Yahtzee Croshaw (Zero Punctuation, Fully Ramblomatic)

And apparently Russ Pitts now has to deal with a libel lawsuit because former contributors were not happy about him insinuating that they pandered to Neo-Nazis. :/

Looks like they asked for a retraction and didn't get one so they're pushing a libel lawsuit. He probably should have just kept out of the drama instead of stirring this up just as the Escapist is getting back on its feet.

Seems like libel would be a tough sell, since the statement must be proven to be untrue, and this is more like a matter of opinion. Insinuation is not the same thing as an overt statement, and hard to demonstrate as an unambiguous lie. It seems more likely that the threat of a suit is intended to bring about a settlement rather than go to court and win damages.

Looking at the situation objectively, it may not be the best idea to piss off your former contributors while trying to rebuild your brand unless they are so toxic that you want nothing to do with them ever again. Even then, it gives you a black mark when trying to recruit new talent.

Edited by Fighteer on Sep 18th 2018 at 9:07:46 AM

UK libel laws have traditionally been pretty harsh on the accused (I think the burden of evidence is lower than is normal in most countries). I'm not sure if that's changed in recent years though.

Honestly with the situation so tenuous and the Escapist basically being salvaged by seemingly the fickle whims of fate, I wouldn't have risked such a... robust... speech.

(not to mention I can't imagine any of the previous contributors saying anything dumber than what the rehired-by-the-new-staff Movie Bob has said over the course of his twitter career).

See, I read his statement as applying to the forums and their moderation, not the contributors.

Edited by Fighteer on Sep 18th 2018 at 12:54:38 PM

People probably took offense to statements like this:

If the shoe fits...?

I'd argue that it didn't fit at all, and it certainly didn't fit for everyone; the guy preparing the lawsuit in particular is someone it didn't apply to, and this is a clear case of rash words potentially causing massive damage to someone only tangentally linked to the situation.

This is the statement from the guy suing:

https://medium.com/@Robert.B.Marks/official-statement-regarding-legal-action-vs-enthusiast-gaming-re-russ-pitts-and-the-escapist-323651be04e2

Spider-Man. He liked bits of it.

I lost it at the Giant-Size Man-Thing reference.

I've been watching a let's play of it, and could see where he was coming from broadly - the main story and everything connected to the campaign is good (forced stealth sections aside) - it's the Ubipadding that kind of drags it down. Though the combat looks really nice, and if I had a PS 4 I would definitely get it.

Funnily enough, the guy I watched knew absolutely jack shit about Spiderman -absolutely nothing- and was gobsmacked when Otto turned evil... so there's that. Was incredibly fun to watch his reaction.

I didn't mind the stealth sections. The pre-alerted reinforcements were annoying though.

The Spiderman stealth things, yeah, but I'm thinking of the MJ stealth sections (compounded by this MJ being an irresponsible idiot).

We didn't discuss last week's Escapist video (and this week's YouTube one), Shenmue.

Still on a retro gaming kick, Yahtzee wanted to see what was so great about the original that it merited sequels. His conclusion: not much.

But it has duck racing! And historically accurate weather!

Be curious to see if he does the sequel. It's loads better in terms of pacing, what with being able to save anywhere, fast-forward time, a plot that's less "Do you remember what happened on the day that it snowed?"-y, and Hong Kong in general has a lot more to do.

... oh god he would hate the final disc (in the Dreamcast version) so much. Ahhhhh. I want him to play it.

I like how he pronounces it: "Shen-moo", with the "oo" drawn out and drawled a bit.

It's a callback/overcompensation for the fact that in previous videos he called the game "Shen-moo-ee."

Edited by Larkmarn on Sep 20th 2018 at 4:28:53 AM

Would that not have been correct? Vowels do not combine according to English rules in most East Asian languages.

Obviously, but Yahtzee has repeatedly shown contempt for people who slavishly use Japanese pronunciations in English markets. He's trolling Japanophiles.

Lark's comment above mine implied that it would have been incorrect.

The correct pronunciation is just "Shen-moo" just so it's clear.

Huh. You're right. Apparently the proper romanisation would have been "Shenmu"

I wonder why that "e" was added.

Oh. So Yahtzee is trolling the localizers for putting in an unnecessary 'e'? I'll never figure this out.

I think he's just drawing attention to a genuine mistake he made and playing it as a joke, as he's wont to do.

Kinda like how Cinema Sins has the recurring sin about how there's no gravity in space.

So, escapist is down. Anyone know anything about that?