So, something is confusing me.

I have what may prove to be an unpopular opinion to share. I will be questioning the motivations and choices of some of the Giantbomb Staff in this topic, so if you feel you can't bear to witness this heinous act, please read no further.

On this week's Bombcast, Jeff mentioned that he "streamed" some C64 games for a few hours. After getting home from work, I searched excitedly for an archive of said stream on the site, but could find none. Hitting upon a brainstorm, I did a search for his Twitch channel, and lo and behold, there was his archived stream.

I guess this just left me a bit bewildered. If the Bomb Crew are going to be streaming gaming related content, why don't they do it on the site that they, you know, make gaming related content for. Or at least connect their Twitch stream to the GB site so that it can possibly be archived. I am further confused because I was under the impression that this site was always going to be a place for the appreciation of all games, past, present, and future. So, if Jeff is going to stream some older games, why not do it on GB itself and attach the video to those games' pages.

Before you all rip me to shreds, I understand that the guys are free to do whatever they want and all that, it just seems weird that they run a game centric website and then post game centric content somewhere else.

What am I missing?

I actually was just looking for all of their twitch account names so I can catch some of their streams. Patrick is actually streaming right now. I can understand your frustration but they can chose how they spend and broadcast their free time gaming.

Here are some of their twitch pages that I've found...

• Jeff Gerstmann's Twitch Page
• Patrick Klepek's Twitch Page
• Brad Shoemaker's Twitch Page
• Drew Scanlon's Twitch Page (I'm unsure if this is his official page, let me know if I'm wrong.)

Maybe he wanted non-subscribers to be able to view it and Giantbomb policy is that all archived livestreams are paid content? Just a possibility. Or maybe he was trying out some sort of tech and he didn't want to put potentially broken or uninteresting content on the site? There could be any number of reasons. I'm sure whatever his reason was it was one that made sense to him.

I know this guy who's a chef, who mentioned that he prepared a meal for some of his friends, and it left me bewildered. Why would he cook outside of the restaurant where he's, you know, paid to prepare food?

...that's a really shitty analogy. But if you love what you do for a living, are you automatically not allowed to do it off the clock?

@toowalrus: I dig the analogy, and of course I have no problem with whatever the guys want to do "off the clock". Just seems doubly confusing right now while we're in a gaming drought and they seem to be scrambling for any kind of content to put on the site.

Whatever though, I'm sure I'm wrong.

Because if they stream to the site, it feels like work, and they can never be free. It's fine.

@toowalrus said:

You're right, that really is a terrible analogy.

And it's not a matter of not being allowed and more of a "why the hell wouldn't you choose to get paid for this?" Considering they work in a field where you get paid to play video games (and are now paid to put video of that act on the internet), why wouldn't you take full advantage of it?

Private time only counts as private time if you're not broadcasting it to the world.

Consider the following:

1. Giantbomb is a brand. When you have a brand, it is important to maintain the brand's image, which means providing products and services of similar quality. It may be the case that Jeff did not consider that stream to be appropriate for Giantbomb, because it is not as well conceived, used low-quality video, or just did not pertain to any of the site's goals. I suspect that, despite the seemingly scatterbrained approach in much of GB's content, Jeff and the others have a business plan that guides what they post and when.

2. Jeff has multiple audiences. Besides being the leader of Giantbomb, Jeff is a well-known personality in the world of video game journalism, which means he plays to different audiences. Giantbomb, to some degree, lives off the credibility Jeff accumulates elsewhere, including his appearances on other sites, podcasts, etc. This C64 stream might have been intended for an audience that is not especially interested in GB, but might respond to a more personal message. Perhaps it is a form of marketing.

3. Giantbomb has limited space. Whereas it might not seem so, since there are TONS of videos on the site, cluttering the front page would be bad for business, especially if a silly C64 stream takes up space that should be devoted to a popular new title with potential to bring in new users and, consequently, more revenue. GB has a great community, but it also serves the same purpose on the internet that magazines once served in the newsstands, which means it must be somewhat conservative in order to maintain its readers.

I also remember Jeff saying that they didn't want to put in too much video content since in terms of video bandwidth they eat up a lot compared to Gamespot and thus it would incur more costs. Having more video content doesn't necessarily translate to more unique viewers or members and I'm sure Jeff and co. have had that as a consideration. As for Patrick's stream he mentioned that he choose not to stream his Dark Souls run since GB already has a Souls-centric video series in Load Our Last Souls and now Breaking Brad: Demon's Souls. He didn't want to have content that was redundant that's why instead he choose Spelunky for site livestream content.

If you really want to get a proper answer I'll probably just CC this thread to the guys: @rorie@jeff@patrickklepek

Is that what you do at your job, take advantage of your employer at every opportunity? I'm sure Jeff has better things to do while he's at work. I'd love to be a fly on the wall in the meeting in this theoretical reality where Jeff has to justify to a bunch of CBSi executives why he spent half a day at the office streaming Commodore 64 games.

I don't think Midnight Brown is part of CBS Interactive.

Jeff was testing out new mic equipment he bought for personal use and decided to stream something to test it.

Patrick streams Dark Souls off-site because he can't justify doing that as part of his work hours, especially given that there are already other Dark/Demon Souls related features already on the site.

Exactly what I was going to write. I don't think we can even imagine the cost of streaming that has to get paid for all of the video content consumed. And that cost is the same no matter what the content is. They pay the same server fees for the GTA V Quick Look as they do for the C64 Jeff's Bored Look, so when it comes time to meet with the business people and justify those expenses, hosting some content for free on other sites probably makes a ton of sense.

I do, however, think that there should be a section on the homepage that has updated links to their more personal streams, for just the reasons that the OP brings up.

CBS and Jeff probably have certain standards for content and production. Putting a bunch of bedroom streams on the front page likely wouldn't be living up to those standards.

Giant Bomb has some standards of quality for content on the site. That's why you don't see articles about every press release they get, unlike other sites.

@the_tolman you're missing Rorie's.

Then why does everything @patrickklepek do have a scare-cam in the corner, reaction faces are all over other sites.

@erhard: Remember when people here paid to watch Jeff talk from his bedroom?

I have no problem with him putting it on his twitch account, what he does in his free time is his business.