What has happened to LRR?

[The Former Cake]

Hi people. I used to be a fairly active member on this forum, and a regular LRR watcher. I recently rediscovered my season 4 DVD (signed by the cast) and came to the site, only to discover that LRR was not making sketches any more? In 7500 words or less, what has happened to the sketches? Obviously, content is still being made, but no sketches.

[AdmiralMemo]

Instead of words, will several links suffice? 2014 was the 11th and Final year of LRR Sketches on a regular basis, funded by the KickStarter. They said they may do sketches in the future, but no commitment.

LoadingReadyRun KickStarter (includes video explaining everything)

LRR KickStarter Video

LRR KickStarter End Countdown Video

And, looking forward to the future, now that the YRR of LRR is over, the Patreon is what keeps things funded going forward.
The Patreon has already funded 6 commodoreHUSTLE sketches per year, Friday Nights comes out monthly, and there are 2 Crapshots per week, so LRR sketch-style humor continues on.

[Jamfalcon]

Welcome back! Really long story short, they did a Kickstarter to fund a final season, it was very successful, and at the end of 2015, they released their final sketch. The video there will explain the reasoning better than I can. And now we have a whole bunch of different, non-sketch content, as well as a bi-weekly series of super short sketches, Crapshots.

Edit: ninja'd by a better description from Memo, oopsie.

[Master Gunner]

Wait, Cake?
Welcome back, man!

But yeah, they covered it. As LRR started branching out into other stuff, the time investment required by the sketches wasn't matching the return from them, so they decided to focus on new things and retire the weekly sketches.

[King Kool]

Cake?

Now that's a name I haven't heard in a long time...

Remember that exploding cake avatar I made for y'all? I wonder if I have a copy of that somewhere.

[The Former Cake]

I see. Thanks for the info, guys. I guess there comes a time when you just need to move on with life, and there is no way I could do something for 11 years. Forum seems kinda dead these days. Used to be booming.

[Elomin Sha]

Hi cake.

[Dutch guy]

Hi there Cake!
I think you caught the forums in a quieter time. It kind of fluctuates. There's still a very active core group.

[Merrymaker_Mortalis]

I didn't realise the forums were dead.

I like quite forums, I don't feel swamped by all the peoples. As someone who has social anxiety, it suites me fine.

[Deedles]

Yeah, same here, but it's as Dutch Guy said, it comes in waves. Sometimes it's more quiet and other times there's more activity.

[RedNightmare]

I also think the Twitch chatroom for the streams has given us an outlet to talk about more casual things in a more direct way.

[empath]

CAKE!!!

As others have said, things have...evolved somewhat - due to the MASSIVE amount of streaming LRR is doing, the twitch stream chat channel attracts a lot of the more immediate and short-term or ephemeral discussion.

[Timelady]

Cake! Y'know, it's weird, I was just thinking about you a day or so ago and wondering how you were doing. (You probably don't even remember me; I was just starting out on these forums when you left.) How ARE you?

[The Former Cake]

I do remember all of you that were here when I was.

A lot has changed in... 5.5 years since I left? Geez. It didn't seem that long ago. The answer to the question "how are you" is this. I'm doing. I'm currently searching for something that's missing in my life, and I have experienced a lot of new things in that search, but there is still something missing. And if I'm being honest with myself, it's probably that I'm ready to start a family of my own.

[2stepz]

Hey... I need to talk to you, dude. I still owe you a pie. Let me know next time you're in Kidder.

ETA: HUGE HUGS. Missed you, man.

[Gap Filler]

Holy... Cake! Having joined (and to a degree drifted off) in the time you've been away might I say it's a pleasure to finally meet you.

[The Former Cake]

2stepz, I can't reply to you because you disabled PMs.

[Deedles]

Funny coincidence; The two forums I've hung around on the most in my internet faring time both had guys called Cake who disappeared for a while.

And that random trivia aside... Welcome back, Cake! Whenever I've seen you mentioned it's only been good things. ^^

[The Former Cake]

Welcome back, Cake! Whenever I've seen you mentioned it's only been good things. ^^

Thanks, but when/why would I have been mentioned?

[Jamfalcon]

I know I remember seeing lots of your posts in the early pages of older threads, old askLRRs, that sort of thing.

[2stepz]

... more frequently than you would think... there have been lot of 'way back when...' discussions. :p A lot of "wonder where xxxx is now" discussions... you were #GoneButNotForgotten

[AdmiralMemo]

So... I think I just got into the LRR community at the time you were leaving, so welcome back!

[Deedles]

Welcome back, Cake! Whenever I've seen you mentioned it's only been good things. ^^

Thanks, but when/why would I have been mentioned?

... more frequently than you would think... there have been lot of 'way back when...' discussions. :p A lot of "wonder where xxxx is now" discussions... you were #GoneButNotForgotten

Yeah, 2Stepz pretty much answered that.

[TStodden]

As Memo & others have noted...

* LRR staff has discontinued the weekly sketches at the end of 2014 (the "YRR of LRR" that was Kickstarted around Oct, 2013) -- This was mostly to help focus towards more "fiscally viable" projects (so they can keep paying the bills) & focus on other existing projects... from what I can tell.

* Loading Ready Live (aka LRL -- http://www.twitch.tv/LoadingReadyRun ) has become a big stomping ground for weekday afternoons with various shows with the LRR staff. You can find a fair number of the runners there (~150 - 300 on average... pushing 1,000 on popular titles & MtG streams) talking about the game being played & other general stuff.

* Unskippable has ended as of 04/01/2015 -- As noted in the site posts, LRR has broken away from The Escapist as they were not offering enough to warrant the continued productions (due to decreased general viewership). With the rights to the series owned by The Escapist, they had to let it go.

* Checkpoint (formerly on PATV) & Feed Dump (formerly on The Escapist) are now on LRR's YouTube page & site -- PATV was discontinued at the end of 2013 as an effort to downscale Penny Arcade's site & content to something more managable. LRR continued it (with the YRR of LRR) themselves & is recorded LIVE via Twitch every Monday afternoon as "Checkpoint Plus", which includes some community discussion after recording. The edit show is uploaded to YouTube that evening.

* Majority of LRR content is NOW funded by "Viewers Like YOU!" (//end the PBS shtick) via Patreon. -- There's plenty of links around if you want to contribute.

That's the gist of the major changes... Some of the minor changes (from what I'm sensing / seeing) are...

* Kathleen has officially(?) taken over as host of Feed Dump. -- Mostly due to work schedules, but Graham seems "guest hosting" about once a season (~4 times / year).

* Ian Horner & Heather Dery (Beej's wife) has become "regulars" to LRR staff -- There's be increased frequency in show / sketch appearances & both have their own shows on LRL.

* Jer (& by extension Tally) are leaving as they're moving (mostly due to Jer's work) -- While they won't be around for show appearances, they'll still be around for Desert Bus.

"Temple of the Lava Bears" (viewable on LLR's YouTube Page) can be consider Jer's final "official" performance, which is an excellent watch. The T-Shirt should be hitting the store soon (I think).

* Featherweight_ is the official artist / cartoonist for LRR with his blog "Stolen Jokes" (see site for linkage) -- He's done various artwork for the group on various projects (especially "Temple of the Lava Bears")


There's probably some stuff I'm missing (as I'm still "newbish" by comparison to others), but others can fill in those gaps.

[Elomin Sha]

Oh yeah, you may not know.
Graham and Kathleen are married.
Tally and Jer are married.
James and Ashley are married/getting married.