Direction of Giantbomb and Premium Content

I know it's my choice. Thanks for clearing that up. This is a forum, where you can share ideas and beliefs. I'm afraid that what I have to say is supported by an ever increasing number of GB users. I'm not pulling this out of fantasy land. It is an undeniable fact that the quality and prevalence of content has lowered.

People here seem to idolise the GB crew, and for the life of me I don't understand it. How much do they actually interact with you. Most people here haven't even met the crew. Fine, I understand how people can say that they feel a connection with the crew, I used to have that connection. However recently this has gone. I still play games, I still have all the same interests I used to except this website.

The quality has gone down. Alex and Patrick do a really great job of producing interesting content. I enjoy that. For the amount of shit that Patrick had to initially put up with, he has really come into his own and is (in my eyes) the most forward thinking individual of the team. I honestly believe he could do better than this website. In addition, and in relation to the paragraph above, Patrick makes a concerted effort to connect with the GB community; answering questions and responding to comments. For that, thanks @patrickklepek.

I'm afraid Jeff is boring. He moans. He isn't fun. Perhaps he thinks he's superior, perhaps he is. However, I honestly believe he comes across as arrogant and dismissive. I find his attitude boring and creatively disabling. I feel he can be overly critical and harsh to Brad which becomes tiresome. At first Brad used to submit, but now he tackles Jeff head on leading to some heated debates.

I used to dislike Patrick and thought the division of the crew would only damage creativity. Instead, I support the individuals of the GB crew flying the nest. Individuals blossom outside of that CBS office, both professionally and socially.

Look at the front page of GB right now. Most, if not all, of the content has been uploaded by Patrick and/or Alex. It's a disgrace.

Close. Forgot to mention how they don't have anymore excuses, how much you hate Patrick and how things aren't they same as they were in 2011.

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As a subscriber, I don't feel too bad about the amount of content I've been getting.

Sausalito was a special time and I do miss it. However times have changed and as much as I miss the office videos of randomness Giantbomb is still Giantbomb. I admit a non vinny bombcast seems horrible but I will still listen.

I don't know whether its just because it suits my interests perfectly or quite what but the addition of the Alt-F1 podcast with its amazing intro music, the Box office Bomb and the Powerbombcast as well as escaping ads (except for the small businessman, I don't want to miss the small businessman.) more than justifies the $50 price tag for a year. Then again I subscribed to the WWE network so my moneytary judgements might not be completely sound.

If however you feel like you are not getting your moneys worth, just cancel your subscription. That will send a clear message to Jeff, but more importantly to CBSi. Where as sitting on the forums and complaining whilst still providing the money won't. Running a business is a time consuming job, especially when you are business within a business and you only have two department heads and a website to run. To @unilad's point most of the work Alex and Patrick produce is either opinion based, interview based or news, this tends to require a lot less production time than the work the SF office does. Whilst they do bombing in the AM twice a week other than that their time is mostly their own meaning they can stagger their work in a way that makes them seem more productive by maintain a content level on the site.

Shit is gonna pop off when new people come on. Just know it.

Also I bet Vinny does some Random PC Games when he moves to New York.

I still watch and laugh at GB content as I always have. The energy's certainly shifted, so I can understand people falling out of love, but I personally still love it. They remain a fun-loving bunch that doesn't take themselves seriously, and focuses their attention on the industry intrigue that I love the games business for.

Also VinnyVania. Fuck, I hope he continues the journey in the east.

Another one of these threads? Ugh.

As I've said elsewhere, as long as they fix the archived video player, I've got no issues subscribing. As it stands, their game capture equipment and encoder doesn't properly encode. The videos aren't even possibly in HD. The amount of artifacting and low-res video made it almost impossible for me to tell a difference between Titanfall X1 and Titanfall 360.

Hey another thread discussing the same shit the last 3 discussed in the same reheated ways.

I did say "by this fall", I'm not expecting anything for some time. As you pointed out, it's not like this is a light switch they just can just flick on. It will take some time to get settled and setup and it will take some time to find their creative rhythm. Vinny and Alex haven't done together much from what I can tell so their will be some time where they find their chemistry and what sort features best suit their collective talents. Maybe it will be winter, but they will get it figured out.

And the San Francisco Office is hiring a Producer and an Editor last I checked, so that's 2 (Drew+New) people editing and 3 (Jeff+Brad+New) people doing Quick Looks which would effectively take them back to almost where they were before last summer (Drew+Vinny & Jeff+Brad+Ryan+Patrick) in San Francisco. Except they now have 3 satellite people putting out content which they never had before, so arguably (depending on GBNY's production) they could be putting out even more content than they ever have once they hit their stride.

My Main point is there is hard evidence that they have a long range plan for the site and are finally being given the resources to execute the plan. Which is a big reason to be optimistic.

This is the other thing. Bringing on those two new hires just brings them back to square one. They'll still be understaffed, except now those people will probably be hated instead of loved like Vinny and Ryan were. They should be hiring, at least, two editor types because one isn't going to cut it.

Oh look more anti opinion police have showed up. You guys must love everything here and this site is infallible. No criticisms allowed guys.

You know, this type of thread always comes out on the lull before E3. And it always has the same things over and over (Not enough content, Jeff is jaded, Brad is bad, Patrick is pushing an agenda, heck I even remember people moaning about Ryan). If its not worth the money don't renew. That sends a clearer message at this point than making a forum topic, since it comes up almost every single year season at this point. These type of threads are starting to become the new "they should do X endurance run," in terms of how stale that idea is.

Am I concerned with the GB expansion and the potential loss of Vinny? Sure am. But until I stop getting my moneys worth it (UNP is still a nice side program, the powerbombcast is great, and Vinnyvania was pretty great, no ads), I am probably going to renew. These are not the bad days when they barely moved into the office, and I am cautiously optimistic.

@gorillamopena: If there is a God...