Do you enjoy the comments section of Giant Bomb videos?

comments are cool and good

A community-driven site without comments is hardly a community anymore.

For instance, there's no Pitchfork community. Apart from a pitchfork subreddit that averages at 1 comment per thread. There is a lively & vibrant Stereogum community. Hell, the Stereogum community as a site with a mostly similar taste in music even discusses reviews & articles from 'The Other Site' regularly. It's one of those online communities that i'm not a part of , but like reading because it has a core group of 50-100 people that genuinely care & enjoy eachother's company. It's pleasant to just read these online friends talk about music together and be insightful. Even the writers are encouraged to talk among the plebs, and it always seems like there's a good balance between respect & accountibility there. Hell, community members even provide them with concert footage and get featured as news when a new cover is being played or something. A really nice symbiotic relationship.

I also think that with a lot of GB's content revolving around peeking in on a game for a bit and moving away from it , it is a format that often requires additional information from people that actually have experience with the game on hand. Not every game captures itself well in 30 minutes. This is especially true for VR games. That said, if people hate comments, i'm fine with an option hiding it for the folks. Maybe a 'click to see comments' button. That way people that want to engage with the comments can, while the ones that don't want to see something that they get angry about never get to see that. But at the same time, that would just be another hit to the site and make people that want to talk go to giantbomb's reddit instead. There will always be a demand for people to talk about GB's content, so why not host that here?

I remember that isometric cybergame that featured the protagonist seeing digital UI through his AR glasses and being able to interact with that. The creator showed up in the comments to gather some feedback and it seemed like a lot of people were a bit bummed out by how sterile & samey the environments looked. Like a giant grey maze. Eventually, the dev seemed to think about digital graffiti to adress that issue and make it easier for players to form a mental map of the level. It's nice for a small dev to be able to see those viewpoints about their product. Especially when it's an unfinished.

I thought we've had a thread about this recently, and the overwhelming opinion seemed to be that the comments are fine, and that if you don't like them you can, you know, not look at them then.

I would probably read comments on videos if they were treated as letters to the editor, emails to the podcasts or questions from chat. If moderators or interns could filter out the bad comments and only show the good comments below the video I would probably read them. You could have a highlight system where all comments are hidden unless you click a button but highlighted comments are shown by default.

My guess is that most people do not come to Giant Bomb to read the comments but to watch the videos. I guess what I'm saying is that I want curated comments curated by non-Steam-curators. The Giant Bomb staff picks and chooses which video games to show in their videos from the video game stores that are full of garbage. I want the same for comments. Letting moderators and staff showcase what good comments look like by highlighting them would ideally incentivize people to put more effort into their comments. Maybe it's too much effort because there are not a lot of good comments and you're just polishing a turd.

I don't know how much resources or manpower the moderation of comments require but if you're spending time dealing with a comment section that is just "fine", "acceptable", "okay I guess" or sometimes "kind of shitty" it seems like a waste of resources. There are plenty of other places to discuss games or giant bomb videos. I don't have the stats but if few or no people read the comments attached to videos or articles removing the comment section would make sense to me. It would maybe even increase the activity in the forums which could use some more people. Might even increase the volume of people sending in emails to the podcasts or ask questions in the chat.

The comment section below videos might even be hurting the community by siphoning off activity that would have ended up in the forums or on a user blog.

I think Giantbomb as a staff has always been more or less in touch with their community, and that community has been more or less in touch with each other. IMO, comments are a pretty key thing in maintaining that link. If comments got shut down, I'd be worried that the content that GiantBomb produces would slowly drift away from it's grounded perspective and just become some sort of CBS TV-show. There's already an increasing 'us and them' narrative being tossed around the gaming journo circles with regard to media people and the greater gaming public. I can't see building a wall like that helping that trend.

Anyone saying the Comments sections on here don’t get that toxic maybe haven’t seen the Comments to which others are referring. For example, I remember the Comments of a UPF not that long ago where people were saying nasty things about Rorie for daring to talk during a UPF. It was the one where he was on fire too (“slice of pizza...with a dick”). GB obviously not even close to the toxicity of something like GameFAQS though.

I'm just a dog but I do feel the comment section on videos are fine.
I mostly just post my own thoughts or reactions without reading others on videos.
..mostly.

I rarely look at them unless something goes unnoticed/unmentioned in the video and I have to see that I'm not the only one that noticed..

@htr10: Yah sure there is always that but I think as a whole it’s still a very good baseline of civility compared to most places. With a growing user base it’s inevitable that you’ll start attracting some bad apples that will stir up trouble and then probably leave shortly after.

i'd get it if they went away- but i'd rather they stay.

every now and then you see a coordinated surfacing of the cretins, but it's still a relatively rare thing. besides- i think there's value to those dopes seeing how in the minority they are when they try to act as though they have editorial authority over this website.

Have never engaged with comments and don't plan to. Getting rid of it, however, would be a bad move in my opinion.

I like the comments sections! Like others have said, it never seems to devolve into name calling and some of the toxicity you see elsewhere on the interwebs. That's probably thanks in part to the mods.

Also sometimes magical things can happen like in the ASG comments where people were posting old AMVs, that was something you couldn't have gotten out of a regular podcast with no comments. Sometimes it gets a little freaky but overall they're a net positive imo.

I read pretty much every one, often before I even watch the video. I recognize way too many avatars, but I enjoy it. It is a community/personality-driven site, after all.

I don't read comment sections anymore, to me they are either 'bad' or 'terrible', that's the only range. So I'm fine either way, whether it stays or goes.

I do, it's not nearly as toxic as Gamespot or IGN. Hell I will admit I can even be a little mean on those other sites simply because reading negative comments puts me in a negative mood. But on this site I try my best to be positive and keep an open mind. Giant Bomb just feels classier.

Once I heard to comments sections as living room spaces, which I found so evocative in its formatting of behavior and moderation. I generally really like comments. I don't visit the site as often, and through the comments sections I can glean what's been happening on the site recently.

Preemptively disabling comments on hot-button posts is also a good idea. Also, closing threads after bad actors come in or if there are even vague signs of some bullshit campaign.

The comment section seems to be where all the drama happens but I forget they are still a thing from time to time.

There always seems to be one or two premium lurker accounts that drop by to leave a shitty drive by comment about how a feature sucks or threatening to unsubscribe or else. Outside of that, comments are generally better than the youtube counterparts.

Yeah, most of the time. They tend to provide some supplemental information or context about topics discussed, or missed. Along with some good jokes at times. They're fun for the most time but of course have the potential to snowball out of control in a bad way.

Overall, yes, I enjoy them.

I think the comment sections here are much better than places like gamespot or IGN. The mods here do their job and they do them very well. I remember Rorie mentioning in another thread that they remove dozens of comments each day for various reasons including direct death threats to the mod themselves. I don't think we should have this discussion without at least acknowledging their hard work.

I rarely look through the comments section, but when i do there is usually something funny, a gif or an imsge, a video that shows a moment that was referenced, etc.

But generally i dont even check them or write snything, unless the internet connection is slow and im bored while the video buffers.

Enjoy is a really strong word for any manner of internet discourse..

There is more to be lost if you don't have the outlet, generally, I would say.

I think there needs to be room for discussion, even on topics that make us uncomfortable, hell especially on those topics. Benefit of the doubt opinion but many of us are adults and as adults ideally we should be able to have a civil disagreement on issues without it turning into a dumpster fire. Past few years things have gotten more complicated because of a prevailing "us versus them" mentality infecting the world which creates echo chambers which are just counterproductive to growth. I am not going to claim I am completely innocent, I have been a dick once or twice in comments, but at the end of the day I think we can all lean back on what we have in common, the enjoyment of the content we are presented, and even if we disagree with the Guys on the West and the Guys and Gal on the east we as a people should be able to do so without being insufferable dicks about it.

To be honest, not really? I enjoy chat way more than the comments.

I enjoy them quite a bit, don't always agree with what's said but that's probably what I enjoy about them anyway. I don't see the harm in people having the option to disable them but personally since I like the variety of opinions and people seem mostly respectful in the way they express themselves I'd be upset to see them go.

Imo pretending the things you don't like aren't there does no-one any favours, but I respect if folk are more comfortable with their head in the sand even if I disagree with it.

Everyone needs to chill out. Disagreements don't equal a toxic environment. Also if some jerk says something toxic, ignore them. They want a discourse based on their trash. We have freedom of speech but we have the ultimate power. Ignore ignorance. They just want a fight. Be the bigger person and let them know they exidone exist. It breaks them.

Not particularly. They're worse everywhere else, but no.

How do you leave a comment

I say have comments hidden by default, and implement a "view comments" button. This button would also indicate how many comments have been made.

Say a video/podcast touches on a topic you know will bring out a bunch of opinions you don't care to engage with. You scroll down and see view comments (408) and you can back the hell away from that thing.

Differences of opinion aside, studies have shown that the tone of comments can influence our thoughts on the media we've just consumed, and negative comments can reinforce an overall negative frame of mind. Regardless of how "civil" our disagreements can be, some folks justifiably don't want to see them.

I've skimmed a few comment sections on the site for some videos. But over 10 years I could count those instances on both hands. It's just not worth interacting with. I wouldn't miss them if they were gone, but since I'm already succesfully not reading the comments I guess it doesn't matter to me either way if they are there.

Honestly for the staffs own sanity. You might want to consider leaving the comments on so people have their place to put all the opinions. But then disable the staff accounts from being able to read them :P

I mostly ignore comments. Basically, if I have a joke I want to post after watching a video, I put it in the comments, and if I'm going to post (which I do once or twice a month) I'll read 1 or 2 other comments on the same video. It's a fun outlet for my bad humor but not very important. If the comments disappeared after 7 days, I would gain just as much enjoyment from them as I do now.

I like em, though I don’t post much these days.

There are users who Ive come to recognize over years & years and I do enjoy reading their posts.

Every now and then a GB video comments section blows up for X reason but I feel they are generally worth keeping.

I like the comments. There are some funny comments here and there and the amount of comments can help highlight something I should probably watch. I think I watched Mario Party Party 1 because I thought, "Man, apparently people are watching this Mario Party thing, I guess I should give it a look" (I didn't realize they played 50 turns. I honestly didn't know why or how that appeared on the site at first glance)

The comments giving random suggestions / telling people they are playing the game wrong in a lot of stuff I think is nice in theory, but the volume and repetitiveness probably gets old after a while. We are approaching a year of the Exquisite Corps, and I bet there's somebody in there giving advice on game mechanics. But at the same time, it's nice to mention something they might not know about or to clarify how something works. I don't know, something like that is a fine line.

I could probably live if they removed the comments, but I imagine some of that stuff will bounce to the forums. But I can also see people not wanting to take the effort to go to a game's page and creating a thread on an episode or topic, so it might kill a lot of the discussion around videos and games.

I wish I could get a notification when a video has a particularly active comments section so I don't have to go look.

The comments section is fine as is. Sure you're going to get the occasional toxic asshole, but for the most part I think people are pretty civil. At least it isn't ResetEra, which is nothing but assholes.

Personally, as a youtuber and twich guy, I love the chaos of the comments. Never knowing what people are going to say is exciting.

Comments may also have an insight that you might not thought of or weren't aware of. Some people don't like that kind of backseat driving, but if somebody can help me or save me time doing things the wrong way, I'm very happy to have that feedback.

Occasionally comments speak a truth to power.

It's not uncommon for someone to misspeak or say something that's wrong, having the comments be there allows for that correction. There's a friendly way to do it and a mean way to do it, and there's also the possibility for the person reading comments to take something the wrong way.

As an example, I've been posting comments on Vinny's xcom videos that I'm writing with a light hearted jokey tone of "only twenty more episodes!" That could be taken the wrong way, text doesn't have my voice and or silly inflection. The line is a bit blurry on what's lighthearted and what's going to come off as hateful.

I can't help but wonder if this is because of the star spangled show, where it appeared some comments weren't very happy with the feature at all. I thought it was a goofy fun video series to try, but maybe that's because I'm not as down on America as many other people are. What I saw of the series didn't seem to be mocking American ideals or even politics, I really don't like when a gaming website brings up politics at all, even if they were more positive about current year politics. If I wanted politics, I'd watch Ben Shapiro or Bill Mahr, I'm coming here to watch people have fun playing video games.

I've seen some people lose their minds over comments, people can absolutely say some really nasty things online. Jamie Foxx said it best on the Joe Rogan podcast, "the comments will always get that ass."

Having come from the destructoid community where the forums were completely nuked by a power mad dictator, I'd rather people have their voices and say what they feel then to just stop everyone from commenting.

TL;DR I'd rather be able to say something stupid than for no one to have the ability to say anything.

@dudeglove: Mmm i like your theory kinda makes sense with most off the people having a lot off free time during the summer and the GB crew taking it a bit easier after E3.

But yeah this forum thread happens every time some dumb GB video get's to "Controversial" "Oh no a American Flag oh the horror i can't stand it" The internet Hyperbole still running at 110%.

Fore the most part the community here is pretty chill and the people here are not so bad.

No, get rid of them - even in the best of cases they’re a waste of time. Honestly would anyone’s enjoyment of the videos or quality of life in general diminish simply because there was no Comments section?