Well I can say for sure that before ZP I had never heard of the Escapist. Like any media it needs it's superstar to shine in the darkness and attract the masses like a bug zapper attracts the moth to it's electric doom. ZP brings eyeballs to the site, eyeballs attached to wallets that pay for more things like There will be Brawl, Unskippable and Doomsday Arcade much like Michael Jordan brought massive attention to basketball and Nike in the late 80's and 90's, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson made wrestling mainstream again in the late 90's and early Y2K or Paris Hilton brought attention to sluts and night vision modes on camcorders. We can't argue that ZP has fundamentally changed The Escapist but that change was bound to happen as the site needed to adapt and gain marketshare in order to make money and ZP facilitated that immensely. What should trouble us is they day Mr. Ben "Yahtzee" Crenshaw quits or jumps the shark, kill the coolest character with a polar bear in a tropical forest, throw Indie in a fridge, let Olivia Munn talk about circumcision, or whatever show or movie ruining euphemism you know happens.
When Jordan retired, ratings fell for NBA games, and who still buys Air Jordans? Same goes for the WWE after the Rock quit. Wake me when Paris is dead.
What Escapist needs is to broaden it's appeal and create good quality entertainment that's diverse, unique and is full of cursey ninjas.
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