BREAKING NEWS: LRR + The Escapist = Success

[Graham]

Is Escapist going to be linking back to LRR's site on new videos?

Unlikely, but the loadingreadyrun.com title and intro card should be retained.

Actually they will.
Apart from anything else, we will be mentioning LoadingReadyRun for purposes of behind-the-scenes content, and merchandise.

[Lord Chrusher]

I would really like to continue to have the LRR site continue to be a full record of all of LRR's work, whether officially hosted on the Escapist or not; even if we can't embed videos from there to here, something like, say, an image from the video in the archives with a link to the location of the actual video on the Escapist site might be a decent approximation of the real thing.

It would be very easy to adapt the current site design to hosting the videos on the Escapist. The front page and the video archive would look the same. The only difference would be that when you clicked on a Escapist hosted video would go to the Escapist's page for that video rather than a page on LoadingReadyRun.

I guess v7.0 of LRR will be LRR with videos on the Escapist.

[Vanguard]

I'd argue with that point Keith, but then again there is a reason that I mainly use the Escapist community nowadays to just network with the non-jackass members of it (which contrary to popular belief there are many of) and exploitation for blatant resume building and other forms of selfish personal gain.

... not that I would do any of that to you guys?

[Keith K]

I don't think the Escapist community are jackasses at all. They're just lacking a certain Je ne sais quoi that draws people like myself here.

[CtMolloy]

I actually signed up to the escapist forums earlier in the week, Before i even knew LRR was going there... I went to check it out, but lost interest really fast because desertbus was on.

[Arius]

I did not stay up for ZP i was just hanging around to troll it cos im very pissed.

finaly grat review as always

*repeating something in the video that everyone else just watched*

*repeating the same thing*

*repeating the same thing*

It's not that the Escapist forums are filled with jackasses, it's that there is a steady stream of jackasses at all times, no matter how many are banned. I've tried being on the Escapist forums, but for every intelligent post, I see 50 posts that would make YouTube commenters blush.

There's intelligent people on there, for sure. But they are greatly eclipsed, at least in my experience.

[Keith K]

It's okay. The 1337 fans won't be going anywhere. Amirite?

[Metcarfre]

HAI KEITH I HERD U LIEK MUDKIPS

LOLOLOLOLOL

[Vanguard]

Protip: most of the "quality" members of the community congregate on the Escapist's IRC channel, and even then finding something resembling intelligence can be a hit-or-miss. It also doesn't help that several of us have migrated elsewhere altogether.

Yeah, and the near-constant religion bashing, atheist bashing, political bashing, Twilight bashing and the other multitude of things that in one form or another end with the suffix "-bashing" tend to get old and fast, which kind of contributes to why I rarely post anymore but still, the community very much has it's moments... they're just kind of overshadowed by some of the idiocy.

As for the "steady stream" I blame Yahtzee. It isn't really his fault, no, more like a side effect. He's just the glowing and beautiful blue light that draws the jackassery in only for them to be fried by the industrial-strength bug-zapper within.

... my metaphors are getting weaker. That's probably a sign that I need to go lie down.

@ Keith: Ah yes, the 1337 crowd... the average "/b/" level random encounter forum troll lacks the ability to plan anything more than roughly six seconds in advance and is generally opposed to any action that might constitute itself as "work", which includes coming over here to the LRR forums to make an account just for the sake of being stupid. After all, coming all the way from there to here is too long of a distance for them to actually travel without either losing interest, becoming distracted or dying from overexertion thanks to an increasingly sedentary lifestyle.

[Genghis Ares]

Hey, does this mean you'll have to be more Gaming related? Since the Escapist is a gaming website and all?

[Metcarfre]

Nope, they maintain complete control of writing etc.

[Genghis Ares]

Hmm, it seems strange that they'd have non-gaming stuff on there, but they do have movie reviews and stuff, so I guess that works.

[Graham]

Hey, does this mean you'll have to be more Gaming related? Since the Escapist is a gaming website and all?

No.
They want us because we are who we are and we make what we make.

They're trying to branch out, and we're part of that. We'll keep doing the same mix of straight-up sketch comedy to gaming content as we always have.

[Genghis Ares]

That's what I figured, I just wasn't sure if they were going that route.

[Frost]

Graham why are you still up?

[Genghis Ares]

If he is like me, he took a long nap to compensate for 20+ hours awake. Damn you Desert Bus and your being interesting!

[Frost]

If he is like me, he took a long nap to compensate for 20+ hours awake. Damn you Desert Bus and your being interesting!

Your telling me dam I watched the hell out of it this year. not as much as year one mind you *shakes fist at work*

[Genghis Ares]

Well this was my first year, and I pretty much did nothing but sleep, eat and Desert Bus.

[It's My Delorean]

Five years from now, we'll all be gathered around the escapist forums, saying; "Man, remember when LRR was an indie group? Then they had to go into the mainstream." And we'll shake our heads, remembering the days of yore...

I kid, I kid. I think this is a great thing for LRR. *Wonders if LRR's popularity will reach critical highs, where the crew memebers will have to fight off more crazy fangirls.*

[TorachiKatashi]

Not as such, no. This is why we've been talking about the upcoming change in format. There will be videos in which we play ourselves, and for you guys they will, in essence, be more commodoreHUSTLE, but in order to avoid alienating the new audience from these videos, they will likely drop the cH branding, and will also likely reference the old series less. It's one of the reasons we've been reluctant to call it "Season 2". there will be more, it just won't be presented quite the same way.

Y'know... I think that's the thing I'm freaking out about most. There's the childish side of me that upon reading that, immediately snapped back in my mind with, "So? Fuck the "new audience." We were here first."

I know that's totally ridiculous, but is anyone else having that feeling so I don't feel like such a crazy person?

I dunno. It seems to me like it would work out a lot better if it could be arraged such that you could still embed the videos over here for the real LRR fans to watch, so that it doesn't ACTUALLY feel like a move, just an expansion.

On the note of ads, what will be the deal with that? 'Cause I'd hate to see LRR videos dirtied up with a bunch of annoying, unskippable (Lol, see what I did there?) ads at the beginning of every video. No faster way to go from quality, heartfelt work to "just another site."

[tak197]

LONG SAPPY POST COMING RIGHT UP!!

First of all, I feel a whole lot better now that we have gotten more information about the changes. Like I said on the Blog, Russ and all the people at the Escapist are really cool, and I look forward to hearing more from them. Also, thank you to Shamus for that post. It's good to hear from someone who has gone through a similar thing and have positive news.

RE: Content, the fact is that the Crew has basically been handed the opportunity they have been working hard for, which is a person or group to hand them a contract saying "keep making videos, we'll pay you them" BECAUSE of the content.

As for the possible influx of cocknobblery from unsavories from the Escapist forums, we are a tight enough community that most douches are told off as such and either change or leave. I wouldn't be too worried about us being overrun by them.

@Kathleen, we are friends that haven't met yet. Though, I feel like we know more about you all than you know about us.

[Genghis Ares]

The Escapist ads usually show up after the actual video, so you shouldn't have a problem there Torachi.

Overall, I don't mind the changes at all. As long as there's link from LRR to it, I'll watch it. And it's great that you guys are essentially moving up. I hate the notion that getting paid for something cheapens it somehow. They are the same people and now they can make videos a little easier.

The forum is the same, maybe with some new people, but the community is the same and the videos should be the same.

[TorachiKatashi]

That's a load off my mind then. I was trying to watch the Purina National Dog Show online today and had to stop halfway through the Hound group (first group) because before every :30 breed video is the same :10 Purina ad and it drove me nuts.

Here's the plan, guys: If, Heaven forbid, we ARE invaded by people from the Escapist forums, we'll have to abandon ship and all move over to an undisclosed new forum that will be distributed by PM. It's brilliant. >8D

[Tim]

Is Escapist going to be linking back to LRR's site on new videos?

Unlikely, but the loadingreadyrun.com title and intro card should be retained.

Actually they will.
Apart from anything else, we will be mentioning LoadingReadyRun for purposes of behind-the-scenes content, and merchandise.

To clarify, Matt was saying that he thought it was unlikely that the Escapist would be linking back to loadingreadyrun.com on new videos.

He was then saying that the LRR title and intro card would be retained, which Graham agreed would be the case.


Just to make sure we don't get all so much confuse, here. : )

[White Flame]

I know that's totally ridiculous, but is anyone else having that feeling so I don't feel like such a crazy person?

Mine is similar, but from a different angle. LRR members seem to have a very self-referential, in-joke style of humor. That's what's naturally emerged from them simply doing what they do, and seems to be part of their humor personality. If they have to take their developed creativity, and then step back and say "Oh, we can't do X, the new audience won't get it", that's an external, forced shift in their style of humor. I can really see that as a bump in the road.

However, if everybody on the LRR team is willing to do that and continue being just as *naturally* creative within those parameters as they were in pre-Escapist mode, instead of having to force out humor, then by all means, rock on. I'm sure we'll still see lots of easter-egg references for the old-timers, and continuations of existing plots/characters/memes that the new audience will pick up on.

edit: Re-reading this it sounds a little critical, so let me just say that I'm very happy for LRR landing this deal, and do think that they'll be just as good and getting better.