Heavier topics on the Bombcast

On the first Game Mess Mornings today, Jeff Grubb mentioned that their plan going forward for heavier news stories is to limit their discussion to that show, instead of mentioning them on the Bombcast - with the intent of keeping the Bombcast fun.

This is a disappointing decision for me - the Bombcast has a huge reach compared to what a daily news show on the site/Twitch is going to have. Don't get me wrong - I love Grubb and am incredibly excited for his presence on the site, and what Game Mess Mornings is going to be. However, I believe Giant Bomb has a responsibility to continue to talk about some of the more unpleasant things going on in the industry, and taking that conversation away from their biggest platform is moving in the wrong direction.

Curious to hear thoughts from other members of the community.

Mod Edit: Grubb commented further explaining what he meant. shoutout to the GB subreddit for gathering these:

Grubb on Discord, issuing clarification: "If something heinous happens and needs the bombcast spotlight, it'll get the bombcast spotlight."

And separately, "I just don't think we need every week for it to turn into 20 minutes of us discussing the bummer news of the week on Bombcast. But there are a lot of passionate people working at Giant Bomb now, and they're gonna want to discuss these things."

"Like, there are layoffs every week. I can talk about that on Game Mess Mornings. But then if Jim Ryan eats a hobo, we will talk about that on Bombcast."

I didn't explain it very well: We will still talk about tough topics on the Bombcast -- especially if they are fresh wounds. I'll give an example:-- If a bunch of people get laid off on Friday and I talk about what that means for the developer involved on Monday, we don't want to spend a lot of time on that during the Bombcast.-- If Bobby Kotick gets accused of new union-busting tactics on a Friday, we will talk about it in depth on Monday on GMM and we will still likely bring it up on Bombcast.

What I'm basically talking about here is having a slightly higher threshold for getting into serious news that needs to be treated with sensitivity. There are a lot of smart and passionate people on staff and they are gonna want to talk about these things, and we will never put any rule in place to stop them from doing that.

Let me know if you have any specific concerns about that.

I think unavoidable things that happen the night before a bombcast would probably garner that kind of attention. Plus this means the bombcast isn’t mentioning Activision or any number of repeating offenders every time they do a repeat offense.

I think the breadth of news will be much different when having a daily hour-long show 3-4 days of the week with a guest slate that Jeff plans to invite. Plus as a podcast, I only see it getting more traction as GB’s news show.

I believe unavoidable topics will still reach the bombcast for the diverse commentary, but this will curtail a bombcast wasting 15-20 minutes on “oops Activision, again.”

i can understand giving large discussion to a news show , tthat said i think more voices on the bombcast makes sense to talk about 'tpopics' too so idk .. seems like a choice

Yeah. I mean, I don't expect them to discuss every single piece of terrible news that happens every single week, but I do expect them to continue to discuss key issues, should they arise, on the Bombcast. You've got a diverse cast of people on a platform with some reach, and you should continue to use that. I also just think a balance of topics is key to keeping things interesting.

If they want to do this and completely remove news from the Bombcast, I'm okay with that. If the Bombcast is still gonna do news, talking about game announcements and corporate mergers and all the other "business" stuff, then this is some real bullshit. This will essentially turn the Bombcast news segment into a PR arm of the big publishers. Frankly, I expect more from GB--especially as the last few years have shown that they can and will talk about the "heavy" stuff.

There's nothing wrong with this industry. Just keep consuming and don't peek behind the curtains, gamers!

I'm for it. Anxiety is a constant issue for me. If I can avoid even some of the things that trigger it, I consider the day a success.

The world is a nightmare. I come here to escape it.

You can’t have a No Bummers rule if you’re gonna have a News segment.

We'll see how it all pans out, but my feeling is that Bad News will still show up on the Bombcast (and they will discuss it appropriately), but they will reserve longer discussions about said Bad News for the morning show. If so, that would make sense to me.

The other way to look at it is doing this gives those kinds of topics more space and room for discussion. I'm willing to bet if something big happens that's considered "heavy" it'll still get mentioned on the Bombcast, but for the sake of keeping things moving and not having to find ways to pivot out of it into silly e-mails or whatever, they'll have already had the actual meat of the discussion on the Morning Mess.

Having it be on Grubb's show with a smaller cast and more focused content means less of a need to hit include specific segments, with the ideal scenario being that people who specifically want to speak on the event can join in and dig into it without feeling the need to leave room for having to talk about what games they played that week. It's also likely a lot easier to talk about events as they unfold on a daily show instead of a weekly one.

I get the apprehension, but it seems a bit premature to assume this means GB just doesn't care about serious events.

News about the problems of the industry are more relevant than anything else that could be a in a news segment to me. If it's going into more depth or variety on the Game Mess that's fine but I agree that a Bombcast with a news section skirting "heavier topics" entirely would be a huge disappointment.

I guess it all depends on what gets skipped over and what doesn't. Bigger topics like abuse or labor issues should absolutely be discussed. But GB has always waited until those issues were fully vetted or bigger discussions in the industry at large to talk about them.

So if it's handled well and no one is stifled or stopped from discussing it when they want to, then as long as it's being discussed that's still a positive imo.

I didn't watch Grubb's show so I'm only basing this off your description, but the Bombcast is the only piece of content I regularly consume (only because of time constraints). It would feel weird having big industry thing, including things that are bad, not really get talked about on the Bombcast.

I feel like having one or two people give their takes on a "heavy" topic is a bad idea. Mainly because it'll result in that being the site's official take of record.

Discussions between people could lead to more interesting, detailed talks. Although I suppose it can also lead to an echo chamber.

I'm not sure I see the issue here. Giant Bomb is still covering all of those stories, and Grubb is leading a stand-alone show that will be dedicated to industry news. As a journalist, Grubb will likely be the best person to lead those discussions, and may be able to verify the story with their sources. If anything I see this as a positive development for the site.

Omitting serious or 'controversial' topics from the Bombcast feels dangerously close to whitewashing the industry. I seriously hope they reconsider, or I'll just stick to podcasts that aren't afraid to touch on unpleasant news.

We asked Grubb to clarify on the Discord:

If something heinous happens and needs the bombcast spotlight, it'll get the bombcast spotlight.

I just don't think we need every week for it to turn into 20 minutes of us discussing the bummer news of the week on Bombcast. But there are a lot of passionate people working at Giant Bomb now, and they're gonna want to discuss these things.

Like, there are layoffs every week. I can talk about that on Game Mess Mornings. But then if Jim Ryan eats a hobo, we will talk about that on Bombcast.

And further on the subreddit: https://reddit.com/r/giantbomb/comments/vdswil/_/icmgg1i/?context=1

What a tone deaf response. Discussing the issues affecting real people behind the media we consume is a good thing.

@iamdylanwilliam: The impression I get (and that I generally agree with) is that the issue has nothing to do with having Grubb be the one to lead the charge, but rather with moving a nebulous concept of "serious, less comfortable news that isn't major enough to warrant it" to its own show. This means that the average news story about issues within the industry would theoretically be confined to Grubb's show, while new announcements by the same company could get the usual nod on the Bombcast. While on paper this sounds fine, it's almost guaranteed that this scenario will lead more of GB's audience to hear the announcement than the accompanied troubles, since the Bombcast has been going for over a decade as a pillar of this site and Grubb's show will be something brand new.

As others in the thread have said, if news were getting moved off to its own show entirely, that would be one thing. But the loose idea of removing the average serious news story puts the Bombcast's news section at risk of just being "here's what companies want people to hear about this week." If there were some clearer delineation of what makes the cut and what doesn't, I think there wouldn't be as much concern being raised. But this is a really questionable decision either way, even with the acknowledgement that game news can be depressing and that can be tough to get through.

Yeah. I'd much rather see them bring layoffs to spotlight than Jim Ryan eating a hobo which is borderline celebrity gossip.

"Heavier topics" absolutely belong on the Bombcast, and always have.

Shit ain't good in the video game industry. Full stop. Workers still crunch and treated poorly; all the abuse / assault issues with Activision-Blizzard, Ubisoft, et al. didn't magically disappear because it's not getting continued media scrutiny or attention.

It's bad enough the entire video game industry, the media (including streamers) that covers it--and it's consumers--"turns a blind eye" to all manner of sins committed by / in the industry, does GB really need to remove these discussions from their product with the most / broadest mass appeal and reach?

If "no bummers" is the new direction of Giant Bombcast, then color me very disappointed in this site and those now directing its future.

Added some of Grubb's comments/clarifications to the OP. Thanks to those on the Discord and subreddit for organizing that stuff so I could steal it.

i can understand the desire to compartmentalize- but for the news and topics that truly matter- those topics have a tendency to assert themselves, one way or another. black lives matter, me too, gamergate, covid- there's no avoiding those, and even if you tried- your silence spoke when you chose not to.

irrespective of bombcast direction moving forward- some things just can't be avoided.

I agree with this decision. At some point you have to realize that all you're doing is preaching to the choir, corporations aren't interested in your opinions. Bobby Kotick is still at Activision and is about to get the payday of his life when the Microsoft acquisition goes through. Few people probably use the Bombcast as their only gaming news source so they'll get their weekly fix of sex assault and union busting news from other sources. I'm not saying we need to actively hide these topics but I don't see what difference any of these discussions make.

There was a little extra clarification he added in at the end of the post :

GRUBB:

Edit: This really is about creating a difference between the Bombcast and a daily news show. We can talk about these things *more* often and give them even *more* attention. And I want to avoid situations where we just say something happened so a bunch of people on a podcast and grimace and nod about how bad it is.

But I can see the concern, and I think you'll notice there's nothing to really worry about. What we will likely end up doing is acknowledging all these stories and then either discuss them on the bombcast or point to the deeper discussions we had with guests on Game Mess Morning.

ME:

Looks like nothing to be worried about at all, he just didn't explain it very well.