RenegadeMike

@katpottz: I am pretty sure there is. Whenever Jeff plays it on streams he mentions custom music.

I don't actually play Trackmania I thought the post was to share music between GB users. I should have guessed that wasn't the case since, ya know, piracy and stuff.

@gratefuldead207 said:

Yeah, Matt I have. Distractions have been a coping mechanism for me since I was a toddler. Growing up with Sickle cell I was in a ton of pain, and frequently, due to the Sickle cell crisis. My parents taught me to play video games as a distraction to get my mind off of the pain. So ever since I could understand how to use a controller, games have been a way for me to escape from reality. Now that I'm 30 I still play games to distract myself but I have also added watching games as an escape as well. I found Giant Bomb around 2010 and have been here every day since.

This site is unique for obvious reasons, its more than a video game review site, its a community. The people at Giant bomb are more than just names on a "by line" they are people who we grow to feel like we know. Giant Bomb is a trend setter, people have copied their style in an attempt to capture some of what makes this site popular but few if any do it right. Giant bomb in my opinion has/is changing the industry and how we critique games, and nurture a community around games.

The reasons I like it so much are also the reasons why I am critical of how the site does certain things ( I won't get into it here. ). I want it to improve and correct some of the vestigial aspects of a video game sites that Giant Bomb exhibits that are frankly very behind the times. But if I didn't care so much and want GB to grow and dominate, I wouldn't be so vocal about change.

So to answer your question, yeah I feel the same way. Giant Bomb has helped me through some very dark times in my life and it still is helping today. I am in fact writing this from a hospital bed. I found your post because I was bored and went looking at the forums.

( NO ONE SHOULD EVER DO THAT! NEVER GO DIGGING INTO FORUMS IT'S A BAD IDEA! You might actually find something that you are so perplexed and disturbed by that you feel compelled to respond, often times to your own detriment! )

Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah Giant Bomb has helped me cope, right.

These guys are genuinely funny and and most of them are actually good decent humans and deserve all the praise in the world.

Glad to have you part of the community @gratefuldead207 if you ever want to shoot the breeze about anything hit me up. I mean it.

My NYR was to use more Gifs in my posts. Here are a couple that have nothing to do with this post! Enjoy!

!!! Your Dollar signs are in the wrong place

I'll see my way out. No need to shove I know where the door is, this is as fast as I walk, thank you, you large bouncer mod person you.

Oh... when you say "track sharing" you meant Race tracks... NOT music tracks....

***surreptitiously hides Metallica and Dr Dre mp3s behind back***

I'll see my way out....

Still mourning the death of Kazaa

You all have valid opinions. This is why I posted this, to see how others thought of it.

I did say I would think the two sites would be separate "flavors" so it wouldnt matter if one audience never visited the other before because you could then use the opportunities to cross promote the other whenever someone came over. My mistake (one of them) was saying merger at the end, I think it muddled my original point. Two different sites, same people making content was my idea.

Someone said that I called Austin a big win for diversity, if this was the message people got then I need to clarify. I don't think Austin's hire was a "big win", it was a first step. I could even be wrong about that. What I meant was allowing others to come and make content for GB would be a "big win".

They way it would help diversity here is by allowing the various people at gamespot to make content for Giantbomb, just adding more people is in itself increasing diversity.

Yes, my lazy attitude toward this post hurt my cause more than help it. I was trying to convey the sense of exhaustion I have with this whole dilemma. Like I said, I am tired of having to even fight this fight. It's not just happening here, its happening in all media. There was a recent NYT post about diversity in comics, more specifically the diversity of Super Heros. This fight for diversity is bigger than games. I'm not even sure if it's worth fighting for here anymore. I think I will let people with more time, energy and fewer blood pressure issues to fight for diversity here.

I think my optimism for change here was missguided. I hope that's not the case.

Thanks for all of your opinions. That's not sarcasm.

This is not a troll. I am very serious. I have strong emotions about this for personal reasons.

No, I am not okay. I won't be until I see progress.

Why a Gamespot / Giant Bomb Merger Will Be Good For Diversity.

I have not written about Diversity in Game Culture in a long time. In fact it was around the time Austin was hired. This started out as another multi-page paper with a thesis of basically “big win for diversity”. At its core its thesis saying that If Giant Bomb and Gamespot entertainment merge it will be a big win for diversity in the entire game industry. Due to the size and popularity of both sites within the culture alone, these two sites are not just websites they are cultural icons and trendsetters. If they keep Giant Bomb as a separate “flavor”, if you will, and allow Gamespot employees to do videos for Giant Bomb.

Here would have been its main points.

• The diversity at Gamespot could add diversity to Giant Bomb without certain parties at said Bomb looking like they are conceding to progressives demands or being labeled a feminist.
• Giant Bomb could be a separate division that allows people who typically work on the very structured and journalistically focused Gamespot, to do the more relaxed freeform video features that Giant Bomb is known for.
• Adding diversity of Gamespot can change Giant Bomb’s influence on younger generations to be more inclusive in how they perceive the game industry, by normalizing the image of women who play serious games. (Having women and people of color be part of the group while previewing / reviewing games in Quick Looks or on UPF. Mainly UPF since that is where we can actually see the participants, and the biggest tool to help normalize diversity is Visual Inclusion.
• Allowing Gamespot News to be featured at Giant Bomb could increase the variety of diverse viewpoints Giant Bomb readers intake. ( Not sure how big GB news is in terms of User time spent on the site but while writing this I realized this as another possible benefit to a merger )

The paper would have gone on to quote authors of diversity studies and supporting my argument with university backed, peer reviewed studies as I have done before. I would have added some humor to hopefully throw water on the certainly incoming flame posts that I receive to lessen their potential ire they have toward the obviously male, feminist writer of this post. It will most certainly be locked after a few opinions from the other side start taking the thread "off the rails". I'm okay with that. I might have even included the last two thirds of the first verse of Run the Jewels “ A christmas fucking miracle” because I find it fitting in some perverse way, partly because Patrick's departure was around Christmas allowing the spot for a new hire, and the lyrics I feel match my attitude for certain things related to this topic.

But I am tired of all that. People have made these arguments before either here or elsewhere. I know there are people on the other side that will rationalize an argument against increasing diversity, especially those "damn feminists" like me who some say are all about killing free speech even though we are only asking for our speech to be included in the debate, not stifling others.

If you want university studies to be cited just google Diversity and Visual Inclusion, take your pick.

I’m just tired with everything. Tired of waiting on progress, tired of watching people make my community look like the 1950’s by marginalizing women and people of color who have an opinion about the status quo. I’m tired of not even being pandered to. Why can’t they have more guests on the podcasts or live streams like they did shortly after Austin was hired, but stopped doing suddenly? There is even a running joke on the Beastcast about the non revolving, revolving seat. I’m not sure why. People could guess but that's not helpful. I want to see results. If a merger is what it takes I’m all for it. I don’t know if it will happen, I haven't heard any rumors, I just hope it does.

Now that Comic Vine has melded into Gamespot, how do People feel about a Gamespot merger with Giant Bomb?

Did you know Sasha Banks (Mercedes KV) was/is the longest reigning Chaotic Wrestling Women's Champion in history holding her belt for 260 days before coming to the WWE?

Look out Nikki Bella, Sasha Banks will take your belt and trash your record. I want them to use Sasha Banks to change the name of the Divas belt to the Women's Championship belt, so I made a gif to sort of poorly convey that.

Its my first gif so feel free to shit on it.

I cannot put into words what it means to me personally to have someone on staff who will write about this. Myself and a couple others like community member Truth Tellah have written forum posts along these lines, but I have a job that prevents me from sitting down and writing about it more. This issue is too important not to talk about, especially now with all of the things happening on the ground here in the States with issues around diversity.

For the longest time I felt, due to various reasons (many of which not nefarious in any way from all outward appearances) that the only person talking about similar issues was Patrick and when he brought these issues up he was chastised for it. Maybe not always here in the community comments but to deny that he got heat for it is disingenuous ( I am not referring to any particular comment here just in general). Even when Patrick was talking about this many still felt that it was all talk, because the only diversity GB had in its content were guests that were sparsely invited to be on the morning show that Patrick and Alex did. As well as the occasional guest, mainly Samantha Kalman, (Mary Kish occasionally) on UPF, but typically only seen on big events like E3 coverage and cons. which was maybe 4 times a year.

My point being, that due to this neglect, many started feeling that GB didn't care about diversity. Therefore, people like me started to talk about why diversity is so important to people here on the forums (mainly to make ourselves feel better in some obscure nerdy way). It didn't always go well for some who stuck their necks out.

Therefore, it means so much more now that they hired Austin. He not only wants to talk about this issue but he is able to articulate the problem in an intelligent and objective way using academic style and level of detail. Something I only aspired to do with my pitiful College level honors english intellect (which isn't always evident since I badly need an editor).

Since words can not express every emotion I am feeling right now after reading Austins article, I will simply say...

Thank you Giant Bomb for hiring Austin Walker.

@larrydavis: LOL