So I went to watch the first episode of the Brad/Ryan 'Deadly Premonition' Endurance Run and somebody commented that it was their first exposure to the website. It made me think back to when I found Giant Bomb, I was looking for a good video game podcast; I found one where they argued about how many bears it would take to take down a T-Rex, I was immediately hooked. So just wondering what other people's recollection on finding this wonderful website.
First Time with Giant Bomb
I visited the site at first to laugh at Ryan's face in the photoshop thread, then I noticed the awesome community and...never left.
I can't completely remember... but I think it was during a video review. That same day, I started browsing the site, and it was definitely the podcasts that made me a bomber, and duder for life!!
I followed Jeff after he was fired from Gamespot (and then damn near everyone left. Super depressing time there). I went to his blog (blog.Jeffgerstmann.net) which he no longer uses, and listened to his and Ryan's very first Skype podcast that would come to be known as "The Arrow Pointing Down Podcast." Then, I read he and Ryan were going to start a new website and, to my surprise, Vinny and Brad were going to be a part of it. I was surprised by that because I stopped going to Gamespot so I didn't know Vinny and Brad quit. Also, Alex was there but announced he was going to work for Harmonix; I think he quit when Jeff got fired as well. I'm trying to remember if he was part of the "Mass Exodus."
After the shakedown of what went down with everyone on staff at Gamespot, I just hitched my wagon to where these guys would eventually end up, thinking to myself that whatever's next, it won't be that much different than what they were doing before, so I followed their blogs, leading up the bomb that is the Giantbomb. I'm pretty sure alot of people who were there at the beginning were keeping up to date on Jeff's external blog as to what his plans were. Funny thing, they're all back to where it all trickled out from. I'm really glad the site remains, and continues to become a thing unto itself, as it very much became. Crazy times for sure.
@TaliciaDragonsong said:
I visited the site at first to laugh at Ryan's face in the photoshop thread, then I noticed the awesome community and...never left.
Mm. I know you love me, baby.
As for me, uh, well, following the GameSpot fiasco, followed the blogs, Arrow Pointing Down (which are still amazing. I recommend you listen to them again), and eventually Giant Bomb in beta blog form.
I had a pretty weird trip to get here. Was way in to everything the crew did at Gamespot, and was around for the firing and such, but somehow missed the start of Giantbomb. Fast forward a few years when a friend shows me to the Vinny/ Jeff Deadly Premonition endurance run at like episode 4. Watched every episode and didn't realize who they were until the last episode when they said their last names. One of those moments I wish I had a camera on me. Would have loved to see my own face.
My first time, Jeff and Ryan gave me some wine coolers and they had their way with me. I couldn't say no. They told me I smelled like strawberries. And I woke up with a hangover. My anus was sore and I felt a little ashamed, but also was kinda happy they chose me. :)
I remember Jeff getting fired from Gamespot back in 2007 and the controversy around it, but I never really paid attention to what he did afterwards. I wasn't super into games at the time, so it wasn't really a big deal to me.
My first exposure to the site was in November of 2010 when someone on 4chan's /v/ board made a thread about the Kinect livestream. I didn't know what Giant Bomb was at the time, but I immediately recognized Jeff. I watched most of the livestream that day, and then started going through some of the site's older content. I marathoned the P4 Endurance Run over a week or so, went through a good chunk of the backlog of podcasts, and began visiting the site regularly. I made an actual account probably some time in December, and then became a paying member around May.
I first heard about Jeff way back when he worked at Gamespot but didn't hear anything about the fiasco until after I heard one of their podcasts. I think I first heard the podcast about 3 years ago when I downloaded a bunch of random ones off zune based on gaming and it was the only podcast I liked out of all of them. (Wasn't a fan of IGN's cause some of them seemed way too...pretentious) After the first podcast I started following the site and just recently joined the community itself (I have a bad habit of losing passwords and forgetting to log in) and have loved every minute of it.
I honestly have no recollection of how I ended up here or what the hook was that kept me coming back. I know I had the website bookmarked for months before I finally actually decided to dig into the site and see what it had going for it. Did somebody link to it on Gamespot? Did it come up in a Google search? Can't remember. I'm pretty sure my initial reason for bookmarking it was "Oh hey, Jeff Gerstmann started a new website? I should probably check that out at some point."
Needless to say, however it happened, and whatever it was that finally hooked me, it's since become my go-to gaming site. I've been kicking around on the site probably since some time in '09 (I think), but I didn't start using the forums until much later, and I still don't use them much. I'm pretty terrible at being social.
@SimplyTron said:
My first time, Jeff and Ryan gave me some wine coolers and they had their way with me. I couldn't say no. They told me I smelled like strawberries. And I woke up with a hangover. My anus was sore and I felt a little ashamed, but also was kinda happy they chose me. :)
This amazing post reminded me of that one dream I had a couple years ago where Jeff and Ryan were my professors for an English class I was taking, and I had to meet with them so we could talk about my paper. Jeff played Good Cop; Ryan played Bad Cop. It was similarly kind of weird and a little off-putting but made me kind of happy.
I don't know why I just shared this, btw.
It was through GameSpot, I admit. However, I'll give the slightly more interesting story of entering this site's culture, if that makes any sense. It was through the Klonoa Quick Look, and I remember being confused as to who was who, thinking that all the voices sounded exactly the same. It took a while for me to figure out who was who, obviously.
I was a huge fan of The Hotspot and On the Spot, but then when Rich Gallup left Gamespot, I sort of gave up on podcasts for a while.
I started listening to the Hotspot and watching On the Spot again just a little before Jeff got fired, which left me really put off with Gamespot. However, I just sort of assumed that was the end for my favourite podcast and gave up on those guys. It wasn't until near the end of 2008 that I discovered Giant Bomb and the Bombcast.
I have a friend who was into the Hotspot back in the day, and continued to follow Giant Bomb once it was a thing. I had never been into Gamespot myself - I was more of an IGN guy back in the day (in fact this friend and I would hang out in their IRC chat almost constantly...showing my internet age). Around 2010 I decided to start following the games industry again after a few years hiatus, and my friend got me into the Bombcast. The rest is history...sweet, sweet history.
A lot of people seem to enjoy asking this question. I think last month alone it was probably asked like 6 times. People really want to know how you found this website.
I'll continue to be part of the problem =)
I found this website when Spoony (on the spoonyexperiment) was talking about persona 4 on a v-log. Someone in the comments mentioned Giantbomb.com and the endurance run. I've been here ever since (god if you think finding a video now is bad, you should have been here then haha).
I am a bit of a late arrival, I guess. I did not know about Giant Bomb until some guy started talking about the site during one of his World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Beta videos on Youtube. He urged his viewership to check the site out, so I did; and here I am. That was only two or three years ago.
If I remember correctly, the first thing I viewed was the “Eat Them!” quick look, and then I watched some of the Dealdy Premonition endurance run (BR) because a part of that was still on the front page at that point.
I remember hearing some of the Giant Bomb crew on the 12/19/2008 and 12/26/2008 episodes of 1UP Yours. I enjoyed their input on the best games of the year and came to the Giant Bomb site to listen to their Game of the Year podcast for 2008. I was hooked on the podcast and thereafter started perusing the site. I think I recognized them from Gamespot at the time, but I am not entirely sure.
Been around since the Arrow Pointing Down days. I loved Jeff, Ryan, and the rest of the guys on Gamespot. After they left though, I went with them. Haven't been back to GS since. How To Build A Bomb Ep. 1 was the first video I saw of them after Jeffs firing.
Kotaku had a story about websites that did stuff when you entered the Konami Code and Giant Bomb was one of the sites in their list. I noticed the P4 Endurance Run on the front page and I've been here ever since.
I was playing Persona 4 and wanted to know more about Chie, so i found Giant Bomb and tought that it was just a giant videogame wiki. When Catherine was announced, i was searching for every little information i could have, so i searched for Giant Bomb and, surprise! It was more than just a wiki, and since them i never left.
i tuned in right around the first or second arrow pointing down.
@TaliciaDragonsong said:
I visited the site at first to laugh at Ryan's face in the photoshop thread, then I noticed the awesome community and...never left.
when ever you have a bad day the community's Photoshop work always helps
I've been here since before they had member sign ups. One of my first experiences with the site (and what ultimately kept me out of the community until quests were added) was trying to do wiki edits and forum posts in that first week but every time I hit the backspace button it would go to the previous page rather than delete the preceding character. I'd lose just about every post because the site was busted in Opera and I refuse to use a separate browser just for one site. Eventually the majority of websites stopped working in Opera and I had to abandon it. I haven't found a good replacement since.
This thread exists already... oh well... I followed jeff gerstmann's departure from gamespot very closely, raged, left gamespot and went to giantbomb.
I found out about the duders when the Gamespot thing occurred, and Giantbomb became the first gaming site I had any real loyalty to. Now instead of trolling the whole industry, I almost never look anywhere else, save for Rock Paper Shotgun.
@insane_shadowblade85 said:
I followed Jeff after he was fired from Gamespot (and then damn near everyone left. Super depressing time there). I went to his blog (blog.Jeffgerstmann.net) which he no longer uses, and listened to his and Ryan's very first Skype podcast that would come to be known as "The Arrow Pointing Down Podcast." Then, I read he and Ryan were going to start a new website and, to my surprise, Vinny and Brad were going to be a part of it. I was surprised by that because I stopped going to Gamespot so I didn't know Vinny and Brad quit. Also, Alex was there but announced he was going to work for Harmonix; I think he quit when Jeff got fired as well. I'm trying to remember if he was part of the "Mass Exodus."
Same story here - For me Jeff, Ryan, Brad & Vinny WERE Gamespot - without them, i had no interest in that site anymore.... Kept an eye on Jeff's various travels around the internet while on his sabbatical... and was stoked when he and Ryan announced the formation of a new website together where they were being joined by Brad & Vinny - Never looked back, and at this point barely even bother reading any other game site (quick browse through Joystiq once a day as a news round up - that's it).... But Giant Bomb is definitely my home base on the web now.
@mosespippy said:
I've been here since before they had member sign ups. One of my first experiences with the site (and what ultimately kept me out of the community until quests were added) was trying to do wiki edits and forum posts in that first week but every time I hit the backspace button it would go to the previous page rather than delete the preceding character. I'd lose just about every post because the site was busted in Opera and I refuse to use a separate browser just for one site. Eventually the majority of websites stopped working in Opera and I had to abandon it. I haven't found a good replacement since.
Hey Duder, I use the latest version of Opera with no problems on Giant Bomb (except a slightly laggy front page - but i understand this is because Opera has yet to implement graphics card acceleration until it's next version)
Likewise i very rarely find any sites out there they are broken in Opera
@SimplyTron said:
My first time, Jeff and Ryan gave me some wine coolers and they had their way with me. I couldn't say no. They told me I smelled like strawberries. And I woke up with a hangover. My anus was sore and I felt a little ashamed, but also was kinda happy they chose me. :)
There's no two people I would rather have tag team me than Jeff and Ryan.
It's a bizarre turn of events. I used to lurk on the escapist and watch videos there. One of them, I think it was an unskippable, was on deadly premonition. Whilst surfing the comments someone mentioned a Lets Play of the game; ending up being Vinny and Jeff's Endurance run. I started solely watching that, they weren't ver far in so I would only come on here to check if they had put up a new one. It took a few months for me to start exploring the site. I watched the P4 Endurance Run, then subbed to the podcast, then finally joined the site. It's basically been a 2 year induction. And i've still never watched the BR endurance run.
Please Log In to post.
Log in to comment