What is the GB staff doing with their time?

So, I've found myself wondering this a fair amount lately, and I know its been a sentiment echoed at times on these forums about the general lack of content on the site, but what is the GB staff up to these days? Now, I'm fully aware that there isn't really a way to make that question sound not dickish, but as a subscribing member, and long time lover the the site, it's meant more to voice my curiosity and concern.

We get a few quick looks a week, a couple random news bits, sometimes more extensive articles by Patrick or Alex, but I feel like the content output doesn't match the number of folks working on the site. I find myself wondering what Jeff, Ryan, and other staffers are working on. Is it a bunch of bureaucratic BS like meetings? What others things are draining away their time? Content creation just isn't as prolific as it seems to have been in the past. Is this my imagination, or are there other valid reasons content isn't flowing?

(Please don't say "It's the summer," because that isn't a valid reason. There's plenty of random BS they could be QLing.)

Playing games to the point where they have enough knowledge of the game to run a quick look takes a large portion of time. Then you have them going to publisher events about the upcoming releases. Talking to publishers about getting pre-release coverage and review copies of games and stuff. Having meetings and other things about the site redesign and stuff like that. Working on the next Big Live Live Show which they've hinted might be happening. And more stuff which I'm unaware of because I don't work there. There are a bunch of things involed in running a website like Giant Bomb that don't immediately result in content. All those E3 video's, podcasts and stuff: that all took large amounts of planning in the months beforehand. They don't just turn up for something and make shit happen. Things need planning and organization. It's the same for other upcoming stuff. Planning and preparation for upcoming things results in quality content when the time comes.

Stuff takes time, people think(not saying you think this) that throwing out a video is super easy. 
It's not, it's really not, also, everyone have drinking problems thanks to the Mods, I hear. 

@ZeForgotten said:

everyone have drinking problems thanks to the Mods, I hear.

You've got that the wrong way round. The mods have drinking problems thanks to everyone.

They spend all day drinking the exotic booze that viewers send in, duh

Leaning back and laughing at the fools that subscribe to their website whilst they smoke 100 dollar bills and drink 65 year old port.

@ZeForgotten said:

everyone have drinking problems thanks to the Mods, I hear.

You've got that the wrong way round. The mods have drinking problems thanks to everyone.

@Cheesebob said:

Leaning back and laughing at the fools that subscribe to their website whilst they smoke 100 dollar bills and drink 65 year old port.

Hey, if they put up a video of that, I'll be satisfied.

@MattyFTM: I'm going to have to disagree with you on your point about the time taken to prepare for a Quick Look... While something like an MMO or a big release gets many hours put in before a QL comes, it's (painfully) obvious that the crew often only has a couple hours or less put into a game.

I'm not too worried about content though, even with the amount of stuff they're currently putting out I can't watch/listen to it all.

Everything is still temporary. I hope that thing improve once the whole office is 100%. Hell the pc they use is on loan.

@Jimmi said:

@MattyFTM: I'm going to have to disagree with you on your point about the time taken to prepare for a Quick Look... While something like an MMO or a big release gets many hours put in before a QL comes, it's (painfully) obvious that the crew often only has a couple hours or less put into a game.

I'm not too worried about content though, even with the amount of stuff they're currently putting out I can't watch/listen to it all.

Yeah... it seems only Dave Quicklooks seem to be consistently prepared by Dave. Gods bless him even more. Though in my opinion, the time allocated to video editing and setup seems be the actual elongated effect on the seemingly slow pace of video content being produced.

I often don't really get what they are doing all day either, and then you see twitter messages about the nba all stars and that gong thing. I think they also screw around quite a bit, next to all the behind the scenes planning and preparation. On the other hand, I can't blame them. People can probably say the same about me. Like how I am posting this right now during work hours...

@Jimmi: I think a couple of hours is being very very generous.

Ha, I've been wondering the same thing. The decline (since the Whisky Media break-up) has been noticeable, but I have chalked it up to a bunch of factors. Moving to new digs, having to buy new equipment, attending various expos/conferences/shows (Idon't follow these things very much, but this seems to be the season for them). All of that adds up to reduced site content. I don't mind too much - I am a subscriber, but I consider spent my money to support GB in general and I don't expect to receive a some pre-determined amount of content in return.

What I would like to see, is a for the crew to do something about the giant wall of light that ruins most of the office videos. Otherwise, I am pretty satisfied...

Video and audio production aren't as easy and "turn the crank" as a lot of people think.

I'm going to make a wild guess:

• Sifting through emails at the start of the day: Press releases, PR wanting to make appointments, Kickstarter spam, etc.
• "Meetings"! Discussing any notable releases, emails, news, GAF threads, etc. Who's going to cover what (basic resource management).
• Follow up! Answering emails, making / confirming appointments, phone calls, etc. And then the wait.
• Mail man! Sifting through packages, press releases, review copies, demo's, SWAG. And getting them to the right person / dumpster.
• LUNCH!

And with half the day gone, all that's left is recording a podcast, quick look, writing reviews or news stories, editing videos or text, sit through live demo's, answering emails (again), wrestle a HR / IT person.

Oh, yeah, video games too, I guess.

Doesn't this get asked every month or so? I thought this was a necro'd thread at first.

First off they have to research stuff. For a QL they have to schedule Vinny or Drew, install the game, sometimes I'd guess it takes more time beyond that to get it to some sort of useful menu screen and create a character. That eats time. Then you have to learn the story basics, and the controls (a problem affecting consoles and PC, and which aggravates me some because e.g. I always end up reaching for the torch button in games which have no torch available. FFFUUUU). Then to do a review they have to play the game, and hopefully finish it, and then write about it. Factor in the length of the bombcast, and the fact that people have babbies and other personal events, and I think they're doing ok.

Playing games to the point where they have enough knowledge of the game to run a quick look takes a large portion of time.

@RazielCuts said:

Doesn't this get asked every month or so?

Yeah.

Fucking bitches and making money.

@RazielCuts said:

Doesn't this get asked every month or so? I thought this was a necro'd thread at first.

Yeah, which just makes the excuses like "There's no games coming out!" even less valid. This is asked constantly, and rightfully so in my opinion. There is not nearly enough content going up in the site lately, and I really don't know what most of the staff are doing most of the time.

just in time for the podcast!!

@ajamafalous said:

@MattyFTM said:

Playing games to the point where they have enough knowledge of the game to run a quick look takes a large portion of time.

I hope you're kidding about that one Matty. It's pretty apparent that they've put less than two hours into about 75% of the games they QL.

Probably, but that's still 90 minutes of a work day which is say, 7 hours long. Then recording and editing (I know they've said they're easy editing wise, but they still require some work). Things do take time. There has, however, been a definite drop in content since the CBSi move. The TNTs are shorter, there are a tad fewer quick looks, but it's not too bad. I would assume a lot of this is due to the redesign. We know from How to Build a Bomb that the guys have input in site design, and with a huge redesign coming, that also takes hella time.

So whilst there is less content, and I'd love to see the return of 2 hour plus TNTs, it's still pretty good. They're human beings. Human beings that charge a subscription fee for a lot of it, but nevertheless, it's still good value.

@CL60 said:

@RazielCuts said:

Doesn't this get asked every month or so? I thought this was a necro'd thread at first.

Yeah, which just makes the excuses like "There's no games coming out!" even less valid. This is asked constantly, and rightfully so in my opinion. There is not nearly enough content going up in the site lately, and I really don't know what most of the staff are doing most of the time.

You'd think if it was getting asked every month one of the staff would reply wouldn't you.

They are currently redesigning the site. That takes a lot of playtesting and usability checks from all hands on deck. Also, I am sure that once every couple of days they reconvene to talk about what they like about it and what is missing. There are not that many more people working for Giant Bomb than there were when they were building the site initially. It takes an army to build a crazy wiki like this. Probably takes more manpower to move all of that stuff over and rebuild it on new technology and not lose any of the data in the process. They are not coders and IT guys. But, I am sure that Ryan, Jeff, and Brad are more involved in the reinvention of the website than you might think.

@CL60 said:

Yeah, which just makes the excuses like "There's no games coming out!" even less valid. This is asked constantly, and rightfully so in my opinion. There is not nearly enough content going up in the site lately, and I really don't know what most of the staff are doing most of the time.

Not that I disagree with the sentiment, it's just become one of *those* threads now, white noise.

@Tylea002 said:

@ajamafalous said:

@MattyFTM said:

Playing games to the point where they have enough knowledge of the game to run a quick look takes a large portion of time.

I hope you're kidding about that one Matty. It's pretty apparent that they've put less than two hours into about 75% of the games they QL.

Probably, but that's still 90 minutes of a work day which is say, 7 hours long. Then recording and editing (I know they've said they're easy editing wise, but they still require some work). Things do take time. There has, however, been a definite drop in content since the CBSi move. The TNTs are shorter, there are a tad fewer quick looks, but it's not too bad. I would assume a lot of this is due to the redesign. We know from How to Build a Bomb that the guys have input in site design, and with a huge redesign coming, that also takes hella time.

So whilst there is less content, and I'd love to see the return of 2 hour plus TNTs, it's still pretty good. They're human beings. Human beings that charge a subscription fee for a lot of it, but nevertheless, it's still good value.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I'm wholly dissatisfied or something (I recently renewed my subscription after all), but I keep hoping for a return to form, and I'm just not seeing it. The redesign is also something I've considered as a time sink, but they've been talking about that forever, and I've got to imagine that most of that burden falls on folks like Vinny, Dave, and Alexis in that area.

Let me be clear here too that I'm certainly understanding that QLs take more time that the length of the video to produce, but I've always been under the impression that folks like Vinny and Drew put in the bulk of that video production work. I totally understand why I don't see them more often.

As far as folks talking about this thread popping up every month, I guess I think that makes sense. As soon as the content starts to flow like it used to, I and other users will stop thinking about it. (Or at least I personally will. I shouldn't speak for others.)

I don't know what reasons they have, but I'm sure its. I won't tell you folks to quit belly-aching, but come on folks. Listen to the bombcast for now. Content will be coming to satisfy your needs.

I also think Jeff is in a lot of Meetings, thats probably why we dont see him a lot, but Brad and especially Ryan, I dont know why we dont see a lot of them.

@Carryboy said:

@CL60 said:

@RazielCuts said:

Doesn't this get asked every month or so? I thought this was a necro'd thread at first.

Yeah, which just makes the excuses like "There's no games coming out!" even less valid. This is asked constantly, and rightfully so in my opinion. There is not nearly enough content going up in the site lately, and I really don't know what most of the staff are doing most of the time.

You'd think if it was getting asked every month one of the staff would reply wouldn't you.

Eh, the question is usually along the lines of, 'why so little content' not, 'what does the staff do with its time'. The threads we usually see are whiny people getting angry about that week only have four videos instead of ten. This seems more interested in the actual work the staff does, from a more academic standpoint. Or, that's what I'm taking away from it.

I am damn curious. I mean, the Quick Looks can't be most of their time. Is it really that they're sitting around playing games all day? That seems insane, and really fucking awesome. I would imagine they're doing a lot of PR stuff, setting up interviews and trying to get their hands on games and such, but I'd imagine that's just a few emails or phone calls a day - doesn't really take the entire staff for that, does it? I think it'd be awesome if they did a 'day in the life' video where they sort of ran down the shit they spent their day doing. I'm genuinely interested.

I'm pretty sure Jeff re-enacts The movie CB4. Don't quote me on this though.

I'm pretty sure Jeff re-enacts The movie CB4.

@HatKing said:

@Carryboy said:

@CL60 said:

@RazielCuts said:

Doesn't this get asked every month or so? I thought this was a necro'd thread at first.

Yeah, which just makes the excuses like "There's no games coming out!" even less valid. This is asked constantly, and rightfully so in my opinion. There is not nearly enough content going up in the site lately, and I really don't know what most of the staff are doing most of the time.

You'd think if it was getting asked every month one of the staff would reply wouldn't you.

Eh, the question is usually along the lines of, 'why so little content' not, 'what does the staff do with its time'. The threads we usually see are whiny people getting angry about that week only have four videos instead of ten. This seems more interested in the actual work the staff does, from a more academic standpoint. Or, that's what I'm taking away from it.

Thank you for taking the conversation in that direction. That is precisely what I'm interested in.

I think the Internet has a real entitlement problem.

Then again, I also think this is a valid question.

I get the feeling that some of what they guys are doing these days is a bit... don't take it the wrong way, but a bit Gamespot-y. I mean, why even go to game events? Or rather, why even go to game events you can't talk about until a embargo hits? I get why Gamespot does this, but Giantbomb? The audience here seems to be fairly content with the team playing random, outdated stuff. Not so much with the reviews and news pieces. I like those, but they're certainly not the core of the site, right?

So if there's a choice between sending a guy to a thing or having the same guy wait for the game being advertised to just come out and using that time to play something else on camera instead, I think the guys should think about that decision twice. I want GB to be my first stop for gaming stuff, but I don't need it to be my only stop. I can go elsewhere for my hype cycle (some of those places just by clicking a link at the bottom of GB).

So yeah, my preference would be for Patrick to focus on his more insightful articles about gaming as a whole and the rest of the team to focus on entertaining content and less of the normal grind of a standard gaming website. I'm not the only one here, though, so maybe the numbers and the click counts tell a different story.

@cloudnineboya: I'm stoked to be in division 3.

@NoelVeiga said:

I think the Internet has a real entitlement problem.

Then again, I also think this is a valid question.

I get the feeling that some of what they guys are doing these days is a bit... don't take it the wrong way, but a bit Gamespot-y. I mean, why even go to game events? Or rather, why even go to game events you can't talk about until a embargo hits? I get why Gamespot does this, but Giantbomb? The audience here seems to be fairly content with the team playing random, outdated stuff. Not so much with the reviews and news pieces. I like those, but they're certainly not the core of the site, right?

So if there's a choice between sending a guy to a thing or having the same guy wait for the game being advertised to just come out and using that time to play something else on camera instead, I think the guys should think about that decision twice. I want GB to be my first stop for gaming stuff, but I don't need it to be my only stop. I can go elsewhere for my hype cycle (some of those places just by clicking a link at the bottom of GB).

So yeah, my preference would be for Patrick to focus on his more insightful articles about gaming as a whole and the rest of the team to focus on entertaining content and less of the normal grind of a standard gaming website. I'm not the only one here, though, so maybe the numbers and the click counts tell a different story.

Very well said, completely agree.

None of us know the answer.I will say that the first mistake that some of you made was assuming that the staff is somehow obligated to answer you just because you have a premium membership.

@Carryboy said:

@NoelVeiga said:

I think the Internet has a real entitlement problem.

Then again, I also think this is a valid question.

I get the feeling that some of what they guys are doing these days is a bit... don't take it the wrong way, but a bit Gamespot-y. I mean, why even go to game events? Or rather, why even go to game events you can't talk about until a embargo hits? I get why Gamespot does this, but Giantbomb? The audience here seems to be fairly content with the team playing random, outdated stuff. Not so much with the reviews and news pieces. I like those, but they're certainly not the core of the site, right?

So if there's a choice between sending a guy to a thing or having the same guy wait for the game being advertised to just come out and using that time to play something else on camera instead, I think the guys should think about that decision twice. I want GB to be my first stop for gaming stuff, but I don't need it to be my only stop. I can go elsewhere for my hype cycle (some of those places just by clicking a link at the bottom of GB).

So yeah, my preference would be for Patrick to focus on his more insightful articles about gaming as a whole and the rest of the team to focus on entertaining content and less of the normal grind of a standard gaming website. I'm not the only one here, though, so maybe the numbers and the click counts tell a different story.

Very well said, completely agree.

I'm with you.

I'm going to chalk it up to the staff generally doing more business-oriented shenanigans as opposed to viewer-centric shenanigans. Back when I joined (early 2010), they were still in the first basement/office, and I remember there being, generally, far more shenanigans and general bullshit going up than what we saw in the WM offices or even now. My guess is that since Whiskey Hindenburg'd that the Giant Bomb crew have had to pick up the slack normally reserved for off-screen business types.

At least, that's what I hope happened. The other explanation is that they've generally gotten far more lax about pleasing their customers (as subscribers, that's what we are) since they've got CBS Money backing them now. I'd really hate for that to be the case.

Recording the podcast, writing articles, arranging shit with PR, recording QLs of games that come out, meetings, playing and reviewing games and preparing and recording ridiculous 4 hour streams of SNES games.

Being a subscriber doesn't mean you must wait around all day for new content. Go to work, get paid, and read a book. Successfully completing these steps will result in new content on Giant bomb, along with bigger pockets and an increase sense of consciousness.

Being a subscriber doesn't mean you must wait around all day for new content. Go to work, get paid, and read a bock. Successfully completing these steps will result in new content on Giant bomb, along with bigger pockets and an increase sense of consciousness.

Eating bees.

It's even weirder when you see they outsourced the majority of the actual writing to Alex and Patrick. I was baffled that one week Spelunky came out, when they all said they had nothing to do, and yet none of them were reviewing it.

Yeah, I don't know. I don't feel like I deserve more or anything, I'm just curious as to what's going on there. Maybe I'm spoiled because they have a good track record of being so transparent.

@MattyFTM said:

Playing games to the point where they have enough knowledge of the game to run a quick look takes a large portion of time.

I hope you're kidding about that one Matty. It's pretty apparent that they've put less than two hours into about 75% of the games they QL.

They really aren´t the hardest working people ever, you know? I hate when people try to justify the lack of content with oh "but... but... they are... uhm... they have to make phone calls you know!" They are just lazy and everyone knows it.

@Fattony12000 said:

I've never seen such an acute case of hoverhands before.

I think they produce a decent amount of content for how many people they have, but of course, I wouldn't mind seeing more. With the quick look thing, I think they feel the games need to be fairly recent or maybe even a new release to really justify a quick look, but I'd love to see more quick look throwbacks. Or maybe even a separate feature for playing through a small portion of an old game that many visitors to the site might not have ever seen. Maybe get rid of the quick look part so people aren't confused and just call them Throwback. Something like Throwback: The Last Ninja, where Jeff could try to jump across a few logs for an hour or so.