I'm really stoked for this and would honestly subscribe just for 720p videos, but the rest is awesome. One idea I've always been interested in is video podcasts, I'm not sure how much it would add, but I've been spoiled by Leo Laporte's TWiT network being video based. Also speaking of that if we could get higher res live streams, man that would be awesome but I know that requires tons of money and investment and contracts with streaming companies.
" So no one else is worried that the addition unannounced benefits of premium membership could include exclusive or early-access audio or video content? I know the GB guys are smart, but they have businessmen they need to answer to who might have a desire to play hardball since, if you read the Whiskey Media main site, video content is apparently the biggest attraction. Ahh, maybe i'm just crazy. "
If you know Shelby and Mike for even a little bit, you'd know that they aren't your typical business big wigs. Don't worry too much about that.
" So each whiskey site will have a separate subscription? hrmmm.. if the price is reasonable i'm down wouldn't be willing to go over 30 Euros to be honest. Luchadeer on the T-Shirt would be sweet maybe crazy Halloween Luchadeer. "
I read it as one sub covers all sites.
@MjHealy said:
" Would it be possible to sign up for a year and not have to pay for extra shipping on a shirt? I will happily play my yearly fee but that $10 extra for people outside the US seems to steep for myself.
It will be more or less cost depending on where it is going. If they lose $10 on every overseas yearly account and say $10 wholesale for the cost of the actual shirt - depending on their pay structure - they might well end up losing money.
I like the idea of also making the t-shirts available to those willing to pony up for one.
Said shirt is guaranteed to be awesome. End of story. I feel I would get more out of a 25ish dollar shirt than a 40+ dollar subscription to your website. Of course that was a wildly random number for the subscription, but I would be very surprised if it wasn't more than your average cool ass t-shirt. So, as a college student with limited monies, I want to support you guys. But, I can only do so by so much. If it's feasible for you guys, I think making a cool new t-shirt available to everyone would be coooool. Thanks. :)
@alternate: I agree with making the badge discreet and optional. I would display it with pride because that's the kind of guy I am, but I wouldn't think less of anyone who didn't pay (since after all they are supporting the site through advertising, unless they use ad-block). Honestly, I don't get what some people's objection to this is.
Video content is definitely the biggest draw and anything they can do to improve it is going to be worthwhile for them, remember they have videos that are 45 minutes plus which is just unheard of for video sites, in this ADD world anything over ten minutes generally is ignored. But they're holding attention spans for their gaming videos that have the duration of feature length film.
" So each whiskey site will have a separate subscription? hrmmm.. if the price is reasonable i'm down wouldn't be willing to go over 30 Euros to be honest. Luchadeer on the T-Shirt would be sweet maybe crazy Halloween Luchadeer. "
I read it as one sub covers all sites.
@MjHealy said:
" Would it be possible to sign up for a year and not have to pay for extra shipping on a shirt? I will happily play my yearly fee but that $10 extra for people outside the US seems to steep for myself.
It will be more or less cost depending on where it is going. If they lose $10 on every overseas yearly account and say $10 wholesale for the cost of the actual shirt - depending on their pay structure - they might well end up losing money. "
What I meant to say is that do we have the option not to get the shirt at all. They have to charge for shipping, that's expensive, but I think I can live without the shirt.
" Just to be clear debit cards will work fine as well. Update the text. Your username being saved works out of the gate with our new login system, so no worries there either. "
What about users who have different usernames on the different sites (such as yourself, having a different name over on comic vine) would both names then be reserved for the other sites so you can choose between them? If you meant something else entirely I apologise.
PSP and DS videos in their native resolution would be nice, though I imagine doing that with DS video may be a little tricky. But I do like pixel-perfect video.
Are any other aspects of our profiles going to be tied together? Points for example? It would make it easier for those of us who have thousands of points on one site but have to go through moderation on the others (I myself have asked for my points to be bumped up on comic vine a few times but have had no reply). I can understand why post counts, reviews and so on would be kept separate, but I think it would be pretty cool to have our collective Whiskey Points shown on our profiles. Perhaps combine the exp/levels across our accounts too?
Also, if you're still planning on letting people earn subscriber status without paying (by doing quests or whatever else) then I think the moderators should get the subscriber benefits as a thank you for helping the sites. Though being a moderator on two of the sites, that's obviously a bit of a biased opinion, but I stand by it as I think it's fair.
Oh yeah, give us a damn option to give Whiskey donations! Regardless of the subscriber stuff, I know I'd want to donate to know I'm helping my favourite website company out, I'm sure others would too. You guys shouldn't be ashamed to give your fans an optional way to show their support.
" Doubt I will get it for over 40$. I am willing to go 60$ if we can get hot erotic webcam sessions with Brad. "
I would pay $60 in order to NOT have erotic webcam sessions with Brad. (Brad, if you're reading this, please don't take this the wrong way. I don't want to hurt you because I like you and I can understand why so many find you attractive...but the truth is I'm straight. It's nobody's fault, it's just the way I was born. I hope you can understand.)
" So each whiskey site will have a separate subscription? hrmmm.. if the price is reasonable i'm down wouldn't be willing to go over 30 Euros to be honest. Luchadeer on the T-Shirt would be sweet maybe crazy Halloween Luchadeer. "
I read it as one sub covers all sites.
If thats true then I will buy this not matter what! Even if the bombcast spiders on my keyboard!
" I like the idea of also making the t-shirts available to those willing to pony up for one. Said shirt is guaranteed to be awesome. End of story. I feel I would get more out of a 25ish dollar shirt than a 40+ dollar subscription to your website. Of course that was a wildly random number for the subscription, but I would be very surprised if it wasn't more than your average cool ass t-shirt. So, as a college student with limited monies, I want to support you guys. But, I can only do so by so much. If it's feasible for you guys, I think making a cool new t-shirt available to everyone would be coooool. Thanks. :) "
Man I pay 20$ a year for XBL (only buy the year cards when they go on sale).
1. Pricing. I think $10 a month will be your limit. Anything over this and it stops being something you can sign up for without having to think about it.
2. Merchandising. If you are going back in to the t-shirt business I think you could make as much if not more from just selling t-shirts. key rings, mousemats and hell even hoodies. Maybe a 10% discount forpaid members. Licence it out and you don't have the hassle or the risk.
3. Affiliates. Been said before but a lot of people buy games from amazon etc and sign up to netflix of the strength of reviews and features on your sites. Might as well get a cut of this free money for the sake of a discrete clickable link.
" Would it be possible to sign up for a year and not have to pay for extra shipping on a shirt? I will happily play my yearly fee but that $10 extra for people outside the US seems to steep for myself.
It will be more or less cost depending on where it is going. If they lose $10 on every overseas yearly account and say $10 wholesale for the cost of the actual shirt - depending on their pay structure - they might well end up losing money. "
What I meant to say is that do we have the option not to get the shirt at all. They have to charge for shipping, that's expensive, but I think I can live without the shirt. "
I am sure that would be an option. Maybe even have $10 discount or a shirt on yearly accounts as an option. Or I guess you could gift the free shirt to someone with a US address. It would be great if everyone gifted their T-shirts to Bobby Kotick or something :D
" So no one else is worried that the addition unannounced benefits of premium membership could include exclusive or early-access audio or video content? I know the GB guys are smart, but they have businessmen they need to answer to who might have a desire to play hardball since, if you read the Whiskey Media main site, video content is apparently the biggest attraction. Ahh, maybe i'm just crazy. "
If you know Shelby and Mike for even a little bit, you'd know that they aren't your typical business big wigs. Don't worry too much about that. "
I'm actually also super worried about this, to be honest. I don't want to wait for the "regular version" of the video to be put up after premium users get to see it, nor do I want to pay to listen to the Bombcast.
Fuck, I would love a t-shirt. I told myself I wouldn't pay for this, but this doesn't sound bad at all. Really glad to hear you're against segregating the users with stuff like paid message boards.
I guess my idea would be allow paid members an extra set of functionality. Possibly, tiered discounts on any merchandise? Yearly members get 15 percent Monthly get 10 percent Random hooligan, no percent. If the discounts branched between Giant Bomb, Tested, Anime Vice, Comic Vine, Screened, it would be a bit of a decent incentive.
Equally, how about guaranteed beta access for subscribers, and first comes first serve for non subscribers. I remember when I came home from work to see all the Blur beta codes were gone, I was kinda distraught as watching the video had made me interested to try it out.
Or another idea being possibly, just exclusive contests for subscribers. I was thinking in a website like Comic Vine, if someone was really into comics that they subscribe, possible exclusive schwag seems like something they'd be really into.
A throw away idea was possibly allow a subscriber to choose the color scheme for his blog. It sticks out when someone goes to it, but it's not that invasive necessarily. The only problem lies is if he attaches it to the forum, things would go weird.
So, there's four ideas. I figured these are a balance of giving some benefits to subscribers but not necessarily screwing over unsubscribers. Thoughts?
I don't do credit cards. Most credit cards have a monthly fee in Holland and I don't even need credit so it's a pointless... [and I loathe credit, living off of money that don't exist is what caused the bloody crisis to begin with!] I have a Paypal account though so please consider supporting it. If it's too much work then you'll have to do without my support I'm afraid. Sorry!
Woah, i was totally thinking the T-shirt idea for annual pay before i even got to the part about the t-shirt idea for annual pay...except i want it to be an exclusive design.
I want my t-shirt to read, "Giantbomb; I make it happen, I'm better then everyone, for $1 you may touch me"
@Supermarius: i'm with ya...we have yet to know what Jeff, Ryan, Vinny and Brad want to do with this and when dave says: "largely unchanged" that could mean a lot of things
" Would it be possible to get a button on our achievements page to refresh our accounts? It's not a big deal, and I'm assuming you'd still have to limit its use to once every few hours to prevent abuse, but it'd be handy. I've definitely finished playing a game, especially when I get an S-rank, and been bummed out when waiting anywhere between a few hours and many days to see how I've done compared to the rest of the community. "
@KuribosShoe said:
" as for suggestions I wouldn't mind an ignore button. it would help me be less angry at fools. "
Suggestions I have outlined in bullets.
The refresh feature would prioritize paying accounts' information. Also what about comparing my achievement sessions to someone else besides the crew? If that's already a feature my bad but it would be cool to see from my page what my friends are doing. Non-paying can have the same-old page.
There are also some users that I can't stand what they have to say and it would great if I had options to ignore the threads they start, the blogs and reviews they made, ignore their posts and have the option to open it like a spoiler in the forum if I want to see what user it is and what they said.
Have an option for subscriber's platform choice color to be gold if they so choose. Literally nothing obscuring or changing the current view but it DOES tell people if you pay or not. However if people don't feel right about it, or get bugged or whatever, they can change it to whatever they had it before.
GiantBomb has semi-occasional giveaways of codes and such and Screened + Tested have Free Fridays so why not have it so those are exclusive to paying members?
For us non-twitter users, can I be able to edit my profile status message? I can't stand having to copy and paste another message making the correction. Also ability to delete status messages from my history would be good since they can't be commented on anyway. Even make this an option for twitter users who would prefer certain things to not show up if they pay (not available to staff though. I WANT TO KNOW EVERYTHING).
Is it already a thing for users to suggest wiki tasks and quests? That would be a cool paid feature requiring quality suggestions still being made though.
Free piece of merchandise from the store for a year long subscription and discounts (marginal, not much) for all those who are registered subscribers. That means yearly dudes get free merchandise and a discount while non-yearly subscribers only get a discount.
A customizable front, profile and video page is a must. If I don't want trailers to show up on the site (which I don't) I can turn it off. Don't give a shit about comments? I should minimize or remove that entirely if I so desire. Tie the exclusion to game associations so videos or news about that game never show up on the front and video page. Being able to cut sections of my profile page because I don't give no damn sounds like something a subscription would make sense for.
How will ad-driven quests work for paying people? The Best-Buy one we had would technically be excluded but is still a quest that adds to one's level. Do paying members automatically win advertising quests? That ad-driven topic can be ignored though, that would be okay. It's also hard to suggest something that just isn't a way to improve the site like for example improvements to the wiki.
" I'd most definitely pay for a yearly subscription on the promise of at least 1 Endurance Run a year. Everything else is just gravy for me.(no ads, hd video etc.). As for that T-Shirt: BlackFront: Ask me anything about this shirt Back: Giant Bomb logo (maybe not too big and at the top?) "
so only people who pay can get to watch 2 guys playing through a video game?
" I'm confused, is the new mobile site part of the subscription plan? "
From what I gather, yes (It's one of the three bullet points under confirmed paid perks). Currently, you can browse Giant Bomb on your mobile web browser but you can not log in / post. The membership would allow profile access on mobile devices and, as Dave wrote, " The site will continue to work as is for everyone else."
The Giant Bomb App is not the same as using your mobile web browser to go to Giant Bomb. The Giant Bomb App lets you view news, videos, and releases only. It is free.
" @alternate: Not really, only one guy I know has a CC around here, and a lot of EU's I spoke on games told me the same. Rawr. "
Well I don't know where "here" is for you, "here" for me, the UK, they are at least as popular as in America I would say - that is why we have so much per capita personal debt. Pretty common where ever else I have been in western Europe too in all the urban areas at least.
Downloadablevideos? I'm sold already, when I can have the entirety of the endurance runs and quick looks in HD to view anytime then that's more than enough to pay a fee for.
" Would it be possible to get a button on our achievements page to refresh our accounts? It's not a big deal, and I'm assuming you'd still have to limit its use to once every few hours to prevent abuse, but it'd be handy. I've definitely finished playing a game, especially when I get an S-rank, and been bummed out when waiting anywhere between a few hours and many days to see how I've done compared to the rest of the community. "
@KuribosShoe said:
" as for suggestions I wouldn't mind an ignore button. it would help me be less angry at fools. "
Free piece of merchandise from the store for a full year and discounts (marginal, not much) for all those who are registered subscribers
As Dave has said in the OP, yearly subscribers get a free t-shirt when first registering.
@CitizenKane: I mean that in addition to a free t-shirt, subscribers may also receive a discount. However non-year subscribers may receive only the discount, no free shirt. Sorry if my suggestion was misleading, I did read all of Snide man's post. Edited my post to include clarification.
Straight up I would pay 40 dollars a year if the only feature I gained was the ability to keep non staff blog posts from being pushed to the front page. I'm not ragging on anyone specifically I'm just a little tired of thinking to myself "Let's see what's happening on GB today!" only to find 3 or 4 blog posts that are obvious flame baits or shit that is entirely out of place on a website about video games.
I mean common things that pop up every day:
GIRL TROUBLE ANYONE WHO SAID X IS GOOD IS AN IDIOT ANYONE WHO SAID X IS BAD IS AN IDIOT PARENT PROBLEMS RANDOM CRAZY STORY THAT COULD NEVER HAVE HAPPENED BUT I SWEAR IT TOTALLY DID
And any other manner of bullshit that is just being thrown up there just so the user posting it can get attention. Not all user blog posts are bad but more often than not the things that get pushed up are just shitty flame baits or some shit posters brain farts while interesting well written shit gets buried and hardly seen.
The one thing I hate when websites or something incorporate subscriptions to their websites is whenever they take content from the site and put it behind the paid barrier. It seems like you guys know this and are steering way clear from it. I just hope no Quick Looks or anything get thrown behind it. Kinda like how people are always complaining about potential content being held back for paid DLC later, kinda ironic eh?
Other than that, bring it on! I'd pay right now for a Giant Bomb tshirt alone! Wish I could have got one before, but living in the UK didn't help. Out of the 3 announced features, the only one I'd really use would be the mobile site, so I still want to wait to see what else you have cooking in the basement. Pricing too.
Oh, dude, PS3 compatible media player! Or straight download videocast-style. Using another player with the API atm to make it work but an official solution would be even better.
" @alternate: Not really, only one guy I know has a CC around here, and a lot of EU's I spoke on games told me the same. Rawr. "
Well I don't know where "here" is for you, "here" for me, the UK, they are at least as popular as in America I would say - that is why we have so much per capita personal debt. Pretty common where ever else I have been in western Europe too in all the urban areas at least. "
I said EU, meaning a range of countries. But hey, lets stop this, because I know a shitload of people without a CC, and you know a shitload with a CC, this could go on forever. And I honestly do not give one damn. I just want paypal option so I can subscribe to these awesome fella's.
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