Premium Quick Look

@laserbolts said:

@SomeDeliCook said:

If you want Patrick Ryan and Brad quick looks with only sometimes a dab of Jeff and Vinny, then stay free.

If you want Dave Vinny and Drew, start paying premium.

Is that how it works? I didn't know that's how it worked. Just read through a few replies to this and I guess I should have known better than to have anything in the least bit negative to say about anything giantbomb related here. Defense force was in full effect here. Read my post again and you will see that i'm not hating or bitter in any way was just throwing a concern I had out there.

Its not, I was just joking =P

@Dagbiker said:

@laserbolts said:

@Emperor_Jimmu said:

Get a job.

What? I have a job.

Well, get a job that the community deems appropriate. The problem is, when they produce only free content, the paying costumers get angry. And when you produce pay-for content, free loaders get angry. Who would you produce content for, the people that pay you, or the people that dont?

I have no problem with their being paid content on this site at all. I subbed for a year and didn't feel it was worth subbing for another. It's just that with the older flight sim quick looks they were free and fairly lengthy much like the flight club stuff. I'm feeling that I shouldn't have even bothered with this thread at all given how childish some of these responses have been. Me not being premium has nothing to do with me being cheap. If giantbomb produced enough premium good content for it to be worth it I would resub in a second but that just isn't the case.

@laserbolts said:

@Dagbiker said:

@laserbolts said:

@Emperor_Jimmu said:

Get a job.

What? I have a job.

Well, get a job that the community deems appropriate. The problem is, when they produce only free content, the paying costumers get angry. And when you produce pay-for content, free loaders get angry. Who would you produce content for, the people that pay you, or the people that dont?

I have no problem with their being paid content on this site at all. I subbed for a year and didn't feel it was worth subbing for another. It's just that with the older flight sim quick looks they were free and fairly lengthy much like the flight club stuff. I'm feeling that I shouldn't have even bothered with this thread at all given how childish some of these responses have been. Me not being premium has nothing to do with me being cheap. If giantbomb produced enough premium good content for it to be worth it I would resub in a second but that just isn't the case.

What kind of premium Content do you suggest. Because you clearly want more Premium content. But you want this content to be free. You are complaining about there not being enough premium content, and in the same breath questing why they are making this premium.

They are making this premium because there is not much premium content, because people like you are quitting their subs.

Now im not saying you are a bad person, nor you are cheap. You have every right to do with your money what you please.

@Dagbiker: Are subscriber numbers dropping like that though? To the point that they have to rename a quick look and make it premium?

@laserbolts said:

@Dagbiker: Are subscriber numbers dropping like that though? To the point that they have to rename a quick look and make it premium?

It's 2 hours long. It's often not new content at all. It's not even close to following the original Quick Look format. Stop being so butthurt because there are some benefits to supporting this site. I'd be more than happy if they did more subscriber content like this, and increased the value proposition of subscribing. Like you said.. you didn't think it was worth resubscribing. So them increasing the value proposition of it, by having Flight Club is a bad thing? FUCKCCCCCCCCCCCCCK

As a paying member and someone who intends to continue paying, I really don't feel like I'm getting fuck all worth out of my subscription. I guess I don't mind having it because it's really not an amount of money I'm worried about spending, I enjoy what GB does and I'm glad to support them and I'm also covered in case anything worthwhile does comes up. As it stands I think the stuff we're getting for "premium" content is a bit shitty, as it really does just feel like extra long QL's that wear themselves thin.

Here's the dirty little secret, all video content produced by GiantBomb is in the Quick Look format :O

@The_Laughing_Man said:

@laserbolts said:

Anyone else sort of bummed out that they always said quick looks wouldn't be paid content but then just changed the name of some of them and made it premium content? I mean the flight club are just quick looks of flying sims and if the flight club was a thing back when the warthog and sturmovik quick looks were done i'm sure they would have been premium. I dunno the whole thing has sort of left me a bit bitter on the premium membership thing.

Then what else would you suggest be for Prem? Its not really a quick look most of the games they do are kinda old. The space "Flight club" a wile ago was not that exciting. Most of it was them smashing into the same spot on the ground over and over. Its not a paid content quick look it is just something a bit extra.

You're right, premiums need content, but what exactly about it is different? Don't they play out like the Quick Looks did? I've got nothing wrong with taking something that comes out of a Quick Look and turning it into a feature for subscribers. It's a business after all. But let's not pretend it's anything different from a Quick Look, if it really isn't.

So is it really different from a Quick Look? If so what's different about it? I don't think I've ever got the pitch from anyone before. These premium videos just started showing up and free users started complaining and premium users started getting snarky, but no one ever explained what sets these videos apart from others. There were lots of posts like yours that went along the lines of "well premium users need content" but that says nothing to what sets this content apart from others. And if there were posts like that, I must have missed them amongst all the bickering.

@TheHT: The Premium stuff spawned from doing their weekly live show when they were still Whiskey Media. Now its a format more like the lantern runs where they play something for an hour or two. Lantern runs and Breaking Bad aren't quicklooks since they're not showing off a game as much as just streaming it for people to watch. In the case of Lantern runs and BB its often the same content over and over or only certain pieces of the game, but the intent is mostly to entertain vs demonstrate a game via quick looks.

The other type of premium video is Jartime (which spawned from Jeff taking formspring questions which is still free). People can send in questions to be answered by Jeff, but only Prem subs get theirs answered. Otherwise they do some behind the scenes stuff or answer questions about the site. I will admit that the random pc games and flight club stuff is basically quick looks but QLs are typically of new games that have just come out. Flight Sims and random pc games are somewhat niche.

I would say its not fair to brand all their premium stuff as "only a pay for quicklook" but I am a bit biased. Some of that content is, but I would say a large majority of it is not.

I agree with the OP that the flight club is one premium series they have going that most resembles a quicklook.

Jar Time (Jeff looking into your soul as he answers complex relationship questions), Breaking Brad (destroying Brad's sanity), The talk radio (taking live calls from the community and mostly talking about behind the scene stuff) all have a different feel to whatever else they produce.

@Pr1mus said:

I agree with the OP that the flight club is one premium series they have going that most resembles a quicklook.

Jar Time (Jeff looking into your soul as he answers complex relationship questions), Breaking Brad (destroying Brad's sanity), The talk radio (taking live calls from the community and mostly talking about behind the scene stuff) all have a different feel to whatever else they produce.

Exactly what i'm saying. Those listed are great premium features if only a bit more frequent then I would be on board. People in this thread think i'm being overly bitter and cynical in saying that flight club is basically a quick look with a different name. But in my honest opinion I think it is. I'm not saying it just for the sake of complaining about premium content because in all honesty it really isn't that big of a deal. It's just something I noticed and made the mistake of bringing up.

They said they are going to do a normal quick look of the game they did a flight club today for once the game comes out of beta.

Good news, OP, they said in the Flight Club stream they were probably also going to do a Quick Look for the game!

Flight Clubs are different than Quick Looks though. A QL usually is them trying to highlight and explain a game to try to help gamers decide what to buy, and falls into them fucking around for a while if they get through the explanations quickly or if it gets boring. Flight Club is two hours of them fucking around, an hour of which is figuring out how to take off and the rest of which is doing ridiculous shit like ejecting into the ground for giggles. They're not trying to help somebody decide whether they should buy a game or not, they're just picking a game that they want to play in front of the community.

Almost all of the videos about games on this site is similar to QL in the sense that they're videos of people playing games, and yeah there's only so much variance you can have in that format, but they differ in purpose and in execution. Saying Flight Clubs are just QL's, you might as well say TNT's are just QL's with community interaction, ER's are just really really long QL's, etc.

First post here, been a premium member for a while and this premium content for a quick look seems pretty slimy to me.

People need to stop trying to evangelize to not premium members. GB is owned by CBS now, they're not going anywhere soon. GB has a great community that supports these guys, if someone doesn't buy a membership I'm sure they have their reasons.

I'm punished by having to wait for them to put up an archive, because they want to lockout others. Why would anyone support this?

@The_Laughing_Man said:

@laserbolts said:

Anyone else sort of bummed out that they always said quick looks wouldn't be paid content but then just changed the name of some of them and made it premium content? I mean the flight club are just quick looks of flying sims and if the flight club was a thing back when the warthog and sturmovik quick looks were done i'm sure they would have been premium. I dunno the whole thing has sort of left me a bit bitter on the premium membership thing.

Then what else would you suggest be for Prem? Its not really a quick look most of the games they do are kinda old. The space "Flight club" a wile ago was not that exciting. Most of it was them smashing into the same spot on the ground over and over. Its not a paid content quick look it is just something a bit extra.

You're right, premiums need content, but what exactly about it is different? Don't they play out like the Quick Looks did? I've got nothing wrong with taking something that comes out of a Quick Look and turning it into a feature for subscribers. It's a business after all. But let's not pretend it's anything different from a Quick Look, if it really isn't.

So is it really different from a Quick Look? If so what's different about it? I don't think I've ever got the pitch from anyone before. These premium videos just started showing up and free users started complaining and premium users started getting snarky, but no one ever explained what sets these videos apart from others. There were lots of posts like yours that went along the lines of "well premium users need content" but that says nothing to what sets this content apart from others. And if there were posts like that, I must have missed them amongst all the bickering.

@konig_kei said:

Premium membership completely worth Dave/vinny/drew videos.

This. But yeah, they are basically just longer quick looks and still should be free, but I really don't know how they will do premium subscriptions now they are under Gamespot and have money and don't have to hold the bombcast hostage.

@Surdas: Can you clarify? Especially that last part.

Nothing like that happens if I'm interpreting you right.

@AlwaysBeClothing said:

@TheHT: The Premium stuff spawned from doing their weekly live show when they were still Whiskey Media. Now its a format more like the lantern runs where they play something for an hour or two. Lantern runs and Breaking Bad aren't quicklooks since they're not showing off a game as much as just streaming it for people to watch. In the case of Lantern runs and BB its often the same content over and over or only certain pieces of the game, but the intent is mostly to entertain vs demonstrate a game via quick looks.

The other type of premium video is Jartime (which spawned from Jeff taking formspring questions which is still free). People can send in questions to be answered by Jeff, but only Prem subs get theirs answered. Otherwise they do some behind the scenes stuff or answer questions about the site. I will admit that the random pc games and flight club stuff is basically quick looks but QLs are typically of new games that have just come out. Flight Sims and random pc games are somewhat niche.

I would say its not fair to brand all their premium stuff as "only a pay for quicklook" but I am a bit biased. Some of that content is, but I would say a large majority of it is not.

I was specifically talking about the Flight Club stuff in that post, but I appreciate the break down. It really doesn't sound like anything worth complaining about.

Well, of course it's not worth complaining about, but you know what I mean.

With how many QL that came out free these past 2 weeks. I'm not complaining.

I don't have a problem with the Breaking Brad, Jar Time, and Lantern Runs, the Radio Show, or BTS stuff, but a lot of the premium content was basically rebranded Quicklooks/Quicklook Throwbacks. I'm not making a value judgement one way or the other here. People might think I am simply because I don't have a medallion under my avatar, but whatever. I'm just saying a lot of their premium offering was heading in the direction of: "Lets stream us playing this game to paying members in QL format." This seems to have tailed off a lot. I don't know why they stopped, but the number of LOLS and RPCG have fallen a lot. Maybe they don't have the time, maybe they are out of the doldrums, maybe they have more original stuff for premium members, or maybe they heeded the complaints. Regardless, the number of gussied up QLs has fallen. Just peruse the subscriber video page. Other than TNTs, a lot of the stuff is Radio Show, Jar Time, BTS, Drew vs. Korea, ect.

There does seem to be a little inconsistency though. GB used to show us old games and longer play sessions to everyone. Even after making some stuff subscriber content there are still weird things that pop up now and then. When What Else Is Going On? -The Day-Z QL- showed up, I was surprised it wasn't premium. Same thing with Time Trotters. Why are some things premium and some aren't? Maybe whenever the crew feels obligated to satiate subscribers and they don't want to invest enough time/effort they stream some premium stuff. I have no problem with this, but perhaps this is why some members feel a little jilted.

Here's the dirty little secret, all video content produced by GiantBomb is in the Quick Look format :O

@Dagbiker said:

@laserbolts said:

@Emperor_Jimmu said:

Get a job.

What? I have a job.

Well, get a job that the community deems appropriate. The problem is, when they produce only free content, the paying costumers get angry. And when you produce pay-for content, free loaders get angry. Who would you produce content for, the people that pay you, or the people that dont?

This is the most logical thing I've read today. They know they have been light on sub content so they are trying to fix that. If that gets non-paying members to pony up great. On the other hand if non-paying members are just disappointed, no harm done.

@laserbolts said:

Anyone else sort of bummed out that they always said quick looks wouldn't be paid content but then just changed the name of some of them and made it premium content? I mean the flight club are just quick looks of flying sims and if the flight club was a thing back when the warthog and sturmovik quick looks were done i'm sure they would have been premium. I dunno the whole thing has sort of left me a bit bitter on the premium membership thing. Also I had a yearly membership that recently expired so I know what the flight club videos are. Also a mod can lock this since it served no purpose only to remind me that posting something like this will show what the community is like here.

What? Having a bad day?

@laserbolts said:

@Emperor_Jimmu said:

Get a job.

What? I have a job.

Well, get a job that the community deems appropriate. The problem is, when they produce only free content, the paying costumers get angry. And when you produce pay-for content, free loaders get angry. Who would you produce content for, the people that pay you, or the people that dont?

Also, this Dwarf Fortress thing is shaping up to be worth my yearly membership alone if the first episode is any indication

Seriously, get a grip. You're complaining because they're playing a video game for premium members? I can pretty much guarantee that none of you will even play. Quick Looks by definition are games that are coming out soon, or are relatively new, and they want to show you how the game plays to help you decide if you are going to buy said game or not. Random PC game and Flight Club are not quick looks. Flight Club is Drew playing flight sims, nothing more.

Funny thing is, I bet none of you complaining will even want to buy them, so it makes your argument kind of void, right?

@huntad said:

@laserbolts said:

Anyone else sort of bummed out that they always said quick looks wouldn't be paid content but then just changed the name of some of them and made it premium content? I mean the flight club are just quick looks of flying sims and if the flight club was a thing back when the warthog and sturmovik quick looks were done i'm sure they would have been premium. I dunno the whole thing has sort of left me a bit bitter on the premium membership thing. Also I had a yearly membership that recently expired so I know what the flight club videos are. Also a mod can lock this since it served no purpose only to remind me that posting something like this will show what the community is like here.

What? Having a bad day?

Not at all but the bunch telling me i'm cheap and to get a job must be.

@laserbolts: Ah, my mistake, bro. I usually don't read all of the comments in threads. I guess it's for the reason you stated that I underlined. It's kind of predictable how people will respond to certain topics.

Why are TNTs free to watch live but the archive is for premium? And yes I know I can watch them on twitch.

Get premium, quit bitching.

@BeachThunder said:

@CL60 said:

Knew what all the posts would be before I even came in here. *high fives self*

Isn't that just clapping?

Literally laughed out loud. Thanks, BT.

@laserbolts As far as I understand it, Quick Looks are coverage of new games coming out. Its what most average consumers are interested in, and in many cases serve the purpose of a mini review. It is stock content for the site largely dedicated to new stuff, for the consumer who is buying new stuff.

Stuff like the old PC game videos, Load my Last Save, and Flight Club are videos that take time away from coverage of new stuff. They are also differentiated by their length in that they aren't quick looks at a product at all, but extended plays of games that the staff find interesting outside of their quality for purchase.

@TheSlothKing: Oh that is because they take up extra bandwith because they are so big. So the less people view them the less stuff they take up.

you can get pretty much all the premium stuff for free if you know where to look.

@Feanor said:

you can get pretty much all the premium stuff for free if you know where to look.

Yup. :D

End of the day if you want free look ats for games turn to youtube. Theres a million lets players out there that do this stuff for free. Most are crap. But a fair few are better than GB and usually go way more in depth with there games.

@laserbolts: the game was in Beta, they said in the video they'd look at it again when it was officially released.

People feel entitled and others are bitching.  Wow this is really stupid.  

@BeachThunder said:

@CL60 said:

Knew what all the posts would be before I even came in here. *high fives self*

Isn't that just clapping?

Literally laughed out loud. Thanks, BT.

correct me if im wrong, but wasn't the whole point of memberships to fund them since they were a small business, but now that they got bought by CBS shouldnt they be perfectly fine without subscriptions? so couldnt they get away with not having them at all?

ah well whatever, overly defensive community ahoy!

@laserbolts said:

@Dagbiker said:

@laserbolts said:

@Emperor_Jimmu said:

Get a job.

What? I have a job.

Well, get a job that the community deems appropriate. The problem is, when they produce only free content, the paying costumers get angry. And when you produce pay-for content, free loaders get angry. Who would you produce content for, the people that pay you, or the people that dont?

I have no problem with their being paid content on this site at all. I subbed for a year and didn't feel it was worth subbing for another. It's just that with the older flight sim quick looks they were free and fairly lengthy much like the flight club stuff. I'm feeling that I shouldn't have even bothered with this thread at all given how childish some of these responses have been. Me not being premium has nothing to do with me being cheap. If giantbomb produced enough premium good content for it to be worth it I would resub in a second but that just isn't the case.

So you created this thread to gain some sort of external validation for you decision not to purchase another year of subscription while at the same time asking why more content isn't free.

GG.

@laserbolts said:

I mean the flight club are just quick looks of flying sims

No, shut up.

@laserbolts: Just so you know, Drew says right at the start of this Flight Club "I want to do a quicklook of this when the game is out". These aren't quicklooks.

@Clonedzero said:

correct me if im wrong, but wasn't the whole point of memberships to fund them since they were a small business, but now that they got bought by CBS shouldnt they be perfectly fine without subscriptions? so couldnt they get away with not having them at all?

ah well whatever, overly defensive community ahoy!

You are right that they needed premium memberships before so they could fund the site, but you are totally wrong about not needing them now they've been bought by CBS and a lot of people are making this mistake.

The premium memberships justify their existence to CBSi. CBSi didn't buy them for fun, they did it to make money so just like before the memberships keep giant bomb going, and the more successful they are the more freedom and bigger budgets they can have.

Dave said specifically that their membership model is one of the reasons they were bought. They still need our support but in a different way.

Look at the overwhelming number of subscriber medals on the side of this thread. I have no sympathy whatsoever for someone who doesn't pay for the site. It's an insignificant amount of money. You get hours and hours of free content every week and still have the audacity to whine about missing out on something because of the way you interpret something they said years ago. Forums should be a premium feature. I'm sick of people like this.

To most other none subs here.

You know....I was trying to educate you on the finer points of business. I tried to get across the nuances of consumer to product...and what I see from 90% of the none subs here. Very few of yous actually CARE. You dont care about GB you just care about yourselves. So fuck the lot of yous. There is a little button for gifting prem memberships. I would love to do it. However I dont have the money. However out of this lot there is few non prem's that actually deserve. Id say this as a subbie or no. Bunch of yous just dont get it. Do you.

You cant just coast on these naive and even selfish views. Jeff and the gang would LOVE to have the site entirely free. To be honest that IS their goal. However it is simply not possible right now. So its either subb and support. Or dont sub and risk losing GB. CBS money dosnt change a thing if anything puts it in the same amount of jeopardy as a small business.

Show you CARE and at-least support in heart otherwise your only showing you are not worth a premium subscription even if it was bought and paid for.

@Clonedzero said:

correct me if im wrong, but wasn't the whole point of memberships to fund them since they were a small business, but now that they got bought by CBS shouldnt they be perfectly fine without subscriptions? so couldnt they get away with not having them at all?

ah well whatever, overly defensive community ahoy!

Business is not as simple. They may be sitting on the CBS bus...however that bus still needs fuel. If everyone on the bus dosnt chip in they are off. Adverts are a complicated thing not very simple, its not 1 to 1 ratio. While Subscriptions are simple it is a 1 to 1 ratio and supports GB directly.

Money talks louder than words to companies. Right now with our support we are right on CBS shoulder and screaming in their ears going "WE LIKE GB! GOT IT! DON'T FUCK WITH IT! AND EVERYTHING WILL BE FINE!"

If there wasnt such a strong support. The numbers that says x amount of page views, for each pair of eyeballs staring at Adverts. Could very well be skewered. We have thousands of people subscribed. Thats a good amount of cash that justifies what GB does and allows CBS to not just let them do stuff. But support them.

You can have millions of people viewing a page a day. That dosnt turn into money directly. Advertisers have to WANT to advertise, and alot of the time they would not be happy with the operation GB runs. Look EXACTLY at 2007 with Jeff, He was fired for sticking to his guns and reviewing Kane and Lynch as a bad game. Our subscription prevents that from happening.

To most other none subs here.

You know....I was trying to educate you on the finer points of business. I tried to get across the nuances of consumer to product...and what I see from 90% of the none subs here. Very few of yous actually CARE. You dont care about GB you just care about yourselves

@AlisterCat said:

@laserbolts: Just so you know, Drew says right at the start of this Flight Club "I want to do a quicklook of this when the game is out". These aren't quicklooks.

@Clonedzero said:

correct me if im wrong, but wasn't the whole point of memberships to fund them since they were a small business, but now that they got bought by CBS shouldnt they be perfectly fine without subscriptions? so couldnt they get away with not having them at all?

ah well whatever, overly defensive community ahoy!

You are right that they needed premium memberships before so they could fund the site, but you are totally wrong about not needing them now they've been bought by CBS and a lot of people are making this mistake.

The premium memberships justify their existence to CBSi. CBSi didn't buy them for fun, they did it to make money so just like before the memberships keep giant bomb going, and the more successful they are the more freedom and bigger budgets they can have.

Dave said specifically that their membership model is one of the reasons they were bought. They still need our support but in a different way.

Yeah, Jeff has really given the impression that more membership money means CBSi is more willing to give them money and not butt in. So, it's nearly like a kind of matching funds system where CBSi is simply increasing the impact of our donations, and our support helps the guys be more free to do all the craziness we love. The more Giant Bomb can pull in their own money, the more CBSi will be willing to put faith in them to do bigger and crazier stuff. Memberships are certainly still needed.

And considering how much awesome content there is, even when just looking at the archive, a yearly subscription is nothing next to the hours and days of enjoyment there for you. Not to mention, it's just great to get to support the crew and be a part of this site. The rest is simply icing on the cake.

@laserbolts said:

Anyone else sort of bummed out that they always said quick looks wouldn't be paid content but then just changed the name of some of them and made it premium content?

(...)

I dunno the whole thing has sort of left me a bit bitter on the premium membership thing.

I'm not. I like the idea of QL's being more defined, basically just covering new releases/highlighting games they think are worthwhile. With premium content being more focused on fan service...the guys just messing around with whatever game they feel like playing for a while.

I think it makes sense. If you want to see entertaining coverage of new release games, the QL's and other free content are there for ya. There's no 2-hour-long video of Dave playing Dwarf Fortress that an average site visitor probably couldn't give a crap less about. But if you want to see Vinny/Dave/Drew/Jeff/Brad/Ryan no matter what they happen to be doing, because you're here for them moreso than the games, there's the premium content.

Maybe just take a break, come back in a month to a wealth of awesome content and remember why Premium is sweet, not bitter? <3

@Akyho said:

EXACTLY at 2007 with Jeff, He was fired for sticking to his guns and reviewing Kane and Lynch as a bad game. Our subscription prevents that from happening.

The fuck are you even talking about? Those people who fired him don't work there anymore and what kind of crazy train of thought is going on here?

I do it for the HD videos and no advertising really. But the TNTs and Jar Time are just icing on the cake.

Be aware Alex said he wants to do a OFFICIAL quicklook of this recent flight club game. So non subs will still get to see it. 

Poor people posts don't make out properly to my HD eyes anymore, so I can't make out your commoner arguments.