What would the Escapist have been like without ZP/Is ZP the best thing to happen to the Escapist?

[Inverse Skies]

Author's Disclaimer: This is NOT a Zero Punctuation appreciation thread. This thread is designed to discuss the questions written in the title and to draw hypothetical conclusions from said discussion

There are many times when I wish I'd found the Escapist before Zero Punctuation occured and changed the entire landscape of the site. I would have really enjoyed seeing what it was like before this all happened. Then again, the point can easily be made that I never would have found the Escapist without ZP, as I'm sure a lot of the newer members wouldn't have either. However, it's also lead me to wonder these few points,

1- What would the Escapist have been like without Zero Punctuation?

This is hard to say, for I was never a part of this site before the ZP explosion. I would hazard a guess that it would still have been the smaller, quieter and less populated site than it is now, where repeat threads didn't crop up as often and members were more likely to know one another. It is this type of forum that some of the older Hegemony still long for, and one can reasonably say that the Escapist would still have been a fantastic online magazine with a quirky taste on gaming with excellent forums and members, but would have been known to a lot less people and have been more of an isolated society than it is now.

2- Is Zero Punctuation the best thing to have happened to the Escapist?

Again, not knowing what the site was like before ZP I can only draw conclusions based on what I've observed, but I would say that it was. The increase in internet traffic alone should have been enough to demonstrate this idea. Couple that with the explosion in the Escapist's popularity and amount of members and link that to advertising funds... you have the making of one very good event to have happened to the Escapist. I would say that signing Yahtzee was prehaps the masterstroke the Escapist needed to propel it from excellent online magazine that was slightly obscure to dramatically popular and an authority on videogaming.

This is just my thoughts on the manner, I'm very interested in what other members (particulary the older Hegemony) have to say on the issue. I'm especially curious as to learn about what the Escapist was like before ZP, because I know for myself I wouldn't be here without ZP. Now I just wish I'd been here earlier.

 

[Brotherofwill]

1. I don't buy the "everything was better before you came" thing. It probably was smaller, but then again I don't think the quality of the site was affected in a major way.

2. It definetly was for the site. This kind of publicity is solid gold in the internet, everyone pretty much knows his name now and thus has some kind of connection to the Escapist.

 

[S.H.A.R.P.]

I can only say that I got here thanks to ZP. I've been lurking around since one of the first video's, eagerly anticipating the next Wednesday when the new one would come out. Only after a long time of watching the RSS forum feeds on the right, I just had to reply on some topic that I was not an asshole, of all topics...

I don't think I would have been here if ZP wasn't here either. The discussions on the forum are mostly very interesting, but the news content might not have attracted my attention (not saying that they are boring or anything, I'm just not as drawn to them as to an Aussie reviewing games in a witty manner).

Needless to say, I haven't been here before ZP. But if I would have to make a guess if the Escapist would have been a better place without ZP, then I would have to say no, since I would not have been here! Hehe just kidding, well I think ZP attracted a lot of fine posters, but also perhaps some fanboys who don't necessarily always partake in an intelligent discussion on the same level as other posters, yet also create interesting or funny topics which might not have been opened by the original users.

 

[dwightsteel]

Who knows really? Its not exactly fair to accuse every new member that they are only here because of ZP, after all you dont really have to join in to watch any of the video content. Me i joined cos of De Rez and yes i do enjoy ZP quite a lot. I had been coming to this site for almost a year now without joining, was bored at work one day and decided what the hell. Although i mean who becomes that elitist about a site? Seniority does not apply when dealing in public domain.

I discovered the Escapist through ZP, but the funny thing is that I was registered on the WarCry network for like 2 years before I even heard about this site. I registered here without actually knowing it,

 

[More Fun To Compute]

I remember when escapist launched with articles by some people who I wanted to read articles from. It was sticking with the glossy magazine on the internet presentation that alienated a lot of people. When the articles seemed to be mostly worthy tracts on why the MMO is the most important thing ever by people who probably hadn't played a normal game for a long time then I drifted away. ZP definitely brought me back.

Now all of the articles seem to be worthy tracts about how important cinematic narrative is to the medium by people who have played 1 or 2 AAA games. A bit of an improvement and at least ZP can still be funny.

 

[A.I. Sigma]

I can only say that I got here thanks to ZP. I've been lurking around since one of the first video's, eagerly anticipating the next Wednesday when the new one would come out. Only after a long time of watching the RSS forum feeds on the right, I just had to reply on some topic that I was not an asshole, of all topics...

I don't think I would have been here if ZP wasn't here either. The discussions on the forum are mostly very interesting, but the news content might not have attracted my attention (not saying that they are boring or anything, I'm just not as drawn to them as to an Aussie reviewing games in a witty manner).

Needless to say, I haven't been here before ZP. But if I would have to make a guess if the Escapist would have been a better place without ZP, then I would have to say no, since I would not have been here! Hehe just kidding, well I think ZP attracted a lot of fine posters, but also perhaps some fanboys who don't necessarily always partake in an intelligent discussion on the same level as other posters, yet also create interesting or funny topics which might not have been opened by the original users.

While I agree with your above statement, I feel I must point out that Yahtzee is actually British. He just lives in Australia.

 

[Danny Ocean]

Look at it this way:

Let's say that 5% of posts are just poorly chosen or appallingly worded. Let's say another 15% are repeat threads.

Let's say that now there are 1000 members. That means we're getting 50 bad threads, and 150 repeats for every lot of posts.

Before the sudden influx of members, imagine there was just 100 members. That results in only 5 bad threads and 15 repeats in every chunk.

It's the same percentage, but it's a lot less. I think that's where it's coming from.

I joined these forums because of ZP, but it was only during his early days here when he only had 2 videos.

 

[S.H.A.R.P.]

*snip&slash*

While I agree with your above statement, I feel I must point out that Yahtzee is actually British. He just lives in Australia.

Oh dear, you just shattered my pretence of fanboy-ism! I don't know if I should thank you or damn you .

 

[A.I. Sigma]

*snip&slash*

While I agree with your above statement, I feel I must point out that Yahtzee is actually British. He just lives in Australia.

Oh dear, you just shattered my pretence of fanboy-ism! I don't know if I should thank you or damn you .

You could always repair it with sticky tape and bubblegum.

XD

 

[DannyDamage]

The ratio of "I spelt it correctly, that means I'm right and clever!" fools would be greater than the "OMFG Lol-copter" types. The overall number of users would be much lower also.

That's about it really.

It keeps the stuck ups on their toes and makes the lol'ers put a little effort in at times, so I'm happy. As both piss me off to an extent.

ZP is easily the best thing on the escapist. If it wasn't here, this site would be just another run of the mill gaming site, grammar Nazi's or not.

 

[Nomad]

1. Err, smaller. Just like it would've been smaller without De Rez, Unskippable and so on and so forth. Every series brings in a few more people.

2. No. I wasn't here before ZP got started, and I'm not here very often now either, but I'm sure there have been things that were better for the Escapist than ZP. After all, as fame increases, so does the amount of visitors gained from new ideas. ZP wouldn't have brought in nearly as many people if it had been run on www.something.com, simply because it wouldn't have been able to spread as fast and wide without having a solid base to stand on.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Well, according to the head honcho

The boost in the site?s overall traffic in the Zero Punctuation era has been enormous. ?Since July 2007, our traffic on The Escapist outside of video content increased 394 percent,? said Pitts. ?Our conversion rate of new visitors to regular visitors is very high, higher than some religions.? According to (Julianne) Greer, that puts them on track to have 1.5 million visitors this month ? competitive with much older, established game sites. ?If you believe Alexa numbers,? she said, ?that makes us bigger than Gamasutra and Next Gen, and running just behind GameDaily.?

- Last Year

That's still a lot pre-Yahtzee, but he's helped the site become epic.

 

[Lord Krunk]

Well, according to the head honcho

The boost in the site?s overall traffic in the Zero Punctuation era has been enormous. ?Since July 2007, our traffic on The Escapist outside of video content increased 394 percent,? said Pitts. ?Our conversion rate of new visitors to regular visitors is very high, higher than some religions.? According to (Julianne) Greer, that puts them on track to have 1.5 million visitors this month ? competitive with much older, established game sites. ?If you believe Alexa numbers,? she said, ?that makes us bigger than Gamasutra and Next Gen, and running just behind GameDaily.?

- Last Year

That's still a lot pre-Yahtzee, but he's helped the site become epic.

Well, Pitts isn't quite the head honcho, but he's close enough.

I agree though. Most of us (including myself) discovered this site through Zero Punctuation. While I don't watch it nearly as much as I used to, I am a forum regular, and loving it.

I came to see Yahtzee, and I stayed for the great community.

 

[Peach_hat]

400% viewing increase or something sounds pretty good to me.

 

[Inverse Skies]

400% viewing increase or something sounds pretty good to me.

Man I love your avatar so much! We'll smack Richmond this week.

 

[Peach_hat]

400% viewing increase or something sounds pretty good to me.

Man I love your avatar so much! We'll smack Richmond this week.

You're going to have to learn not to tell me that every time you see it lol.

 

[Inverse Skies]

You're going to have to learn not to tell me that every time you see it lol.

Lol, that was a PM though, it's the first time I've seen it out in the forums!

 

[Irridium]

Zero Punctuation led me to this site, so I wouldn't know.


But The Escapist would definantly be smaller than it is now without ZP