The Escapist to me. (and its evolution)

[Shru1kan]

Ahh, more venting for me.

Frankly, I think this is the last straw for my time here. I came here a while ago, though not as long as you two, but the site has changed, and I think I've either outgrown it or out lived it. The giving out exclusive stuff is nice, but not exclusive forums.

At the risk of sounding like a melodramatic *****, I think I may be leaving the site for good, and only popping in once in a while to drop a review or Run review Wars.
I dunno. I mean, its just not the same site I fell in love with. I hate having a huge post count, and that's a big reason that I may be leaving.

I dislike not being able to do something that "isn't pimppeter2" to some people. I was a lot like NoMoreSanity until my ban, and my second ban. But I softened up becuase I didn't want to get into any more trouble. but frankly, I miss being able to argue my ass off (the reason I joined the site), without a group of people that "know me" telling me I'm behaving strangely.

I posted this in the Asylum group, so I'll post it here

Its not only the premium content. Its everything. That was just the last straw. When I joined, I couldn't even count the people that I cared about on the forums. It has to do with my sudden "popularity"

Now, I think there's less then ten people that I genuinely like running into on the forums. Souplex, WanderFreak, Zombie Fish, Neon Bob, orranis, and Swollen Goat. Its not to say I don't like the rest of you guys, but its something I've been feeling for a long time even before this.

I've been with the site since '07. And too much has changed. Whether its for the better or the worse is subjective. I frankly feel nothing for the people on here any more.

You're mostly all dull, personality less copies of eachother. Hub is exactly like Furburt, and their exactly like lord C, and Demented teddy, who is exactly like snooty, and JK and ext.

You're all carbon copies of what the regular escapist member is with only half the personality.

I miss being able to call someone a fucking idiot without ten people breething down my neck telling me that "the real pimppeter2 wouldn't say that".

You guys are all nice, but after all it is a fuckin website, and I'm sick and tired of the community.

I feel like the community has out grown me. Its no longer my home site, or even the place I enjoy coming to that much.

I guess its just a habit. I guess my moment of like yours would be when Max was banned. Not that I was particularly close to the kid, but he signified the end of the users I was part of. The other two being people like you and New Classic and Zombie Fish, but for a long time you guys had all been on a posting hiatus, and I never say any of you. Then Max and Sanity got banned, and all I was left with was people like Hub and Furburt, who are great people, but I just don't care about them.

I'll scroll down to read Zombie Fish's or your post, but I rarely scroll to find what Hub has said on the subject.

I feel "trapped" in with a group of people I cannot identify with.

So those are my random musings on the subject taken from conversations I've had today and lumped into a big post for everyone to enjoy.

Again, don't be offended about this. This is just my honest opinion and some venting. I just really need to get this stuff off my chest.

I dunno, I think its a bad idea. Mainly becuase the people that are most loyal to the site are teens like me with too much time on their hands, and no credit cards. I may pay the fee just to "support the site", because I do love the site. But I just can't shake the feeling that things have changed, and for me personally for the worse.

This essentially.
I honestly agree 100%. But, I'm not gonna leave. The games are too much fun.

EDIT:
I'm also sick of how easy it is to get a probation/suspension/ban. Some people like MULTI KILL did deserve it, but if I remember right Max always had the kind of "Burn in hell" personality. And he had tiffs with the mods, but the ban may have been a bit too far. Now, I can't remember what his banning post was, but I'm going to go check again now.
Also, I'm not trying to start anything with any of the mods or question there work, I just think the site got really strict really fast...

EDIT 2:
Oh, duh, it 404'd. But regardless, the mods have gotten really strict, and I know I haven't been here as long as other's, and my voice may not count for as much as the "cool guys" but whatever.

FINAL EDIT:
Oh, in regards to the community bit, THANK YOU.
That is the thing I HATE on this site. A lot of the people seem so stuck up. So many think they're better than everyone else, I brought this up in the post I got a probation for in the "Let's bastardize an entire culture!" thread. I brought up how it seems like everyone wants to assume they're better than the majority of society just because they're at this site. I'm not saying everyone is like this and I can pick out a TON of people who are the most AWESOME people you could meet! But, there are a lot who think they're above the people in the real world.

I might sound like a tool for tagging onto this. But I gotta say it too. I liked it better when I was lurking so long ago, I saw when peter had maybe 1000 posts under his belt. It was a lot more... open and brutal then, but what was really cool is that at the end of the day, nobody ever really took a vendetta against anyone else. You can know someone a lot more, get closer to a lot more people, with more lax rules. If your best friend called you a "fucking moron" on your opinion, you'd forgive them. Thats what it struck me as so long ago.

In fact, I'm pretty sure that's the first time I've said the f-bomb on here, just to avoid too much attention. I'm completely with peter, and ajb924. I won't claim to be a veteran or a senior member, because I'm not, but I have seen the "verbal and attitude culling" of the community. The "social reject metropolis" of the internet shouldn't be so politically correct, when we band together because we don't really fit in with the norms of society to begin with.

Do you think that the mods will be as willing to ban a premium member who acts like a douche as opposed to a non-premium douche?

Even a dog won?t bite the hand that feeds it.

And this. This exactly. They would have to refund the money, or deal with a load of crap from some 13 year old who sues over 20 bucks. Either make it a full paysite and don't spam my inbox with an ad for buying it, or just make a donate option. I would donate, but never pay 10 or 20 for some gimmicks and what would basically be a sort of shield to hide behind after I flame half the forum.

 

[Alpha Maeko]

I frequent the Escapist and love the majority of the content, here. I "subscribed" in order to avoid the ads.

How this development managed to light half the community on fire, I have no idea.

 

[blankedboy]

Dude, if you don't like the new content, don't use it. It's not hard.

 

[The Great Zegrool]

Eh... I've really only been a lurker here, I've got quite a few other communities that I'm more active in.

But yeah, as I've lurked I've noticed less awesome threads...

Oh well.

You're all carbon copies of what the regular escapist member is with only half the personality.

Now, just out of pure curiosity, would that include me?

 

[DoW Lowen]

-snip because this page takes ages to scroll down-

'Fraid so. But I hope it will blow over at least, if it sticks around then I'll be sorta cheesed off. True, though the forums had overloaded traffic for quite a few days after MM. Ah, I would have, but I didn't really have the time to play through them all, and would be bored by the time I completed it, so I only bought Broken Steel because that seemed to give me the most for my money, considering I probably wouldn't finish two. Fair enough, I just don't feel the need to immerse myself too much, because if there isn't enough in the main game, then they're doing it wrong.

So essentially one of the reasons I might have gotten premium is pretty much just more of the same? Eh, I wasn't expecting much, but a few monkey butlers or extra shininess would have been nice.
I kind of like Sweden though.
Someof the people maybe not, but the country hasn't done anything to me.

-Snip, see above-

Ah, now that would be the logical thing to think.
Probably why I didn't.

Thinking on it, it isn't that obvious a thing to think, so I'm going to fool myself into thinking it was good to be suspicious of what someone has said, because it means I care about other races.
Hooray for deluding yourself into thinking you aren't a horrible person!

[sub]Don't expect a reply too quickly, I've been awake for 32 hours, so I'm going to have a nap.[/sub]

I have nothing against Sweden except I can't tell if people are talking Switzerland instead. I always get information about the two mixed up, like which one has the racist train system and which one has the low church attendance, and who hosts the Nobel Prize etc. Therefore it's more psychologically lazy to resent both countries unfairly and equally. I'm all about equality.

Don't worry, my post wasn't clear anyway. And I can't expect people to have read my other posts where I mention my ethnicity. And the internet doesn't make it obvious that I have narrow eyes, I'm good at maths, I love rice and I steal people's jobs.

 

[Zombie_Fish]

The one thing I am sure of is that the premium membership takes away the idea that everyone has an equal voice on the escapist.

My argument for this is simple.

Do you think that the mods will be as willing to ban a premium member who acts like a douche as opposed to a non-premium douche?

Even a dog won?t bite the hand that feeds it.

You do realise that moderation is a voluntary position and as a result gets no pay for it, right? Or that about half the moderators don't even work for The Escapist, and that the only user who gets paid for being a mod is [user]Kuliani[/user], right?

It's already been said that you can unsubscribe whenever you want to [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/6.188022-Publisher-Note-8-Publisher-s-Club#5775286] and we've already seen a premier member get put on probation [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.188062-Poll-Will-you-become-a-member-of-the-Escapist-Publishers-Club?page=8#5783821]. Besides, people who don't subscribe are also technically paying The Escapist via ad views, something the subscribers have to compensate for thanks to their ad blocker.

EDIT: Another premier member has just been suspended [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/6.187884-The-Escapist-Presents-Breach?page=2#5805050]. Oh sorry, did the dog bite your hand again?

I might sound like a tool for tagging onto this. But I gotta say it too. I liked it better when I was lurking so long ago, I saw when peter had maybe 1000 posts under his belt. It was a lot more... open and brutal then, but what was really cool is that at the end of the day, nobody ever really took a vendetta against anyone else. You can know someone a lot more, get closer to a lot more people, with more lax rules. If your best friend called you a "fucking moron" on your opinion, you'd forgive them. Thats what it struck me as so long ago.

Not really. People rarely take grudges here anyway, but there have been grudges for a loooong time. Judging by how long you've claimed to have lurked on these forums, I would assume that you remember the grudges that [user]Darth Mobius[/user] and his wife [user]Darth Empyrean[/user] held against [user]Hope Chest[/user] and [user]thebobmaster[/user]. Those two grudges resulted in the first two users listed being banned eventually and got the third one numerous forms of mod wrath. Hope Chest also had a bone to pick with [user]Scotth266[/user] over religious topics (which resulted in both warnings and mod wrath for both users) and [user]wilsonscrazybed[/user] over moderation, among the few other users he wasn't too fond of. [user]Ocelot GT[/user] also had a grudge with [user]dududf[/user] over complaints on spelling and grammar which resulted in both users getting probations, and [user]Furburt[/user] and [user]Hubilub[/user] have also held their grudges with people.

Also, your best friend part is a bad analogy. Not everyone on the Internet is your best friend and if you treat them like that then you may just have it come right back at you and bite you in the ass. 99% of the time, people on the Internet are anonymous users with random names, random pictures and some text next to them. Chances are you two will never meet or know eachother in real life, let alone know that they were a user on the same site. He could even be in this very room. He could be me. He could even be- *shot in head*[footnote]If you don't get the reference, you haven't spent enough time watching this video [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcE_aKPXIlg]. What? It was obvious.[/footnote]. If you treat everyone on the Internet as if they were your best friend on then you may fail to understand why you're being hated so much by them when it turns out that you aren't theirs.

In fact, I'm pretty sure that's the first time I've said the f-bomb on here, just to avoid too much attention. I'm completely with peter, and ajb924. I won't claim to be a veteran or a senior member, because I'm not, but I have seen the "verbal and attitude culling" of the community. The "social reject metropolis" of the internet shouldn't be so politically correct, when we band together because we don't really fit in with the norms of society to begin with.

Pimpeter2 never said anything about the political correctness of the moderators and the community on this site, he said that he couldn't be offensive because people had assumed a personality to him that wasn't offensive. It's not that he wanted to avoid being given attention by dropping f-bombs, it's that he was given attention for a characteristic which didn't fully suit him. His point on Max's and NMS' bannings were less about the two bannings being unjust, more about the fact that they were users whom he could relate to. The fact that they left via bannishment is irrelevant; he would complain about the same thing if they just decided to stand up and leave the site for good, like he did when he commented on the other users he could relate to (Nuke, Krunk and myself) going on hiatus.

...when we band together because we don't really fit in with the norms of society to begin with.

Stereotypes make me want to eat kittens.

I've seen quite a few threads like this since I joined last January, and as a new member can I just say: I like this place, and I don't want to ruin anyone else's good time, so if I'm one of those new members that's ruining the Escapist can someone please pm me and maybe help me be a better member? All this talk of the Escapist sucking now has made me incredibly paranoid. That being said, I really like it here! So much so that shelling out ten measly dollars to support this site wasn't even a decision. I can spare ten bucks to support awesomeness, hell yes!

*sigh*

People like you are not ruining The Escapist.

Seriously, you're not. After a quick scan of your posting history, you've written posts of good length with reasonable spelling and grammar which remain on topic and aren't offensive towards other users on the site. Asking for any more from users is simply going towards a level of perfectionism which neither the staff nor moderators of this site care about reaching. As long as those two groups of people are happy, you'll be fine here.

Then again, one of your posts just introduced me to this [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dm2glu3WLGk&feature=player_embedded] piece of awesome, so I could be a little bit favourtist in saying that.

 

[Shru1kan]

Snip

Difference of opinion I guess. The word "best" could have been omitted from best friend, but I like to think of everyone on here as at least a friend.

And yeah, people do hold things against one another, but I am sure that you have met someone who just rubbed you the wrong way. With a huge userbase here, it's to be expected.

It's more politically correct to not use too much profanity, or to at least water down the amount of dislike or even hatred you have towards another user, right? I think I'm allowed to expand or add my own take to what has been said, rather than say "This." and walk away. It adds more to the discussion, and could even serve to help someone who cannot precisely write down their feelings.

And sorry if the "stereotype" I had offended you. Around here there is still a major stigma around gaming if you even look at another game beyond the Wii, rock band, and guitar hero. Even talking about mainstream games like Halo or Gears of War around here will have you shunned for the rest of the day.

 

[mip0]

(...)
(also lets hope that unlike many other sites, the memberships are truly optional and don't hinder what we used to do and watch.)

I agree.
They said it was gonna be that way too so I don't worry.

 

[Zombie_Fish]

And yeah, people do hold things against one another, but I am sure that you have met someone who just rubbed you the wrong way. With a huge userbase here, it's to be expected.

True, but you just said that people didn't used to do that:

...what was really cool is that at the end of the day, nobody ever really took a vendetta against anyone else... If your best friend called you a "fucking moron" on your opinion, you'd forgive them. Thats what it struck me as so long ago.

How can it both be inevitable with such a huge user base and yet not happen beforehand? Even if you were lurking back in 2007 there were approximately over 1000 users back then. I'd argue that that's large enough to hold a grudge against one person.

It's more politically correct to not use too much profanity, or to at least water down the amount of dislike or even hatred you have towards another user, right? I think I'm allowed to expand or add my own take to what has been said, rather than say "This." and walk away. It adds more to the discussion, and could even serve to help someone who cannot precisely write down their feelings.

I never said that I disagreed on how Political Correctness is used on here to get away with mod wrath [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.112832-The-Banhammer-and-You-A-Users-Guide-to-the-Forums?page=6#2446844]. My only disagreement with that point was that Pimpeter2 never said anything about PC yet you seem to agree with his opinion on it via telepathy, or something.

 

[Shru1kan]

And yeah, people do hold things against one another, but I am sure that you have met someone who just rubbed you the wrong way. With a huge userbase here, it's to be expected.

True, but you just said that people didn't used to do that:

...what was really cool is that at the end of the day, nobody ever really took a vendetta against anyone else... If your best friend called you a "fucking moron" on your opinion, you'd forgive them. Thats what it struck me as so long ago.

How can it both be inevitable with such a huge user base and yet not happen beforehand? Even if you were lurking back in 2007 there were approximately over 1000 users back then. I'd argue that that's large enough to hold a grudge against one person.

It's more politically correct to not use too much profanity, or to at least water down the amount of dislike or even hatred you have towards another user, right? I think I'm allowed to expand or add my own take to what has been said, rather than say "This." and walk away. It adds more to the discussion, and could even serve to help someone who cannot precisely write down their feelings.

I never said that I disagreed on how Political Correctness is used on here to get away with mod wrath [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.112832-The-Banhammer-and-You-A-Users-Guide-to-the-Forums?page=6#2446844]. My only disagreement with that point was that Pimpeter2 never said anything about PC yet you seem to agree with his opinion on it via telepathy, or something.

Okay, sorry. I agreed with peter and added my own 2 cents. I'll make sure to say that in the future.

And its human nature to have grudges. It just seems theres a lot more of them, to me at least. It may be because the only real strong language you see anymore is flaming or trolling. I'll concede that point. I still maintain that its a lot easier to bond with the person's personality when it isn't being culled by profanity stigmas. I'm naturally a lot more foul mouthed, but on here I will act differently under stress, by just using the full extent of my vocabulary rather than just "fuck you". In that sense, you dont know me, and if I have a bad day and just let slip something that may be normal for me, its suddenly twice as offensive because of the rules. Peter touched on that, did he not? I agreed, then added my own little tidbits. I will try to make that more clear in the future, and I apologize for the confusion I created.

And sorry if the "stereotype" I had offended you. Around here there is still a major stigma around gaming if you even look at another game beyond the Wii, rock band, and guitar hero. Even talking about mainstream games like Halo or Gears of War around here will have you shunned for the rest of the day.

Sorry, what? Practically everyone I have met here knows the Wii is shit and Rock Band/Guitar Hero is overrated. Many of us might be against Halo or Gears of War, but thats for different reasons such as poor plot/dialogue/voice-acting ect. There are very few people who go against a game simply because its popular.

In the case of Halo, the reason the community tend to shun those who talk about it is because we know it almost always ends up a flame war between the community's sarcastic assholes and the 13 year old frat-boy with crap reasoning for everyone to buy the game and even worse spelling.

I meant as in the people I am around all day, in school, etc. Sorry again.

 

[Cody211282]

Well in my time here I have to say the people in the forum for the most part have been great, sure there are a few people who want to do nothing but troll but they are usually ignored or banned. I have noticed that some of the mods and editors are having a hard time taking criticism, if someone says something like " I hate this for blah blah blah" or "I don't agree with what you said" some of them tend to take it personal and instead of ignoring it or stating their facts and making the other person look like a moron they just troll them right back, or ban them. Also I have noticed an influx of bad videos, and honestly I'm starting to refuse to watch anything but ZP and unskipable now.

 

[Dancingman]

Personally I think this place is sagging a bit, back when I joined there weren't nearly as many repeat threads, I can go to the Religion & Politics section now and find three different threads in some way regarding atheism on the first page and countless more of them on other pages. There's enough libertarian/liberal/conservative straw-men to populate a small nation, it's honestly really annoying at times, at least I can have a good debate and get the pleasure of utterly annihilating the occasional free-market-worshiping libertarian who strays too far.

 

[CognitiveDissonance]

To be frank, Pimppeter2's probation for his post on page one is complete and utter bullshit.

The over-militarization of these forums is extremely disappointing. I understand wanting to preserve the maturity and valuable discussion of a forum, but there is a limit. Being a stoic, emotionless robot is not, in any way, indicative of higher order thinking. Whilst my post may be in regards to the aforementioned post, it bears external relevance to a number of incidents.

I thought Pimppeter's post was thoughtful and informative, he was giving an honest opinion and certainly not going out of his way to insult anyone. There needs to be a bit of character in any forum, else it just becomes a bland text medium of generic opinions. In that case you might as well go read a book if you want impartial, unemotional information.

The removal of MaxtheReaper was definitely a symptom of the Escapists devolution. Mods taking an excessive interest in their purported duty, crushing the forums' individuality to preserve some facade of political correctness and uniformity.

The perversion of a predominantly elitist culture (which is fine, it promotes creativity and originality in some cases) which frowns upon the 'proletariat' or 'plebeians' has resulted in an excessive ostracism of anyone who resorts to the colloquial, the insult or the profane.

IMO, the over-eager moderation is turning the site into a jail, rather than a recreational area. Whilst it doesn't have to be /b/, some measure of candor must be retained.

No offense and all that, but grow up.

 

[AbsoluteVirtue18]

Except for a couple hit-or-miss series and a lot whining, I like it here.

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

Just purely out of curiosity, does anyone recognise me at all?

Hi Wadders!

Sure, I recognize you. Hell, I keep an eye out for your posts.

Just purely out of curiosity, does anyone recognise me at all?

Wadders isn't? or something like that.

Just purely out of curiosity, does anyone recognise me at all?

Hi Wadders!

Sure, I recognize you. Hell, I keep an eye out for your posts.

Errr...

I used to be called Wasder, Wadders is someone else.

Thanks all the same.

 

[Hamster at Dawn]

What's the problem with the premium membership? If you don't get it, you have what you had before. The only things you are missing out on are fairly unimportant. It's nice to have the high quality video but you can still watch all the videos at the quality you could before. I personally bought a membership because I wanted to support the Escapist which I have been coming to for a couple of years now. There is more content than there was when I joined which can only be a good thing. The only thing that has changed for the worse is the forums. I sort of agree with what people are saying about the decline in quality of posts. I think there are just a lot more people here now, the Escapist is becoming more mainstream. I had some great debates in the past but that has been lacking lately. I also no longer recognise many of the people in the forums, it used to be a little more intimate. It is a shame but I don't know what we can do about it. That's life I guess.