GiantBomb WAS my homepage, I miss it

Eh, it will pick up soon enough, once games start coming out again and the personal issues of the staff get resolved.

The gaming industry is changing fast.

Considering the rise of casual gaming and the perpetuation of some less-than-functional control schemes, a certain level of cynicism should be acceptable.

In all seriousness, I would love for there to be more content (despite the fact that I can't keep up with it as is), but I don't find myself getting upset over it. I don't presume to know exactly what's going on in the office, but I do know that these guys are adults who need this to succeed to make a living, so it's hard for me to accept reasoning like "they're just being lazy," or "they don't care" like a lot of people are saying. They're laid-back, but they're not stupid. And I'm not cynical to the point where I believe they're just sitting around the office, staring at the wall all day. Things unfortunately move slowly the bigger the company is... and while that's far from a satisfying excuse, I think that's just what's going on. That is, the agonizing red tape of getting everything they need in their hands. For the first couple months at least, they seemed to only be able to function by means of borrowing equipment from GameStop. It was only, what, last month that they were finally allowed to move into their recording space? Corporate shenanigans aside, add in the fact that practically every member of the staff has had something significant happen in their lives recently... and I think one can afford to be a little understanding. Whether you consider that relevant or not... whatevs. I'm not saying no one has a right to be disappointed, but I think it's silly to be denouncing the whole site, as folks seem to be doing. That could just me, though, and I'm sure I'll be called a 'ass-kisser' or a 'white knight' or some precious title like that for making this post. That's cool, I'll cop that I am hopelessly temperate. But, hey... they're still putting out entertaining videos. I don't have it in me to complain that it's at a relatively subdued rate.

But, I do understand that the situation gets more justifiably frustrating when you're a premium subscriber, expecting to get everything you got during the prime of the WHISKEY EMPIRE. I think they should at least be addressing more specifically why their activity is stifled instead of just continuing to act casual in the face of it... 'cause just joking about it can give people an ill impression.

Ah well.

NEW ENDURANCE RUN AND EVERYONE WILL FORGIVE YOU

TRUST ME

This was always going to happen every summer after 2009. 2009 had the P4 endurance run every day in the slow season, and it was the greatest thing. Summer ain't gonna be like that again.

This reminds me of when I watched the P4 Endurance run. Every now and then you would see a comment or two about how "This is a waste of time and is taking away from the rest of the site". Even during its "prime" do these complaints happen.

Asking them to be our content monkeys isn't helping. The more pressure they feel to please everyone, the more and more this site will start turning into every other mundane videogame site out there. It's okay to be critical, but it's dangerous to be demanding.

Content might still be a little slow, but the quality is still there. Some of GB's best work has taken place after the merger.

They are slowing killing off GB, Jeff is starting to appear on more gamespot stuff. And CBSi are just slowly getting rid of GB. This will be my last month of subscription.

@Bourbon_Warrior said:

They are slowing killing off GB, Jeff is starting to appear on more gamespot stuff. And CBSi are just slowly getting rid of GB. This will be my last month of subscription.

rofl yeah totally after CBS got them new tricasters they're totally just going to get rid of them

Has anyone considered the possibility that increasing the quantity of content may lead to a decrease in the quality of content?

Everything they put up is great. They have a system. Don't fuck with it. And for fucks sake, stop whining. We all look like entitled children when topics like this come up. We subscribe because we support the site and the people involved, not so they will "owe" us something.

夏です。新しいゲームがない。Summer is always slow for new releases and content since most of their content is quick looks at new releases. Really since California Extreme is around the corner excitement is bound to return. But, also, excitement ebbs and flows.

@Castiel said:

Isn't there a new type of this exact thread every single month?

I was going to post an HTML Clock to countdown how much time we had left until a new one of these popped up.

@Animasta said:

@Brodehouse: I remember this same exact type of topic at least 3 times last year

Its been at least 3 times this month, but It was a valid point for a while. But this is about the amount of content they had in the peak of content before the move to CBSi.

A few Quick looks, A tnt, and A premium thing on Friday.

I think one week we got a week with two premium contents, but that was only because we had Daves radio show after TNT, and a Premium thing on friday.

This is brought up way too often--especially as of late. 
 
They are still setting up stuff in their new office. Fixing up a new studio, setting up their proper capture equipment, settling in to a new office, working on a site redesign--all in the midst of a slow summer release schedule and Patrick unfortunately losing a family member. 
 
Fucking. Chill.

Is important to have this conversation. I find myself not buying the excuse of "there's no games"

If anything, Giantbomb 's most popular features involve older and /or overlooked games. Don't think nobody here comes with the intention of educating purchase decisions. The GB community has a mind of it's own when it comes to that, more so than other communities out there...And that's something they learned from the GB crew.

I'm not sure what's happening over there, but I've never seen them so disinterested. Maybe everyone is lately? So perhaps the fault doesn't lie with them, but id like to trow my 2 cents out there in case it helps cheer up the mood a bit. Producing content is not something I necessarily think they owe us, but something I thought they enjoyed doing...Hence come here and pay a subscription.

I will say that I feel a little disappointed at the lack of content lately. I feel that 2/3 of the videos are trailers to pad the video list, and that's not why I come to this site. Frankly, I don't even want them to do 90% of the recent games they do. I come to the site for their personalities. They could be talking about synchronized swimming or pen and paper games for all I care. Hell, even something as crazy as ham radio.

That said, I do have faith in them. Maybe they're busier than we think. If they have normal 8-9 hour work days then maybe there's just not enough hands on deck. I know Jeff stated in a jars video that he'd like to get more help for the site. Maybe they're confused, or maybe they're working on something big and awesome. Maybe they're starting to reevaluate their life decisions and want to drop out of the biz. I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt as dudes even though I feel a little underwhelmed, too. I don't think they're sitting back, cackling, counting all of the subscriber money though.

Edit: Also, even though I don't like it, I think the Dave Fortress thing is a good idea. I, personally, find it painfully boring but I applaud ideas like that. I'd love to see more niche things like that.

I was just thinking about this lately, as I have found myself catching up on content from other sites more often than normal. I've happily supported this site financially since I've had the opportunity to do so. But as it comes time to renew my subscription, it's tough not to weigh that $50 against a Playstation Plus membership these days. If the guys just aren't feeling it, I don't want to badger them to put out content. I just miss the enthusiasm. And I don't feel bad or traitorous saying so.

@aurahack said:

This is brought up way too often--especially as of late. They are still setting up stuff in their new office. Fixing up a new studio, setting up their proper capture equipment, settling in to a new office, working on a site redesign--all in the midst of a slow summer release schedule and Patrick unfortunately losing a family member. Fucking. Chill.

They have their equipment as far as we have been led to believe, they are settled, I don't think Jeff, Brad and Ryan are the ones redesigning the site, and the only person continuing to produce extra content along with his weekly worth reading column is Patrick Klepek who has the biggest reason not to being out of state and getting married along with dealing with his father passing. He put an article up today and the only thing "coming soon" is another article from him tomorrow.

Reading what I wrote I feel like an ass but it's more that I think everyone is tired of hearing excuses and would just like some original content during these summer doldrums.

@FluxWaveZ: That has to do with the content coming out and not the Bombers, I feel. I mean, this week was literally them basically telling the truth: there's nothing new coming out worth talking about...what are we going to do. The same could be said for most of this year's content. Obviously not all of it, but certainly most of it. I have spent more time this year playing older games than almost any other time I can think of. Things will start picking up in the fall but for right now the game's industry in general is in sort of a rut. But hey, lets get excited for another Gears of War, another Halo, another Call of Duty, another Assassins Creed, another Madden, another Dance Central, another NCAA, another Need For Speed....seriously, when you think hard about this shit I don't know how some people in the game's industry don't blow their damn brains out. Even the movie industry isn't this full of shit sometimes. Another Spider-Man movie? Well shit, guess how many games we've had in the same amount of time...

@aurahack said:

This is brought up way too often--especially as of late. They are still setting up stuff in their new office. Fixing up a new studio, setting up their proper capture equipment, settling in to a new office, working on a site redesign--all in the midst of a slow summer release schedule and Patrick unfortunately losing a family member. Fucking. Chill.

@Daveyo520 said:

@aurahack said:

This is brought up way too often--especially as of late. They are still setting up stuff in their new office. Fixing up a new studio, setting up their proper capture equipment, settling in to a new office, working on a site redesign--all in the midst of a slow summer release schedule and Patrick unfortunately losing a family member. Fucking. Chill.

The OP is a level seven and has twenty four posts. Which means the person is new or hasn't been with the site for a long time. The problem is that all the major releases are moved towards the holiday season- after Halloween until Christmas. There is not a lot of new stuff right now. Folks can go watch past quick looks or endurance runs they might have missed. Things will pick soon, I wouldn't mind the GB crew going off topic on the Bombcast once in a while. Like what GFW Radio use to be. A gaming website that talked about everything else but video games.

Sure would like some video content.

@BraveToaster said:

@Castiel said:

Isn't there a new type of this exact thread every single month?

I was going to post an HTML Clock to countdown how much time we had left until a new one of these popped up.

The arguments for these sort of threads never get any less real and the response of "wasn't there a thread like this just a month ago?" doesn't actually resolve anything.

Yah there was a thread like this a month ago, and no there still isn't any more content than last month. They're not settling in anymore. They have all their equipment. Quick Looks don't take a long time to do, I've done video editing and I'm no pro so it's impossible it takes Vinny that long to slap intro/outro bumpers on unedited footage. For whatever reason people thought that the lack of a studio was stopping them from getting more Quick Looks and original videos done - now they have a gigantic space for themselves. Brad complains about how theres nothing to play and nothing to do - quickly followed by saying he doesn't have time to get into a game. That Never Dead copy has been sitting on his desk for over a week now. It's an AWFUL game, whatever, just record yourself playing it thats all people want. They said they are not planning to do an Endurance Run any time soon when it's basically just doing 1 Quick Look a day. Theres no games out right now so why not, what else are they doing? Oh right, Brad goes to a lot of meetings, a lot and lot of meetings.

Listen I get it's the Giant Bomb and Jeff and crew don't give a fuck. Don't like it don't watch it. The crew doesn't feel like doing an Endurance Run so fuck everyone it's not happening, despite an obvious drought in gaming where this one piece of content produced daily would keep people super satisfied. But that sort of attitude seems strangely out of place when you're asking your fanbase to pay a yearly subscription for things like listening to Dave talk about vague details of the future site redesign or the Flight Club Quick Looks. Some other sites have paid memberships that only affect ads but I think Giant Bomb is the only website that I personally know, about video games, where you have to pay to see certain footage. I hate to dredge up this conversation but people paid because they saw GB starting up in a tiny murky basement and they were doing wacky, fun stuff and were all pro-members. People just want more of that crazy fun stuff. Why is I Love Mondays just a flipcam recording now? I just don't understand some of these changes and they never go on record saying "hey we're not doing XYZ because XYZ."

@FluxWaveZ said:

It's funny seeing each I Love Mondays and noting how they don't quite know what do do each week.

It was funny once.. now it's getting a bit annoying again. I mean, people are offering suggestions in the comments for content, and instead we get Patrick essentially taking quotes from the Spoilercast with the Spec Ops: The Line writer and making it into a story. Brad had quite a few ideas, and so far, the only thing is a (decent) quicklook for Endless Space. Oh well.

Purebacon does have a point in his original post. I have been a staunch defender of this site since I joined back in 2008, but ever since the move back when GDC was on, the 'life' of the site has diminished.

ILM is pretty lackluster. I miss Ryan's floating head as he goes through the upcoming week and no video reviews since last year even though the facilities at CBSI far outstrip what was available at Whiskey. It's as if no one can be arsed with video production any more, that there is too much effort involved.

I've been telling myself that the guys are rebuilding the site and they are still settling in, but it's been 4 months (or so) and that excuse isn't convincing me anymore.

The site just feels 'diminished' now, almost as if the Giantbomb crew are waiting to be absorbed into Gamespot.

It's just how I'm feeling right now.

@Humanity said:

@BraveToaster said:

@Castiel said:

Isn't there a new type of this exact thread every single month?

I was going to post an HTML Clock to countdown how much time we had left until a new one of these popped up.

The arguments for these sort of threads never get any less real and the response of "wasn't there a thread like this just a month ago?" doesn't actually resolve anything.

Yah there was a thread like this a month ago, and no there still isn't any more content than last month. They're not settling in anymore. They have all their equipment. Quick Looks don't take a long time to do, I've done video editing and I'm no pro so it's impossible it takes Vinny that long to slap intro/outro bumpers on unedited footage. For whatever reason people thought that the lack of a studio was stopping them from getting more Quick Looks and original videos done - now they have a gigantic space for themselves. Brad complains about how theres nothing to play and nothing to do - quickly followed by saying he doesn't have time to get into a game. That Never Dead copy has been sitting on his desk for over a week now. It's an AWFUL game, whatever, just record yourself playing it thats all people want. They said they are not planning to do an Endurance Run any time soon when it's basically just doing 1 Quick Look a day. Theres no games out right now so why not, what else are they doing? Oh right, Brad goes to a lot of meetings, a lot and lot of meetings.

Listen I get it's the Giant Bomb and Jeff and crew don't give a fuck. Don't like it don't watch it. The crew doesn't feel like doing an Endurance Run so fuck everyone it's not happening, despite an obvious drought in gaming where this one piece of content produced daily would keep people super satisfied. But that sort of attitude seems strangely out of place when you're asking your fanbase to pay a yearly subscription for things like listening to Dave talk about vague details of the future site redesign or the Flight Club Quick Looks. Some other sites have paid memberships that only affect ads but I think Giant Bomb is the only website that I personally know, about video games, where you have to pay to see certain footage. I hate to dredge up this conversation but people paid because they saw GB starting up in a tiny murky basement and they were doing wacky, fun stuff and were all pro-members. People just want more of that crazy fun stuff. Why is I Love Mondays just a flipcam recording now? I just don't understand some of these changes and they never go on record saying "hey we're not doing XYZ because XYZ."

I wholeheartedly agree with this statement.

I dont have a problem with the content but I just have a problem with the community now for some strange reason......  Meh, I dunno......

There is always an excuse.

@aurahack said:

This is brought up way too often--especially as of late. They are still setting up stuff in their new office. Fixing up a new studio, setting up their proper capture equipment, settling in to a new office, working on a site redesign--all in the midst of a slow summer release schedule and Patrick unfortunately losing a family member. Fucking. Chill.

Use all reasons except for this, please. Doesn't take four months to settle into an office, seriously. All in the midst of a slow summer? So that means they have even more time on their hands to settle in and get their equipment together, right? You have a point about the lack of content in a shitty summer schedule, though. If there are few games there is going to be little content regardless of what office they're in. Honestly I'm kind of tired of seeing these topics too but I'm even more tired of this excuse, especially when a new topic is formed like once a month and that means another month as passed and they're still "settling in." Quite embarrassing really.

I play more video games than these guys.

I miss Happy Hour :(

@aurahack said:

This is brought up way too often--especially as of late. They are still setting up stuff in their new office. Fixing up a new studio, setting up their proper capture equipment, settling in to a new office, working on a site redesign--all in the midst of a slow summer release schedule and Patrick unfortunately losing a family member. Fucking. Chill.

Dude. We literally watched them, on video, set up a video production studio in a dark basement and it did not take 5 months to do. Then we watched them move from that basement to a bigger basement, and it did not take 5 months for things to get back to normal. There are literally videos of them walking into empty basements and creepy crawlspaces and within a couple weeks after that there was regular video content. How is it more difficult to set up capture equipment in a major media corporation's office space?!

And if the answer "well, it's harder to do things at CBSi" then I guess that shoots all the "things are going to be better than ever!" stuff right in the foot. If it's "Vinny just had a kid" like... dude, that's not going to suddenly get better in a couple weeks. It's not like in a couple months that kid is going to move out on his own and Vinny will have his time back.

The crew could easily arrange interviews with developers to ask them about their progress on games. Hell, they could even do some out-of-the-box thinking and use their roles as journalists effectively. They could have easily done a lengthy article on the Steam Summer Sale, detailing the process of how games are picked to be put on sale, the politics behind games going on sale and how publishers may feel about these huge discounts, et cetera. I'm tired of seeing everyone meekly suggesting that they film another crummy half hour video when they could easily be giving us interesting material. Patrick is the only one who seems to operate like an actual journalist.

@kmdrkul:... Because Jeff says himself that they're not journalists, they're writers. The same way Roger Ebert or Dave Barry aren't journalists.

It's CBS' fault! Everything is going downhil ever since they bough GiantBomb.

@Brodehouse said:

@kmdrkul:... Because Jeff says himself that they're not journalists, they're writers. The same way Roger Ebert or Dave Barry aren't journalists.

Pffft. What a cop out.

I'll bet that there probably is some good reason why the content isn't where we would like it to be, but they aren't cluing us in on why. They used to keep us so up-to-date on all the new things going on with Giantbomb, but now I feel like we are being left in the dark more and more.

@kmdrkul said:

@Brodehouse said:

@kmdrkul:... Because Jeff says himself that they're not journalists, they're writers. The same way Roger Ebert or Dave Barry aren't journalists.

Pffft. What a cop out.

What?! You said they're sorry excuses for journalists, but they're not journalists.

They're sorry excuses for geologists as well. They don't know fucking shit about quartz.

@thornie said:

@Humanity said:

@BraveToaster said:

@Castiel said:

Isn't there a new type of this exact thread every single month?

I was going to post an HTML Clock to countdown how much time we had left until a new one of these popped up.

The arguments for these sort of threads never get any less real and the response of "wasn't there a thread like this just a month ago?" doesn't actually resolve anything.

Yah there was a thread like this a month ago, and no there still isn't any more content than last month. They're not settling in anymore. They have all their equipment. Quick Looks don't take a long time to do, I've done video editing and I'm no pro so it's impossible it takes Vinny that long to slap intro/outro bumpers on unedited footage. For whatever reason people thought that the lack of a studio was stopping them from getting more Quick Looks and original videos done - now they have a gigantic space for themselves. Brad complains about how theres nothing to play and nothing to do - quickly followed by saying he doesn't have time to get into a game. That Never Dead copy has been sitting on his desk for over a week now. It's an AWFUL game, whatever, just record yourself playing it thats all people want. They said they are not planning to do an Endurance Run any time soon when it's basically just doing 1 Quick Look a day. Theres no games out right now so why not, what else are they doing? Oh right, Brad goes to a lot of meetings, a lot and lot of meetings.

Listen I get it's the Giant Bomb and Jeff and crew don't give a fuck. Don't like it don't watch it. The crew doesn't feel like doing an Endurance Run so fuck everyone it's not happening, despite an obvious drought in gaming where this one piece of content produced daily would keep people super satisfied. But that sort of attitude seems strangely out of place when you're asking your fanbase to pay a yearly subscription for things like listening to Dave talk about vague details of the future site redesign or the Flight Club Quick Looks. Some other sites have paid memberships that only affect ads but I think Giant Bomb is the only website that I personally know, about video games, where you have to pay to see certain footage. I hate to dredge up this conversation but people paid because they saw GB starting up in a tiny murky basement and they were doing wacky, fun stuff and were all pro-members. People just want more of that crazy fun stuff. Why is I Love Mondays just a flipcam recording now? I just don't understand some of these changes and they never go on record saying "hey we're not doing XYZ because XYZ."

I wholeheartedly agree with this statement.

Agree with this and agree with a prior statement that only Vinny/Drew/Dave seem to have much enthusiasm anymore.

I would argue that why I, and a lot of the community, paid for giant bomb is that when we paid there was a lot of very funny, very creative, very original content. I would never pay for a no-ads on a straitlaced review or video game news site. Giant Bomb was something wholly different.

By no means do I think it was a bad idea to pay (its not that much), but will I renew? That is much harder this time. Giant Bomb seems to have transitioned or is transitioning into a more traditional video games site. It doesn't seem that the culture that came up with TNT/Endurance Runs/Breaking Brad/or the current form of the quick look is in full effect. I don't think new unique features like that are going to come up anytime soon and it will just be the grudging continuation of those existing features (note that I consider flight club/dave fortress as awesome but they aren't really any new feature, just the great technical game Vinny/Dave/Drew feature).

The one way Giant Bomb has added content in the last year is by adding more news stories/coverage/trailers. That content is pretty worthless on the internet and tangential to why I am on Giant Bomb. I think GB would benefit from a refocus on making funny videos and just drop everything else.

I kind of agree, but I think there was a period in mid 2010 to mid 2011 that was even worse and more dry than it is now. A time with endless, mediocre HH every week and a handful of QL at best...At least we have the occasional flight club and Random P- err....never mind, haven't had one of those in a while.
 
 I totally get why people feel discontent, but the current output of the site is enough for me...Or maybe I've just gotten used to it thanks to the previous drought.

well it's summer time. there aren't a lot of games that come out as it's summer. people like to take vacations and things.

@Brodehouse: While I think they are journalists even if they say they aren't I certainly don't need anymore "interesting" articles about publishing deals etc. I pretty much never read any of Patricks or Alex's stuff because thats not what I come to GB for. Most of those articles are in Patricks case "quote, quote, quote - wax poetic - quote" and in for Alex the same thing only replaced with snarky comments. Gimme video content thats what most people here are for. I love GameTrailers reviews, but can't say I've ever READ one.

i agree they should do more fun stuff. its been so dead the last few weeks. do some throwbacks or something guys.

It's funny how since they were sold Tested has truly evolved into something spectacular while Giantbomb has steadily floundered in many ways. Many people thought the opposite would have happened.

Don't get me wrong, I still love the site, but I hardly watch anymore of the Quick Looks (this probably has to do with the fact that no big games are coming out now and hence, they're not doing any quick looks of games I'm interested in). Nevertheless I still love this site's interview videos, coverage of E3, general videos showing their shenanigans around the office, and of course the Bombcast. I guess I just miss the old Whiskey office when all the Whiskey crew were together in the same place, funny things were always abound when Will Smith or Matt Rorie dropped by and participated in GiantBomb stuff (and vice versa).

@SuperZamrod said:

It's funny how since they were sold Tested has truly evolved into something spectacular while Giantbomb has steadily floundered in many ways. Many people thought the opposite would have happened.

Have you visited Tested lately? They have their own problems. I feel like the site had a way more active community before the split (mainly due to crossover users from GB probably). Now it's pretty quiet over there - despite the star power.

@SuperZamrod said:

I guess I just miss the old Whiskey office when all the Whiskey crew were together in the same place, funny things were always abound when Will Smith or Matt Rorie dropped by and participated in GiantBomb stuff (and vice versa).

And earlier, when they moved into the big WM office, we missed the basement and hated the notion that the crew was now among other people.

@iam3green said:

well it's summer time. there aren't a lot of games that come out as it's summer. people like to take vacations and things.

That's fine.. take a vacay, but y'know.. say something about it. There's a small bit of charm to the randomness of updates, but one thing a day would be nice. One video, I mean. I don't think that's too much to ask of a monday thru friday unit?

Just yesterday (after another lame 'I love Monday's) I was thinking the very same thing. The lack of explanation (other than there are no new games coming out) worries me a bit (Gamespot merger?, some guys leaving the bomb crew?). Also the lack of new games should not be a surprise since very year is like that so content canbe planned around this. Others have mentioned QL Throwbacks, Endurance runs, Random PC games, hell I even enjoyed watching Vinny replace light bulbs on an old Arcade.... If you know you will be going through some weeks of drought you prepare for it. I also agree that while I appreciate Particks efforts in his write ups, that it is not the draw of this site and why people come here. It was just after the switch over to CBSi that Jeff was arguing how important it is for sites like Giantbomb and others to create original content to stay relevant in today's market. I hope that there will be some positive news soon and maybe they are holding back some stuff for the site redesign but the longer I wait the more I think these thoughts are wishful thinking....

In the past few years, I've doubted GB many times. They always came back and made me laugh 'til I cried; made me forget ever being unhappy with their content.

I have faith in the GB guys; just be patient :)

@CptBedlam said:

@SuperZamrod said:

I guess I just miss the old Whiskey office when all the Whiskey crew were together in the same place, funny things were always abound when Will Smith or Matt Rorie dropped by and participated in GiantBomb stuff (and vice versa).

And earlier, when they moved into the big WM office, we missed the basement and hated the notion that the crew was now among other people.

I remember this so well.

GB guys,

STEP 1: play some random games

STEP 2: film that shit

STEP 3: post that shit

STEP 4:???

STEP 5: profit