Giant Bomb GOTY 2019 Discussion Thread

@sethmode: I can’t fathom them doing days 1-3 without the mic on, but I’m open to being wrong.

I thought it was a ton of stuff we’ve already heard, as regular listeners, which made it superfluous content, at best. At the same time, it took bits of conversation that may have been interesting during the actual deliberations and just dumped it into days 1-3. There were a number of times when they cited listening to days 1-3 and moved on.

It seems REALLY weird to ask folks to listen to the first 15 hours rather than only have the conversations that come up naturally during discourse.

Anyhow, I guess if they keep this up, best case is I can ignore the content until the debates and hold onto hope that it feels less listless next time around...

@nutter: Don't get me wrong, I don't think they would do it for 15 hours without the mic on, I think it would be MUCH shorter. I think a lot of this becomes a chicken and egg thing...if they were just in a room with no cameras on they'd all say their piece and be done. In front of a camera or something you have to sound "smart" or "debate well" or you see what happens all over the internet. I think originally this was meant to show how they decided, but the feedback became so intense and regular that now it has shaped HOW they do these.

I don't mind the setup, if they could just give themselves maybe more reasonable time limits to talk about stuff. An hour of Death Stranding talk was both painful AND unnecessary. But if I had to choose between group videos and hours of needless deliberation about GOTY? Videos 100%. If they're going to do one week out there each year to do group stuff, do that, and just put out random GOTY content and the results to your internal deliberations. That'd be alright with me.

Having more hours spent on a game doesn't necessarily mean you liked it more. Some games run out of content sooner than others, but they can still be the best experience even if they lasted less time.

@dogby said:

I'd be okay with this, but also with returning category discussions instead of the recaps.

I'm not okay with the idea of scrapping GOTY entirely like some people suggest in favor of video content, that's a nuclear option that I guarantee most people would hate. There has to be a way to strike a balance between the podcasts and video content. I'd have gone with 2017 or 2018 GOTY content over 2019.

Once again the last day of discussions highlight how this new setup isn't great. Luigi's Mansion nearly made it onto a top 10 list without Ben knowing that it's a levelbased game. Outer Wilds is nr 1 without Jeff knowing what the translator does. They spent like 80% of time on games they didn't care for. And while i agree that giving some love to the smaller games might be the most important part of GOTY, the talk about Later Alligator, Astrologaster, Cadence , Disco Elysium, Outer Wilds, Heave Ho, Ape Out, Void bastards, Baba is You & Neocab just doesn't warrant 3 days of recaps. Especially when most of those stand out games were good enough to be discussed in the last 2 days anyways. Like is anyone out there now suddenly into Yooka Laylee, Greedfall or Wolfenstein YoungBlood after they got namechecked for a min or 2? Has anything of note been said about games like that? Also, would games like Astrologaster, Later Alligator & Cadence really get less love in earlier iterations of GOTY? I always felt like the crews Indie darlings would get their fair shake no matter what. And even in this iteration, plenty of games that the crew enjoyed in the quicklook (A Short Hike, Pilgrims, Katana Zero) were not named at all eventhough this setup is all about naming games that might not win anything but should still be mentioned.

Wouldn't it be more fruitful to have each member pick a game they want to give some love to and play a bit together? Have Jan show off some Pokemon stuff to the crew. Play some Later Alligator so the crew can see the whole style come together. Let Alex go through a mission in Judgment. Play a few loops of Outer Wilds so Jeff can actually see a part of that game. Suddenly your video content is much more engaging and the discussions are better informed. Like the quicklook for COD was all about what a audiovisual tour de force it was, but here in the podcast where you can't get a sense of that, it was restricted to how the multiplayer was very good and the coop sucked. If the crew was in a room with that game for 10 minutes at least the audiovisual part would be part of the conversation.

In light of what GOTY ended up being I found myself going back and re-listening to year's past GOTYs. I feel this might've been one of the worst years of this decade to get rid of all the smaller fun categories as there were a lot of small fun games that would've filled them up. Now instead of highlighting these games in the areas they shine we get a bland recap of them alongside recaps of games that no one on staff cares about and don't give them the outlet to properly codify the frustrations they have with these games i.e. the more negative categories; 2014 and 2015's negative categories didn't feel hostile at all. I don't understand why they didn't just try the old way with the idea of "hey lets take this a little less seriously" to avoid the negativity; I always found the one person's passion outweighing that of the groups to be a lame argument in a site wide list and felt if they all just accepted the idea of a site list vs. their personal list would alleviate more of the ridiculous obstinate shown in these.

This year's GOTY was the cherry on top of the underwhelming year for the site as a whole imo. It feels like everyone is just putting in less effort to make good informed decisions around their content and are just going by the seat of their pants philosophy while at the same time not doing anything that unique. If they want to mainly focus on lets play style videos that's fine but then it would be nice if the players took the initiative to look into the games they are playing before hand or after they run into issues instead of just putting their heads down and being confused for the majority of a series. I'm not even sure if this complaint is that valid as I canceled my premium after GTA and Burgle My Bananas both had this issue and only one could transcend the frustration of watching people complain about the game they're playing every week (GTA).

Yeah I think this or some element of this might be a bit better. The first 3 days of podcasts were different this year too in a way that I thought took away from it. Last year was tricky because games were all being put arbitrarily into categories even though no-one thought they really belonged in a category. This year they went through game by game to 'give each game its due', but for some games they were just like 'yep, that game existed' and moved on. Which is in a way a needless waste of time? Games that I really think deserve some due this year (like Total War: Three Kingdoms) don't get a mention at all (nor did Mordhau I believe? Though I get some dev. controversy there - surely same as BL3 though?) which is fine, because the crew don't play those games, but that undermines the argument of giving the games their due. I'd rather they just have a Google Doc of games they actually want to talk about and discuss those and what categories those might hit.

Anyway, the podcasts were down for me too this year by nature of the attrition of categories (Hottest Mess etc. - the fun seems to have disappeared, which is what I've always come to GB for), but the video stuff is my big frustration still. I know I'll be dismissed because 'this is the GB process now', but I've subscribed since 08 and, whilst they don't owe me anything, this is the first time I have personally felt like there's been a substantial dip in the quality of product I am paying for.

I'm subscribed to November 30, 2020. I would pay to take back that money. Seriously, GB, get you act together.

Yes. Primalrily Jeff, but pretty much GB as a whole does not respond well to critique. In fact, they seem to double down just to spite the people who are paying their salary. Frankly, it's a little weird how they handle it.

@revel: Yeah, I feel like they can’t have these discussions without spoilers.

I play less games too, and have been cramming to get through stuff before the deliberations. It feels like this is the last year I’ll bother as the deliberations have been mediocre for a few years.

That said, I did fast forward through ALL the Red Dead stuff last year (still haven’t found time to start that game). I skipped Alex’s plea for Judgment, too, as I’m about 20 hours into that one.

I think the spoilers are needed, but it does suck when they’re thrown out there without reason. Detailing the Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order arc and ending this year felt totally meaningless. It was detailed, then immediately nullified with something along the lines of “well, the story is rote, but the characters are really what does it.” IF THE STORY ISN’T A HUGE DEAL, WHY DETAIL IT???”

And yeah, I feel like Brad is a spoiler machine. I have a friend like that. It’s always:

“hey, did you see this?”

- No, but I want to

“I saw it, it was great! Want to know how it ends?”

- No, I’d like to watch it for myse-

[proceeds to give away ending]

It’s innocent excitement, not malice, but MAN I could do without it. I think some people just get very excited to talk about things. In the case of Brad, I do wish he’d consider the points he’s making before unleashing a barrage of plot details on the listener. I think in the case of Fallen Order, he nearly immediately removed the game from contention after detailing the ending.

They do spoiler tag the hell out of these podcasts, though...so we have been warned.

Honestly, the site hasn't been the same for me for a while. After Drew left, it just felt like something was off. That isn't meant to slam any of the crew or anything, I'm just saying it seems to have affected the dynamic of the site. I haven't had my subscription for a couple of years now, which is crazy, because it used to be almost all I watched in my spare time. Now, I just catch the Best Of videos. This new format for the GOTY podcasts sounds rough. I don't typically listen to them anymore, but I usually try to catch the articles, so their absence is certainly felt. And the two group videos that they put out, while enjoyable, just felt kind of cobbled together. I have no problem with things being messy and real with Giant Bomb videos, as that is part of their charm, but that mixed with a seeming lack of passion just makes it feel more sloppy instead of quirky. I don't know what the deal is, but I know it's a bummer. Hopefully, they're just kind of in a slump, and things will sort themselves out soon.

@ohnogc: I dunno...maybe the nuclear option (stop the GOTY deliberations) is a clean break.

I think a big part of what made Giant Bomb was scrappy resourcefulness and unbridled enthusiasm. A lot of the early days were very much the Jeff and Ryan show. They fed off each other and were brilliant. Vinny was that for Jeff for a while, then Dan, and eventually Ben.

I think if they’re being less inventive with the deliberations and the energy isn’t there...there’s no forcing it.

If the staff doesn’t want to do it the old way, if they don’t have the enthusiasm for the old way, I think forcing it would continue to make folks unhappy.

Maybe a clean break is best? I’m part of that apparent majority who wants the 2008-2016 era back, but I think I’ve finally accepted that it’s gone.

It’s not for me anymore, and I’m disappointed but okay with it.

@quarters: There have been some clear slumps in the past, and they’ve pulled through them. The GOTY slump has been three straight years, so I think it’s more of a new normal than a deviation.

If the crew wants to do it the old way again, great! Until then, after three years of this conversation, I’m just ready to let the GOTY content go where it goes without me.

It used to be a knives-out celebration of games. It was energetic and the site was filled with positivity about it. It’s become a listless thing that feels like it happens because it’s what’s on the schedule. I don’t think it should happen unless the staff wants it. It’s like a bad cover song, these days.

As this is a creative endeavor, they’re best off doing what they want and letting that energy come through...The last three years’ deliberations have felt like obligations, not celebrations.

When you get certain staff actively calling out how much they hate the fanbase, it doesn't inspire me to bother with their content anymore

GOTY in general feels to me like something we should be done with by now, like system wars and comment sections, but my god, the idea that calling out shitty behaviour means that the crew hates their fanbase as a whole is completely fucking asinine.

GB is a personality based site, but that doesn't mean they are your friends, or that they owe you anything. Plenty of fair criticism and discussion in this thread, but some of y'all need to take like 9 steps back and maybe find other things to do with your time.

Is there no Hitman video this year? Haven't watched the Winter Games video yet and looking forward to that, but other than that, am really disappointed in this year's GOTY content. The single person videos aren't much fun. Group content is always way better. Miss the old style GOTY podcasts too with the categories

This is a personality based site and they put very little personality into the GOTY this year.

@the_patriarch: I’d argue that they’re running a business and that keeping customers happy is key.

You don’t need to completely sell out or make decisions via customer feedback alone, but I REALLY hope they’re listening and considering the feedback and how to implement changes that will keep customers and the staff happy.

Once you lose your customers, you’ve lost.

There's PLENTY of examples out there about certain people having open disdain for the community. Bearing in mind a lot of people pay for premium, it feels kinda rude. We know they're not our friends, obviously. But when you look at where Giant Bomb came from, and where it feels like it's going, it's hard not to get invested

@sombre: Cant imagine why.

I'm sorry but this is a business, not a hobby blog, not the Youtube of a bored kid. When you run a business you don't publicly shit-talk your client base, even if they are idiots or say/do stupid things. You just don't.

The original goal of the GOTY podcasts was to show how "the sausage is made". That has changed over the years but this year it seems a lot was done behind the scenes. I enjoy listening to the entire process and to have cleanly culled lists at the outset wasn't that interesting. I've also noticed a trend in every discussion that when it comes down to the final 5 or so of a category, they start "taking the temperature of the room" by essentially voting what to cut. I understand why but it's becoming increasingly common with every category.

While I really enjoy the recap, I felt the balance of recap to deliberation was off this year. I like having the top-10 as a separate podcast, though. There were 3 days of recap, 1 day of deliberations for individual categories, and 1 day of top-10. It felt very samey. The categories weren't fun or that interesting. I think the format is excellent but needs tweaking. Something like 2 days of recap, 2 days of deliberation, and 1 day of top-10.

I am a little upset there isn't even a single negative category. Removing worst game or most disappointing makes sense if you're trying to shift to a more positive atmosphere. Not even mentioning some extremely important events in the games industry during a recap of the year is pretty bad, though. No mention of Blizzard-Hong Kong, Riot and women, etc. I've always felt it was important for GB to touch on these subjects and I am disappointed that they didn't.

The shorter personal videos are great! The distribution seemed uneven, though. East released twice as many as West (10 to 5). No videos from Rorie or Jason. It's a great idea that, like the podcast format, needs tweaking. While I enjoyed Winter Games and Feud, I'd like to see some match-ups we haven't seen very often. Jason and Vinny hanging out and doing something would be a lot of fun. As would Jeff and Abby, Jan and Dan, etc.

I understand that a big part of why the parts I enjoy were under-emphasized by having only 1 week together. The reasons are none of my business. I hope that moving forward, GB has the resources to finish stronger.

@alexw00d: Here's the thing: If you don't act like a total ass in the comments, they aren't talking about you. It really is that simple!

The bad behavior in the comments has spiked in the last couple of years. Everyone who says this community is still great must not be reading the comments, which are loaded with vitriol. Calling it out is fair play. People who see their dislike of videos as a license to act rotten can leave if they don't like taking what they dish out. Their daily 9 cent contribution won't be missed. If you aren't acting that way, those comments aren't about you. Really, really simple.

Probably nicer ways to express this. Paying $35 for a product doesn't grant you license to dictate how people produce that product. And demanding it this way is just an effective way to let people know it's perfectly OK to ignore your input.

@alexw00d: You're stating your opinion as a fact, man. In my opinion a company can have values or call out shitty behavior. In fact, I find the mentality that businesses should only care about the profits to be disastrous to humanity and the planet.

With that said, I just decided to skip GOTY entirely this year and listen to something else while travelling for Christmas. I really think they should get back to the drawing board and just come up with something completely different for the year-end podcasts. Just look at a certain 5 star podcast that had a very good slew of podcasts this year that had a positive vibe and funny categories. There are alternatives that aren't just canning the GOTY podcasts entirely, or keeping them as just recap shows as they're doing now.

@retris: Which 5 star podcast are you referring to? I found GB's GOTY podcasts really boring and lifeless, and would love to listen to a more positive and fun alternative.

Personally I have seen some bad times with the community (and my examples might differ wildly from some others examples, which I wouldn't agree with the judging of personally), being here since the start, but mostly good and it is unfortunate the negativity towards it from the staff or it feels like also zero listening to feedback since it is in there. I get how it can effect someone personally so I'm understanding but it feels like no one is listening. You can pay people to go through things and come up with useful info so they don't have to even.

I have found this thread civil and as with all my criticisms in it say I want the site to be better because it has been and I think could be.

These sorts of responses help no one. Unless you are getting paid, don't spend time worrying about criticisms for something people are paying for. You're doing free PR work for no one. It's a commercial website with a paid sub.

@stephen_von_cloud: Very well put.

Every time there's a Subscription sale on they go on about how they couldn't do what they do without us, or how the entire reason they can exist and function is because of subscriptions, how we pay their salary and how thankful they are.

Then they proceed to never read comments, ignore criticism, and barely respond to people on their own site, just sticking to twitter and tumblr. And, at worst, subtly yet actively make fun of their own audience in some videos, which has happened multiple times just this year. Makes all the subscription sale announcements during the podcasts feel kinda disingenuous now, in hindsight.

Guess they can't see the hypocrisy in it, but it's pretty disappointing, coming from someone who has been a subscriber since 2013, and a follower since the Hotspot days before that. This isn't something completely 100% related to just this GOTY stuff specifically, but it's something I've noticed over the years. Some sort of strange "critics that can't take critique" situation.

Are we talking about comments on the site? It's largely overwhelmingly positive. Naysayers/neggers will always exist in some capacity. Unless we're specifically looking for those comments and generalizing everyone into the bunch.

One of the last pieces of GB content I ever made, inspired by that old ramshackle energy the site had.

Not looking for those comments and not generalizing everyone into the bunch. I mean I specifically just made the point, twice, that for those who don't act this way, there should be no problem with staff calling out bad actors in the community and that those people aren't going to be missed. I said the behavior has gotten way worse, not that it's the dominant or even majority behavior. And it has in my mind. And I don't mind those instances of bad behavior being called out by those who work here and don't feel like taking those hits quietly time after time.

I don't know if it says more about me or the GOTY podcast but this year really super depressed me with how little quality content there was. Giant Bomb's GOTY content was legitimately one of my favorite things every year. I'd spend all week devouring the content trying to convince my non Giant Bomb friends to listen to it and debate with my gaming groups about the Giant Bomb list. Since Giant Bomb East starter the GOTY content became even more special because it was the only time of the year to see the whole gang do fun stuff together (E3 they have no free time to make side videos).

Now we have three days of recap of games we already heard, one day of "fun" list making, and one day of GotT dicsuccsion where no one wants to fight over anything anymore. To put salt in the wound the side group content became solo rants about topics most people don't care about. Sure Abby talking about mutton chops on female characters is fun but we can get that 8 minutes in a random podcast the other 51 weeks of the year. Why don't want short, solo rants at GOTY. This is our only chance to see the group together, please do more than two poorly produced game shows (sorry but being honest, past years have had much more effort put into production. I work in production for a living, I know when people make choices for convenience rather than putting out the best product. They didn't even get the sound correct on one).

I don't know how many of you listen to Waypoint but Austin and Patrick reminisced about past GOTY at Giant Bomb with at the politics and such and how great it was. I really miss that. They were talking about how they can't wait for this year's GOTY to see what happens and Id imagine even they would be left empty by this year's GOTY as nothing they were talking about in the past happened this year.

I am torn because I get why Giant Bomb has trimmed their GOTY content. They don't want to spent two weeks in San Fran and they felt like they were being to negative when it should be a celebration of the games. Yea, but this new content is sub par and left people wanting more. If they refuse to go back to how it use to be then they still need to ditch this format and find a better one. This content is lifeless and takes advantage of nothing that makes Giant Bomb special. Maybe ditch the GOTY podcast day 1-3 and use that time for group content. After all having half the group half awake or staring at the ceiling for hours at a time during the 12+ hours of recap when games they didn't care about where talked about isn't celebrating games. I don't blame them, I'd have trouble remaining focused if I was one of them, ITS 12+ HOURS OF RECAP!!!!

I keep going to the GiantBomb website expecting to find something I missed this year. This can't be it... but sadly it is. Please Giant Bomb don't put out this poor of a product again, its taking away what is for me the number one reason I love giant bomb so much. I'm not saying I won't renew my subscription or anything, you'll still be the best, but not by as much as you use too. As it is now I don't see any reason to listen to Giant Bomb GOTY podcast over any other site... and that's a very sad thing to say.

Yeah, I won't ever really understand when people act like the staff is insulting *them* personally when they say something about the shitty aspect of their community, or any community for that matter. If you aren't an ass, they OBVIOUSLY aren't talking about you, and why on Earth would you want to carry water for the people that they ARE talking about, like someone that just rolls into the comments to say something horribly sexist or just outright insulting?

Look at this recent example: some Disco Elysium fans in the comments after one Beastcast, took massive offense to Vinny saying something along the lines of "Some parts of that community maybe shut the fuck up." Then, in Day 5, Abby basically gives the game props based on Ben's well argued pitch, but with the caveat that the amount of harassment she received over that game will forever mar it for her. Now, we can comfortably assume when Vinny told a portion of the community to "maybe shut the fuck up" he was talking about those harassing his friend and co-worker, right? Or, do some REALLY think he was ALSO telling his friend and former co-worker Austin Walker, who loves Disco Elysium, to ALSO shut the fuck up? That's the kind of argument someone is making when they act like calling out bad actors is calling out *everyone*.

@kerned: I was talking about Waypoint Radio, due to their "5 star podcast, 5 star runtime" tagline.

@retris: Seconded on Waypoint Radio podcasts being great. Folks looking for intelligent, engaging discussion should really give their end of year stuff a shot.

Just finished listening to their fun immersive sim short pod. Fantastic.

you're lost in the weeds discussing this when the entire point discussing in this thread about this years GOTY is they don't listen to feedback on their content constructively and openly and some at GB have directly said so at times.

I mentioned it, and others, because Jeff on his blog just said about this GOTY basically yeah we didn't want it to be cutthroat like people want so now we do this that's how it is - when if you listened to feedback you'd see people don't want that so much as it would be to have GOTY be fun and have any style to it again. Or hell don't do it if its a burden. A regular GB week is better.

And again, I get there's shit on here at times but they are owned by CBS. Someone can take a look for good feedback. There's no excuse.

It's not woe is me, it's just a bummer to see the site slide.

I haven't really seen this outright disregard for any constructive criticism before? It gets referenced a lot, but I never encountered it. Regardless, what I HAVE seen is exactly what I've talked about, which is the crew not really tolerating bullshit and not engaging with it. *shrug*

Jeff's take on GOTY sounded more like they were going to do something that they wanted to do? That's all we know. Perhaps this was all they could make work this year for whatever reason? I personally have no interest in speculating if this is all some group thumbing of their noses at the community or not. It seems pointless.

But then again, I've always thought GOTY was kind of boring and could be completely gotten rid of if they wanted to, so whatever they want to do with it is fine by me. The only thing I was disappointed in this year was the lack of group content, but again, I have no idea what kind of restrictions there might have been behind the scenes on that, so oh well. Life goes on. We'll see what next year is like.

It took me a few episodes because I found the mannerisms of one of their crew to be difficult to listen to, but I'm glad I stuck it out. It's some really great stuff.

Eesh. I can appreciate trying to keep the week content-packed with the individual lists, and those were fun to listen to, but the lack of group content outside of Family Feud, Winter Games, and deliberations was disappointing. I think reviewing all the games that came out during the year is good to make sure the staff is on the same page, but on the other hand, calling them deliberations feels misleading compared to what people have come to expect of them. Maybe if it was called "Year In Review" or something like that, and in pure podcast form before everyone gets together for GOTY, it would feel more accurate.

Since going back to all group categories looks to be off the table, I think letting everyone do personal categories would be a compromise. The staff video lists were likely meant to be that, and are a good first step, but next year I hope that, for example, Ben can name his personal Hottest Mess and Dan can name his Best Moment or Sequence. Everyone doesn't have to do every category - just the ones they feel the strongest about.

And you know what? GB still put out some fantastic stuff this year. GOTY 2019 may not have been the best, but there were some good moments. Here's hoping it's upwards from here.

I really hope they tweak the format next year. The first three days just aren't worth the time if you listen to the podcast at all regularly. The interest in these discussions comes in the specific categories that the games are discussed.

I'd also like to see a few more group segments like previous years, even if it needs to be the separate coasts due to time constraints. Some of the most fun stuff I've seen.

OK after skimming some comments above here holy shit are people going off the deep end. I was a bit bummed by the GOTY podcasts but enjoyed pretty much everything else. Time was limited this time and I get that, and I've enjoyed tons of other stuff throughout the year.

I found the podcasts helpful in a way that I wrote down games that caught my ear. I guess I'm of a minority in that I haven't had time to listen to the podcasts every week like I would do pretty religiously in high school and college. Still, I definitely get that the whole work that was put in here was a little overly dry and messy, maybe they can work on a way to be more straightforward with the accolade-giving while talking about the games they want to talk about?

Idk, Business Dave is my favorite thing ever, and as someone that continues to regularly buy and play Rock Band DLC, I would love to hear Alex's reports on new RB songs that come out. One of my earliest Bombcast memories is Ryan and Jeff talking about the DEVO tracks Harmonix put out to download, so I had quite the nostalgia lenses on when I went through that video (though like for real you probably just want to do one video a year about it lol). Maybe some of it has already been brought up in other podcasts? Nevertheless, it's just a simple video of reminiscing. Like I said, at worst I feel they might need to tighten up the video production a little better is all.

I think they just need to bring the couch back and get rid of those ugly desks

@thebipsnbeeps: Business Dave’s Top 10 lists are the best active content on this site. I wish they’d get their own playlist (as I fast forward through Unprofessional Friday’s to find them).

Business Dave: Secret MVP of 2019

It's been the most disappointing year for GotY stuff in GB's history unfortunately.

The 15 hours of game recap seemed sterile, no real discussion on why they were being discussed I thought. At least last year they were on the fly adding them to categories which gave the process meaning.

The 2 cross coast videos were both great ideas but both executed very poorly. The lighting, set, audio, graphics etc, were all so subpar for what this site should be putting out. The group videos are by far the best content, and if there isn't enough time I'd like to see more time and focus being spent here than on sitting in the podcast room talking about games that have already been talked about with seemingly no focus.

There are a lot of good ideas in this thread, and I know a lot of people are only posting because they care. Hopefully this doesn't come across as whiny, but more that we want to product that we love to be better.

Also, no negative topics seems a bit odd. I don't want them to just argue about shitting on things, but generally the biggest dissapointment and hottest mess were good places to flex the fun and creative muscles on the team as well as taking some bad publishers to task and not having them is a big loss.

I still enjoyed the group video content this year, and days 4-5 of the GOTY podcasts, but I do think this was the weakest GOTY content I can remember. The single-person videos do not have what is so great about this site and people: the interactions between them! I would rather see that time put into regular content at each coast, or even better: more group content!