@inspectorfowler: Rude, maybe. Nowhere near as rude as a lot of the comments here. The people who make these shows are reading these needlessly shitty comments and it makes me want to pull the eject handle and get far away from this community out of sheer embarrassment.
By complete lack of any sense of humor I am referring to the people who thought the reveal interview with Janina was 100% serious, and the people in these comments who dont understand the show because they STILL think its serious. I mean really..
I can get that, I guess.
I was pretty fooled at first - I actually only listened to the "interview" the first time - I just had my car play it on Bluetooth because I like Janina and I was pretty excited for it, so I listened on the way home.
Lemme tell you - the GB crew are way better voice actors than they are "in-person" actors because until I re-watched it at home and could see the trailer and their actual reactions, it felt pretty real, like they'd agreed to do a live thing announcing this and then it all went sideways.
Once I could see their faces and watch the trailer it made a lot more sense but in the car I felt like I was somehow invited to the most awkward business meeting I've ever been to.
@doncabesa: Seconded. The change up here at GB is exposing just how much of the audience is completely intolerant of change and all the people who totally lack any semblance of a sense of humor.
I enjoyed this. More live premiers would be good for this series because the chat reaction amplified it quite a bit. Still I laughed the first time and the second time I watched it. A+
That's pretty rude. Humor is totally subjective. I guarantee I love some stuff that you hate or find boring or pretentious or whatever but that doesn't mean either of us lack a sense of humor.
It's almost like....and bear with me folks.....Giant Bomb draws in a large enough and diverse enough audience that they have differing opinions and don't all feel the same way about what they view. I really disliked Reel Layers but I think it's cool that the site that gives me dope Quick Looks and 3 hour long hilarious podcasts can also - within its range of products - make something completely different like this. Embrace the discord (little d), Giant Bomb is probably a healthier site for it.
Unrelated to that specific issue but related to people who are upset about the content diversity, I did a quick count and 34 out of 45 videos in October (if we don't include the Bombcast in the total count and DO count UPF as being "video game adjacent") were video game videos. That seems pretty good to me.
For people saying this kind of stuff exists all over YouTube... It's not like game coverage is hard to find across YouTube, Twitch, other sites, etc. Would you really rather the guys just pump out low effort quicklooks of every game coming out every week rather than experimenting with some fun new stuff?
This isn't 100% relevant to the discussion so I'll spoiler it for those focused on Reel Layers, but:
In Defense of the Giant Bomb Quick Look (compared to them other chumps)
I would argue that the Quick Looks aren't low effort. You can tell when they aren't prepared for one - JeffB admitted he started the GotG one in a bad place and as a result we watched a lot of dialogue and menus in an action game. That was a one-off. More often they are doing things like re-playing sections they already played and taking notes on their own so they give a good cross section of the game. They really do their homework much more than the average "let's play" where I watch somebody just wandering aimlessly through a game.
After 11 years listening here, I know the opinions and tastes of these people so I know where a game probably fits in my tastes if somebody seems to like or dislike a game. Vinnie alone is responsible for hundreds of dollars on Steam.
It's also sometimes nearly impossible to tell who is being genuine and who is paid on Youtube and Twitch so I can't take a rando at their word. We're talking about a site founded when somebody was honest and got walked out the door for it, so I've never once felt like they weren't being genuine in their enthusiasm or disdain for something.
Games aren't cheap, even for somebody in their 40s with a good job, and time is even more expensive. I like having a cadre of people who I trust and respect who give their very honest opinions about games because it helps me spend that time and money smartly on a hobby that I have loved since somewhere around 1983.
So that's why - even though this particular video was like nails on a chalkboard to me - I will still be here (and give feedback when I want to) because there just isn't another place like this.
This thing went so far over my head that if I hadn't seen all of the comments telling me that it's a joke, I'dda thought that this was genuine and been super confused.
I think this is part of the reason why I and others don't love this (on top of the delivery, which just isn't for me). Part of GB's fun is the sincerity. They used to go super weird in the GOTY videos but as far as I can tell they haven't just tried to pass a project like this off as "real" before.
A few months ago I did cancel my premium but hearing JeffB talk about an increase in gaming content made me change my mind and it renewed in October. Having Jess on staff is a huge get and they have indeed started slowly ramping up the content I'm interested in. I can pick and choose what I want but nothing should prohibit me from saying my piece on it.
I still think the people who are offended that people hate this are missing the mark - getting negative responses to content like this is part of the experiment and it's absolutely something they are seeking. Humor is maybe the MOST subjective thing on earth. Giant Bomb is a community where to some extent the fans have a say in the content so the crew knows people are going to be vocal about weird stuff like this.
As a result, people comment on something that they had to know would be divisive and people are like, "AGREE WITH THE HIVE MIND OR DON'T COMMENT AT ALL". Sigh.
The comment section has three groups, for the most part. People who say they loved it, people who say they can’t stand it, and people who mock the folks who can’t stand it.
In the end, humor is subjective. Stop getting bent that some people hated this. It’s absolutely a weird experiment and the feedback is part of it. The feedback is probably more helpful than the survey was.
I found this uninspired and tedious. Others think it’s amazing. Either way, the staff probably wants to know how people feel so they can decide what future content will be like.
I feel like this is the Blood Dragon ”tutorials suck” thing. You can’t make fun of something that is stupid but still force an audience to suffer through that same thing.
Please make subsequent episodes weirder and weirder. Please make it Frog Fractions: Internet Vlog Edition, because as it is this is like somebody intentionally making The Room.
inspectorfowler's comments