Jeff is an amazing figure of this industry with a fascinating perspective, and I enjoyed watching his talk very much. There was one thing that worried me though, whenever the issue of the site itself would come up. Hearing him talk about where he wanted to take the site going forward, and the direction he wished the site would move more into kept reminding me of something really ominous: X-Play circa 2008.
Up until that point the modern incarnation of the show had been very heavily game and game review focused, with a heavy emphasis on comedy and a laid back production style. An intentionally shoestring-looking set, a lot of silly sketches and running gags, and each episode was packed full of talk about games and reviews. Then in 2008 they wanted to make the show cover a "broader range of topics", expand the staff, pump more money into it to make it a bigger and more "serious" operation. They hired more staff, cut back on reviews, eliminated a lot of the comedic side of the show, and completely overhauled the show to be much more produced.
Though they claimed that it made X-Play the show they "always wanted it to be," the show itself just became a lot more boring. It was like the show completely lost sight of what was their main draw in the first place, or why they had the audience that they did. All of this led to the fans they still had from years prior being disenchanted with what the show had become, and even though they tried to rectify a lot of those concerns about the show not being fun anymore, by 2009 they were losing way more money, had lost a lot of their biggest fans, and made themselves irrelevant. Adam and Morgan eventually stopped being a constant on-camera appearance, Adam left the show in 2012, and with cast and direction changes it was unrecognizable from what it had been during most of modern X-Play's run.
I don't want that to happen to Giant Bomb. I like the goofiness, I don't want the site to be more "serious" and cover a "broader range" of issues. I like the main focus of the content being on games and playing games. I just hope the site doesn't fall into that trap. I hope Giant Bomb continues being what Giant Bomb has always been, and doesn't push until it gets crushed under it's own weight. This site is amazing, and Jeff and the rest of the crew have created a kooky and comforting place to goof off about games.
I hope the GB never loses sight of that, and that I haven't been a fan and follower of something for years that was always trying to be something different than what I thought it was.
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