Continuously losing interest in Giantbomb due to lack of focus / quick looks

@jaccubin: I feel you I end up spending my time watching infinite mostly. It feels like there is a lot less trying of new games on the site and the ones the cover tend to be anime/ fighting or random indies there really hasn't been to many deep dives. I think East is doing a better job when it comes to features but I rarely find myself watching videos to the end anymore. This is coming from someone who has been watching religiously since 2009. It's hard to tell whether its just my change in taste or if its just the dynamics of the team not being quite as entertaining as they used to. Either way I'm going to reup my subscription because I still think GB is the only site that keeps it real and about the games.

They do the Bombcast live so that takes up almost half of their day if not more. It's not like they can go and bust out a couple hour-long videos after that, or before. Planning, plus set up, plus recording, plus the aftershow, plus debriefing (for lack of a better term). I'd say that's easily 5 hours, if not more. Things come on Friday because they can be filmed in advance, where Monday is their remote work day and Tuesday is the podcast day, so that doesn't leave a lot of room for recording ahead.

I would like them to end the Quick Look program and do one live show per day per coast.

@the_greg: Hotline Miami is the best Quick Look.

I just came here to say, Dan is one of my favorites.

There is one I have issues with, but I'll not put it out there.

@retrometal: Yeah, calling folks out, even if constructive, seems out-of-bounds here, which I get.

I think that if you look at everyone who has ever visibly been at Giant Bomb, it’s miraculous how much talent they’ve had. It’s exceptionally rare that someone doesn’t fit right, and this includes semi-regular guests like Hollywood’s own Will Smith.

...Exec-utable...

While I, as a dog, enjoy video series more than QLs,
I also wouldn't mind more QLs but not at the expensive of longer-running series.
I like scheduled content so I know what have to look forward to tomorrow or next week.
I suspect the reason for QLs being more sporadic and/or sparse these days is lack of interest in the current selection
of games and I wouldn't want the GB crew to do things they're not interested in.

Would I love a deeper dive into Warframe instead of, say, Defiance 90210 or whatever? Sure.
Will it ever happen? Probably not but here's hoping! \o/

They could do a Quick Look at Cricket Captain 2018 i suppose...
There's definitely entertainment to be had in coverage of random games they don't actually care about, but at that point you're stepping into the territory of "we're buying all kinds of random shit just to make content" and that's.... soulless? Leave that to the thousands of hungry youtube channels.
You mention the podcasts and Exquisite Corps but those arn't the same thing over and over again like you imply, the podcasts are full of life talk, new and old game discussion and industry events, and while Exquisite Corps uses an"Endurance Run" of X-Com as the backdrop, it too has discussion and conversation, it's not the series to watch if you want a playthrough of X-Com, you're watching because of the personalities involved.

GB content has always been this way, though maybe there were a larger number of Quick Looks in the past due to the dramatic decline in the number of big budget games these days, if you're after dedicated games coverage Youtube and Twitch has a metric ton of it waiting for you.

If you're looking for someplace that showcases new releases pretty regularly i'd check out Game Informer on YouTube. The GI crew are a fun bunch and their content is a bit more consistent than GB's.

As for discovering new content, i've never felt like GB was the place for that. A long time ago you'd occasionally get a QL that came outta nowhere but for the most part GB is where you go to hear the staff talk about the things you already knew existed.

AS for your QL requests. you can find the ones you've missed here: Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, GNOG, 20XX

@valjean9430: Sure, the number of big games, or games they find super interesting, that come out each month is going to vary year to year, but I looked through the July 2014 quick looks (when they did 42 in a month). You can do so as well here:

http://qlcrew.com/?vid_type=ql&hlt=any&game_id=any&platforms=any&length=0&maxlen=inf&per_page=15&date_from=2014-07-01&date_to=2014-07-31&anyone=anyone&inc%5B0%5D=&exc%5B0%5D=&p=1

There's Unfinisheds of 2 big games (Destiny and The Crew) that I assume were having public betas at the time, and maybe there's nothing similar this month (I honestly don't know, I don't keep track of betas that closely), but that's 2 games. Looking through the other 40 games, there's a lot of obscure stuff in there, the equivalent of which I'm sure you could find on Steam today. I don't buy that there was double the number of games that would make good quick looks in July of that year compared to this one.

Also, they've repeatedly said that they think 2014 was a fairly week year for games (which is why Shadow of Mordor won GOTY and Destiny made the top 10), whereas they praised the hell out of 2017. But they did Quick Looks/Unfinisheds of 336 games in 2014 and only 238 in 2017. If there were a 100 more inherently "quick-lookable" games in 2014, was it really that weak? But I don't think that was their reasoning in doing more QLs, and there wasn't actually a bunch more games in that year they simply had to cover. It only makes sense to me as them deliberately ramping up the number of QLs they did as part of a strategy for the site by digging deeper into obscure Steam titles, and then deciding that it wasn't worth it and scaling back, which I believe Jeff has confirmed.

And hey, that's fine, if no one is watching QLs of Pure Pool and Super Comboman (actual QLs from July 2014), then I can see why they'd prefer to spend their time elsewhere. But I personally like it when they dig a little deeper in what they cover.

Ask devs to release more games in July, or move E3 to another month.

As someone who's been with the site since about the beginning, I had to take a break from it last year because I think I just got burned out on all the content that they were putting out. They kept going in very different directions with all their content which isn't a terrible thing (they are trying new things). I think I just got overwhelmed and needed to focus on other forms of entertainment. Also, it's felt very different since Ryan's passing and I don't know if I ever truly got over that. Either way I still paid for my subscription because I still believe in their vision.

I will say when ever I'm not feeling their stuff I go back to one of the older vids. Lately it's been the Sonic Boom QL (It's so good ^_^).

Quick Looks are the bread and butter of Giant Bomb. I used to enjoy them more when they felt more slapdash and less professional (i.e. lacking in structure and more spontaneous, whereas now they feel like a well-rounded demonstration, which feels a little stale), and although I respect the site's desire to diversify its content and subject matter, I came to this site in 2008 for video games, and video games alone, so I'm not the target audience for a majority of the other material.

Mid-summer is typically a supremely quiet period for releases, so if there has been a precipitous drop-off lately, blame the time of year and not the staff schedule.

GB content hasn't been worth while in 2 to 3 years now and content hasn't been consistently interesting since Vinny left for NY. East will occasionally throw out a feature that interests me and gets me to resub,but that has yet to happen in over a year where the wests content has been bad for 4 years running. At this point in my life I'm obviously not the consumer they are looking to acquire, that's fine, but this place has bummed me for a long time. Dan challenged the west to be creative, which they havent been since he went to NY and I love vinny and the gang but Austin leaving really took a lot of fun and a new dynamic in 2016 that hasn't recovered.

I'm basically a podcast listener only at this point and really only the Beastcast is enjoyable where the bombast can be utterly gruelling to get through more often than not.

In the last 2 nights, I watched the latest Demo Derby and Garfield videos and I thought they were stellar. The style of content from GB has changed over the years, but I have always found plenty of stuff to love. I miss the old days with Ryan, but the current teams are really putting out great stuff.

@glots: THIS.

Generally, asking nicely for stuff you do like gets you miles farther than complaining about shit you don't like.

I too enjoy Quick Looks the most of all their content and if I had my druthers there'd be a new one every day, but here's my hot take: some vocal segment of this community ruined it by continuously demanding "informed" quick looks and now the crew can't just be like "what the hell is this thing that just showed up? Hell if I know, let's fire it up!" I was so frustrated how long it took them to get the Battletech and Frostpunk QLs out, but after watching both of them I realized how obvious it was that both Vinny and Alex felt like they had to have a solid grasp on how the game worked before they could show it. And they're not gonna spend that time on mediocre games that no one's ever heard of or care about. The comment numbers on some of these QLs speak for themselves.

Features are better than making sure to quick look a bunch of games none of them care about and will never see again after they finish recording it.

I....kind of see where you're coming from? but im also the complete opposite

Lately for me, i only watch quick looks when its something that's well hyped, or that they talked highly of on the podcasts (which i guess in this way the scheduling of quick looks and the games they talk about on the shows could be tighter i guess, and im sure they know that)

but, lately, its just the features, both free and premium, and all systems goku that i regularly consume on a weekly basis, been just more in the mood to hear them talk about stuff they genuinely enjoy and feel enthusiastic about (and it's also the summer time, so there's also probably not much new around now that's grabbing their interests)

it doesn't surprise me that there's people that grow out of it, and there's people that will go to the depths to defend a staff member or wish the tone was more rowdy like the earlier years.

GB, is a weird thing, but a very agile moving thing, its virtually impossible to please everybody.

The reason I got premium is for metal gear scanlon. That’s the peak of premium content and it’s been downhill ever since. That’s my opinion mostly because it’s my favorite series. I thought I would get into the XX on series but fell off after like 3

Anyways. I’ll support the site but I’m waiting for my next round of premium content to hit my interest

I mean... its the middle of the summer and there hasn't been very many new games out right now. I think you'll see an uptick of QL's as we head into the fall.

With the two weekly podcasts I feel like it does conversations about new games and what's in the current zeitgeist there better than Quick Looks these days.
As for premium content, I've been digging back into Vinnyvania because I'm not completely interested in all the ongoing series. I'd like to see Exquisite Corps move on from XCOM sooner rather than later because I like the concept but it's just been dragging I feel. I don't watch Ranking of Fighters so I don't really have any insight there.
On the other hand I love All System Goku as a person that went from watching next to no Dragon Ball and has now caught all the way up to the current airings of Super's dub. Thirteen Deadly Sims was amazing, and I eagerly await whenever there is a new Get in/Gaiden the Ring.

They just can't make everyone happy. The best they can do is deliver content in a ratio that makes the most sense based on their analytics. It's sucks if that ratio doesn't agree with your tastes, but that's the way the biscuit breaks.

If you increased quick looks and reduced the other features, you would have people complaining about that too (likely more).

Personally, I've become more interested in Giant Bomb in recent months.

@devise22 said:

Yeah, this right here. Been here since the start, and this happens every summer.
Also, as a Norwegian I have the usual three-week summer vacation thing going on, and I would love it if everyone working at Giant Bomb got the same. If that means almost no new content for a month, so be it. They work hard all year and deserves some rest and quality time with families during the summer.

@htr10:I feel the same way. They just aren't experimenting in the same way they used to. The site could really use a breath of fresh air. The East coast has also been lacking in energy since Austin left. Occasionally there's a stream that really stands out, but even then, it's mostly just them talking about random stuff while playing games. The features they did when Austin was there were fantastic: LiS, Kerbal, Until Dawn, Contradiction and Vinnyvania. Everyone felt engaged and excited.

@berserkingguts: This proves the point.

The content isn't for everyone but there are definitely people out there that it's 100% made for. This is why it's not really fair to complain about it.

Ben is a great example for me personally. I really like Ben Pack a lot, he has been a great addition to the team and he's hilarious. His comedic timing is sweet. However, his taste in gaming is the exact opposite to mine. I cannot stand the games he's into, like the 'cutesie' JRPGs and stuff. Same with Jason, I like him but fighting games are the worst. Brad and Jeff's tastes are way more up my street.

Essentially, my point is that the content isn't made to appeal to everyone at the same time. You just need to enjoy the bits that are for you.

This might be blasphemous to say on here, but there are other sources for gaming news and entertainment on the internet if you have more spare time than GB can fill.

@the_greg: Yeah I think some people are coming to terms with some of this. Like me personally, I'm not really a picky person so I find myself watching stuff even if it's games I'm not that into. Or that on the surface I may not seem into. I'm interested to see the personalities on these sites, sell, disect and converse about the games. Or depending on the format, podcast about bullshit while a game is being played.

But in terms of like, genres? It's all over the place. I get that for some it's probably frustrating going through a lull with the site because all the premium features are games or type of games they aren't as interested in. But again, get out of your shell people. Do you actively dislike something? Good, that is fine. But I'm telling you, learning WHY people like the things they like even if you do not yourself like them, is a good growing experience when it comes to content. Especially in todays day and age. Forget just games, we live in a world of insane content over saturation. Choosing to live in a genre/content bubble that only caters to your specific interests and never exposing yourself to stuff if it doesn't fit those tastes can be a decision and I'm not going to hold it against you if you do that. But I will argue that getting outside your shell, even if you ultimately do not completely like the thing outside of it is good. It helps you see how industries have changed, where narratives are, what people who merge genres or find elements from one thing and apply them to a thing you do like, how that unfolds.

I just think it's silly that some people are basically "if I don't like something why spend time on it." I've sat through movies I don't like, games I'd never play completely through, shows that have eps that I would say aren't good etc. I really don't get the bubble fascination people have. Some of this stuff has shown me over the years just how deep other things are, even when I disenjoy them. And more often than not I can find redeeming qualities in a lot of genres of stuff I don't like, even if ultimately I come away going "I didn't like that because X." I suddenly can go "But y and z were good things in this thing and I could totally see how those could be utilized to make something I like."

What about more Game Tapes. Bring back the wrestling podcast ( i wanna hear Jan's opinion about how shitty WWE is) and even though it's a nightmare to handle with this many members, let's bring back TNT ( just pick obscure games nobody owns ).

@the_nubster: I'm not saying they should do another live show or premium feature. Just pre-prodcue some QL or something a week prior and release it on Tuesday.

I'm mostly talking about GBeast also, not necessarily West for Tuesday content.

I would love more Game Tapes and Power Bombcast. This is the thing for me, I feel like they have such a cool crew, but it doesn't feel like they are being utilized to their full potentials. Right now they sort of feel stuck in a mold. The possibilities for content are endless, but much of their weekly stuff is so mild and expected.

With that said, I really appreciate the addition of Ben's Lens. It's a really cool, short feature.

It's summer. Live it up.

I get a very "old guard" feel from the west coast. Should I watch this quick look where they shit all over the game? Or maybe check out this podcast where they shit over many games? Oh but look, there's hours and hours of friggin Garfield content.

The fact that one of their newest hires was actually an intern from a while ago is too apt.

Sorry if this has been stated already, but I think this is largely due to the direction GB is taking.

Personally, I find they are becoming more of what was traditionally a "tv network" as opposed to a "news website".

I watch GB more than "actual" TV, mostly because the content they put out is varied just like say...CBS. They have a number a "shows" that all come out on a set schedule.

If you are looking purely for video game coverage, GB isn't necessarily the place for that anymore. Yes they still do it, but from what I can tell it isn't their main focus.

@reap3r160: It makes sense from a business/growth point of view, but as someone that was pulled in a few years ago by a very distinct identity, I find it to be a bit of a shame.

I still get a lot out of GB on many levels, so I'm not going to sit here and complain about any of it. My interest is definitely waning, though.

@reap3r160: Not that I entirely disagree with you, I think you make some good points. I just want to add, part of what your talking about though isn't just specific to GB. Go find me a traditional "video game coverage" website. That only exclusively trades in new game coverage and talking about new products. Nothing else. No TV shows. No movies. Nothing. That is very tough to find.

Games culture changed. It's as simple as that. Games themselves got huge, the industry become over saturated, and as a result we have all sorts of people who game for all sorts of very different reasons, and have various different tastes when it comes to what they watch or what they stream even. Something that wasn't really as big of a public thing when GB started as it is now. Even sites that try to trade in traditional coverage or written content as a higher priority, like Waypoint, still do video streams of just playing through games. It just lead to where we are now. You have to diversify to exist, because the audience is so large it makes far more sense to try to do a little bit of everything for a large group of people then hyper isolate to make one specific thing for one specific group of people. Especially if your a larger site.

There have been a bunch of really great videos in the 1st 3 weeks of this month, not the least of which were GBE’s tribute to Ryan Davis and Jeff and Dan at Anime Expo. That last Demo Derby was fantastic in my opinion. People have the right to complain, but I don’t get it.

@devise22: I guess I meant more, "just news and reviews"(edited OP to reflect). Such as IGN, they are a traditional news site. Yeah they have some let's play style streams on occasion but they are largely a traditional news site. Whereas GB has all of these various themed shows, some with silly gimmicks(Steal my Sunshine for example), all on a schedule and more or less meant to be watched in a series.

@reap3r160: They also had to pivot off of just covering games eons again in order to maintain. I don't know if they are a great example. Nobody who does that covers just games. And we are entering a point where sites like IGN are every site like that. Screenrant traditionally a movie centric site? It also has click bait stories on games, anime, netflix, whatever. Like honestly, sites like IGN aren't games sites. They are pop culture sites that include games.

Gamespot is in the same bag now. Most of the reviews are all done by freelancers or farmed off internal staff. Most of the internal staff is either busy doing write ups and attending one of the infinity of conferences on either anime, games, comics, movies, tech, whatever. In order to get sound bytes and article highlights to keep pumping things out. I kinda feel like the staff has made it pretty clear from day one their goal was to go the opposite direction of sites like this. Those sites also aren't going to have long term success, in my earnest opinion. Their life cycle is on a clock. At some point, we are all going to go to one or two sites for information like that and all the sites that started out covering one thing and merged to cover all the popular things will have no choice but to die, or fold into a bigger site.

I've watched maybe 3 GB videos in the last 3 months and I pretty much stopped listening to the bombcast at the beginning of the year. I'm not sure if it is lack of games or lack of interest in GB in general, but I've been really down on the site recently, and I think that is saying a lot from someone with 3k+ forum posts, a member since 2009 and a Premium member since day one. Something changed somewhere along the way and I'm just not into it.

Edit: now that I think of it a bit, while there is plenty of content, specifically Premium content, I think the quality of content has gone down over the last 2 years or so. I get that it's hit or miss, but I feel that there are more misses now than hits.

I can only speak for myself but my interest in site content is quickly bottoming out as of late. I listen to the main podcasts and watch the occasional Quick Look and that's mostly it. It's sad because I feel like GB videos use to be such fun and quirky things. However in recent years it feels like just another Twitch channel. I've said it before, I don't want to sit through two+ hours of video just to look for the hottest new site memes. It's cool that they've got hours of content produced fairly often but far too many of the long form features just feel like extensions of the podcasts as far as topics discussed are concerned. Honestly I plan on letting my sub lapse this year as I've ceased really getting much value out of it. I feel like there a number of sites and web projects that put so much more effort and enthusiasm into their work that I'd rather be giving them money as opposed to rewarding GB for kind of just coasting.

I mainly visit the site for the premium features and haven't really checked out QL's unless they pertain to a game I'm interested in. My favorite being Demo Derby. I could see someone who was not a member being disappointed with the output of the site. But also.....

Where is my Quicklook of that Prey MoonCrash DLC?!?!!?

It's not just you, I've been feeling the same way about Giant Bomb this year (not just this month). However, some of my favorite content are features like All Systems Goku, Demo Derby, Game Tapes, VRodeo and Ben's Lens, which seem to be things you don't like.

I completely agree that it feels like there's been a lack of focus, with fewer and fewer Quick Looks or even not much of some of the features I mentioned previously. On the video side of things, Giant Bomb feels stale lately. It's just constant Ranking Of Fighters and Exquisite Corps every week, UPF, and the stream archive with some random gimmick from the East. It feels like various features have been forgotten and the Quick Looks are few and far between, mostly for well known AAA games. Don't get me wrong, I like to watch Quick Looks from AAA games since those help me decide if I might buy them or not, but it's been a loooong time since Giant Bomb has introduced me to some cool game that I didn't knew of, like when Vinny and Alex would do a small and joyful Quick Look of some game they found that was enjoyable to them (Jeff/Ryan/Vinny would often do those types of Quick Looks as well, back in the Whiskey days). I loved those Quick Looks Vinny and Alex would do just by themselves and it's a shame they're gone now. Last time they did a nice Quick Look for some game I didn't knew of was last year when Ben and Jeff checked Gnog.

There was a time we had almost one new Quick Look every day and a couple of premium features that would rotate instead of repeat the same every week (except for episodical stuff like MGScanlon or Beast In The East). I'm not saying I would want to go back to so many content, nor I am trying to force them to cater to my specific tastes only, but it would be nice to have some more content variety again and some more Quick Looks. I know there's users in here that have been Premium members for way longer than me, I only started in 2014, but this year was the first time I wasn't sure if I should keep my premium subscription or not.

The thing that bums me out about the current content is that the West coast seems to have pivoted into playing bad games. And not fun bad games. Just bad games. Between Garfield and Ranking of Fighters, everyone on those shows just seems bored. They aren't having exciting fighting game matches, nor are they really informative looks at the games. Garfield is so boring that everyone felt the need to read bad joke books and fanfics over them. There's certainly a place for irony in your content, but it seems like that's the majority of what they've been doing as of late. No one seems genuinely enthusiastic about anything over there. I don't know. I like to see people having fun sometimes.

Websites evolve, as do their hosts and their audience. It may be time for you to move on; nothing wrong with that.