Most irritating things people do on these forums..

[bdcjacko]

Ooo, another thing that is irritating is when you are having a discussion about something and someone posts a web comic or picture or possibly a meme as their argument and basically implies well since these guys took the time to make the cartoon, argument over, I win. You know like the whole games as art discussion which pops up every day on this, and someone finds a cute little cartoon from Penny Arcade and is all like see, Penny Arcade said so, [/thread]

 

[Woodsey]

Well they do their job because they want to (it's a rather specific area to work in after all), but they can't devote fully to it unless it sustains them.

Why should they post all this content and not be paid? Would you be saying that if they published a physical magazine?

On the contrary, I feel that if they're being paid they're more likely to become lazy in their writing. If they weren't paid, they wouldn't have the pressure to come up with something every week, let alone this bizarre idea of having a theme every issue.

A physical magazine is different. A physical magazine costs money to publish, produce & circulate. The only price that needs to be associated with this site is that of owning the server.
I could forgive a small banner ad at the top to pay for that, but intrusive, animated flash videos that slow down those of us with out the fortune of good internet, & ads on videos? No.

You are aware of how money as an incentive works, aren't you? You don't put more effort in to things that are secondary to you earning money to do stuff (and keep your site up anyway).

And I'm guessing they've had ads up since 2005 when they started, and there's not been a drop in quality - and if you feel there has, there's a rather simple answer instead of using the publisher's club.

 

[Woodsey]

You are aware of how money as an incentive works, aren't you? You don't put more effort in to things that are secondary to you earning money to do stuff (and keep your site up anyway).

And I'm guessing they've had ads up since 2005 when they started, and there's not been a drop in quality - and if you feel there has, there's a rather simple answer instead of using the publisher's club.

Plenty of brilliant things are done without advertising, things people have done because they love or to make a name for themselves, not for money. Think of Yahtzee's videos before he came onto this site's payroll & when he just started, they're much better than what he has now. If he wasn't being paid, he would've stopped ZP & moved on to something he wants to do, & would be more enthusiastic about doing it.

Right, if he only he had had the chance to fulfill his wish of writing a book that he would also sell for commercial gain, or open a bar in Australia. Ah well, maybe he can live both those dreams for one day, but for now he'll just ha- Yeah.

And yes, lots of good things can happen even when people aren't paid, but even better if you can do something you enjoy and be paid. A lot of indie developers do want to actually get paid for their work and have more resources to do stuff, that's why they jump at the chance to work for places like Valve. Same concept.

It's their job, to which they're devoting all of their time - you get more content then in a magazine, and yet you're more willing to pay for a magazine.

And going back to ZP, I'm pretty sure he had about 3 whole videos before the Escapist picked him up.

 

[Woodsey]

Right, if he only he had had the chance to fulfill his wish of writing a book that he would also sell for commercial gain, or open a bar in Australia. Ah well, maybe he can live both those dreams for one day, but for now he'll just ha- Yeah.

And yes, lots of good things can happen even when people aren't paid, but even better if you can do something you enjoy and be paid. A lot of indie developers do want to actually get paid for their work and have more resources to do stuff, that's why they jump at the chance to work for places like Valve. Same concept.

It's their job, to which they're devoting all of their time - you get more content then in a magazine, and yet you're more willing to pay for a magazine.

And going back to ZP, I'm pretty sure he had about 3 whole videos before the Escapist picked him up.

A book costs money to publish & distribute, as I have said. As does a bar to keep open, unlike cartoons on the internet.

Well, either they don't enjoy it & do it simply to get paid or the majority of the site's contributors do work of too poor quality to warrant the pay that comes from having intrusive flash ads, in my opinion. Either way, the site would be better off without them.

As I said, early on. I bet he certainly enjoyed it & getting paid, but now it's just stale, probably because he's bored with it.

So... go to a different site then? You're paying for the publisher's club when you don't even like the content.