twc353

I don't post much at all, but I've been watching GB and a premium sub; since Ryan appeared on a Gamespot podcast right after they got purchased by CBSi. I resonate with a lot of the folks in this thread. I'm sad. Jess added so much energy, and Jason was the longest serving member. I'm worried. Even if the stuff has been good lately, the trend lines don't look good. However, most of all, I've realized how luck that we've been. Everywhere else in the games press has layoffs all the freaking time. I remember when Gamespot pivoted, and there went Kevin and Caro. Vice made changes, and down went Waypoint's headcount. GB has been about the only place in cooperate owned games press, where you could count on hearing the same voices for a decade. We've lost that security now. Anything and anyone is on the table. That's always been true most places, but for us, at GB, it's a brave new unwelcomed world. I'm subscribing until the bitter end because this is my parasocial home, but I don't like this more precarious and less consistent era.

I have to admit that I'm not the biggest Dan fan. He live his life as a heel, and I don't tend to root for heels. It's probably that simple. However, what I read in this thread, gives me pause - about Dan. He has been wonderfully open about his struggles with anxiety. This has been particularly meaningful for me because I, also, suffer from anxiety, and even if I don't love his online persona, his openness gives me the sense that I have an ally. Now, in this thread, I see Dan giving other people some very real anxiety. To me, then, this has stopped being funny. He should give us an explanation and have empathy for other anxiety suffers that he is triggering with his heel, life is wrestling, prank.

People have been throwing around a bunch about how this is about a shift away from written and towards video. On a level, this certainly makes sense with the cuts of Carolyn, Tom, and Maxwell, but there were also 3 video productions people in the layoffs, Tyler, Benito, and Ryan. It looks more like cuts across the board from both long form written and video productions. To me, it looks like a shift away from in house reviews entirely. Thus, they removed the actual editorial folks and the people who produced video reviews doubling down on the smaller more integrated live streams and shows about video games.