I Hit It With My Axe: Episode Nine: Deciding Which Goblin To Hit

[rddj623]

Solid, nice reveal of the true identity of Medusa Princess. I enjoy this show a lot. Keep up the good work. It's fun to see how people react to the ever changing environment of a tabletop RPG. One of my favorite stories is of a friends campaign where they found what basically amounted to a magical food processor, except they discovered that when someone fell into it and then someone else accidentally turned it on...

 

[Danpascooch]

I gave it a chance. But I honestly don't know why this show exists.

Aside from letting the host mingle with a load of porn stars and strippers obviously.

I agree, the Escapist needs to realize that not every show will be a success and those that aren't need to be removed.

There's a distinction between "I don't like it" and "It isn't popular", y'know.

As for the show, this was a playgroup for most of a year before Escapist asked them to start filming it. See? [http://dndwithpornstars.blogspot.com/2010/02/about-show.html]

It's not about whether I like it, it's about whether it's popular and therefore successful.

Look at the threads under the shows, there are no clamoring "FIRST" that you see in a ZP, no 95% shared opinion that it was "good" you don't see barely any at all of "Keep up the good work!"

The people who post on the threads generally don't like it, and you have to understand that people who LIKE it are more likely to post than people who have stopped caring because they don't.

So with that in mind, I conclude that it is not popular, and therefore, not successful, I could care less how popular it was on "dndwithpornstars.com" (which I imagine people only visited because the title had "porn" in it) the point is that on the escapist, the general opinion is against it, as supported by browsing the threads.

Browse the ZP threads, then the Unskippable threads, then this one, you'd have to blind to not see the difference.

 

[Danpascooch]

I gave it a chance. But I honestly don't know why this show exists.

Aside from letting the host mingle with a load of porn stars and strippers obviously.

I agree, the Escapist needs to realize that not every show will be a success and those that aren't need to be removed.

Alternately some viewers could realize that this show is not to their taste and cease to watch it. If escapist only puts up stuff EVERYONE likes, this whole site is coming down.

I didn't say that they have to put up things EVERYONE likes, but they should only put up things that have enough fans to be worth it financially and entertainment wise.

Look at the ZP threads, then the Unskippable threads, then the "I hit it with my Axe" threads. Clearly the dominant opinion of this show is negative, even after all of the people who posted that they hated it in its first few episodes stopped watching and posting.

With your logic, the Escapist should put up EVERYTHING because a handful of people might like it.

 

[chepenoyo]

Forum posts aren't an accurate gauge of popularity, as we've discussed here before. It only shows you the people at the extremes, who loved it enough to track down the forums and who hated it. To see how many people watch it without feeling the need to comment, we'd have to see views numbers, which The Escapist doesn't let you and I see. Forum posts isn't an accurate sense of popularity. I read Penny Arcade three times a week, but I've never felt the need to register for their forums.

Again: Forum posts just show us the extremes. People feel extremely entitled to hate on punks and women whose ethics are outside the norm. It's to be expected. Meanwhile, only the Escapist knows how many people watched and didn't bother to say anything.

 

[lethargychick]

Oh man, this episode! Best yet! Especially loved the Justine Joli reveal.

Great stuff, keep it up.

 

[BlumiereBleck]

I love this show :']

 

[Hurr Durr Derp]

Looks like you had fun. Nice to see the episodes keep getting better. Or maybe I'm just getting into it more, but that's just as good. I didn't really like the first few eps, but as I said they just keep getting better. Haters gon' hate I guess, but I'm enjoying the show right now.

 

[Archon]

Look at the threads under the shows, there are no clamoring "FIRST" that you see in a ZP, no 95% shared opinion that it was "good" you don't see barely any at all of "Keep up the good work!"

The people who post on the threads generally don't like it, and you have to understand that people who LIKE it are more likely to post than people who have stopped caring because they don't.

We definitely appreciate you airing your views and we are actually fair ruthless about cancelling shows that aren't doing as well as they need to.

But this is a case where what you think you know about how things work is totally wrong, and its leading you to false conclusions. We actually crunch the numbers on things like this very carefully.

In fact, users are more likely to post if they do NOT like a show than if they do like a show. A show that everyone likes gets very few comments relative to its size. For instance, our most popular show (ZP) has only around 3 comments per 25 video streams. Our least popular show has 25 comments per 100 video streams. The difference between them is an order of magnitude. And this correlation holds true for every show on the site. More comments per video stream means fewer video streams.

The reason for this, of course, is that on the internet, nobody has anything nice to say. People generally only post to tell you're wrong, like you did to us, and like I'm doing now. The vast majority of folks who liked the show enjoyed it and moved on without saying anything, just like I didn't say anything to all the people I agreed with.

If we used the comments to decide which shows to keep, we'd have killed every show. When we first launched MovieBob, everybody who posted said they hated him - go back and read how snide and mean the comments were. Now he has one of the most popular shows on the site. Go back and read about ZP when we first launched him. Tons of negativity about how we ruined The Escapist.

The actual metric of interest is thus not the number of negative comments, but the rate of change of comments versus traffic over time.

By those metrics, we see Axe growing.

 

[shlominus]

By those metrics, we see Axe growing.

happy to hear that.

if it was up to me this campaign wouldn't stop anytime soon.

this was yet another very enjoyable episode.

ps: haters, please keep on hating! reading your blabbering adds an additional layer of fun to the show.

 

[DayDark]

We definitely appreciate you airing your views and we are actually fair ruthless about cancelling shows that aren't doing as well as they need to.

But this is a case where what you think you know about how things work is totally wrong, and its leading you to false conclusions. We actually crunch the numbers on things like this very carefully.

In fact, users are more likely to post if they do NOT like a show than if they do like a show. A show that everyone likes gets very few comments relative to its size. For instance, our most popular show (ZP) has only around 3 comments per 25 video streams. Our least popular show has 25 comments per 100 video streams. The difference between them is an order of magnitude. And this correlation holds true for every show on the site. More comments per video stream means fewer video streams.

The reason for this, of course, is that on the internet, nobody has anything nice to say. People generally only post to tell you're wrong, like you did to us, and like I'm doing now. The vast majority of folks who liked the show enjoyed it and moved on without saying anything, just like I didn't say anything to all the people I agreed with.

If we used the comments to decide which shows to keep, we'd have killed every show. When we first launched MovieBob, everybody who posted said they hated him - go back and read how snide and mean the comments were. Now he has one of the most popular shows on the site. Go back and read about ZP when we first launched him. Tons of negativity about how we ruined The Escapist.

The actual metric of interest is thus not the number of negative comments, but the rate of change of comments versus traffic over time.

By those metrics, we see Axe growing.

This makes perfect sense. QFT.

 

[Danpascooch]

Look at the threads under the shows, there are no clamoring "FIRST" that you see in a ZP, no 95% shared opinion that it was "good" you don't see barely any at all of "Keep up the good work!"

The people who post on the threads generally don't like it, and you have to understand that people who LIKE it are more likely to post than people who have stopped caring because they don't.

We definitely appreciate you airing your views and we are actually fair ruthless about cancelling shows that aren't doing as well as they need to.

But this is a case where what you think you know about how things work is totally wrong, and its leading you to false conclusions. We actually crunch the numbers on things like this very carefully.

In fact, users are more likely to post if they do NOT like a show than if they do like a show. A show that everyone likes gets very few comments relative to its size. For instance, our most popular show (ZP) has only around 3 comments per 25 video streams. Our least popular show has 25 comments per 100 video streams. The difference between them is an order of magnitude. And this correlation holds true for every show on the site. More comments per video stream means fewer video streams.

The reason for this, of course, is that on the internet, nobody has anything nice to say. People generally only post to tell you're wrong, like you did to us, and like I'm doing now. The vast majority of folks who liked the show enjoyed it and moved on without saying anything, just like I didn't say anything to all the people I agreed with.

If we used the comments to decide which shows to keep, we'd have killed every show. When we first launched MovieBob, everybody who posted said they hated him - go back and read how snide and mean the comments were. Now he has one of the most popular shows on the site. Go back and read about ZP when we first launched him. Tons of negativity about how we ruined The Escapist.

The actual metric of interest is thus not the number of negative comments, but the rate of change of comments versus traffic over time.

By those metrics, we see Axe growing.

Wow, a mod who's willing to get in my face and tell me I'm wrong.

I've never seen you around Archon, but I like your style!

Anyway, ty for the info, guess I didn't know as much as I thought I did.

 

[Swaki]

Justine Jolie doesn't talk very much, i think she has said one thing in the two episodes she has been in, anyway i think this series is quite weird, so far the people that have been in this series is in 95% of my pron collection, its not really funny, its just strange, i would like to keep my gaming life and my "private" life separate.

But i stay positive, the camera work has improved since the first couple of episodes, but i think making almost a entire season worth of videos before they had any responds from the community was a bad idea, i dont think they should give up on the whole realistic part, but maybe make a little script with some jokes in it would be nice, i really hope this series will be continued with some improvements here and there.

 

[Kross]

Wow, a mod who's willing to get in my face and tell me I'm wrong.

Well, he's not exactly a normal mod, check out his title.

I think this show was the best yet, lots of puzzle solving and enthusiasm again. Anger over how the group sacked the room, and even better, an RP interrogation!

Interrogation scenes in P&P games are almost always fascinating to me. They are where a lot of conflicting personality types float to the top. The person who wants to charm out every detail, the other one who wants to beat it out of the subject, the one person (and there's ALWAYS this person, who may be the same as the bad cop interrogator, or may just be a sociopath) who wants to kill or maim the helpless captive in the most interesting way they can think of... I've always had a hard time falling into my characters enough to talk in first person about what I'm doing in game, but interrogating a prisoner seems to be one of the most common ways to slide into your persona.

And Joli did a great job with the timing of the reveal, along with keeping everyone else in the dark prior to that point. As far as being quiet, most people that are new to an established group (the rest of the players have been gaming with each other for a bit) is usually going to be a bit more reserved until they get a feel for the game and character interactions of the particular group.

 

[mandymorbid]

We will not script this show. Real games do not have scripts. Not everything has to be funny all the time and scripted jokes inserted into a real life game will sound artificial and lame. I am not an actress or a comedian and I will not pretend to be. Also since no one (not even the DM) knows what will happen during a gaming session as we all have free will to do as we please with the information and plot hooks given to us during a game it would be ridiculous to try write jokes before hand.

 

[LunarTick]

The reason for this, of course, is that on the internet, nobody has anything nice to say. People generally only post to tell you're wrong, like you did to us, and like I'm doing now. The vast majority of folks who liked the show enjoyed it and moved on without saying anything, just like I didn't say anything to all the people I agreed with.

Interesting information, wich sounds plausible. So I'm inclined to agree with you. I guess I'm part of the minority which posts to agree with people. Oh, well.

Liked the part of goblins being partially turned to stone. (I just got back from a session with my players fighting an umber hulk: "If I cast repel vermin at it, will the beetle part of it split from the ape part, thereby killing itself?" Abilities and spells used half are awesome and great fun.)
Enjoyable episode. (And thanks for Zak for explaining his goblin voice at his blog, it gave me something new to give to my players.)

Interrogation scenes in P&P games are almost always fascinating to me. They are where a lot of conflicting personality types float to the top. The person who wants to charm out every detail, the other one who wants to beat it out of the subject, the one person (and there's ALWAYS this person, who may be the same as the bad cop interrogator, or may just be a sociopath) who wants to kill or maim the helpless captive in the most interesting way they can think of... I've always had a hard time falling into my characters enough to talk in first person about what I'm doing in game, but interrogating a prisoner seems to be one of the most common ways to slide into your persona.

Again, I agree. I've seen this a lot.

EDIT: And in other news; I rolled a spot high enough to don't see a certain object.

 

[chepenoyo]

And in other news; I rolled a spot high enough to don't see a certain object.

Source: http://www.giantitp.com/comics/images/oots0003.gif

 

[LunarTick]

Source: http://www.giantitp.com/comics/images/oots0003.gif

Ah, but I didn't fail my check. I just noticed something missing. Teeheehee.
(Well, here I am just being a jerk. Zak talks about it in one of his blogposts about the last episode, if you need another hint.)

 

[InvisibleMilk]

"She's only half-Medusa"
"Awhhhhh"

 

[Ian Sturrock]

I didn't like this episode best of all!

And I didn't find Kimberly adding to her kooky character sketch quite adorable. Not even slightly.

And I didn't gasp at the Medusa reveal, or laugh at the players' reactions.

And I didn't laugh at Zak explaining about how you only get to act when it's your turn.

And my game-design head didn't totally side with the concept that really, if you're a WEREWOLF, dammit, a bunch of little goblins shouldn't be able to hit you, even if it is their turn, because you're all like raging and stuff. (Real fights, as everyone knows, tend to be pretty one-sided... I don't see even Mayweather getting many punches in on a raging werewolf before it just eats his arm off, let alone mere goblins -- anyway -- gripes at D&D's rather turn-based-wargame-influenced combat system should probably wait for a time when it's not Opposite Day.

And I definitely don't think you should keep this not-awesome show. It's not the highlight of my Wednesdays.

And I am not saying this in my Opposite Land Goblin Voice.

Seriously -- great work, guys. This show actually reminds me of a lot of the things I love about plain, simple, old-fashioned D&D. With a dungeon to bash, and players who want to slash things with scimitars and then TAKE THEIR STUFF. This is what it's all about. Ignore the nay-sayers and forum whiners, who wouldn't even be worthy to play D&D with, let alone do our hair or star in porn.

 

[Joethelawyer]

"...and I haven't had anything to eat, and I'm on my period."

Words never heard at my gaming table. I love it!