Yo is GiantBomb slowly becoming premium-focused or what

Well I have realised that the premium content has become my favorite content. It's the content I come to this site for. Unprof. fridays, Spookin' with Scoops and Bioforge have definitely been the highlights of lately.

I actually don't care too much about most quick looks anymore, they can't all be Euro Truck Simulator unfortunately. Unless Vinny's in it cause I pretty much watch anything with Vinny.

@subjugation said:

Best point made.

There's not many new games out yet so there isn't much to quick look I guess. And the DOTA crap is archived on Twitch so that is free. And it is a pretty damn cheap membership to get all these videos, so why complain? More premium stuff is awesome. I got the membership because of all the cool videos they put out. I do miss Random PC game and Flight Club, even though Dave said he would come by sometime to do another. But still, 5 bucks a month ain't nothing.

More importantly, a hamburger isn't a sandwich.

All the non subscriber stuff is Patrick PACKED. It might be better soon.

Giving the subscribers new content to keep paying is fine with me. I wouldn't want Giant Bomb to go away. It takes $.

I like Jeff's Jar talks.

when everything is off the cuff, quality control can become a problem. Its too easy to tell when no effort is being put in, maybe its just the whole QL idea is no longer shiny and new but i really cant make it through any.

ill stick around when big events roll by, otherwise there isn't much left for me here.

also, I do hope they become a little more open minded next gen, playing the same mass market, content touristy games will burn them out sooner rather than later.

There's still like a 3 hour podcast every week without ads.

Pretty sure that if they were going to dig in to those games it would be, at best, a free live stream and subscriber only archive. QL's are primarily meant for new games. So why don't we clarify the "no games" statement as "no new games" or "fewer new games". You think there aren't going to be a ton of QL's of everything when the PS4/Xbone come out? I bet the premium content takes a hit then too, but it's justified. They only have so much time.

Seriously? Honestly wondering if that's a joke.

The spike in premium content is just there to compensate for the lack of games and game news that hangs throughout this part of the year. You'll notice that all the free stuff is related to what is currently going on in the world of video games, and the premium stuff consists of interesting side stuff that the average gamer may or may not care for so much. (We aren't the average gamers, btw.) :)

Always remember that Giant Bomb is a business. They need to make money to stay in business. More premium content is one way to can do that, since ads aren't always enough.

And for all those entitled persons out there, Giant Bomb consists of four on-site and two off-site professional gamesmen, and you could add a couple more in there if they're not busy with their non-game-related jobs. For six guys, there's a lot of content coming out on the site every week. It's foolish to think that they need to be able to entertain you from the time you get home to the time you go to bed five days a week.

It's sarcasm. Not very good sarcasm, but sarcasm.

@subjugation: I'm sorry man, but Sammiches trump watching some one play dota ...which is a game i kinda hate. :(

Yes I know, was looking for an indicator, said like that it comes off as a truth.

Well you guys should become premium members if you can afford it, its well worth it (bioforge videos are fucking amazing). I will agree that Daily Dota should not be behind a paid wall, I would actually pay money to remove it (no disrespect to Brad who I applaud for getting into dota or Dota 2 which is amazing, but if I'm going watch a Dota stream I'm gonna watch top players play so I can learn something). Also Daily Dota is taking processing power away from archiving better videos faster, so yah CUT IT.

It looks to me like they're moving to a model where quicklooks and bomb casts are free and everything else is paid. I guess it kind of makes sense.

Some of us still remember when the guys were going to make the podcast a premium feature (well, sort of). The new premium content is designed to drive people to subscriptions (honestly, I'm closer than ever to pull that trigger myself) but there's still a healthy amount of free content every week.

Also you can totally watch the archived TNTs and Daily Dota at their Twitch.tv page.

Remember this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MN1SnvHSQLg

Those were the days of high-caliber premium content. I want wacky Jeff back! He's too busy being Professional these days.

I think it should promote giantbomb dota community and be free.

Now that Bioforge stuff, thats some premium content right there!

Actually, in my opinion all of the video stuff should be free - on a lower resolution at least.

hey has anyone quoted this yet? cause i'm quoting it.

So ever since I tried a month's worth of subscription years ago, I have been stuck in this glitch where GB charges me every month for a silver subscription forever. Basically I am paying more than gold members annually without their benefits, but I don't raise a finger because it's worth it to me. I'm not one to go around and dickishly say this, but if you are complaining about the volume of subscriber content as a free user: get a job.

I'm glad they are doing more premium content. I'm a subscriber, watch every minute of it, and enjoy every minute of it. I will continue to subscribe in the future. The content they are marking as premium is actually really good and worth your time.

"Yo is GiantBomb slowly becoming premium-focused or what, bitch"

Also, no.

Slow release time of year = less quick looks. That's it. Simple Math.

Deal.

If you like what the Giantbomb crew makes, you should pay them like others do! The premium membership is pretty cheap. :p

Next Endurance Run is subscriber only, better buck up and pay homies

I'm just outraged that they never did a quicklook for Double Dragon II.

I wouldn't know. I'm a premium member, but I don't know what I'm paying for. Still, I'm happy to throw my money after the gang. They're awesome.

The balance has always been off at one end or the other, but I do feel for the non-subscribers not being able to witness the majesty that is Bioforge.

Now to resume eating fine caviar and drinking champagne.

I've never understood the desire for people to complain about the amount and/or quality of free entertainment. You get what you pay for. If you want more, pay. If not, don't. Simple.

I like what GB's doing, and I also like Daily Dota.

@customotto said:

It allows for snarky dismissive commentary.

Yeah facts! So this is not actually a valid complaint.. Facts!

The guys are clearly trying to maintain a balance, but it's never going to be completely equal. Seems like it was just a couple weeks ago we had some subscribers acting like they weren't getting enough. Now it's swung a bit in the other direction. The video game schedule isn't exactly on even ground year-round, so it follows that the content ratio will keep shifting.

Everyone's getting something though. And if you want more? It's probably worth subscribing.

Giantbomb bigtime now. If you ain't got money, then that means you ain't in GBs Business Plans.

GB is the only worthy thing to subscribe to on the internet... Video game related.

Clearly the answer is more Patrick

I feel like he is underrepresented on this site

It was nice to have the Wednesday show for a while cause i typically miss the TNT shows, but i don't like watching strategy games at all so the dota thing i'm not really missing lol. There are about 4 quick looks a week maybe, usually indie games so that's not to bad IMO and the bombcast is free so that's nice. I may try a premium account one day and see if i'm missing something

He hasn't specifically said which generates more income, but he has said that without subs the site would losing a lot of money, which would lead to the assumption of the opposite of your statement being true. And he's also said that without subs, the site probably wouldn't exist at all because the subscriber base was a huge reason CBSi were interested in buying them. If they hadn't been bought, the site would no longer exist.

So. Much. This.

I ain't snarky nor dismissive. Either the subscribers want more subscriber content, or the free users want more free content. You can't have it both ways. I bet they just make it all up as they go along, and lately they just made more premium content.

Why would either group want it both ways?

If you're having any issues with your subscription, please do mail support at giantbomb.com and I can get you figured out. Happy you're a subscriber but I want to make sure that you're doing it of your own volition!

Thanks for all your thoughts on this stuff, guys. I'm not sure I can get into specific numbers here, but I think I can say that premium subscribers are really important to Giant Bomb, even if we are part of a bigger company now. We obviously want everyone to be happy, but yes, as noted, when I came on board a month or so ago, there was a big thread about how there wasn't enough premium content, so it's an interesting challenge to find the balance there.

I think the issue (and I don't really see as such, but then I'm a subscriber) is that every time someone in the Bomb Crew wants to do a new feature that doesn't seem like would appeal to everyone or is mostly unrelated to new video game coverage, they decide to stick it behind the paywall since it's probable that only their most dedicated fanbase would be interested and not the casual visitor looking for reviews, news or footage of the new Gears or what have you.

I mean, that's been pretty much true of every new feature of late. With the lack of new games and everyone spending time on their own projects, the balance has shifted temporarily towards being weighted towards premium features. It'll no doubt shift back once August rolls around and games start coming out again.

(If I had to make a suggestion to help quell the non-sub unrest though, I would posit that GB made every fourth Unprofessional Fridays a freebie like they used to do with the Happy Hour.)

They're catering to their paying customers? What the hell, Giant Bomb?!

Hopefully it doesn't get replaced with more DOTA

I mean Brad's cool and all but continuous DOTA I dunno

Also only thing that make me subscribe would be an endurance run.

I love that their catering to us paying members, but I ageree with what @mento said. They should make every fourth or so unprofessional Friday free for all. They should also not be afraid of trying new things for all members (and visitors), not just us bombers.