breton

Not really. But only because of the stark contrast of personalities between him and Geoff. Geoff's just a soulless public relations marketing lapdog who will sweet talk your game in front of a camera and Joel is someone who wants to mock the fact that he's in the middle of a three hour long advertisement - together they make an awkward team. I think what could be said is I might enjoy a VGA with Joel solo hosting and I know I won't enjoy a VGA with Geoff present.

Well the great thing to take from this is that the only way a company will review its employees, policies, and decisions is in the face of an internet shitstorm. People say to be level headed and well reasoned offer criticism and not hyperbole but event after event were being conditioned that the only time things will change is when shit hits the fan.

I like to agree with Jeff as he said in the 2011 GoTY deliberations "It's a bummer that this entire game can't come up with one quest line that is as good as something they wrote five years ago" and for me not even enjoying Oblivion either.

I'm glad Vinny introduced so many people to Sleepy Dogs. It's really an amazing game that would have lost by a landslide, if even included, if not for him.

@jarowdowsky: I don't think anyone's trying to dictate what they're allowed to publish. Only expressing their feelings on the directions of a site they've been a fan of for years and would like to continue to be. Do they not have that right? Especially the paid members. Of course the Giant Bomb crew also have the right to ignore them, which most companies tend to do. But it's weird to see people trying to shoot down any criticism or dialogue on the basis of "this is their site they can do what they want" or "look jeff said it therefor it's the right thing to do" as if he's an infallible god and outside of criticism. Yeah, they can do whatever they want, it is their site. It doesn't necessarily mean they should or they're not burning some people by doing it. But the site's pretty much a slower Kotaku already so whatever.

Nice rationalization of your autism insult though.

@driveuplife: You forgot the rest of his sentence.

People shouldn't be surprised, upset, morally outraged, embarrassed to be part of the gaming community or anything of the sort. It's an internet poll. An internet poll. Something that really holds no weight and the result will be forgotten in two days. However, as The Consumerist wrote in one of their articles: "The point of this contest, now in its 8th year, is to enable consumers to send a message to a company that provides goods or services to them. Winning this contest means your customers are trying to tell you something." Jimbo said it well:

The greater issue is that it's not even about jokes or bullshit or tricking people. It's just the annual make something up day and everyone says "oh ha you made that up". People really have to start their April fools jokes months in advance, generate buzz on it whether it's positive or negative, then on April 1st tell everyone it was a lie. It would have the double effect of people expecting something to be an April fools joke and then when April 1st comes around they find that the company is actually serious.

@patman99: You're right, it's not that big of a deal and I don't know if Ryan used a rhetoric in the podcast to suggest otherwise. But asshole is casual term for me, and it's less so the fact that the person is doing it so much as their lack of empathy/care about the other person that makes them one. I don't quietly rage the whole flight, I get upset the moment I notice a person is actually going to do it and adjust for the rest of the flight. Yeah I could tell the person my gripe, but, now my social awkwardness will show, calling someone out on being an asshole is an asshole move in itself (case in point: the OP of this thread clearly took negative reaction to the accusation). And other people have posited the idea of asking the person behind you if it's okay to lean back, but what are people going to say? No? That's also being an asshole - just outright refusal of someone asking to do something isn't really socially appropriate.

Yeah, we screw ourselves over by being nice and not looking for confrontation. But it would be nicer if other people were nice and could comprehend why they shouldn't lean their seat back in the first place.

@hector: I think you're trying to be silly with the theatre analogy as you're comparing a conscious choice to a biological disposition, but I'm 6'1" and am always conscious of people behind me and slouch. I sacrifice my own comfort (slouching isn't really uncomfortable) because I'm nice and am able to empathize with the person behind me who would be getting pissed off every time my head moves in front of their field of vision - as I have had happen to me when some tall asshole sits in front of me and doesn't care about anyone but himself.

@eskimo said:

Hardly. Everyone complains about public services (though planes are technically private). But being given a shitty service is not an excuse to be a dick and make it worse for everyone else.