@James_Giant_Peach said:
The word 'duder'.
Get out.
Things that bother you about Giant Bomb?
people who don't listen to constructive criticism
- Lack of TANG
- Podcasts without Jeff
- Patrick is kinda boring
These things aren't that much of a detriment though and I still love the site and would kill baby animals to visit it
@Sooty said:
I think Klepek is a boring podcaster and the indie game preaching gets really annoying.
I like PK and what he has brought, but he has to get past his fanboy love of the can do no wrong Ninetendo, and JRPG games. To be a great reporter all biases have to be set aside in writing any articles. PK is not the only one who is suffering from this crutch, there are a lot of game reporters who are not honest enough, why i don know, to criticize their beloved franchises. I have been reading and watching PK for years prior to GB, so this is not based on his time spent here.
@Foxtrot0245: Because the 'disliking' of a crew member often turns into bitching about said crew member. We get it, you don't like Patrick (or Brad or whoever). Why do you or any other member need to constantly remind the rest of us? If you don't like something, why do you continue to talk about it? I hate McDonald's, but I don't burst into rage every time I drive by one. I think if you, or anyone else, had anyting constructive to say then I don't think it would be as a big of an issue, but all of these posts and threads might as well boil down into "here's why Patrick sucks" and that isn't helping anything.
But Patrick isn't the only issue, look at the fucking 'Jeff's opinion on GW2' thread. One of the many examples of people turning nothing into a bitchfest. 100+ posts based on a fucking 3 minute discussion that, ultimately, means nothing. He gave his opinion on an hour of gameplay and 99% of the posts in that thread are full of 'here's why Jeff is wrong.' It's not a review. It's not a preview. it's an early impression, at best, if you want to call it that. He didn't tell anyone not to buy it. He didn't say it was a bad game. He just gave his opinion based on what he played and people are looking for any reason to discredit what he said simply because they disagree about a game they've never played, but TotalBiscuit fucking loves it so Jeff has to be wrong.
Oh and let's not forget about Brad. I need not say anymore.
Brad. He's the worst.
@evanbower said:
It was the Game of the Year podcast.. they said straight up that all games that came out that year would be talked about in full.
The awkward reactions from the rest of the staff following that reveal sure made it sound like they hadn't been intending to spoil that particular point though. And I don't recall them dropping any major spoilers like that for any other game. Either way I don't think story spoilers are necessary for a game of the year podcast, so I'll add that to the things that bug me if it is something that typically happens.
@Marokai said:
I suppose my biggest problem with Giant Bomb at this stage in it's life is the increasing sense that they are further and further out of reach from us. That they are increasingly contemptuous of their own community, not for any specific reason at this point, but reflexively. That they seem increasingly out of touch from the general mood of the public here, and that they care less and less about it in general. This has been more and more noticeable since the introduction of the subscription model way back in the heady days of 2010, but really has reached new highs with the CBSi acquisition of GB and the Mass Effect controversy, among other events of March. Not only do they post on their own forums less, and seem less conciliatory toward their users in general, they seem to now live their lives as if most of the community here doesn't really exist, as best they can.
It feels very counter to how Giant Bomb has been for the years up to this point. This site never was the sort of video game website that was "just a job." The community was a more central part, made to feel like part of the room. The staff weren't just "editors" or "critics" or "journalists" to us, in such labels; they were Brad, Ryan, Vinny, Jeff, and later on, Patrick.
It's been something that's become more and more noticeable the larger and more popular this site has become, but it's been a really depressing trend to watch regardless of the reasons. I think many of the complaints that some in the community often make are petty, and I really don't have a problem with Patrick (or Alex) most of the time. And even though the frequency of content has taken a bit of hit lately, it's been pretty good overall for the last 6 months. But the community should really be listened to more, and not just listened to in the more obvious definition of the word, but made to feel like we are being listened to. A more secondary concern has been my frustration with Patrick and Jeff, specifically, over their attitude toward the ME3 ending controversy. Either "games journalism" is supposed to matter, or it isn't. You can't have it both ways here, spewing out populist, nice-sounding sentences about how much you want to take a more "serious" approach to covering this industry and looking out for the consumers, and then every time you have a chance to prove it, to side with either the consumer or the ever tempting allure of just siding with whatever popular perception is held by the gaming elite, then siding against the consumer and whatever fanbase is the current target. I say this is secondary because I really do believe this is a symptom of the above problem; just a general side effect of being so out of touch of what the actual mood of the public is, and refusing to make a genuine effort to actually understand. Solve the first problem, and I think you solve a lot of others.
Couldn't agree more.
There are some constructive points made here that we could all benefit from. Unfortunately, all people cannot be pleased at all times, and that will never change. The real problem is - and some have touched on this - when we just start dismissing opinions that we don't agree with and instead focus on the volume of our own agenda. The community and the Giant Bomb crew are both somewhat guilty of that. I have been guilty of that. I don't presume to be beyond the struggle of opinions and emotion, but I do know we need to be more amicable and stop ignoring social issues as though the internet is still some sort of novelty that doesn't affect real-world relationships. I'm speaking about internet communities in general at this point. Giant Bomb's problems are not unique.
@James_Giant_Peach said:
Lack of content.
Elitist community that seem to think they're better than everyone else because they visit a more 'intellectual' website.
The countless 'memes' and 'in-jokes'.
Staff who once said they'd never go down the ads and subscription route, only to do a total U-turn on everything they apparently believed in.
Staff that, for the most part, are terrible at playing games.
Staff with such out-of-whack egos they think people care more about watching them drink and do dumb stuff than actually cover video games.
Staff who ignore and belittle games they've never even tried.
Staff who are unfair to plenty of titles and hardware, and overly complimentary to their favorites.
People in the community who will defend the GB staff to the hilt and suck up to them to no end.
The word 'duder'.
Forum users who refer to people who don't visit GB as 'outsiders'.
Forum users who insist on criticising perfectly fine sites like IGN, Kotaku, Gamespot, etc, just because it's not their cup of tea and they'd bend over backwards to take the flag of GiantBomb right up their anus.
Countless PC elitists ruining the name of the PC community.
Countless forum posters who think they're incredibly important because they've got 50,000 posts.
And plenty more.
But mainly lack of content.
Yes, the food here is terrible, and such small portions.
Wow, if you hate all of this why do you come to this site? Obviously, people like this site and there's tons of other sites out there you could go to. Not trying to start a fight or anything. Just want to know why.
Lack of content and a ignorant view on different video games that other people enjoy. Most of the time their pessimistic thoughts on games questions why I even come here. I mostly come for the laughs and video content. I rarely take their stance on video games because I think different towards most video games and their views don't reflect mine most of the time. Just wish we'd have more open minded people on this site that give games a chance before they write them off completely. Still, Giantbomb is good at what it does and I can appreciate that. Just wish they weren't a video game review site sometimes so they wouldn't come off as dicks most of the time.
- It drives me nuts during videos of them playing games when they just skip over stuff, pay no attention, then bitch and moan for half the video because they have no idea what they are doing due to them not taking the two minutes it takes to read a tutorial or listen to an exposition. If it's so hard for them to talk and play the game at the same time then get someone off screen to play the game while they talk about it.
- Was never a fan of the defence force the community has always had. The second you criticise anything the crew does in any shape way or form, they bubble up from the sewers to scream and insult you for not worshipping the site unconditionally. I'm sure when they discover this thread they will have a collective heart attack.
- The way they dismiss games that they don't like as being complete crap for no reason other then it's dumb, only to go on a few moments later talking about how they love something just because it's dumb.
- The way the guys ignore things the community likes/dislikes and just go about doing their thing with seemingly no effort put into directing the site in a way the community wants it to go.
- When they go out of their way to play games that they all hate and have zero desire to play, and then spend the whole video just moaning about how much it sucks and how they wish they were somewhere else. The Mario Party TNT is the most recent example of it.
There are some other things, but those are the big ones. Sadly one thing I have learned over my years here is that they will ignore everything in this thread and keep doing whatever the hell they want. I can't remember where it was, but I recall in some old podcast or video of Jeff basically coming right out and saying that they don't give a fuck what anyone in the community thinks and that they just do whatever they want with no regard to what the community wants out of the site. That line has always stuck in my head because I remember it really surprising me when I heard it. Though he also said that they would never have dick pill/dating site style ads on the site and we got those anyway, so who knows.
It's their site to do with as they want. I just hope they can keep enough of what I like about it around. There really isn't anything else out there to fill the void of what I used to get from this site, so I don't want to lose that. I also really dislike the new office. It looks so plain and emotionless. All the other places had this vibe to them that the new one lacks. It's just barren and uninteresting. Hopefully they will get that worked out once they have had more time to get things settled in.
This. No problem expressing your dislikes here and there. Total problem with the non-stop fucking complaining people get on to. Put yourself in Brad, Patrick or Alex's (remember how people didn't like him at first?) shoes. How would you like it if someone almost daily creates a thread in which people posted your name, or a bastardization of it (Kleptok thread stands out right now) and how bad, terrible or otherwise shitty you are? I'll do this exercise. What if I logged on to giant bomb and every day saw a thread that said "mfpantst, you suck at playing games" or "less news stories from mfpantst please" or@Foxtrot0245: Because the 'disliking' of a crew member often turns into bitching about said crew member. We get it, you don't like Patrick (or Brad or whoever). Why do you or any other member need to constantly remind the rest of us? If you don't like something, why do you continue to talk about it? I hate McDonald's, but I don't burst into rage every time I drive by one. I think if you, or anyone else, had anyting constructive to say then I don't think it would be as a big of an issue, but all of these posts and threads might as well boil down into "here's why Patrick sucks" and that isn't helping anything.
But Patrick isn't the only issue, look at the fucking 'Jeff's opinion on GW2' thread. One of the many examples of people turning nothing into a bitchfest. 100+ posts based on a fucking 3 minute discussion that, ultimately, means nothing. He gave his opinion on an hour of gameplay and 99% of the posts in that thread are full of 'here's why Jeff is wrong.' It's not a review. It's not a preview. it's an early impression, at best, if you want to call it that. He didn't tell anyone not to buy it. He didn't say it was a bad game. He just gave his opinion based on what he played and people are looking for any reason to discredit what he said simply because they disagree about a game they've never played, but TotalBiscuit fucking loves it so Jeff has to be wrong.
Oh and let's not forget about Brad. I need not say anymore.
a general complaint thread, such as this one is full of comments "I wish they wouldn't let mfpantst talk on the podcast," or "his laugh is so annoying and he doesn't talk about anything interesting" or "mtpantst fucking sucks at playing video games, I mean why the fuck would he write about them if he can't even play them right."
Seriously. That makes me feel pretty shitty. And I'm a normal person, fairly well grounded, and I've a fairly tough skin (I didn't cry at the beginning of UP either jackasses), but that might make me be pretty upset, and not just like angry upset, but feeling shite about myself upset. Yet you guys think of nothing to do this to people with even more of a face identified to their name than I all because of what? Because you use this site, because you pay money, because your more or less anonymous? It's one thing to note some things you don't like here and there. Like the time Ryan yelled at an intern on a live stream and it didn't totally look like a bit. That didn't seem great, but then he seems like a loyal guy who can just be abrasive. There's nothing wrong with that. What I'm saying is give these guys a break every now and then.
Duder, I'm a Wizard and this list is fucked up. Being a member of the most intellectual site about games on the internet, I understand why they had to go with ads and subscriptions. They needed money. Also, they're trying to get back to where they were before the move content wise. It's hard to talk and play games at the same time (except for awful dreck like Dynasty Warriors, amirite?). I enjoy nothing more than watching them drink beer and tell me how great Saint's Row the Third is. I will defend this staff to the death. You seem like a real outsider with a list like this, probably because you visit some shit site like Kotaku and not the greatest website on Earth, Giant Bomb. I bet you also play 360 instead of the vastly superior PC, you should get one and join the adults. But I'll just let my post count speak for how important this response is...and plenty more.Lack of content.
Elitist community that seem to think they're better than everyone else because they visit a more 'intellectual' website.
The countless 'memes' and 'in-jokes'.
Staff who once said they'd never go down the ads and subscription route, only to do a total U-turn on everything they apparently believed in.
Staff that, for the most part, are terrible at playing games.
Staff with such out-of-whack egos they think people care more about watching them drink and do dumb stuff than actually cover video games.
Staff who ignore and belittle games they've never even tried.
Staff who are unfair to plenty of titles and hardware, and overly complimentary to their favorites.
People in the community who will defend the GB staff to the hilt and suck up to them to no end.
The word 'duder'.
Forum users who refer to people who don't visit GB as 'outsiders'.
Forum users who insist on criticising perfectly fine sites like IGN, Kotaku, Gamespot, etc, just because it's not their cup of tea and they'd bend over backwards to take the flag of GiantBomb right up their anus.
Countless PC elitists ruining the name of the PC community.
Countless forum posters who think they're incredibly important because they've got 50,000 posts.
And plenty more.
But mainly lack of content.
Yes, the food here is terrible, and such small portions.
Did I hit all of them?
Only slightly vexing thing for me is touched on today with the Kinect Star Wars quick look where there were so many features that Brad never really looked into during or before the quick look. I guess I prefer the quick looks where they're informed on the different modes of the game & showing it off or going in completely cold without any time spent playing the finished product. That's all I can think of.
@Kevin_Cogneto: The vast majority of the ME3 ending debacle had nothing to do with player entitlement. Unfortunately there was certain groups of players that decided they wanted to try to get Bioware to change it and that's what the press caught on to. Most discussions was only about how the ending was bad, or the indoctrination theory etc. It wasn't like there was a ton of demands to change the ending. The fact that they spun the story completely that direction was only because that was the newsworthy part. "Group gathers money for charity to change game ending" and "Charity doesn't want to have anything to do with it", those are news headlines, "Game has bad ending" isn't.
What I think Marokai was trying to point out was the fact that the GB crew these days seem way more interested in taking the "I'm part of the gaming industry" stance rather than the "I'm a gamer" stance. Gamers don't give a fuck about news headlines like the ones I mentioned, sure they'll check it out but they'll move on quickly. Gaming Industry people however find stuff like that very interesting, as it brings forth a lot of "interesting topics" like what gaming has evolved into, the classic "are games art?" etc etc. It's a very clear divide between interest in games and interest in gaming.
@James_Giant_Peach said:I've got 2300 posts and this is fucked up :-DDuder, I'm a Wizard and this list is fucked up. Being a member of the most intellectual site about games on the internet, I understand why they had to go with ads and subscriptions. They needed money. Also, they're trying to get back to where they were before the move content wise. It's hard to talk and play games at the same time (except for awful dreck like Dynasty Warriors, amirite?). I enjoy nothing more than watching them drink beer and tell me how great Saint's Row the Third is. I will defend this staff to the death. You seem like a real outsider with a list like this, probably because you visit some shit site like Kotaku and not the greatest website on Earth, Giant Bomb. I bet you also play 360 instead of the vastly superior PC, you should get one and join the adults. But I'll just let my post count speak for how important this response is...and plenty more. Did I hit all of them?Lack of content.
Elitist community that seem to think they're better than everyone else because they visit a more 'intellectual' website.
The countless 'memes' and 'in-jokes'.
Staff who once said they'd never go down the ads and subscription route, only to do a total U-turn on everything they apparently believed in.
Staff that, for the most part, are terrible at playing games.
Staff with such out-of-whack egos they think people care more about watching them drink and do dumb stuff than actually cover video games.
Staff who ignore and belittle games they've never even tried.
Staff who are unfair to plenty of titles and hardware, and overly complimentary to their favorites.
People in the community who will defend the GB staff to the hilt and suck up to them to no end.
The word 'duder'.
Forum users who refer to people who don't visit GB as 'outsiders'.
Forum users who insist on criticising perfectly fine sites like IGN, Kotaku, Gamespot, etc, just because it's not their cup of tea and they'd bend over backwards to take the flag of GiantBomb right up their anus.
Countless PC elitists ruining the name of the PC community.
Countless forum posters who think they're incredibly important because they've got 50,000 posts.
And plenty more.
But mainly lack of content.
Yes, the food here is terrible, and such small portions.
@SpikeSpiegel said:
Couldn't we make a thread about what we like about Giant Bomb instead? We need more positivity on these forums.
@Kevin_Cogneto said:
@Marokai said:
A more secondary concern has been my frustration with Patrick and Jeff, specifically, over their attitude toward the ME3 ending controversy. Either "games journalism" is supposed to matter, or it isn't. You can't have it both ways here, spewing out populist, nice-sounding sentences about how much you want to take a more "serious" approach to covering this industry and looking out for the consumers, and then every time you have a chance to prove it, to side with either the consumer or the ever tempting allure of just siding with whatever popular perception is held by the gaming elite, then siding against the consumer and whatever fanbase is the current target. I say this is secondary because I really do believe this is a symptom of the above problem; just a general side effect of being so out of touch of what the actual mood of the public is, and refusing to make a genuine effort to actually understand. Solve the first problem, and I think you solve a lot of others.Maybe I'm just having difficulty parsing through the verbal labyrinth that is your post, but what exactly are you saying here? That the guys have some sort of obligation to side with some perceived majority of gamers? Their job isn't to "look out for the consumer", whatever that means. Their job is to have opinions about video games. Sometimes those opinions will differ from yours, deal with it.
It's kind of hilarious, actually: the whole debate about the fans' response to the ME3 ending was all about player entitlement, and now apparently that entitlement is being extended to games journalism. "Your opinion is wrong, your job is to look out for my interests, mwaah!"
Jeff has stated before that looking out for the consumer is one of his primary responsibilities; I think the time I specifically remember is the E3 podcast with David Jaffe.
Not that I disagree with what you're saying, but to me, good journalism looks at all sides of an issue and leads the reader through the writer's thought process in trying to reconcile the two sides. A lot of the members of the games press seemed extremely condescending and close-minded when reacting to the ME3 ending fallout.
The lack of any real pc game focus. I think at least one of the guys should be a mainly PC player, and review more PC games, in particular strategy games, which I feel are more or less completely ignored unless its Brad and Dave or maybe Vinny chatting for a bit on the Bombcast.
@sungahymn said:
Once, I was reading on a topic about "whether or not you're a believer of Patrick." One of the complaints against him was that, despite that he says that he doesn't want to spoil it, spoils a part of the game. Having never noticed this, I brushed this off. Until I heard the latest Bombcast, where Patrick said he didn't want to spoil anything, but immediately spoiled two of three major plot(?) twists of the game jam game called Nebula...something. This fact disheartened me as I imagined how pissed off other people would get at a generally okay guy.
This complaint is just one of a few for me of the glorious Bombcast, and it made me wonder what other complaints people have about Giant Bomb...
...In general; not only about Patrick, Brad, Jeff, Ryan, or other people and things.
Klepeck annoys me to no end. I started out giving him a fair shake when other people were saying he was annoying, but all of his little quirks that would be fine in real life are magnified on audio podcasts and quicklooks.
The way he keeps making that "awnht" noise when something goes wrong makes me want to wash out my earholes and then punch him in the face. It's so annoying. Again, it would probably be fine in real life, but weird quirks like that are incredibly magnified on audio programs.
Also. The. Way. He. Starts. Talking. In. Short. Clipped. Sentences. When he starts ranting about something he feels strongly about. These very rants often seem misinformed to me.
Also his "news" posts that state only a few sentenses of news and then devolve into personal experiences and opinions.
I get that the dude is just being himself, but when you put yourself out there as an "entertainer"... this is the kind fo stuff people focus on.
@James_Giant_Peach said:
Lack of content.
Elitist community that seem to think they're better than everyone else because they visit a more 'intellectual' website.
The countless 'memes' and 'in-jokes'.
Staff who once said they'd never go down the ads and subscription route, only to do a total U-turn on everything they apparently believed in.
Staff that, for the most part, are terrible at playing games.
Staff with such out-of-whack egos they think people care more about watching them drink and do dumb stuff than actually cover video games.
Staff who ignore and belittle games they've never even tried.
Staff who are unfair to plenty of titles and hardware, and overly complimentary to their favorites.
People in the community who will defend the GB staff to the hilt and suck up to them to no end.
The word 'duder'.
Forum users who refer to people who don't visit GB as 'outsiders'.
Forum users who insist on criticising perfectly fine sites like IGN, Kotaku, Gamespot, etc, just because it's not their cup of tea and they'd bend over backwards to take the flag of GiantBomb right up their anus.
Countless PC elitists ruining the name of the PC community.
Countless forum posters who think they're incredibly important because they've got 50,000 posts.
And plenty more.
But mainly lack of content.
Yes, the food here is terrible, and such small portions.
I agree with a lot of the things you said, but I feel like Jeff was pretty up front about the fact that they would continue running an adless site as long as that made sense to do financially. I mean, Jeff doesn't ever really come off as a guy who's full of love for the users and integrity for the site. He comes off as a guy who loves videogames and the game industry. He made Giant Bomb to have a job. Not as some kind of revoution. I've always given him credit for being up front about that.
I also agree that the staff is unfair to a lot of games. I particularly hate the pack mentality that used to be more prevalent. One person would mention a game, usually jeff, and everyone else would follow his lead even if it became evident that htey had never played the game or didn't remember it well.
I don't like to gripe - I like a lot of GiantBomb's stuff, and even when I don't it doesn't bother me. It must be said, though, that, as nice a guy as he seems to be, Patrick certainly lacks the natural charisma and ability to entertain that the other guys have. Unfortunately, he seems to be more of an on-camera/on-mic presence than anyone recently, for various reasons.
More quick looks of PC stuff would be good, but I understand that (at least last I knew) they don't have a gaming PC set up yet. Really, I'd love them to bring in a full-time PC gaming person. In the last couple of months there's been loads of good PC games coming out that would have made for good video content while the consoles have been a bit of a desert.
*holds out for a Shogun 2: Fall of the Samurai TNT*
I feel in an awkward spot, since I have two major dislikes and they could both be causal to one another.
Firstly I think this community is so full of shit it's unbelievable. I don't like the internet so maybe I'm just not desensitised enough, but Jesus Christ people in these forums seem so malicious, ignorant and unwilling to question their views it's astounding. I think too often they treat the staff with contempt, leaving personal attacks in the comments that put on clear display their complete lack of empathy.
And then my second dislike is that the staff seem unwilling to try and communicate with the community, and generally treat them as unwanted. Again, I understand because the community seems full of cunts, but I'd appreciate some kind of courtesy or respect from the staff. Of course I'd love for that be in tandem with incredibly harsh call-outs of the complete and utter dicks present in the community.
Does this make sense? Oh well.
I wish they actually cared about JRPGs or even RPGs in general. There are some great games out this gen that seem to go very ignored by the crew. Tales of Graces f for example and Xenoblade which Pattrick has played 20 minutes of (as of the recent bombcast).
@Drebin_893: It makes sense, but I think their unwillingness to communicate with the community comes from the community being the internet, and thus full of bumbling fools. These guys have been on the internet for a long time. They're probably extremely tired of dealing with idiots on the web badgering them with inane comments and questions.
@ds8k: That's very true. And to be honest, who could blame them for not wanting to bother with this community.
@Drebin_893 said:
Firstly I think this community is so full of shit it's unbelievable.
You mean the community that you're part of and have freely chosen to interact with over 2000 times?
@Drebin_893 said:
... my second dislike is that the staff seem unwilling to try and communicate with the community, and generally treat them as unwanted. ...
That, frankly, is some Grade A crazy right there.
It's the very fact that the staff communicate with the users so much in a myriad of different ways (including being on 2 panels at PAX ths weekend, creating hour long "Jar" videos or playing games with the community live while they chat along with them) that brings many people in to the site.
@James_Giant_Peach said:
Lack of content.
Elitist community that seem to think they're better than everyone else because they visit a more 'intellectual' website.
The countless 'memes' and 'in-jokes'.
Staff who once said they'd never go down the ads and subscription route, only to do a total U-turn on everything they apparently believed in.
Staff that, for the most part, are terrible at playing games.
Staff with such out-of-whack egos they think people care more about watching them drink and do dumb stuff than actually cover video games.
Staff who ignore and belittle games they've never even tried.
Staff who are unfair to plenty of titles and hardware, and overly complimentary to their favorites.
People in the community who will defend the GB staff to the hilt and suck up to them to no end.
The word 'duder'.
Forum users who refer to people who don't visit GB as 'outsiders'.
Forum users who insist on criticising perfectly fine sites like IGN, Kotaku, Gamespot, etc, just because it's not their cup of tea and they'd bend over backwards to take the flag of GiantBomb right up their anus.
Countless PC elitists ruining the name of the PC community.
Countless forum posters who think they're incredibly important because they've got 50,000 posts.
And plenty more.
But mainly lack of content.
Yes, the food here is terrible, and such small portions.
All legitimate gripes IMO. I agree with many of your points except "duder". I like duder, duder. :p Also, I don't think it's the guys ego's that is fueling the kind of "dumb stuff" non-video game content you are referring to. I think they produce that sort of stuff because the vast majority of users here like and demand that kind of content. They've managed to create a site where users would watch them eat pancakes and crack jokes for 2 hours and demand more when it's over! If I could make a living out of just being goofy and myself on the internet, I would do the same thing. I personally don't watch those videos, but I think I'm in the minority.
The biggest thing I don't like about this place is how poorly moderated the community forums are. I mean, a harmless youtube thread will get locked in seconds, yet when one member calls another member a "fag" or a "fucking asshole" the moderators just let it go. No warning, no ban, nothing. I find that completely unacceptable and IMO it drags the community name in the dirt. Vile personal insults should not be tolerated, plain and simple.
@Marokai said:
I suppose my biggest problem with Giant Bomb at this stage in it's life is the increasing sense that they are further and further out of reach from us. That they are increasingly contemptuous of their own community, not for any specific reason at this point, but reflexively. That they seem increasingly out of touch from the general mood of the public here, and that they care less and less about it in general. This has been more and more noticeable since the introduction of the subscription model way back in the heady days of 2010, but really has reached new highs with the CBSi acquisition of GB and the Mass Effect controversy, among other events of March. Not only do they post on their own forums less, and seem less conciliatory toward their users in general, they seem to now live their lives as if most of the community here doesn't really exist, as best they can.
I really couldn't get where you were coming from, until you mentioned "subscription" and I realized you aren't a subscriber yourself. I don't say that in a condescending way or anything, I just mean that I think this is where the discrepancy lies. Most of their more "personal" videos are behind that pay wall, like Jar Time which is literally hours and hours of Jeff answering questions from the community, the "Whiskey Media" Podcast where Dave and whoever else does the same thing, and just a bunch of random videos that show them goofing off while often answering chat questions at the same time. I've never at all gotten a sense that they're drifting away from the community, and either it's your imagination or I'm benefitting from being able to watch their premium videos. Probably a bit of both. You look to be taking it too personally that they aren't stomping around the forums as much as they used to, but that kinda comes with becoming more busy as the site grows. I'm just glad that they're still producing the same videos that I've always come for, and the fact that they've made so many videos of them playing around in the new office and being honest about the process is still a refreshing thing to me. You talk as if they've ceased to be just "Jeff" or "Brad" or "Vinny" and so on, but that's still all I know them as. Heck, ask me to qualify them with a title and I wouldn't know what to tell you. Jeff's just Jeff.
Only shame is that so much of their best stuff is premium. Although, I can understand why they'd want to keep things like Jar Time there, because anyone who doesn't feel invested in the personalities of the site would be hard-pressed to care about a guy talking to himself in his bedroom. But if you're a subscriber, then almost-necessarily that kind of personal touch is the thing you're looking for in Giant Bomb.
Shrug! Either way, I have a feeling that once things settle down in the new place they'll have less administrative nonsense to worry about and even more time for antics.
@Drebin_893: I agree, although I have to say that there are plenty of people in the community and right here in this thread that demonstrate the maturity to question their own opinions, if not change them. People who are trying to be better people who get obscured in the overall view by the intensity of others.
@SlasherMan said:
@Canteu said:
That the majority of the editorial staff are abysmal at video games and lack basic video game skills and awareness that even a casual player would have.
Surprising given their profession.
Also... Not a fan of Patrick. I think the Bombcasts were better before he joined. And yes, he did spoil a few games for me, too.
Also, somehow, despite being a "professional writer" he never proofreads anything and regularly uploads articles with typos.
The part where it's on the Internet.
If GiantBomb could somehow cut the "Internet" part out of their product, that would be fantastic. Why? Because the Internet allows for a bunch of socially inadequate, whiny jerks to interact with each other and everyone else.
I don't really care a whole lot about video games (i.e. nothing really upsets me, like Mass Effect 3's ending or what have you), but I enjoy playing them when I get the time. For the last 4 years, the site has served as a great alternative to TV; likeable "characters," content related to my main hobby, and a good smattering of comedy. Their plan of making their content based around the personalities on the site has worked to provide great purchasing advice for me, as well.
But every once in a while, I'll have a half hour between lectures, and I'll come across the forums. It's like watching a girl disrobe, then when she strips off her bra you see a giant swastika under one of the cups. That seething issue lying beneath the beautiful surface: the Internet.
However, you're all entitled to your opinions, and I won't judge you for them; the above is my personal opinion. We can discuss our subjective opinions in a civilized fashion, and if we can't change each other's minds, we can agree to disagree, and move forward as friends (if we mesh as such. If not, no hard feelings).
@James_Giant_Peach said:
Lack of content.
Elitist community that seem to think they're better than everyone else because they visit a more 'intellectual' website.
The countless 'memes' and 'in-jokes'.
Staff who once said they'd never go down the ads and subscription route, only to do a total U-turn on everything they apparently believed in.
Staff that, for the most part, are terrible at playing games.
Staff with such out-of-whack egos they think people care more about watching them drink and do dumb stuff than actually cover video games.
Staff who ignore and belittle games they've never even tried.
Staff who are unfair to plenty of titles and hardware, and overly complimentary to their favorites.
People in the community who will defend the GB staff to the hilt and suck up to them to no end.
The word 'duder'.
Forum users who refer to people who don't visit GB as 'outsiders'.
Forum users who insist on criticising perfectly fine sites like IGN, Kotaku, Gamespot, etc, just because it's not their cup of tea and they'd bend over backwards to take the flag of GiantBomb right up their anus.
Countless PC elitists ruining the name of the PC community.
Countless forum posters who think they're incredibly important because they've got 50,000 posts.
And plenty more.
But mainly lack of content.
Yes, the food here is terrible, and such small portions.
- Still a small team.
- I do happen to think this community is better than everyone else.
- You siri?
- Show me where anyone ever said they would never have ads. Do you even know how the internet works? Money doesn't just fall from the sky because you made a cool website.
- Not sure what you would want them to do about that. This isn't MLG.
- Numbers don't lie. People do want to watch them drink and do stuff. You're the minority.
- When does that happen?
- People have bias. Everyone does.
- Oh shit, am I doing that right now?
- Too bad.
- Well, if they aren't from the site and they are from the outside, what would you like to call them?
- Giant Bomb is way better than all those sites.
- Agreed.
- No one here has anywhere close to 50,000 posts.
- Do tell.
@munnyman5 said:
The part where it's on the Internet.
If GiantBomb could somehow cut the "Internet" part out of their product, that would be fantastic. Why? Because the Internet allows for a bunch of socially inadequate, whiny jerks to interact with each other and everyone else.
I don't really care a whole lot about video games (i.e. nothing really upsets me, like Mass Effect 3's ending or what have you), but I enjoy playing them when I get the time. For the last 4 years, the site has served as a great alternative to TV; likeable "characters," content related to my main hobby, and a good smattering of comedy. Their plan of making their content based around the personalities on the site has worked to provide great purchasing advice for me, as well.
But every once in a while, I'll have a half hour between lectures, and I'll come across the forums. It's like watching a girl disrobe, then when she strips off her bra you see a giant swastika under one of the cups. That seething issue lying beneath the beautiful surface: the Internet.
However, you're all entitled to your opinions, and I won't judge you for them; the above is my personal opinion. We can discuss our subjective opinions in a civilized fashion, and if we can't change each other's minds, we can agree to disagree, and move forward as friends (if we mesh as such. If not, no hard feelings).
Well said. I didn't realize it until you said it, but I basically just watch Giant Bomb videos instead of TV nowadays.
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