Will there be a bigger and better Giant Bomb?

Joining the Whiskey crew was going to do it. Then they did the same thing. Then they joined CBS and had no equipment and did less than the same thing. Now they are back to doing the same thing. I love the guys, but fail to see what is changing amidst, well, change. Is it just a matter of getting paid better?

What do you want, a Ginormous Bomb? My games journalism needs are MET.

Humongous Bomb? Gargantuan Bomb? Hypergiant Bomb? Super Giant Bomb?

@Paul_Tillich: @nintendoeats: I can kinda see OP's point, I always thought more staff members would have a bigger impact on making GB bigger and better than a potential move like the CBSi move recently. I'm going to trust Jeff for now and assume that once they're where they need to be GB will become a better site.

I don't really know what happened with Whiskey, might be they wanted to expand and Shelby wasn't in the position or didn't want to go further with his investment, but I'm just speculating. But as far as joining CBS and not getting big enough for you, you should just relax. They just joined CBSi in March for Christ sakes! Also I think the dynamic they have is a proven winner, and adding too much too fast would upset the balance of things. Patience my friend.

I'm not complaining, because I love things as they are. I have just not seen mentioned growth. The question is a thought piece, not a complaint.

Mega bomb

"your listening to the mega bombcast I'm your host Ryan Davis"

It rings perfectly


To add to the thread though I enjoy everything they do on the site and from the last jars Jeff did, they stilly seem to be scrambling around a bit. I would like to see some new stuff when they get a chance though

Have you listened to Dave's video explanation of what will be changing on the site? That illuminated a lot of it. For the moment, they have just been trying to get back to even in time for E3. Then, we'll be seeing the new site, and after that, they'll be trying to grow the site a bit more. They just have to go step by step. Right now, they're back to where they were; now they're working on expanding upon it. Just give it time. :)

@Paul_Tillich:

To be fair, they did host a worldwide game jam around Peter Molyneux as soon as they moved to the CBS offices.

That wouldn't have happened in the basement.

Don't assume every post on the internet is a knee-jerk reaction; I just wanted discussion. Nobody needs to tell me the guys are awesome and trustworthy. That is clear... for me at least, sheesh.

@nintendoeats said:

What do you want, a Ginormous Bomb? My games journalism needs are MET.

This, pretty much. At least we know they paid for a new quotation text font.

Nothing is going to change, thats what they said.

@TruthTellah said:

illuminati

I KNEW IT

I think GB is going to get bigger in the next few years. It'll be up to the staff to make it better. Hiring people that will fit in and help them in weaker areas.

@SSValis: Congrats on being the first person to respond instead of flame. That is what the guys said, but what is that area? Generic statements about growth have given me no ideas. You?

On different topic, when exactly is that redesign coming?

More video content and more Vinny. That's the only thing that could make giantbomb any better.

@benspyda: Do they need someone to keep them on track in that case? Something like quality control. X number of unique staff videos each day. So do they they hire more technical staff? Maybe one more technical and one more personality to let the videos expand. Or a Vinny clone and feature the Afroed one more, though that is not his role.

I just want different and unique content in addition to their unique personalities. Stuff like TANG, when the site first launched, gave me hope of a site brimming with their crazy ideas running the show. Ever since the first year or two it seems that "new content" has been little more than different lengths of quicklooks (Flight Club, PC Game, uhhh, quicklooks). I think this stuff is great, and it's obviously difficult to come up with wholly original ideas, but it'd be nice to wonder what Giantbomb will do next again. I don't feel like there are any surprises from these guys in store anymore.

I would love more video content. It seems like at the start the guys were more excited about stuff and there were random videos all the time. Maybe the guys have gotten older or they are not as enthusiastic as they used to be, because for a video focused site there is not enough consistent content IMO. In the last few months there have been a bunch of anniversaries the guys could have mined for video content; Kirby, Street fighter, fallout, Mario, Metroid etc. I only criticize because I care. Giant Bomb has a unique flavour which is hard to find elsewhere and at the moment I feel like they could do better.

Sites like Game Informer seem to be catching up, especially with their replays(GI's quick looks of older games), super replays( endurance runs), test chambers(quick looks of more recent games) which is odd considering the website is a compliment to the magazine. Actually if you need more video content that is just as entertaining as GB I'd suggest you try Game Informer. The Dan and his dad series is great as are the Reiner and Phil episodes.

Even Gamespot has some good video series'. The 'it came from xbox live' series is great as is the Skyrim and Trials mods/tracks of the week series.

Hopefully with all this change someone somewhere will have the balls to tell Navarro to either learn to be funny or stop trying.

@Paul_Tillich: *cough* Klepeck *cough*

But in all seriousness, they are taking it slow. I'm guessing this is a rough itinerary:

1. Get through E3 [Shows CBS they are profitable, generate a ton of revenue]
2. New site redesign [Dave is constantly talking about this. It's supposed to be huge and awesome so look forward to this.]
3. Get through GOTY [The next milestone and money-maker, secures profitability of the site.]
4. Hire interns
5. Tons of downtime
6. New content
7. Hire new staff or more interns or more content...Probably depends on the mood of the guys
8. TGS

I think what you guys fail to realize is that the CBS jump doesn't mean instant cash. It means that they have an avenue to receive cash if they can prove themselves. They still gotta show CBS that they need the money for stuff. Just trust in the Duder my friend. All will come to fruition. In the meantime enjoy Quick Looks and the Bombcast. They're still kickass.

@Paul_Tillich said:

@SSValis: Congrats on being the first person to respond instead of flame. That is what the guys said, but what is that area? Generic statements about growth have given me no ideas. You?

More high quality content and the money to create it I suppose

I think their first port of call will be growing the background staff a bit; 5 guys are enough to film a bunch of stuff, but I think they are limited by how much can actually be done with video with only having Vinny and Drew, and with the site with only Dave and Alexis.

There's a reason they were so reliant on interns there for a long time. That is just what seems the most logical to me, to allow them to churn out more content by having the support in place.

Once that happens, my guess is they'll then consider bringing on more front-facing staff, maybe as freelance writers only (I doubt it), but more likely bringing in someone they already know to become the new target of all the jealous crybabies who incessantly bitch about Tricky 'Tricks' McScoopsington

HIRE MATT RORIE

HIRE MATT RORIE

Well, the problem is that people are impatient. Giant Bomb changed offices recently and some people expect change to come so fast. You have to understand that things like this take time.

Nope. They'll stay the exact same forever and ever and never grow. Stagnant in a web of ever evolving entertainment.

Are you serious? ERs, Premium Content like the Radio Show, RPCG, etc. Go ahead, look for a capture of the old sites. This is a million miles ahead. It may not be evolving into a whole new beast, but it's certainly getting better, getting more content, more focus on video content, etc. If you really think they are still just doing the same ol' shit, you are a damned fool. It's still Giantbomb duder, things aren't going to change that much.

@BestUsernameEver said:

On different topic, when exactly is that redesign coming?

I believe it's a ways off.

I think nobody will be happy until GB turns into just another gaming website.

I think a big part of it has to do with trying to engage a new audience when they were just starting out. Now the site has a following and they all have gotten into into a more comfortable swing of things. Although I don't necessarily need any new features I do wish they stayed a bit more consistent with the updates and quality of content. Honestly not sure what happened to I Love Mondays - at one point it started just being "take the flipcam out." If there is nothing to cover and it's so dead right now wouldn't that mean that they have more time to edit, more time to come up with new things? Yet despite this lull in content they still can't organize a proper TNT simply because they didn't think of one - not that they were swamped, or had no time, they just didn't care enough.

@wafflez said:

@YoThatLimp said:

HIRE MATT RORIE

BACKED

that's million bucks pledged

The most giant of bombs.

I really don't see a problem here.

@wafflez said:

@YoThatLimp said:

HIRE MATT RORIE

BACKED

DOUBLE BACKED!

Sure theres a little bit of production stuff right now that needs to be sorted, but what I love about giant bomb is that start up, garage approach to things. If there were a ton of staff the site would lose that personality. I'm totally happy with how things are and am looking forward to the cool stuff the guys will be able to do once they properly settle in to the new digs but don't want the core of the site to change.

Nothing is going to change overnight. The things they are doing take time. I mean, take the "site redesign" as an example. It's not really a redesign, it's a rebuild. They are, starting from the ground up, totally rebuilding the site. They aren't modifying the current code to improve it, they are starting from scratch. Writing new code from the ground up. Even if CBS gave them infinite resources, that's still going to take a significant amount of time. It's not going to happen overnight.

Within 2 years, Giantbomb and Gamespot will merge.

I see what you are saying, Giant Bomb needs to hire a lady.

@Coafi said:

I see what you are saying, Giant Bomb needs to hire a lady.

you mean besides

You can already see in the most recent TNT that Vinny is using the extra video resources for dumbest things. I think like others have said it takes time to plan stuff out and then put this in action

@Cloudenvy said:

@wafflez said:

@YoThatLimp said:

HIRE MATT RORIE

BACKED

DOUBLE BACKED!

I give this 5 PUPPIES!

@AlexanderSheen said:

@Cloudenvy said:

@wafflez said:

@YoThatLimp said:

HIRE MATT RORIE

BACKED

DOUBLE BACKED!

I give this 5 PUPPIES!

Regardless of how people feel about his personality, Matt Rorie was by far the best writer on the Whiskey staff. I'd love to see him on this site.

Giant Bomb is getting bigger and better... and Ryan's getting laaaaaarger!

Super Giant Hyper Bomb Turbo 2 HD Redux

@jking47 said:

Super Giant Bomb?

Yes! Somebody get Greg Kasavin on the phone!