My thoughts on current site content

I have been a fan of this site for a long time and I love so many aspects about it. The main crew and the Bombcast are probably the biggest draw of the site, hands down. Patrick and Alex are fine individuals and they do good work when it's needed. But lately I feel like 80% of the content that comes out of the site is from these guys in the form of Spookin' with Scoops, Bombin the AM, Quicklook: Solo, Worth Reading(which is generally okay), and now random impromptu podcasts between the two of them covering breaking news. I see more Patrick content than anything on the site nowadays.

I kind of miss how news like this would be discussed organically on the Bombcast every week between the whole crew. I mean I like Patrick and all, but I don't come to this site to hear his(and Alex's) opinion on every single issue that comes up in the gaming world. I come here to hear the whole crew's opinion/banter on issues like this. It feels like they're being short-changed when Patrick immediately puts up content dissecting every aspect of the issue and makes it feel less organic.

I really wish we would get back to basics here but I may just be over-reacting. If I am, just ignore this thread and move along.

You're right, it's basically boring as a non-sub to be stuck with trailers and two grown-ass men skyping. Back in the whiskey media days, we'd have quick-looks up the gluteal crevice.

I wouldn't worry about it. I'm 100% sure the office crew will talk about this on the podcast. I don't see any problem hearing what the east and west coast teams think about a similar subject. It's not a mutually exclusive discussion. In other words, I don't think we're not going to hear Jeff, brad, vinny and drew discuss it just because Alex and Patrick have.

I think it's great that Patrick and Alex are actually putting out content related to news. I think too much of the content on a week to week basis is just the crew playing games. Daliy Dota, Spelunking with Scoops and Unprofessional Fridays are all just the crew playing games and it dilutes the site's quality content by burying it under generic content. I think Jeff's commutes with Dave is more interesting content than those because it's actually got discussion about current events. It's just a shame that most people don't know about it.

I'm not sure how Patrick and Alex talking about news takes away from the Bombcast guys talking about news.

@skooky: Where exactly does he post them , i could't find them on his mixlr?

He really should put those up on the site despite the shitty quality. People would want to listen to it and it always happens at a time when I can't listen to it. A lot of really great content seems to happen off-site these days which is a shame. Maybe whenever this budget gets approved, more people are hired and more dedicated engineers join the team we can get a Tumblr styled widget embedded on the Giant Bomb website itself.

They're just getting used to the new office. I wouldn't worry about it.

I feel it is what you make of it.... but then I'm trying to search the wiki and it's loading up videos from 2011 instead of something else..... so it's a bit buggy right now.

God. More of these?

I don't understand, quick reactions from Patrick & Alex don't preclude the team in the main offices from offering their own thoughts on any particular news item or issue and if you prefer to hear about it that way...just do that? I can't possibly see how this can be a losing situation for you. I might like to see a little more diversity from the articles here but there's an obvious man power issue there that they are aware of and want to address.

I do think that the Bombcast is kinda phoning in talking about news and what games they're playing relative to how much they actually get into those topics during Bombin' the A.M.

But I think it was actually always like that (or has been for a couple years), where the Bombcast kinda glossses over a lot so they can spend more time talking about what fast food is in Petaluma. I think I just didn't realize it until Bombin' the A.M. existed.

Agreed. I'm a subscriber, and it feels to me like Bombin' The A.M. was a reaction to (and not the cause of) the fact that the Bombcast barely talks about news.

yeah i agree with this, if not for them we would be seeing much less content. I give props to them for holding down the site when the other crew is busy.

Alex and Patrick leaving San Francisco has its benefits.

I imagine it's better to let them live wherever instead of losing them altogether, but yeah, I liked it when everyone was together. That's how the Internet works, though; other sites practically have their entire staff living all over.

Patrick and Alex are going to talk about news more because they're technically the "news guys." I think the Bombcast puts in enough time for news, it seems; maybe 30-45 minutes, usually. They talk about the important stuff.

More Dave "Get fucked boi" Lang please.

Also bring back Gunz of navarro

#TeamGFB

I like Patrick and Alex and the talk they had today. It wasnt a podcast, it was a discussion if they hadnt done that it would have waited till the bombcast, those kind of quick video chats are good for the site. The Spelunky with Dave last week is what makes this site great. The Titanfall beta, Demon Souls. This site is all about the guys, they are what drive it. Its a personality website. Great job, do more quick stream talks. If you want the news talked about organically dont listen to Patrick and Alex discuss a game studio closing. Its a video dont click it, it wont play.

Because you heard Patrick and Alex talk about it Monday you can't hear Jeff, Brad, Vinny and Drew talk about it Tuesday?

All I've ever wanted from Giant Bomb is a daily show.

Jeff sits at a desk. Vinny and others rotate in and talk about games. Sometimes a guest.

Maybe have video clips, maybe not, depends on the day.

They could talk about news, talk about what they're working on, games they are going to see, secret meetings they are going to. Tell us what quick looks/unfinshed are coming next day, etc. 15-30 minutes, in and out. Laid back. Sometimes if there is news they could go longer and skype in Patrick or Alex. This could even be 3 times a week when the morning show isn't happening.

Yeah, i kinda think that the game playing features are not that enticing to me. The Bombcast is the biggest draw along with quicklooks. But we know the gaming content goes into a lull during this time but we should get some good stuff with the ammount of games coming out and the unfinished feature is great as we get impressions straight up instead of a smaller portion on the bombcast.

I think Patrick's take on news is great because he can offered an opinion and analysis based on other happenings and history, more so than person opinion like the other guys. Alex, I seriously don't know what he does that is valuable other than being on the east coast.

I agree so much. There's just to much Lets Play type stuff on the internet already for a lot of the content on the site to be interesting or relevant. I'd also rather here discussions on current events and such. Informative content. Things to give a better insight on the industry and what not.

You act like Patrick and Alex talking about an issue seriously for an hour or so on Bombin' or during a stream is somehow going to interfere with a 15 minute chat the rest of the crew will have about the same issue next Tuesday on a podcast. The two things do not conflict because most of the time the format and overall tone of the those discussions couldn't be more different.

I think Giant Bomb is large enough now that the whole entity doesn't necessarily have to appeal to every person. Some people like the work that Patrick and Alex do, and that is cool, and someone people like 50 minute diatribes about the state of fast-food in Petaluma (and surrounding areas) and that is also cool.

You don't have to like both, but don't try to make it seem like the two are somehow in conflict or that one hinders the other.

I miss Happy Hour and I don't care who knows it.

Do you really think they're not going to talk about this on the Giant Bombcast?

Alex writes a bunch of reviews.

I love the site still, but i think maybe im losing patience? Both the bombcast and UPF have moments of brilliance and hilarity, but they're always sandwiched in hours of tedium.

Will they talk about the Irrational thing on the bombcast? Sure absolutely. You'll just have to scrub through an hour and a half of vinny's amateur woodworking, drews story about how he went to a war museum and jeff talking about fast food. Oh and they MIGHT talk about playing a game for about 5 minutes.

@clonedzero: I usually scrub through the game talk to get to Vinny's woodworking hour.

Haven't you heard? Nobody reads written reviews anymore.

They still talk about big news on the bombcast. Patrick and Alex put their opinions out because they aren't on the bombcast. You don't have to listen to their version.

There may be less Quick Looks, but they're definitely longer.

I personally think the problem is that there aren't very many games since December that someone can get excited about (at least crew on the Bombcast wise) and that should change in the next few weeks, but it is also a little bloated with all the conversation about non games and some games as well. I hate that I'm excited for a BC when it is under 3 hours, that shouldn't be the case. It was 2 years ago I loved it when it was that long, now I now that I will enjoy it, but I don't pay much attention to everything they say and kinda zone out during large portions of "what you've been playing" and "news." They should try to be a little more focused in conversation.

If they continue what they are doing I'm totally ok with it, I love the guys and for the most part everything they do, but I'm just not as engaged with everything as I used to be. Part of it is probably my current situation in life, I just don't have the time to listen to 30 minutes of science talk and 30 minutes of wood working like I used to when I was single.

I do kind of agree especially as I nearly always think Alex is wrong about everything!

Yeah I don't see how Patrick and Alex talking about it takes the wind out of the rest of the guys talking about it, they all have different opinions right? They may want to air them. I kinda liked today they had the ability to just jump on the story as it was 'breaking' so to say and talk about it as it was developing.

Also to this thread -

News and the former new release segments are always the part of the bombcast that make me drag it out through a week, because I just never really was all that interested in them. But hey, at least that means there usually aren't days where I have to eat my dinner without the bombcast to accompany me, since those were the parts I'd usually listen to in 10 to 25 minute chunks while eating dinner.

Otherwise you get days like today where I have no bombcast but I must eat... What am I supposed to do then, huh? Converse with actual people? HELL NO. I JUST WON'T EAT UNTIL THE NEW BOMBCAST ARRIVES. I GUESS I'M ON A HUNGER STRIKE.

And they do still talk about news if it's big enough to talk about. Now they just usually skip the stupid small stuff. I'm sure we'll be hearing plenty about Irrational in the next bomcast or two, might be big enough news that they even go record a new segment if they've already recorded this weeks. Maybe that's why it's so late and I'm so hungry?

Nobody? Or just me?

They probably figure that the people that don't enjoy Patrick and Alex just are ignoring their content and that it's not taking away from anything. I've been ignoring a lot of the stuff they put up, but yes, it is an avalanche of content they put out. Maybe Jeff is fine with it because he actually digs what they are doing. I'm sure the lack of AAA games coming out has a lot to do with why there's so little of everyone else, which should change next month.

At the end of the day this website's A team is Jeff and Vinny. And the other personalities suffer because they have to be compared to them.

Mixlr archives them all but they don't make them obvious. You got to go to the About section of the user's page and then click on View Showreel. Or just go here. http://mixlr.com/jeff-gerstmann/showreel/

GB SF needs more bodies, Jeff has been mentioning that quite a bit lately. Vinny gets bogged down by video production, and the others are in and out of meetings, doing all the quick looks and live streams. Patrick kind of just has free reign to do what ever he wants, and doesn't mind putting his face on camera.

Guys they just moved into the new offices. It's understandable that things will be slow for a while. I'm sure it'll pick up....

What happened to Encyclopedia Bombastica? There's only been two since Halloween. Content seems very sparse as of late.

I have question for those who were members in the Whiskey days: did you get access to premium content on all the Whiskey Media sites, or was it subscription per sites?

The reason I ask is that I was listening on Jeff answer a question, maybe on Jar Time, where someone was asking why it made sense for GB to move to CBSi; why it was profitable under CBSi and not under Whiskey, and his answer was "fewer sites in the fold". Looking up old videos where you see the whole office, there was a fair amount of staff; more than Giantbomb has on its own now. So what I'm getting it is that Giantbomb is basically a smaller site in a way; there is also no opportunity to make Happy Hours and probably other things. I don't know for a fact, but Giantbomb seems like it might have been the most successful Whiskey property. I don't know what percentage of the paid members from the Whiskey days moved to Giantbomb as members, but if it's a big percentage (say 60-80%) then that would be a substantial portion of the revenue stream without needing to support the other sites. The drawback is that there is fewer staff. Staff count makes a difference as it limits your capability to produce content. I work in a project driven office and it's clear to me that we could do more with more staff; the same applies here. The other part of it is that in this big organization, all the stuff like HR, general IT, marketing, etc. is absorbed throughout and becomes minimal on a per employee basis.I am making a fair amount of assumptions here, but if there is truly a dip in the amount of content, I would put my money on what I just stated above. The silver lining is that Jeff acknowledges that and knows more staff means more capabilities to do more fun stuff.

I wish people would keep these all in one thread. If you dont like it go watch IGN

My thoughts exactly. The two dumptrucks about Patrick did with users calling in had absolutely no mention on the site; it required following him on Tumblr and maybe Twitter to even know about it. The reason I like Giant Bomb is because it's a one-stop shop for everything video game related. I mean, that's what the wiki is for, right?

Nowadays, it should be a one-stop shop for the crew's personality, since that's what the main draw is now. That includes their Tumblr ask boxes, Twitter feeds, Mixlrs, and whatever else they're up to on the internet that's never mentioned on the site.

Oh god. Another one of these?

It needs to be pointed out that producing content is more complex and time consuming than most expect. I was told and partially shown that it takes most of a day of writing, shooting, editing and rendering to make a 10 minute video.

If people want something more involved than "Scoops and The Wolf" and more frequently then GB is going to need to go on a hiring spree to get writers and production staff.

Like, for each step or all packed into one? I'm leaning toward the former, but in either case, I can understand the sentiment.

@likeassur: If you subscribe to the Dumptruck then those automatically download. I hadn't noticed they didn't get any play on the site, but I wouldn't expect them to either. I also wouldn't call Giant Bomb a one stop shop for gaming. There is a tonne of stuff they don't cover and in most cases wikipedia or game specific wikis are far more useful than the GB wiki.

@mosespippy: I meant that the number Patrick used and even him asking people to call in was never mentioned on Giant Bomb. It was through Tumblr, which is weird, considering the dumptruck's title begins with "Giant Bomb users..."

They are still settling into the new office... give them time.

(I never get tired of doing that)