Are Quick Looks and the Bombcast too long?

This is the reason video games are getting shorter.

No. It doesn't matter how busy I am, I always want a longer bombcast. I listen over the course of a couple of days while I shop for food, am in the car, sit on the train, walk to the drug store, etc. I don't just sit and listen so it's just not an issue.

As far as Quick Looks it depends on the game. If I feel like I've seen enough, I stop watching. It's that simple. It's not an issue of too long, it's an issue of how much I want to watch.

I never respond to anything posted by GB users, but are you OUT OF YOUR VULCAN MIND??

GLHB 4 LIFE

Bombcast is a bed time thing for me, and its not that hard to find an hour or so for video content. Im actually pretty let down when any quick look is under a half hour.

No, I like them long or unedited.

why change a formula when it's absolutely perfect as it is? so my words don't change a single thing

if anything they are too short

@Cloudenvy said:

.....Get out!

The longer the Quick Look or Bombcast the better, for me.

@Cloudenvy said:

.....Get out!

The longer the Quick Look or Bombcast the better, for me.

The Bombcast could be 24 hours long, and I would listen to all of it. As for the quicklooks, if the game is good, I want a long quicklook; if the game is bad, a shorter 15 to 20 minutes is better.

@SethPhotopoulos said:

No, I like them long or unedited.

You like them long and uncut?

@louiedog said:

@SethPhotopoulos said:

No, I like them long or unedited.

You like them long and uncut?

Yep. That's what I meant but couldn't think of the word at the time.

@FluxWaveZ said:

This is the reason video games are getting shorter.

I would honestly love hour long quick looks and 4 hour bombcasts. I cancelled my cable awhile back so quick looks for me is like my new primetime tv when I get home :) and the bomcast gets me through a boring workday.

@louiedog said:

@SethPhotopoulos said:

No, I like them long or unedited.

You like them long and uncut?

Yep. That's what I meant but couldn't think of the word at the time.

I listen to the bombcast on my way to class throughout the week so sometimes 3 hours is not enough.

On QL I agree they are way too long. When it comes to big releases or difficult to understand games like Dark Souls then yeah, the longer the better, but I agree that lame ass games like MLB Nicktoons should be 15 min at most.

@FluxWaveZ said:

@SethPhotopoulos said:

@louiedog said:

@SethPhotopoulos said:

No, I like them long or unedited.

You like them long and uncut?

Yep. That's what I meant but couldn't think of the word at the time.

I think he was talking about a penis. Or that might just be because something's wrong with me.

Although it crossed my mind that penis was what he meant by that I decided to go the route of actually having originally meant to write uncut because I of course want their content edited to some degree.

No, they are a good length.  The quick looks give just the right detail.  The bombcast covers what it should and is pretty damn great just the way it is.
 
So no, your time issues are your own personal problems.  Deal with it.

If anything they need to be LONGER, Bombcasts are my favorite part of the week, don't you take their length away!!!

There is no such thing as a bombcast or quick look that is too long for me. I love em long.

They may take away time that I should be doing homework or something, but I still get by.

The quicklooks are perfect the way they are

As far as the time restraints go, I'm certainly in the same boat. Holding down a full time job (which requires a lot of overtime) doesn't leave much time for me to enjoy as much content on Giant Bomb as I was able to at one point. However, longer content is much more appreciated. This is especially true for the Bombcast or the forthcoming Chrono Trigger endurance run. I don't always have time to watch or listen to this content, but I don't always have to watch or listen to the full video or podcast, either. If I feel I've gathered as much information as I need from the title, I can move on. Surely, people like the OP and I will miss out on content by choosing which pieces we choose to watch, but that's better than limiting the output generated by the crew.

The longer the better, really. I love it when the bombcast lasts me an entire 2.5 hour trip home from university.

I know what it's like to be busy but you can always skip around the quick looks if you think they are too long and only watch the ones you are really interested in.

Press the pause button. Dude.

@DrSnaqrite said:

Wow, you're kind of a dick.

The argument most people are making here can't be summed up by "I want 24 hour live coverage all the time and if you don't like it don't watch it." The closest you get to summing up the argument is "If you don't like it don't watch it," which is actually a pretty decent argument when it comes to entertainment, depending on the context.

[...]

Oh, by the way:

appalling [əˈpɔːlɪŋ] adj

causing extreme dismay, horror, or revulsion

Man, I just love when discussions on the Internet turn to personal insults. Makes me really appreciate how much better actual, real world discussions are. And someone literally said they wanted a 24-hour Bombcast. That wasn't an exaggeration on my part. Oh, by the way, look at some of the examples for appalled, not just the raw definition. But do you really want to argue over something as dumb as my usage of one word completely inconsequential to either of our arguments?

@SolongWrexsaid:

I'm having a hard time understanding your point of view, and I need you to answer something. Would you rather watch a 20-minute Quick Look in one sitting or a 40-minute Quick Look in two sittings? Let's assume the first one is heavily edited to show all the core aspects of a game, but the latter is unedited as usual and has twice as much gameplay and tired jokes. Also, and this is a serious question: do you feel you need to watch a Quick Look in its entirety from beginning to the very end in order to know what a game is like?

I would rather watch a 20-minute Quick Look. It's just like arguments about the length of games. Would you rather have a game that's 25 hours long and full of filler, or a 5 hour game that's absolutely mind-blowing? And no, I don't need to watch a Quick Look in full to find out what a game is like. But that's not why I'm watching a Quick Look most of the time. I'm watching it because I love Giant Bomb. So when people say, "Why don't you just get the gist of the game and stop watching," well, they're missing the point. I'm there for Jeff and crew, not the game. And I think those guys do better in smaller chunks. That's why the Happy Hour had to be revamped.

And the movie theater analogy didn't need to be in a theater to work. If I get bored during a movie on my computer and have to stop and do something else before coming back to it, it's too long. And if it's too long, it's too long. It has nothing to do with the setting. Putting that example inside a theater was just to further illustrate how dumb it would be to stop a movie halfway through.

Yes. I was actually happy when parts of the Bombcast were supposed to be locked away for premium users.

No. You aren't obligated to listen/watch. Many of us enjoy the length. You know you can take things in chunks, right? You don't have to sit through the whole thing at once. Poor guys can't win, someone will always complain.

@whatisdelicious: Here's an idea, if you don't think something is worth your time, don't watch it.

@Rolyatkcinmai said:

Wow, OP, you're a prick.

I'm a prick for explaining my opinion and then asking what the community's opinion is? Like, I'm not saying, "Quick Looks and Bombcasts should be super short; fuck you all," but everyone seems content pretending like I did.

Everybody just needs to calm down. I'm not here to take your precious three-hour Bombcasts away.

@whatisdelicious said:

Everybody just needs to calm down. I'm not here to take your precious three-hour Bombcasts away.

@whatisdelicious said:

I've already emailed the Giant Bomb crew my thoughts and they said they read me loud and clear, but I wanted to get a sense from the Giant Bomb community if I'm in the minority or not.

Certainly sounds that way.

@RazielCuts said:

The irony is that this post is too long.

I don't get it. Just because you can't fit them in to your schedule you want them to shorten what they do best? I think thats pretty selfish and is entirely your problem. I for one want all giantbomb, all of the time.

Honestly? I was thinking the same thing when I wrote it. I was just hoping that, if I explained my own point of view well enough, that I wasn't just saying that Giant Bomb should conform to my schedule, and that I'm simply here to ask what other people think, then I would avoid this exact reaction. That's the irony.

No way, the longer the better.

Quick Looks can be long. But its okay

Bombcasts can DEFINATELY be longer. I want 4 hour Bombcasts ya'll.

Yeah sometimes I wish they were shorter to fit into my schedule but eventually I find myself with spare time and begin catching up again.

It's nice having spare QLs or some Bombcast (thought I try my best to stay caught up) to have to listen to on a day off.

no.

@keris said:

We don't give a fuck about your friends.

It really irks me that because your little circle doesn't like the format, that it's just then fit to be cut. Why does your want to share something with your friends override the enjoyment of people who like what's being put out. Seriously it's entertainment. Once it stops being entertaining, stop! It works the same way if you're looking to be informed. Once you feel you're no longer being informed, stop! Also, why is it unreasonable to walk out of a movie theater if a movie is going on longer than expected? If you have prior engagements, other priorities, or you're just bored why would you stay in that seat? (Now it's time to be condescending) It's fine if you don't experience every Quick Look, Mailbag, Bombcast, or other random feature on this site. It's not like getting to everything is going to make you a better person, or build character. It's okay to quit.

We agree that there are people who like the length of the videos as they are. I recognized that not everyone is like me in my original post. As for your other points:

• My friends are merely an example of the "people who don't already love Giant Bomb" demographic. If something is holding them back from getting into Giant Bomb, it could hold other people back as well. Sites like this are all about growth. They need to grow. I know that most people here could give two shits about trying to get new people into Giant Bomb at the expense of that comprehensive 50-minute Kinectimals Quick Look, but I guarantee you that Jeff and Ryan and their bosses do.
• It's not unreasonable to ask me to stop watching something halfway through. But why should I have to? Why should a movie be so long that people are literally walking out of the theater?
• It is fine that I don't experience every piece of content on the site anymore. And sure enough, I don't. I watch the ones I want to watch. But what I love about people's arguments here is that, for example, when I brought up Dark Souls, people totally ignore that that's only half of the example. The point was that the Demon's Souls Quick Look was 1/3rd the length of the Dark Souls Quick Look and gave me just as much information and entertainment value; it was just more condense. There's no reason that the Dark Souls Quick Look needed to be that long. I consume the pieces of content from the site that I have time for and that seem like they'll be worth it. But it's not just about me and my schedule. I'm not saying that Giant Bomb should conform to the schedules of me and my friends. I'm saying that the quality of their content would be better if it was shorter.

Oh, and thanks for being blunt and crass and condescending. It really got your point across in a way that you simply couldn't have by being civil.

I sort of look as it as the equivalent of feeling obliged to watch every single show on a particular TV network, regardless of your interest or the quality.

I love the Bombcast, and listen to it while I run (as well as Behind the Screened Door and This Is Only A Test), and typically split it over the course of a couple of days. I also currently download the majority of the video features and watch them on the train and/or when I'm going to bed.


At a previous job, I walked to work and home everyday, and so I wasn't consuming anywhere near the amount of videos I do now, but was getting through a podcast a day.

I don't feel obliged to watch everything, I don't see any reason to cut content down either. If they were making shit, I might change my tune, but I think the quality has only gotten better (that is obviously a personal opinion only).

No and no.

@SoldierG654342 said:

@whatisdelicious said:

Everybody just needs to calm down. I'm not here to take your precious three-hour Bombcasts away.

@whatisdelicious said:

I've already emailed the Giant Bomb crew my thoughts and they said they read me loud and clear, but I wanted to get a sense from the Giant Bomb community if I'm in the minority or not.

Certainly sounds that way.

Yeah, because I'm actually Jeff Gerstmann's boss. I control what Giant Bomb puts out. Me giving them my opinion is actually me telling Jeff that I'll fire him if Quick Looks exceed 5 minutes from now on. It's certainly not me just giving them feedback and letting them make their own decisions. So please, next time you see a Quick Look shorter than 40 minutes, send me a PM expressing your discontent, because it'll totally be my fault.

I just love how people in this thread are telling me that, a) "everybody's entitled to their own opinion," and b) "fuck off; you're wrong."

If you can't listen to the whole thing in the amount of time you want to be able to, then yes, it's too long, for you. The problem with this topic is these forms of content have widely varying appropriateness of length from one person to another based on their schedule and taste.

To answer your question the best I can, that being from my own experience, no. To me these things are just fine, and I love extra long bombcasts.

Hell I'd love for the Bombcast to hit the 3 hour mark on the regular. And I love long Quick Looks, despite the name.

Having long, quicklooks and Bombcasts is best for everybody...

If you have a lot of spare time, then you can listen and watch all the content and feel satisfied

If you're too busy, then you can pick and choose what you watch, and how long you watch it.

So if you feel satisfied after 20 mins of an hour and a half video, you can stop watching it, as opposed to having it be a 20 min video and satisfy one faction of people

There are too many minutes in Quick Looks and Bombcasts, there's too much blood in your veins and there's too much oxygen in your lungs.

Two of these are correct.

As for comparing the Demon's Souls and Dark Souls QLs, there's a big difference. The Demon's Souls one was for a quite niche game at the time which the guys had barely any idea what they were doing in. They don't explain close to as many mechanics as they did in the Dark Souls one where Vinny and Rorie were infinitely more confident in talking about what they were doing.

Plus, Dark Souls was a lot more anticipated and they made a great decision to assign a lot more time to a QL of that to introduce the game to uninitiated. In case you haven't noticed, discussion about Dark Souls across the internet is exponentially more prevalent than it was for Demon's Souls, so of course there will be more content for it!

I like watching QLs, but when they're over half an hour, I can't bring myself to watch the whole thing.

It's not exactly quick in that regard, is it? My personal view on how quick it should be is "enough to last an extended bathroom break", roughly 20 minutes long.

If anything the fact that they are long makes it good for everyone because it allows you to create your own stopping point in most cases. In my case Nick Toons MLB and kinectimals I watched the first 10 minutes before deciding to end the quick looks myself, not because they were bad or too long, but just because I personally didn't need to see 40 minutes of those games because I already knew what they were and that they didn't really appeal to me. However, someone else might not be too informed on these or other games and might actually care to see all 40 minutes. With Dark Souls I was like that because I had never even heard of Demon Souls before that and it really sparked by interest to where I watched and loved all 90 minutes. So really with things like quick looks they are really however long you need them to be. And bombcast's in my opinion are great because as someone said earlier they do take about a week to get through which gives you a whole new one by the time you finish. :)

Someone also said that bombcasts then because of that, take up all the room on their iPod- something I learned is that (for itouches at least) if you open the bombcast on safari while you are still at home before going out or something it will have loaded to where you can listen to it without wi-fi from then on as long as you don't disrupt it by playing other music or whatever. But if your anything like me once you don't listening to a bombcast you don't truly want to stop until its done, so this works fine for me. :P

I dont mind longer Bombcasts (I think 2ish hours is just fine though). But I have to say more often than not, when I see a Quick Look is more than 20 minutes or so, I dont even bother watching. My interest in Quick Looks are simply to find out if this is a game I want to buy. I'm not here to watch "Lets Play's". I know there are probably people who like long Quick Looks, but personally, I dont care to spend the time on them.