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

[Jesus Phish]

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.

I like this, I find it interesting.

Game Dogs, on the other hand... Ouch.

I think they're both in need of removal. I tried both a few times, but just not going t happen for me.

 

[BlindMessiah94]

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.

Owned.

Awesome. I love it when people think they are experts when they actually know absolutely nothing, confusing their own opinions with facts.
I love it when people like that get put in their place, and with a touch of class and intelligence too mind you.

I raise my glass to thee!

EDIT: It's also awesome that Ms. Phoenix reads these comments apparently. I'm glad she's not letting the haters get to her. I say keep diverse content on the escapist. Sure this shows not for everyone, but people who come here week after week to complain about how bad it is should really just stop watching.

 

[DeepComet5581]

Man this was boring and it's not just me the girls are bored too. Was there really a porn star in that mess?

You're boring. If you found it soooo boring, why did you watch it? Why did you comment about it? At least give some constructive feedback instead of just joining about 1000 people saying in unison "It's boring".

Its a good series. I played D&D last week and, believe me, I would have given anything for it to be as interesting as THIS game.

I'm loving the fact that the haters are getting OWNED by Porn Stars.

 

[Chad Brumfield]

"You're all in bed with the Goblin King and he's tied up." I had an image of all this girls and a trussed up David Bowie, which made me scream, laugh and cry all at the same time. I'm a terrible, terrible man.

 

[shlominus]

...the girls are bored too.

you watched the clips and got the feeling the players are bored?

oh boy, you got a lot to learn, young padawan.

One of the reasons I enjoy playing this game is that we can all watch it later. We don't get the "remember that time we..." because we can just play whatever episode the memory was from... ... and that is fraking AWESOME!

i think remembering is superior to actually being able to watch something again. usually the memory is... um... somehow "improved".

or, to quote one of my favorite movies:

"I like to remember things my own way...How I remember them. Not necessarily the way they happened."

 

[Anterean]

The blanket ended up being an ordinary size--Zak had no problem with the blanket tactic, it was just funny what Sasha and KK said about it, so we left that part in the show.

It's hard to think of anything we could do that would make Zak "reel".

Fair enough, I must have missed that.

 

[Jaranja]

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.

I like this, I find it interesting.

Game Dogs, on the other hand... Ouch.

I think they're both in need of removal. I tried both a few times, but just not going t happen for me.

Fair enough.

I'm just saying, I think a lot more people enjoy this than GameDogs.

 

[ProfessorLayton]

It's incredible how rude you people are being. I actually like this show, and despite what conclusions you jump to because of negative response by existing members and relatively low posts, so do many others. Normally I hate people that say this but if you don't like it, you don't have to watch it. I like it, so I watch it. You don't, so you don't have to. Why do you want this removed? So the Escapist won't be tainted with something you don't find funny? I can understand constructive criticism, but why would you complain like this? Personally, I don't like Game Dogs or Apocalypse Lane and I do believe that I mentioned that I didn't like them in the comment sections when they first started but I didn't follow them every episode trying to start arguments with other members and not only insulting the show but personally insulting the creators. So much for that "mature" community that we were supposed to have. You should be ashamed of yourselves.

But yeah, this episode was pretty good. You can tell that everyone is into it and not just faking it for the camera. I'm surprised at how much better this show has gotten and I can only expect it to get better from here.

 

[Malkavian]

Heh. Nice plottwist.

And to all the people STILL commenting on thow this show sucks/is not popular/has no viewers... Please read the post from Archon on the previous page...

To the creaters and stars of the show, if you read this: Keep it up! I'm having a blast watching this, and it's a great way for a non-player like me to get a look into the d&d world. Don't let the idiots discourage you.

 

[fleischwolke]

Nice episode

 

[Archon]

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.

I know this was more than likely not intentional but those statistics appear to be almost purposefully and ambiguously scaled. Maybe it was just me, but when I first read that I gathered 3 vs. 25 instead of 12% vs 25%.

It makes your "statistics" seem questionable at best.

Sorry - no funny business intended, just some hasty mistakes made during a busy day. First, the ratio IS 3 to 25. i.e. the most popular show has 3 comment views per 100 video streams, the least popular show has 25 per 100. I think I just got excited about typing 25 and typed it twice.

Second, the comments metric is total comment views, not unique comments. So for instance, a recent episode of ZP had 14,607 comment page views and 440,321 video streams. That's 30 video streams per comment, or roughly 3 comments per 100 video streams.

In other words, not only do people comment less if they like a show, they are less likely to even look at the comments at all. Perhaps this is because they know that most comments are grumbles - not exactly sure, only that the correlation is clear. Deciphering the meaning of metrics can become a bit like soothsaying.

Anyway, thanks for catching my error. I hate when I try to be clear, and then obfuscate even more.

 

[Timothy Brannan]

Ok. I signed up here so I could specifically say "I like this".

I think this is a great series and I have found myself laughing out loud a number of times because of the same things happening in my own groups over the years.

Zak is clever and the girls look like they are having a lot of fun. Which at the end of the day is the only thing that matters.

Loved Justine in this, look forward to more adventures with her half-medusa wizard.

 

[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.

except... that if you look at the comments, there are a number of people who do indeed seem to like this show. If they simply got rid of it, there would be a lot of unhappy people; thus, your point is both bias and invalid. All I can say is if you don't like it, don't watch it.

As for the episode itself, it was quite good; I find myself enjoying this more and more with each episode. I do, however want to make a suggestion, not about the show but about you're DMing: If a player gets an idea into their head about how to do something in game, don't simply dismiss it because it's not in your notes. You should reward creativity, not only because it feels good to figure something out on your own, but also part of the Gaming experience is being part of the story. Later on, your player could fondly remember the time that she oiled the hinges on a door and got a plus 5 to her check for opening it silently, or the time she blinded a spider queen by dropping a blanket on it's head.

I remember when a friend of mine liberated a city from an army of minotaurs by casting an anti-apathy spell on a large pile of arrows, and then firing them all over the walls. The Minotaurs were so repulsed by the effects of the spell that they were forced to leave. Granted, the entire situation made no sense; how can archers, standing away from the city, possibly fire thousands of arrows perfectly across the city, in such a pattern that there was no place for the minotaurs to hide from the effects of the spell? However, years later, this friend will still brag about how his planning allowed him to single-handedly save the city of Pashin.

Otherwise, you are doing a great job, introducing interesting scenarios and characters, and you really got the players involved with that whole half-Medusa surprise.

If you look up a page or two, I got told off by the CEO of The Escapist himself, lol, I didn't read your post, but nothing you say can really beat that, relax, your work is done.

 

[Danpascooch]

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.

I know this was more than likely not intentional but those statistics appear to be almost purposefully and ambiguously scaled. Maybe it was just me, but when I first read that I gathered 3 vs. 25 instead of 12% vs 25%.

It makes your "statistics" seem questionable at best.

Sorry - no funny business intended, just some hasty mistakes made during a busy day. First, the ratio IS 3 to 25. i.e. the most popular show has 3 comment views per 100 video streams, the least popular show has 25 per 100. I think I just got excited about typing 25 and typed it twice.

Second, the comments metric is total comment views, not unique comments. So for instance, a recent episode of ZP had 14,607 comment page views and 440,321 video streams. That's 30 video streams per comment, or roughly 3 comments per 100 video streams.

In other words, not only do people comment less if they like a show, they are less likely to even look at the comments at all. Perhaps this is because they know that most comments are grumbles - not exactly sure, only that the correlation is clear. Deciphering the meaning of metrics can become a bit like soothsaying.

Anyway, thanks for catching my error. I hate when I try to be clear, and then obfuscate even more.

It is interesting that people make less comments when they like a show, if you don't mind me speculating, I think it might have to do with the amount of time the show has existed.

I know that when I watch a Zero Punctuation now, I rarely comment just because I've seen so many of them by now, that I have an idea of what the comments will be. It almost falls into a Status Quo (although that's not a bad thing). I imagine that when a show is new, people aren't sure what to expect, and are more likely to voice their opinions on it.

By the way, if you don't mind me asking, how is Game Dogs doing? It's too bad, I respect that show and what they're trying to do with it, but I just can't find it entertaining myself.

 

[Danpascooch]

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.

I know this was more than likely not intentional but those statistics appear to be almost purposefully and ambiguously scaled. Maybe it was just me, but when I first read that I gathered 3 vs. 25 instead of 12% vs 25%.

It makes your "statistics" seem questionable at best.

Sorry - no funny business intended, just some hasty mistakes made during a busy day. First, the ratio IS 3 to 25. i.e. the most popular show has 3 comment views per 100 video streams, the least popular show has 25 per 100. I think I just got excited about typing 25 and typed it twice.

Second, the comments metric is total comment views, not unique comments. So for instance, a recent episode of ZP had 14,607 comment page views and 440,321 video streams. That's 30 video streams per comment, or roughly 3 comments per 100 video streams.

In other words, not only do people comment less if they like a show, they are less likely to even look at the comments at all. Perhaps this is because they know that most comments are grumbles - not exactly sure, only that the correlation is clear. Deciphering the meaning of metrics can become a bit like soothsaying.

Anyway, thanks for catching my error. I hate when I try to be clear, and then obfuscate even more.

It is interesting that people make less comments when they like a show, if you don't mind me speculating, I think it might have to do with the amount of time the show has existed.

I know that when I watch a Zero Punctuation now, I rarely comment just because I've seen so many of them by now, that I have an idea of what the comments will be. It almost falls into a Status Quo (although that's not a bad thing). I imagine that when a show is new, people aren't sure what to expect, and are more likely to voice their opinions on it.

By the way, if you don't mind me asking, how is Game Dogs doing? It's too bad, I respect that show and what they're trying to do with it, but I just can't find it entertaining myself.

PS: I noticed a glitch when trying to post this, and I figure it can't hurt to let you know, when I tried to post this message, the post button was disabled, it wasn't the message you get when you are suspended or a thread is locked, it simply wasn't enabled in the same way as when you have put nothing in your "reply to thread" text field. Refreshing the page didn't work, I had to actually go back to the escapist home page, and find my way back into the thread manually, it's working now, but I thought I should let someone know.

 

[MegaManlyMan]

Wow - I would not have the patience for D&D; each to his own. I registered to the escapist for one reason: I think the girl with the blond dreads, is her name Connie?, she is beautiful. Hi Connie!

 

[ThaBenMan]

Wouldn't oiling the hinges on the door make them really loud, because of the spell that made loud noises quiet?

 

[BastyNastard]

I'm going to end up on probation at this rate, and I have to keep reminding myself its just not worth it.

D&D group isn't happening we have reconveined and decided to go with Call of Cthulu this sunday instead either way my input into my gaming group was inspired by the show you girls and guys have made together and on that basis 6-7 people on sunday will be getting together to have a laugh and try not to go wibble.

Liking the reveal really did see it coming on the facts that were laid out for all to see however if I was playing I would have been looking to stamp on a goblin or two before paying attension to any of that story crap, not to say the story is lacking just that I like to kill things.

Whats really annoying is that people keep expecting something that hasn't been written on the side of the tin, its like they see it saying professional gaming group playing D&D with a top of the range video camera, lighting crew and sound man with full production team and director. I don't, I see a bunch of friends enjoying themselves.

Maybe people should try and enjoy themselves more stop wasting energy worrying about crap that doesn't matter at all (this is a well prooven fact of life if your worrying about something your expending energy that would be better spent doing something about it).

Success will always be defined by the persons own perceptions what may be the easiest and simplest victory for one will be a hard fought and well earned victory for another. Some will consider a small success to not be one at all.

THIS SHOW IS AND ALWAYS WILL BE SUCCESSFUL IN MY OPINION.

To kill a show like this really is to kill the very reason we all game. (And if your not here for gaming you should go get a life.)

 

[BastyNastard]

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

Just had a random thought... could you imagine trying to have sex with a medusa thats some serious saves your gonna have to make.

 

[Hazy]

ROBOcity you were clearly watching a different show than everybody else.

Not trying to come off as condescending here, but "quoting" somebody insures that they're notified of what your post entails directly from their inbox.

Just makes communication all the more easier.

Man this was boring and it's not just me the girls are bored too. Was there really a porn star in that mess?

You're boring. If you found it soooo boring, why did you watch it? Why did you comment about it? At least give some constructive feedback instead of just joining about 1000 people saying in unison "It's boring".

It's evident that he didn't find it interesting, albeit worded more coarsely than I would have, which, in my opinion, is a legitimate complaint.
It's hard to entertain a wide audience, as what is considered to be "fun" is completely subjective. Reading a book might be fun for some, playing (or, in this case, watching) DnD for others, so you really can't fault a person for saying that they're not having a good time. After all, I've played supposedly "great" games that were pretty solid, and the only argument I could cough up was "I'm just not having a good time."[footnote][Insert Fable II pun here][/footnote]

I'm not saying I find the show boring, but it didn't really appeal to my particular tastes - an example being that I, by every stretch of the imagination, just don't find DnD to be all that fun. I do, however, enjoy the conversations they have, as they feel vibrant and fresh. (And as a Tarantino fan, I'm big into interesting conversations.)

However, the lack of scripting works sort of like a double-edged sword, giving it the notion that, while it's all off-the-cuff and interesting, it also gives a few moments of blank "what happens now?" moments, which is to be expected, but I feel hampers the experience.

TL;DR: Yes, I feel the show definitely has potential, and will hopefully have a change of heart and consider watching more down the line. And while the people commenting and implying that they're not having a good time may appear to be contributing nothing at all, I really can't blame them as "fun" is, as mentioned earlier, completely subjective, and I'm not going to ask someone to elaborate on why they're simply not having a good time.
[sub]Please note: I am not encouraging flaming towards the creators/stars of the show in any way at all.[/sub]

[sub]And finally, I just want to make this point again - keep doing what you love if it makes you happy. While Group A might not like it, that doesn't mean Group B won't either, and I really want to see this show go far.[/sub]

I'm loving the fact that the haters are getting OWNED by Porn Stars.

Strange, because last I checked, porn stars are people just like you or me. So why does being "owned" by one hold any more weight than being told off by someone who isn't a porn star? ;P