Why I think it's hard for GB to diversify the staff.

It looks like Giant Bomb's new hires are turning into a bit of an issue, and not because of their unspellable last names.

So Dan and Jason are white dudes. Lots of folks were hoping that the new hire would be a woman or a member of a minority group. Patrick Klepek's interest in the polarizing "feminism and minority representation in gaming" debate has, in turn, cultivated a crowd of duders and duderettes who want to see more diversity in the Giant Bomb cast of characters. With all of the gaming diversity debate shitstorms on GB, it might seem hypocritical that they ended up hiring two white dudes anyway. Since this is a personality-driven website, it's natural for people to want someone they can identify with for the sake of discussions and reviews/quick looks, so I fully understand the desire to see a female or minority staff member. However, I also think this view is misguided and shows a lack of understanding of the range of abilities a person needs to have in order to do what Giant Bomb does.

Giant Bomb needed to hire people who are well-established, experienced, and skilled in this weird on-camera video game personality field. They needed people who can produce high-quality content without a long gestation period to learn the craft. Otherwise you're just asking for shitty, boring, awkward, meandering content. There are very very few people in the world who have that kind of experience, who have proven themselves capable of producing great off-the-cuff content and discussion about video game bullshit. Out of that already narrow pool, how many are women or minority? It's probably not a lot. That's a sad fact of this subculture, it happened to start with nerdy white dudes, then stereotyped as something that only white guys did for so long that the scene has become extremely protective of its demographic. In this kind of environment, it makes sense that the most able candidates for something like a Giant Bomb staffer would end up being white dudes. It's incredibly unfortunate, but that's the world we live in.

You could argue that maybe they could hire a less experienced or skilled candidate for the sake of an alternate perspective, and maybe grow their skills from there. I don't think Giant Bomb can afford to do that with its paid full-time employees. The value of this site's content rests in how well you know these people and their quirks, so the site needs to stay somewhat "small" in order to retain the audience familiarity. Because the staff needs to remain small, yet still consistently produce interesting and popular content, every single member of the staff needs to be at the top of their game. It's not the kind of place that can act as a proving ground for the inexperienced, unless CBSi wants to bring in some interns (which would be great!), but every paid full-time employee of this ramshackle operation needs to be pretty damn good, because every weakness will chase off subscribers and further polarize the community. Youtube and Twitch are the proving grounds, the place for the inexperienced to hone their skills and hopefully make connections. Giant Bomb just can't afford to take on an inexperienced unskilled candidate no matter how interesting their background might be, because an alternate viewpoint is worthless if the person isn't able to articulate it well on camera/microphone, or slows down the workflow behind the scenes.

Furthermore, I don't think you need someone with a particular skin color or sex organs in order to discuss and point out issues of gender or racial stereotyping or discrimination. I think you're gravely underestimating the intelligence and awareness of the GB staff if you think they're part of the gender or racial inequality problem in gaming culture. They're not just "white guys", they're also adult humans with fully-functional brains, and they work very hard to make this website and its content inclusive, so it can be enjoyed by everybody. For example, I think the way they react to stereotypical depictions of women in video games is the right way for this website: they mock it, they treat it with sarcasm and ridiculousness, with maybe brief discussion about what's wrong. They usually do not get too serious or overly "political" (for lack of a better word), because that is not the tone that brings people to Giant Bomb. Patrick catches a lot of shit for mentioning and discussing the issues, but that's mainly because the issues themselves are controversial, he doesn't actually focus on that stuff much more than the other serious topics he discusses. Anyway, the staff's race and gender aren't preventing them from keeping this site inclusive (Jeff's rap lyrics notwithstanding).

On a side note, I bet someone's gonna make the argument that a female or minority staff member would make the rest of the staff far too guarded and careful on anything involving gender or race, and the content would become more awkward and stilted as a result. That kind of thing only really happens with people you don't know very well, GB is close-knit by nature so I don't think that kind of guardedness would happen. You can cross certain barriers around friends that you wouldn't cross around acquaintances.

My point is, Giant Bomb can't just "hire a woman" or "hire a black guy" or "hire a genderless purple thought entity". Above all else, they need people with mastery of a certain rare combination of abilities, which gives them such a narrow pool to draw from that requiring a particular combo of genes would just not work. GB is still expanding, maybe in the future they can find someone who comes from a more interesting background and possesses the skills they need to grow the site into something even dumber.

I'm speculating a lot here, though. What do you folks think?

While it would have been nice to have a woman or someone of different racial background, I agree with you that it shouldn't be something we demand. Hiring someone just to check off them off on a equality checklist isn't the way to go about it. If these guys were the best hires, we can't really fault GB for hiring them.

The one problem I have with what you said is in saying they needed people who can produce high-quality content, meaning they would have to hire people already established in the industry. This in-hiring has the effect of preventing any newcomers from breaking into the industry and instead the industry trades around the same handful of writers (most of whom are white dudes, to further compound that point). At some point, someone has to take the risk to hire new people or else there will be no one to take up the torch when the old guard dies out.

Yeah I have trouble faulting them for picking the safest hires possible more or less. What it really comes down to is if it's worth taking a risk on someone for diversity's sake. Dan and Jason were more or less guaranteed to meld right in instantly.

The right people are the right people.

If the right people were Dan and Jason, then there isn't much else to discuss. Of all the women, minorities, and genderless purple thought entities that applied, none of them were as qualified as Dan and Jason. Yes, it's a shame, but hiring people based solely on their gender or race is a bad decision in the long run if the content that they produce isn't the quality it needs to be.

Hey, white dudes need work too. Especially well-qualified white dudes.

People also have the option of realizing they don't control Giantbomb or CBS, and if they don't enjoy the content or the staff they can get their content somewhere else. Trying to start fires about it on twitter or on forums everywhere on the internet isnt going to strongarm them into doing anything. I hear RoosterTeeth has women on staff. I also hear that everyone is fucking livid that one of them joined Achievement Hunters because it "throws off the dynamic".

People dont know what they want, and they get a thrill out of making big companies do what they want by screaming loud enough. I feel like you just put a lot of focus and effort into the right place, for the wrong reason. This isnt something that will be dealt with through constructive conversation or thought out arguments. You're dealing with people who are saying "Do what I want or I wont be happy. There is no other answer."

What I fear most about these new hires is not that they're caucasian males (although its related) , Is that they seem (although admittedly this is just a first impression) too much like the rest of the crew. Dan is a wrestling fan and Jason seems really into street fighter. Sounds familliar? I just hope that they can bring something else to the table that Jeff and the others do not. A woman for example, could've at least brought a female perspective on some issues in gaming. I just hope these new guys dont just end up being "yes men" and agreeing with everything, because some of the best moments in the bombcast are the deep discussions and disagreements on some games like the Jeff/Brad FPS discussion and the GOTY fights. I guess time will tell. I do agree though that since they are such a small crew they cant really experiment with diverse new hires ala kotaku/polygon.

@cyberfunk said:

Yeah, absolutely. A common criticism I've held over Giant Bomb is more often than not during most discussions they all tend to ultimately agree with one another or quietly concede (especially when Jeff's leading the discussion). Your example of the discussion between Jeff & Brad and FPS' is the perfect example of what I'd like to see more of, too. The actual discussion was kind of a mess as neither was making that good of a case, but it was still great to hear them actually holding their ground with their thoughts and making an effort to build a debate around it. It brings to mind Siskel and Ebert and how often they tended to argue, which I'm sure was part of the appeal of listening to them talk because of their difference in opinion and their confidence in exercising it.

At first glance Dan in particular looks like the sort of guy who clearly shares a lot of tastes and interests to Jeff... however it's also but only a first glance as I don't know much about him besides that he's a fellow wrestling fan (but unlike Jeff seems to genuinely enjoy the medium unironically?). Hopefully he'll surprise me as time marches on.

Basically what it comes down to when I think about bringing in more diversity is a diversity of opinion and tastes, and not of the person's colour of skin or gender. Sure, different backgrounds can certainly attribute to a difference in perspective, but that isn't always necessarily the case. Anywhoo I don't want to sound too down on these hires as I'm genuinely curious in witnessing where things lead, especially in conjunction with GBEAST!

@cyberfunk: I honestly don't get why people are expecting GB to suddenly be some site full of diverse viewpoints. It has always been quite narrow, that's pretty much what the basis for the site is. The whole idea behind the site was that by getting to know the people behind the reviews you would get a better understanding of how the review relates to your own tastes. If the site was filled with people with wildly different opinions the process of getting to know these people (through the way they cover games) would just be a bunch of arguing and fighting. While that's fun once in a while it would become increasingly tedious to listen to if it became the majority of the content.

The great part of GB has always been that it's a group of people that enjoy similar games and share that enjoyment with each other. It keeps the mood light while also being informative. If you pay attention you will notice that they've very deliberately always put the people most interested in a game to cover it. The site would completely crumble if every QL was two people arguing about wether a game is good or bad. Their angle has never been to show as many opinions as possible about games, it's quite opposite, trying to be as singular in their perspective as possible.

Sigh... oh man. I thought this would be a universally happy occasion.

This is what is known as "you've made your bed, now lie in it." See also: Borderlands 2's lead writer being accused of racism.

Diversity is a good thing, but if you're going to point fingers, don't be surprised when people point them right back at you.

Yes, there absolutely are legitimate reasons for Giant Bomb to hire two white guys, but none of that matters when your social issue supporters see that as a "do as I say, not as I do" type act of betrayal, and your social issue detractors have been looking for any reason to call you out on your hypocritical bullshit.

WASP jokes aside, what I am really worried about is this:

I think diversity is important and needs to be addressed and things need to change, not just in this industry, but everywhere.

If you feel somewhere like Giant Bomb, or anywhere else. is being purposefully exclusionary to you then fuck those places. By all means speak out about it, but don't just throw your shit up into the air and say "everyone is holding me down!" and expect things to change. You might feel held down, and in some cases you might actually be held down, but the way to fix that isn't to complain about it until someone eventually lets you into their fold. If you have something of worth to say you will *always* find a way to say it, and if you're good enough you will *always* find an audience to say it to.

Seeing some of the negative reactions to these hires (especially on twitter) has been heartbreaking. Not necessarily because I feel empathy for those people, but because everyone seems so content to just dwell in their rage. Maybe that anger is justified, but it's not helping anyone. Take that anger and go out and do something, change something; prove to everyone that they were wrong not to include you because you're fantastic at what you're (hopefully) passionate about doing.

I would love to see diversity on Giant Bomb. I would love to see diversity everywhere. I think we'll get there one day, but we won't get there on the back of angry forum posts and tweets and constant displays of self-pity. We'll get there on the backs of people who have actively gone out and changed things with positivity and hard work.

Actually I find it sort of funny. I stopped coming to the site for the actual staff articles a long time ago. Not to say the staff sucks or anything, they don't, but they just don't put out videos that seem to be as entertaining as what they used to. I mostly now visit for the forums, discuss the games I like, and enjoy the community in general. I have read more @video_game_king blogs than I have read Jeff posts in the last 3 months, and not by a small margin. So personally they could have hired Coco the Flying Monkey and Bobo the Clown and I wouldn't have cared. It is just really strange how many people on the site are tied up in the personalities in charge, sure that's important, but there are plenty of great things going on with the site that have nothing to do with the Bombcast or Patrick's most recent diversity article.

@themanwithnoplan:

Nah man, this is the gaming community, someone always needs to complain.

@cyberfunk said:

Are you saying that... are they secretly two halves of a Jeff Gerstmann clone? The rumors were true after all!

Seriously though, I completely agree with the lack of diversity in the talent pool of "experienced videogamesmen making dumb video-game-related video content". Outside of Giant Bomb and Game Informer, I can only think a few more white men and maaayyybe one or two (white) women off the top of my head.

Speaking as a non-white Giant Bomb fan, I do wish for them to have a more diverse editorial staff. It's not just a matter of looks or "qualifications"... Race and gender are like a shorthand for the culture you were born into, and that would make GB more interesting. I think there's value in that. But in this case... the two new hires pretty much have been making Giant Bomb video content for years at Game Informer. It's a no-brainer for GB to hire them. They probably need the stability right now. They're taking enough chances with all the remote duders they don't want to let go.

Also, I was just thinking... Wouldn't it be super weird if there's a new single black guy in the staff? I feel like they would get just as much flak from doing that. It's sort of a lose-lose situation, since they could only afford one extra editor.

The giantbomb forum is now tumblr

@orangepylon: I think a lot of your argument ignores the fact that they haven't always hired so safe or insular. When they hired Patrick, he was a relative unknown who has had to learn over time how to be both his style of newsman and an entertaining on-screen personality. Patrick has talked at length about his efforts to improve in what you talk about as basic needs for a new hire. I believe Giant Bomb is deep enough to be able to not only handle a less-experienced hire but actually take great advantage of their lack of experience to mold them into an enduring presence.

Also, that aside, this argument of they can't "just hire a woman" or "just hire a black guy" mostly ignores the very real possibility that there may be well-qualified folks who are also female, black, etc. Judging by this kind of suggestion about qualifications, it feels like many people would currently be complaining that a woman or black individual's hiring would just be "a diversity hire". But that isn't how it works. It isn't far-fetched for a woman or black man to be qualified for the position, and it's silly to talk as though anyone was the only possible choice. They had their options, and they chose as they saw fit.

After an open call to interested applicants within and outside the community, they ended up choosing two white male industry insiders. Cool guys for sure, and I'm excited to see what they'll bring to the site. But their coolness doesn't mean we can't still feel some disappointment. Their pedigree doesn't mean we can't still feel a bit odd about the process and the factors that led to this result. We care about the site -and- diversity, and it's only natural that they might be considered together in a situation like this.

We can both consider the factor of diversity and keep an open mind about the new guys. The more people angrily tell others to stop being concerned about it and write about why it doesn't matter, the more people will have reason to express such concern. I wasn't that bothered at first, but as the surprisingly negative response from both commenters and mods toward any mention of reservations about the hires has grown, I can't help but feel more and more concerned about this. The more you or anyone else tell me that I shouldn't talk about it, the more important it becomes to talk about it. Because when there is that kind of hostile response, it's ever more apparent that there are some issues here.

I like what I've seen of Dan and Jason, but the more people try to quell any discussion of diversity here, the more it is going to have to be addressed.

So who are these new hires? They're pretty much purple thought entities to me right now.

@truthtellah: Patrick was actually very well known dude. And no-one is questioning that there are black people and women out there that are qualified. Fact of the matter is, Jason and Dan are just better than them and any other person, whether they be white, hispanic or gay for the job. And it's not like GB is a big corporation with stacks of money, Jeff said it, the games coverage is in a scary time atm and going for some less-experienced hire is a freaking big ask when they already have someone perfect for it.

Fact of the matter is, there is no reason to to bring this diversity complaint into the matter, not one single reason. Dan Ryckert is the best person for the job. Just enjoy him and what he'll bring to the site.

Dude, it is not nearly that bad. Go check out some of the crazier blogs on tumblr and get back to us.

A lot of interesting points and discussions are being had here. I like it. Frankly I was quite blase when this announcement hit. I know nothing about these two men but I'm sure they are more than qualified for their positions. I've at least heard Dan Ryckert's name spoken once or twice. But I felt the choices were quite boring and safe, as others have pointed out.

But then, of course they were safe. Giantbomb isn't Gamespot or IGN, they don't have the luxury of hiring random people to fill minor rolls that get little to no credit on their front page. They only had two positions to fill within an eight man company. So you better damn well know to pick people who are safe. That's too much risk for such a small company.

Really I feel bad for the community members who had their hopes real high from Matt Rorie's thread. How is a community member supposed to compete with veterans in the journalist industry? I would have been really impressed had they hired a nobody from their own community. It would have been quite novel and progressive.

In terms of diversity, I would have appreciated a large shakeup with a woman member. But there just aren't many women journalists in gaming in general. I think out of ALL of the various gaming sites, I can name...maybe five? And I can't think of ANY African American journalists either, but who knows the race of any writer when they're reduced to just a name half hidden in an article.

This is a problem within the Games Journalist Industry in general really. Most of the gaming sites got their start and often reside solely within San Francisco, CA. So you tend to get White Liberals and not much else. The minorities reside in Oakland a whole bay and bridge away from the rich city.

This is something that'll change overtime and it's not really anyone's fault that white men dominate the journalism scene as they do. It's just a series of circumstances that we're just now acknowledging. I know personally a couple of women who would make for great journalists. But how are they supposed to break into the medium when the current scene is so insular? When everyone knows each other and works only with each other, it's no longer a professional scene, it's a Clique.

I don't blame Giantbomb at all. They can't afford to try someone new, they had to poll from the pool that's available to them and that pool is rather stagnant in its current state. There's a much BIGGER problem with cultural stagnation within the Video Game Industry itself as well as the Journalistic Medium. Women and other minorities are slowly being accepted into the fold and when this happens the entire industry will be healthier for it.

As an aside, the mocking comments in this thread and others like it are part of why many folks feel strongly about discussing diversity here.

If you think that bullying fellow members with taunts and mockery will stop them from expressing opinions you don't share, you are sadly mistaken. Such taunts will in all likelihood simply reinforce the importance of voicing such concerns.

I'm pretty sure if a gay person, or a woman, or anyone else applied and had the same qualifications as either of these guys, they would be given a fair chance. It's not like the staff are deliberately going out of their way to avoid hiring social minorities. If anything I'd say Patrick's content confirms that everyone would be given equal considerations regardless, rather than sounding hypocritical. I'm happy to give them the benefit of the doubt.

A diversity hire at the cost of the group dynamic, on what is a personality driven website, just becomes counter productive. A female perspective is valuable, but you shouldn't have to rely on a woman to point out when something is sexist.

At the end of the day you don't know who applied for the job, and you don't know the circumstances that led to the hiring of these two guys. They could have had the perfect gay black woman lined up, but she wasn't willing to relocate to their office, or she wanted more money, or any number of things. It's not always as simple as saying "They should hire this person" because in reality it doesn't work out like that. What they clearly did have was two talented, enthusiastic guys who they knew they could rely on and who had the availability to work at the right time, and they went for it.

Its their site, my opinion is they can hire who the hell they want. As "consumers" of video game related content on the internet, we have a choice of going elsewhere if we don't agree with how a specific site does things.

The answer is not to make this site do everything like every other site out there.

It was definitely the safest decision that made the most business sense. I'll be really surprised if this topic ever gets addressed by the staff, because no matter what side they fall on, they are going to piss off subscribers.

Would LOVE to be proven wrong about this.

Another day, another confirmation that staying the fuck away from Twitter is the right move.

Goddamn I hate the Internet.

I just don't think they're very exciting hires, no offence to either of them, I know they're good people. Whether it's the fact they're another two white guys or the fact they're pretty much too perfect in how they fit in with the rest of the staff I just cant find much about Dan and Jason that I think will invigorate the GB SF office for me, personally.

To me the best 'move' GB has made recently was moving Vinny to NY, essentially creating in the process a second GB that is being spearheaded by far and away my favourite staff member. I couldn't be more excited about the potential there.

I'm also pretty interested to see what Patrick has to say about all this. He's been saying recently that he was given a budget for freelancers that he would be using to bring some diversity to the site.

@sweep: Not that I don't agree with your post, but

Seriously? I would have hoped that a moderator wouldn't succumb to such lazy generalisations like this. Giant Bomb now more than ever is made up of many, many users, and to always assume that every conversation and/or controversy is spearheaded by the same users is silly and counterproductive. Different topics bring out different users.

Aren't those naturally related? The interest in the new and different which many hoped might mix things up. That's diversity.

That Dan is a big Nintendo guy is a welcome change in the diversity of game preferences on Giant Bomb, but along with that, people may have hoped for things to be changed up even more. Diversity with a female perspective or even a younger one. That's honestly up to them to feel if they like. I don't believe we get to dictate other people's hopes or dismiss them simply because our hopes happen to be different.

There isn't some big mystery or oddity here. All of us have our own expectations and hopes, and it's natural that we may differ at times. This is apparently just one of those times. Members should be able to openly express themselves on something like this without just receiving a torrent of people or mods telling them to keep it down because they don't feel the same way.

Yeah, that's fair. After a while I kinda stop seeing individuals and just see the hivemind, but that's just a moderator specific problem. I'll go ahead and edit my post.

They are human, that's all that really matters.

Right there with ya.

@darthorange said:

WASP jokes aside, what I am really worried about is this:

@yummylee said:

@cyberfunk said:

What I fear most about these new hires is not that they're caucasian males (although its related) , Is that they seem (although admittedly this is just a first impression) too much like the rest of the crew. Dan is a wrestling fan and Jason seems really into street fighter. Sounds familliar? I just hope that they can bring something else to the table that Jeff and the others do not. A woman for example, could've at least brought a female perspective on some issues in gaming. I just hope these new guys dont just end up being "yes men" and agreeing with everything, because some of the best moments in the bombcast are the deep discussions and disagreements on some games like the Jeff/Brad FPS discussion and the GOTY fights. I guess time will tell.

Yeah, absolutely. A common criticism I've held over Giant Bomb is more often than not during most discussions they all tend to ultimately agree with one another or quietly concede (especially when Jeff's leading the discussion). Your example of the discussion between Jeff & Brad and FPS' is the perfect example, too. The actual discussion was kind of a mess as neither was making that good of a case, but it was still great to hear them actually holding their ground with their thoughts and making an effort to build a debate around it. It brings to mind Siskel and Ebert and how often they tended to argue, which I'm sure was part of the appeal of listening to them talk because of their difference in opinion and their confidence in exercising it.

At first glance Dan in particular looks like the sort of guy who clearly shares a lot of tastes and interests to Jeff... however it's also but only a first glance as I don't know much about him besides that he's a fellow wrestling fan (but unlike Jeff seems to genuinely enjoy the medium unironically?). Hopefully he'll surprise me as time marches on.

Basically what it comes down to when I think about bringing in more diversity is a diversity of opinion and tastes, and not of the person's colour of skin or gender. Sure, different backgrounds can certainly attribute to a difference in perspective, but that isn't always necessarily the case. Anywhoo I don't want to sound too down on these hires as I'm genuinely curious in witnessing where things lead, especially in conjunction with GBEAST!

Yeah this is kind of what I am worried about as well. The best bit about hiring people with diverse backgrounds is they bring new perspectives and commentary. The OP talks about how the Giant Bomb crew are intelligent and aware and not just 'white guys.' Well they are white guys, and it is extremely dangerous to assume that somehow just because you are intelligent you can free yourself from carrying cultural assumptions and perspectives. It is really dodgy (and a little insulting) to assume that 'intelligent white guys' are all you need to deliver an inclusive service. You can't deliver an inclusive service with just white men - its not possible.

That said Giant Bomb have never claimed to be some inclusive platform for everyone, they can be what they want. I just think it would benefit the site if there were some voices other than white men. However I reckon, that they probably think this as well, but have hired the best from the applicants they received. At least I hope so. I hope between now and the next time they bring on some staff they make a real effort to get out there and look for some non-white male talent who might work over here, expand their rolodexes as it were - hopefully they have been doing that already.

The fact is I don't know they went about hiring new staff, and they have no duty to tell me, all I can do is guess and hope that they realise the benefits of having some diversity on the staff. I'm sure they do, and it just wasn't possible this time.

After people brought some concerns to Patrick about the lack of women in the E3 coverage, he actually gave a thorough and interesting explanation, both defending his efforts and acknowledging where he may have fallen short.

It is certainly possible we could get a similar kind of consideration on this, a topic with far more lasting impact than one E3 stream.

I retyped this like four times, I guess I don't really know how I feel on the issue. Yeah, it's a little weird after some of what Patrick says that they seemingly make no effort to diversify, given the opportunity. And the 'there are no qualified non white straight dudes' excuse rings a little hollow when they had some on their E3 show, and GameSpot has some on staff in the same building, and so do a lot of the major sites. They're out there, not as common obviously, but that's kind of the thing with minorities, there tends to be less of them. But, I wasn't part of the hiring process, what if the only non white straight dudes were horrible in other ways? Like what if they all played inverted? Fuck that.

Are you suggesting that we could have possibly gotten a sentient fish or cybernetic beetle to be part of the staff?

Because if so, that actually sounds pretty sweet, duder. I would love to see CBS with a DOTA-playing marmoset on its payroll.

Jeff is an asshole, but he is not the kind of asshole who would deny someone a job due to gender or race.

Does that line of thought also apply to the men's rights movement, or the flat earth society, or those opposed to childhood vaccinations, or any other group that is frequently met with a hostile response? I imagine you would say no, so maybe you should stop leaning on that particular fallacy.

"No, don't you see? The fact that people don't like what we're saying means that we're really onto something! This means that there really is a problem here! You can't silence the truth!"

There are several good arguments that can be made to support diversity. "People don't like what we're saying, so that PROVES we're right!" is not one of them. It's an argument that can presented by any activist, no matter how worthy or batshit crazy their cause, which ultimately makes it worthless.

This 100%....Giant Bomb can't afford to take a chance on someone with lesser experience. Its clear that they are trying to grow the site and in order to do that, they need to increase the amount of content generated, and in order to do THAT, they need people who can jump in the deep end. That's not to say there aren't others out there with talent, but if you take a look at some of the stuff Dan and Jason were doing over at GI, that falls right into GB's wheelhouse. Having 2 guys, both from one of the biggest gaming publications in the country, who can make an impact from day one will help Giant Bomb grow and show the suits at CBSi that GB is something worth supporting and growing. I have a feeling that this is just the beginning of the next phase for Giant Bomb.

On a side note, some of the complaints from people on twitter and tumblr kinda feel like sour grapes. Yes, there very much is a problem with diversity in gaming on the whole. But for folks to lay this problem at Giant Bomb's feet is kinda unfair. Giant Bomb is minuscule compared to sites like IGN and Gamespot, but are still being held to the same standards. If Giant Bomb continues to grow, and continues to hire nothing but "white dudes", then there will be a legit problem. But to complain that an main office of only 2 editors and 1 video guy, who happen to be white, hiring 2 long time veterans, who also happen to be white, to help out is kinda ridiculous.

@spaceinsomniac: I'm not sure if you're genuinely comparing the discussion of diversity to opposition to vaccinations, but I won't deny the reality that bullying people talking about diversity only draws greater focus on the necessity of talking about it.

That many in this community have a problem with taunting and mocking the very idea of bringing up diversity is indicative of its importance here.

I'll say my 2 cents on this issue. I think GB needed someone who would fit right in because of how short staffed the SF office is right now, and both Dan and Jason seem to fit the bill. You would need to have a ton of video experience for Jeff to be certain that you would hit the ground running like they need, and that narrows the pool of talent by a lot.

That's not to say that I don't want diversity, but I'm just excited by Dan especially coming to GB since I've been following that dude for years now. I can't really think of anyone I'd rather see as an editor on the site, be it male, female, black, white or anything else. Also, I would be upset if they passed on a woman that I thought was better for the job than the two they hired. But I don't know that, and I doubt it.

People have the right to be dissapointed, and most on the forum have been civil about it. I decided to stop reading the tweets of a few people that were linked on the forum after a while though, there's a difference between voicing an opinion about this stuff and just straight up shouting about boycotting the site, implying that the GB crew are sexist etc. There's been some serious overreactions about this for some time now by especially Elizabeth Simins.

Anyways, excited about the future of the site!

Can I just say that the way many of the journalists have reacted on Twitter almost justifies them not being hired, a lot of spiteful bitterness in their reactions that show that they would not be suited for the Giant Bomb position.

I would say that it is their attitudes that make them unhirable, not the fact that they are female.

Hopefully he'll take this opportunity to extend the proud Butt Tumblr brand into the Giant Bomb blogs.

It was only a matter of time before the internet ruined Giant Bomb.

This again. They're seemingly good people, at least the little I've heard. What gives? Start your own video game website. With poker and hookers.

Honest talk here. Some of the most outspoken critics on Twitter have been folks like Samantha Allen, Eilizabeth Simins, and applicant Maddy Myers.

Go look at the remarks Myers has made about Giantbomb on the content she is involved with and then tell me you would be happy with her as a new hire. Jesus Christ it would be a train wreck. There is so much anger and cynicism among some of these people for the entire industry that they see as male dominated and holding them back. Do you want that sort of dynamic added to what is still a relatively small team of on camera talent? Do we need people who seemingly turn every discussion into one dealing with gender, sexuality, or how white men are holding people back? Yeah, I am sure Jeff, Brad, Drew, and Myers would mesh really well and be great for the long term success of the site.

Giant Bomb isn't Polygon where they have a massive team based mostly around writing with everyone living in different parts of the country and hardly interacting at all.

Some industries naturally seem to employ disproportionately high numbers from one gender instead of the other. Gaming has historically been a hobby that a lot more men were interested in, so it is only natural to see more males involved. Women also make up the clear majority of teachers in the country. That doesn't mean there is some grand conspiracy to hold back male educators.

I don't think they should hire to meet a quota or to diversify for the sake of diversifying, but I think it's kind of weird that mods are buckling down so hard on the announcement thread. I don't understand what the issue is if people are discussing it respectfully?