Poll of the Day > Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw has resigned from The Escapist, among others.

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/the-escapist-staff-resign-following-termination-of-editor-in-chief-nick-calandra

https://twitter.com/nickjcal/status/1721640314203464045

https://twitter.com/YahtzeeCroshaw/status/1721687212541280425

TL;DR

The corporate suits at The Escapist fired the only guy trying to keep the site afloat for "not achieving their goals."

Yahtzee and a bunch of other people resign.

The Escapist is essentially dead in the water without Zero Punctuation (Yahtzee's series and the only thing people came to The Escapist for)

His books are legit

Who

EvilResident posted...

Who

The guy who came up with (and ultimately regretted making) the term "PC Master Race"

The Escapist has never been good.

Literally everyone left the Escapist AFAIK

Also still owning Zero Punctuation just as a brand means absolutely nothing lmao

Zareth posted...

Also still owning Zero Punctuation just as a brand means absolutely nothing lmao

It means Yahtzee will have to call anything he makes in the future something different, but that's not exactly the end of the world.

I like Zero Punctuation, but I imagine he'll just keep doing it under a different name. Sounds like a good thing overall.

I'm not sure just how much of ZP would be owned by The Escapist. The whole aesthetic may be off-limits, which would be a bit of a problem because reinventing something like that is a hassle, but if it's just the name I fully expect a revival under some thinly-veiled ripoff name that's just different enough to be safe.

He could just call it fullyramblomatic, his old youtube name

It seems like those corporate suits just committed corporate suicide.

good for them

Zareth posted...

He could just call it fullyramblomatic, his old youtube name

Yeah, he'll figure something out. It'll take a few weeks for the dust to settle and the relevant legal consultations to happen before he and the rest of the team can get into creating new stuff, but I'll be very surprised if they don't get back on a horse with a slightly different coat of paint.

Good for Nick not accepting severance or signing an NDA. Should make things a little more interesting when whatever is next for them starts.

EvilResident posted...

Who

I'm honestly amazed that someone who posts on an old game forum like this doesn't know who Yahtzee is. Dude was one of the first ever online gaming video content creators. He was a pioneer in the industry when Youtube was still brand new.

Whether you like him or not, you should definitely know who he is. Dude is up there with the AVGN in terms of OG video content creators.

Zareth posted...

He could just call it fullyramblomatic, his old youtube name

That is, in fact, exactly what he's doing. And Extra Punctuation is now Semi Ramblomatic.

darkknight109 posted...

I'm honestly amazed that someone who posts on an old game forum like this doesn't know who Yahtzee is. Dude was one of the first ever online gaming video content creators. He was a pioneer in the industry when Youtube was still brand new.

Whether you like him or not, you should definitely know who he is. Dude is up there with the AVGN in terms of OG video content creators.

I rarely watched youtube back then and never heard of this guy until like last year.

darkknight109 posted...

I'm honestly amazed that someone who posts on an old game forum like this doesn't know who Yahtzee is. Dude was one of the first ever online gaming video content creators. He was a pioneer in the industry when Youtube was still brand new.

Whether you like him or not, you should definitely know who he is. Dude is up there with the AVGN in terms of OG video content creators.

People on the internet frequently tend to think that just because they know/like someone popular that everyone knows who they are because they are popular.

There are a ton of huge content creators I never hear of until they get into some sort of controversy such as this.

BlackScythe0 posted...

People on the internet frequently tend to think that just because they know/like someone popular that everyone knows who they are because they are popular.

There are a ton of huge content creators I never hear of until they get into some sort of controversy such as this.

It's not a matter of liking him or not or even the size of his audience (which was massive [proportionally] back when he was one of the only games in town, but isn't particularly big today) - it's that he was basically one of the first online video content creators in the gaming sphere. Dude was hugely influential and basically helped set the table for video content creation back when that was still a new medium online.

It's like not knowing who Hideo Kojima is - sure, you may or may not be a fan of his work - or you may not have even watched it at all - but unless you first got into the hobby within the last 10 years (which I doubt describes anyone posting on GameFAQs these days), you probably have heard his name at some point.

darkknight109 posted...

It's not a matter of liking him or not or even the size of his audience (which was massive [proportionally] back when he was one of the only games in town, but isn't particularly big today) - it's that he was basically one of the first online video content creators in the gaming sphere. Dude was hugely influential and basically helped set the table for video content creation back when that was still a new medium online.

It's like not knowing who Hideo Kojima is - sure, you may or may not be a fan of his work - or you may not have even watched it at all - but unless you first got into the hobby within the last 10 years (which I doubt describes anyone posting on GameFAQs these days), you probably have heard his name at some point.

Never heard of him either and I'm closer to 50 than 40. The Escapist was a vaguely familiar name, but I couldn't even have told you it was gaming related. Generally if I'm watching something video game related, it is probably how to do something in a specific game rather than general video game content.

darkknight109 posted...

It's not a matter of liking him or not or even the size of his audience (which was massive [proportionally] back when he was one of the only games in town, but isn't particularly big today) - it's that he was basically one of the first online video content creators in the gaming sphere. Dude was hugely influential and basically helped set the table for video content creation back when that was still a new medium online.

It's like not knowing who Hideo Kojima is - sure, you may or may not be a fan of his work - or you may not have even watched it at all - but unless you first got into the hobby within the last 10 years (which I doubt describes anyone posting on GameFAQs these days), you probably have heard his name at some point.

Well he also has an interesting style of review, which is not really out there. It's one thing to just be a rando reviewer it's another to do it with your own unique style. Obviously not everyone has heard of him but shit you could even look at the biggest Twitch or Youtubers on the planet right now, and some might not know them either.

Trust me at this point he was the main reason the Escapist was holding some relevancy nearly every other person they have is pretty damn mediocre at best.

Monopoman posted...

Trust me at this point he was the main reason the Escapist was holding some relevancy nearly every other person they have is pretty damn mediocre at best.

I have been enjoying Cold Takes and some of the other stuff Frost has done, but otherwise yeah. Yahtzee leaving has pretty much eliminated all of The Escapist's appeal, so good luck with that, I guess?

I'll be kinda interested in where Yahtzee goes next.

adjl posted...

I have been enjoying Cold Takes and some of the other stuff Frost has done, but otherwise yeah. Yahtzee leaving has pretty much eliminated all of The Escapist's appeal, so good luck with that, I guess?

I like In the Frame, Darren Mooney gives very good takes on movies.

shadowsword87 posted...

I like In the Frame, Darren Mooney gives very good takes on movies.

He has some solid videos, though some of his videos are weird? I don't know how else to describe it, like he'll make a review that's more explaining his personal relationship to the film and less about the film itself.

wwinterj25 posted...

I'll be kinda interested in where Yahtzee goes next.

Maybe Elon Musk will buy him.

Blightzkrieg posted...

He has some solid videos, though some of his videos are weird? I don't know how else to describe it, like he'll make a review that's more explaining his personal relationship to the film and less about the film itself.

Which, like, I'm good with weirdly? I honestly don't care that much about the latest marvel movie, I'm not going to see it. How it fits into hollywood I'm interested in.

Looks like Nick, Yahtzee, and most of the other creators that jumped ship have formed Second Wind to continue doing exactly what they were doing for The Escapist, only employee-owned. I'm really hoping this ends up succeeding, given what a massive middle finger to those executive dinkleburgers that would be.

Fuck corporations

BlackScythe0 posted...

People on the internet frequently tend to think that just because they know/like someone popular that everyone knows who they are because they are popular.

There are a ton of huge content creators I never hear of until they get into some sort of controversy such as this.

This, so very much.

It's one of the reasons why I've been saying for a while now that I feel like the kids of today aren't really going to have a significant shared pop culture once they grow up, because there's really not a huge overlap of media experience the way there used to be. Even the most popular YouTubers or Twitch streamers are still niche at best.



darkknight109 posted...

It's like not knowing who Hideo Kojima is - sure, you may or may not be a fan of his work - or you may not have even watched it at all - but unless you first got into the hobby within the last 10 years (which I doubt describes anyone posting on GameFAQs these days), you probably have heard his name at some point.

That can be less meaningful than you think, though.

As an example, you mentioned AVGN - while I've been involved in gaming communities since before YouTube existed, and actually discovered Yahtzee before he joined The Escapist, I managed to completely miss being aware of AVGN for years.

I think the first time I ever heard of AVGN was related to Nostalgia Critic/Channel Awesome - which is another fandom I completely missed while it was actually a thing. I think I only really became aware of them at all right around the time that their entire network imploded. I've been watching gaming content and media criticism on YouTube for more than a decade and I never really wound up finding any of their content in any meaningful way. If I ever saw a video or a mention in passing it was never enough to really register on my conscious mind in a way I'd ever remember it.

A lot of sub-communities or that may seem significant aren't necessarily as common knowledge as many people think.



Monopoman posted...

Trust me at this point he was the main reason the Escapist was holding some relevancy nearly every other person they have is pretty damn mediocre at best.

I like Jack Packard, but I'll be honest and say I enjoyed him way more when he was doing Previously Recorded with Rich Evans.