What do you want Giant Bomb to be?

Full disclosure, while I don't love Albummer I have liked the rest of their new stuff a lot. I'm just now genuinely curious what people want that is sustainable here in 2021. And I feel like while there had been some good criticism, it has been weighed down also by people that create a username just to say the site is dead.

So, I thought it best that we have a place where you can freely not speculate but just say what it is that you want from GB. And please, be specific. Yes we all know many of you want video games but what do you from that in 2021? Be specific.

The sort of Giant Bomb I woudl enjoy, not what it has to be just the mix of things I'd like is below

I'd like a wide net of "pop culture" site, what I mean by that - games, movies, tv shows, music, anime. So, discussion about video games, but will talk about F1 Racing too. What is happening on WWE wrestling shows, but with room for discussion Japanese wrestling or LGBT+ wrestlers too. Talk about the Best of the Worst 80s music while rating their ugly Christmas sweaters.

So to make this simple: I'd like a Giant Bomb that was 50% about games video/board; and the other 50% being anything else they want. Any given episodes of the Bombcast woudl be as long was 10% about gaming and 90% everything else to 98% gaming and a short discussion ABOUT if Elon Musk is an elf?

If GB were to really tickle my pickle they would bring back a bimonthly "food" segment. I loved the Tested guys talking about coffee when at Whisky Media, or Jan & Ben's cooking.

A website about video games

Unedited gameplay. Some endurance runs and other full playthrough formats. SMS/BMB-style metagaming shows.

This but unironically

@eccentrix: I personally miss this the most. I love the encyclopedia Bombastica stuff especially. I appreciate them branching out but I would love more just unedited gameplay stuff (although Borne to Run being edited is awesome and super worth it IMO)

You can't go home again. If the pandemic doesn't happen, they carry on their merry way under the CBSi banner. The new consoles would be relatively easy to find and games would be coming out for them in a frequency that lent itself to more coverage.

This is the Giantbomb you're getting. The one you want isn't yours to make and the staff can't force it.

@shindig: It's too bad they already played through every game in existence so they have to wait for new ones to come out to play any more.

In all honesty I don't think I have much of an answer that also fits being particularly sustainable. I think that with the troubles brought on by COVID and then everyone slowly leaving Giant Bomb as it was known ran aground and there's really nothing that's going to fix that without a complete overhaul.

What I would want to see attempted by that overhaul is the same sort of thing that built Giant Bomb In the first place. Innovation, weird shit, something that you look at it and say Oh thats GB nobody else is on that nonsense.

Is this particularly viable right now in 2021? Nah I doubt it. What they're doing is a better business decision, but to me it's the same style of content I can find randomly opening up my podcast app Discover tab.

Focus on games, more scripted content, more reviews.

For the stuff that is on here recently, I'd like more descriptive titles and descriptions under them.

The reality of the current circumstances means that some of my favorite things about Giant Bomb are not possible at this time. It's likely because it's been so long, but I really miss what they were capable of making in a studio. Segments like Jan Can Cook and Dave's Top 10, utter nonsense like Steal My Sunshine, and having guests visit during Extra Life are some of my fondest memories. Series like Game Tapes and Ranking of Fighters could be done remotely, but lose a lot without them being together.

If we ever get out of this pandemic nightmare, I really hope there is some way they can do things on-site again. My dream would be for them to get to a point where they could put on something like a Big Live Live Show. I know that's probably not going to happen, but that's what I want.

Whatever they want it to be. I trust all the j's and Co to fund and curate decent content as well as produce their own. I enjoy most of the new stuff and everything else is still good. I have the back catalogue and the fantastic GB Infinite which is worth 5 bucks a month on their own, so evrything else is a bonus. They know what they are doing and I'll come along for the ride. If it doesn't work out its all good, I don't define myself by the success or failure of others, or get too worked up about things I don't like.

I am thoroughly enjoying GB right now as it is, but if they no longer cater to some folks anymore, then sorry but that's just the way it goes. It is literally impossible to cater to everyone's tastes and keep this website alive in an ongoing/post pandemic world.

This is going to sound like a cop out, but I just want something that the staff enjoys doing. All of these new shows have felt great to me because it feels like the staff is having fun doing them.

I am also in the minority on the site, but I think Let's Plays/Endurance Runs are kind of played out. You can pretty much search any game on twitch/youtube and find a full playthrough.

Tell me the last time you had the motivation to play old games regularly enough to provide content for a website. At the start of the pandemic, we saw some of it. There was a sense that, "Hey, this temporary situation's opened up. Let's play Kingdom Hearts, Bloodorne, Rogue, etc."

You can't keep that up. Not for a whole 18 months and counting. Have you kept it up or have you just taken weeks where you've thought, "You know? Fuck videogames."

I am a-ok with the content coming out now; it's varied and plentiful. However, GB – like all of us – has always had a lot of room for improvement (in pretty much every era, if we're honest with ourselves).

• Transparency and visibility. Jeff has a ton going on and I know there is a lot of serious and tough shit he is dealing with right now. However, a lot of people's disappointment and anger could have been tempered if there was the impression of a familiar guiding hand at the helm who would be visible and talk to us about what's happening. Jeff getting on camera once a week or every second week a'la Jar Time (meaning: in a simple, casual, conversational way) just to give people a calming update would have gone such a long way. GB seemed to think only coming on screen to make announcements of shows would be enough. It wasn't, and isn't. The reactions from the community reflect that.
• Staff up. This is job 1, and they need to not take 2 years to do it. It's always taken a loooong time to do their hiring. On one hand, this is understandable due to the corporate structure and the fact that every member of the crew plays such an integral part. On the other hand, they lost most of their on-screen folks and along with it a lot of their momentum and need to hop to it. The production side of things will hopefully improve now that Jason is settled in Atlanta and is feeling better after surgery (get well soon!) but they also need to pay attention to this aspect of their team.
• New video game content concepts. I hope to see some of the high-concept ideas we're seeing in their content applied to video games. Let's be fair, though: I cannot imagine how tough it is to come up with ideas in that space - there are millions of people trying to make video game content right now and the well seems to be pretty dry in terms of new ideas no matter who you are. Honestly, the Beast coast crew always excelled in this sort of creative thinking versus the SF crew.
• More communal/group video game content. It doesn't need to all be high-concept. I would love to see GB have more that just the UPF segments to be together playing one or more games and shooting the shit. This is what people are probably calling for when they call out "where are the quick looks" and that content has always driven the tone & personality of the site. A return to form in the way of simple videogamin' wouldn't be so bad. You can always go back to the well of the vast history of games and play something from the past if the current release schedule of new games is looking meagre. However let's also not forget the release schedule at any given time has tons of under-the-radar stuff that's provided some of the best content-fodder this site has had on offer.

Some people's complaints have border on being, imo, unreasonable and are actually not saying it out loud that they actually just wish Covid never happened and that everything was the same as it was in 2019. A lot of folks need to admit to themselves that we've all been weathering a collective trauma and work on their grief, and not just take it out on all the things around them that they've seen irrevocably changed by the pandemic.

1. Bring it back to games. I don’t need everything to be 100% game-centric, but games need to at least be a through line. Too many of the new shows are “general pop-culture,” which is the exact opposite of what I want.

2. Interaction between the staff. The best Giant Bomb moments come from multiple staff interacting with each other. And before some clever poster decides to reply- yes, I fucking know there’s a pandemic, but they could still figure something out that’s better than the solo streams.

3. Going along with above, actual staff staff, not just contractors. As nice as everyone seems, I don’t really know any of them from Adam, and I probably won’t get a chance to with a seasonal show model. I get that this would probably take time, but I think it’s worth it. And while they’re at it, they shouldn’t be afraid to branch out a bit with their hires. I find it a little concerning that the first people they turned to for new content were almost all already in quasi-GB orbit. Even Tamoor and Lucy were with GameSpot.

4. Less focus on premium. I know they need to run a business, but the free part of the site could use some love. Quick Looks have basically disappeared, and all the new shows are premium. There isn’t a lot to draw new people in. I’d also say I find the current “release part of a episode for free on YouTube to get people to subscribe” kind of skeezy. In know that’s how a lot of sites work, but it feels like a distinct departure from how things have worked in the past. It really screams “owned by venture capital,” which is off putting.

Mostly just a place that doesn't suck. I don't think what I want from content personally should dictate the direction of this site. That's the people running the site's job to figure out. If it ever strays too far away from what I like, I'll just find something else, and let people who do enjoy it keep on enjoying it. All I ask is for the crew not to be a bunch of shitty racists or some other awful thing.

Honestly, I'd like to see them take a page from Dan and just get weird with it. I've been a fan of this site from the beginning because it felt like a place where people who were genuinely excited about games presented them in a way that was fun, silly and different from what their contemporaries were doing at the time. I realize that the current circumstances have hampered the ability to make what we all loved in the way that it was previously presented. The lack of a studio and face to face interaction have a limiting effect, and I'm accepting of that, but it left an empty space that has yet to be filled, as well as many of the audience facing staff leaving has dampened a lot of the enthusiasm I had to regularly check in with what is happening in this space.

Dan has shown that you can still present something that feels new and exciting within this new paradigm and hopefully the GB crew can find a way to tap into that creative vein. As of now, these new shows just feel like Zoom meetings where they discuss things I'm just not that into.

I know you all hate complaining, but I just have to get it off my chest: I think Albummer sucks. It's a group of severely unfunny people laughing at their own jokes and just shitting on things that other people made. They don't even come into the video with extensive knowledge of what they are discussing. It seems that they just listen to an album before they record and shit all over it and the people who made it. I really hope this isn't the direction that the GB content goes. I'd rather have people get excited over something they love and tell people why they should love it as well, than how cool they are because they never liked Weezer.

In the end I have a lot of respect for the core crew of this site and have faith that they can navigate this new space and make something really cool. It takes time and I respect that they are trying new things, even if they may not speak to me and my interests.

Hey ya'll, stay on topic. The OP specifically asked for what you'd like to see in 2021 out of GB, not your opinions of everything so far.

We have comment sections and other forums for your thoughts/opinions.

And also keep in mind something Vinny mentioned in one of his final podcast appearances: these are real people working on these things. Practice some empathy.

I want what it was.

"A website about videogames."

And I'm getting that. At Nextlander.

I would probably like an amalgamation of new and old. I'm not entirely opposed to shows that aren't specifically game related - the Film and 40's series was great - but I do want a core of game related content to be the heart of the site. The problem is that Film and 40's worked not because of the idea of doing a commentary track for a movie, because people have been doing that for ages, but because of the people doing the commentary. At this point about 80% of staff that made up core GB left; the very people that for most users I imagine were the primary draw of this website. It's just going to take a lot of time to a) hire new staff and b) build up a familiarity and rapport to be able to sustain shows like Film and 40's. That is a hurdle you can't overcome quickly or easily. When you move cities you can go do the same activities with your new friends that you did with your old friends it's not going to be the same for a while.

Aside from that, I would like Quick Looks to return. It would be nice if Jeff could get someone to co-stream some of these newer games with. Jeff by himself is great but I think everyone prefers two people bouncing ideas and questions off each other during those videos. Grubbs show is a good start but it also could use another person and maybe some productions work to organize it. I like the idea of going through the news and then answering questions but it feels a little chaotic at this point. When Jeff did this show on Twitch he would actually bring up a document with topics on it which was helpful. They need another game centric show to round out Danny's Encyclopedia Bombastica and that Souls Endurance Run thing but realistically I don't see how they can even do it until they hire more people.

At the heart of the issue is that they need more full-time editorial staff. Once Jeff goes on paternity leave again the Bombcast is going to be all "support" staff so to speak. I don't mean that in some derogatory way, but rather that none of them are actually in positions that are meant to cover games and they all have other stuff on their plate.

@bicycleham: I think it's more that the request was Be Specific Don't Just Say Video Games and you were like the first one out the gate to do that.

You think that warrants OP to personally attack to separate users?

If you turned this question into a poll with "Quick Looks" as one of the options, I'm pretty confident it would win in a landslide.

Seriously, for the last decade+ this site has been primarily where I go to learn about new games. And I'm mostly not getting that anymore. Of course I'm aware resources are stretched right now for a variety of reasons, but ultimately I'd like to see a greater emphasis on the basics of games coverage.

Hire some people. There's no reason what I consider to be Giant Bomb's core mission can't coexist with the other stuff they're trying now.

Free.

I want Giant Bomb to be free of charge.

News about New Games seems like kinda the thing that stagnated over time but I kinda blame that on modern games getting samey as time went on. Giantbomb kinda grew up in the era where every game was either a modern military first person shooter or a cover based third person shooter and now it's an era where every big game is either and open world game, roguelike, or Battle Royale. There's a load of indie stuff that kind of falls into those categories but I think there's sometimes a rare egg popping up every now and then. Abby was kind of the indie darling that would talk about some of the smaller stuff coming out so I think the current crew is kind of missing that. I think just having them talk about games in general, which is kind of what Danny O'Dwyer's Guilty Treasure show is, is a good starting point.

Video games may have brought me to the dance, but the reason that I've stuck around is that I enjoy "hanging out" with the people here and listening to them talk about whatever is on their minds. Honestly, if they just hosted a shit load of podcasts about different topics, I'd be down with that because I'm kind of over the long-form videos of "person playing video game." I love that Nextlander is off doing their thing but I only consume their podcast because I've sort of lost interest in watching a stream of a game for 3 hours. I'll put it on but it is primarily background noise while I do other things and I am paying zero attention to what is on the screen, so it may as well be a podcast.

I guess that what I want from Giant Bomb is for them to hire (or contract ala Danny) more cool people who will mesh well with the existing staff so that they can have fun and/or interesting conversations. It can be about wresting, anime, movies, music, video games, etc. S'all good with me. And the new shows are close enough to that, save for Bourne to Run which is at least trying to tell some sort of a bizarre story (I think) and VoidBurger's thing which was a very digestible 20 minutes or so.

I think I've streamed 100 hours on Twitch in the last 30 days, 50+ of them being Final Fantasy X. Today I played through Maize, from 2016. I only started streaming regularly in the past couple of months, so could I keep up the pace? I don't know. I'm not getting paid at all for it, so that would definitely increase the odds. Plus there's only one of me.

My streams are qualitatively less than I'd want from Giant Bomb, but not by that much. I just wanna watch people play games, it doesn't matter to me when they came out.

Giantbomb is no longer and will never again be what I signed up for and stayed for. And there's nothing particularly wrong with that, but most of the personalities that I wanted to see more of have spread out to other places.

I do still have premium, which is one of those things I keep meaning to cancel but haven't yet.

Giantbomb was my source for keeping up on what videogames were coming out and what they were like. As they become less and less that I started visiting less and less. In the glory days this was by far the best site out there for keeping up on games through the frequent quick looks, weekly podcast and yearly E3 coverage, helmed by a group of sensible people that didn't sell out for pre-views or exclusive coverage or whatever.

i want what i've always came here to the site for , a critical honest look at video games by personalities i enjoy , mainly shown via unedited gameplay of said game. apart from that weird or normal gameplay shows ( think steal my sunshine , metal gear scanlon , blue bombing and such). game news i never came here for since i follow game informer for that but its always a nice bonus on the podcast but i don't need it twice. weird side interest stuff when it relates to the stafff's interest isn't bad but something i usually ignore. all that is what i came/stayed here for if that dries up within the next year i wont have what i came here for.

edit: when i mention gameplay i'd like to clarify that i don't mean streamed. nothing against streams those are great too but streaming something vs intentionally recording stuff ahead of time have a totally different vibe regardless of the amount of ppl on it , the more the better but when not possible a sweet spot is a min of 2 imo because ideas/questions and banter

@justin258: It's weirdly similar to WOW At this point for me (without all of the extenuating awfulness). I have only started watching more recently because of all of the changes. Prior to that I'd be like "Oh, my GB sub renewed".

Really want to say I appreciate a lot of the contributions here! You're all good duders!

I know it isn't really feasible right now but I would like for them to get back to a studio or some in-person setup. This remote streaming thing isn't working for me and they aren't differentiating themselves enough from the thousands of other game streamers out there.

Put the focus back on games. I'm okay with some completely unrelated content, but I don't want Giant Bomb to turn into a generic nerd culture site like IGN.

Hire some people please! Last hire was Jan, and that was in 2018. I don't know... buyout NoClip and hire Danny full-time. The dude is killing it with his video contributions in Borne to Run and Guilty Treasures. Maybe he can somehow transition his No-Clip content to GiantBomb.

I let my subscription expire and boy did I not realize the dearth of non-premium content on the site. This isn't really a con, I'll completely respect GiantBomb's decision if they decide to go full-premium one day.

Well some of what I'd like Giant Bomb to be are sort of happening. I'm hopeful but also skeptical.

I'd like to see this site have more diverse voices and backgrounds in its personalities and that does seem like it's happening to some degree with the latest crop of contractors. I hope to see even more hires from different genders and ethnicities to get the site more representative of society (at least American society) as a whole. Hopefully some of these contractors can be brought on fulltime as inhouse editors if they pan out (#teamVoidburger). Seems like it's a system that could be a great way to expand GB's rolodex to more diverse folks and opinions.

The things I'd like Giant Bomb to provide in terms of content really haven't been on the table since 2012 frankly haha. Oh well

I'm one of those old timers who mainly came here for the wiki, the community, achievement tracking etc. I think that stuff is too far gone now to revive. That all more less was doomed since CBSi bought them and they never got the engineering focus needed to keep it relevant.

I get it, no hard feelings. I really appreciate Jeff going to bat for all that stuff as hard as he has for so many years. I know how much he loves the wiki etc. I had a great time for a lot of years here when I badly needed an online place to go. Part of me honestly believed there was always a sliver of a chance it could come back, but given what's happened this year I think it's time for me to face the facts.

Eventually I got into the game coverage and game personality stuff that GB did and that I do think should be revived as soon as possible. Nobody does Quick looks and infotainment game coverage like GB does. It'd be a real shame if that goes away. At least for me this place won't be a daily or probably even monthly visit until that returns.

I came for the social features, stayed for the game coverage and haven't been coming around because I gotta go elsewhere to get those. Only so many hours in the day. Still love the place tho. I'll be back on a regular basis if the new game coverage comes back.

I think the current contractor content strategy for premium is really smart given their current staffing issues, tho I'm skeptical the 1st episode free strategy will work in converting a lot of new subs. Hope it does tho. The content I care about has a better chance at coming back if the premium strategy works I suspect.

This is a really really great post. Whole thing really. Thoughtful constructive and fair advice . I agree with almost all of it, but I especially appreciate that you never get personal or angry. Hopefully the staff listen to you and are able to act on what you suggested.

especially point #1 about communication. Giant Bomb is frankly just terrible at this and as far as I can tell the worst in game personality business. Back in 2008-12ish they more or less got away with it because they were basically the only game in town. But it's not 2012 anymore.

The patreon age has really made this crystal clear to me just how poorly this is done here as I've gotten to experience how other game outfits talk to their subscribers. And frankly every single one I've interacted with does it better (I've tried maybe half a dozen or more? MinnMax, What's Good Games, Kinda Funny, Nextlander etc etc etc) . It's not hard to fix either

it utterly baffles me, GB makes so many other decisions that frankly are really forward looking but they constantly shoot themselves in the foot by just not doing PR 101 norms in relaying basic information. A place that once was cutting edge increasingly acts like a relic, at least in this respect.

Case in point- The whole "we'll be back in a month" thing looks increasingly bad in retrospect. The unstated implication was clear that content would resume in June-ish. That clearly has not happened at all for free users and it's taken more like 2-3 months for premium users to get a roster of shows. They should have been far more explicit with what they'd actually be back with when they paused subscriptions and framed it that way to fans. And updated that framing when they figured out it'd take longer.

to fix this going forward all they got do is two things

1. Be transparent like you said. They don't gotta get super specific but when you end shows or content you need to tell your audience. And if you don't know when they might come back, you need to say that. People will understand as long as you communicate regularly.
2. When you have programming scheduling changes you need to share the same basic information in every communication channel you have, especially especially on the website where you actually service your customers. Not random tweet here, tumblr post there, discord ama there, timestamp in the bombcast here, gamespot interview there. You need to hit all of them, everytime. Start with an article on your website, cross post it in your own forums, link to those with your socials, discuss and further elaborate on the bombcast,newsletter and elsewhere as needed.
3. BONUS- As a best practice, especially with all these contractors and new faces, they should do what Bakalar has done with a few of these like Albummer, where they new folks are introduced to the base by a core personality. Better yet, have them guest for an epoisode on the Bombcast and promote their new premium shows. The Giant Bomb fandom is great but it can be hostile to newcomer personalities. Dating back to Patrick this has continually been a problem

Unfortunately their communication practices are really hurting them a lot now when they need the trust and understanding of their subscriber base the most. I feel terrible that the reaction to the new shows has been so divisive, but to me it's 100% understandable because unless you pay close attention to every social channel, chances are a lot of this is coming as a shock to some of you at some point.

People are pissed, feel ripped off and I totally get it. And then people who are happy with the new stuff are pissed because they are annoyed that people are complaining. I also get that. I also 100% can see GB is doing the best they can to fill the content void but they aren't doing a good job of explaining this. And because they don't explain it well, people speculate because they care and they are trying to figure out for themselves what's happening to a place they love. And since the forum doesn't allow speculations because it leads toxic behavior (which I also understand) that causes even further negative community reactions.

Then mods are left to deal with the mess over battles that never have to be fought in the first place.

It's just sad and needless, because so much of this negative reaction is 100% preventable with maybe a few hours worth of work a month.

Giant Bomb absolutely has to fix this if they want this reformat to be successful without turning over a large % of their subscriber base. It's the solution to a large amount of their current problems.

Hmm... you know, the crew splitting up in such many different directions really made me realize what it is that mainly brings me to the site, and originally made me a fan.

The site of course started due to the crew wanting to be authentic in their coverage and not bow down to a corporation, but it's easy to forget that they were making a lot of fascinating and interesting content no one else was really doing at the time. They had the same mischievous energy as early Games Radar (the first gaming site I frequented), and that can be hard to sustain.

My trust in the authenticity of the crew has never once wavered. There are very few workplaces where you have former employees regularly contributing their time for free, and they really do all seem to be great friends. However, the pandemic has really changed the dynamic of the crew, and not being in a studio means that it's much harder for them to maintain the same energy and rapport they had in person.

What I miss the most is enthusiasm and creativity. I think they are addressing that through the new shows (I definitely prefer the current situation over the period post Abby), but it also seems a bit... artificial. Dan and Jeff starting a Dragon Ball Z podcast, Abby and Ben doing "my first E3" and Abby trying (and succeeding!) to play Fortnite with St. Vincent seemed like an idea suddenly popped into someone's head, they asked Jeff/Vinny, and the answer they got was "sure, why not?". Except for Jan's Power Ranger show, all the recent shows feel very much like they were thinking about audience metrics, who they could get and what's popular now, so it feels a bit... weird.

To be clear, I know they are struggling, and I'm not suggesting that they should just "be more creative", but it seems like they are overworked to the max and have trouble keeping everything together, which means that they don't have the time or motivation to commit to random ideas which might pop up. I really do feel like they desperately need 2-3 full time staff members to make the site more dynamic, prevent burnout of the existing team and simply bounce ideas off. All of the staff they have signed has been amazing, and brought some zest and energy to the site when needed and losing half your staff in about a year without replacing them is simply unsustainable.

Watching the farewell video with Vinny, Alex and Brad really made me realize how much the site has changed, what changes are of the good and what could be done better. Things like the 24 video review (I know it's GameSpot, but still) and the GOTY sketches feel like they have been missing. Giantbomb has had enormously creative people with a lot of drive, and I feel like the site should be an outlet for the creativity of its members. That is what Giant Bomb means to me, and I feel like that creativity had been lacking for several months, and a lot of the crew felt tired, so I was really hoping they would bring in more young people as replacements.

I listened to the first few NextLander episodes, and to be honest, it didn't do anything for me. Don't get me wrong, I really like all of the personalities, but it really made me realize that games and game news by themselves isn't interesting to me anymore. I had heard them talk for so long about the same subjects, and hold roughly the same opinions that a lot of the creativity that I come to Giantbomb for wasn't there for me. I wish them all the best, but just Being About Games clearly isn't enough for me (which is why I'm glad GiantBomb isn't turning into another Nextlander). By contrast, I really enjoy Fire Escape Podcast to the point that I look forward to it as much as All Systems Goku. I want ridiculous conversations, non-segways and friends having fun together, without them feeling like they are under a lot of stress to churn out content. Or maybe I just like sillyness and unpredictability.

Sorry for the long rant. In short, I think Giant Bomb is taking a half step in the right direction, but the way they go about it feels a bit lacking and they are desperately in need of hiring more staff. I like games, but as long as the site is entertaining I really don't care what the content is about. I would pay 14$ for a good meatball sub.

Honestly, more stuff like Guilty Treasures or Voidburger's Mario video essay would be great.

Ideally? A three-pronged beast that did old-school content like Quick Looks and the occasional ER, brought back the written guest features that allowed new voices to be heard (like @thatpinguino), and further exploration of this new format that brings in well-known Internet personalities to do their thing. That's not going to happen and that's fine. I like the new content well enough and what little I've caught of Nextlander is satisfying a lot of gaming cravings.

As I've always said, this site was built in large part based on community interaction, so whatever eventually comes, I hope that's remembered and maybe brought back to the forefront. I'm not even sure what I'd want that could be technically feasibly in that regard, but it's been more and more on my mind lately as I slowly transition from this site to talking to the GB community on Discord. Let's bring in the VoidBurgers, but also, I want to see my ZombiePies, Mentos, and ThatPinguinos get some love.

Quicklooks.

Multiplayer streams.

Old games, but with some discussion around them, not just Jeff in an empty room.

@slag:i agree with everything you said in that large bit of text written ( not saying it was a mess like my stuff is it was well formatted honestly) the transparency really has been a big issue, and i would love a more diverse set of staff too, i do think they've done ok in recent years but yeah they can do better overall and it would be nice to see definitely, even moreso inhouse vs contractor.

@nuttism: i also agree with most of this honestly , the site (understandably ) definitely feels like its been lacking in that creativity and energy you mentioned but yeah i definitely feel like its largely due to staffing so i hope that given time that will be fixed . even if we don't get a 'studio' type environment again i still think those vibes are doable remote , but it would definitely take alot of energy to do too.

@justin258: yep I keep on thinking of cancelling but at the same time I wanna give the guys time and see what they can come up with

One more reminder to not insult each other. Otherwise, this thread will just be locked.

@slag: This is a really great post. I will often defend the crew with the whole "just give them time" mentality, but it is starting to become a whole "well, for how long" thing. And yes, the world sucks right now and everything is harder than it should be (hell, I live in South Korea and my second vaccine is basically up in the air right now because they ran out of shots and decided giving more people the first shot was better than giving others their second -- a tangent and not really relevant just I know things suck and are crazy), but at some point it feels like just having someone do like a weekly, or even monthly, break down of why things happened the way they did, what is coming, what might be coming, etc....I think it would go a long way to quelling a lot of the more disapproving opinions here.

It's a bit reductive and maybe even a little crass but: people always wanna know where their money is going.

It is difficult to answer this.

I do want them to return to their Studio and work together since i want them to interact with each other. Also bring back the Couch setup instead of the "News Table" setup. It just feels uncomfortable.

And i know COVID = No studio? Get vaccinated like Mega 64 or other Podcasts on youtube that returned back to their studio.

Still with all the Departures, Giantbomb lost its identity. Jeff without the core guys (Vinny,Brad,Alex,Dan, even Ben) i find boring personally.

Especially Jeff/Brad was always interesting to listen since they had quite a lot of experience in the industry.

Also Shows like: Game Tapes, Demo derby, Old game Show (not Jeff solo) , VR, Ranking of Fighters and others i could mention are Dead.

The new Shows with these new personalities: i really do not give a crap about who they are. Also the premise is boring to me.

The legit only Show that is interesting is Guilty Treasures .

I want them to be focused on gaming and not on whatever else they are doing now.

I want them back in a Studio. I want them to revive those Shows i mentioned above. I want them to play Random PS2/Dreamcast, Pc-Engine etc Games and dedicate Streams to them ( like recommand us Steam Games)

Do not think to much on planning. Get everyone together a couple times and just Stream game related stuff.

However know i know why Vinny,Brad and Alex left. They knew what Red Ventures Giantbomb was becoming and they did not want to be a part of it.

I also can understand Jeff staying since he has a second child coming and wanted security.

It is all just very sad.