Poll: So some people don't like the Escapist...

[Something Amyss]

"Spunkgargleweewee"

You mean that term virtually nobody actually used beyond the first three weeks after Yahtzee coined it?

That looked like it was satire, and I'm praying it was.

 

[Fappy]

I find it funny that people would call the Escapist community elitist because it's one of the most common words bandied around BY the Escapist. That and pretentious. Does anyone call the Escapist pretentious? That would be declicious.

but I call it thoughtful.

Wait, what? What am I missing? People actually ask for sources and to back stuff up? Because usually I just see waves of "that's your opinion!" and "entitlement!" crap.

Well I never claimed everyone here does it XD

Considering this is the internet I'd say that's just expecting far too much from people.

 

[Sewer Rat]

At the end of the day I don't really care, I enjoy (some) of the original content posted and the forums have in general been entertaining. I enjoy it so I read and post occasionally. If other people don't like it then fine.

 

[Lionsfan]

"Spunkgargleweewee"

You mean that term virtually nobody actually used beyond the first three weeks after Yahtzee coined it?

That looked like it was satire, and I'm praying it was.

I think he's going after the collective hate this site seems to have for CoD and Battlefield, and is just using spunkgargle because it was popular for a little bit.

Of course, I could be completely off, so who knows

 

[DeltaEdge]

Hm, well I think that a lot of people here do tend to get pretty harsh and hostile during heated arguments, particularly on hot topics. Although this doesn't apply to everyone, it seems fairly common to not only attempt to disprove the people that you disagree with, but also to demean them as well through passive-aggressive means. Basically, some people will passive-aggressively rip you a new asshole if you end up in a disagreement with them, and it often becomes less of a debate, and more of a verbal fight to win the argument over time with a lot of people sometimes (From my experience anyways). And no, I am not implying that this doesn't happen everywhere else on the internet, I am just saying that it happens.

That, and the escapist generally appears to be fairly anti-religious too. I've never seen anyone outright call someone out for being religious here, and most people when asked will probably say that they are okay with it, provided that you don't rub it in their faces, but through the instances where it is brought up, it, in my experience, tends to seem fairly obvious that religion isn't particularly welcome here, unless you are keeping it muzzled and on a short leash, and possibly inside of a steel cage.

Even with things like that though, it is still by far the best forum I have ever been a part of due to the great enforcement of the rules and overall respectful community(At least, when things aren't getting heated).

 

[kommando367]

I don't like the cynics, the grammar nazis, or the elitists, but the last 2 seem to have mellowed out over the years so I'm hoping the cynics will too.

Any day now...

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Honestly the reason I would up here was strictly Zero Punctuation led me here and my 3 attempts to talk about anything on the GameFAQs forums turning into flame wars in 3 posts, less of that here so here I stayed.

That's not to say the Escapist isn't a good site but that's how I wound up here. Though like any forum there's crazy people and I've met them, basically say something on a Nintendo platform wasn't fun for you and you may find people calling you a jackass.

Funny you should mention Gamefaqs, because I've had the complete opposite experience with it. It depends on the forum (there are literally thousands of forums on that site, easily hundreds of which are to some extent active, and each of them has its own little subculture) you're posting in, but generally speaking, it's a good place to go and discuss things that are actually on topic. I can't remember the last time I discussed an individual game on The Escapist -- Gaming is pretty much dedicated to higher level stuff, like what EA is doing at the moment, while off topic is dedicated mostly to social issues at this point. And yeah, I know, the EA threads lately have been about Sim City, but they haven't actually been about Sim City as a game, they've been about Sim City as an object lesson in draconian DRM. It's an important topic, but it's not exactly what I'd call a relaxing discussion.

Gamefaqs, on the other hand? I don't spend much time on the gaming forums proper (I spend most of my time in Cartoons and Animation and the Adult Swim Action sub-forum in the anime section), but every discussion I've had over there has been either productive or, at the very least, entertaining. I know that when insults start getting thrown around there, they can be more in your face than they are here, but it's actually kind of refreshing. I guess what I'm saying is, it comes across as honesty. The flame wars here are, if anything, nastier and more frequent, they're just wrapped up in a veneer of civility because of the way the rules are worded. People get all kinds of nasty here, but as long as they avoid direct insults (which are distinctly separate from indirect or implied insults), they get off scot free. Also, I like the freedom Gamefaqs has to call a troll a troll, even if it is in part a response to the way certain known trolls ban dodge on a regular basis. That was one of the few warnings I got here, for calling someone a troll to his face. He so deserved it, as evidenced by the way his punishment was much more stiff than mine.

 

[Snotnarok]

Honestly the reason I would up here was strictly Zero Punctuation led me here and my 3 attempts to talk about anything on the GameFAQs forums turning into flame wars in 3 posts, less of that here so here I stayed.

That's not to say the Escapist isn't a good site but that's how I wound up here. Though like any forum there's crazy people and I've met them, basically say something on a Nintendo platform wasn't fun for you and you may find people calling you a jackass.

Funny you should mention Gamefaqs, because I've had the complete opposite experience with it. It depends on the forum (there are literally thousands of forums on that site, easily hundreds of which are to some extent active, and each of them has its own little subculture) you're posting in, but generally speaking, it's a good place to go and discuss things that are actually on topic. I can't remember the last time I discussed an individual game on The Escapist -- Gaming is pretty much dedicated to higher level stuff, like what EA is doing at the moment, while off topic is dedicated mostly to social issues at this point. And yeah, I know, the EA threads lately have been about Sim City, but they haven't actually been about Sim City as a game, they've been about Sim City as an object lesson in draconian DRM. It's an important topic, but it's not exactly what I'd call a relaxing discussion.

Gamefaqs, on the other hand? I don't spend much time on the gaming forums proper (I spend most of my time in Cartoons and Animation and the Adult Swim Action sub-forum in the anime section), but every discussion I've had over there has been either productive or, at the very least, entertaining. I know that when insults start getting thrown around there, they can be more in your face than they are here, but it's actually kind of refreshing. I guess what I'm saying is, it comes across as honesty. The flame wars here are, if anything, nastier and more frequent, they're just wrapped up in a veneer of civility because of the way the rules are worded. People get all kinds of nasty here, but as long as they avoid direct insults (which are distinctly separate from indirect or implied insults), they get off scot free. Also, I like the freedom Gamefaqs has to call a troll a troll, even if it is in part a response to the way certain known trolls ban dodge on a regular basis. That was one of the few warnings I got here, for calling someone a troll to his face. He so deserved it, as evidenced by the way his punishment was much more stiff than mine.

Yeah I'm aware of some people being elitist pricks here, voicing an opinion makes you high and mighty and who are you to question the great Dev they worship or have an opinion on the topic at hand. When I tried gameFAQs it was years ago, I started a topic about the PSP asking what games would be neat to get and what they were looking forward to(because I was excited and it wasn't out yet in the US, but I got me a Japanese one) and when I checked back in half an hour it turned into a flame war in 3 posts and I didn't know what I should post or if I even should (New to forums then) so I was pretty much out after the next two attempts.

Edit: Reading what you said again makes me want to try them out again since a lot of topics here as you said are more about devs and less about the games, which drives me nuts because who cares about the company when it's the game and the fun that it gives vs the EAs CEO sniffing farts or whatever.

Worst thing I had here was when I posted about the PS3 losing it's linux feature or something saying that PS3 is losing a lot of features and suggesting it should have some sort of 'elite model' that cost extra but plays PS2 games and whatever. Someone got all sad and yelled at me because I was being greedy or that sony doesn't owe me anything. For ..suggesting they an elite model for those who'd pay for it. K whatever!

Or maybe the worst was the user here who got a warning for advertizing when sharing my webcomic, something I feel guilty about.

Maybe GameFAQs changed or maybe I just posted something written weird.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Honestly the reason I would up here was strictly Zero Punctuation led me here and my 3 attempts to talk about anything on the GameFAQs forums turning into flame wars in 3 posts, less of that here so here I stayed.

That's not to say the Escapist isn't a good site but that's how I wound up here. Though like any forum there's crazy people and I've met them, basically say something on a Nintendo platform wasn't fun for you and you may find people calling you a jackass.

Funny you should mention Gamefaqs, because I've had the complete opposite experience with it. It depends on the forum (there are literally thousands of forums on that site, easily hundreds of which are to some extent active, and each of them has its own little subculture) you're posting in, but generally speaking, it's a good place to go and discuss things that are actually on topic. I can't remember the last time I discussed an individual game on The Escapist -- Gaming is pretty much dedicated to higher level stuff, like what EA is doing at the moment, while off topic is dedicated mostly to social issues at this point. And yeah, I know, the EA threads lately have been about Sim City, but they haven't actually been about Sim City as a game, they've been about Sim City as an object lesson in draconian DRM. It's an important topic, but it's not exactly what I'd call a relaxing discussion.

Gamefaqs, on the other hand? I don't spend much time on the gaming forums proper (I spend most of my time in Cartoons and Animation and the Adult Swim Action sub-forum in the anime section), but every discussion I've had over there has been either productive or, at the very least, entertaining. I know that when insults start getting thrown around there, they can be more in your face than they are here, but it's actually kind of refreshing. I guess what I'm saying is, it comes across as honesty. The flame wars here are, if anything, nastier and more frequent, they're just wrapped up in a veneer of civility because of the way the rules are worded. People get all kinds of nasty here, but as long as they avoid direct insults (which are distinctly separate from indirect or implied insults), they get off scot free. Also, I like the freedom Gamefaqs has to call a troll a troll, even if it is in part a response to the way certain known trolls ban dodge on a regular basis. That was one of the few warnings I got here, for calling someone a troll to his face. He so deserved it, as evidenced by the way his punishment was much more stiff than mine.

Yeah I'm aware of some people being elitist pricks here, voicing an opinion makes you high and mighty and who are you to question the great Dev they worship or have an opinion on the topic at hand. When I tried gameFAQs it was years ago, I started a topic about the PSP asking what games would be neat to get and what they were looking forward to(because I was excited and it wasn't out yet in the US, but I got me a Japanese one) and when I checked back in half an hour it turned into a flame war in 3 posts and I didn't know what I should post or if I even should (New to forums then) so I was pretty much out after the next two attempts.

Edit: Reading what you said again makes me want to try them out again since a lot of topics here as you said are more about devs and less about the games, which drives me nuts because who cares about the company when it's the game and the fun that it gives vs the EAs CEO sniffing farts or whatever.

Worst thing I had here was when I posted about the PS3 losing it's linux feature or something saying that PS3 is losing a lot of features and suggesting it should have some sort of 'elite model' that cost extra but plays PS2 games and whatever. Someone got all sad and yelled at me because I was being greedy or that sony doesn't owe me anything. For ..suggesting they an elite model for those who'd pay for it. K whatever!

Or maybe the worst was the user here who got a warning for advertizing when sharing my webcomic, something I feel guilty about.

Maybe GameFAQs changed or maybe I just posted something written weird.

I remember seeing stuff like that around the time you mentioned, and yeah, they got /really/ fired up about the console wars back then. I don't see it as much these days, but I know what you're talking about. I honestly don't know if the userbase has grown up, or if something else changed, because I haven't seen anything quite like that in recent memory, despite the upcoming generation, which usually gets the console wars fired up all over again. Basically, you happened to pick /the/ hot button topic of the day. Imagine coming in as a new user here and starting a new thread about feminism as your first post. Same kind of deal.

 

[Colour Scientist]

Were you ever here for March Madness?[footnote]A tournament to see who the community thinks is the best developer. Users voted for the devs they liked best and see who comes out on top and see how many of the ones you picked won.[/footnote] Now THAT was pretty ugly, the amount of fighting that went on was pretty bad, they cancelled it this year because they want something more involving than just filling out brackets.

In 2010 the community pulled together in a collective 'fuck you' to Zynga, it was fun.

Remember how angry people were that Zynga got to the semi finals a few years back? That was not pretty.

Ah... Yes, that's what I was referring to!
Facebook posters made accounts and popped in to random threads to call us nerdy shitbags and the like. It was excellent.

 

[Snotnarok]

Honestly the reason I would up here was strictly Zero Punctuation led me here and my 3 attempts to talk about anything on the GameFAQs forums turning into flame wars in 3 posts, less of that here so here I stayed.

That's not to say the Escapist isn't a good site but that's how I wound up here. Though like any forum there's crazy people and I've met them, basically say something on a Nintendo platform wasn't fun for you and you may find people calling you a jackass.

Funny you should mention Gamefaqs, because I've had the complete opposite experience with it. It depends on the forum (there are literally thousands of forums on that site, easily hundreds of which are to some extent active, and each of them has its own little subculture) you're posting in, but generally speaking, it's a good place to go and discuss things that are actually on topic. I can't remember the last time I discussed an individual game on The Escapist -- Gaming is pretty much dedicated to higher level stuff, like what EA is doing at the moment, while off topic is dedicated mostly to social issues at this point. And yeah, I know, the EA threads lately have been about Sim City, but they haven't actually been about Sim City as a game, they've been about Sim City as an object lesson in draconian DRM. It's an important topic, but it's not exactly what I'd call a relaxing discussion.

Gamefaqs, on the other hand? I don't spend much time on the gaming forums proper (I spend most of my time in Cartoons and Animation and the Adult Swim Action sub-forum in the anime section), but every discussion I've had over there has been either productive or, at the very least, entertaining. I know that when insults start getting thrown around there, they can be more in your face than they are here, but it's actually kind of refreshing. I guess what I'm saying is, it comes across as honesty. The flame wars here are, if anything, nastier and more frequent, they're just wrapped up in a veneer of civility because of the way the rules are worded. People get all kinds of nasty here, but as long as they avoid direct insults (which are distinctly separate from indirect or implied insults), they get off scot free. Also, I like the freedom Gamefaqs has to call a troll a troll, even if it is in part a response to the way certain known trolls ban dodge on a regular basis. That was one of the few warnings I got here, for calling someone a troll to his face. He so deserved it, as evidenced by the way his punishment was much more stiff than mine.

Yeah I'm aware of some people being elitist pricks here, voicing an opinion makes you high and mighty and who are you to question the great Dev they worship or have an opinion on the topic at hand. When I tried gameFAQs it was years ago, I started a topic about the PSP asking what games would be neat to get and what they were looking forward to(because I was excited and it wasn't out yet in the US, but I got me a Japanese one) and when I checked back in half an hour it turned into a flame war in 3 posts and I didn't know what I should post or if I even should (New to forums then) so I was pretty much out after the next two attempts.

Edit: Reading what you said again makes me want to try them out again since a lot of topics here as you said are more about devs and less about the games, which drives me nuts because who cares about the company when it's the game and the fun that it gives vs the EAs CEO sniffing farts or whatever.

Worst thing I had here was when I posted about the PS3 losing it's linux feature or something saying that PS3 is losing a lot of features and suggesting it should have some sort of 'elite model' that cost extra but plays PS2 games and whatever. Someone got all sad and yelled at me because I was being greedy or that sony doesn't owe me anything. For ..suggesting they an elite model for those who'd pay for it. K whatever!

Or maybe the worst was the user here who got a warning for advertizing when sharing my webcomic, something I feel guilty about.

Maybe GameFAQs changed or maybe I just posted something written weird.

I remember seeing stuff like that around the time you mentioned, and yeah, they got /really/ fired up about the console wars back then. I don't see it as much these days, but I know what you're talking about. I honestly don't know if the userbase has grown up, or if something else changed, because I haven't seen anything quite like that in recent memory, despite the upcoming generation, which usually gets the console wars fired up all over again. Basically, you happened to pick /the/ hot button topic of the day. Imagine coming in as a new user here and starting a new thread about feminism as your first post. Same kind of deal.

I guess? I don't know if asking for PSP games to get from japan is the same but ehh...console wars, angry fanboys...I throw my hands up, you're probably right. :\

Maybe I'll give their forums another chance one day.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I can see why some people might view this place as a bit pretentious and up its own ass. But hey, somebody's gotta do it, and I love it here. It's the smell...

At least this place is not a rabbid pig pen like Youtube and practically every other geek forum I've seen. Seriously, that abyss stares also.

 

[Kayos]

I voted Layout - i liked it ALOT better around the time i joined the escapist.
(mostly a veiwer i only occasionally post) i come here alot less frequently since they changed to the new layout

 

[MetalMagpie]

Pretty much every discussion has a reasonable probability of degrading into a flame-war about sexism?

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

How the f*** should I know? I'm not one of them. The only thing I don't like about the Escapist is I think their policies for posting are a bit strict, especially for the general maturity level we have. I suppose if you're someone who has intolerant or stupid views you might have a hard time finding people to agree with you here, but in cases where there is any intellectual discussion to be had, there is generally a robust side either way.

 

[Spinozaad]

Like every "community" (I've grown to loathe that word ever since I started studying "identity"), The Escapist community is elitist to the bone. That's how communities tend to work. One of self-shoved feathers up the arse of the Escapist's community is definitely its insistence that the community is "mature" and "intellectually stimulating". It really isn't, but that's not to be expected, considering the target audience. I tended to gravitate towards semi-postmodern/constructivist and "progressive" ideas when I was 18-22 as well.

That's just one reason why people might not like The Escapist, and like most other reasons "getting old" is most likely at the root of it.

 

[Risingblade]

Look on the bright side, they haven't found out what horrible human beings most the users are here. Elitist is the kindest word you could call this place. Alas I still loves it for the laughs it's brought me.

 

[the darknees abyss]

People don't like the escapist lets hunt down and kill these people the only reason some might not like is if they brain dead or don't actually know what it is.

 

[AgentLampshade]

I don't know, I've never seen this place badmouthed anywhere on the internet, which is odd considering it's size. I like The Escapist. I just don't see how anyone can hate something that has the Konami Code hidden inside it.