I have to PAY to view Escapist videos on the iPad?

[vxicepickxv]

Is it just me or are people desperate to defend the Escapist lol?

I think it's more apple hate.


I was thinking about getting an iPad, just for some of the other things you could get for it. Sound Editing software is pretty nice, plus I'm already a Publishing Club member, so it's not a problem there.

 

[sean360h]

I've been a fan of The Escapist for a while now - started with Zero Punctuation, moved on to Unskippable, then Extra Credits. That's not too important for the moment, though, but note that the majority of what I consume on this site is video-based.

It's been my intention for a while now (since the release of the iPad made tablets a viable market by demonstrating the superiority of mobile operating systems over traditional ones for low-resource platforms) to buy a tablet. I was going to get an Archos 101, but the distribution for it was so terrible that by the time I had enough cash for the highest-model iPad the Archos still was nowhere near being delivered to me, so I took advantage of a relative visiting Singapore and got an iPad at a moderate discount.

So imagine my surprise, frustration and outrage when I discovered I have to pay twenty dollars a year for the privilege of watching content on The Escapist on my iPad. What's even more galling is that's the only feature of the subscription which I actually care about - it'd be less annoying if I regularly cursed the low quality of Escapist videos, or wanted to download the videos to watch later or any of the other features which you get for a subscription, but the only thing of that long list which I actually want is the ability to watch videos on my own computer.

As such, I feel like The Escapist is a highwayman. It's punishing me for the crime of buying one device over another. I can't be the only one in this situation. Is there an official response?

(I tried to search the forums to find any similar prior posts and came up with nothing, so I'm sorry if I've somehow overlooked an existing thread on the same topic.)

there is an app called sky fire the audio and video is crap but it works most of the time aslo im not sure but i think it might only be for ipods and iphones
also why are you complaining you just spent $500 for an over glorified ipod touch i think you can afford 20 a year

 

[Irony's Acolyte]

Well that sucks. I don't really think that the Escapist is trying to make some easy money here. They're making it so that people can view it on their iPads and iPods and iPhones and iWhatevers. They probably have to pay some money to be able to do this and since they'll need the money back they have to charge users a bit of money. Its the same reason they have advertisments here on the website. They need to make some money to keep running the sight The only way to get around that is the Pub Club. So either you watch the ads and videos for free or you pay some money (which really isn't that much) and you don't have to watch the ads with your extra stuff.

Mind you though $20 a year really isn't that much. So I'm guessing that you're complaining about having to pay any money what-so-ever. Sorry, you can't get everything for free.

 

[Alexander Cron]

Stop using the iPad, problem solved.

Amen brother, people who mindlessly buy all of Apple's products are idiots. They are all about spectacle and not specs. The Mac Book Air is a good example of this. They claim it is lightweight and portable, then you need to lug around an expansion brick to make it even marginally usefull.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

man there are so many apple jokes that want to come out right now, and I'd love for this to happen to my roommate who is devolving into an apple as we speak, but i will be nice and just say

"well that sucks, but from their perspective they can't do jack shit to help you"

 

[YawningAngel]

You pay to watch content on the escapist anyway: you just pay through the adverts on the site rather than by actually taking the money out of your account. Since there's no advertising revenue from the iPhone app, is it really that unreasonable for the escapist to take some money on the side from you?

In any case, this is exactly what you should expect when buying an iPad: since Apple pig-headedly refuses to allow anyone to use Flash content, anyone who wishes to provide videos either has to use HTML5 (a pain) or develop a dedicated app for it. If I'm going to have to go to the trouble of developing an app, I'm going to want to charge you for it, and furthermore there's no reason to provide it for free: it's not like you're going to just watch it on the website because you can't.

 

[Ketsuban]

I'm not complaining about having to pay any money at all (especially now; I didn't know it was that difficult to advertise via HTML 5, so thanks for opening my eyes), just that I feel like I'm being gouged for a whole bunch of stuff I will never ever use as part of the PubClub membership simply so I can view video in HTML 5. If there was an "iPad user" package which was just the HTML 5 video without everything else which comes as part of PubClub I'd be more than happy to pay for it.

 

[Fraught]

--"since the release of the iPad made tablets a viable market by demonstrating the superiority of mobile operating systems over traditional ones for low-resource platforms"
--"the iPad made tablets a viable market by demonstrating the superiority of mobile operating systems over traditional ones for low-resource platforms"
--"demonstrating the superiority of mobile operating systems over traditional ones for low-resource platforms"
--"superiority of mobile operating systems over traditional ones for low-resource platforms"

I'm sorry, what?

 

[Croaker42]

Huh. That?s not all that surprising. I bet it's free on the Galaxy Tab.

 

[Yopaz]

20 dollars a year is less than 2 dollars a month. Yeah, The Escapist is really robbing you. You should tell them to be a little more Apple friendly. If you buy a product with a known lack of support that can be fixed by paying a little extra a year and you know about this then you're simply a bit stupid for complaining about it.

 

[Callate]

Um, what can I say? I'm sorry, it sounds unfortunate, and it really isn't fair that you should have to do things that way just because your iPad is your primary computer device, but at the same time, I kind of understand why the Escapist does things that way and I don't really see an easy fix.

 

[Weaver]

Is it possible to set the iPad up to view the regular version of a site instead of a mobile version?

 

[Vidiot]

heh heh heh... I had a feeling Virgil would straighten this one out.

 

[Virgil]

If there was an "iPad user" package which was just the HTML 5 video without everything else which comes as part of PubClub I'd be more than happy to pay for it.

The video ads are (by far) the most expensive/popular piece of advertising on the site (and internet, in general) these days. Even if we were going to offer multiple plans those ads would only be able to vanish on the top tier anyway. In a way, many of the things you aren't interested in are a way to subsidize the cost of removing the video ads with extra features that, on their own, don't cost as much.

There's a reason why Hulu doesn't even remove video ads for it's paying subscribers. That's why.

 

[Matt_LRR]

I'm not complaining about having to pay any money at all (especially now; I didn't know it was that difficult to advertise via HTML 5, so thanks for opening my eyes), just that I feel like I'm being gouged for a whole bunch of stuff I will never ever use as part of the PubClub membership simply so I can view video in HTML 5. If there was an "iPad user" package which was just the HTML 5 video without everything else which comes as part of PubClub I'd be more than happy to pay for it.

I feel like I'm being gouged for a whole bunch of stuff I will never ever use as part of my Sports Illustrated subscription simply so I can read the articles about hockey. If there was a "hockey fan" package which was just the hockey articles without everything else which comes as part of a subscription I'd be more than happy to pay for it.

-m

 

[Virgil]

Is it possible to set the iPad up to view the regular version of a site instead of a mobile version?

I don't think so, but in our case we aren't changing the site to prevent videos from working on the iPad. We don't have a special mobile site. Normal users (or people not logged in) see the same site as everyone else regardless of what they're using. If the device they're using supports Flash in some way, or begins to support Flash, they can load our normal player and see the video.

When we detect a logged in PubClub member, we then check to see what kind of device/browser they're using and what they've set their video preferences to. We use that to figure out what kind of video player to show them - some of which have no advertising, but work on the iPad (or iPhone, or Android, etc). It's extra work for our servers to detect what device people are using, so we only do it for PubClub members, and only on the video pages.

 

[SnowCold]

You can afford an iPad and you're complaining about the Escapist robbing you?

You are missing the point.

Just because you have money, doesn't mean you should have to pay for such things.

Economy debate 101

 

[CopperBoom]

I guess I can understand where you're coming from. Still, it's a premium feature.

On an unrelated note, I think it would be really great if they somehow modified the forums for smartphone use. I found it almost impossible to use the forums on an iPhone.

Same here, I wish they just had an app for the website, I mean, I'd buy it.

Me too.
I love my iPhone and iPad, faults and all, but if they want to sell me something sell me the Escapist App, it is like a-la-carte publisher's club because I do not care about hi-def ZP, but would want to just watch the vids, so what up?