Underwhelming content for premium users?

@DrSnaqrite said:

@Simplexity: They put up two premium videos end of last month, immediately after which was E3. How ridiculous of them to take a week off of doing premium content (while still doing a TNT and four quick looks, along with news stories and the usual podcast) after they spent an extremely busy week at E3!

Personally I don't even subscribe for premium content, I subscribe because I like the way these guys run a website and I want to support them. Same reason I buy albums from cool local bands or regularly tip people at the coffee shop in my work: I want to be generous and support people who do good work. But, ultimately, if you don't feel you're getting enough content, then just unsubscribe and don't give them any money.

As I said I used to subscribe purely for the donation aspect of it, the content was just an added awesome bonus.

However since they are now under CBS I fail to see what my 5 dollars a month will add, it's not like they are strapped for cash at this point.

I don't understand why people would donate now...they are owned by CBS and they CBS pays them well. It's like people donating money to Blizzard or Apple, it's retarded.

You pay for services now...not donate.

Lucky for me all their services are free on Youtube and in HD. Sure the site might not do it, but their YouTube page does and I can freely download their vids from there in 1080p.

@Simplexity: Yes, because every penny CBS makes is going into the budget for Giantbomb. In all seriousness, unless I'm mistaken they specifically said that CBS bought them with the expectation that they would continue to generate similar amounts of revenue from their subscribers, meaning that most likely CBS gave them a budget with those dollars in mind. Now, you can make your own personal decision as to whether you want to contribute to them now that they are owned by CBS, but it's not like if you do subscribe that money is going to everyone at CBS, and it's also not like all of the money CBS makes is going into Giantbomb.

@Irvandus said:

It's GB still getting set up in their new offices, plus they also had the break for E3.

That's unacceptable. I expect the staff to work diligently without breaks.

But seriously, I agree with you.

I'm going to let my subscription lapse if they don't pick it up soon. Now that they aren't a scrappy upstart, I expect content for my money. Anyone who paid to subscribe has the right to complain, because they were sold a bill of goods that the guys haven't exactly delivered on.

I'll have to see what they do once they have everything they need to produce content like they used to, like the random PC stuff.  
   
If they don't pick up pace with that later on, I'll cancel because I'm basically giving money to CBS. 

Yeah I miss the random pc games... they really REALLY slowed down on premium content after the whole selling out to CBS thing...

I want to jump in for a second to say that i didn't intend to create a flame war. I was simply curious as to if anybody else was a bit bothered by the lack of content, especially those of us who pay for specific content. I have understood from the start that there were reasons for the current lack of content, but the lack of content has been happening for a long while; long before E3/the move.

$5 a month isn't a lot of cash for a working guy like me, so i am not even considering canceling my subscription to GB. I just wish that GB staff felt the need to give people something for their dollar, which is something i am not sure they care about so much anymore.

Also, i was clearly aware that GB have stated that we all should stop bothering them about endurance runs. That said, i still think that endurance runs would be a (GREAT) idea for subscriber content. If Ryan and Brad could play a short Marvel Ultimate Alliance endurance run and upload it for subscribers only, i would be psyched!

I dropped my subscription last week. After a week, I'm not missing anything, which says a lot! And that's not a bad thing to me. It means that the site is still SUPER AWESOME even if I'm not paying monthly. The straw that broke the camels back for me was the changing exchange rates. As a UK subscriber, the amount I pay has changed dramatically since they introduced the subscriptions. My enthusiasm for paying has dropped while the price I was paying had gone up. Felt like time to drop it and I feel ok about it.

As a way of supplementing the current lack of content in general I decided to subscribe for a month to check up on some premium content I haven't seen, but the current lack is still a real bummer. My problem with that isn't necessarily that it's taken so long (although, "they just moved!, Vinny just had a kid!, Ryan just got engaged!, etc" all stopped mattering two months ago) but rather that, as someone else in the thread mentioned, people who subscribe, and the non subscribers at large, are being sold a bill of goods that isn't there and hasn't been there for months. Stop promising grand things when you continuously can't deliver. It's gotten downright dishonest.

Can't make lists on mobile website, but here's a personal wishlist on content:

1) Hire Kessler and Lemon, bring back the Fear Gauntlet.
2) Endurance Run! A DP-style with both VJ and BR episodes. Patrick can maybe fit in somehow.
3) Whatever happened to the feature called Jeff's Hall of Fame?
4) More Vinny & Dave stuff.

I'm always happy to throw the little money I have on the GB crew, but hopefully I'll feel a little better about it when my sub runs out in September.

Come to think of it.... It's been a long time since the golden age of subscriber content. e.g start of second year for subscribers. Hopefully it picks up soon.

Of course I want more content, but I also understand how monumental that move must have been. Also, E3. I hope things pick up. :)

@i8246i said:

You're all assholes, and the community would be better off without you.

Yeah, how dare anyone express mild disappointment over a perceived bad value proposition. We understand what's been going on and why there is a lack of content, but that doesn't preclude anyone from saying, "You know, the monthly fee hasn't really been worth it lately." Those two facts are not mutually exclusive.

Just for the record; since the move, we've gotten 13 subscriber only features (not counting the TNT archives). That's about one per week since they moved. That's also about on par for what they did pre-move. For not really having the equipment, space, or time for more, that's pretty good.

Would I have liked there to be more premium content? Sure, but I can also see that they've had to deal with some behind the scenes issues that would prevent that (planning for and going to E3 and back, dealing with resource allocation, Dave rebuilding the site, etc.). Besides, I still see those videos as a bonus "thank you" from them; not as something they're required to do because I gave them money.

@Simplexity said:

This used to be my reason as well, donate because I liked their stuff, but now that they are picked up by CBS it's not like they are barely scraping by anymore.

I am sure as shit not going to "donate" money to CBS of all companies.

However since they are now under CBS I fail to see what my 5 dollars a month will add, it's not like they are strapped for cash at this point.

@KaosAngel said:

I don't understand why people would donate now...they are owned by CBS and they CBS pays them well.

That is where you're wrong. I forget exactly where Jeff said it (I think it was the first radio show after the move), but he basically said they still need to prove to "the suits", if you will, that Giant Bomb can make money. One way to do that is through subscriptions. This money does not go to CBS; it goes straight to Giant Bomb (and Comic Vine by association). If they were so well funded, it wouldn't have taken until the week before E3 for them to get a tricaster. I'm still not sure if they even have a gaming PC of their own yet either. And in case you missed it, they just debuted their own studio this last Thursday.

@Bourbon_Warrior said:

A donation so they can play video games for a living? Well aren't you kind, I actually expect content from my "donation"/

Technically, yes, but that's not all it's for (see above). And you do get bonus content, it's just been a little lacking because of all the reasons already posted in this thread. Now that they've finally got their own studio and equipment (i.e. not borrowed from Gamespot) the other content should start rolling out soon. Also, as posted earlier in the thread, here is the unsubscribe link.

It's been slow yeah but I really like what they did with TnT this week. The new space looks great and I'm so glad they didn't use the green room again. That being said I have faith that the next few weeks will be a real turnaround here content-wise... least I hope so.

That being said how about an "all-day" Sega party? Like the SNES party but with Sega Master System and Sega Genesis games? A man can dream I guess.

@Twinsun said:

Yeah, it has been slow, but I guess they still might not have all the equipment for stuff like random pc game. Hoping for a glorious return soon.

Been slow? They've been like this for about a year now. A premium subscription isn't worth the price right now. I only got one because I love the podcast/radio show stuff... and Drew's North Korea trip. Let's be honest: Giant Bomb isn't big enough/not enough editors to really justify premium content. The only reason they came into play was the additional cash flow when they were with Whiskey.

Who needs premium content when there's secret content

I'm just confused how you can giant bomb is worth your money but you're disappointed in the same sentence

I know there hasn't been content in a while, but let me remind you guys - JARRRR TIIME!

Jeff just went over this kind of on his livestream. Now that e3 is done they are finally going to be able to get back into the swing of things completely as they can finally start to actually settle in to their new home. This combined with having a definite area where they can shoot stuff (their studio-like area) should help things out a bit. Dave is super busy right now with the new site and the reason why he was on so much content prior to the move was because there wasn't very much he could actually work on site-wise because everything was in flux in terms of what was going to happen to everyone/everything.  They're going to be looking at the various premium content pieces and seeing what they are going to be bringing back and what they are going to be retiring (He brought up things like Flight Club, Random PC Game and the like). 
 
Also, there should be a Jar Time this week, he has assembled a bunch of questions, some from before E3 and some from after so look out for that.

Since the stream has been brought up in this thread I'm just going to say: People who missed that stream missed some of the funniest content ever associated with GiantBomb.

Sega helped improve my relationship!

I do what I always do. I renew my monthly sub if there is a large chunk of premium content and don't if there is a drought.

That being said, I feel like there has been a drought for a while. Certainly no accidental endurance runs of Phantasmagoria. I'm not going to act like an entitled brat, but I feel like there was a good period of time last year when having a sub was very much worth it. I cannot say the same for the last 3 months.

I have not really felt a need to re-sub yet.

if you think it's worth your money then keep paying, otherwise unsub. "i don't mean to bitch" then you turn around and bitch. They haven't had recording equipment, studio space, or hardware. They've been doing ILMs on iPhones. You're a monthly sub anyways so they don't account for you as a projected sale (which is why monthly subscribers pay more on the year), so you can just resub later anyways.

And I'm going to throw this out to anyone who's bitching about the lack of content. The GB crew made this move because they considered this to be the best way for them to continue creating awesome content in the long-term, but that means they've been neutered on their ability to produce content for the short-term. If you don't trust them to bring out awesome content that's worth your money, PM Dave Snider. They're cool guys and I'm guessing they'll be willing to give you at least a partial, if not full, refund.

X

That is all.

There hasn't been a lot of content, but I don't really care. GiantBomb is not my only source of entertainment, a few videos a week and a podcast is really all I need. But I can see where a subscriber would be a little disappointed in the amount of premium content, and I don't think the excuses people in this thread are all that valid.

They moved offices, and need to get things set up. Yeah alright, but they have the ability to make quick looks right? So that means they have the ability to do things like Breaking Brad, or you know come up with something new? Its really not hard to appease the fans of this site.

I think part of it is that people really don't understand what their jobs entail. I don't really know what they do all day. They must be busy, they always bitch about being tired on the podcast. People just see a few news stories a day, and maybe a 30 min video a day on average...its not unreasonable to wonder why a group of guys can't produce more in a 40 hour work week. But hey, only they really know how their time is spent.

@Foxtrot0245: Uh...It's not a democracy here. They don't have to appeal to whatever you want. They hired Patrick. He's smart and knows what he's talking about. And he's a great writer. They don't need your input to add him into the Bombcast.

Hopefully things pick up. I still feel that my membership is still worth it because I just love all the content the guys produce and want to support them. But if things don't pick up in a few weeks I'm gonna be real disappointed. Maybe a random live show or something this week? They have their "new" live area set up. I just want something...anything to watch. I hope this drought right now is just because of E3 and the new office.

@Barrock said:

I just miss Vinny. :(

All the time, every time. What's a duder gotta do to get some more Vinny quick looks/random pc game?

@Foxtrot0245 said:

@RVonE Not being able to speak your mind without having it labelled a "thing" is still a thing, I see. It's just an opinion, man. You've honestly never had something you thoroughly enjoy messed with in a way that you dislike? PS- I do not like Patrick at all, but I really think my main issue and why I canceled is because they just happened to wait until after the September renewal date (can't remember it off the head) to formally add Patrick to the 'cast. I cannot have been the only one that would have unchecked the auto-renew feature if I had known he was going to be permanent. He was on and off before that day, but he has not missed a single Bombcast since. A vote (since we are subscribers and not free members) would have gone a long way to assuage arguments like mine, but they just added him.

Whatever.

I really don't understand what it is that Patrick is doing that upsets so many people.

I would say there has been an underwhelming amount of good content in general lately, not just for premium users. More and more when I come here I do a quick scan of the front page and not really see anything there or just skip the main page entirely and check out the forums.

I also hope things will pick up again in the next months. I'm craving for more fun video features like classic game marathons where the guys dig through their collections, flight club etc.

Is there anywhere we can see this live stream?

@RVonE: It's nothing he does, just personal taste - it's just like that guy at work that doesn't do anything in particular but he annoys you. If not work then a friend, relative, etc. If you want an example for me it's that he talks at a rate where he's almost fumbling over his own words and usually recants something that someone else has pointed out in a much more roundabout overly-complicated manner.

@Barrock said:

I just miss Vinny. :(

Yeah, what the fuck is with the lack of Vinny? We've seen him something like once in the last month, which was during the last hour of Day 3 Bombcast. He was so energetic that I cannot believe they would keep him out of that stuff.

@ShaggE said:

@pandorasbox said:

@ShaggE said:

It'll pick up. As for now, dip into those archives. Surely there's some stuff that you've missed/passed over.

No, there's not. I've literally been with GB since day one, and i haven't missed a single video. It's my muse.

Sweet baby hammerpants, that's a lot o' content. My hat goes off to you, sir.

Even the tennis quick looks?

To be honest I can see why the CBS gig and the move was a good thing for the crew. I cannot see how it was a good thing for the audience yet, though.

@SmilingPig said:

Its realy funny but in the GB store there is this description for the "Tip Jar":

"You know what's expensive? A penguin suit. You know what's even more expensive? HD cameras. While we enjoy the penguin suit for the sheer ridiculousness it fuels, we actually need the cameras. Now, a ton of you already keep our lights on by buying from our store and becoming paid members. We appreciate it more than you know.

Yet even on top of all this existing goodwill to us from our users, there have been several shouts from the community to create a Whiskey Media tip jar, of sorts. So here you have it! If you give or not, we appreciate ya. If nothing else, the money will help us hold off the enemy at our gates one more day."

The link for the enemy at our gatesis Gamespot LOL, gess the tip jar failled.

Previously, rivalvideogamewebsite was a picture of the giant bomb men with mustaches.

This is why I only subscribe on a monthly basis.

(EDIT: Stupid iPhone sent the thing before I was done)

@5socks5: Never said it was a democracy. I did mention a "vote," but I also said that they could have just told us of their intention instead of waiting until us yearly subscribers had just paid for the next year. You are literally arguing about something I didn't say and not one of the points I made, so I'm unclear as to why you responded.

@RVonE: A concise and well planned argument... The main thing for me is not him, it's the fact that the Bombcast was so good with the original crew. It's definitely better than having no Bombcast at all, but I just feel like it is so much more boring and just like the other video game podcasts that made me so excited to find Giant Bomb to begin with. No one is going to say that Vanilla Coke is terrible, but if Coca-Cola completely stopped making Classic to focus on Vanilla, then people would freak. Bad analogy, I know, but that's how I feel about all this.

Also, it's going to be okay, man. You are way too defensive about a guy you don't even really know. Your post makes it seem like I committed a hate crime or something. I didn't insult his heritage or anything, I just said the Bombcast was much better without him, that's all. If none of this is sinking in, just try to imagine for a moment that someone got as defensive and uppity about something as trivial as you not disliking Patrick. That would be pretty weird and overbearing, right?

@Example1013 said:

The GB crew made this move because they considered this to be the best way for them to continue creating awesome content in the long-term.

I'll have to disagree with this. I would assume the main reason they moved was so they have a steady income. I am not saying that in a negative way because any responsible adult would do the same.

@laserbolts said:

@Example1013 said:

The GB crew made this move because they considered this to be the best way for them to continue creating awesome content in the long-term.

I'll have to disagree with this. I would assume the main reason they moved was so they have a steady income. I am not saying that in a negative way because any responsible adult would do the same.

To me it seemed that benefactor Shelby Bonnie planned all along to sell WM at some point. It's his business model and the GB crew probably only had some partial say in choosing their buyer but not whether the buyout would happen or not.

I don't think new offices and E3 is a good enough excuse for the general lack of new content on the site. Tested has half the writers and no offices and went to E3 and they are pumping out content faster than giant bomb is. Maybe that'll slow down some as they get an office in the next couple weeks because we all know offices are bad for productivity.

I'm just waiting for the Load my Last Save of Ninja Gaiden.