insidergamer

Hey Tyler,

I don't know you and your situation, but if I could impart a few thoughts here and there -- I think life is inherently unfair. Many are simply born into a life of luxury and comfort (and with it, access to education and advancement and so forth), and many more are not, manytimes, simply by virtue of birth.

Think about it. For many here born in the 'Western' world, we are very fortunate for reasons we had nothing to do with. We don't choose where we were born, or our parents, our genetics and so forth. Not to sound overly deterministic, we do with what we have, but to say life has any inherent 'fairness' to it is misleading. What am I trying to get at? To love oneself wholly, I think, is impossible. I think many could say they are fairly satisified with themselves in the sense of societal norms or standards, but I wouldn't be too fooled.

I don't know you, Tyler, and how you measure your sense of self-worth enough to make this kind of post. But I hope you're not measuring it based on others and a worldly measure of success, because it's often flawed. A person is significantly more than they are able to outwardly show. Think about it. Even among your closest relationships you've ever had, who could you say understands the 'real' YOU unequivocally? I think the answer for most everyone, if they honestly assess, is really no one.

A thought and quick reflection from someone way smarter and eloquent than I once said that real worth, moral worth, comes from duty without inclination. Without going into greater detail, imagine a man that lives a fairly good life, and enjoys the comforts that come along with it. For him to go on living is easy. He has every reason to go on living because life itself is enjoyable. But that in itself has no moral worth.

Now imagine the following. A man down on his luck, impoverished, maybe having lost his wife, children and extended family and has nothing to live for. Should he continue living? Now if he were to, according to Kant, that constitutes real moral worth and is absolutely worthy of commendation. That man has no reason to live by societal conventions, but chooses to regardless, trudging through his great suffering and difficulty. You tell me which man is worthy of greater commendation in the grander scope of things.

Again, what am I trying to get at? At the end of life, no one has a full scoreboard of one's life and accomplishments that fully accounts for their hardships and difficulties in life. And that's partly everyone's fault, for being human as we are and judging things on the surface as we often do. So many times we ask another 'what do you do?' or 'what do you study?' as a measure of their person (well, among other reasons), but how that falters in truly knowing someone for their full worth...

All I can say to you, Tyler, is be strong, and if you feel under-appreciated, to recognize the world's standard may makes sense from a humanly pragmatic standpoint, but fails on a true, comphrensive level. You say you love others, prove it, and help them by sticking it though and having a genuine story to tell that most here simply cannot. Remember, regardless of what others may say, you're no worse than anyone else. We were all born of this earth, and will all eventually cease to be. The greatest man could scarcely add more to their time on this rock. You have that same time, don't waste it -- use it.

I also don't know what you believe. But if you do believe in a higher power, I think it would make sense they are above our human frailities and limitations and actually know you for who you truly are. Don't give up. PM me if you feel like it

(Sorry for ALL the words)

Cheers --

@Tim_the_Corsair said:

Vinny and Ryan losing their shit when Riker revealed himself as Satan in that celebrity poker game. Especially when followed up by Jeff's "fuck you guys,"

Yeah, for those that have not seen this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sx5n0nDXQJ0#t=05m26s

@BisonHero said:

@InsiderGamer said:

Dead Island's Truck Wars - http://www.giantbomb.com/quick-look-dead-island/17-4837/

Jeff: "Brad, you fill up the cans with gas ...we have a truck thing to settle!"

Ryan: "My money's on Blue Truck, fuck Red Truck!"

Jeff: "Red Truck is better than Blue Truck!"

Ryan: "Red Truck sucks! Hit Red Truck!"

[Blue Truck slams into Red Truck]

"YEEEEAH!"

That whole exchange was PURE GOLD.

Not to be a dick, but isn't that entire exchange from the Dead Island TNT? The Quick Look you linked to was entirely singleplayer, plus Jeff wasn't even present.

Nonetheless, you are right about that TNT being pretty great, at least in the first half. The back half got a little weird between Brad and Patrick.

Oh whoops! You're totally right -- my bad!

The DI Quick-Look was only OK then, not anything special (besides Brad showing he's somewhat competent at it; though for the TNT, he seemed to show a large disregard for the weapon durability system -- was whacking at things with 0% durability...a lot).

If nothing else, the devs should really implement voice chat (with a good codec) *in-game*. At the very least, you might get thanked or get some well-deserved kudos from your fellow team/squad.

@Unknown_Pleasures said:

@oatz said:

It means the Quick Look will probably be boring.

We have a winner.

We have a winner touting a winner. Winner inception

Dead Island's Truck Wars - http://www.giantbomb.com/quick-look-dead-island/17-4837/

Jeff: "Brad, you fill up the cans with gas ...we have a truck thing to settle!"

Ryan: "My money's on Blue Truck, fuck Red Truck!"

Jeff: "Red Truck is better than Blue Truck!"

Ryan: "Red Truck sucks! Hit Red Truck!"

[Blue Truck slams into Red Truck]

"YEEEEAH!"

That whole exchange was PURE GOLD.

@Geo7877 said:

I agree. The ERs should be seperated too, it's a pain trying to get to an episode of the P4 one and having to go back 9-10 pages to find it.

I also agree that TNTs should be better labeled. The titles only have the date it took place, and sometimes the description doesn't even say the game(s).

Absolutely. Posting to bump THIS and all other suggestions up. Videos are what make GiantBomb very appealing to many (as well as convince them to subscribe -- ex. me). Better organization of these key assets can only help.

Higher the better! When I play PC games on my rig, I try to tune down as many details as possible, aiming for about 70-80 FPS, especially for competitive online FPS. I don't do this for any tangential reason other than to reduce liability when playing competitive stuff and lower FPS irks my eyes in a way that *I* personally notice.

I also have to add, this crazy "leveling up" stuff on Giant Bomb is pretty cool. (I'm Level 6 now, yay!) Like, I don't intentionally (well...sometimes) go after these GB achievements or whatever you want to call them, but it's cool that GB's love of games extends even into the site's base functionality. Some cool coding, bros.

(Though, I will say, I wish the silly fade animations when look through video comments were totally not there. Less animations! And a "See all comments" link like YouTube does with its videos would be great. Sometimes a video is great not NECESSARILY because of its content -- though typically that is the case -- but for the awesome comments you know will spring out of it.)

@Moreau_MD: "I guess the reason I wrote what I did very much comes down to the Patrick interview...that pissed me off. He acted as if he was somehow in a position to offer pearls of wisdom, not just about games journalism, but about the whole idea of journalism itself...Some of my relatives work in journalism and the picture he gave of it was just plain wrong in most cases, not to mention rather cookie cutter...The problem is, is that a number of young aspiring writers may listen to what he's saying and actually take it on board- damaging their chances and leading them to make uninformed decisions as a result. His advice is both too basic and unrealistic."
---

So I managed to re-read the entire thread just to find out why all this back-and-forth between forumites. And honestly, I see Moreau_MD's point. When someone argues as fervently as he does, I try to make it a point to develop an informed opinion of what was written, because everyone has a frame of reference and a rationale for why they wrote what they did. Sometimes these people are just loons, but the man makes a fair, if not unpopular, point.

The reason why I love GB is I was a fan of the editors back in the GS days (through their video features/reviews/etc.) and this thread's interviews are interesting to me because I think it's interesting how GB came to be: How Jeff managed to found the site, do it 'his way' (however good or bad), attract his fellow buddies to join, and make it as popular as it is now. (How financially successful they are, I have no idea.) Just to have the balls to go out there and make something out of nothing is notable in my eyes and pangs of a certain sense of entrepreneurialism. Greg's interview should be attractive to many as well. Most will not go into games development here, but to see his trek from editorialism to the games development track is kinda inspiring. Not everyone dares to pursue their dreams.

Jeff and Greg's positions are not deity-like, but yeah, I hope most recognize that. Anyway, the above are MY reasons for enjoying the interviews, whether Moreau_MD thinks they're legit or not.

ANYWAY -- getting back on track, I can see Moreau_MD's point on the Patrick interview. I like Patrick, I didn't necessarily at first, but he's proven himself to be a knowledgeable, clever, and entertaining face on GB *to me*. As stated, Moreau_MD's trying to say people worship GB more than they should, and Patrick's advice might actually be harmful to people that take their word for more than they should. Makes sense. The impression I get, anyway, is that in this industry, some can simply 'fall' into it by being at the right place at the right time (true for many things, but seems really relevant with something as 'new' as videogames, as the interviews pointed out as well). Therefore to speak as though getting a position at GB was a very intentional, standardized process and offer advice based on this might seem...too much for what it actually is. I would assume Moreau_MD would rather Patrick make his statements with a little more humility?

But the way I see it, Patrick's answer is fair. It's what he did to get to where he was, and when asked a question, he responded genuinely. We don't know Patrick's credentials, he could be far more than what he shows off at GB, I don't think it's great to make too many assumptions. But Patrick alone (or whoever) should not be responsible for ensuring that all that ask, receive good career advice. So then it goes back to Moreau's earlier point, that we should treat these interviews appropriately and that ultimately we're responsible for not taking their words further than they should go. Part of that involves not putting them up on a pedestal. So Moreau's point makes sense to me.

However, and he should know this already, when Giant Bomb's competitive edge is its PEOPLE, it's difficult to expect the community to, as a whole, do this. We saw a recent thread in the General Discussion asking people why they come to GB (Wiki, Reviews, News, what?), and MANY responded it was simply the dudes that made GB, GB. If you take even one editor (say Vinny) out, but keep the structure of the site the same, the site will have lost out *big-time*. It's a blessing and a curse. A blessing in that, since it's the quality of the people that make people subscribe, the editors can do just about anything, and people will come. A curse in that, when editors inevitably leave (you can't expect these guys to stick around *forever*), what happens to the site? GB will hope to have spent this time building an enduring culture of talking about videogames freely, openly and in such an entertaining manner that it extends beyond the duration of its current editors.

But Moreau_MD, while I see your point -- bro, you could have been nicer about it to everyone. If you wanna be like that to everyone, you can do what you like, but don't be surprised if people fixate more on the ways you expressed your point over your point itself, however correct or incorrect. Maybe you're not surprised and already know this. In that case, as Vinny might say, "Tsssh!" (How's that for worship?)

@qraham: Yeah man, I'm up for you making more of these threads. Think it's a good way to get the word out. (I've seen at least one other thread link back to yours already.)