Giantbomb is all about Dan these days...

I like Dan, this isn't a knock to him and I'm glad he is getting the crew to play games they never would have before. However Patrick left and there is no news and the indie coverage has gone too, that has also led to never seeing anything from Alex any more since Patrick and Alex did that show together. What is Vinny up to as well? I thought they were doing Giantbomb East? Apart from a few Quicklooks, it feels like Giantbomb East is a waste of money. I love Vinny but I'd rather see him work for a local site so we actually see him because he is such a great personality. Without Dan all the fun of the site would have left with Vinny, he was very much the one who held the original crew together.

Seems like a weird time for Giantbomb right now, a weird time for Gamespot too really. I mean Gamespot's new site is crap, they fired half their staff and their content apart from what Danny does sucks, I don't even bother with it any more. I can only hope Danny comes over to Giantbomb as it seems like a better fit, I don't get why Gamespot still exists, should just merge it into Giantbomb and bring over a few of the staff there.

They actually do quite a bunch of quicklooks, not only a few. Also it's games I don't see a lot of the other crew doing.

I honestly wouldn't mind more Brad Shoemaker in my Giant Bomb premium content. It's been a while since he played through Demon's Souls and he hasn't done anything since.

Giantbomb East does a lot of Quick Looks. And I'm sure their content output will increase once they get a third person in there. Hopefully we'll hear about that soon.

GB East doesn't have their studio up yet, it will take time but once it's up more content should come out from them.

I like Dan his enthusiasm for games is a nice contrast to Jeff constant hating. That being said i did just cancel my subscription because of Dan, i don't mind his dumb general sweeping statements when it's on his twitter and his podcast since i can try to avoid those, although the twitter feed on the site is what i look to for links to stuff so that's getting quite hard now. I know he really isn't that dumb and just says certain things to annoy people, and well it worked. Pretty much decided me watching a video getting annoyed at the constant nonsense he talks, wasn't worth a fee.

I'd like to see more of the Dan and Jason combo in QLs, I feel like they have a good chemistry together.

I'm not sure I agree with the OP at all. GBeast have been doing TONNES of content considering they're still setting up a studio.

The "adjusting to the new office" joke is pretty tired now, but in the case of GBEast, their office is still literally being built. Shit in a large corporation takes time. It sucks, but it'll get going soon enough.

And yeah, they've really started doing a ton of QLs, and other rad stuff like Vinny streaming Far Cry 4 from his house.

Patience.

@arbitrarywater: Yes! we need a new Brad feature!

Dan's one of the most (most likely the most) productive creative guy in the field and it's great, but it does make us all wonder what everybody else are up to.

Jeff's regularly out on location for things he can't yet speak about and right now preparing for GB@E3 already / East are still not entirely ready in their new offices(?) / Drew & Jason are the people who make this car run / What is Brad doing?

That is the real question.

I'm more than happy with how Dan and Drew work together and I'm especially happy with how often Danny and Mary have been showing up in content. They all fit together well. That being said, I'd kill for a new Breaking Brad. Or maybe some more Encyclopedia Bombasticas where Jeff gets to pour his heart out about old games that he's way into (go watch Jeff talk about Goonies 2 to see an example of it). I kinda wish they'd recentre the content around crew members other than Dan every once in a while.

GB East seems kind of dry to me at the moment. Vinny meshed very well with Jeff and Brad and Drew and Alexis and the like, but it's not the same with Alex. I'm sure when a third wheel gets added things will be a lot more interesting and exciting. As of now I tend to doze off and forget most GB East quick looks (with the exception of Blackbay Asylum, that video is hilarious).

Vinny posted a big comment on NeoGaf about all the business going at the East office and that's why they're slow to start over there. This is actual business that's part of a large corporation, it's not some 16 year olf Youtuber who can just turn on the camera any time they want.

I'm just glad someone in the company has ideas for Premium content and wants to make them.

Giantbomb seems to be in a fine position to me right now. I think Danny would be a great fit at GB, as well as Alexis but I haven't seen him in a while so I have no idea what he's doing. Rorie and Jason being in more vids is totally fine with me. As for the Brad thing, I think he should keep playing Monster Hunter with Jason teaching and playing with him. That would be an awesome feature for the site.

@cubidog1: Alexis left to work for Twitch last year.

Wait. Why wouldn't he post it to the site? Some of us don't go on Gaf....

I am not a huge Dan fan but he is the only one who seems interested in pushing the site forward and trying new things. Mario Party, Metal Gear Scanlon, Demo Derby were all his ideas. The rest of the staff seems semi content to grind out the same content over and over. It didn't used to be like this. Giant Bomb used to have TANG and endurance runs and Breaking Brad and Load Our Last Save and all kinds of stuff, but after Ryan died it seems like the creative drive went with him. We've seen small attempts like Vinny Vania but they quickly Peter out. Bard's DOTA coverage may have been polarizing but at least it was different.

Now it seems like the non-Dan staff is only excited by off-site stuff like Paxamania.

The site has become Dan centric because he seems to be the only one who is genuinely excited about being on GB and pushing it forward

I just miss Vinny on podcasts. It's seems like a huge waste to not have any outlet for him to talk about stuff he's been playing recently. A short, weekly Alex/Vinny podcast or video where they just talk about whatever would be great.

Kind of feeling you there. My sub isn't up for a few months yet but we'll see. Perhaps by then GBeast will be full speed ahead and having Vinny back on the site more will make me disregard anything I'm not liking. Vinny no longer on the podcast has really diminished my enthusiasm for the site in general...the site seems in a really weird place right now.

You should be thankful of him because if it weren't for him and is wacky ideas we wouldn't have half the new premium stuff we have now. Seriously he's been a treasure trove of content since coming on board.

Yeah I think Dan is in every single premium thing aside from maybe two. I like Dan but I want to see more from other people, it feels like Dan is everywhere sometimes and sometimes you just want a different perspective.

@somejerk: @bigsocrates: It's actually more likely that Brad took up Ryan's old duties of booking guests and arranging their E3 appointments. With the BLLSL coming up in April and E3 in June I'm guessing he's booking guests and scoping out venues.

Brad and Jason should keep going with these Monster Hunter videos. I like Dan but a new feature that's not his idea would be great for a change.

My guess is that he's been playing almost exclusively ''being a father of 2 kids: The Game''.

I wish Jeff would be in one premium series like Breaking Brad

Totally Agree. I really like Dan as well but since he arrived hes in most quick looks and almost all premium content: Demo Derby, MGScanlon, UPF, Eye of the Rykert, Danswers, and 40s and a Movie etc. Hey I love more content and Dan has helped up the content by like 300%, however Jeff and Brad only appear really in the odd quick look, UPF and the podcast. Jeff at least is appearing in Demo Derbys and he finally did a Jar Time but Brad hasn't done a Breaking Brad in ages or even a Dota show.

It used to be that Jeff, Brad, or someone else would say "Heh, I should make a video of that." or, someone would say something and someone would chime in "Sounds like Premium Content!", and then we'd never hear about it again. Sometimes, something would sound like a cool idea, so people would keep bugging the guys about it to the point where they'd say "Well, now I just don't really want to do it, so drop it."

Then, there's Dan.

If Dan gets an idea in his head about something he wants to do...MOTHERFUCKER GETS IT DONE. Wants to ride a rollercoaster while playing Mario? Done. Wants to drag the guys through the nightmarish hellscape of Mario Party? Done. Wants to see Drew experience the entire Metal Gear series? Done.

Don't get upset or annoyed about Dan doing too much. Be upset or annoyed by the others not having his drive.

@slyspider said:

It is a bit weird that the staff seem more willing to post on NeoGAF than on GB. Not exactly huge vote of confidence in the community.

I appreciate what Dan is doing, but I imagine he has time to do stuff because Patrick was the same way when he was at the SF office. I don't want to sound negative and say the rest of the office doesn't have the drive, because who knows?

I really miss Bombin'. It brought another perspective on the news in the industry that is clearly lacking at GB now. I hope the new hire is the exact opposite of Dan so things can level out.

I like MGScanlon, Mario Party, Demo Derby, Eye of the Ryckert, and the roller coaster video, though. Don't care for Danswers or Films and 40's Tallboys of Shitty Beer.

I love GB and am excited with what GB East can do, but man does it feel like we're playing the waiting game for SOMETHING every six months since three years ago after they moved to CBSi. I understand how corporations work, but holy shit. First the move. Then that got better, but then Ryan died. Then it took a full year to replace him. Now Vinny has only started to show up periodically over the past few months, but we're still waiting for more content outside of Quick Looks. Now Patrick's gone and we are still waiting for a replacement for him.

Here's Vinny's reply to a question on gaf about his work week. http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=153938525&postcount=10772

It's funny. I think back to the 2009-2010 days, when the team was Jeff, Ryan, Vinny, Brad, and Dave, and the forums had a lot of people who complained about many aspects of the content. Now, people complain about the content and reminisce back to those days. It's almost as if you can never make all the people happy all of the time.

A. We should be thankful for Dan's enthusiasm for what he does and getting the staff on board with some of his ideas because he compliments the rest of the staff in that he has perpendicular ideas compared to most of them. I just hope he doesnt get burnt out because he is doing so much content.

B. I also think the small amount of content is due to the lack of fun and spectacular games out for ps4 and x-bone. This is a new era for giantbomb. At the beginning of this site they were with whisky media with ryan and jeff pretty much doing everything they can in a generation of consoles that was just catching speed at the time. Now they are without Ryan, split and expanded offices, work under a major corporation and are stuck in the early stage of this generation of console where games that come out are either mediocre or the staff just dont like it for whatever reason. If you dont believe me about the last part just look at the premium content. You have metal gear scanlon, mario party party and demo derby. None of those are past 2010 releases and that was 5 years ago!(except the MGS HD but you get my point)

What I am saying is: once games start coming out and stop being delayed the best video game website will flourish once more!

I'm currently a premium subscriber. If they want to ensure it stays that way they will switch the site to only have videos of Jeff with messed up hair, at home, drinking water out of a mason jar, talking about games.

You have been warned.

That post from Vinny is a hell of a thing. People should read it if they have not read it.

There's been a lot of Dan but I don't think the site has been just focused on him.

And a part of me thinks that Dan will eventually join GB if Gamespot continues to wane in the next several years and eventually gets absorbed by the Bomb

Late last year we had both a "not enough content" and a "too much content" thread in the same week.

I like Dan, but listening to him for 10+ hours a week is making me rethink what I'm doing with my life.

Reminds me of that stretch where Patrick seemed to be in everything.

Haha, I can't relate to the one fellow who mentioned unsubscribing. I actually re-subscribed because of the first Mario party and have been enjoying the heck out of things here. I think Dan's a great fit and there seems to be a healthy balance among all the players. For instance, we're getting a lot more Jason & Co. videos, which is awesome because Jason is a hoot. Giantbomb East has been churning out really fun content too like that Lucius II quicklook, and Brad's been about the place a goodly amount as well. Not to mention that it's a blast to see so much Drew and we get decent portions of Rorie and Jeff. It'd be nice to get more of those two, but Jeff sits in on quite a number of things and Rorie does a lot of UPFs and website stuff... so eh. No complaints. :-P They'll get a news guy or gal when they find the right news guy or gal to be had. It takes time to fight the right fit, and it's probably a pain in the ass since everyone at Giantbomb pulls at least double duty as journalist and actor (and the third role of techie if they're someone like Drew, Jason, or Vinny). That can't be fun to shop around for, hehe.

It's neat to see Dan's stage persona evoking such strong responses, by the way. Some people love it, some people loathe it, but no one is apathetic to his character. That's quite a feat. :-P

Ill admit there's a lot of dan but he just seems like an energetic fun dude who likes to put himself out there and ralphie may it to the max. Coincidentally, there's been a fuckton of drew as well (a trend im happy to see on the rise). I think jeff works more behind the scenes trying to keep everything moving so it's understandable that he's not in much besides quick looks (do like jar time and he seems to be a willing extra body if dan or others need it.). I would love to see brad put himself out there more; personally can't get enough of him and he's great on bombcasts and QLs but i think his talents are wasted on non premium non series content. Hope we get another breaking brad or something new out of him soon.

GBEAST is in admittedly protracted growing pains. Not to get too personal but wonder if it has partially to do with Alex becoming more of an on-mic and on-video presence and maybe having to deal with possible anxiety or adjustments regarding that. Sorry alex if you read this and think i presume too much. Vinny bless him is having like twenty nine kids so his absence is also understandabe (i keed... I know it's probably more boring reasons like mapping out future content, getting ready for a new hire, studio prep, etc.

Hopefully things start moving for some staff members and others bring more/new content to the table to help vary things a bit. Frankly IMO i think we've been spoiled rotten with dan's assorted things.

There always has been, and continues to be, way too much content for me to watch/listen to even when I occasionally devote an entire Saturday to having having stuff playing in the background while I play Monster Hunter.

If you are in dire need of more content, go check out Jeff's personal YouTube page, he's got some lengthy streams on there he does from home that he never posts on Giant Bomb. For example: https://youtu.be/NNFFHMQ7c1Q

Lots of other unarchived stuff on the GiantBombUnarchived YouTube channel too.

@ripelivejam: I'm guessing you haven't seen the PAX panel yet?

I'll agree there has been a lot of Dan lately but honestly most of the features he is involved with are pretty good (at least for me). I think the site is still in a transitional period and Dan is just filling gaps and pulling as much weight as he can.

@squirrelgod: Gotta agree with this. If anything Dan has amazing follow through. He sets his mind on something and does it. He said he would write that book on anxiety and he did. I understand that a lot of new content seems to have Dan on it but it really is because no one has stepped up and did anything of their own in ages - and suggestions are typically met with indifference.

@gaff: tbh no, i am aware of a new BLLSL in the works.

@ripelivejam: You're in for a treat! Vinny's struggles with their second office and studio are hilarious! And apparently the NY IT department is terrible with letting the guys connect to XBL and GB chat servers :(

Definitely starting to pick and choose premium content: Drew/Dan are a good pair and all, but their stuff can be pretty repetitive and it's becoming really noticeable considering all the videos/podcasts they've put out. Not their fault whatsoever, I just have a hard staying interested, and since the site is presently like 90% Dan and/or Drew it's starting to bum me out a little.

The site kind of seems weirdly small now; even though it's technically expanding, for the most part it's become insular as hell. Bombin' was fantastic when it came to bringing in really cool, diverse new people, and we very rarely get that with the SF office. Don't know if it's a lack of effort/interest or it's a really tough thing to schedule (which seems really unlikely - something tells me there are a ton of industry people in San Francisco who would jump at the chance to be on the Bombcast, or some other feature - but I'm totally talking out of my ass there), but at least for me it's been really noticeable. I'm not saying to start including guests in every single piece of Giant Bomb content, but I think that seeing faces other than Giant Bomb + Danny on a more regular basis would be fantastic for the site. It's probably one of the big reasons people love the Whiskey Media era so much.

While I am not a fan of Dan I do appreciate that he is pushing out as much content as he is. I can't imagine the volume of bureaucratic stuff that Jeff has to deal with. While I'm not sure what Brad is up too I'm sure it is important and not really something that is entertaining on video or should even be on video. Drew and Jason I imagine are super busy doing a lot of behind the scenes video stuff. Which I would like to actually see what's involved in that. But doubt many duders here would find that interesting. I'm assuming Alex and Vinny are doing their best to get their studio up and going but are probably being bogged with red tape and other issues. They are putting a surprising number of quick looks out for it just being the two of them. Hopefully more of the team gets time to be able to be in more of the content. Only time will tell though.

And like others have said a running series of brad and jason co-op monhun shennanigans would hit the spot nicely.

I could personally do with a lot less Dan simply because I find him annoying. On an objective level I can appreciate his contributions to the site from a content perspective but I can't really stand the guy in large doses. He isn't going anywhere, which is fine, so I just avoid the stuff he is in when I've had enough Dan for the day. There are times however when that doesn't leave a fuck of a lot else to watch though.

I really hope GBEast really gets into gear here pretty quick. Vinny and Alex are two are the best personalities GB has atm so more original, non quick look, content produced by those two guys would be a huge boon for the site in my opinion.