Dear Escapist: Quit it with the intrusive ads.

[Mantonio]

Okay, first off: I understand why the site has ads. The site needs funds to keep its servers running, and ads are a good way to generate this revenue. Then the Publishers Club was announced, a move which I don't think many saw coming. The reason given was that some people were using things like Adblock Plus, thus the ads were not being seen or clicked on as often and not as much revenue was being generated. Hence the giving of small but not that important extras to those who subscribed.

That's fine, I'm okay with that. I wouldn't personally join it, as I'm content to just have my Adblock allow all the ads on the Escapist to appear, but I can see the appeal of it.

However, I've noticed that recently the intrusive video adverts have returned. You know the ones, whenever you start a video you have to see a thirty second advert first. Except sometimes it's not thirty seconds is it, it takes longer due to your Internet lagging. Or sometimes the video has already started playing when the ad decides to interrupt you and show its ugly face.

My point is, these type of ads are not beneficial to anybody. Not to us, and certainly not to you. Ironically they might actually be doing more harm and good, since they're just enough of an annoyance to make people turn on their Adblocks while on this site. I know I have.

Sincerely, someone who couldn't give less of a shit about Prowl being on Blu Ray and DVD.

 

[GuerrillaClock]

I agree, they are pretty annoying. They're a small part of the reason I left the site for ages, actually, although far from the main one. Posting threads about it is only gonna get you modded, though, they're not gonna stop a moneymaking practice just because it pisses people off.

 

[2fish]

Minor issue to me it can be annoying when the ad loops though. Otherwise it is a minor way to make sure my website stays here.

Edit: I can speel reel good.

 

[JoshGod]

Look the adverts only last a little while and many are skippable after a few seconds, at leats it's not like youtube which has the same 2 repeating ennoying 30 second adverts on every video... Wait.

 

[EllEzDee]

INCOMING BAN FOR MENTIONING ADBLOCK SOFTWARE

Do they really not earn enough with the publisher's club and the links to purchase the games Yahtzee (the main reason the Escapist is so popular) reviews to keep the site maintained?

 

[Zaik]

Interestingly, a lot of videos lately seem to have been made to not function unless you turn adblock plus off. Pretty clever.

Of course, there's plenty of ways around that too. Not that I would know anything about that.

 

[geier]

Dear escapistmagazine,

i beg you, please, please don't listen to the st*#? kids, and please continue with the ads and from my standpoint, you could have more ads.

Yes dearest escapist, please have more commercials, so you make more money and can pay more great people like yahtzee and make them produce great shows !

 

[Signa]

Yes dearest escapist, please have more commercials, so you make more money and can pay more great people like yahtzee and make them produce great shows !

Yeah.... I'm pretty sure it doesn't just work that way.

Actually, it's comments like this from at least 30% of the members here that is driving me nuts far more than the ads are at this time. The whole bending over and... orally negotiating with corporate entities is the fast-track to ruining anything that used to be awesome. Anyone looking to make money from the things I enjoy will not look at why I enjoy it, but look for ways to get more money from it.

 

[DuctTapeJedi]

Advertisements=Money

Money=being able to pay Yahtzee, LRR, MovieBob, etc. to keep contributing

I think I can live with the ads.

 

[Alphakirby]

I don't mind if you have 30 second ads before videos...as long as you DON'T also make us launch the video in a mini ad window,advertising something else when all you want to do is watch a video. Make up your mind,Border Ads,or 30 sec ads.
P.S. To geier,Kissing up will get you nowhere =P

 

[Woodsey]

Meh, they only bother me when they bug, and they pop up again when you're 15 seconds into a video, but that doesn't happen that often.

I wish they'd put more lingerie ads up though, I didn't mind those at all...

 

[geier]

I just tell you kids how the world works and originaly, it was just a try to be a troll, to piss off the s'*? kids hho think, like you, that websites don't have to pay for bandwith.

They have cost, they wanna live from what they like, so they have to make money.

If you i#### don't get it, please never have sex, because it would be really bad for the world if you have kids and spread your genes.

The escapist needs money to provide their services, and you are not sending them money, so they have to use ads, is this really so difficult to understand ?

 

[Mantonio]

I just tell you kids how the world works and originaly, it was just a try to be a troll, to piss off the s'*? kids hho think, like you, that websites don't have to pay for bandwith.

They have cost, they wanna live from what they like, so they have to make money.

If you i#### don't get it, please never have sex, because it would be really bad for the world if you have kids and spread your genes.

The escapist needs money to provide their services, and you are not sending them money, so they have to use ads, is this really so difficult to understand ?

Dude, did you even read my post?

 

[geier]

If you understand it, stop complaining. Ads are the lesser of two evils.

I have a really crappy internetconnection myself, i have only 80kbit of downstream, do you think the ads don't piss me off ?

Of course they do, but i have to go with it, so stop whining and grow some hairs where the sun is not shining !

 

[Mantonio]

If you understand it, stop complaining. Ads are the lesser of two evils.

I have a really crappy internetconnection myself, i have only 80kbit of downstream, do you think the ads don't piss me off ?

Of course they do, but i have to go with it, so stop whining and grow some hairs where the sun is not shining !

Sorry, but I believe that my criticism is valid. I'm not going to just 'stop whining' (especially since you seem to be going out of your way to call people who dare criticise these intrusive ads 's'*? kids')

 

[TheMatsjo]

Right now the Escapist, a favorite website of mine that I check almost daily for new awesomeness, is in a crappy position financially as far as I can see. I dare make the assumption the people on this site love what they do and put genuine effort into making everything run as smoothly as possible. But they're also a business in the sense that they can't afford to do it all for free. Demanding people pay up front is almost impossible to do as sites like these thrive on exposure and requiring subscriptions is way way too restrictive. So advertisements come into play. Everyone wins a little and loses a little. It's not perfect, but as long as there aren't enough paying viewers around it will continue to be a reality.

So ads are in.

Now, on topic: while I agree that advertisements on the site are intrusive and annoying I can't think of a way of minimizing the annoyance any further. It would be nice if all the ads were gaming related at least and if videos could pre-load while advertisements play off but that's about it.

I hate it too, but until I become stable enough to pay a monthly fee I'll swallow some hassle for a derriereload of epicosity.

Cheers,
Matsjo