The Escapist (magazine)
The Escapist (formerly known as Escapist Magazine) is an American video game website and online magazine. First published as a weekly online magazine by Themis Media on July 12, 2005, "The Escapist" eventually pivoted to a traditional web journalism format and became well known for a roster of popular video series. In 2018, "Escapist Magazine" launched Volume Two, a rehauled website in conjunction with its purchase by Enthusiast Gaming, which also owns Destructoid. The site name reverted to "The Escapist" in April 2020. History. 2005–2011: Founding and popularity. "The Escapist" was conceived as a PDF-format magazine  by Themis Media, whose president Alexander Macris had previously found success with its sister site WarCry Network. Editor-in-chief Julianne Greer had not been involved in the gaming industry before "The Escapist", and had a background in marketing and new media. The premier issue featured pieces from well-known gaming-community authors including Jerry Holkins, Kieron Gillen, and John Scott Tynes. Following issues included work by Tom Chick, Allen Varney, Jim Rossignol and other top writers from in and outside the game industry, including a four-part piece by leading game designer Warren Spector. According to Themis, by late  2006 the website had 150,000 monthly readers. The website MMORPG.com noted that the webzine had become the "flagship brand" for Themis, which runs other websites and ventures related to the gaming industry, with the reputation of "a widely read and highly respected form of game journalism" and "paying writers top dollar". On July 9, 2007, the site relaunched with a completely new design, which also saw the end of the weekly PDF issues and a shift in layout to one more similar to other websites. Although the weekly topic and publish schedule was retained, new regular content additions included more  game reviews, editorial articles, conference coverage, and a relaunch of Shoot Club by Tom Chick. The most notable addition to the content lineup was "Zero Punctuation", a weekly animated review series that led to a four-fold increase in web traffic. Within the next four years, "The Escapist" contracted several creators including LoadingReadyRun, Miracle of Sound, and Bob "MovieBob" Chipman, as well as helping launch "Extra Credits" as a rebrand of its creators' videos. In 2010, "The Escapist" launched a membership service called the Publisher's Club which for $20 a year removed advertisements from the site, conferred forum  benefits and entry into special contests. 2011–2018: Dispute and decline. Around the end of July 2011, there was a dispute between "The Escapist" and James Portnow, the producer of "Extra Credits". After not being paid for months, the "Extra Credits" team needed to pay for surgery for their artist, Allison Theus. They began a charity fund on RocketHub, separate from "The Escapist", and received substantially more money than was necessary for Theus's surgery. They planned to use this extra money to create a game publishing label, where the revenue would go directly into funding subsequent projects. Alexander Macris, owner  and co-founder of The Escapist, stated the money should have been used to create more episodes of "Extra Credits" for "The Escapist" and to compensate Themis Media for donation incentives, such as premium memberships and T-shirts. During the dispute, a number of other contracted creators spoke out in support of "Extra Credits", relaying similar stories of mistreatment by the management. Among them were MovieBob, Jim Sterling, LoadingReadyRun, and the creators of "No Right Answer". Later, those creators would also break ties with "The Escapist", leaving Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw as the sole contracted creator by 2017. As a result , "Extra Credits" broke ties with "The Escapist", moving to Penny Arcade and later becoming independent. Macris would later become involved with the sale of Themis Media to Alloy Digital, as well as supporting the Gamergate controversy in 2014 by openly adopting stricter policies. On November 15, 2012, it was announced that Themis Media had been acquired by Alloy Digital for an undisclosed sum. For a few years afterwards, Alloy cross-promoted Smosh Games on "The Escapist". In 2014, Alloy Digital merged with Break Media to form Defy Media, with a consolidated portfolio that did not mention "The Escapist". On January  21, 2015, Defy Media announced it was cutting staff across a portfolio of its main sites including The Escapist, GameTrailers and GameFront. In 2016, The Escapist laid off a 'number of employees' and shuttered its main office in Durham, North Carolina leaving the website's main operation out of Seattle. By late 2017, the site was reduced to Croshaw, a small streaming team and the editor-in-chief with the closure of the site seeming imminent as the community volunteers were the only contributors to the site besides Croshaw. 2018–present: Relaunch. In July 2018, "The Escapist" was purchased by  Enthusiast Gaming, owner of Destructoid, and a relaunch was announced with former editor-in-chief Russ Pitts at the helm, which came into effect September 2018 and the website name changed to "Escapist Magazine Volume Two". "The Big Picture", produced by MovieBob, was the first series to be officially relaunched alongside the continued "Zero Punctuation". Following a Twitter exchange with Zoë Quinn over a now-deleted article about Gamergate, Russ Pitts announced he would be taking a "voluntary leave of absence" from "The Escapist" in February 2019. Nick Calandra, who joined the site in 2019 as the Managing Director of  Video, replaced Pitts as Editor-in-Chief in July 2019. In April 2020, the site name reverted to "The Escapist". The site also launched "The Escapist +", which allows readers to view the site without advertisements. Management under Calandra saw a surge in original content as the site transitioned from a gaming news focused site to a more gaming commentary based site. In October 2020, Bob Chipman's contract with The Escapist was not renewed. Later in October, the Escapist Movies YouTube channel was relaunched. In April 2021, the Escapist Plays YouTube Channel was relaunched as "The Escapist Live". In  May 2021, the Escapist Movies YouTube channel merges with the main Escapist YouTube channel. Hosted content. "The Escapist" has hosted a number of ongoing video series, columns and streams, most of which pertain to video games, although they have expanded to other aspects of geek culture. Content is dispersed across their site, YouTube channels, and Twitch channel. Their podcasts can be found across YouTube, SoundCloud, Spotify, Google Podcasts and Apple Podcasts. Current series. Section::::"Zero Punctuation". "Zero Punctuation" is a weekly video game review series created by Croshaw. Every Wednesday, Croshaw plays an animated caricature of himself who doesn't stop  speaking for any punctuation, hence the name of the series. It has an accompanying livestream series, Post-ZP. Section::::"Slightly Something Else". "Slightly Something Else", formerly "Slightly Civil War", is a live podcast starring Croshaw, Jack Packard and Marty Sliva discussing general video game topics streamed every Tuesday on the Escapist YouTube Channel. Adventure Is Nigh! "Adventure Is Nigh!" is a video series starring Packard, Croshaw, KC Nwosu, Amy Campbell and Jesse Galena, it is an animated Dungeons & Dragons campaign released every Thursday fortnight. Extra Punctuation. "Extra Punctuation" is a video series by Croshaw expanding on broader thoughts of the video  game industry every Thursday fortnight. Section::::"Review in 3 Minutes". "Review in 3 Minutes" are short review videos on recent video games, TV shows and films with contributors KC Nwosu, Amy Campbell, Jesse Galena, Will Cruz, Marty Sliva and Elise Avery for the video game segments and Darren Mooney for the TV and film side. The videos are released on their review embargoes. Section::::"In the Frame". "In the Frame" is a biweekly video series/column by Mooney that focuses on TV shows and movies where he examines relevant topics relating to pop-culture. Section::::"The Escapist Show". "The Escapist Show" is a  video series/podcast hosted by Nick Calandra and Packard, where they discuss the games they have been playing and the week's video game-related topics every Sunday. Occasionally, a guest will be brought on for the show or for a separate interview video. Industry Interviews. "Industry Interviews" is a video interview series hosted by Calandra as an extension of the Escapist Show, it features rotating guests from the video game industry to discuss upcoming projects and related topics. The Anatomy. "The Anatomy" is a video series by JM8 taking a deeper look into game design principles of a specific  video game and how they work every Monday fortnight. Section::::"Ask the Creators". "Ask the Creators" is a monthly video series where The Escapist team answer audience-submitted questions released on The Escapist YouTube channel. Section::::"Gameumentary". "Gameumentary" is a documentary/interview series focusing on video game development and the people behind the production of video games. It was founded in January 2017 by Calandra and acquired by "Escapist"s parent company Enthusiast Gaming in October 2018. All "Gameumentary" content was moved under "Escapist" in July 2019 after Calandra's promotion to Managing Editor of Video. Section::::"Yahtzee's Dev Diary". "Yahtzee's Dev  Diary" is a video series by Croshaw where he examines and gives his insights on game design, writing and general creativity every Tuesday fortnight. For season one, he developed 12 games within 12 months. For season two, he began development on "Starstruck Vagabond". Section::::"A Marvelous Escape". "A Marvelous Escape" is a weekly video series hosted by Campbell, Mooney, and Nwosu where they discuss the latest Marvel shows and film. Section::::"Livestreaming". The Escapist has multiple weekly series streamed live across YouTube and Twitch. Section::::"The Takeaway". "The Takeaway" is a weekly column by Sliva analyzing the latest news in the games industry . Breakout. Breakout is a weekly freeform podcast hosted by Sliva, Nwosu and Calandra discussing pop culture and craft beers. Section::::"Escape from the Law". "Escape from the Law" is a fortnightly column by Adam Adler discussing topics in geek culture from a legal perspective. Area of Effect. "Area of Effect" is a weekly column by Chris McMullen analyzing specific moments in video games and their significance. New Narrative. "New Narrative" is a column by Andrei Pechalin analyzing video game design decisions every Wednesday fortnight. The Stuff of Legends. "The Stuff of Legends" is a column by Elijah Beahm analyzing the deeper , more obscure lore of popular franchises every Saturday fortnight. March Mayhem: Developer's Showdown. "March Mayhem: Developer's Showdown" (commonly referred to as "March Mayhem" or simply "MM") was an annual event hosted by "The Escapist" to determine the most popular video game developer in the industry. The event was first introduced in 2008 and ran until 2015. It takes the form of a series of opinion polls, split into four divisions (North, South, East and West) each consisting of 16 developers. In each round, developers are eliminated down to two, who then compete in the grand final. The event  was criticised by many site members due to the site's policy of allowing developers to advertise on their own websites and games in order to gain votes. Further criticism ensued in 2010 when "Zynga" was permitted to enter the competition despite multiple controversies surrounding the business practices of the company and debates whether Facebook applications could be considered games. There was also significant controversy over the 2011 result, considering winner Mojang had not officially released a game as of March 2011. As a result of this criticism and a generally negative opinion of the contest by Escapist users, March  Mayhem did not take place in 2013, but was then revived in 2014 in much the same format, albeit with greater community input in the initial 16 developers chosen. Section::::"The Escapist Games Showcase". "The Escapist Indie Showcase" was held from June 11–14, 2020 focusing on indie games. The main showcase video was aired first on June 11 and was akin to a Nintendo Direct in format as well as featuring messages from the developers behind the games. Streams were held after the showcase where "The Escapist" team played some of the games while interviewing their developers live. They partnered with  GOG for the event. "The Escapist Games Showcase" was held from November 10–12, 2020, as part of the digital EGLX event. Awards. In May 2008, "The Escapist" won the Webby Award and 2008 People's Choice Award for Best Video-Game Related Website. "The Escapist" also won this award in 2009 after a protracted voting battle between the members of "The Escapist" and the website GameSpot. In 2011 "The Escapist" again won three Webby Awards: Best Games-Related Website, People's Voice Best Games-Related Website and People's Voice Best Lifestyle Website. "The Escapist" also received a Mashable Open  Web Award for Best Online Magazine in 2009 and was named one of the 50 Best Websites by "Time" magazine in 2011.