Nope, I was here for Yahtzee. A friend showed me the YouTube video's he made when he first started the reviews, and I followed him here and made an account when Yahtzee first started on the Escapist. However that account is... No longer with us.
Poll: Were you here before Zero Punctuation came out?
- Thread starter xxnightlawxx
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I lurked here without an account regularly well before Yahtzee was brought here. However, I only created my account fairly recently. (I tend to do a ~1-2 year lurk before I join a forum.)
Haha, no, I wasn't. A gamer friend of mine linked me to him and told me to watch and warned that it might steal a little of my soul but that it would be worth it.
I found it really funny. I appreciate that vast majority of his humor.
Then I started watching Unskippable, which I loved. And then I set up an account.
I found it really funny. I appreciate that vast majority of his humor.
Then I started watching Unskippable, which I loved. And then I set up an account.
I would like to say yes, but I must say sadly no. To tell you the truth, the only reason I learned about the Escapist is when I was watching X-Play on G4TV and they showed a clip of ZP. I then went and checked out the website, watched some of his reviews, then signed up so I could comment on them. Although I haven't commented on one yet. Now I really enjoy watching ZP, Unskippable, There Will Be Brawl, Doomsday Arcade, and Unforgotten Realms. One other bonus to the Escapist...BADGES!!! Yes badges. The achievements of the Escapist. The things that make your virtual e-penis, for guys, and e-boobs, for girls, grow to monumentus size. I am now obsessed with earning these little tid-bits just as I am earning them on my 360. I really don't mind them, but....wait. Did I just totally go off-topic? Woops....
I first read the Escapist way, waaaaaay back in Issue One [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/features/issue/1] in 2005 (!), brought in on a link from Penny Arcade to Tycho's article [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_1/1-The-Mainstream-is-Coming]. I liked what I read, especially seeing such names as Kieron Gillen (lately of Rock Paper Shotgun fame) contributing articles. I was a sporadic but dedicated reader of the magazine - and it was a magazine back then, laid out in double-page spread PDFs [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/pdf/1], which I thought were great. I was a little sad when the site got its biggest redesign and the articles became regular texty web pages, but that's progress for you.Incredible Bullshitting Man said:
I think Zero Punctuation is great, but I haven't watched it in months. What has always brought me back week after week are the articles. I didn't even both joining the forums for a long while (as you can see), partly because they were much quieter at the time.
It's hard to compare the forums then and now. They're very different. I think with every increase in popularity these forums have become more like every other busy gaming forum out there, which is both good and bad. I'm stoked for the Escapist - it's great to see the site flourish. And I'm not blinded by nostalgia - an empty forum is a pointless forum. But there was a sense once that this was a cosy little community of generally pretty intellectual people; after all, these were people who came here to read in-depth and considered essays on some often pretty abstract gaming issues. There were no reviews, no breaking news updates (if I remember right) and no flashy videos full of dick jokes to keep the lollercopters entertained. Some people on these forums still think of it as a highbrow kind of place, but it's not really true. The mods keep the absolute bottom-feeders in check, but these days there's a pretty typical mix of juveniles and people who respond to every thread with one unpunctuated sentence.
What I really miss is being able to write a decently long, thoughtful response to a topic and not have it end up on page 3 or later of the thread because a dozen people have tapped out a quick top-of-mind reply while you were writing. Or even being able to see a thread for the first time without it already having 8 pages of responses. I like to think about what I write (part of the reason my post count is so low for such an old-timer!) so I don't much like adding my post buried deep in the back pages of a thread, where only a handful of people will read it.
Whew. Well, this old man is tired with his storytelling, so before I go for my mid-morning nap let me just say one last thing: you damn kids, get off my lawn!
I found the escapist because of zero punctuation, just recently joined to rant on religion or something. I heard that Turbine is apparently also a force on this website, if the march mayhem threads are to be believed.
