BrockNRolla

My truly favorite part of GB history, the part I'm actually nostalgic for, would be the time when they used to do elaborate Game of the Year production work.

Ther was a short while where I thought, "I think I might make a go of getting into the game coverage business," and upon watching one of those GoTY productions, the slickness with which it was produced specifically (Not the acting or writing), made me think, "I'd never make something this good," and so I abandoned the notion. Looking back, I understand why they stopped; the amount of work that was going into creating products of that quality was grinding and not sustainable. But it did stand out to me as a moment where I thought, "Wow GB is truly special, and no one even comes close to what they do." We're so far from that now.

But the truth of the matter is, I don't want or expect that from GB anymore. All I really want is a site about video games at its core, with a staff of people who know eachother and interact on the topic of video games.

The internet is so full of other content, and I came to GB because it was filling an entertainment niche for me about video games in a way that no single twitch streamer ever could. Since Covid, things have shifted more and more to the level of what different twitch streamers do, and to the point now where I don't see much difference between what you see on twitch and what you see on GB as far as game coverage. Reality is, a lot of twitch streamers are doing more ambitious things, and more overall coverage with many fewer people.

And so I understand a need to pivot, but what I want is a pivot back to doing what made GB special; high quality content, with a group of people interacting, with unique voices and personalities. What does it boil down to? Honestly, not something I'm sure GB has in it anymore:

-A renewed focus on video game content, and a pivot away from exterior internet content unless it's being driven by the interests of core staff members

-Consistent production work (Nothing extravagant, just an organized and repeatable process for high quality streams/videos)

-Investment in core staff, with an aim to bring a range of diverse and interesting perspectives (GB has always been at its best when new hires brought new energy and interests; Austin, Abby, Ben, Dan), especially over farming out content on topics other than video games, with people with no previously affiliation with the site.

That said, I've more or less come to terms with the new direction of the site not being the above. If GB wants to be a Max Fun competitor, and their staff are excited about that idea, I wish them the best of luck. For me, it's the true end of an era, and unfortunately leaves me looking for a new way to consume video game coverage (Which for now has been following Abby on and Nextlander on Twitch).

Chrome on every platform (Pixel 4, Windows PC, Chromebook) is a white screen no sound for me. Switched to Firefox on PC and can see the stream.

Video is totally broken for me on the site too. Has been for a couple of days. Pixel 2 XL, Oreo, on Chrome. I hit play, and I just get the first frame and nothing more.

Have resorted to watching videos through the download button.

Early, it was a nightmare. Changing the resolution crashed the game. Changing the AA hardlocked my computer and caused it to restart. Screen tearing was rampant despite having Vsync on. The performance was generally bad.

However, all of this was fixed by one setting. I changed from Full Screen to Borderless Windowed (Shut off Vsync as a result). Now, everything seems to work just fine. Have played for hours without issue beyond some rare graphical glitches (Seems related to rare instances of reflections or skyboxes).

I have a 1080, but I'm running all High with a couple Uber, 4k, probably around 90fps most of the time.

@chaser324: Yeah, I'm pretty bothered by the way various users here (And on NeoGAF), are painting this exodus. I'm sure there are some trolling on their way out, but there are just as many protest posts where people lay out legitimate rationales and ask for their ban. There's nothing "childish" about a protest post. One might even say it's a very "adult" thing to voice your opinion about something important over the concerns of posting about video games.

I didn't post a ban me thread, but I fully support people taking their exit as an opportunity to voice their opinion.

Man... A lot of people with personal axes to grind when it comes to NeoGAF.

It was a heavily moderated site, and while I'm sure bans were at times handed out unfairly, people claiming that it was an "echo chamber" are missing the point. No one should just have to put up with racist, sexist bs in the service of some amorphous, "We should listen to all sides", ideology. There's no reason to listen to the guy talking about race and its relation to the gene pool, nor the guy defending that person.

When it comes to a place where people congregate to talk about video games, there shouldn't be room left for hateful ideologies and those who want to espouse them.

Well, I left these forums to go to NeoGAF after an unpleasant spat with the mods here many years ago (Have continued to love and follow GB, just not the forums). Those were also the days when the mod response was, "Don't respond to bigotry/sexism/harassment/etc, just get a mod."

Frankly, I want a place where I can discuss games and hateful behavior isn't put up with. Where moderation is aggressive toward that and users who stand up against it aren't also slapped down by the mods.

Have the forums evolved to be more like that? Honestly, I just want a place to hang out occasionally and talk video games where people don't act like absolute shit.

Counterpoint: If your dream was to see a scrappy tech company create a revolution through crowd funding and public support, the buyout by Facebook meant your dream died. Dean Putney on BoingBoing said it well. http://boingboing.net/2014/03/25/oculus-vr-could-have-changed-b.html

Anyone suddenly surprised by this has not been paying attention this whole time, and was certainly not paying attention last night. Sony has said all along that third parties will be able to do what they do. Sony is maintaining the same system they've always had. Some third parties will have draconian requirements and Sony leaves it up to you to decide whether or not you're going to support that shit. If you buy an Xbone, MS makes the decision for you, and that decision is online checkins, used games controlled by their system, and no lending. I am baffled that people are somehow calling this a backtrack.

True for me as well. On Chrome, mobile. (On my Wii U as well for what it's worth)