So... Why Not YouTube?

[SilverUchiha]

Haven't really watched new shows from the Escapist in a while. Then I saw Geek Remix and their video on Fallout 4 creatures and found it to be quite interesting. So I went to the Escapist YouTube channel to see if the others videos were uploaded there. I prefer watching there so I can play videos at a faster speed and get them watched faster.
To my disappointment, Escapist only seems to have Zero Punctuation, Judging by the Cover, and old Jimquisitions on their YouTube channel. All good videos, but why aren't any of the newcomers getting their stuff on the wider internet markets? Surely you could get more views for their videos, as well as the site, by showing them off elsewhere. Even if it was just one episode on YouTube to be a bit of a teaser or demo for the series. I would imagine not doing so actively hurts their chances as former members of the site who only know of ZP sticking around still wouldn't have heard of these other shows.
TL;DR - There seem to be at least a couple of Non-ZP shows on the Escapist with potential and it's a shame they aren't getting the same treatment as ZP by being on YouTube. People might actually know OF them if given that same level of opportunity.

 

[balladbird]

I'm not super knowledgeable on the subject, so take my words with a grain of salt, but to my understanding with peeps like Geek Remix and Man at Arms reforged the Escapist just paid them to cross-post their stuff on the website, rather than fully sponsoring them like they do with ZP and did with the Jimquisition. As such, the escapist's youtube channel probably doesn't have the right to host their videos.

 

[Saelune]

Because they (The Escapist) want people to be here, not there.

 

[IceForce]

Geek Remix

Geek Remix has an entire youtube channel of their own, right here:
https://www.youtube.com/user/geekremix/videos

 

[PainInTheAssInternet]

Funny you should make this thread, because there are a few here who think that posting Escapist content on YouTube is one of the reasons this forum has such low traffic.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Because they (The Escapist) want people to be here, not there.

Essentially this. The ad revenue service isn't what it once was though. For awhile I've actually been waiting to see if native advertising will begin to creep in a big way...

 

[FalloutJack]

Well...because it's Youtube. I mean, what a mess, am I right?

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Well...because it's Youtube. I mean, what a mess, am I right?

Ooff. I commented on a video once. Big mistake. Not doing that again!

 

[Drathnoxis]

Funny you should make this thread, because there are a few here who think that posting Escapist content on YouTube is one of the reasons this forum has such low traffic.

Exactly.

As possibly the most vocal supporter of the aforementioned theory I would say the question should really be "why is the Escapist posting as much content as they do on Youtube?"

Ever since the Escapist began posting their videos on Youtube there has been a marked decline in activity on the forums which I have to assume correlates to a decline in traffic to the site in general. Zero Punctuation has always been the main draw to the site, there have been enough "what brought you to the Escapist" polls to confirm that, and they aren't even trying to use him to draw people to the site anymore. Yes, Zero Punctuation goes up on Youtube a week after on the Escapist, but Yahtzee's reviews are several weeks after launch anyway so this is nothing. There isn't even any advertising for the site proper in the video itself, the only links are in the video description and who looks at that? I sure as heck don't! I would wager that the majority of people who watch ZP on Youtube don't have any idea that the Escapist even exists.

As it stands, all the fame goes to Yahtzee and the Escapist skims a bit of the Youtube ad revenue off of the top. What kind of winning strategy is that? If Yahtzee desired he could move over to Patreon and make a substantial amount while gaining complete independence and completely break the Escapist in the process. Jim Sterling's Patreon makes over 10k a month and comparing the average views for 10 Zero Punctuations to 10 Jimquisitions, Yahtzee has Jim beat by an average of 152,162 views per video with 476,940 average for ZP and 324,777 for Jimquisition.

 

[DoPo]

So I went to the Escapist YouTube channel to see if the others videos were uploaded there. I prefer watching there so I can play videos at a faster speed and get them watched faster.

If it helps, then you can go here [http://rss.escapistmagazine.com/][footnote]EDIT: forgot to mention - only Premium members should be able to access that. [/footnote], scroll to the Videos section, pick the show you want and what format you want it in, then you can download it and watch it . VLC Media Player (and others) allow you to play at custom speed, so you could watch at 2x or even more. OK, sure, more than 2x the speed gets a bit hard to follow, but still - you can do it.

 

[FalloutJack]

EDIT: forgot to mention - only Premium members should be able to access that.

So like...everybody, then? Remember, we all got upgraded.

 

[DoPo]

EDIT: forgot to mention - only Premium members should be able to access that.

So like...everybody, then? Remember, we all got upgraded.

Yes, technically, that's everybody. I think new users maybe don't have Premium - I'm not entirely sure. Also, I don't want the information to be misleading in the future, in case the upgrade gets "fixed". Hence the disclaimer.

 

[Drathnoxis]

EDIT: forgot to mention - only Premium members should be able to access that.

So like...everybody, then? Remember, we all got upgraded.

Yes, technically, that's everybody. I think new users maybe don't have Premium - I'm not entirely sure. Also, I don't want the information to be misleading in the future, in case the upgrade gets "fixed". Hence the disclaimer.

It wasn't actually everybody. There was a post in the tech group shortly after the upgrade by a mod that claimed to have seen the code and said it was everybody who had been active in the prior 6 months, had been a member for a certain length of time, and also had less than a certain amount of mod wrath. They quoted a figure for the number of accounts upgraded too, I can't really remember it, but I believe it was high 5 figures at least. The post has since been deleted as the group seems to keep rolling back to the start of the year, but the criteria can still be confirmed.

 

[Remus]

Sometimes I comment on a video just to see the chain reaction. It's like lighting a fuse leading up to several barrels of napalm. The impending fallout isn't so much satisfying as it is a thing to behold in awe and disgust.

 

[KyuubiNoKitsune-Hime]

A lot of content they've picked up is third party stuff... When they were running Game Theory, each episode was over a month old that was posted on this site... More than that Every thing The Escapist posts on YouTube is from the previous week, so that people have to come here to see the newest stuff.

A lot of people blame youtube for the low forum activity, but that's kind of a falsehood... Social media and sites like Reddit, Tumblr, and Twitter, or for those who are truly lost, -chan boards, have become the the old bulletin board forum replacement. Forums like this are become relics of a bygone age, antiques of the internet as it were. They'll always be around, but their dominance is long gone. The heaviest traffic days still are ZP day, where this site gets most of the incoming traffic... Still most just don't bother with the forums anymore.

 

[DoPo]

EDIT: forgot to mention - only Premium members should be able to access that.

So like...everybody, then? Remember, we all got upgraded.

Yes, technically, that's everybody. I think new users maybe don't have Premium - I'm not entirely sure. Also, I don't want the information to be misleading in the future, in case the upgrade gets "fixed". Hence the disclaimer.

It wasn't actually everybody. There was a post in the tech group shortly after the upgrade by a mod that claimed to have seen the code and said it was everybody who had been active in the prior 6 months, had been a member for a certain length of time, and also had less than a certain amount of mod wrath. They quoted a figure for the number of accounts upgraded too, I can't really remember it, but I believe it was high 5 figures at least. The post has since been deleted as the group seems to keep rolling back to the start of the year, but the criteria can still be confirmed.

So, it seems to have been mostly everybody, then. At any rate, my disclaimer got validated.

 

[SolidState]

Wait a moment, wait a moment, what video content does this site actually HAVE other than Yahtzee's two video series?

 

[SolidState]

There was a post in the tech group shortly after the upgrade by a mod that claimed to have seen the code and said it was everybody who had been active in the prior 6 months, had been a member for a certain length of time, and also had less than a certain amount of mod wrath. They quoted a figure for the number of accounts upgraded too, I can't really remember it, but I believe it was high 5 figures at least. The post has since been deleted as the group seems to keep rolling back to the start of the year, but the criteria can still be confirmed.

Personally, I'd be dubious of this. Individual mods have claimed things in the past, and have been wrong in the past.
If a mod says they've "seen the code", I'm very skeptical of that. Because mods have explained in the past that they don't have any access to the site code. So these two cases can't both be correct.

I'm not trying to be an ass or anything here, I'm just saying that it's probably worth getting a second opinion (preferably from someone higher up), because having only one mod's word to go on and a deleted post, is definitely something to be dubious of, imo.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Personally, I'd be dubious of this. Individual mods have claimed things in the past, and have been wrong in the past.
If a mod says they've "seen the code", I'm very skeptical of that. Because mods have explained in the past that they don't have any access to the site code. So these two cases can't both be correct.

Did you miss the part where I said it can still be confirmed?

1) Look at any old thread, you can tell who still logs in because they have no avatar and are "premium members"
Example

2) Many people came here from Game Trailers several months before the upgrade, they do not have premium accounts. In fact you yourself do not have pubclub despite having no mod wrath and being active, however I notice that you hadn't quite been here a year at the time of the layoffs.

3) MarsAtlas did not get pubclub, at the time MarsAtlas was one tick away from being banned.

The information is true, regardless of where it came from, and since there wasn't time for anybody to have done a comprehensive study of the factors (this was, like, the day of) I'm going to believe that the mod did have insider information and had indeed seen the code.

I'm not trying to be an ass or anything here, I'm just saying that it's probably worth getting a second opinion (preferably from someone higher up), because having only one mod's word to go on and a deleted post, is definitely something to be dubious of, imo.

Hahahahaha, yeah let's do that! Let's get word from the people that still have not even made an official statement about the layoffs or the future of the site!

Or should we ask Kross? Let's do that... oh wait.