A Few Words About Unfinished

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jeff

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Edited By jeff
If I put a photo of myself here, it's almost like a proper
If I put a photo of myself here, it's almost like a proper "Letter from the Editor" or something, right?

There's a real inflexibility that comes with the term "Quick Look." It actually wasn't always that way, but now that we've been putting those words in front of videos for over five years, there's something of an expectation about what, exactly, a Quick Look is.

For starters, they aren't quick. At least, they aren't anymore. They're usually a solid chunk of a game, sometimes crossing the one-hour mark. That's pretty weird when you consider that the first few of these were around 15 minutes. With that in mind, a game needs to have that significant chunk available before we can Quick Look it. That excludes a lot of things, assuming you're interested in having the term "Quick Look" mean something specific. For a time, we thought about just using that name for everything, regardless of the state of a given game. Preview versions of games, demos, and final products all fell under that umbrella. It's led to a little confusion over the years and created a bit of a reluctance on our part to record multiple Quick Looks for the same game. To help sidestep some of those (admittedly semantic) issues and give us a defined place for preview-style coverage, we're creating "Unfinished."

Unfinished is a spot for us to look at everything else, like Early Access games from Steam that consist of little more than a sandbox and a dream. Or very early (and very restricted) preview copies of games from major publishers. Maybe an occasional tech demo or two. And, potentially, video footage that would have fallen under the "Man, I Saw That!" or "What It Is" banners in the past. We want to keep it somewhat flexible without losing the meaning. But the general idea is that what we're looking at isn't full-fledged enough to carry an entire Quick Look just yet.

Actually, how about instead of writing all this, I just show you what Drew sent around to everyone else today?

Jeff and I were talking today about finally taking advantage of Early Access-type games. There's potentially a lot of content there and it feels weird not to acknowledge games that people are talking about in an official video capacity. They don't really fit into Quick Looks, and locking them behind a paywall in UPF is a little weird, so we need something new.

The name we came up with was Unfinished. It's universal so that we can include stuff outside of Steam, and it gets across that these games are not in their final state and are not necessarily subject to Quick Look-style treatment.

Naming it something completely new (and not like "Early Look" or something) also frees us up to be flexible with the format, which will be helpful since pre-release games are so wildly different in terms of content and scope. Maybe sometimes the video is only 7 min long. Maybe it's a series of hour-long videos. Maybe it's a one-person video. Maybe we do three games in one video with cameras and a set. Maybe we even incorporate editor impressions and screenshots from preview events that we weren't allowed to take footage at.

What do you guys think?

Drew

This actually led to about 14 emails back and forth as we decided what sort of title format we should use (like, should we put the version number in the headline? What happens when we don't know the version number?) and a few other details. But here's the short version: Look for coverage of Bugbear's Next Car Game to hit tomorrow and... well... I'm going to go see how far along Audiosurf 2 is at the moment.

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Brackynews

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I approve of this category or term.

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Lokiale

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I'm glad there will be more content about the early access games, and that that this new tag will cover a wider range of "early stage" games. Thank you, GB =)

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eroticfishcake

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#3  Edited By eroticfishcake

Yeah this sounds like a good way to go about it. Tonnes of great stuff but being in beta/alpha makes it difficult to give a verdict. Looking forward to it.

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rapid

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Yes, Thanks Drew!

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Mortuss_Zero

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Neat, I'm all for more early lifecycle content. It helps me know what all the savvy young'uns are talking about.

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SoundChaser

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That's cool! I thought it would be a joke article at first (about how there's going to be Early Access previews of Giant Bomb videos) but this is nice too.

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zanetsu

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This sounds like a good direction to take when it comes to Early Access-type stuff. Will be interesting to get more video coverage of those types of games.

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fuzzypumpkin

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Blasphemy! Nah, it's chill bras.

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jonasc

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Unfinished Comment

That's a gre-

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csl316

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I saw Unfinished and thought of The Unfinished Swan. And that game kicked ass so this made a positive first impression.

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Zesti

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I'm looking forward to more Starbound stuff. Possibly even some dwarf fortress!?!?!

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Bobdamicus

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I can't wait for the long series of "Vinny playing starforge in various states" videos.

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crusader8463

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#13  Edited By crusader8463

Is the unfinished tag line cemented already or could it be something else? I think if you open it up to a forum thread, or these comments here, maybe something cool could come of it. To me unfinished implies the video is not complete.

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TowerSixteen

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Good stuff. Smaller chunks of more games sounds perfect right about about now.

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mrcraggle

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If it leads to more content on the site then I'm all for it. I've been anticipating you guys looking at Next Car Game for a few weeks now.

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mercutio123

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Awesome idea, looking forward to the content!

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ArbitraryWater

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I am all for more dumb videos of early access content, especially if that means you guys don't fill up Unprofessional Fridays by running around Rust and not killing anyone.

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Video_Game_King

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#18  Edited By Video_Game_King

@jeff said:

"Man, I Saw That!"

I kind of wish you'd use that title for something.

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weegieanawrench

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I like it, if it means more content from you guys (especially during these barren weeks) then I'm all for it.

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Pathos

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#20  Edited By Pathos

Sounds like a natural step to take. More power to you guys! :)

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bslayer

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#21  Edited By bslayer

I think this is a good idea. And im sure 3089 would've fit in this category, among others.

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Samaritan

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#22  Edited By Samaritan

I am unreasonably excited for this. Looking forward to tomorrow's video!

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DeadpanCakes

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#23  Edited By DeadpanCakes

More variety in content is always nice to hear, especially at the start of the year.

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Commander_Crichton

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You're unfinished!

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Pox22

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I like it. I didn't have a problem with the broad usage of the "quick look" brand, but I'm all for clarifying expectations with videos AND giving you the freedom to cover what you want--the same game could get multiple "Unfinished" videos at different stages. Or an Unfinished video during early access and a Quick Look after release. Seems good to me.

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Pie

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#26  Edited By Pie

Cool. I find it kinda strange how much thought giant bomb seems to put into how to properly categorise their videos and new feature ideas when at the end of the day it's all just them playing video games with some funny commentary. Make more of the funny less of the thinky. Were "unfinished" games not getting coverage just because they didn't fit into the very loose definition of a "quick look"? Who cares?

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GunsAreDrawn

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Early Access is the new 3D

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JayEH

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Hopefully this is the first of many welcomed changes in 2014.

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TruthTellah

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@jeff said:

"Man, I Saw That!"

I kind of wish you'd use that title for something.

I concur. "MIST" videos have a nice ring to them.

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MethodMan008

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#30  Edited By MethodMan008

Fantastic.

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mrpeabody

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I can't believe they're discontinuing the long running "What It Is" series. This truly spells the end for Giant Bomb.

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ReCkLeSs_X

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Am ready for this.

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Dazzl3r

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Maybe we do three games in one video with cameras and a set.

Artemis Bridge Simulator!

Great things, ya'll.

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LucidDreams117

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I like it! Thumbs up. Thanks for keeping us updated. Gotta love this site. Keep it up, Bomb Crew:)

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LarryDavis

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This seems cool. A lot of EA games seem interesting, but it's often hard to tell exactly what their state is, and this type of video would help with that.

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mclargepants

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#36  Edited By mclargepants

Sounds good to me!

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Nasar7

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Sounds great.

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DannyHibiki

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#38  Edited By DannyHibiki

Sounds great! I've kinda given up on most other video game websites that do "previews" so I feel out of the loop when it comes to new stuff.

I'm glad you guys are always thinking of new and different things to try out here.

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stonyman65

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Sounds like a fantastic idea! With the way industry trends have been pushing early releases and alpha/beta testing before the actual game comes out I think a video feature like this will be really important because it seems like thats how things are going to be for a while.

I'm just waiting for a Unfinished Wasteland 2 video!

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deactivated-5b531a34b946c

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RE_Player1

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Early Access is the new 3D

Except it is here to stay.

Smart move in my opinion differing this type of coverage from the "quick look" brand.

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49th

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#42  Edited By 49th

Sounds great. I would like to see Vinny play Starforge some more...

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Carlos1408

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Sounds like an excellent idea to me. It'll be nice to get a new form of coverage and sounds very practical.

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willin

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Does this mean you'll be changing the title of the Battlefield 4 Quick Look?

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Niceanims

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Hell yes

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christilton

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#46  Edited By christilton

Sounds good.

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aleryn

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Nice and simple, plus the lengthy explanation is appreciated. Trying new stuff is what keeps 'Bomb relevant.

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roboculus92

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This sounds like a great idea!

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FLStyle

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Good plan, I look forward to learning about a lot of games I wouldn't have otherwise discovered.

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AMyggen

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Yup, makes Perfect sense.