An open letter to James and Alexander

[The_Darkness]

Thank you for your reply. Honestly, if I thought we could fund the Escapist via a Kickstarter/RocketHub drive, I would do so in a heartbeat. I just don't think it would work. Unfortunately, our experience with Publisher's Club has suggested that the volume of users inclined to pay to support us is small. The cost of running a website that gets our volume of traffic per month is painfully high.

You don't advertise the Publisher's Club correctly. It's marketed as a nice little bonus you guys are appreciative of - not as a dire necessity for the continuance of the site. If it is, in fact, the latter, you may be surprised by how much support you have.

I'm more of a lurker here than a commenter - just look at my post count - but I watch and read a LOT of the content (including EC) and I'm probably on here at least once a day, so I think I can consider myself a fan/supporter/whatever. But I'm not in the Publisher's Club.

Why? I saw no reason to join: high quality videos of Zero Punctuation is not exactly a selling point (No offence to Yahtzee's art style). Yes there are other videos on here, but none of them *need* HQ. Also, being able to download the videos isn't exactly a selling point either, since I'm quite happy to access them online, and have a reasonable (if not great) internet connection. Custom title? I don't post (much). Ad free? Well, I'll admit that the ads get on my nerves, but I can just mute them and check something on another tab if its the 15th time I've seen an ad that I *know* I'm not interested in... Discounts off a variety of stores that I don't use? Go figure...

That was my opinion until today. The only points that were in favour of the publishers club were the exclusive content, the early access (maybe) and the ad-free-ness, which wasn't enough to tip the balance in your favour, I'm afraid. But the Escapist needing support? That tips the balance. I'll sign up tomorrow (it's late where I am now).

The thing is, I suspect that there are a lot of people like me - lurkers who don't contribute to the forums and just put up with the ads to get to the videos. If you could somehow sell the Publisher's Club to us, that might help. Admitting that the Escapist needs support *might* do that for the kind-hearted ones like me, but you need something else.

A couple of suggestions:

a) I like Kwil's suggestion (page 2) of early access to videos, but I realise that the vids might not be ready 24hrs before release. That and it just changes things from "Watch weekly on Thursday" to "Watch weekly on Wednesday." Nonetheless, it seems like a nice plus.

b) I also like what RoosterTeeth does (or did - not sure if they still are) with RvB - offering an extra scene to each episode to subscribers. Again, I'm not entirely sure how this would mesh with the content of videos on this site compared to RvB (reviews rather than storylines) but its an idea.

Anyway, that's my opinion as one of those elusive lurkers. Hope it helps. I realise this is slightly off the topic of the EC issue, but as far as I can tell then it's all related.

 

[Vuirneen]

The Escapist Store has 2 Extra Credits T Shirts and a mug on it. That's all.

Or else the store is really badly organised.

Both are bad.

I would pay good money for downloadable episodes of Doomsday Arcade. All of your shows could be batched when a season's over and the dvds sold.

There should be far more merch available. I'm pretty sure that a lot of successful sites make a butt-ton of money from turning every sweet graphic into a T-Shirt.

 

[P1a5m4_5t4t3]

Dear Alex,

This is literally my first post ever on this site, and I post this because I love dearly everything about The Escapist including, though certainly not limited to, Extra Credits. Over the relatively short time that EC has been a contributor on the site, I have come to love it as much as ZP, of which I have been a fan of from the beginning. These things being said, I want nothing but the best for both parties involved.

As I understand it, the economic downturn has hit you, and subsequently The Escapist, particularly hard, to the point where many features and contributors had to be dropped and/or not paid in order to make ends meet to the best of your abilities. The blow of the argument between you and James hit me perhaps harder than most because I was completely blindsided due to the fact that I neither follow James or the topic on the forums, so I was completely taken aback when I saw the post about how EC was leaving/being cut from The Escapist family this afternoon. I was initially struck that it must be a hoax or a publicity stunt. In my mind, never would such a fine show as EC be cut from the lineup, and nor would the wonderful people at EC have cause to be bitter enough to remove themselves. I soon saw that my general lackluster feeling toward following the news behind the sight had left me blind to the quite fickle, though probably no more so than anyone else, people behind two of my favorite things. I want the problem corrected as much as the next guy so that I do not have to lose some of my favorite media from the site.

That being said, I probably have far less experience than you and almost every one before me who has contributed to the discussion constructively with ideas and solutions to help both the involved parties, I am only 17, so feel free to disregard the likely horrible financial advice I am about to give. I live in Colorado and one of my favorite things to do is listen to NPR (National Public Radio) and CPR (Colorado Public Radio), to much teasing and jeers from my peers of course, but I digress: the reason I bring this up is because CPR gets literally all of it's funding from those who listen to it, they have no financial government support or support from NPR, jut donations from fans. They acquire those donations through pledge drives that occur roughly 4 times a year by my count, though my memory is not very good so who knows for sure. The thing is, I see no reason why you cannot do something similar. CPR has sweepstakes and incentives that you are automatically entered in or that you receive when you donate/pledge and I think that you could likely do something similar and with little or no interruption in the content that you provide on the Escapist. CPR always has a seemingly insurmountable sum that they need to raise in order to survive to the next pledge drive, but, they tell people that number and they give them a time limit to meet it and consistently, the fans meet it and exceed it before the deadline is even up. I would guess that your operating budget is no where near as large as CPR's (but then again, you don't have world-wide correspondent networks to quite the same degree as them XD), I do know that you have fans that are probably every bit as loyal as CPR's fans and whom only wish to see you and The Escapist succeed. I know that I would love to donate/support, but I cannot afford the Publisher's Club, If something like this existed with an 'any amount helps' kind of donation system with some small gifts/incentives along with a sweepstakes or larger prize kind of thing, then I personally would give what I could. So, if you like the idea of supplementing your ad revenue with some fan support money during a donation drive (or whatever you might end up calling it), perhaps have a meeting with marketing and Russ and whomever else you feel could help you pull something like this off.

Hoping I don't get flamed for this,
P1a5m4.

 

[Vuirneen]

I've been trying to put forward my idea on the matter, Hopefully Alex will agree with me. Rather than quibble over the excess funds, give the money to a 3rd party like Child's Play that helps infirm gamers. Then the money is still spent in a manner consistent with the spirit it was given in and there is nothing left to fight over besides paying the Escapist Contributors. As far as that issue goes, that overflow money was never intended for that and it was wrong to try to use it as such. Another source will have to be found. The same can be said of James wanting to fund an indie game studio. The road to hell is paved with good intentions after all.

The Rockethub website clearly showed when the money for Alison's surgery was covered. People at that point were not donating for her surgery and should have known that.

I believe that there was a discussion on the webiste about what to do with the excess and the donators voted. At that point, a post was put on Rockethub which would be seen when you visited the site to donate, stating specifically what the money would be used for.

James gained the mandate to spend the money on indy games from the people who donated and kept donating once the post was up.

 

[jam19th]

I have to say I come down on the side of the Escapist ( for now pending these infamous emails). I love this place and even though I don't post a lot, I lurk like nobody's business. So everything I say will have my bias swigning in thier direction.

I have no clue how the publishing business works let alone how to keep an E-magazine aflot. To be honest seems like a mess of work for long hours, little pay, and dealing with "derp" moments from your fans. So I would safely assume that you all do this for love of games and have true passion for the medium and are not just in it for the "fat check" (since there doesn't seem to be one).

As far as having any advice for a peacful resolution ........................... um........................ I would just have the money be used for what it intetionaly was meant for.

1) Pay for Alison's suregery

2) Pay for her therapy and living expenses until she can work again

3) Cover your merchandise costs minus the Pub-club costs ( we can consider that The Escapists contribution)

4) Pay guest artists to cover for Alison

5) Honestly with those 4 things I don't see much being left over but to be fair I would just donate the rest to a Worthy charity. This would make a excellent voteing set up. Just have a bunch of different charity's put up in a poll and have us decide where to send the remainder of the money.

TBH I gave money to help Alison not to help start up a game company and I was never happy with the idea that the excess funds would be used for that but never expressed it because it seemed everyone liked the idea. It sounds ok at first but isnt at all if you REALLY think about it. That money was to help people not to make a game company.

This is a solution I think both parties can agree to and that the general Escapist community can get behind. Alison gets the help she needs and deserved, EC gets to keep rolling along with guest artists, and The Escapist gets some good PR with teh interbutts.

As far as makeing money for the magazine. Cant help you much there (Not that I think my rant above was much help to begin with >.>). Just know that there are those of us on here that love EC to death but wont be leaving the site anytime soon because of this, even though I am sure some will.

One final thing hang in there Escapists crew we love you guys and hope the best for you in these tough times.

 

[FalloutJack]

-El Snippo-

Pardon me, but would you kindly address the main thread at some point? After all, the mods did go to alot of trouble to consolidate everything there.

 

[trollnystan]

I have to admit, when the news broke my rage metre hit red and my butthurt was explosive. I even considered leaving the Escapist all together. But after sleep, reading both sides, reading peoples thoughts on the matter, and doing some thinking of my own - don't worry, my brain didn't hurt much - I'm feeling much more level-headed.

Thank you Alex, for trying to give answers to our concerns. Personally, I think that adding any new content when you know you're in financial trouble is a bit of a no-no and I've seen plenty of new shows pop up since I started coming here.

Also, I'd like to agree with those that suggested that a Rockethub/Kickstarter/etc would work - or at least it would have before the shit hit the fan. I did not donate to the "send Yahtzee to PAX" thing as I had nothing invested in it myself and I'm too poor to do altruistic donations too often. Not to mention the whole thing seemed iffy to me, not knowing about truth behind the financial problems the Escapist was/is having. I DID donate to "Save Allison's arm" and I would've have - and probably still would now that my butt's stopped hurting - donated to a "Save the Escapist" drive too.

I'm poor, but I'm bad with money and my heart's too soft; you could've taken advantage of that dude! =P

I'm so far from a financial wizard - I'm at best a financial troll? Kobold? - but I reiterate that though the potential revenue that new content might give you is naturally tempting, remembering the definite drain that it obviously will have should take priority when making decisions.

I love the Escapist; the people here are intelligent and articulate and fun. I'd hate to see you - us - go under because of this. I hope both you and EC - who I also love - will reach an amicable solution.

...

What the hell:

Sincerely,

Fionnuala J.

 

[ResonanceSD]

Snip!

My suggestion (like you need another)? What you're probably already doing: Find a way to settle up amicably with your current content creators, and then fix it going forward. Open up to the community and tell them what's going on. Formalize arrangements with content creators a bit more, make sure everyone knows the score.

There's one thing I'd like to add to this - Please, do not bring in new contributors while you already have problems paying the ones you're currently employing. I do not mean to lecture, but seeing as Jim Sterling was recently employed...I found it to be a point that may have been best brought to light.

I was wondering how that new newsies thing would go. How would they afford to pay a new contributor? DO THEY pay newsies?

 

[Kross]

I was wondering how that new newsies thing would go. How would they afford to pay a new contributor? DO THEY pay newsies?

I don't believe anyone ever said we outright refused to pay them. We pay all our debts as soon as we are able.

 

[Jabberwock xeno]

Both sides made mistakes. a donation fund way back to help pay the contrbuitors woulf have solved this, as would only accepting money just enough to pay for allisions surgery.

Hopefully everything will settle out, EC will contiue, and so will the Escapist.

I am very saddened by what happened, but life most go on...

 

[ResonanceSD]

I was wondering how that new newsies thing would go. How would they afford to pay a new contributor? DO THEY pay newsies?

I don't believe anyone ever said we outright refused to pay them. We pay all our debts as soon as we are able.

I wonder that S&P isn't after you for a ratings downgrade already.


Why has The Escapist tried to launch many small shows at once? Are you looking to find the Next Big Thing? Do you realise that you're essentially gambling the future of the website away as all your good content is on the way out?

And honestly "we pay them when we can" sounds like nothing less than sheer opportunism. These are people who love games and are passionate about them. They'll write about them regardless. That's the only way you've been able to get away with the status quo for so long. Allison's injury was a wonderful catalyst, though tragic, to clean up shady practices in this business.

 

[intheweeds]

The cost of producing shows probably represents 50% of The Escapist's costs every month, in fact. (The rest is overhead, bandwidth, servers, ad hosting, sales team, tech team, art team, editorial team).

Sorry, I have been thinking about your problem all day. I really love chewing on business problems. I emailed this thread to my business partner since i found your responses to people so interesting. We are soon to develop a rather large website (website businesses not being something i know anything about) to compliment another project so it is very relevant to me. I don't think people realize how cool it is to get this kind of frank information from a CEO about their business.

Anyway... this quote is killing me. If this is true, you need to offload production costs man! You say how much you are willing to pay for each episode of whatever and the content providers are there own businesses who will have to keep on their own budgets and deadlines. Maybe the problem is that you are trying to be a content developer and a content provider at the same time.

I know i'm not going to be popular for saying this - it really does sound like sticking it to the content providers if you knee-jerk react. When you think it through though, it would end up like i described above - content providers having more freedom with their IPs as well as off loading maybe %30-40 of your operating costs. I feel like it's win-win.

Failing that, another option is to separate the two businesses. You would have 'escapistmagazine.com' and Escapist Productions. Escapist the website instantly gets better. Because if your contract's involve you paying for production costs and owning IPs, then aren't you really just buying talent? Have your production company handle that with it's own budgets. The production company can decide how much each episode is worth and the website can just buy episodes as it can afford them. This choice of course involves a whole fresh business plan and all the lawyer and accountant work associated with that.

Regardless, I would very much like to see the Escapist weather this storm. Thank you for being so honest with us. I really appreciate talking with you about this, please let us know how things go as we go along. I think a lot of us would appreciate it.

 

[krellen]

I don't believe anyone ever said we outright refused to pay them. We pay all our debts as soon as we are able.

This is true. However, various people have reported that you were deeply in arrears - over a year so, in some cases. You have not denied James's claim that you had failed to pay for Extra Credits for nearly a year - as such, given the information you have to put out, I have to assume that this is, indeed, the truth. As such, you really should have been far more delicate when dealing with the RocketHub issue; Extra Credits was not in arrears (they were still producing their weekly content, even as they had to find other artists to complete it) - you were.

I could reasonably see asking James - politely, of course - to compensate the Escapist for its marketing time and efforts, given that RocketHub could not operate as a charity and thus the Escapist could not claim those efforts as charitable donations. And I could see negotiating with James for the return of his IP, on the understanding that it would clear some of your past debt with him. The mistake I see here, and this is entirely on the part of the Escapist (trying to claim James getting a lawyer is "rude" is complete bullshit. Anyone dealing with a year-old Account Payable should be expecting to be talking to lawyers,) was trying to profit from the RocketHub "save Allison's arm" drive at all. Break-even, maybe. Perhaps trying to negotiate the marketing efforts and IP as repayment of the past debt.

But the second anyone at the Escapist ventured a claim to any of the money directly, or that the money be used directly for the benefit of the Escapist, is the point at which you failed. My only involvement in anything related to this drive was checking the page once (seeing they'd reached their goal and deciding that there was no need for further donation) and the information they passed along in the videos your published on your site, which means your staff should have been fully aware of it, and I knew that they quickly reached their goal and were deciding, with the fans, what to do with the extra money. The Escapist's role in the drive was minimal - it was clearly a drive for Extra Credits, by Extra Credits. Whatever role the Escapist had was behind the scenes, and should have remained there.

I understand times are tough for you (although you have completely failed to successfully convey that message to your readership) and you saw an opportunity to get yourself out of the hole you had dug yourselves into, but you knew going into this that the essential reason for this was a medical problem, and should have immediately resisted any attempt to monetise the issue. You likely could have come out of this situation much better had you simply accepted from the start that the "save Extra Credits" drive was not yours at all.

I really do think an apology would help a lot here. Not to us, obviously; you need to apologise to Extra Credits and James, specifically, for your bungled handling, and try to move forward from there. However much you felt at the time that the effort was yours, it's clear now that it was not and never was, and given this hindsight, admit you did not act in good faith. That may do more good than any damage control you might attempt.

 

[Avatar Roku]

If the Escapist wants to host a "save the Escapist" fund-raiser, do that. I know that broadcasting dire financial straights might scare big-time investors, but it also might garner you grass-roots support from the people that actually utilise the site as well.

Thank you for your reply. Honestly, if I thought we could fund the Escapist via a Kickstarter/RocketHub drive, I would do so in a heartbeat. I just don't think it would work. Unfortunately, our experience with Publisher's Club has suggested that the volume of users inclined to pay to support us is small. The cost of running a website that gets our volume of traffic per month is painfully high.

Know why it didn't work? All your money troubles were behind the scenes. By all outward appearances, The Escapist was doing great. Combined with the fact that the Pub Club was largely marketed as paying money to get a few useless features, you can see why people weren't clamoring to join up. I actually remember feeling vaguely insulted at the time, it seemed like you were withholding features for no reason, then making us pay to get them. Seemed kinda like a naked cash grab. If, from the get go, you had said that TE was in trouble and asked for donations, with the features of the Pub Club simply being bonuses, I would have jumped on it, as I'm sure others would have too.

Also of note, the fact that you seemed to be doing so well on the outside has hurt you in other ways. I remember last night, when these posts started. The thing that struck me the most was the fact that you were evidently in such dire financial straights, but you kept hiring new contributors when you couldn't afford the old ones! That may not be how it was, but that's how it seemed. Then I remembered what happened to There Will Be Brawl, where the editor practically killed himself with exhaustion because you guys had moved up the release date on the last episode, then there were complaints of not being paid. I didn't think much of it at the time, but last night, it struck me that this had been going on THAT LONG.

Now, on the other threads, I've mainly posted supporting EC over you guys. However, Mr. Macris, you have been very, very responsive. I'm glad to see this mostly seems to be a misunderstanding instead of malice

 

[branmyson]

snip

snip

snip

I am one of these lurkers, and have been since LRR began to be seen here. For much the same reasons as The_Darkness, the benefits for the pub club were not sufficient to prompt my purchase. However, this whole kerfuffle has prompted me to join the pub club. I am far more willing to support a site when I know that my support truly makes a financial difference.

 

[h0ll0w0ne]

So from where we stand, our options seem to be:
1) Migrate to being a mobile and iPad content company, and hope revenue trends there stay strong
2) Switch to pay-gates for revenue, infuriating many loyal customers who can't afford to pay
3) Change our content to be more mainstream to attract ads, and lose our old core-gamer focus
4) Stop paying for content and be like HuffPost, losing the quality of our content producers
5) Something I haven't thought of

How about a little game store in the back of the site, I don't know, maybe this is not feasible, it's not like I have any knowledge of the logistics involved. Nothing huge, but just a little indie store. I already stop by once a day....

 

[graverobber2]

I think there may be some sort of solution:

The indie game fund from the EC guys is supposed to help indie devs to help distribute and (if I'm not mistaken) advertise their games.
The escapist could gain some profit by 'hosting' those ads, and maybe have a 'bonus' by giving pubclub members a discount when they purchase the game (say 5%)


I'm no business expert, so I'm just throwing it out here
You can do with it whatever you want

You're helping each other this way, so this seems like a decent idea (if it's doable, that is; not sure if it is)

 

[Kieran Chakravorty]

If the Escapist wants to host a "save the Escapist" fund-raiser, do that. I know that broadcasting dire financial straights might scare big-time investors, but it also might garner you grass-roots support from the people that actually utilise the site as well.

Thank you for your reply. Honestly, if I thought we could fund the Escapist via a Kickstarter/RocketHub drive, I would do so in a heartbeat. I just don't think it would work. Unfortunately, our experience with Publisher's Club has suggested that the volume of users inclined to pay to support us is small. The cost of running a website that gets our volume of traffic per month is painfully high.

You know of Rooster Teeth? they started with small content and by starting up a 'sponsors', donate a small amount of money and get higher quality videos, rights to certain forums, rights to look at pictures posted by staff or users. Really loyal users end up helping build new content around the world. Maybe some guys would volunter to perform roles from all over the globe (forum admins and suchlike, simple internet only roles. I wish the Escapist the best, When I can afford it I'll get a membership.

EDIT: I had to go and click the effing Red Button didnt I.

 

[Jake Martinez]

Dear James and Alexander,

James, what the fuck are you doing? In your plan you promised us: ?You, the Extra Credits community, will know everything: when we fail, when we succeed. There will be no PR spin; you?ll be involved in everything we do. ?, you promised us transparency. Transparency does not mean giving us your limited side of the story, that's exactly what you promised us you wouldn't do. No fucking PR spin. You give us the full story or you give nothing at all, you do not give us half-truths designed to generate an outcry to put pressure on the escapist. As Wikipedia says: ?Transparency is performing in such a way that it is easy for the agent or others to see what's wrong?. We can't see anything right now due to the blame game you two are playing on each other.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure James wasn't expecting a legal battle. Ever notice how, when most legal battles start, both sides clam up pretty tightly? There are reasons for that. James has already said more than he should, likely out of the delusion that the Escapist was still dealing in good faith. The minute he hired a buisness manager he should have made a simple statement saying that he was in legal negotiations with the Escapist.

I actually disagree with this. I doubt either side really has the money to afford to "lawyer up" and to be frank, it would be highly unethical of Alex to spend money on a lawyer instead of paying his outstanding debts to his contributors, especially in a case which seems to stem from his mismanagement.