Worth reading on Kotaku

Is it weird to anyone else that when scrolling through Kotaku, you see Worth Reading pop up? Still trying to digest the departure of Patrick, and I think he is the first person to leave and jump right into another very visible position on the internet.

Worth Reading was one of my favorite things Patrick did here. Unfortunately, Kotaku is not a site I ever think to go to often. Occasionally, but not often enough to see what he's up to.

Oh wow. It's the exact, exact same setup, huh?

I need to watch his Q&A on Youtube, because between that channel and his articles I don't see much of a difference between what he did at GB. A little more quickfire, I suppose.

@csl316: It seems like he asked Twitter what to call it and Jeff just told him to use Worth Reading.

@gorillamopena: Jeff got the Scoops nickname and Snacktaku rights in exchange. I think we all know who won here.

@csl316: I watched the YouTube and there is no definite answer there if you're looking for one. He is still on great terms with everyone at GB, there was no disagreement that led to his leaving, with time people need to "grow" and some such remarks.

Honestly I think it's a bit tasteless that he is doing the exact same segment on another site, name and all... but I don't know maybe I'm the one being an asshole.

With that said I do miss the lack of written material on this site. It's so heavily video focused that sometimes Giant Bomb just feels like a Youtube channel.

Link please?

It's his material, isn't it? Sure it was on GB, but I think the right thing to do would be to allow him to use his original material (i.e. "Worth Reading" and its format)

He mentioned turning 30 and needing a change, and I guess that's sort of the same reason Dan gave for leaving Game Informer and going to Giant Bomb. So the answer is "fear of mortality".

@hurricaneivan29: I don't think the issue is allowing him to do it. He is, as you say, entirely entitled to continuing to use a style of article that worked very well for him. What comes across as a little bit strange is Patrick leaving Giant Bomb for another site, citing that a wish for change and growth propelled him to do so, then proceeding to doing EXACTLY the same thing. And it's hardly just "Worth Reading", either. He is continuing to work in the same style, to the dot, as he did on GB, releasing the same kind of articles at the same pace.

It's proven and true, sure, but why would he leave the site in the first place if he just intended to keep doing the same thing from the comfort of his home? Kotaku offers him a larger audience, though considerably less well moderated, and probably a better pay-check. That is the sum of his "change and growth" unless he intends to change things up.

I love the guy, but I too, find this departure increasingly disappointing.

How dare Patrick Klepek write articles in the style of Patrick Klepek! This is an outrage!

I had honestly completely forgotten about Worth Reading.

Unless you specifically search out his articles on Kotaku, it is impossible to find anything without scrolling through the dozens of other articles that cycle through the front page every day.

@poser: I've been thinking the same thing. Alex seems to be the only one that ever posts anything text related. I've put in my resume, as I'm sure many others have. Seeing as how the job has been listed for a few months, it's definitely a conscious choice to roll that way. They're just looking for the right duder.

Don't you think we're all being a little premature here? There are a ton of possibilities as to why he's continuing to do "Worth Reading" that aren't incompatible with his stated goals of "change and growth.":

First, he's been over at Kotaku for like what - a month to a month and half maybe? It's entirely possible that this "change and growth" is coming, but just not yet. In the meantime, he needs to put out content to keep his new overlords happy, so if he can put out "Worth Readings" quickly and efficiently, he may as well do that while he's working on other projects.

Second, maybe new projects were just too hard to put together at GiantBomb? Patrick was stuck in Chicago, which is light-years from either the mothership or GBEast. Seeing as how this is a personality based site, and new content almost requires at least two of the crew together, it was probably hard to come up with exciting new stuff when he was all by his lonesome. Sure, he had Bombin' in the AM with Alex, but video-chatting isn't really the same as people being together in the same room. Kotaku isn't nearly as based on personality as GB is, so it might be easier for him to come up with content that involves just himself.

Finally, there is an assumption that the "change and growth" he's referring to is professional. It could just as easily be personal as well. Poor guy's been through a lot the last few years what with the death of his dad and then Ryan almost exactly a year later. Plus, I'm sure his wife has her own goals that he wants to support. The move might allow him some more flexibility going forward.

Maybe it's time to curtail all the Patrick criticism here? I'm sure anyone with actual concerns can write them in the Kotaku comments, and have a much more fruitful conversation.

Gods know I didn't agree with that duder on pretty much anything, but he doesn't work here anymore, and this thread just feels like a weird chance to talk about him behind his back.

Let him do his thing. It really has nothing to do with GB.

@do_the_manta_ray: I've been hearing a lot about how Kotaku's audience is much larger than us here at Giant Bomb. Since I only come here for my videogame content, I'm actually curious how sites more or less rank in this matter.

On topic, though, Patrick should be able to use his signature content wherever he goes. He was being paid here so that Giant Bomb could use the content he produces.

I'm sure he had reasonable reasons to leave, but I'm still bummed he did.

@heycalvero: Check this out.

@grtkbrandon: Oh cool, thanks! (Goddamn, Kotaku has 3 times the audience from Giant Bomb?!)

@heycalvero: Yeah but we're, like, three times cooler. ;D

It's his article, it's his writing style. It's not a Giant Bomb gimmick.

I liked Worth Reading when it was on here but I cant stand Kotaku. To me that site has always been the shitty tabloid of game sites, reporting anything and when they get busted on a lie they try to blame anybody but themselves (the whole cheap ass gamer forum Xbox memo fake that made Kotaku look like a fool for reporting it as something real)

Maybe they changed their ways in the last couple years (then again the whole gamergate shit with them makes me doubt it)

@rotorious: http://patrickklepek.kinja.com/ All the Koutaku you need :)

I'd like to know what would have been on there if you remove gamefaq, gamefront and the cheat databases.

I'm surprised Kotaku would allow a feature that draws attention to articles outside of the Gawker family of websites, but there you go. Maybe that site is run by human beings after all.

I'm not at all surprised that Jeff was magnanimous enough to let Patrick keep the title.

Seems like everyone's cool to let Scoops be Scoops, and we should be cool about it too.

@lawgamer: You're right on multiple accounts, but what you're saying doesn't clash with what I did. It goes hand in hand. He hasn't yet introduced new concepts, he's worked hard to re-introduce the same kind of writing he's been doing here, to a new audience over there. We can fling around a lot of maybes about what his future plans are, but until we start seeing something new and exciting, be it a new kind of article, a new approach to writing, a new project, that's all it's going to be. "Maybe"s tinged with optimism.

And I think some pessimism has been warranted at this point. When Patrick left, many were hoping it'd be for some new project that would really challenge him. Perhaps he'd travel more, or he'd start working hand-in-hand with some developers to show the stories behind how games are made, something he's always been really excited about. Let us get to know the people responsible for the games we love and hate. Humanize them. And then it was Kotaku, Gawker. It doesn't get any "safer" for him, between the style of "journalism" that site specializes in and that he's personally acquainted with the boss.

Patrick has earned a lot of goodwill and respect from me over the years, but I find it very difficult to understand what it is that he's trying to accomplish. Maybe you are right, and his decision to change his place of work is somehow tied to his family, but that is something of a stretch if we're being honest. Right now, it looks like an increased readership base and a pay-check bump, at the price of the Giant Bomb crew and community. Now, I'll admit to a "us and them" mentality here, but I can't imagine how anyone would be willing to make that trade. Looking at it from that angle, it makes him look a lot smaller.

And I hope that isn't the case, and that, hey, maybe things really will change. Maybe Patrick will start using his position at Kotaku to do something he couldn't do here, something that'll be really impressive, and arguably worthwhile. But that's the thing. It has to happen. It can't just remain stale. It can't just be Patrick trading this for page-views and money. It has to be him using that place as a spring-board to accomplish something more. And I genuinely hope he pulls it off. But pessimism in this, too, is warranted.

@grtkbrandon: To be exact, we're three Batmans cooler than Kotaku. (.com)

@grtkbrandon@do_the_manta_ray : Pfff, fo sho, bros.

I think Patrick was full of it for moving to a Gawker site. The absolute cynicism and mean-spiritedness of those sites is why I don't bother going to Kotaku or Deadspin, even though they do produce great content from time to time. To me Kotaku was at its high point when it had Crecente and McWhertor, but that was 5-6 years ago at this point? Nowadays a typical Gawker post consists of elitism, snobbery, and just mean-spiritedness; sometimes people deserve that type of snark, but not all the time every single time. For someone who went out of his way to defend and display his morals on this site, to shift from Giantbomb to a Gawker Media site is bullshit

At least on Kotaku the links open a new tab instead of redirecting the current tab your on. Not a big thing but it was an extra step that became annoying.

It personally doesn't bother me. It was a feature he did here and I would expect him to do something similar regardless of the site he publishes it on. If it was something that Giant Bomb did as a staff (or something it continued to do after he left) then it might be something to debate. But it's not.

Yes, I'm still adjusting to the idea that Scoops isn't with Giant Bomb anymore so it's a little weird in that regard. Getting over that hurdle, it doesn't shock or upset me that he would take some of his features/ideas to another site.

I also find the constant questioning if Patrick left on good terms or not to be incredibly boring. He said it did so let's leave it at that. I hate it when people try to assume these personal relationships/dynamics of Giant Bomb despite not knowing anything about these dudes beyond what we see on screen. Our "sample size" in terms of what goes on at Giant Bomb is incredibly small.

Makes sense. If Giant Bomb did a bunch of crappy articles with stuff like "5 Reasons Why Flappy Bird is sexist," they'd get a ton more traffic too but the site would be as soulless as Kotaku.

If you want to talk about Kotaku features, you should probably do it on Kotaku. Or perhaps discuss it directly with Patrick on Twitter. A lot of people seem to be using this topic and others like it to passive aggressively bash Patrick - we didn't allow that before and certainly are not going to start now. Come on, guys.