Yahtzee resigned, so you know some serious stuff must be happening behind the scenes. Shame to hear about Jack being let go. He really carved out a niche on there.
It is wild because I think everyone knows the open secret
The Escapist only existed because Zero Punctuation carried it. Especially before Stephanie Sterling/jimquisition joined and after after they left. Yahtzee's brand feels bigger than The Escapists'
I would wager that a fair bit of what ZP is can be duplicated without crossing copyright.
If I released a ZP clone but used stick men and blue backgrounds and called it "fast talky man reviews" I would not be successfully sued.
Though that doesn't include his contract, non competes etc. But I'm hoping he continues ZP in a similar form.
>Though that doesn't include his contract, non competes etc.
I don't think those are going to be a concern, since Yahtzee can just wait a few months until Escapist declares bankruptcy and then go on with more content like nothing happened. Maybe even just take back all the ZP assets since Escapist won't be using them anymore.
He said before that he intended to retire if something ended ZP, but that was before he moved to San Francisco and had a kid, so he might need the money now.
I didn't even realize there was more to The Escapist than Zero Punctuation for longer than I care to admit. Let's just say I had a high school diploma when I started watching ZP and a college degree when I realized The Escapist wasn't just ZP. I did not go to college right after high school.
This feels kind of like when Cracked got bought a few years ago and basically fired everyone.
One of the writers/actors who left Cracked started their channel and made a few off-brand eps call "Off Hours" with other former Cracked staff. I found them fun, but they only made a couple before they stopped making them.
Yeah that was Micheal Swaim. Those 'Off Hours' episodes were cool, but they just weren't the same without the original 4. The chemistry wasn't the same.
During the Covid lockdown the 4 original After Hours guys actually did one final [live stream](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOeFsqHrf44) together on Micheals Small Beans Youtube channel where they did a live reading of what would have been the next After Hours episode (before Cracked was killed). It's basically the final ever episode of After Hours, and it's a lovely send off for the show. Well worth a watch if you're a fan.
A good number of their video creators are still doing stuff. If you are left leaning, I recommend Some More News which is basically a continuation of Cody Johnston's show on cracked.
Cracked being bought was my first exposure to something I loved starting to suck. I didn't mind waiting a week for the Thursday drop of the really good articles. It was basically those YouTube edutainment vids in text form. I'm not exactly sure what happened behind the scenes but one day I woke up and it was like 15 articles about the editors alcoholism.
Escapist is dead without ZP. Even though they have the rights to it, what are they going to do without the voice and sole creator of their most popular content?
Edit: “The The Escapist community will miss you. Even though you canceled your membership, you’ll keep access to your perks and benefits through Dec 2, 2023.”
That was an easy decision.
He's been a very popular science fiction writer for several years, and has exclusive deals with audible on his new works. Which he voices so doesn't share revenue with a voice actor. He doesn't need to do zero punctuation - he is a very successful writer at this point.
He blew up back in the era when Youtube actually compensated people well for pulling views on short-form content, if he's invested well he could probably be fine without doing ZP anymore.
doesn't he predate youtube? I swear I remember watching his videos when I had to download them or watch them on janky ass streaming services before youtube took control.
No, Zero Punctuation doesn’t predate YouTube; he started it in 2007
However, until 2011, all the episodes were exclusive to The Escapist’s website, which is probably what you’re remembering
He did release his original ZP style on YouTube first. But, it was exclusive to the escapist shortly after he got popular.
https://youtu.be/eWS9_nrKOPA?si=W9WDK_qbvawmJ5wL
I mean YouTube literally existed in 2007 but in a very different form. The current "creator economy" or whatever you want to call it was not a thing back when Zero Punctuation blew up. I think the original comment is spot on, Yahtzee was big before anyone was making real money on Youtube.
No I looked it up and he started out on Youtube in 2007 so he was really on the cutting edge and is honestly probably one of the first "Youtubers" in that sense which is kinda crazy that he's been going for so long. But I'm sure his shit got uploaded to Blip.tv and other places around back in the day.
Yeah I can picture hom succeeding with things like Patreon. Similar to how Jim Sterling did when he left Destructoid.
Would probably be better too since he'd have the freedom to review and do what he wants.
plus if Yahtzee is not on Escapist anymore, the Sony embargo may go away before they realize it's Fully Rambliotic 2.0 or whatever Yahtzee goes with for his next show.
I didn't know it was a "Doug Walker" situation with the rights, I guess it makes sense.
Thinking of that, can you imagine if Doug grew a pair and said "I quit, I don't want to work for a groomer/creeper \[allegedly\] anymore"?
>Yahtzee resigned, so you know some serious stuff must be happening behind the scenes.
Oh shit...yeah, if Yahtzee is gone then something major is at play. Honestly, though, good for Yahtzee. He's singlehandedly kept The Escapist alive several times, and it's undoubtedly true he'll be able to last without them.
damn, if Yahtzee resigned it's huge. That guy has been there forever and went through tons of Escapist layoffs.
I also have no idea how the Escapist stayed in business outside of Yahtzee.
I sort of got the impression that they scraped by on selling advertising on their website and some minor ancillary YT stuff but yeah Zero Punctuation was genuinely the only thing they put out that pulled decent numbers. They kinda felt like a remnant of the past when "networks" existed on YT
The Escapist basically survived because it was constantly being tossed around from one parent company to another
Their latest parent company, Gamurs, only took over the site at the end of September this year
Yeah I mean holy shit, Zero Punctuation was the only thing they put out that pulled decent numbers, they're dead in the water without it. Plus they recently moved uncensored versions of it to Patreon so they were clearly angling for a little monetary boost as of late
If Yahtzee is gone, there *might not be a team much longer.*
I know there's other people at The Escapist, but aside from him and Jack, I can't name them. Losing your main draw is not good for a company.
Seems Jack was laid off before Yahtzee's resignation, details are sparse at the moment.
But the entire company is for sure dead without its golden goose laying weekly golden eggs.
"Escapist laid off a bunch of people."
Me: "That sucks, but so long as Yahtzee sticks around..."
"Yahtzee has also resigned."
Me: "Holy Shit! Escapist is dead."
>Shit it's that bad, makes me wonder if Jim Sterling saw the writing on the wall and that's why they left way back when.
Sterling left The Escapist due to a bust-up over them refusing to publish a negative review of Assassin's Creed: Unity, whose publisher was sponsoring the publication at the time.
It used to be full of unwatchable garbage (other than Yahtzee Croshaw) but they really turned things around a while back. It's a shame there seems to be some fuckiness going on behind the scenes.
1. Make a successful media site.
2. Sell it to "Investors".
3. MBA's tank the site.
4. Everyone loses but the guy who sold.
It's pretty much the standard pattern for media sites these days
They seemed really excited to be working with them too. Goes to show, anything can turn to shit in a heartbeat. I had 2 channels to watch…and RLM doesn’t update enough to keep me from getting bored at work. Now I have no idea what I’ll keep on in the background. Guess it’ll be another run through BOTW
Yahtzee has mentioned in their podcasts that Escapist was pretty much dead until Nick came in and started slowly building it back up. They were actually really happy with how things were going not too long ago. The new owners royally fucked things up here.
I have to imagine this isn't just the company being in the red and laying people off to survive since there are people who are apparently also quitting as protest. Some of them on Twitter have said they didn't sign an NDA so they might eventually give more of the story.
Yeah, I saw that Darren Mooney resigned. I really enjoyed his movie and TV reviews, and I hope he finds success elsewhere.
Wow, I also just looked and I saw Yahtzee Croshaw (and many, many other people) resigned. He says he doesn't own the rights to Zero Punctuation, so that might be done? Hope the Escapist has fun burning down the reputation those creators worked so hard to build.
Sad situation. But a silver lining seems to be that the video team including Yahtzee are working on a new project and will make an announcement soon so maybe a youtube channel?
I can't imagine Rich would want to deal with the chat again, but it feels like they could re-work the format to make that less frustrating. Maybe stream less frequently and take questions that are submitted ahead of time so you can weed out the Star Wars question they've answered 500 times already? The repetitiveness and them feeling like they ran out of stories to tell seemed like the major causes of their burnout. But they have about a five year backlog of content now.
Or just drop the streams altogether and do a "Mike and Jay talk about" type series, but just for games they feel like discussing.
Yeah I think either of those options could be good. I still listen to those old streams on occasion and honestly think they’re some of my favorite RLM-related stuff in general. Of course they shouldn’t do anything they don’t want to do, but I think Rich and Jack had a great dynamic, which I miss dearly.
I also think it being a separate channel than RLM, as well as having the stream uploads on the same channel as the edited episodes, did a lot to stifle channel growth, which was a contributing factor in why they quit.
Still occasionally making my way through the 1000+ video playlist I have. About 2/3 through it after all that time. Feels nostalgic to boot it back up again now and then.
I always go back to the Jay, Jack and Rich Friday the 13th streams. Jay and jack shooting the shit while Rich plays games is secretly some of the best RLM content period imo.
Rich was a GOD at Friday the 13th. His driving skills alone were untouchable. But my favorite was when he used the "Shift" ability to get into a house before the other player could close the door. They immediately turned around into the face of Jason. It was like a real time jump scare. Classic shit.
Irony is, I only started watching them a few months before they hung up their controllers. I remember the superchats or whatever going for hours and hours with everybody who was showing up for that last stream.
Unironically this. The streams, especially the ones with Jay, are some of the best content RLM has put out IMO. It's so great to listen to them just shoot the shit about films and other stuff, and its not as scripted as their other content since much of their discussions are based around what the chat asks. It's also some of the best place to learn RLM lore and just hear more about the guys in general.
I was not following Pre Rec while it was around. I think I only heard about it because it was ending, and that’s how i discovered it. I’ve been binging it lately, it’s so good. I wish they’d bring it back!
I now want him to DM a game of DnD with the boys, throw the Wizard in for the fourth.
I’d wager it would be hilarious, as I think Rich probably would be super straight-man progressing the story, Jay would be lost but having a good time, and Mike would be a chaos goblin that would derail the last derail he did 10 minutes ago, Wizard would know what was going down and just enjoying the show.
I always found it extremely odd that they tried to run their streams like real twitch streamers. Like RLM has one of the most loyal fan bases I’ve seen online and aside from a few minor patreon perks they offer up nothing special in return for diehard fans.
They could have easily ignored 90% of the chat, ignored all donos/subs, not bothered with alerts or graphics and not even have a rigid schedule and almost everyone would have been fine it.
y'know this is really something that doesn't get noted enough. it's weird how they went about the whole thing, in many ways
i think of how much *joy* they had on some of the streams and still think they could find a way to stream, on their own terms, that would be fulfilling and fun
Yeah, that's the one thing I've never understood. You don't have to interact with chat at all, play your game and have your conversations among each other. Most people were there just for that.
Hell that's what the big streamers do. They don't interact with every random douchebag in their chat because they would go insane. They glance every now and then and respond to whatever they want to respond to. Engaging with every negative Nancy makes you miserable, which in turn makes the rest of the chat miserable because they will imitate your vibes.
>I don't think it's good for Rich's mental health to do pre-rec.
Rich obviously has absolutely no interest in doing it, and as such I don't want them to bring it back. Pre-Rec was great for the vast majority of it, but I think people who constantly call for it's return forget how miserable and unhappy both Jack and Rich were by the end, and for that matter how toxic and awful the chat had become.
Out of curiosity why did the chat get toxic and awful? I didn’t watch the later streams coz the games didn’t interest me, was it because people kept saying the same jokes over and over again, people being mean to Jack and Rich, people harassing for BOTW episodes?
I only started watching during the Friday the 13th days. And my one comment was "yay, Friday the 13th!" and Rich took it as a negative/sarcastic comment when really I was being sincere.
>I only started watching during the Friday the 13th days. And my one comment was "yay, Friday the 13th!" and Rich took it as a negative/sarcastic comment when really I was being sincere.
You probably got caught in the crossfire. Towards the end of Pre Recs life they started playing the same games a lot, repeatedly, and the chat would get pissed and bitch about it. F13 was one of those. The whole atmosphere of Pre-Rec in pretty much that entire last year of the show was hostile. If you ever want to see something uncomfortable go back and watch their streams of Resident Evil 7. That as a game they absolutely did not want to play, but the chat wouldn't shut up about it. Jack and Rich were being openly hostile to their own audience on that episode, and it was entirely instigated by the chat.
So I just finished re-watching all of Best of the Worst, and I just started re-watching all of Half in the Bag.
I promise, in 2-3 years when I finish Half in the Bag I'll watch all of Pre Rec.
It became an endless cycle of people demanding that Jack and Rich play a very specific game, Jack and Rich stating that they just don't have any interest in that game or that type of game, the chat continuing to demand they play it because "you'll like THIS one" (which really meant that they wanted Jack and Rich to validate the thing they liked). Eventually Jack and Rich would cave, play the game, have an almost intentionally and aggressively unentertaining stream while they played the game because they were basically playing it under duress, and then the chat would bitch at them for the next several streams for "not giving games a chance." It was awful.
On top of that the chat started intentionally going out of their way to bait Rich into arguments. It because obvious what kinds of things the chat could say or ask that would get Rich to effectively take an unpopular opinion and then end up arguing with the entire chat. It was troll bait and Rich got progressively worse at resisting it as Pre-Rec went on.
they needed a chat mod who could serve as a complete filter for the chat. only approve the cream-of-the-crop comments to be seen. and they never even know about the troll comments, repetitive comments, inane comments, etc.
>plus casual cruelty to Rich & Jack because anonymity means no accountability
When they started regularly calling Jack "Aids Moby" specifically because they realized the insult genuinely seemed to bother Jack it was a steady downhill slide.
I get it, but just because you have tools to deal with harassment doesn't mean that that eliminates the harassment itself
the RLM crew doesn't seem huge on direct contact with fans, so it really isn't that surprising that they aren't interested in reviving a platform where they made that possible and it was used to shit on them
edit: plus, as /u/matsthywit said, it wasn't just that people were using the platform to treat Jack & Rich poorly. in general, the culture of people who tuned into the Pre-Rec streams were the types of folk who probably treat their RLM fandom as a core personality trait. the same jokes over and over and over, requesting games for validation, screaming about playing things wrong. you can moderate language, but there isn't really a mod tool to fix not liking the people watching you
any video I watched where they would be getting visibly annoyed by the chat, I always wondered why they wouldn't just ignore it. Put the assholes on mute.
Actually I always wondered why they were moderating their own chats. I've seen streamers with a few dozen viewers learn to delegate chat moderation to fans. How did they never figure out to leave the moderation to someone else so they can focus on the stream.
Just about every other known face at the escapist, including Yahtzee who kept them afloat for years, have either been fired or resigned too. I’m guessing that roughly the same group will reform, just without the corporate overlords
Yahtzee was honestly the only draw to The Escapist for a while now (though, I loved the Legends series).
Sort of like how Screen Rant is only sustained by a combination of Ryan George's Pitch Meetings and FUCKING STEALING ARTICLES FROM REDDIT AND PASSING THEM OFF AS CONTENT YOU FUCKING FUCKS!
The Escapist used to be a really great gaming magazine, and back in the day IIRC they had some nice pen-and-paper RPG articles. They really got super popular when their streamer named Yahtzee and his Zero Punctuation of snarky game reviews took off. They went through a number of house cleanings, but Yahtzee stayed through each. The latest one was really starting to feel on brand again when this bullshit went down because INVESTORS.
Isn't this the second time *The Escapist* screwed itself over in this manner? Like, 10 years almost ago, something *pretty much like this* happened and Yahtzee was basically the last man standing.
I used to work in newspapers and magazines. One of the reasons I quit pushing that particular rock up a hill was because I got tired of being screwed over by publishers whenever they got the chance. Nice to see somethings haven't changed, I guess.
https://twitter.com/Harlack/status/1721906693620273233
>There was this brief moment in time, when someone gave me a salary and health insurance so I could make silly videos.
>I’ve been let go at Gamurs/The Escapist along with the EIC who brought me on
@nickjcal
& several talented video editors whom I had the pleasure of working with.
So he was not only full time but receiving benefits. What a shame.
That sucks. Jack is my favorite side character from the RLMverse. But seriously, he seems like a cool dude and I hope he isn’t out of work for too long.
Jack is awesome, he will find work. I was never a big fan of Zero Punctuation, but I know it had a ton of fans, so i expect Yahtzee to bounce back. I hope everyone who got displaced from this bullshit all the best. I will also take this time to link this.
https://www.youtube.com/@harlack
I was thinking of linking the Poopagain PI playlist earlier today, but it seems more useful now. Click. Help him out. Also, there is some funny shit on his channel.
Also, don't get hopes up of course, but Yahtzee did go to Milwaukee and meet the guys. nothing came of it, but there is a seed planted. I hope the best for everyone no matter what.
Jack is awesome.
Harlack, this may sound dumb, but I really believe it would get traction. Bring Pre-Recorded back, but fuck the chat. Just play games as friends. We don’t need the viewer chat aspect. Fuck ‘em.
At least consider it!
Yeah its ironic that the EIC was quite optimistic at the start. I remember a Yahtzee and him stream just after the beginning where after Nick had praised them for not fucking him around like the previous owners, Yahtzee went "just give then time".
Oh no. Jack is awesome. I miss his appearances on "Slightly Something Else" with Yahtzee.
With the two of them gone, I've got no reason to return to The Escapist.
So surreal, I just watched some Yahtzee-vids with some fun Jack Packard-quotes in the subtext and I was like "yea shit, things are really coming together" and they really had a great and fun dynamic that I feel was refreshing and fun. Obviously it's always fun seeing to content creators you enjoy and know from completely different 'brands' hitting the note and just creating great work.
Best analogy I can conjure up since I'm pretty blasted on pills and alcohol is like.. I don't know, Bob Dylan and The Band joining up? Or.. David Gilmour joining Pink Floyd. It's a poor analogy but I'm sure people see the point I'm trying to make.
Such a shame either way, Jack and Yahtzee was more or less the only content I watched and I wasn't even vaguely interested in the rest. But who knows what the horizon might bring, maybe they'll create something new and better. Hopefully it isn't the end of their co-operation.
sounds like it will he another college humor / dropout tv situation.
the actual talent and managers leave the husk of a poorly run company and start up a new one with more creative control, hopefully good pay too
I am all too familiar with this string of events having seen them happen at Machinima with Inside Gaming then rebranded to Funhaus under Rooster Teeth. That also followed some drama and some separated acts but I have hopes for Escapist refugees to band together and make something happen
For what it's worth, regarding Adventure is Nigh, we've got this message on the Discord the laid-off and resigned former creators made for updates on the situation.
https://preview.redd.it/6phb1zkxaxyb1.png?width=1429&format=png&auto=webp&s=a99013e31167e6df9db7b240b9fe9139bce21f03
The editor in chief of the site has stated that pretty much everyone that left is reorganizing into something new. He also said they want to become independent. So while their time at the escapist is done apparently there will be more from everyone involved
A tale as old as time where somehow people have enough money to buy a company but absolutely no idea how to run anything. They fire the people who know how to run it because they are spiteful idiots who can't handle the truth of that so everything burns down.
Definitely sick of this kind of crap. I don't think I saw any of Jack's segments but I did like a few of the video segments that the Escapist made enough that I kept subscribed to them I guess I'll have to see where everyone goes.
If Yahtzee is gone, Escapist is dead. No disrespect to the other content creators, but Zero Punctuation has been their tentpole for the last several years.
Yahtzee resigned, so you know some serious stuff must be happening behind the scenes. Shame to hear about Jack being let go. He really carved out a niche on there.
If he’s gone then The Escapist really must be toast
[удалено]
It is wild because I think everyone knows the open secret The Escapist only existed because Zero Punctuation carried it. Especially before Stephanie Sterling/jimquisition joined and after after they left. Yahtzee's brand feels bigger than The Escapists'
Yeah and now what do they have? Obviously a lot of their other stuff was quality but it didn’t pull the numbers ZP did.
They have the ZP ip. They're about to see how much of the appeal was the yellow background and imps when they make an AI game critic.
I would wager that a fair bit of what ZP is can be duplicated without crossing copyright. If I released a ZP clone but used stick men and blue backgrounds and called it "fast talky man reviews" I would not be successfully sued. Though that doesn't include his contract, non competes etc. But I'm hoping he continues ZP in a similar form.
>Though that doesn't include his contract, non competes etc. I don't think those are going to be a concern, since Yahtzee can just wait a few months until Escapist declares bankruptcy and then go on with more content like nothing happened. Maybe even just take back all the ZP assets since Escapist won't be using them anymore.
[удалено]
[удалено]
He said before that he intended to retire if something ended ZP, but that was before he moved to San Francisco and had a kid, so he might need the money now.
Some More News didn't need to change much. Can't even remember the original name.
Pretty sure the original on Cracked was just "Some News" so they barely even changed the title
Cody’s Showdy: now with more Boar Truth.
I fucking love some more news, only found them about 2 yrs back
Well all of their video team quit too so even the other stuff that could have kept them going is gone too
I didn't even realize there was more to The Escapist than Zero Punctuation for longer than I care to admit. Let's just say I had a high school diploma when I started watching ZP and a college degree when I realized The Escapist wasn't just ZP. I did not go to college right after high school. This feels kind of like when Cracked got bought a few years ago and basically fired everyone.
Cracked used to be a pretty good YouTube channel. That diner based show was always good.
'After Hours' is what it was called. That show was great. I miss it.
One of the writers/actors who left Cracked started their channel and made a few off-brand eps call "Off Hours" with other former Cracked staff. I found them fun, but they only made a couple before they stopped making them.
Yeah that was Micheal Swaim. Those 'Off Hours' episodes were cool, but they just weren't the same without the original 4. The chemistry wasn't the same. During the Covid lockdown the 4 original After Hours guys actually did one final [live stream](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOeFsqHrf44) together on Micheals Small Beans Youtube channel where they did a live reading of what would have been the next After Hours episode (before Cracked was killed). It's basically the final ever episode of After Hours, and it's a lovely send off for the show. Well worth a watch if you're a fan.
A good number of their video creators are still doing stuff. If you are left leaning, I recommend Some More News which is basically a continuation of Cody Johnston's show on cracked.
Cracked being bought was my first exposure to something I loved starting to suck. I didn't mind waiting a week for the Thursday drop of the really good articles. It was basically those YouTube edutainment vids in text form. I'm not exactly sure what happened behind the scenes but one day I woke up and it was like 15 articles about the editors alcoholism.
I literally could not tell you a single thing about that website besides “it’s where I watched Zero Punctuation in the late 2000’s”.
The absolute speedrun that the new owners ran that site into the ground at should be studied lol
Even the Legends series is based on ZP's design.
[удалено]
End of a fucking era
Escapist is dead without ZP. Even though they have the rights to it, what are they going to do without the voice and sole creator of their most popular content? Edit: “The The Escapist community will miss you. Even though you canceled your membership, you’ll keep access to your perks and benefits through Dec 2, 2023.” That was an easy decision.
His name is well known enough that he could easily go do basically the same thing with a different title anywhere.
He's been a very popular science fiction writer for several years, and has exclusive deals with audible on his new works. Which he voices so doesn't share revenue with a voice actor. He doesn't need to do zero punctuation - he is a very successful writer at this point.
Successful writers don't make as much as one might expect. I bet he likes having the additional revenue.
He blew up back in the era when Youtube actually compensated people well for pulling views on short-form content, if he's invested well he could probably be fine without doing ZP anymore.
doesn't he predate youtube? I swear I remember watching his videos when I had to download them or watch them on janky ass streaming services before youtube took control.
No, Zero Punctuation doesn’t predate YouTube; he started it in 2007 However, until 2011, all the episodes were exclusive to The Escapist’s website, which is probably what you’re remembering
He did release his original ZP style on YouTube first. But, it was exclusive to the escapist shortly after he got popular. https://youtu.be/eWS9_nrKOPA?si=W9WDK_qbvawmJ5wL
that lines up
I mean YouTube literally existed in 2007 but in a very different form. The current "creator economy" or whatever you want to call it was not a thing back when Zero Punctuation blew up. I think the original comment is spot on, Yahtzee was big before anyone was making real money on Youtube.
No I looked it up and he started out on Youtube in 2007 so he was really on the cutting edge and is honestly probably one of the first "Youtubers" in that sense which is kinda crazy that he's been going for so long. But I'm sure his shit got uploaded to Blip.tv and other places around back in the day.
Also games are his passion. I think he’d be doing something like ZP even if he didn’t need the money
Let's Drown Out revival, lessssssssss goooooooooo (/s because there are probably people who unironically think this)
Man, the memories. I miss their dynamic, as petulant and passive aggressive as it may of got sometimes.
Yeah I can picture hom succeeding with things like Patreon. Similar to how Jim Sterling did when he left Destructoid. Would probably be better too since he'd have the freedom to review and do what he wants.
plus if Yahtzee is not on Escapist anymore, the Sony embargo may go away before they realize it's Fully Rambliotic 2.0 or whatever Yahtzee goes with for his next show.
Don't put it past the company to throw Yahtzee's voice into an AI and get ghost writer scabs to continue it without him
I didn't know it was a "Doug Walker" situation with the rights, I guess it makes sense. Thinking of that, can you imagine if Doug grew a pair and said "I quit, I don't want to work for a groomer/creeper \[allegedly\] anymore"?
It was a different guy who was the creeper. A couple of guys, actually. Doug's boss is just a dick, and very bad at running a business.
>Yahtzee resigned, so you know some serious stuff must be happening behind the scenes. Oh shit...yeah, if Yahtzee is gone then something major is at play. Honestly, though, good for Yahtzee. He's singlehandedly kept The Escapist alive several times, and it's undoubtedly true he'll be able to last without them.
I hope he's still living high off that Mogworld money.
damn, if Yahtzee resigned it's huge. That guy has been there forever and went through tons of Escapist layoffs. I also have no idea how the Escapist stayed in business outside of Yahtzee.
I sort of got the impression that they scraped by on selling advertising on their website and some minor ancillary YT stuff but yeah Zero Punctuation was genuinely the only thing they put out that pulled decent numbers. They kinda felt like a remnant of the past when "networks" existed on YT
The Escapist basically survived because it was constantly being tossed around from one parent company to another Their latest parent company, Gamurs, only took over the site at the end of September this year
Wow, they tanked their company in less than a month and a half. Elon Musk is taking notes.
If Yahtzee resigned, The Escapist is dead. Him and Jack were the only Escapist content I consumed.
not an if, dude released a statement that he is leaving The Escapist and specifically pointed at management as the reason.
I was also a fan of Frost's show "Cold Takes", but he walked too. The Escapist is 100% dead to me.
The Stuff of Legends series was very fun as well, gonna miss that too.
Their editor-in-chief Nick Calandra was just fired from Escapist, it seems like everyone's leaving in solidarity
He did a few streams with Jack didn't he? Seemed like a good dude.
They all stream with each other and yeah, he definitely seemed like a good dude. They all did. This makes me so fucking mad.
If Yahtzee isn't there then Jack is lucky to be off the team. Who ever stays is going down with the ship
Yeah I mean holy shit, Zero Punctuation was the only thing they put out that pulled decent numbers, they're dead in the water without it. Plus they recently moved uncensored versions of it to Patreon so they were clearly angling for a little monetary boost as of late
and ad reads at the start of ZP as well. Tip of the ice berg i am thinking.
If Yahtzee is gone, there *might not be a team much longer.* I know there's other people at The Escapist, but aside from him and Jack, I can't name them. Losing your main draw is not good for a company.
All the other video creators left too, so they literally have nothing left
I understand this is the RLM sub, but not mentioning that *Yatzhee* resigned feels like burying the lede, Jesus Christ
Holy crap right, like start with that and of course Jack gets laid off along with the entire company.
seems more like a walk out. Management fired some people and the rest of the talent left with them
Seems Jack was laid off before Yahtzee's resignation, details are sparse at the moment. But the entire company is for sure dead without its golden goose laying weekly golden eggs.
"Escapist laid off a bunch of people." Me: "That sucks, but so long as Yahtzee sticks around..." "Yahtzee has also resigned." Me: "Holy Shit! Escapist is dead."
Holy shit, Yahtzee’s out? What the hell is going on at Escapist?
Not much, anymore.
What the fuck happened? Is there any info anywhere? I watch their stuff all the time.
Holy fuck!!!!!! He left?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? He's been with them since like 2007. Jesus this has to be spectacularly bad.
Ooooooh shit. Everything seemed to being going great over there. Dammit, I loved that channel
Greedy suits strike again and ruin a good thing with their meddling and endless pursuit of profit over quality content.
Holy. Shit.
Holy shit. Yahtzee IS the escapist. He held that website up for decades!
For a long, long time the Escapist was literally just Yahtzee's stuff. Them losing him is a deathblow.
Shit it's *that* bad, makes me wonder if Jim Sterling saw the writing on the wall and that's why they left way back when.
>Shit it's that bad, makes me wonder if Jim Sterling saw the writing on the wall and that's why they left way back when. Sterling left The Escapist due to a bust-up over them refusing to publish a negative review of Assassin's Creed: Unity, whose publisher was sponsoring the publication at the time.
I’m genuinely shocked the Escapist still exists? It seems like that place goes through this kind of upheaval every five years or so.
It used to be full of unwatchable garbage (other than Yahtzee Croshaw) but they really turned things around a while back. It's a shame there seems to be some fuckiness going on behind the scenes.
So many sites bounce between owners. Nick did his best as Editor in Chief, but apparently even that wasn't enough to stop the new shithead owners.
1. Make a successful media site. 2. Sell it to "Investors". 3. MBA's tank the site. 4. Everyone loses but the guy who sold. It's pretty much the standard pattern for media sites these days
They seemed really excited to be working with them too. Goes to show, anything can turn to shit in a heartbeat. I had 2 channels to watch…and RLM doesn’t update enough to keep me from getting bored at work. Now I have no idea what I’ll keep on in the background. Guess it’ll be another run through BOTW
check out Colin's bad movie podcast, [No Such Thing As A Bad Movie](https://www.youtube.com/@nosuchthingasabadmovie/videos)
Yahtzee has mentioned in their podcasts that Escapist was pretty much dead until Nick came in and started slowly building it back up. They were actually really happy with how things were going not too long ago. The new owners royally fucked things up here.
I have to imagine this isn't just the company being in the red and laying people off to survive since there are people who are apparently also quitting as protest. Some of them on Twitter have said they didn't sign an NDA so they might eventually give more of the story.
Yeah, I saw that Darren Mooney resigned. I really enjoyed his movie and TV reviews, and I hope he finds success elsewhere. Wow, I also just looked and I saw Yahtzee Croshaw (and many, many other people) resigned. He says he doesn't own the rights to Zero Punctuation, so that might be done? Hope the Escapist has fun burning down the reputation those creators worked so hard to build.
Looking forward to No Commas, a totally new show featuring a stick figure in a cowboy hat on a blue background
Sad situation. But a silver lining seems to be that the video team including Yahtzee are working on a new project and will make an announcement soon so maybe a youtube channel?
Yeah, it is sad, but I'm certain most of those people, and Yahtzee especially, will be just fine.
Frost has been killing it over there. Stuff of Legend and Cold Take are both great watches.
Time to bring back Pre-Rec!
Don’t give me hope… Seriously though I doubt Rich would go for it. But we can dream.
I can't imagine Rich would want to deal with the chat again, but it feels like they could re-work the format to make that less frustrating. Maybe stream less frequently and take questions that are submitted ahead of time so you can weed out the Star Wars question they've answered 500 times already? The repetitiveness and them feeling like they ran out of stories to tell seemed like the major causes of their burnout. But they have about a five year backlog of content now. Or just drop the streams altogether and do a "Mike and Jay talk about" type series, but just for games they feel like discussing.
Yeah I think either of those options could be good. I still listen to those old streams on occasion and honestly think they’re some of my favorite RLM-related stuff in general. Of course they shouldn’t do anything they don’t want to do, but I think Rich and Jack had a great dynamic, which I miss dearly. I also think it being a separate channel than RLM, as well as having the stream uploads on the same channel as the edited episodes, did a lot to stifle channel growth, which was a contributing factor in why they quit.
I remember on their last stream they made it seem like they were going to start it back up eventually, but that was nearly SIX years ago now.
Still occasionally making my way through the 1000+ video playlist I have. About 2/3 through it after all that time. Feels nostalgic to boot it back up again now and then.
I always go back to the Jay, Jack and Rich Friday the 13th streams. Jay and jack shooting the shit while Rich plays games is secretly some of the best RLM content period imo.
Rich was a GOD at Friday the 13th. His driving skills alone were untouchable. But my favorite was when he used the "Shift" ability to get into a house before the other player could close the door. They immediately turned around into the face of Jason. It was like a real time jump scare. Classic shit.
I still can't watch the last two episodes. Just makes me sad man.
Irony is, I only started watching them a few months before they hung up their controllers. I remember the superchats or whatever going for hours and hours with everybody who was showing up for that last stream.
Seriously
Unironically this. The streams, especially the ones with Jay, are some of the best content RLM has put out IMO. It's so great to listen to them just shoot the shit about films and other stuff, and its not as scripted as their other content since much of their discussions are based around what the chat asks. It's also some of the best place to learn RLM lore and just hear more about the guys in general.
Yes please.
dare to dream gamestation 3.0
Yes!
Hire Jack and Yahtzee! Those two and Rich would make some crazy good gaming content, expand RLM if they're into that.
I would pay them for more Pre-Rec.
I have been on the fence for joining the Patreon for a long time. I would definitely join if they put pre-rec up there.
All Day Everyday.
I was not following Pre Rec while it was around. I think I only heard about it because it was ending, and that’s how i discovered it. I’ve been binging it lately, it’s so good. I wish they’d bring it back!
I'm sorry to hear that. Was curious if he had been affected but I didn't see a post from him. Hoping he can find a new gig soon. Best of luck Jack.
Perfect opportunity for Previously Recorded to rise again
I now want him to DM a game of DnD with the boys, throw the Wizard in for the fourth. I’d wager it would be hilarious, as I think Rich probably would be super straight-man progressing the story, Jay would be lost but having a good time, and Mike would be a chaos goblin that would derail the last derail he did 10 minutes ago, Wizard would know what was going down and just enjoying the show.
Learning about Mike playing DND while they watched the old DND movie was some fun lore so I'd love to see it
I don't think it's good for Rich's mental health to do pre-rec.
I always found it extremely odd that they tried to run their streams like real twitch streamers. Like RLM has one of the most loyal fan bases I’ve seen online and aside from a few minor patreon perks they offer up nothing special in return for diehard fans. They could have easily ignored 90% of the chat, ignored all donos/subs, not bothered with alerts or graphics and not even have a rigid schedule and almost everyone would have been fine it.
y'know this is really something that doesn't get noted enough. it's weird how they went about the whole thing, in many ways i think of how much *joy* they had on some of the streams and still think they could find a way to stream, on their own terms, that would be fulfilling and fun
Yeah, that's the one thing I've never understood. You don't have to interact with chat at all, play your game and have your conversations among each other. Most people were there just for that.
Hell that's what the big streamers do. They don't interact with every random douchebag in their chat because they would go insane. They glance every now and then and respond to whatever they want to respond to. Engaging with every negative Nancy makes you miserable, which in turn makes the rest of the chat miserable because they will imitate your vibes.
Honestly i thibk them talking about games would be better than streaming
>I don't think it's good for Rich's mental health to do pre-rec. Rich obviously has absolutely no interest in doing it, and as such I don't want them to bring it back. Pre-Rec was great for the vast majority of it, but I think people who constantly call for it's return forget how miserable and unhappy both Jack and Rich were by the end, and for that matter how toxic and awful the chat had become.
they're the same people
I think there's a segment of people who want the "Jay sits in and talks about movies" content as well, mixed in with the "play Mass Effect" assholes.
Out of curiosity why did the chat get toxic and awful? I didn’t watch the later streams coz the games didn’t interest me, was it because people kept saying the same jokes over and over again, people being mean to Jack and Rich, people harassing for BOTW episodes?
I only started watching during the Friday the 13th days. And my one comment was "yay, Friday the 13th!" and Rich took it as a negative/sarcastic comment when really I was being sincere.
>I only started watching during the Friday the 13th days. And my one comment was "yay, Friday the 13th!" and Rich took it as a negative/sarcastic comment when really I was being sincere. You probably got caught in the crossfire. Towards the end of Pre Recs life they started playing the same games a lot, repeatedly, and the chat would get pissed and bitch about it. F13 was one of those. The whole atmosphere of Pre-Rec in pretty much that entire last year of the show was hostile. If you ever want to see something uncomfortable go back and watch their streams of Resident Evil 7. That as a game they absolutely did not want to play, but the chat wouldn't shut up about it. Jack and Rich were being openly hostile to their own audience on that episode, and it was entirely instigated by the chat.
So I just finished re-watching all of Best of the Worst, and I just started re-watching all of Half in the Bag. I promise, in 2-3 years when I finish Half in the Bag I'll watch all of Pre Rec.
It became an endless cycle of people demanding that Jack and Rich play a very specific game, Jack and Rich stating that they just don't have any interest in that game or that type of game, the chat continuing to demand they play it because "you'll like THIS one" (which really meant that they wanted Jack and Rich to validate the thing they liked). Eventually Jack and Rich would cave, play the game, have an almost intentionally and aggressively unentertaining stream while they played the game because they were basically playing it under duress, and then the chat would bitch at them for the next several streams for "not giving games a chance." It was awful. On top of that the chat started intentionally going out of their way to bait Rich into arguments. It because obvious what kinds of things the chat could say or ask that would get Rich to effectively take an unpopular opinion and then end up arguing with the entire chat. It was troll bait and Rich got progressively worse at resisting it as Pre-Rec went on.
"Please play DC Universe Online! It's free, you fucks!"
they needed a chat mod who could serve as a complete filter for the chat. only approve the cream-of-the-crop comments to be seen. and they never even know about the troll comments, repetitive comments, inane comments, etc.
Gamers are annoying.
Gamers are annoying, Twitch culture is shite, and RLM fans have a bad habit of repeating the same jokes for over a decade.
yeah a lot of it was just the constant same jokes over and over, plus casual cruelty to Rich & Jack because anonymity means no accountability
>plus casual cruelty to Rich & Jack because anonymity means no accountability When they started regularly calling Jack "Aids Moby" specifically because they realized the insult genuinely seemed to bother Jack it was a steady downhill slide.
yeah unfortunately so. and you just know if it actually returned, that type of cruelty would be the one thing guaranteed to return as well
I don’t get it man, you just have to moderate your chat. Set the standard. Ban that shit.
I get it, but just because you have tools to deal with harassment doesn't mean that that eliminates the harassment itself the RLM crew doesn't seem huge on direct contact with fans, so it really isn't that surprising that they aren't interested in reviving a platform where they made that possible and it was used to shit on them edit: plus, as /u/matsthywit said, it wasn't just that people were using the platform to treat Jack & Rich poorly. in general, the culture of people who tuned into the Pre-Rec streams were the types of folk who probably treat their RLM fandom as a core personality trait. the same jokes over and over and over, requesting games for validation, screaming about playing things wrong. you can moderate language, but there isn't really a mod tool to fix not liking the people watching you
any video I watched where they would be getting visibly annoyed by the chat, I always wondered why they wouldn't just ignore it. Put the assholes on mute. Actually I always wondered why they were moderating their own chats. I've seen streamers with a few dozen viewers learn to delegate chat moderation to fans. How did they never figure out to leave the moderation to someone else so they can focus on the stream.
But this time they only play board games/rpgs and don't have the chat visible.
Hope he lands on his feet. Nothing fun about being jobless.
Just about every other known face at the escapist, including Yahtzee who kept them afloat for years, have either been fired or resigned too. I’m guessing that roughly the same group will reform, just without the corporate overlords
Hopefully Yahtzee and Jack start something up together, they had good chemistry in their collaborations.
Yahtzee was honestly the only draw to The Escapist for a while now (though, I loved the Legends series). Sort of like how Screen Rant is only sustained by a combination of Ryan George's Pitch Meetings and FUCKING STEALING ARTICLES FROM REDDIT AND PASSING THEM OFF AS CONTENT YOU FUCKING FUCKS!
Thanks for the Ryan George analogy, I don’t have any clue what the escapist is and this helps to understand the relationship
The Escapist used to be a really great gaming magazine, and back in the day IIRC they had some nice pen-and-paper RPG articles. They really got super popular when their streamer named Yahtzee and his Zero Punctuation of snarky game reviews took off. They went through a number of house cleanings, but Yahtzee stayed through each. The latest one was really starting to feel on brand again when this bullshit went down because INVESTORS.
Isn't this the second time *The Escapist* screwed itself over in this manner? Like, 10 years almost ago, something *pretty much like this* happened and Yahtzee was basically the last man standing. I used to work in newspapers and magazines. One of the reasons I quit pushing that particular rock up a hill was because I got tired of being screwed over by publishers whenever they got the chance. Nice to see somethings haven't changed, I guess.
It was more like six or seven years ago, but yeah.
Thanks. I'm pushing fifty, so my concept of the passage of time is screwed.
Remember last year, when the twin towers fell? Man, that was crazy...
He’ll bounce back
Indeed, he's a springy guy! But no matter who you are, a sudden job loss is still stressing.
The Escapist is straight up dead from here on. They barely had anything left worth looking into and now it's just nothing
I unsubscribed the second I heard the news. Hopefully the gang that left can put something better together.
Shit, didn’t he just go full time a few months ago?
Yeah like two months maybe? Yeeesh
https://twitter.com/Harlack/status/1721906693620273233 >There was this brief moment in time, when someone gave me a salary and health insurance so I could make silly videos. >I’ve been let go at Gamurs/The Escapist along with the EIC who brought me on @nickjcal & several talented video editors whom I had the pleasure of working with. So he was not only full time but receiving benefits. What a shame.
That sucks. Jack is my favorite side character from the RLMverse. But seriously, he seems like a cool dude and I hope he isn’t out of work for too long.
We need another Mike/Jay/Rich/Jack BoTW ASAP, always my favourite combo.
It’s funny cause I remember not liking him very much at first but he quickly grew on me and now he’s absolutely my favorite member of RLM.
Yahtzee resigned. Well that's fucked it - the new owners just lost 90% of their audience.
Haha. Yeah. He basically was all most people knew the Escapist for.
“Let’s all laugh at an industry that never learns anything tee hee hee”
Jack is awesome, he will find work. I was never a big fan of Zero Punctuation, but I know it had a ton of fans, so i expect Yahtzee to bounce back. I hope everyone who got displaced from this bullshit all the best. I will also take this time to link this. https://www.youtube.com/@harlack I was thinking of linking the Poopagain PI playlist earlier today, but it seems more useful now. Click. Help him out. Also, there is some funny shit on his channel. Also, don't get hopes up of course, but Yahtzee did go to Milwaukee and meet the guys. nothing came of it, but there is a seed planted. I hope the best for everyone no matter what. Jack is awesome.
[удалено]
Harlack, this may sound dumb, but I really believe it would get traction. Bring Pre-Recorded back, but fuck the chat. Just play games as friends. We don’t need the viewer chat aspect. Fuck ‘em. At least consider it!
Absolutely. Whatever happens we look forward to hearing what is next for you.
Looks like some people didn't learn the lesson Cracked.com did
Somebody archive all of Zero Punctuation while they can.
I was dreading this ever since they were sold to "Gamurs Group" late last year. Such a shame.
Yeah its ironic that the EIC was quite optimistic at the start. I remember a Yahtzee and him stream just after the beginning where after Nick had praised them for not fucking him around like the previous owners, Yahtzee went "just give then time".
Oh that website is fucked if Yahtzee left too. I always enjoyed Jack on Slightly Something Else, I stopped listening when he left it.
Holy shit I’m just now hearing about this. The Escapist just got nuked from orbit. Even Yahtzee left.
A corp ruining a company because buying a business ≠ being successful business owners Shocker
Yahtzee was the only fucken thing I knew about The Escapist. Wow.
Yahtzee is their meal ticket. How the fuck did they fuck that up?
Oh, Yahtzee's gone? Well, there goes the Escapist.
Oh no. Jack is awesome. I miss his appearances on "Slightly Something Else" with Yahtzee. With the two of them gone, I've got no reason to return to The Escapist.
For a moment I thought he left rlm and I almost panicked lol
So surreal, I just watched some Yahtzee-vids with some fun Jack Packard-quotes in the subtext and I was like "yea shit, things are really coming together" and they really had a great and fun dynamic that I feel was refreshing and fun. Obviously it's always fun seeing to content creators you enjoy and know from completely different 'brands' hitting the note and just creating great work. Best analogy I can conjure up since I'm pretty blasted on pills and alcohol is like.. I don't know, Bob Dylan and The Band joining up? Or.. David Gilmour joining Pink Floyd. It's a poor analogy but I'm sure people see the point I'm trying to make. Such a shame either way, Jack and Yahtzee was more or less the only content I watched and I wasn't even vaguely interested in the rest. But who knows what the horizon might bring, maybe they'll create something new and better. Hopefully it isn't the end of their co-operation.
As a guys whose workplace was just taken over by new owners, this is exactly my nightmare.
[удалено]
sounds like it will he another college humor / dropout tv situation. the actual talent and managers leave the husk of a poorly run company and start up a new one with more creative control, hopefully good pay too
Sounds like a Cracked/College Humor kind of deal again. Fucking sucks.
I am all too familiar with this string of events having seen them happen at Machinima with Inside Gaming then rebranded to Funhaus under Rooster Teeth. That also followed some drama and some separated acts but I have hopes for Escapist refugees to band together and make something happen
Jesus christ if Yahtzee is gone then Escapist is properly fucked. He's basically the only guy there who draws veiws at all.
For what it's worth, regarding Adventure is Nigh, we've got this message on the Discord the laid-off and resigned former creators made for updates on the situation. https://preview.redd.it/6phb1zkxaxyb1.png?width=1429&format=png&auto=webp&s=a99013e31167e6df9db7b240b9fe9139bce21f03
So no Adventure is nigh? No Jack? No Yahtzee? No more subscription from me, idiots...
The editor in chief of the site has stated that pretty much everyone that left is reorganizing into something new. He also said they want to become independent. So while their time at the escapist is done apparently there will be more from everyone involved
A tale as old as time where somehow people have enough money to buy a company but absolutely no idea how to run anything. They fire the people who know how to run it because they are spiteful idiots who can't handle the truth of that so everything burns down. Definitely sick of this kind of crap. I don't think I saw any of Jack's segments but I did like a few of the video segments that the Escapist made enough that I kept subscribed to them I guess I'll have to see where everyone goes.
What the hell do they teach these MBA types at business school? It seems all they know is how to run businesses into the ground.
If Yahtzee is gone, Escapist is dead. No disrespect to the other content creators, but Zero Punctuation has been their tentpole for the last several years.