MovieBob leaving The Escapist

[J Tyran]

If I went on Twitter called "JtyranFromDFDS" (not my real name obviously) and kept ranting about how the companies customers were awful, subhuman fascists I would expect to get sacked. Probably after the first occurrence too, when you associate your employers into your social media entity in any way you have to maintain standards.

I recognise fully that the term "subhuman" is a shitty thing to say. Definitely. Agreed.

But he said that term in reference to "college-age conservabros", not simply applying it to gamers, not applying it to "those of us in the forum". Does that excuse the language? No, of course not. But I'm getting equally sick of this persistent false narrative that he was insulting each and every one of us, or gamers as a whole, when he said this stuff.

The fact that there is a "persistent false narrative" (I'm not claiming there is or isn't) is enough a problem by itself, perception is often more important than the facts and if your employee repeatedly, continually creates enough controversy with comments that cause a "persistent false narrative" sooner or later the hammer will drop if you cannot get them to shut their mouths.

Besides which the "conservabros" thing is damning enough really, anytime you start generalising groups with prejudicial pronouns you're playing with fire.

 

[Insideout Ink Demon]

Don't remember in recent memory his slagging off all gamers on his twitter, jus what he referred to as the GameBros. Which isn't all of us. That said, could see why the would offend GameBros

 

[Ratty]

Don't remember in recent memory his slagging off all gamers on his twitter, jus what he referred to as the GameBros. Which isn't all of us. That said, could see why the would offend GameBros

He made many posts claiming that "bros" had co-opted his hobby, and that he was an "original" gamer because he started with the NES and many of them only started with the Xbox. I seem to recall he may have blocked someone after they told him they started with the Magnavox Odyssey, disagreed with his views and called him a 3rd generation n00b lol.

 

[faefrost]

<tweet t=https://twitter.com/archon/status/566640911250370561>

Maybe news, but mostly not much news at all.

And lots of hugs to those who want me to fill the position. We'll see. ;D

I can't avoid the feeling that a major element of said restructuring is to use a readership relationship approach that at a minimum avoids calling them "sub human shits". Just saying there are a lot of polite and neutral ways of saying things. Y'know "we have restructured around the guiding principle that we should not be openly insulting and contemptuous of our readers" is in fact a corporate change of direction that could lead to some specific layoffs. And it means and results in the same thing as "we really prefer that our identifiable employees and content providers not be complete assholes to our target audience on social media." I think we all agree that if we had tweeted out some of the stuff Bob has been, we would not have lasted a day at work, let alone months.

 

[Silvanus]

The fact that there is a "persistent false narrative" (I'm not claiming there is or isn't) is enough a problem by itself, perception is often more important than the facts and if your employee repeatedly, continually creates enough controversy with comments that cause a "persistent false narrative" sooner or later the hammer will drop if you cannot get them to shut their mouths.

The existence of a false narrative can mean that the subject is being careless or misleading, true... But it can also mean nothing more than that another person or group of people has un/intentionally created a false narrative for silly reasons. False narratives are usually primarily the fault of the people creating or pushing them.

Bob has a long history of viewing people who disagree with him as "dudebros" though, like anyone who played CoD. He specified that they were college aged because of the SVU episode, but it's pretty clear his view of them as "subhuman" comes from their political beliefs. Thus they are "conservabros". And as you say, calling someone "subhuman" is an awful thing to do no matter how many qualifiers you put before.

The fact stands that the idea that Bob was talking about gamers/ forumites/ us is either a misunderstanding, or a fib.

 

[Amaror]

If this happened a year ago, I think I would have been disappointed. Now, after so many forceful opinions and antagonistic comments, I'm just shocked it didn't happen sooner. I'm glad now

You know, the most surprising thing here is the sheer number of people who, like you, openly state that they want their internet browsing to be a complacent echo chamber where they won't see nor hear opinions inimical to their own.

Nobody here said they want everyone to agree with their opinion. What they didn't want is to be viciously insulted for their opinion, which is what bob did. And quite frankly i expect any professional to act, you know, professional. Spewing vicious insults is not professional in the least, exspecially when these insults are directed at your customers.
I work in IT and it can be quite exhausting sometimes how stupid some people act with their computers. But i don't go onto twitter and say "Boy, all these people needing IT support sure are stupid. They should all die in a fire, subhuman vermin that they are!"

 

[J Tyran]

The fact that there is a "persistent false narrative" (I'm not claiming there is or isn't) is enough a problem by itself, perception is often more important than the facts and if your employee repeatedly, continually creates enough controversy with comments that cause a "persistent false narrative" sooner or later the hammer will drop if you cannot get them to shut their mouths.

The existence of a false narrative can mean that the subject is being careless or misleading, true... But it can also mean nothing more than that another person or group of people has un/intentionally created a false narrative for silly reasons. False narratives are usually primarily the fault of the people creating or pushing them.

Which I wouldn't disagree with but the fact remains that he has been shit slinging, whoever or whatever his targets might have been his rants aimed at the "conservabros" are examples of him using a public persona associated with his employer to shit sling at the public.

Whether the overriding perception of his comments is false or not thats enough for any professional, responsible media outlet to lose patience with. Especially as it isn't the first time, the tone and language used left criticism and commentary a long way back and are simply shit slinging so thats not a defence either.

Some of his Big Picture stuff? Criticism and commentary, some of his Twitter stuff? Pure shit slinging.

 

[Bizzaro Stormy]

I never saw much of Bob's work. I tried watching one or two videos and just couldn't get into them. It's hard to have strong feelings about someone who's work you didn't watch. With that said hopefully he will find something new, improve himself and his work, and be able to move on from his work at the Escapist.

To everyone moaning about the end of the Escapist, why not try making content for them? Seriously. Write a few articles, try your hand at making a video and see if they find it interesting enough to accept, or to at least encourage you to improve your own work. The forums indicate to me that there are lots of people with thoughts on a wide variety of "Escapist" fantasy. So why not put it out for others to see? Fill the gaps in the line up.

Or if the Escapist is in need of new talent, there are lots of people making interesting videos as hobbies on Youtube. I really enjoy Caddicarus, GGmanlives, and sometimes Lazy Game Reviews. Right there are three guys making videos as a hobby that with some polishing could fit right in here. If they aren't a good fit there are plenty of others who would love the chance. If the site offered to reimburse them for the games/hardware they buy so long as they make a timely review of it and provide a receipt, than they could also get hobbyist content at bargain prices. It's a thought.

 

[Silvanus]

Whether the overriding perception of his comments is false or not thats enough for any professional, responsible media outlet to lose patience with. Especially as it isn't the first time, the tone and language used left criticism and commentary a long way back and are simply shit slinging so thats not a defence either.

It's not meant as a defence.

It's right to call out falsities when they're repeated, time and again, particularly when those falsities support certain political narratives. Whether Bob said bad things is beside that point. I'm sick of misrepresentation altogether.

 

[Insideout Ink Demon]

Don't remember in recent memory his slagging off all gamers on his twitter, jus what he referred to as the GameBros. Which isn't all of us. That said, could see why the would offend GameBros

He made many posts claiming that "bros" had co-opted his hobby, and that he was an "original" gamer because he started with the NES and many of them only started with the Xbox. I seem to recall he may have blocked someone after they told him they started with the Magnavox Odyssey, disagreed with his views and called him a 3rd generation n00b lol.

who ever that was Bob blocked, I gotta give them a pat on the back for one hell of a shut down.

I'm a Second-Gen myself, 2600

 

[Tono Makt]

If this happened a year ago, I think I would have been disappointed. Now, after so many forceful opinions and antagonistic comments, I'm just shocked it didn't happen sooner. I'm glad now

You know, the most surprising thing here is the sheer number of people who, like you, openly state that they want their internet browsing to be a complacent echo chamber where they won't see nor hear opinions inimical to their own.

Reading a hell of a lot into things there, bucko.

Bob was an outright asshole on Twitter in particular. Wanting to punish assholes isn't trying to create a "complacent echo chamber" or trying to silence opinions they don't share. It's looking to kick an asshole in the nuts because he's an asshole. Referring to [strike=1]GamerGate[/S] Most Internet Arguments In The History Of The Internet, there are assholes on all sides of the debate who deserve to be kicked in the nuts, but rarely for the actual opinions or positions they hold. In almost all cases it's the way they conduct themselves, the actions they take and the way they treat their opposition. Take out the assholish behaviour and leave the opinions and positions, and you'll find that a large number of people involved are willing to actually discuss the issues being expressed.

But when people are acting like assholes, their opinions and positions only matter inasmuch as they determine if the person is "Our Asshole" or "Their Asshole". And if it's "Our Asshole", we defend them (generally by becoming assholes ourselves). If it's "Their Asshole", we attack them (generally by becoming assholes ourselves)... huh.

Now, is his conduct on Twitter what got him fired? Seems like that's not the case, but I'd imagine that if he had either held his fingers or respectfully disagreed (enduring all the assholes who were opposed to his opinions), maybe he might still be around the Escapist.

 

[Thorn14]

You seem to have conveniently missed three tweets previous to that one: https://twitter.com/the_moviebob/status/566598584116576256

"Just wanna be clear about something: I do NOT "want" any fans/followers of mine to stop reading/visiting The Escapist.....obviously, I'm unhappy with how A LOT of things worked out there, for me and in general, but I can tell you with 100% sincerity that....good people work there, whose livelihoods depend on your traffic. And I don't endorse "punishing" THEM because you're upset about me.!

My mistake then. Sorry. Thats good to hear. What I get for taking things at face value in a rush.

So much for it being amicable of a leaving. He also retweeted a bunch of "Fuck the escapist!" tweets, too.

That's literally him encouraging people to not stop visiting the Escapist.

Good to hear. I just meant to focus more on it probably not being an amicable leaving.

Bob insults people who disagree with him, it's the end of the world, Yahtzee does the same and it's funny -.-

Its how you insult them. When its just teasing "Fans are crap. But buy my tee shirt!" joke from Yahtzee, its obvious ribbing or at least the occasional disagreement. What Bob was doing was a stream of very toxic comments that few companies would want coming from their employees.

 

[J Tyran]

Whether the overriding perception of his comments is false or not thats enough for any professional, responsible media outlet to lose patience with. Especially as it isn't the first time, the tone and language used left criticism and commentary a long way back and are simply shit slinging so thats not a defence either.

It's not meant as a defence.

It's right to call out falsities when they're repeated, time and again, particularly when those falsities support certain political narratives. Whether Bob said bad things is beside that point. I'm sick of misrepresentation altogether.

Well thats the thing, it really is kind of the point. If he did get fired and it is because of his Twitter rants it was an inevitable consequence of him using a public persona associated with his employer to sling shit at the public, its not more simple or more complicated than that.

Trying to decide who and why he was slinging shit is a tangent at best or irrelevant at worst.

 

[klaynexas3]

Bob insults people who disagree with him, it's the end of the world, Yahtzee does the same and it's funny -.-

The difference being Yahtzee does it as his job, and it's all meant in good fun.

Bob does it because he genuinely doesn't like these people he disagrees with and there is actual toxicity behind his insults.

 

[Ihateregistering1]

Eh, I couldn't really care less. Once in a blue moon his "Big Picture" was entertaining, and I did enjoy "Schlocktober", but 95% of his content just sounded like:

A: An angry nerd with a giant chip on his shoulder from being bullied in high school (I always found it ironic that his last name is "Chipman").

and/or B: a pretentious, smug, ultra-liberal know-it-all who seemed to believe that having a bachelor's degree in film and owning the entire collection of "Samurai Pizza Cats" on DVD somehow made him smarter than 99% of the population.

Anyway, with Jim Sterling leaving and now Bob, it seems clear to me that Escapist is trying to rebrand itself as being much less of a "SJW" site and more focused purely on games and nerd culture.

 

[Piorn]

aaaaw, I've been on this site for a very long time now, grown quite attached to it, and I've seen shows come and go, but this is definitely one I'll miss having here.
And I hope he'll make good videos somewhere else then, I really liked them.

 

[MatsVS]

I agree with him a lot politically, but his behaviour on twitter in recent months has been, quite frankly, appalling and uncivilised, and I am not surprised to see him gone. Oh well, I'm sure he has a big enough fan base to become enough of a patreon jockey to eke out a meagre existence somewhere on the internet.