting MovieBob in my feed.
- throwaway626 3y ago[dead]
- F2hP18Foam 3y agoAccording to Yahtzee he doesn't own the rights to ZP, so I hope he doesn't have too much trouble starting something new.
- entropicdrifter 3y ago... sure, but it's not like ZP owns the format of fast-paced, 5 minute video game reviews full of dick jokes
- kridsdale3 3y agoHe's talented enough to make something new. His novels are original IP and dang good fun.
- jabroni_salad 3y agoCold Take has been such an excellent foil for ZP. I hope they continue to do business together.
- wsinks 3y agoWhen did Cold Take start? I only just found it through recommendations in the last few months and absolutely love the whole vibe that Frost has captured.
- jabroni_salad 3y ago
- paxys 3y agoI like video games as much as anyone, but the entire video games industry is such a hot mess. Terrible working conditions, nasty politics, racism, sexism, toxic fans, zero quality control, monopolies, manipulated reviews, endless push of gambling, microtransactions and other addictive behavior...the list is endless. What is it about the space that brings out the absolute worst in everyone?
- erulabs 3y agoI think it's any industry which is a very common childhood dream that doesn't have a high barrier to entry. I wanted to be a game developer - I was briefly too - but I'm not anymore. It's the perfect environment to get 20 year olds to work 80 hour weeks for close to no pay - because it's so cool we're making video games!.
- bena 3y agoI did it on the hobbyist scene for a bit and then my place of work tried to spin up an indie shop. It can be fun. It can be interesting. However, it is not as lucrative as just writing YACS (Yet Another CRUD Site). Now, I would like to get back to hobbyist development, just for giggles, but I've wound up with so many obligations, it's hard to find time.
- CM30 3y agoYeah, this is very accurate. Which in turn is why games journalism is such a broken industry in of itself, because it mixes all the problems of the games industry as a whole (people accepting miserable wages for a 'dream job', fairly low barrier to entry, toxic conditions) with those of the media industry (people accepting low/miserable wages, low barrier to entry, toxic conditions and almost no way to make a decent amount of revenue). Hence you get situations like the focus of this discussion; the people who actually do the work and draw in the visitors getting treated terribly by out of touch execs, and many sites cratering as a result of similar poor decision making.
- depereo 3y agoLots of industries with low barrier to entry have their 'rock stars' who people aspire to be and will work hard towards, at least for a while. Carmack or Bowie or Ramsay. But they're the 0.1% of the 0.1%.
- ivraatiems 3y agoWhy is it never good enough to just have an ongoing business that works? Unless The Escapist was really losing money or about to go bankrupt, I don't know why it needed to be messed with. It's not a "growth" project, it's a journalistic outlet. Who cares if it "grows"?
- r0ckarong 3y agoBecause "investors" expect returns on their investment and the more investors you pull in, the more money you need to generate. At some point it's no longer about how to run the business well or how to make "enough" money for yourself and your people but how to keep the investors (whom typically don't live off of their one investment) from pulling the foundation for your only livelihood out from under you if you don't deliver enough returns.
- Drakim 3y agoSomebody in the new management probably needed to stir things up and show that they have a vision and direction that will take the company to new heights, which includes drastic measures like firing those holding the company back, or who were unwilling to be reduced in compensation and scope.
- runeofdoom 3y agoThis. Over two decades, I have yet to see new senior management who didn't feel compelled to 'make their mark' on their new territory by changing something significant. Occassionally, they'll actually do something useful, but usually they take something that worked and break it.
- jstarfish 3y agoI don't think it's incompetence or egomania anymore; I think it's outright sadism. Some of these corporate sociopaths (Shkreli) don't even try to conceal their intentions because nothing ever happens to any of them anyway. It wasn't the hijinks with the Epi-pen pricing that sent Shkreli to prison. Find something sentimental to someone, and smash it while they watch. People can't coordinate resistance against you when they're emotional. Hurt them deep enough and they give up. Then you can replace them with sycophants.
- loganfrederick 3y agoAs I posted in the Aftermath/Kotaku thread[1], I worked as a contract writer for The Escapist from 2005-2009, and it was literally my first job ever. Yahtzee resigning is what I consider the end of the publication, as he's been the most consistent contributor for nearly two decades and most likely the primary revenue generator. It's very sad to see a huge part of my past coming to a close. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38176053 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38176053
- martincmartin 3y agoEdit: I misread, sorry.
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- bentley 3y agoIt’s not too surprising that Nick got fired given The Escapist’s desperate attempts at monetization of late. Zero Punctuation videos typically start with a short 30‐second ad for some other Escapist property, read by Yahtzee himself. But recently blatant 1‐minute ads (preceding a 5‐minute review) from external sponsors have been showing up in the high‐profile review videos such as Tears of the Kingdom and Baldur’s Gate 3. A review just two months ago even had an advertisement within the video. Notably, Yahtzee did not deign to perform these ad spots for external sponsors himself, a sign of how much pull he had within the company. Another sign of how much of a moneymaker ZP is for The Escapist is how in the last few years it’s rebranded to use the distinctive “limbless white figure” art style, an invention of ZP, throughout Escapist’s other blogs and podcasts. Ticking off Yahtzee by firing Nick has taken out what’s almost certainly The Escapist’s biggest source of revenue.
- wsinks 3y agoI remember that video with the sponsor in the middle of it, and if I remember correctly showed Yahtzee's active disdain for it because he alluded to it before the sponsor bit, showing that he knew that it would interrupt the content that he was powerless to change it. I'll have to follow Yahtzee and Frost wherever they go.
- colechristensen 3y agoSeems like they’re all balding together and starting something new called Second Wind. >@everyone I'm very excited to announce that name of our new adventure, Second Wind. The ENTIRE Escapist video team is coming with. <@233002118808600577> and I will be live on the channel tomorrow at 11 AM CT to discuss our plans, talk about what happened, where to support and when our first videos will drop. All the links you need: https://twitter.com/SecondWindGroup https://twitter.com/SecondWindGroup https://www.twitch.tv/secondwindgroup https://www.twitch.tv/secondwindgroup https://www.youtube.com/@SecondWindGroup https://www.youtube.com/@SecondWindGroup
- colechristensen 3y agoThe escapist was just purchased a few months ago and the new corporate overlords were trying new things to monetize.
- mvdtnz 3y agoI hope Croshaw takes this as an opportunity to expand his horizons. He's a funny, clever guy who has been beating the same drum for years. Zero Punctuation got old a decade ago but he kept wheeling it out week after week like a comfort blanket.
- fullshark 3y agoMeh tired of that mentality, we need more people who get good at their job and keep doing it well.
- AlexandrB 3y agoGetting good at your job and doing it well doesn't mean doing the exact same thing for 20 years. Many of the best musicians had multiple "eras" where their styles changed dramatically.
- swarnie 3y agoI'm not sure what else you want the guy to do. He has multiple video series, a live stream and about six novels i can name.
- dtech 3y agoHe's been doing game dev off and on and is currently working on Starstruck Vagabond [1], so he might spend more time on that. He's also written quite a few books. edit: He and some other former Escapist crew are doing something, and their Patreon leaked [2] [1] https://yzcroshaw.itch.io/starstruck https://yzcroshaw.itch.io/starstruck [2] https://www.patreon.com/SecondWindGroup https://www.patreon.com/SecondWindGroup
- mvdtnz 3y agoThat's cool, I wasn't aware of his books. I am more talking about his video content, I would love to see him do some funny videos that don't follow the mould of ZP.
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- trostaft 3y agoBoth Yahtzee (ZP) and Sebastian (Cold Take), who both ran my favorite two Escapist publications, have resigned along with him. I sincerely hope that the new management at the Escapist actually have a plan here, for the sake of the remaining employees (naive hope). Wonder where these two will end up, their work is great
- xvector 3y agoThe execs who make these decisions ought to be named and shamed.
- ncr100 3y agoI don't know that would help anything. https://gamurs.group/about https://gamurs.group/about Looking deeper than names, several roles in the executive level changed over the last 12 months ('22 and one in '23). The CEO has been there forever. So perhaps it's reasonable to guess they are in an acquisition phase, and are squeezing their portfolio to meet their new higher financial goals. What do you think?
- atleastoptimal 3y agoDoes anyone still read web publications that hail back to the golden era of Vice? I feel that they were in their heyday in the late 2000s and since have suffered a gradual, painful decline into irrelevance.
- karaterobot 3y agoI think at a certain point many of them just changed to primarily or exclusively video and streaming content. It's easier to monetize, and it's where most of the attention of gamers is focused. A lot of it is cheap and terrible, but some of it is really good.
- AdamJacobMuller 3y ago> "I don't have the rights to Zero Punctuation" Thats sad. Nothing gamurs does with it will be successful. Yahtzee, both in his voice and in the video content itself, is far too linked to Zero Punctuation. I'm sure whatever Yahtzee does next will be successful but it will be lesser without the ZP name attached.
- Hamuko 3y agoI hope it's just the name "Zero Punctuation" that he doesn't have the rights to, since he started making what was essentially Zero Punctuation but without the name "Zero Punctuation" before he was hired by The Escapist. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWS9_nrKOPA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWS9_nrKOPA
- slg 3y agoReminiscent of what happened at Deadspin a few years ago[1]. The EIC was fired for some weird management BS and the entire staff resigned and eventually started Defector as a worker owned business which has been consistently profitable[2]. Hopefully some of the Escapist folks follow that route. [1] - https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/28/business/media/deadspin-staffers-start-defector.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/28/business/media/deadspin-s... [2] - https://defector.com/three-years-of-defector https://defector.com/three-years-of-defector
- phendrenad2 3y agoThis is good. This is like a prey animal developing a bitter taste so predators will cough it up if they try to eat it. Or the villagers banding together to expel a rich businessman who wants to strip mine the local ecology.
- kalupa 3y agoI see that "private equity" buyout by Gamurs is going exceedingly well