Welcome to The Escapist! … again. It was but a year ago that we all first met, that I first welcomed you. It was at that point that I explained the “Bar Napkin Moment,” the very one that birthed The Escapist in its original form.
And so, when thinking what to write here, for this momentous, at least in our lives, occasion, I felt it appropriate to tell you, again, about the Bar Napkin Moment. Well, this time, really, it was more of a Whiteboard Several Months. Yes, we’ve moved up in the world.
I believe it all began with … yes, our first issue. The letters came in with praise for the content, praise for the layout, praise for the ideals behind the magazine. And for every two of those, we got another one lambasting the same. While we were frustrated we weren’t able to please everyone, it was that same dichotomy that told us we had something special that we were able to so deeply strike a chord.
And that’s where the whiteboarding began – we discussed, pondered and argued what was the essence of The Escapist. We did this so that when we attempted to recapture some of those who found fault with our offerings, we would not change the things that brought us our first, and most loyal, friends. And after much deliberation and throwing of objects at each others’ heads, we think we’ve hit upon something.
So, without further ado, we bring you The Escapist Portal. Herein, you shall find the same old The Escapist offerings – the weekly magazine, The Lounge, the same content. But you will find more. The News Room has been added to bring you daily news from the source you have come to trust, and will be manned by contributor N. Evan Van Zelfden. Also, notably, we have added The Forum, the official discussion board for The Escapist. This will be a location for our readers and our staff to interact in a more open way than we have been able before, and we’re pretty excited about that.
And that’s not all. There will be more to come over the next few weeks. Yeah, we went all out – we got pretty excited about our birthday. We hope that you’ll find something new to love about The Escapist!
Cheers,
Julianne
