This is a subject of some kind..

[Bananafish]

Ad revenue is going to go downhill on the Escapist.

The companies paying for the ads will have to be made aware that premium members will not be seeing their ads. So, they'll be less willing to pay the same prices they are when the ads are no longer being seen by as many people.

And I can see that turning into even bigger issues. Either even more ads on the site to make up for the lost revenue, or even more exclusive content for membership status.

Here's a p decent article on things like adblocking and revenue for websites, essentially

There is an oft-stated misconception that if a user never clicks on ads, then blocking them won't hurt a site financially. This is wrong. Most sites, at least sites the size of ours, are paid on a per view basis. If you have an ad blocker running, and you load 10 pages on the site, you consume resources from us (bandwidth being only one of them), but provide us with no revenue. Because we are a technology site, we have a very large base of ad blockers.

...

My argument is simple: blocking ads can be devastating to the sites you love. I am not making an argument that blocking ads is a form of stealing, or is immoral, or unethical, or makes someone the son of the devil. It can result in people losing their jobs, it can result in less content on any given site, and it definitely can affect the quality of content. It can also put sites into a real advertising death spin. As ad revenues go down, many sites are lured into running advertising of a truly questionable nature. We've all seen it happen.

You should check out the whole thing, but it doesn't make me surprised that websites are adding more things like this, ad revenue is becoming increasingly unreliable. I think browsers like Chrome actually allow ads or popups to open but they just don't show them, whereas I believe Firefox just blocks them. The difference being that Chrome wastes more bandwith from the site by allowing it to open.

e:

People are bombarded daily with advertisements that they don't have control over, it's practically unavoidable but on the internet you do have some form of control and people shouldn't be begrudged for using it. It's entirely fair, some ads or popups can have things like spyware as well but I allow it on websites that I frequent because it helps them out so w.e

[Dubious_wolf]

Awe the runners aren't a "thing " anymore?
I kinda wanted to become a member...like metcarfre said most magazines you pay for. This doesn't really suprise me. I've always been curious why they didn't have something like this.

[Metcarfre]

Frankly I think it speaks to a much larger problem with the internet; many people believe everything should be free, always. I'm not about to get into specifics, here, but another fun fact; many people are idiots.

[Arius]

Ad revenue is going to go downhill on the Escapist.

The companies paying for the ads will have to be made aware that premium members will not be seeing their ads. So, they'll be less willing to pay the same prices they are when the ads are no longer being seen by as many people.

And I can see that turning into even bigger issues. Either even more ads on the site to make up for the lost revenue, or even more exclusive content for membership status.

Here's a p decent article on things like adblocking and revenue for websites, essentially

There is an oft-stated misconception that if a user never clicks on ads, then blocking them won't hurt a site financially. This is wrong. Most sites, at least sites the size of ours, are paid on a per view basis. If you have an ad blocker running, and you load 10 pages on the site, you consume resources from us (bandwidth being only one of them), but provide us with no revenue. Because we are a technology site, we have a very large base of ad blockers.

...

My argument is simple: blocking ads can be devastating to the sites you love. I am not making an argument that blocking ads is a form of stealing, or is immoral, or unethical, or makes someone the son of the devil. It can result in people losing their jobs, it can result in less content on any given site, and it definitely can affect the quality of content. It can also put sites into a real advertising death spin. As ad revenues go down, many sites are lured into running advertising of a truly questionable nature. We've all seen it happen.

You should check out the whole thing, but it doesn't make me surprised that websites are adding more things like this, ad revenue is becoming increasingly unreliable. I think browsers like Chrome actually allow ads or popups to open but they just don't show them, whereas I believe Firefox just blocks them. The difference being that Chrome wastes more bandwith from the site by allowing it to open.

e:

People are bombarded daily with advertisements that they don't have control over, it's practically unavoidable but on the internet you do have some form of control and people shouldn't be begrudged for using it. It's entirely fair, some ads or popups can have things like spyware as well but I allow it on websites that I frequent because it helps them out so w.e

Yes, but them taking the ad revenue out of the equation entirely will not exactly help.

[MattAn]

You -buy- magazines at a shop. The Escapist is an online community with videos and such. That's a tad bit silly to compare a physical magazine to a website/forum..

[Master Gunner]

They still have costs though, in terms of hosting, bandwidth, and paying staff and contributors. Those costs have to be covered somehow, and it's possible ads aren't doing it. Thanks to economies of scale and several other factors, Youtube may be able to make a profit off of it's ad revenue while serving up HD (which takes up significantly more bandwidth and storage space), but the Escapist may not be able to do that. So, they put in a barrier to reduce the bandwidth spent and ensuring they'll be making a profit on serving those videos.

[Ed.]

the thing that bugs me is the HD video that's iritated me but not enough to do more than voice my opinion here and there i wont be paying

the escapist staff did word alot of stuff badly though i can see why people raged for example

User: is standard quality going to be lowered
admin: i'm not going to re encode all the vids to lower quality

kind of obvious how he's going to take that looks like a dodge a simple no it will stay the same would have been better.

ENN and unskipable extras are included in the LRRcast (still waiting :p) and in loading time/ on the run so surely that is still going to be over here.

[Metcarfre]

Is it content?

Do people have to produce it?

Do those people, in turn, require sustenance?

Or would you prefer Robo to produce the content?

[Arius]

Or would you prefer Robo to produce the content?

Do you not know us?

[Kara]

Well, I can totally get why some people are getting so pissed about this. To people who have said it will probably grow into more content that will become invisible in order to gain more membership, I agree with you. It'll be a growing thing, and it'll be endlessly irritating for those that have great interest in The Escapist but don't want to pay money or don't have the money to spend on internetz.

Thankfully for me, I really just go there for LRR, and I don't tend to watch Unskippable or ENN that much, so losing a bit of behind the scenes content won't be the death of me. Essentially my complete disinterest in most of the work done at The Escapist is my saving grace here. I am somewhat peeved by the low quality sustaining, as we'd been told time and time again when all of the talk of LRR going to The Escapist started that everyone was in talks to try to fix all of the quality issues. This is only a shame because it basically means I'm not going to see another LRR video in high quality any time in the even relatively near future.
But meh. I might care more if I gave two shits about The Escapist community.

[Keab42]

The way I see it is this, most of the LRR archives are in low quality anyway, we've been watching them in that quality since January so it's not really any skin off my nose.

I'll simply do as other people have suggested and wait until the eventual DVD release for my HQ LRR fix, because then I know where my money's going. Right now this does little to change my interaction with the Escapist site.

The only thing I am surprised by is that they didn't give the crew any hint that this was going to happen. I would have thought they'd have at least let their contributors know what the deal was going to be.

On seeing this announcement I did half wonder if that was the substantial news that Matt promised us on the blog. I guess not if you guys have only just found out about it.

[Angnor]

You -buy- magazines at a shop. The Escapist is an online community with videos and such. That's a tad bit silly to compare a physical magazine to a website/forum..

How so? Just because you said so? Because you can hold the magazine in your hands? The physical differences between having a magazine in your hands and needing a computer and internet connection to view a website are the least relevant parts of any comparison.

You have authors of one form or another providing content to an audience, and the authors, owners, editors, etc. are payed for their efforts in part by advertisement and in part from those who purchase the magazine itself (or premium membership).

And calling it an online community is inaccurate. The Escapist is a website that provides various forms of entertainment (articles, videos, etc...) which also has a forum community attached to it. I don't say this to disparage the community itself, but to point out that the community would not exist if not for the content.

[epocalypse]

their sample video really does prove how ironic this move is, as even some of the best escapist series gain NOTHING in HQ. The only one which I could really notice a difference in was... you guessed it, ENN.

[Machalllewis]

So, is the behind the scenes stuff gonna be content that otherwise wouldn't have been shown? Like stuff they wouldn't have even bothered filming or were unable to film due to lack of cash? Or is it gonna be like stuff thats created anyways? Like the outtakes from Doomsday Arcade?

I'm gonna withold judgement until I see it implemented, I may or may not subscribe depending on whether I have the petty cash at the time. But trust me, LRR Dvds are higher on my list than this.

Yeah I'm not gonna pretend to freak out like I did over Blue Monday. Or maybe I am. THE DAY THE ESCAPIST WENT CAPITALIST! OH GOD! CORPORATE WHORES!THEY SUCK YOU DRY FOR MONEY!

Yeah I'm not really feeling it.

[Kathleen]

Phailhaus and Loading Times will still be here, and free
You don't lose anything if you don't subscribe
My Escapist Forum title is now Space Cowboy.

I see no problem with this. SPACE COWBOY.

SPACE.
COWBOY.

Yessssssssssssssssssssssssssssss. Bebop 4eva!

[MotorWaffle]

I see no problem with it either. I once went by "The Gangster of Love". There was that time I was Maurice though...

[MattAn]

Phailhaus and Loading Times will still be here, and free
You don't lose anything if you don't subscribe
My Escapist Forum title is now Space Cowboy.

I see no problem with this. SPACE COWBOY.

SPACE.
COWBOY.

Yessssssssssssssssssssssssssssss. Bebop 4eva!

I wasn't worried about the Phail and Loading Time. I knew they were already here.. It's the other behind-the-scenes stuff for other LRRries (LRR series.. Heh.. Hehehe... Uh..) that I'm more concerned about.

However, in other news.. SPACE COWBOY!... Wait, you're a girl right? Not Cowgirl then? xD

[Kathleen]

their sample video really does prove how ironic this move is, as even some of the best escapist series gain NOTHING in HQ. The only one which I could really notice a difference in was... you guessed it, ENN.

That's because we're HD ninjas.

The thing is, I look awful in HD. Low res video was my savior. Now all those escapist people will know I'm not the ravishing creature they imagine me to be. Crap.

[MattAn]

their sample video really does prove how ironic this move is, as even some of the best escapist series gain NOTHING in HQ. The only one which I could really notice a difference in was... you guessed it, ENN.

That's because we're HD ninjas.

The thing is, I look amazing in HD. High res video will be epic. Now all those escapist people will know I'm totally the ravishing creature they imagine me to be. Crap.

Um.. Fixed? I think?

[Dubious_wolf]

Just to demonstrate.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/
yes that is what it is called.
This is akin to an actual magazine it has articles, editors, columnists, and all the other fiddly bits that go with a typical printed media. the difference?
It's on the interwebs. they still have to pay their contributors.
If it wasn't a magazine that made money they could not pay those contributors.
contributors much like LoadingReadyRun.
If you don't want to pay for it then it's simple... don't.
The way I read it the site will remain largely the same to the average viewer.

So untie your panties and chill.
All you have to do is go in watch LRR, unskippable, and ENN and then turn around and trot right back out. and then come over here for goodies and extras.

speaking of... just for the sake of it....
WHERE"S THE PODCAST‽‽‽
/joke

The thing is, I look awful in HD. Low res video was my savior. Now all those escapist people will know I'm not the ravishing creature they imagine me to be. Crap.

Kathleen that is a dirty dirty lie and you know it.

[Ed.]

their sample video really does prove how ironic this move is, as even some of the best escapist series gain NOTHING in HQ. The only one which I could really notice a difference in was... you guessed it, ENN.

That's because we're HD ninjas.

The thing is, I look awful in HD. Low res video was my savior. Now all those escapist people will know I'm not the ravishing creature they imagine me to be. Crap.

I'll bet you £10 they still go nuts over the slightest bit of cleavage

ENN is staying part of on the run right I guess that needs tim to answer.

[Mister Fiend]

Phailhaus and Loading Times will still be here, and free
You don't lose anything if you don't subscribe
My Escapist Forum title is now Space Cowboy.

I see no problem with this. SPACE COWBOY.

SPACE.
COWBOY.

Yessssssssssssssssssssssssssssss. Bebop 4eva!

Some people call Maurice. I am now one of them.
MAURICE

[Machalllewis]

Yeah it is a business I guess. I'd like to have everything for free always but thats not how life works and why should the internet be any different? We're kinda moving away from the money hating, can't stop the signal, everything should be free ways of old internet (like 5 years ago...) and becoming more mainstream, more corporate and less illegal all round.

Ah wells what can ya do? Start an internet petition? Cos you know they're always so effective.

[Dubious_wolf]

Phailhaus and Loading Times will still be here, and free
You don't lose anything if you don't subscribe
My Escapist Forum title is now Space Cowboy.

I see no problem with this. SPACE COWBOY.

SPACE.
COWBOY.

Yessssssssssssssssssssssssssssss. Bebop 4eva!

This this so damn much
+ fucking 1

[MattAn]

Just to demonstrate.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/
yes that is what it is called.
This is akin to an actual magazine it has articles, editors, columnists, and all the other fiddly bits that go with a typical printed media. the difference?
It's on the interwebs. they still have to pay their contributors.
If it wasn't a magazine that made money they could not pay those contributors.

"It certainly is a good idea, the benifits arn't entirely *OMG I NEED THAT NOWWWW!* but its primarily for people who just want to support their local gunfighter... uh i mean favorite internet gaming site!"

Quoted from a recent poster in the publisher's club thread.

Internet gaming website. It happens to be called The Escapist Magazine but there are many other internet gaming sites who are much like The Escapist. It's just the name they happened to choose.

Justifying a pay service when there's things (gimmicks) like custom titles, high quality video (which, might I add, GameTrailers doesn't charge for, just as a note).

If it was mainly behind-the-scenes content, I wouldn't care much. But high quality video, which is what the highest demand has been FOR AGES, plus what happened with the quality of LRR's videos.. Many a gaming website with HD quality videos are free, but they gain profit in much better and not at all cheesy and nasty marketing ploys.