Where do you see the site going from here?

There has been an awful lot of change in the office over the last several months, and that was before the tragic loss of Ryan. Dave left some months ago and a lot of people were already kind of wondering what content would look like without Patrick.

So at the moment we pretty much only have Brad and Jeff as regular on screen guys. Vinny and Drew are normally behind the scenes doing stuff. As weird as it may seem to mention, it sort of looks like they are going to have to try to bring in some new people if the site has much of a chance of continuing on. It can't just be Brad and Jeff talking to each other in every Quick Look or TNT or whatever.

It just seems like an awful lot has been laid on the shoulders of these guys all at once. Any loss in such a small team is difficult to overcome, but so many in such a short period of time must be particularly brutal. I think the people who are expecting a quick return to some form of normalization might be a little too optimistic about where things stand at the moment.

Wouldn't surprise me if they get Andy full time to produce videos so Vinny and Drew can do more on camera stuff.

But I guess eventually they will need a new member of the editorial staff. There is a certain Irishman im sure most people would like to see join the team.... (Geographical problems aside.)

I imagine after a couple of weeks they'll slowly start doing stuff on the site again. Hopefully they can find a way for Vinny and Drew to be on camera more. It might be a while, but I could also see them hiring someone else on.

More Vinny in everything = Win Win Win

I'm sure that they will start to let Andy more of the heavy lifting on the production end so Vinny and/or Drew can have more face time on camera.

This has been discussed already and quickly got locked, but I think the obvious move would be putting Rorie in editorial, and maybe having Vinny produce/host the podcast. However, that's not my decision to make, nor is it yours.

Agree with this. Ryan is irreplaceable. Anyone stepping into those shoes will open themselves to unfair comparisons. I like Danny O'Dwyer, but Gamespot UK has been kinda killing it and he seems to have big plans so I'm not sure why he would want to relocate.

To the moon.

Rorie is good on camera and I enjoy his writing, so he can contribute more moving forward. As far as hiring someone new for the editorial staff, it seems like that's most likely necessary at this point. Especially considering in the last Jar Time, Jeff talked about how he had some ideas for expansion, of course who knows what the status of anything at this point. Definitely not worried about who they would hire, as these guys know lots of good dudes in the industry, and I have no doubt they'd be able to find someone to fit the Giant Bomb style.

He could do some Bombasticas.

To be honest, I think this starts the whole consequences of the CBSi sale. Since the guys don't own the site anymore, and GB seems to be going under so many changes and personnel changes: it wouldn't surprise me if Giant Bomb gets axed in the next few years and merges with GS again with a newly-figured out Giant Bombian style.

I do believe with Patrick's announcement, they were already looking for a replacement. It was a side note in one of the Monday Morning videos. One of them said they had a ton of applications to go through and the discussion didn't go further.

More Drew, more Vinny! (they already went this direction before Ryan left us)

We also need:

- more Rorie (get him on the editorial side, the man is one hell of a writer)

- Kessler on the site (dude has got passion, is entertaining/funny/informed, is able to articulate himself well while playing)

It's at the 4:00 mark. They have been looking for a hire.

http://www.giantbomb.com/videos/i-love-mondays-06-24-2013/2300-7633/

I don't think the site changes. It's going to really suck Ryan isn't around, but I think they will continue to hire as they were before Ryan's passing and someone will just appear one day.

I think the ILM application thing was about designers since Alexis was the one going through the applications.

I know it'd never happen now (given her current job) but I would love to see Carrie join the team

I was thinking about this recently and wondered if it was possible that Alex would move back to the west coast, but that's probably asking too much of him. I am glad there could be even more Vindawg, but his dynamic with Ryan was one of the best things. :(

I do like Rorie's writing, but think he's sorta irritating on-camera. He also recommended Mike Nelson's Movie Megacheese, which I read, and in it Mike describes Danny DeVito as "the enemy of all that is good and decent" or something to that effect, at which point I threw the book into a fire. It was also horribly dated anyway, focusing on super specific things as punching bags.

Danny O'Dwyer would indeed be fantastic. Maybe more regular Brad Muir guest spots.

Watchable/Listenable, or at least without having to skip large chunks of it.

@citizenkane said:

Andy? Didn't Andy leave when Whiskey Media split along with Coonce and the rest of the engineering team aside of course from Dave and Alex? Maybe you're thinking of Ian.

While I think Danny would be a great addition, in my imagination they're asking Dave to come back and join the editorial staff. Yeah...

@insanegenis: that's to replace dave not patrick or ryan.

I would have said hire danny but he seems happy at gs uk

Adam Sessler would make a fine addition.

@deathstriker666: You're thinking of the wrong Andy. Haven't you noticed that in the live streams with Vinny and Drew on the couch they yell out "Andy" to the control room?

@skadave: Sessler is the boss/head guy at Rev3. I imagine he's happy with that, it probably pushes his career more then a regular editor position.

Not only was Ryan an entertaining speaker, he also mastered the rare talent of moving conversations along and keeping them interesting. There are many people who are funny and engaging, however there are not too many people who are excellent hosts. When you get someone with this skill it is special. I am wondering if anyone will be able to fill that void.

I know it will never happen. But I would love them to get Justin Mcaroy. Also fucking Dan Ryckert, I could see that happen. He seems to like the camera stuff and GI doesn't do too much of that. He's really funny, and also WRESTLING. Now that think about it, he probably doesn't live in SF, so whatever.

I'm not going to speculate too much on who slots into which job. But what I would love, is if everyone dropped the pretense that all content has to be videogame-related, and just do what they feel like.

There was that wild confession in the Bombcast (unless I imagined it!) where Jeff had been thinking about taking off to do comedy. Giant Bomb doesn't even have "game" in its title, and the site is personality-based, so I think the team should do whatever they feel like in the moment. If Jeff and Vinny want to write and shoot a sketch about whatever, go for it. Tons of users care about movies: Rorie, Alex, and Patrick could step up to doing a livestream Skype where they talk mess about the blockbusters they're seeing. Patrick can recruit a college kid to work the camera and tour Chicago pinball barcades. Livestream that Pathfinder tabletop madness. And when a video game comes out that you're actually excited about? Sit down at the trusty capture station and record your reactions.

Tested was originally just about consumer electronics. The Mythbusters buyout actually erased most of their barriers about what's "off topic." Life is too short to get locked in a format, Giant Bomb can be a site about whatever its personalities are having fun with.

I know this will have a mixed response but i would like to see what Greg Miller could do freed from IGN, He reminds me of Jeff quite a bit and think he could do the Giant Bomb brand of stupid.

kessler

Kessler? A like-able fellow and he seems into the vidja

Hijack Maxwell McGee from Gamespot

also Carrie Gouskos

I have no idea. At some point I'm sure they will need to hire some new people so they are not so short handed, but beyond that who knows. Whoever they hire on, if they are not part of some click from the guys past I'm sure they will get nothing but hate from the community for a while as all new staff does.

Yes! I started following her on twitter after she was on camera. She was a hoot.

Dan "And What Do You Think About THIS Fart App, Mr. Molyneux?" Ryckert

Wos all this then?

@chaser324@gamer_152@sparky_buzzsaw

I know it'd never happen but I'd kill to get some J-Mac (J-Mc?) up in my Giant Bomb.

Allow me to be the first emphatic no. Greg's a nice guy, but both he and Colin remind me of the nerds I had to keep at arm's length in high school, especially Greg. The way he carries himself and things he can't help like his speaking voice are just grating to me. Colin's badness comes from his pretension; it's funny, Alex reminds me a lot of Colin except at the end of the day Alex is pretty sure he's an idiot and Colin's pretty sure you should shine his shoes.

Trivia Robot.

Nobody ever said it was. Why are you acting so defensive?

@bbalpert: Dude, YES! Ryckert is funny as hell and seems like a pretty cool guy. He would be an awesome addition and fit in perfectly.

Too bad, he lives in Minnesota (or at least that's what Twitter says), and is a Senior Editor at GI.

I 'd bet the next year or so is going be mostly business "as usual." I wouldn't expect any major shakeups for awhile. Long term though, I bet it's going to be radically different from how it is now. They'll hire new people- and I doubt they'll continue the trend of harvesting ex-Gamespot employees. That can only last so long. Jeff's said on a couple of occasions that he'd like the site to expand. Kessler, maybe? Who knows, because CBSi is a big corporation, business decisions tend to slowly crawl. Five years from now... Brad could actually leave- I could see him getting married and moving back home, if you're raising a family, it's nice to have some extended family around. Patrick, like Sara, might leave the site on good terms (long distance relationships are difficult, man, one-person quicklooks of old horror games can only entertain for so long.) As for short term. Will Vinnie take over as Bombcast host? Will Rorie move to editorial? This stuff wouldn't surprise me.

Right, remember when Drew first showed up and everyone just despised him? Oh right, that never happened.

Also, remember when Alex joined, who is very much someone from their click, and some people hated him anyway? In other words, you do realize that you're spouting BS, right?

My fantasy: Johnny V leaves Disney to join the Giant Bomb crew (doing God knows what) and I would laugh hysterically on a near daily basis.

I feel that the only person in the crew who could host the bombcast would be Jeff at this point. If I am not mistaken, Jeff would take the reigns whenever Ryan was absent from the show. It seams like the logical fit.

I just hope that people don't start using "they're still grieving" as an even more asshole-ish version of "they're still settling into the new offices." That'd be just plain disrespectful.

@themanwithnoplan said:

@joshwent said:

More Vinny in everything = Win Win Win

love that face

I mentioned Vinny because he hosted the HotSpot for awhile, and intro'd the show last week. Actually, the podcasts where Jeff was in charge are some of my favorites, but mostly because it's an offtopic free-for-all with no real direction, which usually leads to numbers stations, somehow.

Rich "The Devil's Eyebrow" Gallup

To infinity, and beyond!