Are TNT and Unprofessional Fridays too similar?

The title says it all. As of late, Thursday Night Throwdown has become less about community interaction and more about just playing games, old and new. While there is certainly nothing wrong with this, the introduction of Unprofessional Fridays has really made this fact much more glaring as the two shows seem all too similar: the crew bring in a selection of games and we watch each member play a small section of their game. I understand that we're in bit of a dry spell in terms of games as it is the new year and new consoles are just over the horizon so there aren't very many competitive multiplayer outings to be had, but I think TNT should be reworked to bring a little bit more variety to GB content.

My proposal... Thursday Night Throwdown is no longer a weekly show and it only happens when there is a new game with a competent multiplayer suite. In the weeks that this is not the case, we can have shows like Spookin' with Scoops, Jurassic Lark, Random PC Game, or Flight Club to fill that space on Thursdays. This allows more variety in our weekly content consumption and some of these shows that don't happen as regularly can get some air time.

I'm interested in hearing everyone else's opinion regarding the matter. Maybe you enjoy just watching some dudes play games or perhaps you agree that a change should be made?

I'll watch as much of the staff playing games as I can get. I ain't complaining.

They're only now starting to catch up to their productivity before the CBS merger, don't rock the boat now or we'll go back to how it was all summer and fall; one Jar Time or glorified Quick Look every couple weeks.

As long as there are duders in front of a camera playing video games and streaming it over the internet, I'm fine with whatever it is they want to do.

Well, 2 of the TNTs were to honor THQ and Atari going bankrupt, so there's that. Otherwise, it's been the usual multiplayer show we're all used to.

@azteck said:

Yeah basically this, though I agree the features are quite similar.

Instead of reducing the regularity of the feature I'd much rather they played co-op games or competitive games amongst the staff (honestly I'd rather see this than playing with the community really) it would still be a throwdown but just not with random people online. I mean two of the best TNTs in my opinion were are the Dead Island and Fortune Street one, it would be great to see them try more things like that, like a You Don't Know Jack one or some Gears Horde mode on a higher difficultly.

Ultimately we just need more board games/card games/Fortune Street style multiplayer; I've always found the direct interaction with the fanbase to be dull and the funniest TNTs are staff-only almost exclusively (though there was a very interesting one involving fighting games with some dude who was amazing at them on the couch)

They are similar, but one you have to pay for. And I don't pay.

So I'd rather have at least one good day out the week where I can get a quality good time, where I can have rare moments, like pigeon-love.

fortune street was the tits

I like their recent approach. That Brad Muir TNT was hilarious. I don't find the multiplayer focused TNT that fun to watch unless they keep it local with fortune street/cards against humanity.

Sorta, and Unprofessional Fridays is better so I don't know what to think about TNT any more.

Its the beginning of the year, there haven't been many interesting new multiplayer games being released. Although I agree, they could do a better job of distinguishing the two and bring in the community more for TNT. I personally would love to see Chivalry on TNT along with BBS games. It was fun to see Ryan go back to XCOM, more older games would be awesome. 4 player Diablo, Pacman champonship, or any of the oldies from the archive would be fun. It gets boring to Halo/TF2 community nights, more thinking outside the box, please.

Yeah pretty much this. I really don't care what they do as long as they have fun doing it.

I don't even care if they had a Thursday Night Throwdown on Thursday AND Friday. That just more entertainment for me to consume.

So basically you want to remove the free content and replace it with paid content?

I understand that as a subscriber you may not view it this way, it's all content to you, but not everyone is. Now, I know it's just $50 a year, and I do plan on subscribing at some point, but I always tend to find myself choosing to pick up a game over a GB subscription whenever I have money to spend.

As for TNT itself, I enjoy it. It's not as good as proper quick looks, but I would be disappointed if it went away.

I'm sorry but you're incorrect. TNTs are strictly professional. The pants come off on Fridays.

This pretty much summarizes my thoughts. I do agree that they've been fairly similar of late. As long as TNT keeps it's multiplayer focus then that's just fine by me - whether that's online with members, couch co-op, or staff-on-staff competition doesn't matter to me. It's all great.

Ultimately I enjoy both shows, and that's really what matters the most to me.

I think the only reason TNT and unprofessional fridays are similar at the moment is because there are not really any new multiplayer games worth playing on it. Also it seems like wednesday is becoming live Subscriber content day where we get random PC game, Bradley may cry, flight club etc.

Maybe TNT will evolve into something else. lasts weeks look back at alter echo with Brad Muir was really good and it seems like they are doing something similar this week as well.

As the website gets more and more stable and features updated for the people writing articles and lists and wiki information in the community, I imagine we'll see more random streams.

The Blade Runner streams, for example, are probably being tied up by the site transition.

There is going to be a Blade runner stream tomorrow according to ILM and the upcoming box.

No. They seem very different to me.

They just seem similar because that last few weeks TNT hasn't been very community multiplayer focused. This is probably due to chat having issues and they wanted to pay homage to the Playstation and others. I am sure TNT to the way everyone is used to it soon enough.

This is more or less my view on it. Though I'll be honest, I far prefer the shows where they play games with the rest of the staff as watching shooters for 2 hours gets a bit stale, even though I realize I might not be the best representation of this. I do wish they'd do more Old PC Games and things like that because they are a little different (and also lets you see Dave for a while).

Unprofessional Fridays has been the best thing to happen to Giant Bomb in a long time. TNTs recently have been more about them just playing games that are relevant for that week (THQ, Atari) and while it is usually about them playing multiplayer games with the community, both of these scenarios are scenarios I like.

Like others have said, the Brad Muir TNT was great and Tim Schafer is confirmed for an upcoming TNT. This is a promising trend. I think it would be cool if they alternated "throwing down" with developers and the community. Getting to hear stories of development in a relaxed environment is really great, and access to the creatives behind games is a hard thing to come by in this age of locked down marketing plans.

I'm fine with TNT being less about the community, only because I watch it and don't want to participate. I don't want to hear everyone repeating the same tired GB memes or trying to be in the spotlight on the live stream or only helping/targeting whatever GB member is playing.

I enjoy watching them just hangout and play games together, it gives new insight on the backstory to games I enjoyed and never knew

I'm with everyone in the "dood shut up before they notice" boat. More content is always welcome no matter what the hell they're doing.

No.

TNT is R-rated. Unprofessional Fridays are X-rated as seen in the recent installment. How lewd!

uh, fall had plenty of stuff (and summer was slow even during the WM days) I have no idea what you're talking about?

people always say this but never back it up with actual fact

As a European I am able to watch this live like once every three months, so anything thats enjoyable to watch afterwards is great.

re: title-

nope.

I'm just ready for whatever the Wednesday feature is.

Why are you complaining about it? It gives us more content and more staff interactions. It seems as though some staff members are too busy for TNT each week but as the week winds down guys like Drew and Vinny are able to step out.

I can understand and sympathise with the complaint, but I personally do not agree that the change of direction for TNT is detrimental. The TNTs where they are just playing the latest multiplayer shooter are really boring, and so I'll take a jaunt through a console or publisher's catalogue over that any day of the week.

Some people don't like multiplayer, and I'm one of them. Except for TF2, I don't really have any positive experiences of multiplayer games, and I've never been involved in a TNT. Plus, the TNTs that I find myself going back to are often the ones where it's them playing games in local multiplayer or co-op - Dead Island, Fortune Street, the 3DO retrospective, and the Cards Against Humanity TNTs are probably my top five favourites.

They're sort of starting to blend into one another, BUT this is not a complaint. I love me some entertainment.

TNT should change from Thursday Night Throwdown to Thursday Night Trackmania.

Maybe. But I don't really care to be honest.

When a new game comes out that's fun to play multiplayer, TNT will go back to normal.

Nope. I enjoy Unprofessional Fridays WAY more than anything else on the site. Really hope I still have my job this summer so I can renew my subscription

TNT needs more Vinny, that's about my only concern.

Sometimes; more than anything though, I think they need to rework Thursdays into something more...interesting. Old/weird/obscure/complete trainwreck games are by far the best things to watch; so, I want to see more of that.

TNT's been pretty lacking lately. Just playing old Atari and Playstation games is more a Unprofessional Friday sort of thing. But Ryan doesn't seem to give a fuck.

The best TNT was fortune street, so they should do more like that.

LOGIC.

Your mother is too similar.

BOOM! ZING! BLAM! POW! FACE!