The Escapist
is an online gaming/geek lifestyle magazine. It was launched in 2005, but the site truly took off when it began hosting video content with its recruitment of Yahtzee Croshaw's Zero Punctuation in 2007. The site has an active forum community and pulls in writers and columnists for all sorts of op-eds in its free, weekly "features", but most tropers will know the site for one of its hosted series.
Escapist-produced works with pages on this wiki included:
- Adventure Is Nigh
- Apocalypse Lane
- Critical Miss
- Cold Take
- Doomsday Arcade
- Doraleous & Associates
- Extra Credits
- Firefilm's series:
- No Right Answer
- Media Sandwich
- Good Bad Flicks
- Jimquisition
- Judging By The Cover
- LoadingReadyRun
- Moviebob
- Escape to the Movies
- The Big Picture
- Miracle of Sound
- Movie Defense Force
- Rebecca Mayes Muses
- There Will Be Brawl
- Unforgotten Realms
- Zero Punctuation
- Extra Punctuation
The large number of creative people on the Escapist's payroll often leads to cooperation, guest appearances, and in-jokes, detailed in the pages above. It can generally be assumed that anyone who makes content for the Escapist has met or spoken with most of the creators who shared their tenure. That being said, there is not a unified "office" for this freelance work, which is spread over the English-speaking world.
In October 2017, the Escapist lost all creative staff except Yahtzee, and was generally considered by remaining editorial staff to be on its death bed, with the weekly release of Zero Punctuation essentially being the only thing keeping the lights on. This all changed in mid-2018, when one of the former leads of the site, Russ Pitts, recovered full rights to it, instated himself as chief-in-editor and sought to bring back some of the former shows and staff such as Moviebob and Critical Miss. Pitts would eventually step back as chief-in-editor in February 2019, ostensibly temporarily, although he would be permanently replaced in the role by Managing Director of Video, Nick Calandra in November of the same year. Management under Calandra saw a surge in original content as the site transitioned from a gaming news focus to gaming commentary.
In September 2022, the Escapist's owners, Enthusiast Gaming, would sell the site to Gamurs Group. Then, in November 2023, Calandra was suddenly fired by Gamurs. According to Calandra, Gamurs' reasoning for ousting him was due to "not achieving goals", but without ever specifying what these "goals" where supposed to be. With Calandra's firing, a mass exodus from the site took place, with almost every creator on Escapist resigning in solidarity, this time including Yahtzee, splitting off to form an employee-owned outlet, Second Wind, leaving the Escapist's future in deep uncertainty. On November 21, 2023, the remaining Escapist staff posted the final five videos from the creators who left the website two weeks earliernote , which were all created before the mass resignation, and December 2023 saw the yearly compilation of Zero Punctuation episodes.
2024 would be quiet from The Escapist for the first three months, until an entirely new video was published under their label, seemingly indicating that they will continue to post more content.
