Did you bother searching for similar topics? There are a billion topics about this and honestly, I don't care as long as GB and the regular staff stay the same.
@TripMasterMunky: I agree with you 100%. Very well worded thread. You've wrote a calm and collected critique and it's exactaly as I feel too. You're still going to get shouted at for having an opinion, though. But that's how it goes.
If there was some way to filter the news articles based on who posted it, I would have absolutely no problem with this. My problem with it is just that It's so hard to find the news articles written by Jeff, Brad or Ryan now.
Also, I hate to say it, but I probably would be more open to the increased news flow if the articles weren't just grabbed from other game blogs, reworded and posted 3 hours later than the competition. I would love it if they brought in some guys to start writing opinion pieces.
If there was some way to filter the news articles based on who posted it, I would have absolutely no problem with this. My problem with it is just that It's so hard to find the news articles written by Jeff, Brad or Ryan now.
Also, I hate to say it, but I probably would be more open to the increased news flow if the articles weren't just grabbed from other game blogs, reworded and posted 3 hours later than the competition. I would love it if they brought in some guys to start writing opinion pieces.
The quality of writing is fine, the 'news' that they report on is useless crap I don't need to know most of the time. I mean, seriously, The Mummy web browser game?
It's fine, the only people who dislike it are the ones who still visit Kotaku/Joystiq and can stand the idiots in their comments. I've stopped going to those sites since GB now covers most things and I can read the comments here without despairing for the human race.
And if you think they are allowed to post anything without someones OK first then you're in for a suprise. Since most articles are reaching 50+ I would say alot of people think they are worth reading, even Tested are looking to do the same. Not to mention it gives the crew more time to work on other stuff.
Although I do agree about the Mummy MMO, wrong demographic there.
" I agree. I don't like how much crappy news there is. I DON'T care about a Mummy MMO... I don't think anyone does. "
You may not find it important, which is why as a human you have the right to skip that story. There is probably lots of people who are interested in such stories. As for the original poster, you have to remember that as the amount of users increases so will the amount of stories covered. GB needs to cater to all it's users, or those users will go to other website that offer those stores. So tell me now, would you as GB report the stuff you "think" as important or everything? Like Mcdonalds does not just sell Big macs cause they are popular, they also sell the fish burgers.
Two people is probably one too many for just paraphrasing news stories from other sites, hence the 'scraping the barrel' feel to some of the news stories. They aren't doing anything wrong and no animosity towards them is justified at all; they've just both been given the same task to do (and I imagine that task is shitty enough at the best of times).
Woulda been better off with a news guy and a PC coverage guy, imo. The platform accounts for a decent proportion of the userbase (judging by the number of white names I see around and the polls that come up from time to time - it would be interesting to see a breakdown of 'Site Usage by Platform Preference'), yet is still virtually unrepresented if Dave isn't around. If you could clone Dave that would be ideal, but failing that I think adding another guy that could offer a different opinion and some extra content would have been better than doubling up on news guys.
Edit: Forgot to mention that freeing up Jeff, Ryan and Brad's time has to be the real benefit here, which I'm sure will pay off over E3.
" This will take a while, but I am going to take a guess and say that Brad and Matt are both new in the Game Journalism business in the sense that they do not have the knowledge and strong opinions of games that the others in this site have. I read the article on Pokemon, and for the most part I didn't expect to see it written in that way, as the last thing I wanted to read about was how much the writer loved pokemon. If the writer knows his history isn't something that is unique to the experience of others, just don't write it in, as it turns a news article into a filler article real easily. I hope that with more experience, the new writers find their way and start to make more intelligent and meaningful posts, instead of trying to forcefully connect with the crowd. This isn't necessary as I see this everywhere now. The need to reference the readers so directly, the need to talk about your childhood memories etc. I should only see this stuff in blogs, not news articles. "
The thing is, if they are new and not yet good writers, why the heck are they working here?
I don't have a problem with the new guys. At least they aren't like the morons at 1up.com. Nothing like reading meaningless crud filled with bias from egotistical interns followed by a bunch of horny teenagers who can't spell, a 43 year-old unemployed man and those losers selling stuff from a sweatshop chiming in.
Of course, what did you expect out of Sam Kennedy, who under his watch ran a website where he encouraged hatred, online circle jerks and elitism and then lost much of his audience when he told them he wasn't going to tolerate it any longer? Unless you're a regular blogger or something.
" This will take a while, but I am going to take a guess and say that Brad and Matt are both new in the Game Journalism business in the sense that they do not have the knowledge and strong opinions of games that the others in this site have. I read the article on Pokemon, and for the most part I didn't expect to see it written in that way, as the last thing I wanted to read about was how much the writer loved pokemon. If the writer knows his history isn't something that is unique to the experience of others, just don't write it in, as it turns a news article into a filler article real easily. I hope that with more experience, the new writers find their way and start to make more intelligent and meaningful posts, instead of trying to forcefully connect with the crowd. This isn't necessary as I see this everywhere now. The need to reference the readers so directly, the need to talk about your childhood memories etc. I should only see this stuff in blogs, not news articles. "
The thing is, if they are new and not yet good writers, why the heck are they working here? "
As I said in the other thread: Post too much and people complain it's convoluted by stories which aren't important. Don't post enough and people complain the site is boring with not enough content. If you don't want to read this stuff then don't read it. At least if it's there then you have the option.
"It's the same principle as a condom: Better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it."
I personally can't believe people are sitting here and asking for less news. You ungrateful bastards. Don't listen to them Brad!
I dig it. It's not like it's Jeff or Ryan writing these, its freelancers and interns. The means the main crew is free to review games and do quick looks. If you don't like the articles just ignore them and stop bitching.
I agree that a quality over quantity approach would be better. They should only be reporting news that is important and relevant to their audience. Now, deciding what is important news, thats where it gets tricky. But i can tell you with a lot of confidence that stories on a free to play Mummy MMO or a logo change by Rare are not important news.
They report on video game news. Get over it and stop complaining. Why would you all compalin that they reported on a Mummy MMO being announced...seriously? It's a video game. So they made an article about it.. they are here for making news articles...about video games.....on a video game site.
I'm pretty sure you are all mad because this sites users just loves to kiss the asses of the original staff, but then new guys come in and report the news instead of the other guys, and you all don't know what to do anymore.
The thing is, if they are new and not yet good writers, why the heck are they working here? "
Well this is easy to answer. Since this isn't as well established a site like other sites that have been around for longer, it does not have the world-wide pull to demand a higher quality of service than others. Sure, this site ends up better in my opinion than most gaming sites in general, but this site needs to get older and have more content that is good before Giant Bomb can start to attract writers of a higher calibur. Mind you I am not a fan of this weird standard of "Since it's new don't give it a chance" by people in general in industries, but hey I'm not the one with the pull to change this way of thinking any time soon.
Oh interesting. Thanks for that clarification. However that kind of worries me that Brad is more experienced than we thought, and still writes articles in a cheesy way. Again, there is plenty of time for both of them to get used to writing the usual stories in a more original way. Good luck to them and hoping they do well for the future of this site.
The thing is, if they are new and not yet good writers, why the heck are they working here? "
Well this is easy to answer. Since this isn't as well established a site like other sites that have been around for longer, it does not have the world-wide pull to demand a higher quality of service than others. Sure, this site ends up better in my opinion than most gaming sites in general, but this site needs to get older and have more content that is good before Giant Bomb can start to attract writers of a higher calibur. Mind you I am not a fan of this weird standard of "Since it's new don't give it a chance" by people in general in industries, but hey I'm not the one with the pull to change this way of thinking any time soon.
Oh interesting. Thanks for that clarification. However that kind of worries me that Brad is more experienced than we thought, and still writes articles in a cheesy way. Again, there is plenty of time for both of them to get used to writing the usual stories in a more original way. Good luck to them and hoping they do well for the future of this site. "
Hmm, well probably they want more writers, but they cant bloat the payroll too much or they risk becoming too big to operate in the manner they currently do. You would have to pay top writers top dollar. People who are their friends like Alex Navarro are great writers, but may have accepted slightly less money because they knew they were going to get to work at a cool place. Being intentionally sassy though is a blog writing style. I think its silly, but some people like it.
" Yeah, I preferred the limited flow of quality written material from the familiar faces. Brace yourself for the pitchforks wielded by the "you're afraid of change" and "complaint hypocrite" crowd. "
I liked the 4+2 thing they had going. I mean I know they are going to expand. It is almost unsustainable for them to have only 4 people handling the coverage and 2 back end people. But like said earlier too, I like the familiar faces and just a few people.
" Yup if i wanted a ton of articles on such important things as "GH Announced" (surprising that!) I'd probably go to kotaku or joystiq because they love posting a ton of articles on rubbish that i don't care about. I prefered the slower pace here, not a fan of seeing news on here that I've seen on other sites long before. "
thats the whole point isnt it? you shouldnt have to go to another site. It's easy to forget that this is still a business, because the staff here is more personal than on most sites, but they still need to get paid, the site still needs hits, not to send people to other sites. "
He was saying that he doesn't want to read stories about that stuff which is why he liked the old news style. It would be great in theory to get all the news here but if most of the new stuff is being posted up to a day after other sites, does it really need to be posted?
I agree with everything already said. I don't have a problem with the new guys and I think they will fit in nicely eventually, they just need some quality control over what they post. We don't need a news post for every single little bit of info that gets released. Quality over quantity should always be the motto. Its gotten to the point that I look to see who the author of the post is first before reading any of it, and if its done by one of the new guys, I close it immediately.
" Yup if i wanted a ton of articles on such important things as "GH Announced" (surprising that!) I'd probably go to kotaku or joystiq because they love posting a ton of articles on rubbish that i don't care about. I prefered the slower pace here, not a fan of seeing news on here that I've seen on other sites long before. "
thats the whole point isnt it? you shouldnt have to go to another site. It's easy to forget that this is still a business, because the staff here is more personal than on most sites, but they still need to get paid, the site still needs hits, not to send people to other sites. "
He was saying that he doesn't want to read stories about that stuff which is why he liked the old news style. It would be great in theory to get all the news here but if most of the new stuff is being posted up to a day after other sites, does it really need to be posted? I agree with everything already said. I don't have a problem with the new guys and I think they will fit in nicely eventually, they just need some quality control over what they post. We don't need a news post for every single little bit of info that gets released. Quality over quantity should always be the motto. Its gotten to the point that I look to see who the author of the post is first before reading any of it, and if its done by one of the new guys, I close it immediately. "
I never visit any other sites, so it's nice to have the news.
To me this site is about Quick Looks and the Bombcast, not day old gaming news. These news guys should write some original articles to bring more traffic to the site instead of copying other sites news.
The only news I want to hear is either a two minute discussion on the Bombcast (so Nolan Bushnell is back at Atari... pizza parties!) or a full fledged article where the staff member in question gives what amounts to useful knowledge from someone who knows. When Jeff talks about how he feels that a business decision or an E3 rumor will play out, it has credibility because the guy has been covering this industry forever and knows how it usually goes. When the new Brad is shamelessly reposting rumors from other sites, it's tantamount to just asking for pageviews and hoping a fight starts in the comments.
I want to see news where my game journalists of choice (the Giant Bomb crew) use their knowledge and personality to deliver news, and give their thoughts on it in their unique way. When it's just "here's a new game, there are rumors it could have hamburgers in it, what do you think" it's so Goddamn annoying that it makes me want to skip the news.
Since destructoid and kotaku are both awful now, I like the fact that I can make this my one stop shop for news. I pretty much only came here for Quick looks until recently.
To me this site is about Quick Looks and the Bombcast, not day old gaming news. These news guys should write some original articles to bring more traffic to the site instead of copying other sites news.
"
Well see, I disagree. I've seen the new guys post stuff before the other sites and believe me, I'm looking or clicking.
I honestly doubt anyone gives a fuck about 90% of the news and people just read some that interest them here and there. This is why I think all the news suck cause they ARE cluttering up the frontpage and also why I recommended in the suggestion thread to have one column with news and a separate one with the regular giantbomb videos which I think are still the site's main draw.
Besides, the news guys are never on the ball and repost hilariously old shit. Where are the news of Thief 4 and it's retarded name? Anyone? No? Thought as much.
" I like the idea of having additional writers work on news stories, and I believe that they will come into their own in time and everything will balance out nicely. They'll figure it out guys, relax. "
They say they will only cover the news that matters, well, different things matter to different people so they can't really be too picky...I don't care if a lot of it is speculation, it's something to read when the forums are having an off day.
If you don't like the articles don't read them, but why wish for them to be gone? There was not enough news content on this site before. Sorry, but you can't be a major gaming website if you don't have any news stories. It's a good thing that the site is growing. Most of the people in here admit that they go to other sites to get their news: that's the point, you shouldn't need to do that. Sorry to tell you but Giantbomb needs to be more than just quick looks.
@ManMadeGod: It would be different if they were actually breaking news or writing original stories, but as it stands we're getting stories a lot later then dedicated news blogs with little personality injected into them.
IGN mostly posts a few dozen stories on a given (decent) day. Giant bomb posts maybe 10. I enjoy my news through a Giant Bomb filter, and more news is not a bad thing. Even if you don't like it, it's not like you have to read it. I don't get why this is being made into an issue other than the fact that gamers are scared of change.
The new news style is great. It's good to see some new information up on the site more often and the stories are written in a very personable and entertaining way as fitting of the feel of GB.
I like new Brad and Matt. People are complaining about the lack of compelling news stories, but it's two weeks before E3, so of course there is not a whole lot going on at the moment.
Also, just because you don't find something interesting or newsworthy doesn't mean everybody else won't. If it doesn't interest you, then don't read it. Crisis adverted.
"When it's just "here's a new game, there are rumors it could have hamburgers in it, what do you think" it's so Goddamn annoying that it makes me want to skip the news. "
Here's the thing: You can skip the news. A truly mind-blowing concept, isn't it? I only read news items that I find interesting, which is about one of twenty.
Here's the thing: You can skip the news. A truly mind-blowing concept, isn't it? I only read news items that I find interesting, which is about one of twenty. "
I don't want to skip the news on my favorite video game website. I'd prefer it if Giant Bomb stayed at a quality higher than Kotaku or Dtoid. These are completely valid concerns.
If there aren't any relevant gaming news, then people shouldn't be posting stories about them. It doesn't matter that "Black Ops have a different kind of co-op" if you don't know what that different kind of co-op is. It's not relevant that "Mass Effect 3 will have humor" if you haven't even played Mass Effect 3. Articles like these are dime a dozen on the internet, if you really crave posts like this then Kotaku is a great place to go.
What Giantbomb does best is opinion, we have a sense of a writer's gaming taste, and so we know that when they write an editorial that it is relevant and poignant. New Brad is bringing in his bad habits from Destructoid, where editorials are along the lines of "Why Prototype is Blantantly better than Infamous". It's understandable that this site needs more written content more regularly, but that can be done without sacrificing the quality of the articles.
And I'm not saying that "if you want news stories get out of Giantbomb!", I'm saying that there are blogs out there who do a better job at writing news more regularly. And I would have more editorials and opinions on Giantbomb that more news articles.
" Irrespective of the content or volume of the recent batch of stories that have been posted, I really don't like the voice being used. Failed attempts at humour degrade from the entire article, and in the short time the new guys have been posting a clear template for their articles has already been established: Headline Brief comment Bad attempt at wit "what do you guys think?" "
I agree with this.
I understand there are slow news weeks, but that doesn't mean you resort to posting some BS. It means you create more thought-out articles. Articles. Not a few paragraphs that can be summed up in a headline.
People follow that above outline too much. "New GH annoucned!" There you go. That's all you need to do. Why create an entire news article devoted to it? So you can attempt to add your wit?
I don't see why you should complain about more content. For me, it just gives me more of a reason to visit this site everyday. You don't have to read it and if you're not interested in it, chances are, someone else is.
I'm just reading the stories that interest me and skipping the rest. Like I do on any site. Now there are more, that's important to some people, and those people draw advertisers. Whiskey Media isn't some mom & pop startup. Those folks are players (and I don't mean games). They know how to get eyes on sites. It was neat reading every single story a year ago, that's because I like how the guys write. But if they're spending all their time writing funny articles, there's a lot of other content-rich stuff they can't be doing. And there's games to be played, son.
If you don't want to read the articles, dont read them. Whiskey Media and the GB crew can do what they want with the site, they own it, no one is forcing anyone to read the new stuff. Just skip over it and enjoy the rest of the site, which remains unchanged, with more content since the main crew is freed up from editorial.
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