If you're about to start typing a post, stop and think about it for 5 seconds before you start. If it sounds derogatory and hate-filled without being in any way constructive, please just don't make that post.

I hope this isn't inflammatory enough to get locked, so I'd appreciate it if you could keep your responses civil. I'm genuinely curious what people's reasons are. The Endurance Runs are obviously a big event for Giant Bomb, and for those that opted out of this one, I'd be interested to know what the big factors were. I've heard some common criticisms, and tried to include as many as I can think of.

Had to vote "Other" since I watched and loved it, but wanted to see the results.

I don't have time to watch two grown men play a long ass RPG together, or any game for that matter. I'll watch quicklooks because, as the name implies, they are generally pretty quick. For Endurance Run's, that's just time that I could be spending gaming, or maybe even doing something productive with my time...but probably just gaming.

I watched one episode.

E, because the game isn't bad, but it's too old and lacks voice acting which makes for a really boring viewing experience, in my opinion.

@Cincaid said:

Had to vote "Other" since I watched and loved it, but wanted to see the results.

I fell behind early on and didn't have the time to catch up. I may watch them later, but probably not. Too much of a time commitment at this point.

H. I don't get any joy or entertainment watching someone else play games via youtube, I just don't see the point. If you have that kind of time to waste, why aren't you gaming yourself? It's different if your friends are over and you're all having a good time and passing around the controller and talking shit.

I got kind of bored around episode 38. I´ll probably finish watching it eventually.

Other, Ryan was frustratingly bad at the game.....he moved so slowly through the menus.

It just lacked the charm of the Persona 4 Endurance Run. I can't decide if it was the game (a great one, but not very funny), the commentary (clearly less inspired than Jeff and Vinny's insanity) or a combination of both.

It's just nowhere near as entertaining as the P4 and DP ERs were. I stopped watching about 4 episodes in. I think, for me, it's a combination of the game of choice and the people they chose to do the ER this time. ERs for me were always about quirky obscure games that a lot of people weren't aware of and never played, something that could make the commentary interesting and entertaining. This game wasn't like that. It doesn't help that none of my favorite GB staff were featured in this ER. I much preferred VJ to any other pair so far.

I got bored with this one.

Personally, I feel like Endurance Runs should be done with games that many people aren't familiar with, and could be joked about while playing. Deadly Premonition was the perfect example of an ER game. It was wacky, easy to make jokes about, semi-open world, not well known, and had low budget jank.

EDIT: Grammer

I only watched the first episode and a little bit of the second. I don't know, but seeing them play a proper game that doesn't have any crazy weirdness or general jankiness to it is kind of boring. Chrono Trigger has crazy charm to it for sure, but it's such a well regarded classic by everyone that it seems like Ryan and Patrick have to try hard to make jokes about it. And seeing sprites animate weird shit is not as funny as seeing polygonal characters animate weird shit.

I also stopped watching so I can watch it later without everyone complaining and moaning. I'll admit I don't find Ryan and Patrick as funny as Vinny and Jeff, but I'm still interested in watching it to see their reactions.

I am simply not a fan of Patrick's commentary. I really don't think there is a better ER team than VJ. I felt like they went into P4 with a sense of childlike wonder that was so much fun to watch. Chrono Trigger is very old, and Ryan and Patrick are too sarcastic to make it work in the same way.

I haven't played that game in well over a decade, so it was nice to see play through. But for me, I found several problems with this video series:

1. some games aren't fun to watch. JRPGs are incredibly boring to me to watch, and perhaps more games are. Commentary helps so much, but a boring to watch game can't rest on commentary alone

2. too much time wasted. At some point, I realized that, yes, I could be playing a game and be having fun, or literally doing anything else. It can be argued for just about any activity or any video (GiantBomb included), but at some point it didn't make sense to just watch people play an entire game through to completion (or relative Chrono Trigger completion).

3. the commentary didn't come hard and fast enough. Which is absolutely the most understandable part of this series. Not everything in a well-regarded 16-bit game is going to be amusing, worth commenting on, or comedy fodder. Additionally, Ryan and Patrick aren't professional comedians who can riff on any paltry aspect of the game. And while I could complain that Patrick tends to be the weakest member of the team (which, I won't; he's different than everyone else and he has some great moments), I don't think one person or another would have saved the commentary of an exceptionally long and generally unexciting gameplay that is contained within Chrono Trigger.

I never started watching due to lack of Vinny.

@Cincaid said:

Had to vote "Other" since I watched and loved it, but wanted to see the results.

I just ran out of time to keep up with it. I'll probably watch the rest of it over the summer.

I got tired of the "Bro" jokes in the first few episodes.

I watched like 17 episodes but the game is not at all interesting to watch. 

Mostly just a lack of interest in ERs in general. The furthest I've ever got into one is like episode 9 of both the DP ones but at that point I just thought I'd rather experience the game for myself eventually. Chrono and P4 though I'd already completed.

@Cincaid said:

Had to vote "Other" since I watched and loved it, but wanted to see the results.

@phish09 >something productive >gaming *sigh*... Watch out guys! http://j.mp/xJpL5v

My main reason for stopping watching it and objecting to the creation of it from the beginning is that they went about creating this ER in the same way that they went about creating the other ERs without trying to replicate what made the ERs entertaining. My basic explanation of that is as follows:

If you somehow stumble upon something that is unique and entertaining to people (in this case the ER) you do not recreate it by stumbling into it again. You instead try to understand what made the last thing entertaining and enjoyable for viewers and recreate those parts. In other words, just because Jeff and Vinny stumbled into the ER the first time by just playing a game that they never would have played if they had not made the ER, does not mean that's what made the ER entertaining. What made the ER entertaining is the story driven game combined with the specific commentary you get when you have Jeff watching and participating with Vinny in play a game. Therefore, the choice of game and choice of players runs completely counter to anything and everything that makes an ER entertaining.

This combined with their constant bitching about people asking for a new ER displays a lack of professionalism and pure childishness on the part of the GB crew (all except Vinny cause that guy is always super nice and awesome...and Brad too cause I dont think he really cares either way).

"their constant bitching about people asking for a new ER... ". In the Bombcasts, here in the forums or in videos? never heard/saw them complaining or bitching about it.

I stopped at around episode five mainly because I found Patrick's commentary to be grating. It was also a boring game to watch (and a boring game overall, in my opinion), so that was also a contributing factor. 
  
@iPliskin   said:  

I don't really watch any of the ERs.  This might sound a little harsh, but I don't really have any desire to watch games I really like played badly.  I had watched a couple episodes of the P4 and Deadly Premonition runs before dropping out, but the level of fondness for Chrono Trigger is so high that I completely passed on this one.  Also, despite being a large fan of the genre, I don't really find JRPGs that compelling to watch somebody else play.

So uhh, don't say anything derrogatory but it's ok for you to write a poll with all insulting questions if one was an actual fan of the ER?  Right I get it, you played the asshole card first so we can't play it back.
 
Hmmm.

I don't have time! Also, you could have been a little more tactful with the choices.

Big up to E.

I had no problem with the guys playing the game. Sure it was frustrating at times, but at least I was engaged. It just became too boring to watch after a while. I just don't think this kind of game is optimal for an Endurance Run. Something from the PS2/Xbox era and onward would be preferable.

I stopped watching after like a week, mostly because I don't think Chrono Trigger translates to a Let's Play format as well as Persona 4 or even Deadly Premonition did. While Chrono Trigger is indeed a great game, it's still a pretty JRPG-ish JRPG.

I did watch them defeat Lavos live, for what that's worth, and it was more enjoyable than I thought it would be.

The first few episodes were kind of boring, so I stopped watching until I hear from the community that later parts get better.. much better. I'm also not a fan of Patrick's commentary tbh. He writes good articles but when it comes to commentary, I don't enjoy his commentary as much as I enjoy the other staff members.

I don't watch any of the ERs, they soak up my broadband usage, and even now I have unlimited at uni, I just can't be bothered. I'm not really into the games they play either, I don't like JPRGs, was not into the good/badness of Deadly Premonition (or the even more fucked up adoration of Swery) and I have never heard of Chrono Trigger.

@Cincaid said:

Had to vote "Other" since I watched and loved it, but wanted to see the results.

I like the game but I found the ER boring. I stopped around episode 30.

I finished it, mostly because I OCD'ed and felt like I had to rather than I wanted to.

Dull game to watch and dull commentary (because the game doesn't give a lot to work with I suppose). As I said when they announced the new ER "Chrono Trigger is a bad ER game".

@Unknown_Pleasures said:

Other, Ryan was frustratingly bad at the game.....he moved so slowly through the menus.

Exactly. It isn't fun to watch the guys try a failing strategy for 70% of a fight.

So familiar with the game that you weren't interested in seeing others playing through it.

I played Chrono Trigger quite a bit and I just don't want to see all that stuff again. To me, an ER is most interesting if I know jack about the game.

They are too long, and I just know I would never finish it, so why start? I have always been interested though.

Never really got into any of the Endurance Runs. No real reason for it.

The only thing that bothered me about it was the lack of care that seemed to be put into it initially. No one was reading the menus or paying attention to what the game was telling them, so you ended up with battles and scenarios that were frustrating to watch not because the guys were bad, but because they literally "weren't playing it right." I had no problem with them approaching things at their own pace and finding their own way through the game, but when the game pops something up on screen more than once that says "Only damaged by X" and they didn't follow the directions, it got frustrating. That changed though as the ER went on and it seemed like they payed more attention to it and ran into fewer of these problems.

Why did that happen? Were they not into it originally, or are they playing on a bad tv? I really don't know, but at times, I certainly considered not watching it anymore. Overall though, like all the ERs before, it ended up being a very entertaining and enjoyable experience once the kinks got worked out.

I went with, the game is boring to watch. Though, to be honest, I'm not positive that's it. The guys are awesome, I love their commentary and jokes. The game looks great, maybe not my thing, but very well done nonetheless. I was keeping up with the show for about the first twenty or so episodes then just stopped. It might have something to do with the slow pace of the game (and lack of completely bizarre and unexpected events). More likely is the fact that it was year-end for the Whiskey Media offices and they were pumping out far more interesting videos regularly. The Endurance Run was shoved to the side so I had time to watch the plethora of Quick Looks and Live Events. Once I got behind I never cared to catch up.

My main reason for stopping watching it and objecting to the creation of it from the beginning is that they went about creating this ER in the same way that they went about creating the other ERs without trying to replicate what made the ERs entertaining. My basic explanation of that is as follows:

If you somehow stumble upon something that is unique and entertaining to people (in this case the ER) you do not recreate it by stumbling into it again. You instead try to understand what made the last thing entertaining and enjoyable for viewers and recreate those parts. In other words, just because Jeff and Vinny stumbled into the ER the first time by just playing a game that they never would have played if they had not made the ER, does not mean that's what made the ER entertaining. What made the ER entertaining is the story driven game combined with the specific commentary you get when you have Jeff watching and participating with Vinny in play a game. Therefore, the choice of game and choice of players runs completely counter to anything and everything that makes an ER entertaining.

This combined with their constant bitching about people asking for a new ER displays a lack of professionalism and pure childishness on the part of the GB crew (all except Vinny cause that guy is always super nice and awesome...and Brad too cause I dont think he really cares either way).

C, and the fact that Patrick had already played the game, which I felt ruined the magic. 
 
 
My order of enjoyment as far as the staff goes is 
Vinny > Jeff > Drew > Dave > Patrick > Brad/Ryan
So this ER held zero interest for me since the day it was announced.

The appeal of the ER's was 1)the Japanese-ness of the games, and, 2) Jeff and Vinny

While CT is Japanese, I am overly familiar with it, and without the riffing from Jeff and Vinny, I wasn't really interested in watching it

I really liked what I watched of the Endurance Run, but school made me fall way behind in the episodes. I'll probably finish it in the future though.

@Lifestrike said:

@Cincaid said:

Had to vote "Other" since I watched and loved it, but wanted to see the results.

H. I did not watch any of the endurance runs. I would rather play a game myself then watch someone else do it.