Actually, contrary to what most people think, the Escapist magazine was first published in 1867, and was the first magazine specifically for incarcerated criminals. The name was an (obvious enough) joke - and as its popularity grew, it found a secondary audience in ex-criminals who missed its unique sense of gallows humour combined with videos - at the time, a difficult technology to embed into a magazine, due to the material. As videogames turn people into thieves and murderers, eventually the 'gamer' demographic merged with the 'death row' demographic, spawning the encompassing digital monolith we know and love today. And that's the story.
