Poll Results: Finding Twenty Sided

By Shamus Posted Friday Oct 28, 2016

Filed under: Notices 122 comments

Two days ago I asked people what content brought them to my site, and how they found it. The poll ran for 24 hours and has 1,717 total responses. As before, no effort was made to prevent ballot-stuffing. I also didn’t filter out nonsense answers, like people claiming they found me through last year’s Mass Effect series but have been reading for a decade. This is trivia, not science.

Here is the pie chart that Google made of the results:

There were 1,717 responses. The discrepancy you see is due to some people only answering one question.
There were 1,717 responses. The discrepancy you see is due to some people only answering one question.

Well, that is a horrible pie chart. The whole thing is swimming in whitespace, yet it truncated most of the responses. For the record the answers to question #1 are:

  1. I was linked to DM of the Rings.
  2. I was linked to one of the Text Plays. (Champions Online, LOTRO, etc.)
  3. I came here through YouTube after seeing one of the videos Shamus made.
  4. I was linked to Spoiler Warning or Diecast, and found the site through those.
  5. I found this place through a link to the Mass Effect series. (Or Final Fantasy X.)
  6. I found this site through content Shamus made on The Escapist. (Experienced Points, Stolen Pixels, Shamus Plays.)
  7. I originally came here looking for information on Good Robot.
  8. I came here through a link to the Autoblography.
  9. I was given a link to a specific series or blog post not mentioned above.
  10. You know, it’s been so long I don’t remember.

Some random comments on the results:

I’m really shocked at how small the Mass Effect slice (the purple one) is in the first chart. My traffic went up during the series. I haven’t gotten attention like that in years, so I expected it to make a bigger impact.

I’m actually a little disappointed that DM of the Rings is still responsible for 45% of the audience here. It gives me that terrifying feeling of, “Will I ever make something that good again?” On the other hand, this chart obviously only includes people who are still visitors, which means the rest of my content has been good enough to keep them hanging around for years.

One person said they came here because of Good Robot. That same person also claimed they’d been here for more than six years. These two facts contradict each other, meaning the response isn’t useful. This is the only response in the whole survey that gave the Good Robot answer.

Zero people gave the “Autoblography” as an answer. That makes sense. You generally don’t want to read someone’s life story until after you care about them, so it can’t really attract new people. But still. Zero.

I’m really surprised at how few people came here through YouTube, just 1.1%. My video on Megatextures has about 400k views. The one on FUEL is 1.8 million. That’s enormous. Heck, if I could sustain those kinds of numbers I’d be one of those fancy YouTube superstars. But people on YouTube don’t want to leave YouTube. No matter how well I do over there, it doesn’t really help me here, and this is the place that really matters. I still wish I could do more videos, but this does make me feel better that I’m not passing up on potential traffic by not making more of them. I actually have three scripts done (or nearly so) for Reset Button videos. They’re topics that feel like they should be videos, but it just takes so damn long to make the stupid things.

About a fifth of you are here because of the stuff I made for the Escapist. On one hand, I love that I can focus all my efforts onto the site now and don’t have to write for two different audiences. On the other hand, I’m really going to miss that source of new eyeballs. Like I said above, it’s easy to get people to watch a video and hard to get them to read an article. Don’t get me wrong. Readers exist out there. Prose is not dead. But discovery is a huge problem.

 


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122 thoughts on “Poll Results: Finding Twenty Sided

  1. Duoae says:

    I didn’t get a chance to vote but I don’t remember whether I was directed here from somewhere like dubious quality or gamers with jobs or the escapist…

    I don’t know how long I’ve been coming here but I missed the dm of the rings stuff but was here for most everything else (definitely after the first season of spoiler warning because I’ve never managed to watch it! )

  2. Sleepyfoo says:

    I’m not surprised DM of the Rings is the biggest draw. It’s the most easily consumable content that you have, and it has left footprints in a large variety of places on the internet like TV Tropes and other webcomics.

    Peace : )

    1. ehlijen says:

      Not to mention its aspiring successor Darths & Droids is still going strong.

    2. Alexander The 1st says:

      Was going to say – I got linked from TVTropes about Empty Room Psych.

      So it’s less that it’s passed around by word of mouth and more “TVTropes is one of those places that lets you find other stuff really well if it talks about a specific trope.”

      1. Joshua says:

        I like the entry for Hollywood Tactics better.

    3. Sabrdance (MatthewH) says:

      Right. I discovered this place via TVTropes links to Chainmail Bikini (the trope, which linked the webcomic) and from there back to DM of the Rings.

    4. neothoron says:

      I will addd myself to the number of people that discovered DM of the Rings through TVTropes.

      1. Cybron says:

        I think I did too. It’s about the right time period, though it’s been long enough that I can’t remember with any certainty.

      2. Majere says:

        I found DM of the Rings via TVTropes, read it and then just sorta left. A few years later I found Spoiler Warning via TVTropes and rediscovered the site. There was a very long stretch of time where I didn’t even realize the two were connected.

    5. Bloodsquirrel says:

      I’ve pointed it out before- comics are good for pulling readers in because they’re low-effort to read, which makes for a low barrier of entry, and they’ve got good continuity of attention (ie, it’s naturally to just click to the next one). They’re even easy to pass around and share, which as long as the watermark doesn’t get cut off gives huge potential exposure.

      It’s a lot harder to get someone to give a giant block of text a try.

    6. Dennis Jeong says:

      Also adding myself as someone who found this place through a random TVTrope page!

    7. Christopher says:

      This audience and the comment section makes a lot more sense now that I know half of you came from TV Tropes.

    8. wswordsmen says:

      And the page for DM of the Rings doesn’t link back to this site directly or even your name. You should fix that, or ask your fans to.

  3. Raygereio says:

    My traffic went up during the series. I haven't gotten attention like that in years, so I expected it to make a bigger impact.

    With “traffic” do you count unique IP addresses or just page visits?
    Because if it’s the latter, I suspect there’s a correlation between those traffic numbers and how much comments that series generated from us.

    1. Taellosse says:

      That’s a very valid point. I know I, for one, was in the habit of revisiting any post I commented on several times – often in the same day (and sometimes from different IPs, since I’d post initially from work then check back from home) – because I wanted to see if anyone replied to me, and post my own answers to them if they had, as well as follow other threads that interested me besides.

      I’d probably have done that a lot less if there were any way to be alerted to replies to your posts via email or something, but the comment system here doesn’t have a feature like that.

  4. Ninety-Three says:

    The most interesting thing I learned from this poll is that you can put up an umissably huge poll form in the article, say that you’re going to disclose the poll results when it finishes, and a full hundred people will still scroll down to the comments section so that they can post their answer for everyone to see.

    I’m profoundly baffled by that behaviour.

    1. King Marth says:

      How else will you signal to fellow blog-readers your superior selection of entry point and seniority? Collected responses do a terrible job of highlighting your personal awesomeness.

      Also, there’s some nuance that two multiple-choice questions don’t capture. The biggest is when readers come and go. Someone invested enough to want to share this information has a convenient text box right there.

    2. krellen says:

      He disclosed the results, but not individual data points. None of us know who the person that claimed to come here for Good Robot is, because they didn’t leave a comment saying it was them.

      1. Daemian Lucifer says:

        Ok,I have to admit:

        I was not that person.

    3. Henson says:

      Well, it was kind of nice to see some regular commenters whom I enjoy reading sharing how long they’ve been here and such, which can’t be encapsulated in the stats.

    4. Sleepyfoo says:

      For clarity, I voted and then commented because I felt the need to supply some context, despite (and due to) the deliberately vague and imprecise timing on the second question.

      It felt “dishonest” to say before DM of the Rings and thus over a decade, but for me that was clearly the best and closest answer. I showed up during and never really paid much mind to the content produced before then, though I did follow basically everything after.

      I can’t speak for everyone, but I can easily imagine that many of the people that follow this blog felt the same desire for precise and useful data.

      Peace : )

      1. Joshua says:

        Same. I came here about six strips into DM of the Rings after a friend linked it. But the answers said before DM of the Rings, and then the next option was like Spoiler Warning or something.

        1. Chuk says:

          Yes, I approximated but I came here during the early days of DMotR too.

  5. Jokerman says:

    Makes me wonder how many people watch Spoiler Warning, but either don’t know about this site, or just don’t visit.

    1. Viktor says:

      Yeah, this. Maybe Shamus needs to try having a link to the post in the YouTube commentary.

      1. anaphysik says:

        That’s what we did for Disclosure Alert (Spoiler Warning-endorsed fan-spinoff covering Alpha Protocol). I remember putting them in partway through (and then retroactively adding the links-to-text-commentary to earlier vids), so if newdarkcloud is still lurking maybe he could check the stats for that period of time to see if it helped any. I’d guess not by much, but it definitely felt like the right move.

        (Then again, I was a person suggesting that the text commentaries for the youtube-reruns of the Viddler-only early seasons of SW should also include links to the original threads, so maybe I’m just crazy-into archiving and linking…)

  6. LapnLook says:

    I love how the linked FUEL video’s comments section is filled with a week old comments saying “Why is this in my recommended?” or “Wow, this is old”

    1. Jokerman says:

      I enjoyed “At 5:50 this guy predicted the failure of No man’s sky”

      1. Daemian Lucifer says:

        And people say that youtube comments are useless.

        1. Jokerman says:

          It’s just…. on a Shamus video, when he was so hyped for it.

    2. Fists says:

      I love how many people in those comments have no idea what anything was like in 2010. Shows you how quickly this whole youtube gaming thing has grown.

      1. tzeneth says:

        Ya but even I uploaded a video in Nov 2008 with 480p, so their complaints have some merit on it being 240 vs. at least 480. Then again, all I can remember is that I did the editing myself using a version of adobe premiere at my high school (had an arts magnet program which included a decent video production setup).

        Note: my setup used a special input device I bought to get video footage by taking the input to the tv from the console and then using the computer to capture that information.

  7. ehlijen says:

    Yup, this site has definitely been doing great at keeping me coming back ever since DM of the Rings. That’s how I found twentysided, but I dare say everything’s gotten better since then!

    And I keep trying to link you to my friends whenever I remember a relevant article/series on whatever topic we’re talking about. Not sure if any of them stuck around…

  8. Theminimanx says:

    To be fair to the Youtube viewers, the links to blog are very understated, if they even exist. At best there’s a brief mention of it during the end credits or a link hidden under the “show more” button in the description. The FUEL and Megatextures videos don’t mention this site at all.

    1. Benjamin Hilton says:

      It kinda goes both ways. One of my best friends is a huge gamer, and loves youtube lets players, but when he talks about them I only recognize a few names, if any at all. Then when I talk about all of the blog based people that I watch he’s like “oh I think I recognized one of those names….Spoony…He’s that guy that shows up in Angry Joe videos right?” so yeah, they do seem to be different worlds.

      For the record even though they post to youtube, I count both Campster and Superbunnyhop in the blogosphere since their content relates more to the critical looks seen on most blogs.

      Now that I think about it, location does seem to be split by style. This is going to be a massive generalization, but it seems to me that blogs are where you look to find critical examinations of games, and youtube is where you look to find extreme over reactions to games/games news and “zany” antics.

  9. krellen says:

    But discovery is a huge problem.

    This is a common thing I hear from creators; a twitch channel I follow (HyperRPG, does a bunch of great stuff including something roleplaying every weekday) has a similar problem – everything is working except the number of eyeballs watching isn’t growing fast enough.

    When someone figures out the solution to this problem, they’ll be a billionaire.

    1. Philadelphus says:

      Some of that, I think, is human nature; YouTube is happy to shovel recommended videos at me, while I, for my part, just switch over to my subscriptions channel full of comfortable and familiar creator rather than risking wasting my time and mental energy trying something new and seeing if I’m interested enough in their stuff to follow them. People like what they already know and are less interested in trying something new. Sheer numbers suggest that, of the staggering amount of content out there, a very, very high proportion of it going to be stuff you don’t personally care about. Or maybe I’m just a hide-bound stick-in-the-mud, I don’t know.

      (Ironically enough, the system actually worked for me last week when I watched something new on a whim and now have a new channel I’m enthusiastically following, but this is one of a number of times I could probably count on one hand and have fingers to spare in the ~5 or 6 years I’ve been regularly watching stuff on YouTube.)

      1. Lachlan the Mad says:

        The problem that I’m having with recommended YouTube stuff is that it keeps taking me to channels which have one thing that I like and a whole bunch of other mediocre cruft. For example, it gives me a lot of Overwatch channels which mix interesting game news and analysis with fairly dull streamed games.

        1. Philadelphus says:

          Yeah, that’s the mental cost I was talking about””wow, YouTube recommended me this one great video! Awesome! …now I just need to watch several more of their videos and decide if the “stuff-I-like-and-will-watch” to “stuff-I-don’t-care-about” ratio is high enough to justify subscribing, as every additional subscription comes at the cost of more potentially mediocre videos to wade through in my subscription channel looking for the really good ones that I definitely want to watch.

      2. The only time I find YouTube recommendations useful is when listening to music. It tends to be fairly spot on in directing me to stuff I’ll enjoy. Even so I’m more prone to “liking” specific videos than subscribing to a whole channel.

  10. To be fair, that webcomic was responsible for creating an entirely new sub-genre.

  11. John says:

    Shamus, while I’m sad that you lost a paying gig, I can’t say that I miss your Escapist articles because I’ve been enjoying This Dumb Industry a lot more than I did Experienced Points. I always thought it was unfortunate that you had to spend so much time in the Experienced Points articles anticipating the ridiculous or irrelevant things that people would say in the Escapist comments rather than making your central argument. Which is not to say that we commenters here are at all times sensible and relevant. But we’re friendly (or maybe just friendlier) and I like it better here than I did there.

    Thanks for sharing this.

    1. Zekiel says:

      +1 on this. I liked Experienced Points; I like This Dumb Industry even more.

      However I’ll grant that this is probably cold comfort given that the latter lacks both an income stream and the wider audience that The Escapist provided. Sorry.

      You’re awesome anyway Shamus! Thanks for the content!

  12. Fade2Gray says:

    Wasn’t able to vote in the poll but I’m, apparently, one of the dozen or so people who found this site through a link to the ME series and chose to stick around.

    On a side note. I love Youtube, but I don’t think I’ve ever moved from a video someone posted to their site.

    1. LapnLook says:

      I came here with ME too about four months ago. I absolutely loved reading through that series, and after discovering all the other content Shamus had, I decided to stay. I’ve been binging Spoiler Warning seasons all summer long, started listening to the Diecasts while at the gym, I’ve finished reading every single Experienced Points column, and am now in the process of getting through Stolen Pixels.

      God there’s just too much awesome content!

  13. Dragmire says:

    Yeah, I have about 10 channels that I’m subscribed to on YouTube and I’ve never been remotely curious about whether they have a personal site or not.

    If I’m watching content, I’ll look for more content to watch. If I’m reading content, I’ll look for more content to read. In that context, I can understand that people don’t look for reading content after watching content but will if they were linked from something that they were reading.

  14. Tizzy says:

    I missed the poll, so I’ll just mention that I am part of the huge masses that found the site through DMotR and stayed. The comic gives the site visibility and broad appeal, but I’ve always considered it a minor diversion at best. I started reading other content almost immediately (the DnD stuff mostly). And I never reread the comic, while I’ve revisited many other pages over the years.

    Just anecdotal evidence to confirm that HOW we find the site and WHY we stick around can be very different.

  15. NoneCallMeTim says:

    About new discovery, how about using Twitter / Facebook to link to major new posts on the blog?

    I don’t mean spam every one, but one or two posts a week linking to the blog, particularly if it has an easily sharable pic might help people who follow share posts on their social media to expand reach a bit.

    1. Wolf says:

      Maybe luring people from YouTube over here by inviting them to the comments thread on the blog would yield some results?
      On the other hand if it worked you would get YouTube commenters on your blog…

  16. Daemian Lucifer says:

    I'm really shocked at how small the Mass Effect slice (the purple one) is in the first chart. My traffic went up during the series. I haven't gotten attention like that in years, so I expected it to make a bigger impact.

    The majority were probably old people who just had their interest peaked and decided to come more regularly,or decided to come back.So its not surprising that there werent that many new ones there.Also,the new ones probably just read that/continued reading without bothering with polls.

  17. Daemian Lucifer says:

    “Will I ever make something that good again?”

    Only one way to find out.Hobbit is on blue rays now.

    1. MichaelGC says:

      Have to admit I do somewhat admire how you’ve just sailed smoothly on with this line like he didn’t just say he wasn’t going to do it! I think there’s a lesson for us all, there.

      (Oh, and it’s a line I fully support, so don’t let me stop you! :D Who knows? Maybe one day.)

      1. Daemian Lucifer says:

        Nice photoshop there.It almost looks like a real thing Shamus would say.

        1. MichaelGC says:

          Mad ‘Shop skillz; I has dem.

  18. Daemian Lucifer says:

    But people on YouTube don't want to leave YouTube.

    The solution is simple:Have someone* read out your articles out loud and post that to youtube.

    *You could do it yourself,but Im not sure youd want to.

    1. 4th Dimension says:

      I know that’s a joke but the issue is not so much the audio but finding and arranging a proper video background.

  19. Decius says:

    There appears to be a systemic problem. In a poll of this type, you should expect a 4% “lizardman contant” to apply (named after the percentage of people who will pick “lizardman” off of a list of “white, black, Asian…”

    If you had choices that got zero responses, there was a systemic polling problem that filtered the trolls out.

    1. Matt Downie says:

      Yeah, at most 1% of the population are lizard people disguised as humans. The others 3% are just pretending because they wish they were part of the secret ruling lizard cabal.

  20. Daemian Lucifer says:

    But discovery is a huge problem.

    Yeah.I heard they replaced Fuller.

  21. MichaelGC says:

    That vote for Good Robot was clearly a misclick! They must have been aiming for the Autoblography! :D

  22. Sven says:

    I didn’t get the chance to vote, but I’m a bit of a weird case anyway. I originally discovered this site for DM of the Rings, but I didn’t continue reading after that. I then rediscovered it during your Mass Effect series, and have been following it since then.

    I primarily read the This Dumb Industry articles. I started reading the FFX series, but not having played any FF games, I just can’t get myself to care. ;)

    Basically, I just look at your posts in my RSS reader (yes, those still exist!) and read whatever sounds interesting. :)

  23. Deadpool says:

    I remember when I found this site: I read some Fallout 3 related article on the escapist where you mention doing a many hours long let’s play of Fallout 3 and I remember being really annoyed you did not have a link.

    I sent you a PM on the escapist and you linked me here…

    Edit: This lack of self promotion may be something that has an effect here. The FUEL video with 1.8 million views has a ton of links in the description but none to THIS site…

  24. Ninety-Three says:

    Shamus, you complain that making Youtube videos takes forever, what exactly is the time-consuming part? Capturing a bunch of random game footage to talk over? Fiddly video-editing software tasks? Re-recording the audio thirteen times to get the delivery just right?

    1. Shamus says:

      Short answer: Yes. Long answer…

      * Capturing a bunch of random game footage to talk over?

      Yes, because it’s rarely “random”. I mean, if the footage doesn’t matter then I might as well make an article. Usually the footage needs to line up with whatever I’m talking about, which means I need to play to that point in the game and then demonstrate the problem I’m talking about. The practice of slot-based saves (lookin at YOU, console ports) means I might need to play through huge portions of a game just to get 3 minutes of footage.

      This is worse if it’s a discussion that needs slides and images rather than footage. Making good images and finding good stock photos is a huge time-sink, since each one is only on screen for a few seconds. My last video was just 7 minutes – about half the typical length – and it required over 80 different images.

      * Fiddly video-editing software tasks?

      Yes. Video editing is slow. I have to spool through tons of footage looking for the bits I need, then edit them in, then get them to line up with the narration, then balance the audio levels. I’ll generally move from one idea to another, so I can’t just rely on one uninterrupted block of footage. I have to track down and edit dozens of clips from many different recordings to get what I need.

      * Re-recording the audio thirteen times to get the delivery just right?

      After trial-and-error, I’ve found the best solution is to just brute force read the whole script in one go, and restart a sentence if I stumble over my words. Then I edit out the mistakes.

      Then I have to mix the audio. Sometimes I need the game footage to be audible because it illustrates a point I’m making. Sometimes it’s just loud and distracting and needs to be silent. There needs to be understated backing music in the parts where it’s just me talking for a couple of minutes at a time.

      The DDOS video was one full day of work. Something more involved like “Do it Again, Stupid” would take more than double that, once you add in the time it took to get all that footage from the different games.

      1. Ninety-Three says:

        Yes, because it's rarely “random”. I mean, if the footage doesn't matter then I might as well make an article.

        It has been ages since you made a gaming video, so I forgot that that’s how you do it. The modern Youtube model involves an awful lot of parts where footage doesn’t matter, but the video throws up footage from the latest Assassin’s Creed game because they’re talking about AC so it seems vaguely appropriate.

        Then again, it is an oft-lamented problem that a lot of modern Youtube videos really ought to be articles, and that problem definitely extends beyond how-to and walkthrough videos.

        1. Daemian Lucifer says:

          That depends on who is making the video and what the video is about.A general review of the game does throw just random footage of the game thats talked about.But a specific look of a part of the game shows that exact part.

        2. Tizzy says:

          Not a big fan of the “whatever footage goes” myself, but clearly some creators including big name ones are resorting to that. And it makes sense, precisely given how onerous it is to make suitable footage. So people will talk over their random gameplay footage, or will recycle game trailers. If you’re enough of a personality, you can attract viewers this way, but I’d rather read what people have to say in most cases.

        3. Bubble181 says:

          Many of those are, of course, simply listened to. A very large amount of people stream podcasts or videos while playing, or while on the train/subway/whatever, or while driving. Sure, they might glace occasionally, but most of the time, people are doing something else with their eyes, and just listening. A “as you can see here…” mightdraw their eyes for a moment.
          The amount of media consumed is enormous – people don’t have time to actually *watch* all that footage. But a video draws eyeballs an interest in a way a link to an audio file or a text article doesn’t.

          Text is by far the superior way of transmitting a message or idea, *IF* the other side’s willing to give their full attention to you. Video ca nbe great for extra visual cues and information, things hard ot convey through text only. Audio is the best way to get people who are also doing other things – not as in-depth but mildly interesting. See also: talk radio, music while studying/working, and so on.

        4. Zekiel says:

          it is an oft-lamented problem that a lot of modern Youtube videos really ought to be articles

          Good grief yes. I am so glad that TwentySided is primarily text-based, because it feels like so many game analysis videos out there just consist of someone talking over random footage of the game they’re talking about. I remember watching TotalBiscuit’s Bioshock Infinite video (half a million views) and being amazed people thought he was a good. He made some interesting points, but he could have trimmed his content down and most of the visual content was utterly unnecessary. His 1 hour 15 minute video could have been an article that I could have read in a quarter of that time. At least he seemed to have a script.

          Sorry I get cross about the proliferation of video content because I don’t understand why people at large don’t seem to realise how wasteful it is of time.

    2. Philadelphus says:

      From my personal experience making gameplay videos for YouTube (which may or may not resemble the videos Shamus is making in any way, shape, or form), video editing is the time-consuming part.

      Recording an hour of Minecraft takes an hour. Editing that down into two or three 10″“20 minute videos (which I do to remove dead air and boring bits) takes several times that, as I have to watch the whole thing through at least once to get a sense of where interesting bits are, then I go through watching it again and start cutting stuff out, with lots and lots of “rewind and watch this again, does that transition work? Maybe cut it a little earlier or later?” mixed in. I like to add quiet music in the background and often have it reflect the mood of the action, so that’s time spent picking music and making sure it matches up time-wise. Then there’s the occasional adding of effects like titles, working in an ending section, making the thumbnail, rendering the video (during which I can’t use my computer for any computation-heavy stuff, like gaming), uploading the video…it all adds up. Again, this may or may not have any resemblance whatsoever to what Shamus is doing.

      Edit: Beaten to the punch by the man himself! Shoot, I forgot to mention audio mixing. Oh well, at least I can maybe illustrate some of the other things that can also go into video editing.

      1. Tizzy says:

        Well, I am sure your viewers appreciate that you respect their time. I really hate it when people don’t edit the boring bits. And even if it’s a time sink, overall it’s a net positive when you multiply the number of viewers by the amount of time you saved them.

  25. SyrusRayne says:

    I’m honestly not sure how I encountered your work originally. It might have been DM Of The Rings, though I also recall reading Free Radical at one point and not knowing it was the same author until some time later.

    I also encountered Rutskarn’s work entirely separately to your own (his Morrowind LP, I recall), and it wasn’t until some time after I started watching Spoiler Warning that I realized it.

  26. Aaron says:

    i am one of the escapist people, going to this site and finding all that additional content was fantastic. and the days you published on escapist usually meant there was a bonus article over here

    on the plus side i now can save time by only loading the escapist once a week or so (yahtzee reviews)

    1. tzeneth says:

      Funnily enough, I do this as well. I just wish my browser didn’t have a little bit of a hiccup because it is forced to load their livestream that’s on their frontpage.

  27. MarsLineman says:

    Shamus, having come here via your Mass Effect series last year, I think you’re absolutely on the right track with your serial deconstructionist approach. The Mass Effect series was truly brilliant. So I’m wondering if maybe following it by doing a similar type of analysis of a Final Fantasy game was a less-than-perfect choice for your analytical style.

    Don’t get me wrong, I”m really enjoying the series (and it induced me to buy/ play the remaster and up my pledge here). But as you acknowledge in the opening of the FFX series, pulling apart the threads of a Final Fantasy game is a bit like pulling apart the threads of cotton candy- it’s a bit messy and it doesn’t really improve the situation. It’s clearly a drama-first game (and universe), and you’re admittedly a details-first kinda guy.

    In my opinion, your Mass Effect series crackled because it showed the underlying tension exposed by the clear switch in writing priorities at Bioware. You exposed something that many fans of the first game experienced in the switch to the second game, without necessarily understanding it at the time.

    And critically, you were bringing a details-first analytical style to a details-first universe (as it was originally conceived). As a fellow writer, I’ve been told many times to “write about what you know”. And you know details-first writing (and gaming) better than anyone.

    So maybe you’re on the right path by writing these kinds of deconstructive analytical series, you just didn’t necessarily pick the best game for a follow up. That would be my 2 cents anyway.

    In any case, thanks again for all the high-quality content you offer- I’m thrilled to have found this site. Here’s hoping the next series brings the eyeballs you deserve.

  28. Cybron says:

    If you want cross traffic between here and YouTube, consider adding a closer to our next video that includes clickable, in video links to the blog and other videos you’ve done. Considering linking specific articles, especially if they’re relevant. A voice over where you say what they are may help too. Remember that no one reads video descriptions. It’s gotta be in the damn video.

  29. Gypsy says:

    One person said they came here because of Good Robot. That same person also claimed they'd been here for more than six years. These two facts contradict each other, meaning the response isn't useful. This is the only response in the whole survey that gave the Good Robot answer.

    That one was me. I first saw the site six years ago when I stumbled across the Project Frontier posts looking for programming help, but I forgot about it until years later when I came across the Good Robot series and started checking back regularly. I tried to pick poll options that conveyed that as best as I could, but it appears I made a poor choice.

  30. You omitted your programming stuff! I came here with your procedural city.

  31. Son_of_Valhalla says:

    I found the site through an entirely different means. I was actually searching for writers on Patreon, and yours came up. I am grateful I found this site. Quality articles really set the tone for it and I am still reading through the Mass Effect series. Stuck at part 3 though. I’ll get through it all eventually haha.

  32. Daniel England says:

    The full story of how I found your site (and continued reading it) is pretty interesting.

    First many many years ago, I started reading Darths and Droids, which linked to you as their inspiration. I, uh, didn’t really care for your style as compared with what they’re doing over there, so I just read a few strips and left. You guys were doing totally different things, so I guess that’s to be expected sometimes.

    Anyway many years later, in December of 2010, The World of Warcraft: Cataclysm beta started up and I started watching Totalbiscuit’s stuff (yeah, I know). He eventually started a podcast and then also started showcasing lesser known youtuber’s stuff, one of the first of which was Campster.

    Campster was the first video game video essayist I started following. This was back in August of 2012. Followed Chris on twitter a little later.

    Then when Spoiler Warning started its Tomb Raider series, Chris tweeted about Spoiler Warning for the first time that I noticed. This was, I guess, June 2013. I started backward through the SW archive, and eventually realized that that website linked at the end of every video probably went somewhere, and I started checking the site out and working my way through the diecast archive.

    Awhile later I realized that you were “The DM of the Rings guy”. And I was rather surprised. It’s kinda weird when you start following someone’s work without realizing this super famous thing they did that you already knew about!

    I will say that Spoiler Warning is still the bread and butter of this site for me, but I do try to read everything!

  33. Jsor says:

    I’m one of those “doesn’t remember” people. I know I was here (but not commenting) for one of your earlier programming projects, but I didn’t become a more regular reader until maybe a bit before Mass Effect started.

    I’ve still never read through DM of the Rings, but I think what happened was somebody linked me to DM of the Rings, but I wasn’t really in a webcomic mood so I clicked around the site and liked the other stuff going on at whatever time I got here. So DM of the Rings was probably directly responsible for me discovering the site, but not for me actually reading it, unless I made that up in a strained effort to remember things.

  34. Christopher says:

    As one of the people who came here from the Escapist, yes, it would probably be nice for discovery if your stuff came out on another site periodically. But I can’t think of one. Most sites I know of laid off all their writers and chased them to Patreon and stuff like that. The Escapist is a wasteland. Maybe the new Vice site is interested? They seem specifically interested in the culture around gaming, though, which is practically the opposite of your approach to games writing.

  35. Riley says:

    I didn’t see the poll, but I came here through reading your life story
    I don’t remember exactly where I was linked to it from, but I spent an entire morning reading through it, it was really interesting

  36. I came here after seeing Pixel City on YouTube (probably around ’09), and immediately after reading the posts I got interested in programming. Been programming over since, and now finishing my last 2 years of college hoping to go into programming as a career :)

    1. m0j0l says:

      That’s awesome :)

  37. Alecw says:

    I’m really confused how I missed the poll, yet check the site every day…?
    Anyway, you’re right – I would never have come here for the autobio stuff. But after following the site for about ten years (whenever stolen pixels or your escapist rants began) I certainly cared to read it.

  38. Drathnoxis says:

    You really shouldn’t worry about losing the Escapist as “a source of new eyeballs.” I’m one of the few people who still frequents that site and it’s pretty much dead these days. I did some math one time and found that forum activity is down around 90% from 2010 and we are getting pretty much no new members. I think anybody who was ever going to find you through that site most certainly already has.

  39. anaphysik says:

    I know I was posting here in 2008 (so 8+ category), but I wasn’t sure exactly what brought me here (so put “you know, it’s been so long…” for the poll). I think I was sent here via some linkies on Wizards of the Coasts old official D&D forums, but not sure what exactly to – but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t DM of the Rings, but rather “check out this thing that the DMotR-guy wrote.” I think it was either The Survival Sneaker / Games and the Fear of Death or the first round of GM Advice columns (e.g. Arresting PCs).

    The early GM Advice series are still some of my favorites, especially Arresting PCs, Dungeons that Make Sense (what do they eat!), Culture, and Prejudice is Good. If those aren’t in the From the Archives roll, they’d be good additions.

    (Those were what kept me coming back to the site, which has long since become my primary daily content-check; although I have returned once more to only lurking in the comments, and usually do so on about a week’s delay in order to catch everything.)

  40. Mr. Son says:

    I missed the vote, but I think I came here as DM Of The Rings was ending? I don’t remember exactly how I discovered the place, but that was roughly how long ago.

  41. Raunomies says:

    I found this site after the Mass Effect 2 release. I was about to preorder but then the prerelease marketing made me cancel those plans. I mean I was a full-on Bioware fan. Kotor, Jade Empire, ME1 and DA1, but I found myself wondering why is this trusted company doing this kind of ads for ME1 sequel?

    Then after release I bought it from the cheapest store I could find and after playing it was quite surprised with the difference in my own experience and the unbelievable praise online, like “This game belongs to the museuuum” and other instaclassic hype. Sure it had better gunplay etc improvements but the “rule of cool” and other “one step forward, two steps back” stuff it had was just so offputting.

    Sure there were some other posters in the forums who noted these and were linked around in the forums like Smudboy but he was just so ridiculously nitpicky and whiny that those overshadowed his better points. Then one of those ME2 videos in youtube happened to have one of Spoiler Warning ME2 season episodes in recommended videos.

    I was pretty much sold from the beginning. Observation-discussion-conclusion style of banter combined with good group dynamic and even today really, really, really rare format of “one player with multiple observer-commentators” was just unique. Later I found out that it was Shamoose who had done the Game development heaven & hell comic. It was downhill slide coated with Rutskarn’s puns from that point on and I love it.

  42. The Gneech says:

    On a complete tangent, I’d love to see you take up and discuss Overwatch.

    1. Galad_t says:

      Probably not happening since, you know, Overwatch is online multiplayer with strangers (at least afaik)

  43. “Like I said above, it's easy to get people to watch a video and hard to get them to read an article.”

    I don’t know the truth of this, I’m completely the opposite–unless it’s a VERY SHORT video I’d rather read an article ANY day. I only watch the occasional episode of Spoiler Warning–they’re just too long for me to budget the time. I don’t listen to the Diecast (although I might, if it were broken up into shorter segments).

    I’m one of those who came for DMotR–but I STAYED for the articles. If you were ONLY running movies-as-games comics, I’d have gotten bored by now and moved on. I don’t really pay attention to Darths and Droids any more, after all.

    I don’t think you need to worry about whether you’ll ever do something “as good” as DMotR again. The ME series was “as good”. The series on how dumb the Thieves Guild plot is in Skyrim was “as good”. They’re just different. And I think the variety adds a lot–it helps prevent people from getting bored.

    I’d love to have another comic, but to be honest a comic takes a long time to make and people read it in a minute. It doesn’t provoke much thought or response most of the time. It’s a great draw to pull people to your OTHER content, though.

    1. Jeysie says:

      I don't know the truth of this, I'm completely the opposite”“unless it's a VERY SHORT video I'd rather read an article ANY day.

      This is me; it’s almost impossible to get me to watch a video and I like podcasts even less. Part of it is that I read very fast, and part of it is that I have trouble processing audio very well while conversely I retain written info very well.

      Transcripts or closed captioning helps a lot, but web-only series so often don’t have either of those things.

    2. Mistwraithe says:

      Likewise, I spend many, many more hours reading than watching videos. I go out of my way to actively avoid watching videos regardless of what I am doing (eg in google searches to find something out I ignore all video results) unless someone I trust says I really should watch something.

      I suspect the comment “Like I said above, it's easy to get people to watch a video and hard to get them to read an article” is mainly true if you put it into the context of YouTube, which is by definition a community of people who like to watch videos and may be ambivalent about reading more than a few sentences.

      Perhaps this means you should be trying to get content onto sites which people have visited to read instead? The Escapist fitted this somewhat (OK a lot went there for Yahtzee videos, but plenty of people read too and even Yahtzee ended up doing Extra Punctuation).

    3. Philadelphus says:

      I mean, I’m generally the same way, I like reading things more than watching videos on average, but I feel like the people commenting on this post are unavoidably a bit of a biased sample””pretty much by definition we’re not getting all the people who would rather watch a video than read something because they’re not bothering to come and leave comments, and they could very well be the majority.

  44. miroz says:

    I think I found your blog through the procedural terrain project but you didn’t offer this answer in the poll. And also I don’t remember clearly, but I think I also found it independently through the DMOTR and then decided to add it to my RSS feed.

  45. Jeysie says:

    I’m in the weird situation where I was drawn here by DM of the Rings but I have absolutely no idea how I discovered DM of the Rings itself. That was the time I not only was reading a lot of webcomics like Concerned and Order of the Stick and 8-Bit Theater, but also reading EN World and whatnot. So, who knows.

    But I stayed for your in-depth analyses of basically everything, and for the fact that you’re one of the few programmers that explains the thoughts behind their coding as opposed to just presenting the coding (I still can’t understand the actual code itself, but the concepts now make sense), and for somehow having gathered the best blog comments community on the web.

  46. General Karthos says:

    I was surprised at how long I had been around. It didn’t feel like eight or nine or ten years. (It never does, I guess.) I seem to remember there was some concern (or maybe it was just my concern) that Shamus was going to go over to full-time Escapist guy and let this blog languish. Obviously, that didn’t happen.

  47. I’m a bit confused about “Mass Effect series” as when I saw that in the poll I assumed you meant the “Mass Effect” series rather than “Mass Effect series”. “Mass Effect” series have been written about before you did the “Mass Effect series”.

    Another issue was trying to remember how I wound up here and at which point in time (there was no “I can’t remember when” option on the second round of poll questions.

  48. Shamus, please don’t stop making videos I love those. They are perfect for when guffing down some programmer foodage as I don’t have to read lines of text and scroll while eating.

    Also, by the looks of it your videos do gain a long tail which will trickle people to you (PS! Do you have ads enabled, it may not be much but it might be enough to cover domain name costs at least).

  49. Off topic:
    Has anyone pondered why there isn’t any consistency in Minimum and Recommended requirements for games?

    Ideally it should be this: No actual minimum requirements, if the consumer wish to game at 1-2 FPS then let them, take advantage of SSE2 and SSE3 and SSE4.2 and AVX if this is present.

    But there should still be two listings of requirements (specs) like today:
    Playable Specs = The hardware needed to make sure you get (for example) 60 FPS with all settings on minimum.
    Recommended Specs = The hardware needed to make sure you get (for example) 60 FPS with all settings on maximum.
    Most consumers will (hopefully) be somewhere between those extremes.

    (Edit)
    Now how can a developer test for this?
    Simple really, the Recommended Spec can be tested by testing on all machines the developer have (something they should do regardless). One can assume there is at least one “state of the art” gaming rig somewhere.
    The Playable Spec is similar, only in this case you need to locate the old clunker or super budget consumer machine in some back room.

    1. potatoejenkins says:

      One can assume there is at least one “state of the art” gaming rig somewhere.

      Wild guess: There isn’t.

      All console types have the same software and hardware. The combinations possible with PCs is … some kind of insane high number that does make it either impossible or not feasible for a developer to test.

      Add to that programs running in the background. Anti-virous whathaveyou. Then the constant updates.

      1. “All console types have the same software and hardware”

        No longer true. PS4 is now Playable Spec and PS4 Pro is Recommended Spec.

        When the Xbox Scorpio comes out the Xbox One will be Playable Spec, the Xbox One S a little above that and Xbox Scorpio will be Recommended Spec.

        I’m pretty certain that Sony will have a PS4+ or PS5 to compete with Xbox Scorpio. So that’ll be 3 different Playstation’s and 3 different Xbox’s.

        As to the “state of the art” gaming rig, I’m fairly certain the big dev companies have one in the play test room.

        1. potatoejenkins says:

          Maybe I worded it incorrectly or we misunderstand each other. I meant that a PSXY will always be a PSXY or however you call a specific console edition. This edition will always have the same hardware, the same software. Non native software to the platform is forbidden even. That’s were the problems with mod support for Bethesda’s games came from. Partly.

          If you build/let someone build/ buy a PC you can do with it, install whatever you want. Everything goes as long as it works. And a lot of things work. The developer might not need additional programms, but we all use those. Our PCs are not clean slates. Expecting that from the consumer when giving out recommendations for how good a game could work on a virgin “state of the art” PC is ludicrous and in the end a waste of time and money.

          A “state of the art” gaming rig is more or less free to interpretation. And the question won’t be: ‘what’s the ‘best’ on the market?’ but ‘who do we have contracts with?’

          Nvidia? AMD? What’s better? Are they both good? Can the developer afford to make an unprejudiced statement? Can the developer afford to buy several “state opf the art” gaming rigs during game developement to keep up with the newest trends? Can they afford to adjust the game development itself to ever changing PC specs?

          If they can’t, is it even feasable to recommend PC specs used at the start of the game development circle? Those would be outdated by release.

          1. “is it even feasable to recommend PC specs used at the start of the game development circle? Those would be outdated by release.”

            If the game runs fine on it, why not?
            Also, while a typical AAA game takes 3-5 years, a consumer keep their PC 5-10 years (with some minor incremental changes now and again.

            What may be “average” at the start of a dev cycle may be upper low end/mid low end by the time they finish the game.

            If the game is properly scalable then it should run fine on anything from low end to high end (with a margin of error on the definition of the meaning of such by 5 years or so).
            Battlefield 1 for example seems to look really good yet has no issues running on weaker hardware, Digital Foundry did some interesting tests on “medium to high end” GFX cards that actually looked playable with 4K at 60FPS.
            And Battlefield 1 does not have issues with lack of SSE4 support like Mafia III does currently.
            Unreal 4 engine is also very scalable just like the Frostbite engine.

            So you take on of the weaker/weakest “gaming” PCs and use that as your minimum target (as in playable at a steady framerate, remember I said no real minimum), if people really wish to game at 1 FPS then let them.
            And people with overspecced will get to enjoy 300FPS at 4K even though no monitors exists that can handle that nor any HDMI nor DisplayPort standard.

    2. tmtvl says:

      Feral Interactive has stated before that the specs they list are simply machines they tested their ports on. It makes sense that most developers don’t have access to all possible combinations of all possible hardware that runs target platform (‘specially if target platform is Linux).

  50. sofawall says:

    Typo alert: Final Fantasy misspelled as Final Fantsy in the “From the Archives” section under the article.

  51. The Snide Sniper says:

    The heavy traffic for DM of the Rings might be due to its similarity to other popular “D&D in movie setting” webcomics, such as Darths and Droids. I know this was my experience.

    That said, I stayed for the programming posts, and then for Spoiler Warning. It’s always fascinating to see another programmer’s approach to a problem.

  52. CliveHowlitzer says:

    The last part about articles vs videos is funny as I am the total opposite. If I click something and it links me to a video rather than an article, even if I found the title interesting and want to know more. I will usually immediately back out of the video. I guess it is a moot point since they still got me as a ‘view’ even though I immediately left.

    As such, I massively appreciate that most of your content is in written form. All hail articles forever.

    1. Daemian Lucifer says:

      I guess it is a moot point since they still got me as a “˜view' even though I immediately left.

      Not necessarily.There usually is a minimum of X seconds before the video is counted as viewed.

  53. Nikolay Mitev says:

    Seconding, that if the video is good, I check the info page for more content.

  54. potatoejenkins says:

    I’m quite desperately trying to remember how I landed here. I missed the poll though none of the answers would’ve fit anyway.

    I remember watching the Mass Effect Spoiler Warning season before coming here. But that was not on youtube but on that other side that’s long since dead – so I hear. No idea.

    There are either no links or badly visible links to twentysided on the youtube (re-uploads). Even when looking for them I had to either scroll or actively search. And I am not that blind yet.

    Another thing: There are people who’d like to support you but can’t. Those people usually won’t click the patreon link. Whatever is listed or linked there, if they don’t visit your patreon, they won’t see it.

  55. Bubble181 says:

    It’s funny how you say “readers exist out there”, when in your previous poll, it clearly showed that *amongst your current public*, SW and RB videos are the *least* favorite content.

    I don’t really know how to get new eyeballs here, but saying “videos are an easier way to draw in new people”, while perhaps true, is also dangerous: videos don’t set you apart, at all. It’s the text that does. your core group of (responding) readers are readers, not viewers. Do’nt chase us away ;)

    (but keep making the stuff you want to make, whether video, audio or text, of course)

  56. Rosseloh says:

    Chalk me up as another DM of the Rings nerd.

    I remember pretty well, too. At that point I was HEAVILY into Lord of the Rings Online. Over winter break 2008-2009, I was back at home from college with my laptop, (but not my desktop, so I couldn’t PLAY the game) and was reading the LotRO forums, when someone linked DMotR.

    Well, after a binge-reading session, I determined that I:
    1. Thought DMotR was fantastic, being a Tolkien nut.
    2. Really enjoyed your writing style.
    3. Finally had something to read when I was at work and there was nothing to do.

    So I read the rest of the post archives, and also found that I agree with most of your game design ideas. Our tastes are very similar.

    …and as a result, I’ve been checking the site at least once a week (normally daily) ever since. Of course, I comment like once a quarter if even, so I tend to not be seen.

  57. Yurika Grant says:

    “Discovery is a problem.”

    Yeah, no shit :( I quit blogging largely as a result of this issue. Waste of my time when I could instead be writing fiction (which is what I enjoy most anyway). Having an established audience seems like about the only real way to get noticed at all now.

    Also, since I a) missed the poll entirely, and b) didn’t fit into any of the answers in any case, I’ll put it here: I found your site via the Fallout 3 posts you made after Google searching for reviews and critiques while I was writing my own long-form (and now discontinued) critique/rebuild of that game. Your content (along with the No Mutants Allowed forums) was some of the most useful for reference material :)

  58. Simon says:

    I'm actually a little disappointed that DM of the Rings is still responsible for 45% of the audience here. It gives me that terrifying feeling of, “Will I ever make something that good again?” On the other hand, this chart obviously only includes people who are still visitors, which means the rest of my content has been good enough to keep them hanging around for years.

    Long time lurker, first time poster but I felt I had to respond to this.

    I absolutely loved the DM of the Rings comics that you did but I don’t think it’s the best thing you ever did. In my opinion, you have already produced content that is better and I’m pretty sure you will continue to up your game in future. As others have already said, it’s probably the most easily accessible though.

    For myself, I love the long form analysis that you do. The Mass Effect series that you recently did was genius and I linked my brother to it at numerous points during its long run. Similarly, I haven’t played FFX but have been really enjoying this current series as well.

    You consistently produce content that is interesting, enlightening while also being entertaining. Long may it continue!

  59. m0j0l says:

    Shamus, have you considered promoting yourself a bit more? Discoverability is just SEO (I know I know, bleecch, right? But thats what it is) and the more inbound links you have, the better.

    For all I know you already do this, but stuff like;
    – if you write a programming article that you really like, post it on say r/gamedev and hackernews
    – similar for r/gaming
    – tweet links to new articles as they go up; I don’t use the twitter-majigger very often but I haven’t noticed you doing this. If you hate doing this, just do it occasionally or to articles you think are topical.

    PS. FWIW (missed the poll) I discovered 20sided thru the D&D campaign! Very few sites have kept me checking each morning for new contents for so many years.

  60. muelnet says:

    I didn’t get a chance to vote, but I remember how I first found the site, and it was actually because of Chris. I had been watching his videos and decided to follow him on Twitter and he sent out a link to the first episode of the Mass Effect 3 season. Apparently that was four years ago. I’ve basically been coming here since.

    So there you have it: Chris was useful at least once. Although come to think of it I don’t remember him saying much in the episode.

  61. Natureguy85 says:

    I was in the green group on both charts (though I’ve only been on regularly and started posting more recently). What does it mean?

  62. EwgB says:

    Bit late to the party (my backlog for various blogs is enormous, I pretty much lost any hope to catch up), but I wanted to give my two cents. I’m one of those people who came through DM of the Rings; I was actually linked to it from Darths & Droids. But, as you already said, I actually stayed on for the rest, including Witch Watch and Good Robot. I even love your programming articles for laymen, even though I’m a software developer myself and don’t really need any “crappy car analogies”. So keep on keeping on!

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