Perhaps the current Bombcast banner on a t-shirt would be pretty slick. I'd love to support this company, but I need a $ before I can. I'm a college student and money is tight, but I'm willing to pay for HD videos and good mobile access if it's all reasonably priced. However, if there is more features that will be added to this list I will wait and listen before jumping to a conclusion on a yes or no if at first the price seems outrageous.
I hope you bring some Paypal up in here too. Not gonna start a riot or anything, just sayin'.
Even though I am signing up regardless, I would love to see more customization options for our profile/background, and an Ignore feature with the ability to add a limitless amount of people.
depending on the price I will probably be subscribing. who am I kidding I will be signing up regardless of the price. the content and editorial staff here is 2nd to none in my opinion in the gaming industry. just for that fact i'll support this team.
If it helps make the Whiskey sites better then I will gladly support it. Can't you give us any more assurance that more and better content is in the works?
" BTW, I commonly donate $5/month to podcasts I like (that will take my money). So, $60/year is fine with me, although I realize others might not have that kinda cash to throw around. (Okay, okay, I'll stop bragging :-). Maybe it could be tiered pricing. Or a flat-rate for subscription and allow people to optionally donate more if they would like to do that. "
How about forgetting about the subscription thing altogether and just allowing people to donate. A hell of alot of people here seem to be willing to throw cash around because they want to help support Whiskey Media. For free even.
And that wouldn't leave us poor, Unemployed/college bound/high school bound/fiscally responsible types twisting in the wind.
I would gladly pay as long as its no more then 50$ a year, unless it comes with more features that are must haves. I always have wanted to download videos from the site and would gladly pay for that feature.
" @snide: I forgot to ask before. Will the universal account also come with universal status update? "
For right now Universal login just comes with the ability to login across all the sites with one email address. We're also planning to tally up your wiki scores across all the platforms and use that as the check for wiki privileges. We do plan, however, to unify blog updates, statuses, quests and whatever else we think members want over the next couple months. We'll do each on a case by case basis. I can see some people wanting to share certain info only across some of our sites so I want to make sure the flexibility is still there.
" I would be interested in paying for a yearly subscription plan. But, please don't include 'US-only' features. Advertising with 'FREE T-SHIRT' doesn't cut it if a large portion of your audience won't recieve it. "
The t-shirt option will be available to International yearly customers as well. Unfortunately we will likely have to add a minimal shipping cost to cover the transport overseas. Sorry, we're a small company and after the last shipping fiasco we're making sure to deal with someone local that we can physically beat up if they fuck over our members.
@snide: I have no problem with paying extra for shipping, as long as I get the offer. Too many websites lure in members with downloadable games, competitions etc, then in the small print say that it is only applicable for US citizens.
Great to hear you intend to include us foreigners too :)
" @snide: I have no problem with paying extra for shipping, as long as I get the offer. Too many websites lure in members with downloadable games, competitions etc, then in the small print say that it is only applicable for US citizens. Great to hear you intend to include us foreigners too :) "
@snide: I think a subscription model can work for this site. I think a lot of other members would agree that this video game website is very unique, you guys deliver great content, are very talented and create an overall fun place to go to on the web.
I think a yearly membership can work, especially if something like a T-Shirt and / or calendar is thrown in. I'm also curious if you guys would be interested in letting your paid subscribers create more content. What do I mean by this? Ok, you guys let the community do a lot now but lets take it a step further. Imagine allowing paid subscribers to create essentially their own GB homepage with articles they can post, as well as unique feature videos. This page could look very similar to the GB homepage but would say "snides page" or something. Let's face it, I think a lot of us would enjoy working at GB and making content with you guys, that's not going to happen...so why not give us the next best thing? On the forums people could have signatures that could link directly to their page and even have updates on them about new videos they made, there's a thousand different ways to do this.
I'm certainly signing up, any excuse to give you guys my money! As for shirts.. How about some of those amazing DP Endurance run shirts people were drawing up?
I like the idea of a shirt but I hope it isn't xxxl for everyone. I'd like to wear it in public so a medium would be nice.
Honestly It's a good idea to support paypal. The user base of GB does include some people who might not have access to a credit card. I'm not one of them but you get the idea.
Also so far the list of stuff I get for being in the membership isn't appealing to me so far. The ads are really unobtrusive as it is and making them disappear, I'd hardly notice. I've never felt the need to have a GB video on my hard drive so being able to download them, let alone in HD doesn't seem to appeal to me. But that's just me I'm sure others would enjoy having the Persona ER on their hard drive. Finally the having access to the website on a smart phone with videos and commenting... Pretty nice. I would prefer it as an app but that is pretty neat as it.
I'm still gonna probably get the yearly thing just to support the site. After you get some numbers down maybe a permanent subscription option might be good. Also an upgrade from monthly to yearly discount might be nice and MAKE SURE to clearly mark the reoccurring charge button. Seriously, nothing is more sick than a hidden reoccurring charge. I'm excited to hear what other ideas you have for the sub.
@BadNews: I'm literally building all the cancel / update billing stuff right now. Don't worry, I've paid for enough shit online to know how to be smart about it. Seriously, I don't know why people hide that stuff. You should spend your time trying to make sure people don't want to look for it, rather than worry about how people will find it.
I'm not sure how the iPad actually handles websites compared to the iPhone, but when the mobile site rolls around, if you subscribe, would the iPad default to the mobile version or the normal version of the site? Better yet, will there simply be a button that you can click on to swap between the normal or mobile versions of the site, depending on what device you're using? (like how if you go on Twitter.com on an iPhone or whatever).
I only ask because navigating around the normal site as it is works fine for the iPad (aside from the issue of not being able to post in comments or the forums because of the way it handles the text box), and I imagine that stretching a lot of the mobile site to a larger screen could create a lot of blank space. Of course I have no idea how any of this stuff works, so I could be completely wrong, but I figured I'd ask.
Overall, I can definitely see myself subscribing to the site. You guys do a phenomenal job around here with thw way everything works and the content you produce, and I'll be glad to help in any way possible. As long as you can pick what size shirt to get and not get shafted with an XL, as a few others have said.
I'm surprised how many people are opposed to this idea. One of the arguments I've seen is that Whiskey Media should only be earning money from advertising but I don't think anyone should hold it against you for giving people the option to support the site through a subscription. I want to support Giant Bomb and I don't think the site can grow through advertising alone. What's the teams stance on this?
Anyone opposing to this, quite frankly put, I feel, is an ass.
For the amount of meaningful content coming out of the Whiskey Media sites, I think payment should be a bit more forced actually.
Its an optional thing. If you don't pay, your life doesnt change. The sites you've been using all the while, they're still there. If you pay though, you got a tiny little extra which I feel isn't a huge problem.
Just popped in my head while watching the new Meet Wheatley Portal 2 vid.
Pirates. Your iPhone app was stolen. I think even now people can download the vids proper by doing a .flv thing...
Is this going to be an issue you've thought about? I for one have already allotted 1,786$ to the support giant bomb cause, so you don't have to worry about me leaking gigs and gigs of your awesomeness...
oh, hey , you guys should totally put a webcam in the podcast room and make the video a subscriber feature. (Don't know if this is the right place for suggestions. Sorry if's already been mentioned.)
I think this is a good idea, you guys have so much awesome content and I would be willing to give support as long as I can afford it (I'm in school...)
I read in another comment about contests or giveaways for members and I think that's a good idea too along with the shirts :)
Sounds good to me. I'd like to support giantbomb, and getting a t-shirt would be kinda cool. As for paypal, who cares, doesn't everyone have a credit card anyways?
How about an almost-fully customizable profile page? For instance [giantbomb,screened,tested,etc].com/profile/jessej07/ could be a page that I can set up however I want. It could have the usual parent-site header at the top but below that it could be a regular blog-type setup, achievement tracker, Twitter update thingy, or standard usual feed.
I'd prefer to pay in PayPal, but it's not a deal breaker.
Ah... that's my initial reaction. I'm excited for the Whiskey Media crew, Screened and GB have become a staple in my surfing habits.
The ability to download video content to my hard drive would be king! - as my internet speed is shit at best. Thanks guys, can't wait to pay you guys back for the first few years of hard work.
No offense to the whiskey mead team, but i do not trust you/your system with my credit card information. Google Checkout or Paypal are the way to go imho, otherwise no purchase from me.
For me it comes down to the simple fact that these big companies spend millions of dollars setting up systems to keep our personal details secure. There is no way Whiskey Media has those sort of resources.
@TheHBK: so what's the difference between Credit Card and PayPal? PayPal charges the seller between 1.9% and 2.9%. If you as a business want to accept Credit Card you usually have to pay between 2.5% and 8% for a normal business (depending on volume) and go as high as 20% for things like porn sites. Plus often there's a fixed monthly fee. In that respect PayPal comes quite cheap to a seller. By the way, mobile network operators charge up to 50% for Premium SMS (where you text something like "RING1" to a shortcode like 55555 and receive some ringtone or something).
" But... Credit cards are scary. D: And instead of shirts, make plushies of everyone. :D A mini-plushy-fluffy Ryan would look great with all of my teddy bears. "
" But... Credit cards are scary. D: And instead of shirts, make plushies of everyone. :D A mini-plushy-fluffy Ryan would look great with all of my teddy bears. "
I would gladly pay $10 (maaaaaaybe $15, if hard-pressed) a year for what you're offering now, let alone additional benefits. I would pay by debit card, so paypal is a non-issue for me. I would LOVE a giantbomb t-shirt for signing up for a yearly membership. That would really seal the deal for me.
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