Zalasta

I just think it's ironic that GB itself doesn't even have any female staff (at least not any that I am aware of)...I don't doubt Patrick's concern for the issue, but maybe instead of pointing your finger at the rest of the industry, start with your own immediate environment first?

Glad to see that there are hundreds of other people who had nothing better to do than to F5 that page on Christmas day :P

I hate quests like this.  At first I thought it was just in good fun even if it's a bit of a pain, but the fact is I've found just as many titles that fit the description of the quest but doesn't count.  Either make them all trigger or give more limiting clues.  There have been way too many quests in the past that did the same thing.

" Under the wrong context, we do tend to have an unhealth obsession for all things Ryan, Vinny, Jeff, and Brad. "

Objectively speaking, $50 is no big deal.  Heck, I've been paying for IGN Insider ($20 a year I think) since like 2001 just for the exclusive rights to use their forums, the membership itself is a joke.  However, I neither care about the HD video nor the mobile access, and I work on Fridays so live stream means nothing to me.  That means basically I'm paying $50 for a shirt and early access to podcast.  Unfortunately, that is not a lot of value there.  If you would consider different tiers of membership, I'd be in for that.
 
As for those that think the splitting of the podcast won't affect them, I'm not sure that's true.  Right now it is relatively free form.  However, to separate paid vs. free content, they will most likely have to restructure the format.  So yeah, I imagine the experience will be different than what it is currently.
 
Well, good luck.  I hope this works out for you, but if all gaming podcasts eventually go the way of paid membership, I'll know who got it started.

You can't force people to build a community simply by dangling a meaningless quest system in front of them.  Even the OCD in me doesn't feel the need to do them.  Honestly, I love certain features on GB and have been here since the beginning, but I haven't felt compelled to join the community here.  I will certainly not whore myself out there for other people's attention (or the staff for that matter).  Sure I'd like to get to know Ryan or Drew but I'm not going to "stalk" them to get them to notice me, no thanks.

I don't mind supporting GB via paid membership but those "benefits" do not apply to me at all.  I'd rather a premium account on having a voice in the contents of the website (such as being able to vote on the next endurance run title) or exclusive contests or even some kind of a meet up if GB ever decide to run a small scaled convention.