Introduction

When I first got here, I spent the better part of two months lurking before I even registered. When I finally did, it was to make a minor comment on some random issue, and after I had done that, I quietly went back to lurking. Only lately have I started taking a more active part in the community, and really explored the website. And I'm finding new things every day. During my days of lurking, I found the sheer amount of content on this website staggering, and so I limited myself to a small section of it in order to retain my sanity. I'd like to think that if there had been a comprehensive and collected summary of the content on the website, I would've begun exploring it sooner. So since that was something I felt was missing when I first arrived, I figured I'd correct that myself now that I have some insight into the content. This is a guide directed towards my fellow lurkers, who like me feel a little lost when it comes to navigating the vast amount of content of the Escapist.

So you've been hitchhiking across the wide continent that is the internet, and somewhere along the line, you stumbled onto the Escapist. "What is this mysterious place"?, you might ask. First of all, it's a website. And other than that, it's also a magazine (hence the url). Every week, a new issue of this magazine is released and could, up until issue 103, be read either in part on the website or in full as a downloadable PDF. Now the PDF part has been discontinued, although they sometimes release PDFs for special issues. The magazine itself is focused heavily on gaming - what a shocker, eh?

Our first point of order is exploring the front page. Perhaps you've managed to make sense of it all by yourself, or perhaps you simply fled to the forums in terror upon seeing its mass of jumbled content. In case you belong to group number one, feel free to skip this next part. If you're part of the latter group, then I suggest you...

Now that the initial introduction is over and done with, we reach the part where I'm going to try to present the various features on this website. In order to prevent this already long post from turning into a wall of text, I'm going to compress each section into an expandable box, so you can freely pick and choose among the features that interest you. Since the Escapist is, as mentioned, a magazine, we're going to start with...

The News

Features

Videos!

Reviews!

Nearing the end of the features list, we approach...

Genre Wars

The Forums

IRC

... I think that pretty much concludes my guide, and I hope I've made you discover at least one new and exciting feature while you read through my gigantic collection of text-walls.

If you can think of something I've left out, or improvements that are possible for my explanations and summaries, please feel free to point them out. I'd say it's pretty impossible for any human being to keep track of everything that goes on here, so there are naturally large sections in which I haven't really kept track of the features I'm talking about.

Enjoy your exploration, and I hope you'll find something you like in the mass of available content on the Escapist!

Published from the good publishing companies at Ursa Minor Beta I trust? I did the same thing as you admittedly. I lurked, then joined, posted a bit, then lurked some more, before posting a lot more.

Nice guide by the way.

Well..I'll be a monkey's uncle!.

It's a sitemap. A very good one at that too. Speaking as a former lurker and professional pie maker I must say that this is indeed a nice directory to stumble across for any who are puzzled by this civilized space on the interwebs.

Though it's more likely to be effective if it became a 'sticky'

Wow, you threw some effort into this! Useful, but then, people can find all this stuff in one place or another. Nice of you to pile it all into one location though.

It's nicely well done! I hope it will help newer users.

EDIT: I wish it was narrated by Stephen Fry though...

Very useful, but I think most people settle into this place pretty quickly.

Gotta be sticky thread. It's very well written.

Very useful guide, admittedly I lurk more then I should post.

Nicely done and very well written my friend.

This needs a sticky. Somebody make it so.

Well done, but I do have a few comments and corrections:

-The Escapist Magazine no longer does PDF issues. They still have them up to issue 103 and have a special PDF issue for issue 210 (being the four year anniversary issue) but no other issues are in PDF form.

-RP Digest has been cancelled due to people not entering summaries for it.

-I also feel that you should have a seperate section for User Groups and another one for Reviews.

-In the forum section, I think you should have a different sub-cateogory for each forum and what goes in which.

If you need any help with any of the above, tell me and I'll see what I can write.

Well done.

Don't forget to bring a towel!

Nomad:

Enjoy your exploration, and I hope you'll find something you like in the mass of available content on the Escapist!

tl;dr = Mostly Harmless. :)

Nice job, just don't go trying to affect all past, present and future versions of the Escapist.

You might even get a "Thanks" badge for this. I hope you do, because it looks like a lot of work went into this.

Thanks for the positive feedback, everyone! It took me almost six hours to gather it all up (I work slowly, I know), so it feels good to know it wasn't wasted effort.

Zombie_Fish:
snip

Thanks for the corrections, I've edited the post to match.

As for separate sections for user groups and forum categories, what did you have in mind? I thought about it, but as for the user groups, there really isn't all that much more to say without mentioning specific groups, and then you have the issue of which groups should be mentioned and which ones shouldn't. And I don't really know what more there is to say about the forum categories. Any suggestions would be welcome.

AkJay:
Don't forget to bring a towel!

Darn, I wish I had thought of that line. By the time I finished writing the post, I had all but forgotten my initial theme.

Sticky this please, very nice guide, I think that we were all lurkers once.

Nomad:
snip

A few things you might want to change to make this more comprehensive:

- You may want to explain what's on the home page, as people will usually be most familiar with that. Just mention the news feed, latest featured content, the video archive, Article Highlights and the water cooler.

- The news feed mentions everything that happens with the site as well as things to do with gaming. A day's worth of news usually takes up three pages in the news feed.

- For the features, you forgot to include a link to Days of High Adventure, written by various people. you also didn't include Extra Punctuation, MovieBob: Intermission and SCIENCE!, but I don't know if that was intentional or not. Lastly, be sure to mention that the Feature content is stuff specifically made for the Escapist.

- You should make a section for reviews since a lot of people expect them from a gaming site. Be sure to mention that the reviews also cover anime. Additionaly, tell people that the Escapist does not use scores, so reviews are more focused on who will like the game. Lastly, don't forget to mention that while most reviews have video supplements, the full review is always in text.

- You should expand the descriptions of the other, non-ZP videos. UR is a parody of table top RPGs. Also, it wasn't cancelled, it just moved off the Escapist and onto its own site, urelms.com. Unskippable is like Mystery Science Theatre for video games, so if you enjoy MST, you'll like US. TWBB is considerably darker than most anything else on the Escapist and contains some adult themes. While it uses various gags from Nintendo games, it is, overall, serious. RMM is about the complete opposite of TWBB and is meant to be light-hearted entertainment. TES features the Escapist staff themselves and is a good way to see more of the people who work on the website. The Escapist Presents should probably be moved to the news sectin, since it is featured as part of the weekly magazine. Escape to the Movies is similar to ZP and is more about MB's personal opinion, even if he is well informed on the issue. MB also has more content on Youtube under the profile of moviebob. DA has two skilled gamers trapped in a war between the game world and real world. Each episode features one or two different games. AL is a comedy soap opera and most of the entertainment comes from the perversity and ridiculousness.

- You covered Genre Wars pretty well, but make sure to mention that it is a strategy game.

- Be sure to mention that all articles, columns, reviews, videos, news, and anything else will have a comments section so you don't have to search through the forums to talk about what you just read/watched. Additionally, mention that recently updated threads and popular hreads will be visible on the front page.

- Lastly, I had some trouble with the spoiler atgs not working, but that may just be my browser.

Once again, good job. These are just a few things you may want to change to make this more comprehensive.

Skarin:

Speaking as a former lurker and professional pie maker.

The pie part made me laugh. XD

OP: Good job on making this site map. Its very useful, especially to new members. This needs to be stickied.

Nomad:

Zombie_Fish:
snip

Thanks for the corrections, I've edited the post to match.

As for separate sections for user groups and forum categories, what did you have in mind? I thought about it, but as for the user groups, there really isn't all that much more to say without mentioning specific groups, and then you have the issue of which groups should be mentioned and which ones shouldn't. And I don't really know what more there is to say about the forum categories. Any suggestions would be welcome.

Well, just a short bit on each seperate forum (Off-Topic, Gaming Discussion etc.) and what goes in there was what I was thinking along the lines of when it come to the forums. As for user groups, I was thinking just a short bit on what the user groups are, and I was thnking that you could mention things like the Tech Team, suitable for complaints/ suggestions with the way the site is run; and the Moderation Team, for any comments about what the moderators can do to improve the site. Whether or not you think these are necessary is up to you though, as they're fairly basic and obvious things.

EDIT: You may also want to add that there have been various video/ column series that have since been cancelled, but are still available to view in the archive sections at the bottom of the colums/ videos indexes.

randommaster:

Nomad:
snip

- Lastly, I had some trouble with the spoiler atgs not working, but that may just be my browser.

First of all, thanks a lot for the corrections/suggestions, I'll get right on incorporating the changes. It'll take a while, though, thanks to my awesome working speed, so I'll probably end up doing the actual update tomorrow.

But about the spoiler tag issue, what exactly is it that isn't working for you? I figured I might have messed them up during the last update, but they're all working fine for me.

Zombie_Fish:

Well, just a short bit on each seperate forum (Off-Topic, Gaming Discussion etc.) and what goes in there was what I was thinking along the lines of when it come to the forums. As for user groups, I was thinking just a short bit on what the user groups are, and I was thnking that you could mention things like the Tech Team, suitable for complaints/ suggestions with the way the site is run; and the Moderation Team, for any comments about what the moderators can do to improve the site. Whether or not you think these are necessary is up to you though, as they're fairly basic and obvious things.

You're absolutely right, especially the tech/mod-groups should be mentioned. I'll get on that. As I pointed out, the whole reason for me making this guide is that I find the sheer amount of features on the Escapist mindboggling. So much so that I, at least, feel the need for a nexus of sorts to keep track of the content. It's only natural that I forget/omit a few things in the process of cataloguing them.

yaaay awesome job! It was so nice I read it twice

and yes, have towel will travel

Nomad:

randommaster:

Nomad:
snip

- Lastly, I had some trouble with the spoiler atgs not working, but that may just be my browser.

First of all, thanks a lot for the corrections/suggestions, I'll get right on incorporating the changes. It'll take a while, though, thanks to my awesome working speed, so I'll probably end up doing the actual update tomorrow.

But about the spoiler tag issue, what exactly is it that isn't working for you? I figured I might have messed them up during the last update, but they're all working fine for me.

The spoiler tag issue is probably a problem on my end since I'm using IE right now and it acts a bit wonky with this site somethimes. What was happening was that the spoilers had to be clicked twice before they opened, so it didn't break anything, it just made it seem like you accidentally for got to include content for some sections. When I get a chance to use FF I'll test it again.

One thing I forgot to mention was the various contests and quizzes the Escapist has. Also, don't forget to mention Warcry for the serious gamers.

Very well written guide there, quite liked it.
You seem like the type to enjoy my "Don't Panic group by the way:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/groups/view/Don-t-Panic [/blatant advertising]

AkJay:
Don't forget to bring a towel!

Damn you, you beat me to the punch!

This is gonna be really handy for new members. Nice job mate!

Nomad:
You're absolutely right, especially the tech/mod-groups should be mentioned. I'll get on that. As I pointed out, the whole reason for me making this guide is that I find the sheer amount of features on the Escapist mindboggling. So much so that I, at least, feel the need for a nexus of sorts to keep track of the content. It's only natural that I forget/omit a few things in the process of cataloguing them.

Cool, it is natural to forget stuff in the mass of this site, because of the fact that, as you said, it is just so big it is almost impossible to find everything without assistance. Also, this will definately need updating over time as new stuff gets added and old stuff removed, but the idea behind it is very good. I also like the fact that it is a lot more informative than the closest competitor that is the community map, which is an advantage to this and more reason why it should be stickied.

Like I said, if you need any help, just tell me and I'll see what I can do.

That's very impressive sir. The only problem I have is that, it being posted in the forums, it will soon be forgotten. But it would be great for many generations of newcomers.

This thread deserves to be forever preserved and sent to new users in the form of a PM when they join up.

EDIT: My keybaord has been acting strange lately.

Ah, active and useful people like you put useless lazy bums like me in shame.
Even though we already have an official community map, I find this a helluva lot more informative. Very good for new members. This should be fused with the official one.

Yeah, IŽll just creep back to my corner now.

Suiseiseki IRL:
This threads deserves to be forever preserved and sent to new users in the form of a PM when they join up.

That is actually a brilliant idea.

Pulse Reality:

Suiseiseki IRL:
This threads deserves to be forever preserved and sent to new users in the form of a PM when they join up.

That is actually a brilliant idea.

All that needs to be done is a section on the danger of trolls and flame wars.

Will this sell for billions??

OT:Nice effort there

That is an awesome little guide and break down of the site as a whole.

Now....Back to the lurking!