The Giantbomb Gaming Hub: 2013

Greeting duders, I would like to start by thanking you in advance for reading through this and providing your input to me. Now I’ve done that, I’ve pretty much forced your hand to leave a comment when you’ve done reading. Sorry.

You may or may not have heard of Giantbomb’s PC Gaming Hub. We’ve made forum posts, hosted events and we’ve got a Steam Group with plenty of duders like yourself, all playing games they love. It’s great! I’ve been a part of several online communities over the course of my illustrious (read: boring) gaming life; I can honestly say none have come close to the Gaming Hub. That’s not me just saying this because I’m reppin’ them large at the moment, it’s me being truthful with you.

“Why should I care?”

I hear you ask,

“Are you just going to get all soppy about this community I don’t give a crap about?”

Not at all, I’m just painting a picture with my words, using emotion to instil a sense of empathy with you so I can manipulate you with my words. I’m in your mind. Take your left hand off your face!

Where was I? Oh that’s right, the Gaming Hub, more specifically what lays in store for it for 2013. In 2012 I feel we did a lot of things right but there’s always room for improvement. I’m going to stress my next point so hard it’s going to have it’s own paragraph and fancy formatting:

We want more people so we can play more games and have more laughs.

That seems fairly simple but if there’s one thing I’ve learnt, it’s that you can’t just post a topic in the forum and expect the masses to come flocking. If only it were that simple. But alas, what I need to do now is run a few things by you. I’m hoping to both catch your fancy and use feedback to tailor the Hub to make the hub more appealing to all. What follows is a list of ideas/concepts for things we could be doing. Again, I would be eternally grateful for any feedback provided.

Eliminate the idea that we’re the PC Only Gaming Hub

Whilst we will always be a PC gaming community at heart, I don’t want people to think that we’re PC exclusive. Regardless of what platform you’re playing on, I want everyone to know they can always come into our Mumble server, join a channel and chat with people they’re playing with. I stress that we would remain a PC central group but we'd be more than happy for console gamers to come in if they just want a general chat with like-minded duders. If they want to play and organise events and use our mumble channels, then all the power to them.

I cannot stress enough that all the events we schedule will remain on the PC, if you want to come in and chat with us then by all means do so, there's a good chance a few of our members would like to throw down on some console games with you in the process.

Console guys, would you come into a mumble client and chat on the PC whilst playing games with other duders?

More Competitions/Tournaments

This may or may not be a perfect representation of one of our members

Last night @FluxWaveZ hosted an Anarchy Reigns Tournament and it was a riot. People seemed to enjoy themselves and the competition drew a large number of people. I want more of that. There’s talks of Counter Strike Tournaments and the big one at the moment is a Chivalry one if we can get the server stuff working.

It hopefully won’t stop there though, I’ve been wanting to host a Magic the Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers one for a while and @Akrid had a neat idea that we could do none multiplayer stuff, like speed run challenges. I really like the idea of setting a weekly challenge for the Giantbomb community, be it fastest 1-1 completion time or smashing some leaderboards on games like Sleeping Dogs. The possibilities are endless.

Simple question, would you be down for stuff like this and if so, what do you think would be the most suited for it?

Game Club

Some duders were playing Syndicate the other day. Syndicate! I don’t know why either but it certainly shows our willingness to play games...or something.

Regular user @Mageknight said something the other week that made me think. He put forth the idea of having a Game Club. Similar to a book club, a specific game is assigned to be played at the start of the month and at the end of it, we get together to talk about it in depth from a story, game play and whatever else perspective.

Whilst I can imagine a lot of people scoffing at this idea, I really do love it. If it means we can go back and play older games and have a great conversation about it. I know, with this being the internet and all, it’s a tall order, but I’d try my best to make it work, whatever that takes.

Is this something you guys would be interested in?

Above is a prime example of us jerking around, having fun on a game. Thanks @AlexW00d for being our cameraman.

They’re the three main ideas floating around at the moment. If there’s something you would like to see implemented and if you would like to join then please by all means, let me know below and come join us in our IRC or Mumble (or both).

I look forward to reading your input.

After having joined in the fun with the AR tourney last night I must agree that more stuff like that would be a fantastic idea. I'm certainly down for a Chivalry or CS tourney. I'm also a big WOTR fan, so I'd be up for duders who want to play that. I like what you've got to say my man. If there's anything I can do to help, lemme know!

God i sound weird.

Helpful post to add discussion.

Dancin' Denzel

@EarlessShrimp said:

After having joined in the fun with the AR tourney last night I must agree that more stuff like that would be a fantastic idea. I'm certainly down for a Chivalry or CS tourney. I'm also a big WOTR fan, so I'd be up for duders who want to play that. I like what you've got to say my man. If there's anything I can do to help, lemme know!

All I ask is that you keep an eye on the forums and if there's any event you see which you want a part of, then come join us. If you want to come chat with us in IRC or Mumble, you're more than welcome to. It's not all about playing games, often we're just sat chatting in general.

What we really need is a 50 hour long Victoria 2 multiplayer game, that'd bring in all the people. ALL THE PEOPLE.
Anyway, what do you folks wanna play with us? Whilst we have been playing some Skate between a few of us, the consoles really don't have an easy way of doing this kind of thing, which is a shame. The new consoles should have steam like groups, thatd help a lot.
But yeah, tournaments; I've been wanting to do something for a long time, and we were gonna do a bf3 one, but we ended up not renewing the server so we weren't able.
But again, I'll sau this twice, what games do you dudes wanna play? Whether old or new, almost everything is fun in coop, recently we played a bunch of rainbow six 3, ArmA as always, serious sam, wargame, men of war. All of games, we will play, probably.
I am rambling and should be working. Yay.

@AlexW00d: Get back to your frappumochachinas dirtbag!

I'd love to join in on some tournaments on pretty much anything on the 360 or hell even a pokemon tournament on DS. I'd also love to do some online co-op runs with some other duders. I also think the game club is a great idea and a great way to meet people here, play old games and get a good discussion going on said games. If that ever gets going sign me up. Any console related stuff 360, DS or some simple PC stuff (relegated to a laptop for the foreseeable future which can't run much). But yeah I'd love to get more involved in playing games with the community and think all these ideas are great especially the game club one and more console stuff.

Just an idea but If you made a concept/company/location page or something like that on the wiki for this couldn't you have a forum dedicated to all this fun tournament stuff.Y'know keep it all in one place easy to find and organise and you could have a pinned thread of who is involved in what or who is up for playing what. Just an idea but as I said I love all these ideas and would be up for playing any games I can with the community co-op or competitive. And definitely sign me up for the game club idea that's a fantastic idea.

I am definitely on board for console play, and more importantly, speedruns. I have been wanting to be a part of a casual speedrun community for a long time, since my 360 broke and I only have older generation consoles.

I am also really with the idea of having a "Game Club" aspect and playing a certain game every month.

I believe it was Bryan Abrams from Color Me Badd who once wisely quipped "I wouldn't want to be part of any club that would accept me as a member".

I'd certainly be down for some co-op games and multiplayer matches with some like-minded individuals. I dunno about tournaments and regular schedules for that kind of stuff, with real life getting in the way and all, but I'm certainly open to the idea and would love to have some fellow gamers to play with when the opportunity arises.

I love the idea of more regular, organized gaming events especially expanding it to include other platforms besides the PC. The two main problems for me (and I imagine its the same with others) is time and organization, but if I know there's a scheduled event with a game I want to play I would definitely make time.

I've been hoping to start a Syndicate coop campaign on PC for some time, but because its run through Origin is just doesn't happen. Even if it did, unless we play through the whole campaign in one session I imagine its tough to come back to it.

I guess my two constructive suggestions would be

1. Hold a poll to vote for a game, maybe one per month (one every other month)?

2. Schedule a few communal dates to play this game. If its a coop campaign then a crew could get through the whole thing. If its competitive there could be some type of tournament.

This way if you don't own (or you're not into) a game then you can drop out. If your into the game then you can organize the time to play. There would be a few complications with determining the platform but shouldn't be too tough to figure out if there is a centralized communication platform like Mumble or IRC.

I had fun playing Serious Sam 3 with the PC group but who knows when we'll get back to it?

@djou said:

I love the idea of more regular, organized gaming events especially expanding it to include other platforms besides the PC. The two main problems for me (and I imagine its the same with others) is time and organization, but if I know there's a scheduled event with a game I want to play I would definitely make time.

I've been hoping to start a Syndicate coop campaign on PC for some time, but because its run through Origin is just doesn't happen. Even if it did, unless we play through the whole campaign in one session I imagine its tough to come back to it.

I guess my two constructive suggestions would be

1. Hold a poll to vote for a game, maybe one per month (one every other month)?

2. Schedule a few communal dates to play this game. If its a coop campaign then a crew could get through the whole thing. If its competitive there could be some type of tournament.

This way if you don't own (or you're not into) a game then you can drop out. If your into the game then you can organize the time to play. There would be a few complications with determining the platform but shouldn't be too tough to figure out if there is a centralized communication platform like Mumble or IRC.

I had fun playing Serious Sam 3 with the PC group but who knows when we'll get back to it?

We will get back to Serious Sam soon, I need to finish that fight!

Also don't let the regularly stuff fool you, if you just come online and shout "YO COME PLAY THIS GAME WITH ME!" then more often than not people will.

I am surprised that the Game Club has got a couple of positive comments, maybe I'll look at setting one up for February, working out exactly what it will entail.

@djou: Voting is something we've discussed and we'll do something like that in the future.

As far as co-op gaming goes, best chance for those is honestly to just hang out ocassionally in IRC/mumble and ask around. We've tried scheduling those sorts of 4-player co-op games, but thing is, it's hard to get random strangers to stick together with one another for anything more than one play session. Doesn't necessarily mean we won't attempt such a thing in the future because it'd be a nice thing we could potentially provide, but y'know, best way to play co-op is to just make some like-minded friends and play with them.

@SamStrife: Yeah, that was fun and a good game for one of these open events, fun, not too serious, supports a lot of players, and cheap.

I imagine the reason that I don't start up a game is the same for many, my hours are scarce and I'd rather play the thing I intended than just jump into a random game where I'm not sure if people will show.

SS3 would be a lot of fun and seems like it can be finished over two playthroughs. Maybe Syndicate? I know there's a good community for Mass Effect 3. I'm currently replaying the whole series on PC and would love to start this.

If you're going to make a Game Club, please don't make it a book club. Book clubs are just a reason for people to drink and talk mess about each other.  
 
Good on you guys though, I'm too antisocial to join a game club with more than 3 people. But best of luck to you in the future!

I would be down for a Magic:DotP tournament anytime. I assume it would be 2013 if it did get off the ground?

@Akrid: Yeah, absolutely agree. Its tough to find a stable group. Its take a while to build. That's why I think a poll may help since it would weed out stragglers and get the dialogue moving at least a little. In terms of hanging around IRC/mumble to organize, this would be tough since I only check these forums or respond in between answering work emails and working. In the past few years my tendency is to play games only when I consciously decide to go home to play games. Otherwise, I'm out and doing something else. Its not tough to find the time as long as I know ahead. Its always that balancing act between having fun and mitigating a bad experience that can happen with random strangers.

Good luck lads, consistent events and good turnouts fosters the later more and befits the former from my time in M&B/Napoleonic Wars events with public regiments/warbands/host/legions.

I like the idea of a game club, I'd definitely be interested in taking part in something like that. I'd also be interested in multiplayer shenanigans, especially on consoles since I'm not much of a PC gal. I'm generally pretty antisocial so something like that might actually help me to talk to people a bit more.

I ripped the "Game Club" concept from Rebel FM. The basic concept is that everyone plays up to a certain point in a game then comes together and talks about it; in that case they had a forum thread for comments and a podcast for each part. It's something I'd love to do (maybe minus the podcast part) with this community.

I've hung around the PC Gaming Hub IRC, and I've joined the Steam Group, but it seems they rarely ever play games that I own (or even ever at all).

Come join our ArmA 2 gang !

Yo I love playing video games with people from the internet.