Jeff statement on the future of the site

I’m excited to see what the future holds for Giant Bomb. My guess is the crew must have had some ideas for a while now and hopefully they can implement those with Red Venture going forward. Although it’s sad to see Vinny, Brad and Alex all leaving at the same time I’m hopeful about what the future holds!

@panfoot: I'd take a crap load of videos of them just playing video games. Lets Play type of content. Maybe Jeff could survive on his own just streaming game play, at least he'll probably always have that option in between jobs. Heck, i'd love to watch Jeff get deep into a game like Eve Online or an MMO, but thats probably not for everyone, who knows. The Minecraft series was great, but i watch a lot of videos while doing something else.

Hey guys, can you let some of these people grieve/vent/talk it out instead of trying to control the conversation? Someone wants to speculate and it makes them feel a little better? Just let them and move on. I loved the show and will watch any content any of the guys put out, but for all three to leave abruptly? Obviously SOMETHING happened. They didn’t all come to life changing conclusions on the same day after over a decade without something prompting it. Just let the hurting duders vent, ok? It’s not poor taste as much as some folks loving the crew so much they don’t want to let go and are dealing with it in their own way.

@chris_sereday: To quote Rorie from another thread..

Because a lot of that speculation goes in bad directions? Like we saw a fair amount of people earlier this week somehow blame this on Red Ventures, even to the point where I saw people tweeting at the Red Ventures account blaming them for this (causing me to have to track down the people who ran that account and offer them an explanation), only to have Vinny say definitively today that that wasn't the case. I and the mods don't have the time or the ability to tamp down every shitty or even potentially damaging or hurtful rumor (most of which are going to be baseless), so hey: don't do it here. There are plenty of places to discuss Giant Bomb on the internet and I'd encourage you to take your speculations there, or just wait for Vinny, Alex, and Brad to discuss this in the future. Speculation now helps no one except your curiosity and frankly the harm that might come from it far outweighs that to my mind.

So, No. Don't speculate.

@chris_sereday: I'm just gonna quote Rorie (yknow, the guy who still works for the site) on why he thinks people should probably stop speculating:

Because a lot of that speculation goes in bad directions? Like we saw a fair amount of people earlier this week somehow blame this on Red Ventures, even to the point where I saw people tweeting at the Red Ventures account blaming them for this (causing me to have to track down the people who ran that account and offer them an explanation), only to have Vinny say definitively today that that wasn't the case. I and the mods don't have the time or the ability to tamp down every shitty or even potentially damaging or hurtful rumor (most of which are going to be baseless), so hey: don't do it here. There are plenty of places to discuss Giant Bomb on the internet and I'd encourage you to take your speculations there, or just wait for Vinny, Alex, and Brad to discuss this in the future. Speculation now helps no one except your curiosity and frankly the harm that might come from it far outweighs that to my mind.

https://www.giantbomb.com/forums/general-discussion-30/speculation-is-it-right-or-wrong-1895388/#js-message-6

I get that people are broken up about it but there comes a point where it's time to move on and maybe keep it to themselves about what they think happened.

Obviously SOMETHING happened. They didn’t all come to life changing conclusions on the same day after over a decade without something prompting it

They have concluded that they don't want to rebuild the bomb over at a new company at this time in their lives. It's not like these months are average business-as-usual times over at GB and that they purely coincidentally decided to all quit at the same time. It's very much the end of the CBSi period and the start of a new GB period. A very natural point in time to set things straight and make a decision if you're in or out.

There's a fine line between being shocked and sad and wildly speculating about someone's personal life choices. They mentioned a few times during several of this week's streams, that there are real humans on the other side of the screen. Humans with families and loved ones.

I understand being emotionally attached to the people who you watch and listen to every day, but it doesn't give anyone a right to openly discuss their lives. Life doesn't always have the perfect answer to our questions.

So to everyone in this thread, keep the speculation about people's lives to a minimum. It's uncouth and unwelcome.

I agree that blame-based rumours/speculation are fucked up if they throw Red Ventures/some particular staff member under the bus as if like “Oh, THAT’S the conspiracy reason singular thing that prompted the departure of Vinny, Brad, and Alex.” There is no conspiracy theory single explanation, and I’m not here to pass judgment on the personal/professional decisions of the staff. They felt now was the time to end their tenure with Giant Bomb, and I respect their decision and wish them all the best in future endeavours.

But in a thread where the headlining OP and thread title is about a couple nebulous, deliberately vague posts from Jeff and Giant Bomb staff about the future of Giant Bomb (more detailed announcements forthcoming), I don’t see how this thread is about anything other than those statements and what a future rebuild of Giant might be. Like don’t be mean about it, the departing staff seem like they’re still on great terms with the staff that stayed and Vinny praised Red Ventures for giving more attention to Giant Bomb, but the point is there’s probably a significant rework of Giant Bomb coming up, and it’s going to take more than J, J, J, J, and Rorie to get it going. I’m not here to play detective on the past (why the 3 departures occurred, that’s their personal business, not our place to pry), but I think playing detective on the as-yet unspecified future of Giant Bomb is fair game.

If this thread isn’t about some tasteful speculation of what the Jeff statement could mean (which I think is perfectly fine when not ruined by the RV-blaming weirdos Rorie mentioned), then literally what is the discussion focus of this thread at all? I know OP wanted to draw attention to the statement but if we’re not to politely discuss/interpret the statement at all, then what even is this thread? Someone should’ve locked this after the first post and just pinned it to the forums if discussing it is that off limits.

Just a small comment to those of us who are very put off by the speculation going on. Gaining understanding is a huge part of grieving. Even in cases where that understanding is not possible, the attempt to understand is still part of the healing process. While, speculation is harmful in some ways it can also be an attempt to understand and move on. Make no mistake there are people in this community who are really hurting. Trying to understand almost always is a precursor to acceptance. Speculation is unavoidable as people are coming to grips with their grief. It’s part of the process. No harm in reminding them that they may never get the answers they are looking for but please don’t disparage a fellow GB’er who might be working their way through some very real pain.

@bisonhero: I mean speculation about where the site be heading, what people wanna see, new shows, new ideas, there's plenty of positive speculation that can happen.

@finaldasa: I fully agree, I think people can use this thread for lots of positive speculating about the new ideas for the site. My post was more a response to the people quoting Rorie’s statements as if all speculation of any kind is disrespectful to the staff/site.

@bisonhero: Totally, I think they mean don't speculate about life choices or make assumptions about Red ventures because that's what most people seem grasping at. Like Rorie said in his post, speculation tends to go in a lot of bad places.

At this point, I don't know if I dreamt this or not but I remember Jeff talking about wanting to do a talk show style formatting (a la how the E3 after shows have been). I would love if the new Giant Bomb allowed for this to happen.

But ultimately, so long as Jeff has a microphone and a camera, I'm gonna watch. Having Jan, Jason & Rorie around to keep the mayhem going is obviously an added bonus.

@noboners: Honestly the idea of Jeff putting out e3 style interviews on a more regular basis might be enough to get me to continue my subscription

What i gather from Jeff's words so far is that Red Ventures wants to do some cutting edge shit with Giantbomb and solve some longstanding issues the current GB faces. Which apparently has to do with them having a hard time to make a dent on the major platforms because their content is spread between multiple platforms and the best stuff is pretty much behind a paywall on a website that is not twitch or youtube. Also it sounds like they want to open up the thing and let more people be part of the creation process.

When i put this all together, i'm seeing some sort of curated videoplatform where a bunch of contractors all make various shows that revolve around videogames. Danny might host a show on european amiga classics. Samantha Kalman might host a show about rhythm games. A monthly episode of Flight Club with Vinny and Drew. I don't know what the businessplan would be though. If the issue is that they want to have all their best content out there on youtube, hiding the good stuff behind a paywall is counterproductive.

For what it's worth, it does sound like the idea that GB revolves mostly around a website is something that will change. Jeff even said that if they were a few years later with GB, this site would probably not even be here. It just made sense at the time. It probably won't make much sense in 2021 to make it the central point of your business. Especially now that they're completely cut off from all the previous gamespot / CBSi engineers that have had their hand in the site over the years.

I understand that the site and its members has meant a lot to folks over the years.. I do.

But I'm not gonna lie I'm having something of a difficult time hearing things like "part of the grieving process" when the context is several people moving on to a new stage in their lives and you don't get to watch them in a show anymore.

Oh well, I tried.

I think when people started ignoring Vinny on this one, it was time to just hold our hands up and let the nonsense play out.

Where does everyone seeing reviews fitting into the future of Giant Bomb?

On the one hand, Jeff has always been pretty vocal about reviews keeping up with the times. Roasting "the math" of the Gamespot spreadsheet, admitting that it's hard to review live games that change a lot after launch, etc. He seems to still think about it a lot.

On the other hand, 2020 and 2021 have been all-time low of posted reviews from the site, even with experienced writers like Jeff, Brad, Alex, and Ben on-staff. If Giant Bomb moves farther away from the written word and more towards video/streaming, I'm not sure how they would really find a way to direct traffic towards occasional written reviews.

I miss reviews from GB. Quick Looks and podcasts are usually a good first impression, but reviews require a final collecting of thoughts that gives a bigger look at the game as a whole. As of late, it feels like that game-as-a-whole analysis has primarily come up during GotY time.

I certainly hope they don't end up completely at the mercy of the copyright bots and content restrictions on Youtube and Twitch.

Unless it's been stated definitively elsewhere that this is wrong, Danny being around so much the last month or so really does make it seem like he'll be splitting his time, or maybe doing a something recurring with GB, Not that I think he needs the money, but maybe the support like with 8-4. Well that or he just wanted to be in content with his friends while he still could.

@zfubarz: Danny did an update on his noclip patreon that said he was working with GB in some capacity. Though not enough that it'd affect noclip obviously, since that's his main focus.

@fugoy: Oh cool. I mean I like the idea of the various friends being able to be involved as they want, hosting a variety of content, allowing new voices, etc. hard to track the diaspora of old voices across so many platforms these days.

Why isn't this on this site?

And I ask this as an academic who has studied ethics

@doesjefflikeit: I know GB and Gamespot are sorta sister sites at this point, but yes, I do think it’s strange to just give this statement away as a news scoop to the Gamespot article, instead of simply posting the same statement here:

https://www.giantbomb.com/words/

Perhaps they just think Gamespot has a larger reach for written articles, perhaps they’re only going to post a statement to Giant Bomb when it’s a more concrete update, or perhaps we’re days or weeks away from GB abolishing the Words section of the website entirely so putting a statement there would be counterproductive. It’s hard to say.

For me GB hasn't been the same since Dan and Drew left the west coast office. There have been a number of things which I have enjoyed since then, but very few and far between.

But, I can say that I still get hours of enjoyment watching the old content, time and time again. I am currently going through the 2016 UPFs and then want to go back through Metal Gear Scanlon 5. I hope that the site can find its feet again in the future, but until then, I am more then happy to pay for premium and watch through so many enjoyable videos from the past.

@bisonhero: I honestly would not have known this was happening unless my friend texted me about it, which makes me really sad.

I was with GB since the Arrow Pointing Down podcast. I had just been dumped, I was young and depressed, and Jeff + Ryan made me laugh when nobody else would.

When Ryan passed, I actually deleted my old account, because it was just too painful to visit the site. I fell off video games as a whole, quite honestly.

Eventually I would come back, watch some quick looks, etc. While I'm not a regular like I used to be, it would have been nice to see SOMETHING announcing what was going on. Hell, I was miffed I couldn't read the results of GOTY without listening to the podcast.

Sorry this post is so negative, it's just this place used to mean a lot to me, and over the past few years it seems to have turned into random streams akin to Twitch. I kept waiting for something big to happen again, and it just never came. Now the site as we know it is kind of over.

I think Jeff will figure something out for sure. He's a very smart dude. And I think all the other guys will rock at whatever they choose to do. Alex, in particular, is too goddamn good of a writer for today's video games. Plz write a book duder.

Anyway there's my vent and grieving. Thanks to all the guys and gals who made this site something special, and Dan, Ben, and Abby for injecting some new life into it at a good time

Godspeed

I've been following the lads since I was in middle school. I remember getting in trouble with the librarians for watching "how to build a bomb." Super shocked as everyone is, but I would be lying if I said the site hasn't become more or less stagnant since 2018/19. I still binge listen to catch up on the podcasts but I'll take days/weeks/months off before I remember I like hearing Jeff's insight and bitterness. Jeff has built a career on keeping it 💯 and I am down to see what he and Jeff B are able to cook up. Besides it isn't like we wouldn't all go follow Jeff on twitch or patreon or wherever he hosts his next podcast if the website is lost. Wishing everyone the best. It's been a good run. Train hasn't stopped yet.

@efesell: Yeah, I feel the same way seeing all this. Yeah, I'm gonna miss seeing them make stuff together. But talking about crying and grieving is just really weird. Especially from a community that pretty frequently likes to talk shit about the parasocial relationships that people have with the Twitch streamers they watch.

@bladeofcreation: Crying isn't weird.

It's a little ridiculous to think that 3 of the core GB members will all depart on the same day with less than a week's notice, with no detailed explanation, and there won't be speculation. I get Rorie's point, but "don't discuss GB in the GB forums" is kind of ludicrous to me.

Attacking the community is not the move right now. It's clear that what people want is more clear info on the departures, the acquisition, and the future of the site. The longer you delay providing that info the more you alienate your community, and invite speculation

@digitaldisco: Nobody is telling you "Don't discuss GB".

People are being asked not to just be out here guessing and slinging shit around when they have no idea what they're talking about. It's a perfectly reasonable request and I don't really understand why so many people cannot contain themselves.

Plus like I'm sorry but you probably will not get the nitty gritty on the departures, for a variety of reasons including the fact that it kind of isn't any of our business why they've made these decisions.

@digitaldisco: Over last weeks content the crew has been very forthcoming about their thoughts on the site, Red Venture, CBS. More so than what anyone could really expect. We obviously wont get all the details, but I personally don´t want or need to.

@efesell:

I don't understand why people like you don't understand. A lack of information will always be filled by wild nonsense and speculation. Stamping your feet and demanding human nature to change instantly won't do anything, its meaningless posturing on your part. Either people tell their stories or weird random internet people will make them up.

@curiosus: Nobody's demanding to change human nature. People are just asking that others respect Rorie's request and not engage in a bunch of speculation and rumormongoring.

Anyone can think whatever they want to think but it's not much to ask that people try to behave well in their Internet posting. The only way to actually control that stuff is through moderation, but there's nothing weird about asking people to behave decently, even if you can't make them do so.

god i hope they can get ninja

@inevitablechees:

I’m worried they’ll only be able to get Jake or Logan Paul and not be able to get both.

@bigsocrates: Yeah it's been a little disheartening seeing all the doomerposting going on in response to the news. The wheel of time crushes all things. We don't need to assume the worst even if this isn't what we wanted.

Joe Rogan

It's weird and creepy to see people getting so into speculation on other people's lives, and then defending it even after it was clearly stated as going over the line. I don't know what's not clicking with some of y'all. (Also defending it as a "grieving" process...really? What is wrong with you??)

I dunno guys, I really love GB too, but I can just assume it's not really all that dramatic behind the scenes. And I don't have to care. They told me what they want to tell me and that's all I'm owed. The rest is between me and my therapist.

I'm sad to see an old era of a website end. Not the first time, won't be the last. Happy to see what's next. I'm glad to hear that this could be a real revitalization and renovation of the website. I'm also glad that some folks are sticking around.

Giant Bomb crew: Please don't do this thing
You: Does the thing

Honestly to God, anyone reading this: if you're actually grieving and venting and need to talk this out...just go do it somewhere else? Get a therapist? Talk to a friend? Chat with your pet or a plant or an action figure. Write it down in a journal. Let those emotions out. Just not here, as you've been told to do, by the very people affected by it. Grief and processing periods are real, for sure, but they also require consent.

It's real simple: just close the little red box on your web browser and go somewhere else. The internet isn't your fun box where you can just let out your demons. Find more productive ways to work through your mental health issues and don't be a dick to content creators.

I hope to hear Bakalar as a regular on the Bombcast. The weekly Podcast has always been the highlight of GB for me and I still think they have a fantastic roster to still give us at least the one great podcast a week. I will absolutely miss the Beastcast though.

Can we get a vocaloid now?

If I worked in one place for over a decade I'd be ready to run screaming off into the distance. The pure tedium of the day to day stuff for that long, along with the stress of any job. I'm in my mid40s and I've never worked somewhere that long in my entire career, much less with the internet telling me what they think about my work the whole time.

I'm happy that they are going to do something new and exciting for them, and at the same time Jeff and the other guys still want to do things here. There hasn't been a bad hire yet, so it'll be cool to see some new people.

So, with Vinny and Alex gone is the Beastcast over? At first I assumed Jeff Bakalar would take over with some fresh faces but after listening to the last Beastcast it seems like its just over. That sucks :(

@hairyreddog: Yes. The best podcast in the universe is no more. Hopefully Jeff B will be joining the Bombcast. Maybe we'll find out tomorrow?

Please bring back 'On The Spot'. That is all. Thank you.