The reason that I got frustrated listening to these podcasts is that this is a vocation. These people spend their working lives (and part of their personal lives) playing, writing and commenting on the state of games. To have such meagre worthwhile discussion was a serious disappointment. Ben was the only one who seemed to speak with any preparation and truly consider the opinions and points brought up by other staff members. I had always liked Abby; now I can't stand her.
Exactly this. I don't want to be mean towards Abby, but where did the humble Abby go when she first joined GiantBomb? She was choosing her moments then, which made her a likeable extra addition to the Giant Bomb crew. But as time progressed, she got more & more arrogant, cocky and I found that she was annoyingly forcing herself on the scene. The GOTY podcasts was the ultimate conclusion of all of this & I'm sad this happened, as I really was happy when she joined.
I really did enjoy Abby's involvement with Steal My Sunshine and the Giant Beastcast. She definitely added a great dynamic to Alex, Dan, and especially Vinny. But the arrogance and cockiness she had towards some games before the GOTY Deliberations caught me off guard. I felt a sense of dread when the GOTY podcast came near. She basically said that she did not want to play Persona 5 because she didn't want to spend 90 hours playing an anime.
I thought to myself, that's fine. It's not her thing. Hell, not many staff members on GB play JRPGs. The only GB coverage of Persona 5 was a Jeff and Vinny Quick Look, posted by Drew, playing off the old ER nostalgia. I was still pleased that Jan, Alex, and Ben mentioned the game on their top ten list.
Same thing with Nier, I played the game for a bit and it didn't click. I was shocked to see how many people liked the game. But then came the holiday videos. I noticed the tension from the GOTY deliberation spill onto the set when they played Jackbox Party Pack. Yeah, the t-shirt slogan "Nier isn't that good" is funny, but when Abby says, "Imma get that shirt" I rolled my eyes. I don't get the hate for the game. Like someone said in this thread, they tried Nier and didn't like it. They understood why people liked it but it wasn't their thing. Cool. But they didn't just shit on the game because it didn't click. I couldn't stop rolling my eyes when I heard the negative responses on the game during the deliberations.
Jeff argued that Fallout 4 was the Most Disappointing Game of 2015 because Bethesda rehashed Fallout 3 adding only base building. I understood why he was disappointed. He claimed it was broken and the MC's story had potential but it was lacking. Austin clapped back with saying he thought the side stories was good and we should have expected the same game from before. I played the game and I respected both their points of view. Everyone came together on that argument. Sure, it was heated but it was a valid discussion. I don't think we ever had that type of meaningful discussion this year.
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