Ways the Bombcast Can Improve

All it needs is a 30 minute window for "E-MAILS!" instead of 10. Other than that, it's fine as it is.

Not a big fan of the lengthy "what are you playing" segments. When it gets up around 90 minutes or more I find myself paying less attention. Stuff like X-COM recently and the endless LA Noire discussion last year were the only times I can remember fast forwarding through episodes.

More goofy shit, be it emails or "other" (UVB-76 episode was a favorite) and actual news discussion is what I usually like the most.

@MikkaQ said:

@Milkman said:

@smitty86 said:

Just saying, this week alone (3 days) , the forums have just been loaded with the following requests at one point or another:

• more structure to the bomcast
• less non-game related talk on the bomcast
• shorter bomcast
• shorter quick looks
• less quick looks
• quick looks with much more prep time
• less spoilers (in regards to video)
• more spoliers (in regards to the bomcast)
• less Patrick
• no Patrick
• more premium content to make up for the apparent lack of current premium content
• changes in the main crews personalities as they are too jaded in their opinions
• better reviews
• a return to the old days of giantbomb
• more effort in everything
• stop being lazy
• get a better camera for non-game videos
• less personality, more information
• less information, more personality

Exactly. The userbase has no idea what they want. They just like to scream complaints into the void. Just smile and nod. It will pass.

Yep, the community is exactly one person who suffers from indecision. Or it's thousands and thousands of people who have different ideas on a site they are passionate about. I can never remember which.

Or maybe... indoctrination.

@CrossTheAtlantic said:

@MikkaQ said:

@Milkman said:

@smitty86 said:

Just saying, this week alone (3 days) , the forums have just been loaded with the following requests at one point or another:

• more structure to the bomcast
• less non-game related talk on the bomcast
• shorter bomcast
• shorter quick looks
• less quick looks
• quick looks with much more prep time
• less spoilers (in regards to video)
• more spoliers (in regards to the bomcast)
• less Patrick
• no Patrick
• more premium content to make up for the apparent lack of current premium content
• changes in the main crews personalities as they are too jaded in their opinions
• better reviews
• a return to the old days of giantbomb
• more effort in everything
• stop being lazy
• get a better camera for non-game videos
• less personality, more information
• less information, more personality

Exactly. The userbase has no idea what they want. They just like to scream complaints into the void. Just smile and nod. It will pass.

Yep, the community is exactly one person who suffers from indecision. Or it's thousands and thousands of people who have different ideas on a site they are passionate about. I can never remember which.

Or maybe... indoctrination.

COLLUSION!

It needs be longer and have more off topic discussion.

Nope, podcast is perfect. Sure if you just list out the segments, seems kinda boring, but the anecdotes are the best part, resulting in super funny stories. What ya been playing is always good for upcoming games and the news does get rushed I will give you that. But the new releases would be fixed if they just included the Nintendownload Express.

At the end of the day, I want interesting content. Because I am never just listening to the Bombcast, I am either out for a walk, working out, doing some work on the computer or passing time playing Minecraft As long as what they are talking about is interesting, I have no problems. Emails, is more or less hit or miss, new releases comes late enough into the podcast, where I can either skip it to something else, or just restart the bombcast, or (now that they have been longer) I am done with the thing I was doing.

I think that downloadable games often don't get the attention they need. It might be a good idea to start a segment focusing on downloadable titles for portables for example. Maby the 3DS. The shop music playing in the background might be a nice touch.

I came to this thread ready to throw down about this topic - as the bombcast is easily my favorite podcast - but I find myself agreeing with a lot of what you say here. I do love the Whatcha been playing segment, but would like more depth to some of the discussions. I would also like to see them spend more time on emails considering that the majority of the laugh-out-loud moments happen in that segment. Good breakdown.

Remember that time they played that game where they rolled a dice to decide which segment was next? Yeah that was pretty good.

For me everything is cool except the new releases section near the end. All the other parts are great in their current form.

@Pie said:

Remember that time they played that game where they rolled a dice to decide which segment was next? Yeah that was pretty good.

Yeah, I liked Ryan's experiments during that month, kept things fresh and interesting. Just when I was getting weary of some in-depth discussion on a game I was less than enthusiastic about BAM, email. Not sure why they decided to revert back to the way it was.

@Pie said:

Remember that time they played that game where they rolled a dice to decide which segment was next? Yeah that was pretty good.

Which one was that, again? I'm bored, and that was a great episode.

Jeff needs to stop trailing off and the end of his sentences. This is super nit-picky I know, but it has been pissing me off for the 4 years I've listened to the Bombcast.

Everything could use more Matthew Rorie.

This is my firm belief.

@Brendan said:

@Hailinel said:

What the beck is with the flood of threads with people trying to play armchair editor?

I can understand why you would feel this way, but as long as the topics aren't unintelligent and/or simply trolling, then it's not bad. Actually, even if not all of it is great, having constant market research like this being presented to them all the time is a fantastic advantage for a website like this that most companies have to work hard for. Their product is a platform for customer feedback, and that's pretty great as long as everyone maintains an open mind.

This sounds great, and likely applies to most publications, but it seems like the vast majority of the times GB has been presented with criticism, and actually acknowledged and addressed it, their answer is simply, "don't like it, don't listen." I love the crew and this site, but they really don't take criticism well at all, and I doubt Ryan of all people will take the critiques of this thread to heart and implement any changes.

But, that's basically fine with me because I don't take much issue with the Bombcast's format. Although, I do agree with the OP that detailed descriptions of mechanics are tedious and dry, and that emails should feature more heavily in the podcast. New Releases I actually don't mind because I listen to the 'cast sporadically in chunks, so there have been multiple occasions of me going "oh yeah," being reminded a game just came out when they quickly go over it like that.

I like the Bombcast a lot as it is (it's the best of the best), but I do wish they didn't sound as annoyed with taking/answering emails. Other podcasts definitely talk to their listeners more. Just rubs me wrong some days.

@Djnuttty said:

I am sick of all these threads as of late. People can't stop bitching.

I can't visit any part of this site anymore without people complaining about any and everything. DAE PATRICK? Y QUICK LOOK LONG? NO FUNNY?

I've listened since Arrow Pointing Down. There is no dip in quality. It's not them, it's you.

P.S. Idle Thumbs is cringe worthy.

@Barrock: No, more Xcom talk!

an extra hour or two is all i can think of. i enjoy everything else.

I really think that the bombcast is at it's best when they don't talk (in depth) about video games. I really disagree with Jeff and Brad's opinions on most game, and think that their opinions are incredibly over the top and wrong. That said, i fucking LOVE these guys as people. They're funny, and overall just energetic and entertaining. For a long time the bombcast was all about energy drinks and bad food, and people LOVED it. I could literally listen to Brad, Vinny, Patrick, Jeff, and Ryan talk about ANYTHING. ANYTHING.

The only time I loose interest in the podcast is when they go real on depth about. Game I'm not interested in (Fez was my own personal podcast hell) other than that I think it's fine. The last couple of weeks have been some of the best episodes I have listened to.

More explosions and headshots. Maybe a persistent XP based ranking system.

I'd be totally into that.

I can only really relate or agree to the 4th point, New Releases.

Love the rest of the segments as they are (with exception of misinformation during 2).

@Hamz said:

The Bombcast just needs a 10 minute segment of Vinny and Brad taking turns to read bedtime stories and I'd be a happy man.

I already use the Bombcast as a regular background noise to fall asleep to. If it actively encouraged my habit I would no longer have issues falling asleep at all.

CURE MEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!

I agree with some stuff. They can cut the New Releases segment. If there's a new release worth mentioning, take it up in the News. And I would like it if the News segment got more room. Hearing about what's going on in the industry have become more interesting to me than a 20 minute rant about a small detail of a single game.

I like rants. But in what way Connor is climbing up trees, or wheter the trees are hand crafted, or if you can travel from place to place via trees only... yeah skip it.

@Sparklykiss said:

Everything could use more Matthew Rorie. This is my firm belief.

This is the one thing that keeps me weirded out about the GB crew. Everything else usually has some sort of clearly identifiable explanation.

At this point (from the outside looking in) with this suggestion having been brought up so many times by the users, it starts smelling like bad blood occurred (or accrued) somewhere at some point, maybe even unwittingly or unnoticed.

Hope this doesn't come off as a crackpot conspiracy theory, i am merely speculating :P

@Hailinel: Maybe the volume of criticisms means there are ways the podcast can improve and more people are taking issue with it.

@Daiphyer: I'm more than happy to spend three hours listening to a podcast, just wish it was more enriching overall. I don't even mind in-depth breakdowns of games so long as they are willing to talk about EVERYTHING, not shying away from spoiling often-terrible narratives or nonsensical plot-reveals just because panicky people take issue with it. I'm annoyed with the shallowness of the conversations, not the length.

I already said it in this thread, as have others, but I'll say it again. Cut "New Releases". It's the most useless part of the show. The only explanation I can think of for having it in there is for people who listen to the Bombcast only and don't visit the site maybe?

Bombcast is perfect as it is, although I might agree with the axing of new releases.

@kishinfoulux said:

I already said it in this thread, as have others, but I'll say it again. Cut "New Releases". It's the most useless part of the show. The only explanation I can think of for having it in there is for people who listen to the Bombcast only and don't visit the site maybe?

Meh, new releases make up like, 1% of the show, sometimes they tell me about an XBLA game or something I wasn't aware was coming out, or something.

My opinion of how they could improve the Bombcast... Well, sometimes I don't like hearing them talk about a single game forever, especially if I haven't gotten the chance to play it yet. I mean, of course they do, it's their jobs. BUT! I think for games where multiple of them have played through it, game-specific spin-offs would be appropriate. The MGS4 & MW2 spoilercasts are some of my favorite content ever, and it's nice to be able to wait until I've finished the game to get their full, uncensored thoughts on the game. I realize this all stems from my selfish desire for MORE BOMBCAST, it's just me.

I would say to cut the new releases for sure. I understand where you are coming from in regards to spoilers but some people like myself are sensitive to them. They have gotten complaints about spoilers so that is a tricky one. The ideal way to solve that is to add time stamps to the podcast so they can be easily avoided. That however is not the bombcast way. So we have to wait until GOTY and hope we get in deapth talks about games such as Walking Dead and Spec ops.

I love the current setup of the podcast and my favorite part is your #2 there. When they talk about games they go back to or just more in depth into new released games. And sometimes they correct themselves if they where wrong on a quicklook or something. Only thing I would really enjoy is more user emails. When listening to older ones they are hilarious and do more than what they do currently. Other than that it's perfect!

I like the issues you bring up and agree whole heartedly. i think the bombcast is not beyond saving, because when Jeff runs the podcast, nothing against Ryan, it seems like the focus shifts more to the anecdotes and the e-mails then when Ryan is running the show. I'm not sure but I love this podcast and will continue to listen even if they never change any of this. I LOVE YOU GIANT BOMBCAST!

What I really want to see are more like 45 minute to an hour game specific spoiler casts, and I agree with axeing new releases segment.

a section where they play a chill beat and spit game for a lil lol

I liked the old Bombcast news section where they didn't feign ignorance and refer to Patrick for a 5 minute run down.

I say make it more sexy... Throw a little slow R&B; in the background and just see what happens... Oh yeah, you know what I'm talking 'bout, video games and those who discuss them. Seriously though, it's perfectly fine as it is just needs more sexy.

Podcast is fine.

The only thing I want from the Bombcast is the return of the drink tasting segment.

You want the worst segments to get longer and the best segments to get shorter.

Kindly fuck off.

Why would you want more "spoiler talk"? What a dick thing to say. You don't need to spoil a plot to make an interesting conversation about it. I don't think they're all that paranoid about this, they're just careful I guess.

Spoilercasts are fine though, because you know what you're getting into.

@thabigred said:

You want the worst segments to get longer and the best segments to get shorter.

Kindly fuck off.

Also the podcast is fine just the way it is. When I want something else I listen to something else. Also people who say the QLs are too long make no sense to me. Stop it when you've heard/seen enough or don't watch at all, problems solved.

The podcast don't need to change, it perfect the way it is

They should add a segment called "We Love Sonic The Hedgehog" and let Ryan Davis moderate it. :) The podcast is fine as is, but I do hate it when they linger on one game too long(multiple podcasts I mean).

@Snail said:

Why would you want more "spoiler talk"? What a dick thing to say. You don't need to spoil a plot to make an interesting conversation about it. I don't think they're all that paranoid about this, they're just careful I guess.

Spoilercasts are fine though, because you know what you're getting into.

Why is that a dick thing to say? It's annoying when they try to discuss something and have to tip toe around it (and sometimes end up spoiling anyways). You can get much more in depth, with spoilers, as opposed to without them.

If the podcast got longer to fit in more emails, I would be happy. But its fine as is to me.

@kishinfoulux said:

@Snail said:

Why would you want more "spoiler talk"? What a dick thing to say. You don't need to spoil a plot to make an interesting conversation about it. I don't think they're all that paranoid about this, they're just careful I guess.

Spoilercasts are fine though, because you know what you're getting into.

Why is that a dick thing to say? It's annoying when they try to discuss something and have to tip toe around it (and sometimes end up spoiling anyways). You can get much more in depth, with spoilers, as opposed to without them.

Because it ruins the story for people who have not played the game yet?