What would it take for you to (re)purchase a GB membership?

Reliable source of income. Really, that's it. I like this site and support what these guys are doing, even if often enough I don't have the time to actually watch. I'm letting my sub run out this year because money is getting tight and I'm starting to lop off the various services I don't need anymore.

I'm gonna resub as long as I got dat money but some more pen n paper games couldn't hurt. Also, more Drew and Alexis, you know what? Chuck in more Danny too.

An endurance run and a better video player.

Whenever I decide I'll need more than a month or two to watch anything I care about. Also when I stop deciding I would rather use the money to save for PS4 and games.

I finally subscribed back in January, and the thing that pushed me over the edge was Volgarr. Now I'm using it to go back and watch all the old UPFs. I'm up to June of last year. It's taking a while.

more turboman best of quicklook youtube videos

I've been subscribing since day 1 and that's not going to change in the foreseeable future. I'm excited to see how the hiring goes. I'd love more consistent daily features but I also have no problems watching archives - sometimes I even prefer it since they usually don't have technical issues (delays, lag, buffering etc).

Some of the most fun I've had playing videogames was having a bunch of friends over and take turns in trying to beat particularly difficult levels (think things like Super Monkey Ball or Trials), pass the controller to the next person after a few tries. I think the guys should do something like that for UPF.

(current UPF can be a bit boring sometimes, but in general I'm happy with the content and have no plans to cancel my subscription. I don't have time to watch everything, but never miss an episode of the bombcast, alt+f1 and whatever the wrestling podcast is called)

Also, new endurance run plz!

I just want to be clear that I ain't snitching. But if the dude is going to just jump on the sword like that... *shrug*

The only thing that would make me stop resubbing at this point would be if they hired Arthur Gies. Or Andrea Rene.

There is one condition on which I will continue to be a Premium Member of Giant Bomb:

It continues to exist.

I don't see me not being a subscriber anytime soon. My guess is a lot of the content issues people have will change with the new hires since they have made the point more than once that they don't have the staff to do much more than they do now. And I can understand people not liking how the content has changed over the years. Tastes change overtime and it's impossible to know what you will and will not like overtime.

You know, the reason there has but a "glut" of indie coverage lately is because that's whats been coming out, and coming out at a high quality too. It's not like the guys didn't cover the big games. Asking for less indie coverage is just asking for less coverage. That's a really petty thing to be upset about. Eh, but what am I expecting? People not to immediately label anything that isn't immediately mainstream as "hipster" as a way to insult people with opposing tastes to yours?

Sorry, I ranted for a second there. I'm just so tired of seeing "there's too much indie coverage!" when the alternative in the current landscape of gaming is just less coverage, or reviews of fucking map-packs, and I can't imagine anything less interesting than that.

I had to cancel my sub due to money issues, but I wish I could spare the five bucks a month. I really think it's worth it as it is.

That said, I might skip a few meals for another Endurance Run. Specifically a Vinny/Jeff one.

1. More people on the staff /Check

I just re-upped with over half a year left to take advantage of that Mother's day thing so I'm in it for the long haul.

That being said, what I'd like to see is more dense content. I enjoy a quick look or UPF just as much as the next duder but what I'd really like is more stuff like that Eve Online article that Patrick did a while back. Stuff that isn't just the same game news and announcements that are readily available on every other site. I want to hear more crazy stories about shit going on in the industry in the form of interviews and research. I'm really hoping the new blood they bring in won't just be another voice to add to the bombcast (not saying I don't want another voice, bring it on) but someone who'll be able to generate interesting site content. Ideally, this stuff would be packed into a short video format instead of a wall of text but that's prolly asking for too much =P

@hollitz: completely agree.

I think I have four years or something stupid like that left on this membership. So, I guess nothing? I mean, I subbed originally because I wanted to support something I liked, not because I was really getting anything for doing so.

Hell, I paid into the tip jar back when it existed and that was basically just a donation button, so there you go.

My current sub autorenewed without me realizing it; had a senior design paper due so I wasn't paying attention to much of anything else, and when I went to go unsubscribe it turned out it had autorenewed like 2-3 days before.

I'll say the same thing I say every time this thread comes up:

1) A good Endurance Run. Ryan and Patrick tried with CT, but such an old, well-known game just wasn't the same as the quirky, niche Japanese titles that P4 and DP were. I'm not including Dark Souls, Demon's Souls, Devil May Cry, etc. as Endurance Runs. For me, an ER means regular, daily content. Honestly, the advent and rise of twitch and other streaming sites has ruined the site for me over the past few years. You guys remember how many breaks they took during the P4ER and DPER? I'm pretty sure it was none. Fucking Episode 50 got LOST and they still managed to deliver that on time. They even recorded a week's worth early a couple times for GDC/E3/whatever so that they could put them up once a day and keep to their schedule. The laissez-faire attitude of today has just worn so thin on me that I honestly don't remember the last live stream I watched. Yes, it's cool that you can turn on a couple cameras and press go and just start streaming, but there's something to be said for well-planned, well-produced content. I just have absolutely no interest in the "fuck it, let's just turn on these cameras and dick around on this couch for two hours and see what happens"-style the site has taken on. I know there are people that enjoy it, but it's just not for me

2) I mostly hit on it in 1), but: more well-produced content. I'm not even a huge Patrick fan, but that Kinect video he put up last week was the best video I've seen on the site in the last 2-3 years.

TL;DR more regular, well-produce content as opposed to just trying to solve everything with yet another live show.

I will Always Be Subscribing...however...

I will never stop pushing for TNT to return.

Its been said at least a billion times in this thread, but it couldn't hurt to ask for more produced shows. I love Giant Bomb and their "fuck it" attitude is what got me hooked in the first place, but too much of one thing just sucks the fun out of it. It doesn't help that like 90% of the unique features lately have only been coming out of Alex and Patrick (mainly Patrick) and not the main crew. I know Jeff has talked about delivering new content, but can't because they just don't have the man power. I just really wish they would deliver something that is not the obligatory quick look or the dry UPF's as of late. Also I like UPF, but i really think they should consider cutting it and bringing back TNT and RPCG these shows had more focus on a specific thing which is what a lot of the games they play on their require.

also Brad could stop complaining about games not being deep enough 3 minutes into a game and not even out of the tutorial he does that way too often

All in all i probably won't stop subscribing because i still like the features and I like everyone on the site, but I would be lying if i said my faith hasn't waned a little

TLDR: Better produced shows

Sorry for the wall of text.

I feel like (maybe) I'm (one of) the only one(s) who enjoys the current content a lot, and probably wouldn't have been into the shit they used to be doing. I loved the Demon's Souls playthrough, I love Vinnyvania, and I'm usually engaged throughout the entirety of a UPF viewing. I've kind of tried to go back and watch endurance runs and things like that, and in contrast they don't really do it for me. Maybe it's just that it's fresh, or maybe I got to know these guys as they currently are (and apparently they've changed?). Definitely happy with my current membership, plan on keeping it for a while.

Second year subscriber and not unsubscribing anytime soon.

If I had a critique, it'd be for the return of fun premium content like TNT, Load Our Last Save or Random PC Game, but I understand that the number of staff may be a limiting factor. And, for the guys to not put up too much content on the same few games. I'll watch Giantbomb play just about anything, and have spent hours upon hours watching them play games I'm wholly disinterested in, (Spelunky, Dark Souls, DOTA, etc.) but it's sometimes disappointing to see 100+ hours devoted to the Souls franchise or DOTA and only a 20 min QL running through the tutorial of [insert game here].

I agree. UPF is often fun, but it'd be nice if they actually more than scraped the surface with a game sometimes, which is why I like the features like Breaking Brad & Vinnyvania. They don't have to play the entire game, but just spend more time with it than they would for a Quick Look.

Also, and this absolutely won't happen because none of the guys seem to be into those kind of games, but I'd dig it if they got stuck into one of the Paradox Grand Strategy games and gave them a fair shake. Which won't happen because they involve a good multi-hour investment just to get your head around what the hell is going on.

Oh, and more regular Encyclopedia Bombastica features would be really good, so far it seems like Alex is the only one doing that, which is a shame when you consider Jeff's extensive knowledge of old ass games on the Atari 2600 & what have you.

@milkman: If only all alt bans could be that easy.

/ETA: Also, I think it's a fair stance to take if you all want to wait for the new guys to be hired before re-upping. There'll almost certainly be a large boost in weekly content, both subscriber-only and free-for-all, and the site's already past the point financially where hiring new staff members is a certainty. Hopefully you'll all find plenty of good reasons to buy in again (though doing so now wouldn't hurt either, what with two more days of the sale).

I think the site has just fallen into a comfortable position whereby the gang do QL throughout the week, podcast on Tuesday and UPF at the end of the week. I feel like the amount of content has just taken a massive down turn since being at CBSi. We've lost LoLS, Random PC games, TNT and Flight Club, all shows I really enjoyed and Jeff has made it clear that TNT will not return. I hope that once staff issues are resolved we'll see new and varied content.

As long as I keep enjoying a minimum of 5 hours of GB content (free or premium) per month, I'll keep subscribing! Since the podcast alone is about 12 hours per month, there's no danger of me not re-upping anytime soon.

I enjoy it enough to keep my subscription, but the quality of the videos has been going down. Most of the recent UPF have been boring, I don't care about DOTA, and I've never been a fan of Spookin' (no offense to Patrick, I just don't get anything out of horror). The only premium content I'm looking forward to any more is the F1 podcast. I hope they can do more once they hire a few people.

Mother's day was enough for me to take the premium membership...and before that I had already continued my last premium with monthly sub 'till getting a new discount. School/job has kept me busy enough for the past two years to not feel like there should be new content dropping in every time I refresh the page (and maybe it's just my bad memory, but having visited the site since late 2010 and regulary from 2011 onwards, I can't remember the time when we got 10 new QLs each day and other content on a daily basis...and I wasn't even a premium 'till 2012 or something), though that's not to say that I wouldn't mind getting more of it. Maybe it'll start bothering me more if I don't get a job after graduation and need to twidle my thumbs through the whole summer (and beyond), while having all the time in the world.

But would I have to mention things that I'd like to see and/or return, it would definetly be at least Random PC Games or Vinnyvania-like features focusing on old good games. I'd like to see some Metroid featured that way. TNT only ever offered me a few good laughs with some videos (Bad Company 2 and Dead Island come to mind), since I was unable to take part in just about any game they ever played for simply having seperate servers for EU and US and those features happening around midnight over here...oh, and the fact that they played the 360 version 9 times out of 10.

This will be strange given that i just signed up again for a year with the mother's day promotion but here goes.

I wasn't planning on subscribing again after my subscription lapsed late last year. I found most of the content to be stale and there was a very clear lack of enthusiasm from the crew for just about everything they do. I bought a subscription again not because i'm a huge fan of what they have on offer at the moment but because there has been just enough premium content i missed since the beginning of the year that at least interest me a little. Getting a month and downloading everything i wanted to watch might have been a better deal but i decided to take a gamble and hope things will improve. New people being hired played a big part in that.

In the mean time, here is what i like and dislike about the current state of GB. With bullet points!

Like:

• Most of the non gaming stuff. I like Drew, i like Danny, i like F1. I see a pattern emerging here. I was a fan of Behind the Screened Door by in the days and remain weirdly interested in wrestling without ever wanting to watch any of it ever again. The premium podcasts are great.
• Rorie. Having Rorie is fantastic. He's the only one that regularly interact with the community on the forum and creates a bridge between the community and staff and make sure that communication flows. Him also answering questions and generally interacting with people in the chat during streams is great.
• Patrick back in Chicago. I was never a fan of his when he was in the office. I think he is much better when on his own, in control of his own train of thoughts and producing content related to his own specific interest. And since he moved back he has been killing it. He produces more than before, more than anyone else on staff and it all just feels more natural. He simply never connected with the rest of the crew the way they do with each other. For me he never managed to feel like anything else than the new guy who's not really part of the gang. This all sounds more negative than intended i suppose but the short version is: his content is better now and everything feels more natural. Also the move back to Chicago had the side effect of leading to a much more prominent presence from Alex. More Alex is always good.

Dislike:

• Jeff as host. Jeff is funny, very much so, but mostly when feeding off from someone else. He and Ryan were magical at times. That will never come back of course but it doesn't mean things couldn't be better if Vinny hosted instead of Jeff. Ryan was the face of GB. What made him such a great host for the bombcast or most live stream was his energy and enthusiasm for everything. I think Vinny has a lot more of that same energy and enthusiasm than Jeff does. Jeff is more reactive to what happens around him and you can't capitalize on this when you have to lead things at the same time. You can't create the situation and then react to it. Let Vinny steer things in some weird direction and Jeff play off whatever ends up happening.
• Unprofessional Friday. It's terrible. They all look and sound like they just can't wait to get out of the office to relax for the weekend and who can't blame them. There is no job where you work monday-friday where somehow everyone is at their best on a friday afternoon. Putting it on wednesday could be better but i think the format in general is not that great. Or maybe a combination of not being on a friday and not being hosted by Jeff? Frankly i don't know what they should do but i know that as it is, the show doesn't work.
• The site working like crap. The redesign took forever to happen, left the site in a broken state for more than a year while the engineers moved on to redo Gamespot and now that it's done and them having apparently been back to work on GB for weeks now the result still appears to be a big pile of nothing. I don't report bugs either because A) most of them have already been reported and B) have been reported MONTHS ago. At least the video player works now.
• Hearing about "plans" and "ideas" and never seeing anything actually come out of it. Whatever the reason for anything to happen taking so long is, whether it's corporate bullshit or lack of money or whatever i don't care. Stop talking about all sorts of "plans" and "ideas" and make stuff happen. They tried that weekly GB/Gamespot show for what, 3 weeks? And then back to nothing. The status quo just isn't good enough anymore.
• TNT gone and replaced by nothing. It was one of the few regular shows not behind the premium paywall and the only one that created interaction between the staff and the community. TNT being gone is a big part of why signing of for premium no longer feels like a tipping jar but more like something mandatory to get value out of the site. I don't necessarily want to see TNT itself back but at least replace it with something and something for everyone, not just premium members. A show of some kind to interact with the community. This site happens to have one of the few gaming community that is not entirely toxic and actually pretty great in general. Use it.

Well that was long. Anyway, i like the site but i don't love it anymore. The potential is still there but they really let themselves go. I'm hoping the new people they're hiring will be the spark that wakes them up.

Edit: Of course i'd forget to mention that VinnyVania should totally have been called Caravania.

This would be really great!

There was a Mother's Day sale? Aw man. My subscription just ran out and I can't afford to resubscribe at the moment, wish I knew about that :(

*edit* ok so it's still going on.

http://www.giantbomb.com/promotion/

If anyone else didn't know!

The entire front page right now is full of articles/videos upload by Patrick or Alex.

Seriously, the whole front page.

Nothing. 50$ is less than a new game and I get more entertainment out of this site than most games so it's still a good deal to me.

people who want tna back obviously dont remember how bad a lot of those later shows were. ditto for every endurance run that wasnt the first one.

as someone who goes to school i pay when i can and will continue to support the site but a little more content wouldnt hurt. which means they need to hire some guys. which they are. so we shall see.

Getting back quest and achievement tracking would go a long way -but even with those you have to throw few hand jobs into the deal.

I want señor visual novel editor Patrick Klepek to play Sengoku Rance

I'm already a subscriber, and plan to resubscribe, but my suggestion:

• Make it easier for me to watch Giant Bomb content on my TV.

A PS3/PS4 app would be great. I know this isn't necessarily an easy thing to make happen. But it would it would be great to see.

I realize free content is out there on YouTube, but... youtube app's interface isn't super-great for seeing all of a channel's videos, sorted by date. And you don't get premium content there.

The return of Breaking Brad would be nice, too.

The last Bombcast pretty much sold me on another year.

@turboman: I agree with all of the above.

I have no problem with the subscription content. I'm fine reupping, even though I don't give a shit about most of the games they've been playing. What I have a problem with is the almost total lack of quick looks in the non-sub area. There are so many games going by every week without even a mention. I am not a person who wants to watch whole games be played, or gets much out of watching a crappy old dos game get booted up for 20 minutes. I generally subscribe to support the site because I like quick looks, even though they are free. But given how little content is being generated on the QL side these days, I do occasionally wonder why I bother. It can't be for the 30 minutes of UPF I scan through every Friday can it?

You can extend your sub before it auto-renews?

@olemarthin: I really like the idea of a game show/competition feature. I feel my subscription is worth it, but I wouldn't mind something like this replacing UPF.

Will keep subscribing for the foreseeable future, I get hours of entertainment from them each week and I like the clean, ad free site.

@demoskinos said:

I feel exactly the same way. A more relevant question for me would be, how many simultaneous subscriptions would you be willing to buy? I dunno, a lot. isn't there a sponsor a premium sub thread on here somewhere?

I would resubscribe if I got a Jeff Gerstmann body pillow.

I'll resubscribe anyway, but here's my problem. When I first read this thread, I was - as usual - on my ipad. I couldn't reply to the thread on the ipad. Watching live streams is a really shitty experience on an ipad, when it skips half a second every 3 seconds, and gets nasty green screens or other decoding errors all the time.

Make people who don't want to just sit in front of a computer be first rate citizens too :)

ps. also endurance run something!

My old one running out.

Having money.

Almost...

Much better.

If they allowed a paypal payment option