Is it really worth it for GB to go to PAX?

Some of those questions tho.

For as brutally awkward and occasionally just terrible as things can get, I quite enjoy it all.

@milkman: Did someone actually say "WHAT THE FUCK IS UP WITH AIR FORCE GATOR?" Because I think that's a question worth answering.

This year I think they would have benefited from going to GDC instead of Pax, simply because of all the stuff that was coming out of GDC. Pax never seems to have news or anything. I think it'd be better if Giant Bomb did one Pax a year. That way the wrestling thing and the panels are more exciting.

Man, the Q&A section is never not the worst thing. The people going to the panel are uber fans and they understandably lose their minds, any rational thought evaporates as soon they see their idols in the flesh. Like, what the fuck was up with suggesting hires, talk about making it super uncomfortable.

Take it on the road and don't stop.

I just came here to say that yes they should attend, but just cut the questions from the panel. That was a cringe worthy part.

I appreciate the idea of panels because it pleases the fans going, but I'm not looking forward to watching this if this is the reaction.

I don't know if it's just because Ryan is not around, or since John Drake left Harmonix, there isn't any rivalry, or because after so many panels, they can't outdo themselves.

I guess I'll have an opinion when I see it next week.

@dr_insane: "Rest of the show was entertaining, though the Tim Allen segment felt a bit forced... dunno why they still feel pressured to shoehorn in a "btw we're not sexist, lets make fun of a real sexist to prove it" bit, when they're clearly not sexist and shouldn't have to prove it to anyone. I guess that stupid, ridiculous drama surrounding the last hire is still haunting them."

Think you're reading a bit to much into it, they were looking at Tim Allen's website on UPF and someone brought them the book after that because Tim Allen is fucking out of his mind... thought it was the best part of the panel

For me, no. If it's important enough to them to see friends and fans then that's fine - ultimately it is up to them. But when I think about the resources used for this and them skipping out on other things (very specifically GDC in this case), I'd really rather they allocated their time in different ways.

Time to retire QA. Or take written questions while people are waiting in line or... something. I understand being nervous to get on the mic and talk to these guys in front of a ton of people but dude... It's a bad scene for everyone.

@fobwashed: You win!

The opening video was really good and the game show was ok, but I really didn't like the panel all too much this time around. You can look at the Q&A and say that was whatever, but nobody really had anything to say.

They should stop doing the live panel and stick to putting together a show floor video. Before you disagree with me, answer this: Would you have rather seen Brad and Vinny vaguely describe the "Steel Batalion Room" during the discussion part, or would you rather have seen a well edited video showing off the "Steel Batalion Room"?

If they continue doing panels, then they need to find a focus/gimmick for it to happen. I don't like that the ending has become formulaic in that there's always going to be dumb wrestling shit at the end. I'm way more interested in Vinny/Jason/Drew/GB's Producer Panel than I am about the Giant Bomb panel because of this.

As a huge fan of the panels, this one felt weirdly lifeless. The Dan thing was extremely funny, as was the show floor video, but it just felt kind of short and perfunctory. "Here's the podcasty bit, here's our skit, a bit more podcasty talk, Q&A, and the wrestling feud capper. See you at Prime!"

I know I'm about to commit heresy in the minds of the die-hard GB fans with my comment, but here goes.

I think Jeff is very good on a mic, but his personality tends to drown out the other guys when they do these live panels in much the same way it did when he hosted the Bombcast. Even though he calls on everyone one by one, it stills comes across (to me) as Jeff dominating the discussion because it goes from eliciting their observations to a series of mini Jeff rants.

Part of Ryan's genius as a host was that, even though he was quick witted and incisive as fuck, he was always willing to step back & let other people shine. Don't get me wrong, I think Jeff is trying to do that when he hosts, but stylistically it's just not a natural fit for him the way it was for Ryan. Jeff isn't a facilitator, he's a pundit - plus, the other guys defer to him so much in these settings that they end up going quiet instead of mixing it up & having a real discussion.

If I had my druthers, someone else would play the role of moderator for these events. I could easily see it being:

• Vinny because he's fantastic at drawing people into a discussion while also holding his own,
• Brad because he seems to do better with his own performance anxiety when he has a set of fixed responsibilities to focus on,
• or one of the many 'friends of the site,' i.e. someone outside of their established group dynamics who's familiar with their personalities, the site content & the ongoing themes & memes.
• I also think Drew or Rorie could be great panel hosts, but they have other responsibilities during these events.

I say, let Jeff be Jeff as a panel participant and, much like with the Bombcast, the overall vibe will feel more like the wacky circus that many of us love about Giant Bomb.

I saw about an hour of the panel and the crowd seemed dead. Though some of that's on the guys. The game show/Dan roast went on too long and got weird and cringe-inducing toward the end. It's fun watching Dan take stick from Drake, but the dude went all Ricky Gervais at the Golden Globes on Dan, and the money booth thing fell flat IMO. And this year's Q&A-- I know the panel's suppose to be free-wheeling and fun, but would it kill the crew to collect some questions beforehand to weed out the trolls and people trying to funny?

The only thing we're missing this week is UPF, and the panel is basically UPF.

Also remember that they entertain the people in the room, but also meet tons of fans all day at the show, too. There's that.

Edit: When did every single thing that exists become "cringeworthy?" It should probably be the Merriam-Webster word of the decade at this point, because everyone can't help themselves but describe normal, earnest behavior as cringey, cringe-inducing, cringe-crusted, whatever the fuck. Give it a rest.

Holy shit the pessimism in this thread.

Newsflash: nerds are awkward. Nerds in front of microphones are awkward. Nerds sometimes ask awkward questions.

I thought the panel was just fine, just as enjoyable as in years past. And I, for one, would much rather the duders go to PAX and interact with the community than have them go to GDC and regurgitate the same coverage I can get anywhere.

I have to agree with this. I think there's fun to be had with every panel, but like @turboman I'd rather see a well edited video talking about the games they've seen. I don't think the Q&A was terrible, but I'm at the point where when that time comes, I'll usually just shut it off. The questions are usually repetitive and some of the people asking them give me fremdschämen like really bad. Some of the gimicky stuff is funny, but it's also to the point where I'd rather just watch a quick youtube video of that stuff. Just thought I'd chime in here, I don't have any real answers as to what they could do better, and I don't think what they're doing isn't entertaining. I just think there might be some ways to freshen it up. A new host like @goreyfantod suggested may not be the worst thing that could happen.

I gave Jeff the book. It was not a planned bit by them, even if it went smoothly, though hearing Jeff read an excerpt reminded me why I had that page earmarked and why I stopped reading. Fuck Tim Allen.

They did that with the PRODUCED panel last year, which was great until they started getting tweets about rap videos because someone hijacked the hash tag

I think we have plenty of content. Also I enjoy watching the panel, even though I am no where near PAX.

As for the questions, I haven't watched it yet but did anyone ask if they are going to do a Persona 5 Endurance Run? Those kind of questions are the WORST. The absolute WORST.

those GDC videos from 2014 and 2013 are pretty good, to bad pax and gdc run at the same time this year.

Yeah I kind of felt myself wondering this too, especially when I was watching the panel I was thinking "Oh yeah hey they did one of these only 5 weeks ago". It really did feel like a re-tread except Vinny wasn't at PAX South. And it seems like every panel Jeff spends at least 5 minutes rambling on about how the site is expanding and they want to try doing new things blah blah blah, sure it's good to know but it's literally the same stuff said in almost the same sentences everytime.

Also I know they say they have no idea what Harmonix ever has planned and that's probably 99% true so it's not GB's fault really but the win Dave Lang's Money segment was kind of cringey bad...

The questions during the panel managed to be worse. Much, much worse.

So i missed the panel. Anywhere i could watch it? or should i wait until it's up on the world of videogames, Giantbomb dot com?

That didn't actually happen...did it?

Man I cannot believe someone actually asked about ethics in game journalism. Why? What could you or anyone in existence gain from that other than making yourself look like an idiot?

hahaha I remember the other day when this thread first appeared

and then PAXAMANIA happened today and I'm like what the fuck are you thinking, saying is it worth them going to PAX? You done fucked up.

@haruko: That guy was apparently making a joke. I think it wasn't a very good joke, but at least he wasn't serious.

And I generally don't think these questions were as bad as they were made out to be. Even the worst ones were quick. I will admit that the "hire Cara Ellison" guy was so embarrassing that I literally facepalmed, but even the "dumbass" guy wasn't that bad. Plus, the segment was only apparently only twenty minutes which seems shorter than it used to be.

If you want to hear some terrible questions though, track down the Jeff Q and A from PAX south. The first question is literally "how do I get a job in games journalism" and the second question from the next guy was "but no seriously, how do I get a job in games journalism?"

And that is why basically it's much better to get the Q&A fix via Jartime. You have jeff selecting well typed out questions, detailed clear answers, and the occasional cat getting their 2 cents rebuttal in.

Honestly I found most of the other panels the guys are on (that you can actually get footage of at least) to be better than the GB one most of the time. The QA is usually filled with people asking the same questions as the past 5 PAX events with maybe 2 questions that actually matter to anyone besides the question asker. (Most of the questions they answer arn't neccesarily bad questions but are things you could just get an email about cause no one else would ever care about.) Even them talking about the games they saw isn't all that useful in my opinion. Could you imagine if the site started reviewing games or if back in the day magazines reviewed games with literally zero pictures at all? That is kind of how I feel. It can be cool to see them excited about a game that they saw but unless you are at PAX and watching the panel from the crowd you are kind of just sitting there thinking "wtf are they even talking about" because of complete lack of context on what the game they are trying to describe really is.

Do I think they shouldn't go to PAX? Of course not they can do whatever they want they are grown ass adults. Do I personally care or think any of the PAX content is all that great? Like most people said you can just youtube a 20 minute highlight of the panel and get all the good parts most of the time. And as much fun as I'm sure people are having with the rumble or paxamania or whatever to me it is no different than real wrestling. I had a TON of fun watching wrestling live but on TV it might as well be a commercial.

I do kind of agree that maybe instead of going to 3 PAX events a year they could just pick one and cover some other events though as other people mentioned. It does seem kind of weird that they would go to 4 conventions a year and 3 of them are the "same" one when there are tons of other probably great conventions they could cover. (And I'm sure there are tons of GB fans who would be at those other events too so the whole "then they cant meet the community" is a pretty moot point.) I'm pretty sure the OP's intention was never "STOP GOING TO PAX" and more "go to some different conventions and one PAX instead of 3 PAX a year." (I doubt they would stop PAX and cover TGS or Gamescon though just because the cost of going to PAX in Chicago or TX is nowhere close to the cost of them going to Europe and definately miles away, literally and figuratively, from Japan.)

@cooljammer00: Oh man, thanks for making the best part of the panel happen.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure it's up to, you know, the people going to PAX to decide whether or not it's a worthwhile thing. I'm pretty uncomfortable with the number of people here who think they know what's better for the GB guys than the GB guys themselves.

#PaXamania

Yeah I distinctly remember people posting videos of themselves doing exactly that.

Just remember, pre-Q&A Jeff asked the audience for either their best questions, or really, really bad ones.

I'd still rather see GB go to PAX.

How would any of you know whether it's worth the resources? Do you have access to their budget? Are you privy to statistics that show how much it helps the website? If you don't like it fair enough, but you aren't in a position to make a value judgement for anyone but yourself.

Personally I never give two shits about PAX, or their panel, and would definitely prefer if they just stayed in the office making videos. Some people seem to like watching it though. And while I don't really care enough about seeing them in person to ever get on a plane, I don't know how the people that do care that much would ever get to see them if they didn't do PAX and that would suck. Also they all seem to have a lot of fun while they're there, so whatever.

A little more consideration for the people who don't care about the panel would be appreciated though, in regards to content. I can't imagine it would be that hard to pre-record some premium content before they left and schedule it to go live, or do UPF earlier in the week so we don't just not get a week. Just because friday is in the name of the show doesn't mean that's a good excuse not to just do it earlier instead of not at all. And even if they're busy the week before with PAX-related stuff, do that pre-recording the week before or something. It's not as if you don't know when it's happening. Just in general any strange lull in content generation with this site can get a little frustrating when every let's player on youtube is pumping out ten videos a day. Idk why there isn't a guarantee of one premium video every day of the work week, but maybe I'm just bonkers and that would in some way be a horrible idea or hard for them to do, even though...that's kinda what they do...

@davidh219: Back before the site re design, when you signed up for premium one of the listed benefits was, "Premium content every day" I don't know if it still says that or not.

As for PAX, I don't mind them going but I do miss the regular stuff. Also the panel from the weekend seemed really flat. If they keep going to PAX maybe they should mix it up a a bit, only do one panel a year and for the other PAX do a video of the show floor like they used to. I'm not sure how many more times I can watch Jeff talk about how they have "been looking into where to take the site next" and how "it's been crazy"

Yeah but if we are arguing about it being "worth" for GiantBomb. I'm sure they get a huge spike at game of the year, also it's like a 1 week thing. I saw tons of people online who don't go to GB linking and praising their annual GOTY recap videos. No one in the industry does anything like it so it must do incredibly well for them.

Those questions were absolutely awful.

Weirdly enough when Jeff went to NYU for Q&A before Pax East last year it went really well. So maybe the people who attend cons just suck at it

Rather PAX than GDC with what GDC has turned into.

@somejerk: What has GDC turned into? Am I going to regret asking this question?

I really missed the GDC live shows this year. They were always a chance to get some really interesting gamebiz people in the office, with some booze, and just let them talk. Something we only get otherwise at E3. I sure hope PAX East & GDC don't clash again. Obviously not going to tell the Bomb Crew to not go to PAX or to go to it because what the fuck, I am not the boss of them. The Tim Allen book was dark as fuck and the "Dan must answer like a normal adult human being" quiz was really funny, I got plenty of value out of the PAX East stream this year.

Entitled posts like this confuse me. Jeff has over 20 years of experience in the industry, who the hell are you to question his business decisions?

I guess I find posts like these extra ironic considering the guys are vocal about their feelings on these expo's, especially PAX. It is pretty clear that none of them are thrilled about going, but they appreciate the fact that their fans are thrilled for them to be there. It is pretty clear that they go to PAX for us, the fans. It is a sacrifice they make for us, because they value the fact that we support the site through premium subscriptions.

You have some pretty self centered viewpoints here. You said it yourself, this site has thousands of active users.