What was the Escapist like before the ZP explosion?

[FalloutJack]

Why don't we ask Yahtzee himself what it was like?

 

[Futurenerd]

No, no. Jimquisition really did ruin the escapist. Sorry.

I really haven't seen any actual takedowns of the Jimquisition as of yet, merely individuals saying "it's populist" and "stupid"- no backing, just face-value complaints.

It's because he's an asshole, and he spends half his videos just swearing. I guess you could say the same for ZP, but at least Yahtzee swears to be funny. Jim just FUCKing swears so FUCKing much because he FUCKing wants to.

 

[The Funslinger]

Good question. Zero Punctuation is what drew me into The Escapist.

I would imagine that quite a few people have the same story to tell

Haha, definitely! Did you visit the "What brought you to the Escapist?" thread? Only a mere handful of people had come not because of Zero Punctuation!

Well I came for Doraleous and Associates. That's also why I started visiting the site! (HAR-DEE-HAR-HAR) and I stayed for all the other cool stuff.

 

[CosmicCommander]

It's because he's an asshole, and he spends half his videos just swearing. I guess you could say the same for ZP, but at least Yahtzee swears to be funny. Jim just FUCKing swears so FUCKing much because he FUCKing wants to.

Alright, that's a personal issue. Some people swear a lot- he still has legitimate points, and I don't see how some cuss words can discredit them and his entire show.

 

[Futurenerd]

It's because he's an asshole, and he spends half his videos just swearing. I guess you could say the same for ZP, but at least Yahtzee swears to be funny. Jim just FUCKing swears so FUCKing much because he FUCKing wants to.

Alright, that's a personal issue. Some people swear a lot- he still has legitimate points, and I don't see how some cuss words can discredit them and his entire show.

I don't have any problem with swearing. I swear all the time. I do have a problem when people just say fuck a lot for no reason.

And really, any complaint about a show is personal opinion. If I told you he didn't have legitimate points, that would just be me saying that that's what I think. Really, no matter what you do, it all comes back to personal opinion. And, well, in MY personal opinion, and in the personal opinions of a lot of other people, Jim is an asshole, and his videos are crap. Just sayin'.

 

[Gwarr]

I came here to support Valve in their fight against Zynga. That forum thread was epic.

 

[Reincarnatedwolfgod]

good question and i don't have the answer but it was already answered so i just posted sometime to be evil. by evil i mean a link to tvtropes.
edit:

We didn't even have forums for a long time. When the magazine first launched, it was the magazine and nothing else. Everything else came along later - and "ruined" The Escapist, by the way, according to many fans at the time.

The change from PDF to online magazine "ruined' The Escapist, adding forums "ruined" The Escapist, adding Yahtzee "ruined" The Escapist, and most recently, adding Jimquisition "ruined" The Escapist.

those crazy fans always saying it's ruined forever [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RuinedFOREVER]
yes i linked you there

 

[Zagzag]

Also I shall sit in my 'special' chair and say that Unforgotten Realms brought me here.

Same here. Is your special chair big enough for me as well?

 

[lockeslylcrit]

Wait, what? There was The Escapist before Yahtzee? Huh. Must have been pretty boring, I believe.

Spoiler

I jest. Or do I?

 

[Sassafrass]

Nicer, funnier and with a much smaller tongue, I'd imagine.

But nah, I've heard it was a more close nit community that was ruined by Yahtzee. Then by everyone else joining. We pretty much all ruined this site.

Ah well, thems the breaks.

 

[Blights]

I came here for Forgotten Realms, then saw Yahtzee on youtube a few weeks after that. Saw that he was on the Escapist too and lurked around abit. I do pop in the forums now and then, but mostly think that I've made too much of a douchebag impression of myself to talk again.

 

[TimeLord]

The change from PDF to online magazine "ruined' The Escapist, adding forums "ruined" The Escapist, adding Yahtzee "ruined" The Escapist, and most recently, adding Jimquisition "ruined" The Escapist.

Aw, now I feel left out for not ruining the site. I RUIN EVERYTHING TOO!

You made everything infinitely better.

 

[TRR]

[HEADING=2]All you see here now was just 1's and 0's back then.
Joe ran roughshod over people with permabans flying like confetti.
Old fashioned Troll-baiting parties used to occur on every thread.
And badges? We din't need no steenkin badges![/HEADING]

[HEADING=3]I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Racist trolls getting flamed off the shoulder of Off-Topic. I watched permabans glitter in the dark near the Games Discussion. All those posts will be lost in time...[/HEADING]like sunken threads...

[sub]Time to log out.[/sub]

You deserve some sort of prize for that.

OT: Yeah I hopped on the ZP bandwagon but didn't join for a while so I have no idea.

HOWEVER...I do know that when ZP first came out, each day of the week had only one special. Unskippable was monday, the magazine came out tuesday, ZP wednesday etc. Now there are like 3 things that come out every day of the week. So I think it's safe to say this website was a lot smaller before ZP came around a directed a whole ton of traffic here.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

I came here for Forgotten Realms, then saw Yahtzee on youtube a few weeks after that. Saw that he was on the Escapist too and lurked around abit. I do pop in the forums now and then, but mostly think that I've made too much of a douchebag impression of myself to talk again.

You can't have done anything worse than what I have or most other people on this site or you would have been banned. That isn't a great reason not to post.

 

[fix-the-spade]

Escapist still remains to this day as my favourite community on the internet and I sometimes wonder if it was always this amazing.

It was a PDF!

Seriously, this used to be a weekly Pdf and it was great. As for how Escapist's forum was, it was a lot more laid back to be honest. More swearing, more in depth discussion, more good natured trash talking and only a couple of mods. However, as things have grown the mods have multiplied and become both less concistent and stricter, the list of un-mentionable topics has grown too. Not ragging on the mods, it's just a consequence of going from a couple of thousand users to many times that amount.

A whole bunch of faces have disappeared from the forums, granted some deserved it but I still mis 'em.

To be honest it hasn't changed that much over time, it's still a lot like it was then, only a bit more corporate.

 

[BoogieManFL]

We didn't even have forums for a long time. When the magazine first launched, it was the magazine and nothing else. Everything else came along later - and "ruined" The Escapist, by the way, according to many fans at the time.

The change from PDF to online magazine "ruined' The Escapist, adding forums "ruined" The Escapist, adding Yahtzee "ruined" The Escapist, and most recently, adding Jimquisition "ruined" The Escapist.

No, no. Jimquisition really did ruin the escapist. Sorry.
Also, this drinking games series. What the fuck?

Agreed, although jim has not "ruined" the escapist as much as given the site a low point to compare all other videos too.

Why's everyone hatin' on Jim. It's just a guy talking about games, which, compared to a lot of the videos is saying a lot from what I can see.

Seriously, if someone thinks one series can ruin this whole place then they are an idiot. If you don't like it, don't watch it. I happen to enjoy it personally. I don't care for some of the others but I'm not going to cry about. The fact they still exist shows enough people do like it and I'm not going to rain on their parade.

My Escapist favorites are ZP, Jimquistion, The Big Picture, and so was Extra Credits.

Back to topic, I also started coming here here because of Zero Punctuation.

 

[Blights]

I came here for Forgotten Realms, then saw Yahtzee on youtube a few weeks after that. Saw that he was on the Escapist too and lurked around abit. I do pop in the forums now and then, but mostly think that I've made too much of a douchebag impression of myself to talk again.

You can't have done anything worse than what I have or most other people on this site or you would have been banned. That isn't a great reason not to post.

Maybe so, but regardless, I feel I just don't have the time. There are a few times where I skim across topics and get a good chuckle, I guess that's good enough.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

I came here for Forgotten Realms, then saw Yahtzee on youtube a few weeks after that. Saw that he was on the Escapist too and lurked around abit. I do pop in the forums now and then, but mostly think that I've made too much of a douchebag impression of myself to talk again.

You can't have done anything worse than what I have or most other people on this site or you would have been banned. That isn't a great reason not to post.

Maybe so, but regardless, I feel I just don't have the time. There are a few times where I skim across topics and get a good chuckle, I guess that's good enough.

Well that's fair enough I can get behind that a lot more than a bad impression.

 

[ace_of_something]

I started watching ZP when he made the video for the 'the new console generation' which was i think like the 3 video or so. I didn't make a forum account for a long time. My buddy was on the escapist before ZP... I think he got banned like in 2008 though.