Would you be willing to donate for The Raid?

You're not giving money to the site to help produce some unique and expensive content. You would be directly funding one guy who has like 6000 games already just so he can go and buy more games. This isn't something that benefits the site and users. This would benefit only Jeff. It's like if Drew asked members to fund his trip to North Korea. The trip looked awesome and the 2-3h stream that followed was too but you don't ask members to fund something like this.

Jeff would never ask for and never accept this money i'm sure and i'd be pretty fucking gross if he did.

And if he did something like the Raid during a larger trip to Japan to cover TGS with the rest of the team they have CBS and premium subscription to finance that.

I was just about to say almost exactly this. I usually don't like to say never, but the idea that Jeff would accept money from Giant Bomb users in order to go buy games in Japan is so far outside the realm of possibility that I'm pretty comfortable saying it would never happen.

I totally would until I thought about it for a minute.

Jeff and Drew and two plane tickets to Japan is all they need. They could do it if they wanted to. The real question is why don't they?

I was thinking of it more in terms of filmed content, not just adding to Jeff's massive horde. And also the continuity of seeing the games acquired turn up later in UPF or other live-streams.

I understand your point nonetheless. I could certainly see Jeff being uncomfortable taking a donation pool for this or anything else.

I suppose I viewed the idea of donating as a means of more direct engagement with The Raid, rather than some form of creepy charity. But it's not really about just me.

@flacracker said:

Well they'd also need a bunch of money to buy games and rent a room. Finding a time that would be okay for both Jeff and Drew to leave would probably be pretty difficult, especially because a trip like that would not only put a hold on their work but their personal lives as well. Plus they've basically been short staffed since arriving at CBS, so that only exacerbates the issue.

@bunnellius: As far as producing content for the site i really don't think they need money outside of their existing budget and premium subscriptions. Last year Patrick and Drew went to Iceland for the Eve Online convention. This wouldn't be much different.

And as for games for UFP, Jeff already has 6000 or so to choose from.

I already "donate" for them to do cool and entertaining stuff through my membership. What they specifically decide to do with it is their choice though. I doubt Jeff would accept more money to go on the Raid, but if he ever needs help convincing the CBSi folks to send them to TGS and possibly do the Raid, I'm sure many of us would gladly chime in with our support.

No, doesn't sound like something I want to watch and I'm not going to give someone money so they can go on a trip to buy games. To be honest, it sounds dumb. There is a Dutch site with guys that did that stuff nearly every time they went to TGS. It was fun to watch at first because it was so new and unique. But that was like 8 years ago? Maybe even more. And they did it 'free' because they wanted to do it. It's not interesting anymore and I definitely wouldn't pay to watch something like it again.

I already donate to the raid cause. It's called my annual subscription fee.

No not really, the Raid isn't high on my wishlist of prospective giantbomb activities. Plus since Jeff doesn't bring up much I don't feel like the passion to do it is not very strong. Seems like a whim, which may have passed. I'd rather they do what inspires them deeply whatever that is.

honestly I figured if they really wanted to do it, they'd just do it.

Remember the Giant Bomb/Whiskey Media World Tour? And if enough duders from each region subscribed, they would do a show in that country at some point?

I miss those Whiskey Media days, with all their pie-in-the-sky ideas that were sometimes awesome, other times totally unfeasible. Also, goddamn, I miss the Big Red Phone.

Well I for one am happy we have a way do this already! The annual subscription fee is the best way for us to support cool stuff like a raid. I'm sure one of these days Jeff will finally do one again, and when he does I'd hope for some (Patrick/ Drew Eve online) like content.

I think the reason The Raid hasn't happened is less money and more they just don't have the time to do it. It's no secret they are stretched for resources. And of course Ryan's passing has had an effect as well.

Funding the raid through donation sounded more plausible when Giant Bomb was still part of whiskey and everything they did was on a shoe string budget even flying out to Tokyo for an event or something. Now that they're part of CBSi there's probably more funding to do it and I'm guessing there's also a bunch of corporate mumbo jumbo they'd have to go through to even consider setting up donations for it. What I'm saying is it's probably not a matter of money to fund the raid it's probably more the matter of timing.

Give me that money and I'll produce whatever video content you want.

I probably would a few bucks, but with there being premium membership I can see people not being kicked about it. Plus I don't see Jeff ever doing it that way.

I love Giantbomb, but they don't need the community "donating" more than they already do. The site is doing fine financially if Jeff's statements about the site making money still are true. There are other reasons why the raid hasn't happened. People complain enough that there is to little content, and the raid would amplify that (or maybe it wouldn't, I don't know).

I don't really understand what people expect to get out of this raid idea. That's just me, I know. People really want it for some reason. I don't really get why.

If Jeff still wants to do it, and he gets time to do it (without sacrificing everything else on the site), he will. I don't think it's so much a money thing, though.

Everyone that is a gold member already has contributed to this fund.

Exactly this.

I would pay for a remake of The Raid: Redemption starring the Giant Bomb Crew.

No, as much as I want to see Jeff do this, he has his own money and also a nice job that could fund (at least) the trip out there for a good enough reason. Maybe if I was still single I would throw in a few bucks but other things are more important and necessary than watching Jeff buy weird Japanese games.

Nope.

But I'd be more willing to fund getting the Giant Bomb World Tour back from the dead.

@cornbredx:

I'm probably influenced by the fact that I loved seeking out weird imports in the previous console generations (the stuff put out over there now seems to be getting less interesting on the other hand, too much creepy anime fanservice instead of genuine quirkiness and eccentricity, etc.). Tbh, I do find it harder to understand why Jeff would want to do it without any knowledge of Japanese though; that would seem to be really limiting to what you could actually play through.

I think, in trying to engage more with the Giant Bomb experience, I've realized that my outlook on things is maybe a bit different or incompatible in some way. I'll probably just return to the passive approach for the time being.

Nope , they have enough things to do.

Hell naw.

All of this idea! this is what we need to be funding!

Fuck videogames if this was ever an option.

I thought we were talking about the movie.

But no. I wouldn't pay for Jeff to go buy video games and I don't think Jeff would take our money to go buy video games.

I'm subcriber since day 1 ... I sort of feel like I'm doing my part here.

I would pay more than my annual subscription for some weird content, get Jeff into some kind of Hatsune Miku convention and you got me.

Hell no. I need that money to fund my own raid.

Yeah, no. That'd be really gross and they would never go for it (I hope).

Plus, I already subscribe.

I love GB and will always buy my memberships and every new t-shirt they make (some of them twice), but this is a terrible idea.

You know CBS owns Giant Bomb right? They have the cash. It's also something that's far more interesting to just talk about than to actually watch

Hell no

Asking for money for something like that would be a joke but in the Kickstarter era everything is possible.

Plus I have no interest in watching that stuff since I can speak Japanese and do stuff similar to raid couple times a year since I moved to China/ Korea.

FMV version of Don't Shit Your Pants. You have a week.

I think in a jar time Jeff said it's only a matter of time, but the past two years have been the worst two years in his life. Jeff will go to Japan again. I just hope he brings Alex (he deserves to go) and Drew (better at spontaneous filming then Vinny the master of a set).