How have you grown on Giant Bomb over the years?

I'm not sure if it's because of Giant Bomb but I feel like I've definitely grown as a person since Giant Bomb launched. If you look at some posts from the first year of the site compared to now, it's a completely different person. But I guess that's just an effect of life moving on.

Giant Bomb has made me 100% more authentic.

@ZeForgotten said:

Nothing about Giant Bomb or it's "community" has made me grow. I haven't learned a thing and I am still just little old me.
So I guess, C?

C for Cunt, right?

See? You have learned something from Giant Bomb.

I am one of those that you would consider a member of "The Cult of the GB Staff." I came here because that's where Jeff, Ryan, Alex, and Eventually Brad and Vinny showed up. I put tons of faith in what they do for this website, and I have grown to love the additions to the staff and what they've each brought. I would follow them guys around for the most part if they went anywhere (which I don't think any of them are going anywhere for a long time) but I have noticed that the community that has cultivated around this website has ended up (at least by internet terms) fair, thoughtful, somewhat enlightened, and definitely a very accepting crowd. Which are all things that I appreciate very much, and I'm glad to have it all associated with a website that I care very much about. I may not be an always active community member, but I do appreciate a lot of what goes on here, I've been here since the very beginning, and I can found watching most of the livestreams that are put on (whether or not I can be arsed to log in sometimes) and I'm not going anywhere anytime soon either. Keep on keeping on Giant Bomb, you're doing some the best work around. That goes for the staff and the community.

I'm better at writing and I don't throw personal insults like a child any longer during a discussion.

I got older?

The staff's mature attitude towards games, scores and acceptance of subjectivity trickles down to the users.

Pettiness can get effed!

im fine really

i cant tell how loud this music is playign right now in my heaphones

I cannot be the judge of that; however, I have noticeably changed.

Well, I was 14 when Giant Bomb launched, and I'm 19 now. So I grew the most I could. So sure, GB definitely had an impact, especially in the earlygoings.

My posts are formatted better and I am a more competent writer. 
 
The content of my posts is still garbage and mostly comprises of crappy/awesome Youtube videos with a bit of text above. 

@I_Stay_Puft said:

Giantbomb's kinda become my number one source of entertainment since I joined. Its kind of takin the place over my regular television watching which was maybe 2-3 hours a day.

Same for me, only sometimes I find watching videos on here more fun than actually playing games. It's ridiculous when I stop to think about it.

Yesterday I had a pimple, but today it is gone. Thank you Giantbomb!

I'm a better internet person, not necessarily because of Giant Bomb.

I haven't changed at all BECAUSE of giant bomb, but I'd say I've changed since I joined Giant Bomb, sure. That happens when you join a website as a 17 year old prick and eventually become a 21 year old asshole.

I feel I'm about the same in regards to internet habits, which is to say I've never been one to be a dick on the internet. Otherwise, I've grown up but not because of the Giantbomb.

I haven't grown because of Giant Bomb. I've just kind of been on Giant Bomb while I've been growing as a person.

I will always be the other Motherfucker!

Giantbomb has helped me to recover some from a chronic case of self-importance that I contracted in college.

Chicken physics

its been a loo-oong time

Oh, definitely. I was in high school, and I was new to internet forums... Yeah, if you dig through my oldest posts, it's pretty embarrassing. I picked arguments where I shouldn't have, defended stupid things, made threads that really just didn't need to be made... My grammar has always been fairly solid, though.

You know, I've been around since the beginning, and I've posted quite a bit. Yet, I still don't have a clear idea of what my reputation on the site is, if I have any at all. I always just feel without identity- anonymous. Maybe I should write more blogs or something... Or say more crazy, controversial things...

How are you people changing? Tell me your secrets.

It's kind of two parts.

For one, the actual site's content has made me more informed about a whole lot of stuff, and not just video games. I actually try and have an opinion, and think about it much more than "Is this fun?" Plus I found out about a whole lot of games that I would have never thought or heard about. So thanks, GB crew, for being awesome when I was looking for a gaming information haven of sorts.

On the other hand, I haven't really been involved in the forums for that long. And you know what? I've learnt how to be a lot more moderate and less reactionary. Turns out, there's no point to being angry on the internet except in my own time, directed at no-one and nothing. And I find people are generally pretty cool, if they aren't being dicks. The internet's a big place, and there's bound to be good people in there; this seems to have quite a few.

So A. I like this idea, @Claude. It's nice to sometimes stop and reflect internally.

Came for the naked cartoon pussy, stayed for the community.

But honestly, there are some cool cats on here and I found some great duders to play video games with in the form of the PC gaming hub.

GB introduced me to Anime Vice and the awesome staff they had over there before that place got shit on. AV is what inspired me to put in the smallest bit of effort in how I present myself online. Before AV and John/Gia I couldn't have been bothered to capitalize a single letter or use any punctuation beyond . ,?! While my writing is still bad enough to make anyone with an understanding of the written English language cry, it was John and Gia over there that I got to know well and motivated me to want to try and make an effort to type better. I even got together with them a few times online and played some games on Steam and talked to them outside the site and over the course of a few months I really felt like it was a place to call home and like I was a part of something. They even mentioned me by name in the last few videos that they did. Then one day I logged on and saw that they got fired and that AV was left for dead. During that six or so months at AV I all but left GB when it came to posting on forums or under videos.

Once AV was dead though I came back and GB has been my only site that I really post on anymore. Over the years GB taught me to stop giving a shit about trying to express an opinion or idea that was in any way shape or form contrary to what was popular opinion. If you did you got nothing in response but idiots insulting you and calling you names because you dared to disagree with them about a topic. Not to mention having the audacity to criticize anything the Staff does in any way shape or form will unleash the Giant Bomb Defence Force at such a speed that the Justice League could learn a thing or two from them.

As for reputations and what not, I couldn't say what other people think of me on the site. Guess that's something for others to say. I really don't think anyone notices anything I post in any meaningful way.

Same.

Giant Bomb is my favorite Web Site. Coming here every day and seeing the videos made by Jeff, Brad, Ryan, and Vinny, is like visiting old friends.

Also, I believe I have become a better poster on the forums too.

Giant Bomb has taught me to stop being nice for the sake of being nice and to just tell the truth. It's okay to call someone out when they're being an idiot, for the betterment of the community of course.

It has also led me to some awesome duders to play PC games with. Y'all know who you are. It started with the Minecraft community, then went to the BF3 group, and now I'm having a great time with a lot of you in our Guild Wars 2 guild. I look forward to some PlanetSide 2 fun times in the near future as well.

@thedj93 said:

I'm a better writer now; I'm better at expressing ideas/opinions clearly.

and now i love games in an intellectual capacity as well as a "having-fun" one!

Here is a semicolon in case you don't believe me.

EDIT: Sorry.

The only website that I actually put down money for a subscription. That says something.

I started out a simpleton on the forums.

Then I made some videos. People liked them.

Then I was invited to the Epic PM. Everything Changed.

Then I secluded myself in the wrestling thread.

I think I grew outwards

I would say I have become a worse person thanks to Giant Bomb.

And I'm okay with that. ha.

Even if the forums still feel like a bit of an unwelcoming place, I love Giant Bomb and cherish being able to support it staying as great as it is. I truly look forward to seeing its continued growth over the many years to come.

I'm not quite sure did it change me or not, but I love you all guys!

I didn't learn a damn thing, did I? Except how to quit. I got that maneuver down real well. So long, Claude Mitchell.

Yeah, Giantbomb feels like my home on the internet. I've learned to not take internet people's opinions as seriously, I've learned to express my feelings about games a lot better, I've learned that when someone attacks you personally on the internet, they're the ones getting laughed at, not you, and I've learned that Vinny Caravella is the greatest man who ever lived.

So yeah, fuck yeah Giantbomb!

I still find it crazy that I joined GB when I was 15, time has flown by so quickly. I'll echo what a few others in this thread have said in that I'm now more willing to let things go and accept other peoples viewpoints.

Hasn't changed me at all, it has changed my opinion of videogame forums though.

It's made me a more balanced and understanding media analyst, mostly because I'm learning more and more how to reconcile and understand perspectives that aren't mine and are actually very personal to the individual involved. Giant Bomb doesn't have a person who plays games the way I do, but I still understand pretty well how they think about games and, well, everything else.

It's also given me you guys to talk with and grow alongside, and the quality of writing from the regulars on Giant Bomb has only become more and more engaging in this last year. We're not just helping each other grow as gamers, we're helping each other as writers and thinkers, too. There are few members of Giant Bomb that I would say I'm "better for not knowing," and I honestly haven't seen their activity in a really, really long time.

It's helped me understand the industry and games in general more.

• I realize the importance of forums and how they kind of replace social interactions for some.
• I also found that I dislike discussion boards, or forums, in general but still think Giant Bomb's are great.
• I have a better understanding of how I would approach games journalism both from what Giant Bomb does well, and what it does not.
• Most importantly, I learned a lot about people. I'm going to keep this vague.

I realized that if I'm sleepy when I read forum titles, I might misread and start wondering if Giant Bomb actually made me a bitter internet person :D

@Claude: I miss the old guys that are not here anymore.

@Claude: I miss the old guys that are not here anymore.

Giant Bomb changed my life by making me realize how much I truly love video games. Without the P4 ER that introduced me to this site, I bet I'd still be studying Accounting and getting ready for a life that's boring as hell.

I've grown more horizontally than vertically, motherfucker.

I guess I have grown as a person thanks to GB. More specifically, thanks to the forums. So, thanks to you fuckers!