Dan Ryckert is going to GBEast full-time come this winter.

Dan's been a favorite of mine since he and Jason joined. I'll miss him with the West crew, but I really enjoyed everything he did while in NYC this past month. I'm really looking forward to the new full time GBEast crew now with more Dan.

Dan is great at coming up with content for the site (Mario Party, Demo Derby and Metal Gear Scanlon among the best things the site has ever produced) but he's largely felt like a wet sock to me on the bombcast -- he seems largely disengaged unless they're discussing Nintendo, new hardware to buy, or finds an anecdote from his past. That said, his brief foray on the Beastcast was wonderful! I chalk it up to Vinny being a more experienced/engaged and enthusiastic host than Brad, which probably creates a more welcoming air for Dan.

So I'm all for this move! With any luck, the west coast will hire someone a bit more, um, intellectual, let's say? Which would hopefully lead to more engaging discussions on the Bombcast, something that imo has been sorely lacking for a while. Bombcast has felt very rote and safe for a long while, and while Dan brought a lot to the video side of GBWest, his podcast presence did not elevate the show, imo. Give me an Austin-type, who's hilarious but also has a lot of insightful things to say.

My ONLY reservation about Dan's move to east coast is I could totally see Alex snapping, unable to tolerate some dumbass thing Dan says at some point. With Vinny there it could defuse the moment into something hilarious but... it feels a bit tense?

Watching the Shenmue Endurance Run, Dan's chemistry with Alex and Vinny is definitely different, but refreshing. Very interested to see what comes of this pairing.

@rainvillain said:

This is patently false (though demo derby is alright).

Astute and accurate. Additionally, he needs someone to reel in his inane questions in general, and I don't think Vinny is the man for the job (love ya, vin). My money is on Alex. PLEASE ALEX

Dan will make GBeast actually worth watching/listening to, but it's a major blow to the West Coast team. Whoever replaces him as big shoes to fill.

@stryker1121: You know, you were right :) The Shenmue endurance run is pretty good! So I reactivated my subscription. In fairness I'm enjoying Dan working with Vinny and Alex.

I skipped to the end of this thread, but winter? Has Dan said anything more specific, like a month? Winter makes me think after the New Year and Goty stuff.

I assume the new position will be for the San Francisco office. They tend to not be as active before Jason and Dan came on board during the first half of that year. I wonder if they would ever add a fourth position to GBeast? Another, production person to help Vinny, or to keep the place from burning down when he takes time off. Maybe, down the line.

@wallee321: He said on a podcast that he was thinking of leaving after all the GOTY stuff. So yeah, Jan/Feb. Jeff has also said that they'll put out an ad to hire someone for the San Francisco office.

I think this is pretty great. The GBeast need someone and Dan is a great fit. SF will survive him leaving, but when they hire someone it's going to be tough to fill Dan's shoes.

@sidewinder665 said:

Wait, so GB East will be down to two men for the next 3 or 4 months? That fucking sucks. I don't know what it is about CBSi and/or Giant Bomb that it takes them like half a year to fill a position but it's kind of crappy.

I feel like @alex should and will be the discipline that @danryckert needs to balance out the enthusiasm that @vinny will provide. Almost like parents.

Basically, Alex will probably have to sit Dan down and do this to him sometimes to rein him in from making "bad" decisions.

Some of you act like such dicks about people, and it's pretty weird for you to be so open about it.

woah! That's sweet!!! I'm someone who really enjoys the Beast guys. I watch/listen to them well before the west coast guys so this is awesome. Plus Endurance Run with Dan is fantastic!! Welcome news.

I was probably one of the most sceptical people about having Dan in GBeast, but the way he asks questions (even dumb ones) and gets smart answers really brought me around on the whole idea. Brings me ever closer to just listening to the Beastcast weekly and just listening to the Bombcast when I run out of other shit.

So Dan Ryckert pees while looking at his phone taking presumably dick pics?

I laughed so hard at that when Jeff slid that in during the podcast.

valid a bump as any i guess

@voltan: I mean you are missing some of the best content and beastscasts they've done so...keep feeling betrayed I guess?

@voltan: Look on the bright side, now you can listen to the Bombcast again.

lol Am I the only one who was annoyed more by Austin than Dan? I like them both but sometimes I wished Austin would just turn it off.

@voltan: how could Jeff do that to you after all you guys have been through?

I actually think Dan has been a great addition to the beast crew. He's less heelish now that he's over there and the three seem to play off each other very well.

I think that Dan fits better in the East mostly because they seem more "agile." Like West seems like a big slow steering ship constantly settling into the new office and focused on the nuts and bolts of quick looks and other "vanilla" gb content.

Look how long it took them to make the 7th Ranking of Fighters. Look at how long Mario Party Party took. Those are great features but the wait could be agonizing.

The East just seems more like a pirate skiff that does what it wants. They churned out "this is the run" super fast, and they are doing Blue Bombing and now the Yakuza series...

Dan did stuff like that in the West too but it took longer to get off the ground and complete and episodes took a long time to come out (not surprising there had been no demo derby since he left.) Since he is an ideas man the East is a better home for him where he can churn out crazy ideas and they will fling it all against the wall and see what sticks.

ETA: this came off too harsh to GB West. I love their content and I know they have administrative work to do and the nuts and bolts QL stuff takes time and effort. I just think Dan is more suited to the more agile environment.

Feels like a better fit to me to, they all seem to be constantly trying to remember the details of or reason their way through the nuts and bolts of a random subject and that fits with "Newdan" trying to learn new things. Back at west coast I feel like he always wanted to challenge the very stubborn and entrenched opinions of Jeff and Brad on dumb subjects like fast food which got annoying.

@bigsocrates: GB East is definitely better with commitments and just going for it. Dan has always been like that. He did a lot of full game playthroughs before GB for example and that just wasn't something they would do on the West side often. As soon as Dan goes East they started doing a few already with more to come I'm sure.

Where Dan and Vinny can really work well is they both kind of just wing it and go for it in a similar way.

I continue to enjoy both. I do think Dan brought a lot of energy to the West and they hopefully replace that energy with the next hire. I think Dan is working really well out East so far. I also hope they continue to do cross coast content.

Vinny is great for Dan. Also Vinny is just great, but we all know that already.

I love Dan content, I was watching a the first replay, then the super replays than when he came to GB, but I still will never enjoy this sites content than the vinny-alex-austin era. Man I miss Austin

I was honestly thinking the same thing. It's insane how the anonymity of the internet can really bring these sort of things into the light so easily. I won't sit here all high-and-mighty, but damn. Sometimes...

@bigsocrates: on the othee hand i don't think they sell a whiteboard big enough to handle ranking of fighters if it were, say, a weekly series.