Hat, meet ring.
By Tylea002 5 Comments
Well, hello everyone!
It's been a while, hasn't it? Don't worry, I'm only just popping bac-OH MY GOD WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH THE PLACE?! Screaming children everywhere. Dear lord. This is going to take some cleaning up. Yes, of course, I am talking about this whole Bombcast thing. The whole thing. You know, that thing. Yeah, that one. Well, here's my stance. I know everyone's made their own little post and or blog and everything, but yo, I have an opinion, and I shall damn well write it. It's a simple one, but one which I will obviously feel compelled to write a full on essay deconstructing or something. God knows why. Podcasts, by their very nature, are a different sort of content. They are not live videos. They are not quick looks. They are their own beasts. A group of people talk into microphones, minimal editing occurs, and we listen to the result. This is the ideal. And the Giant Bombcast is one of the most successful podcasts that exists at this moment in time. Or, last week. I don't know what's going to happen going forward. And I shall watch, as an observer.
The internet is a strange place. It allows equality, greater contact and a false relationship between those that create content and those that consume it. The kind of relationship that is in itself a fallacy, founded on the belief that it is the opposite of what it is. Or something like that. Words confuse me. GiantBomb, and Whiskey as a whole, have made a name for themselves with honesty and integrity. Or at least, that's what they'd claim. But it's not really honesty and integrity at all. Honesty and Integrity are impossible ideals to make money on the internet. The name they have built has not been built by them at all, but by an expecting group of people, sometimes collectively referred to as a "Community."
You may have noticed I've avoided even mentioning the meat of the issue here, the Bombcast split thing. I like to ramble, I really do. I shall discuss it with myself now. The move is not one of sheer horror in of itself. It's the unveiling of a curtain, the revealing that these 4 guys round a microphone are there to make money. It's their jobs, after all, one would assume you'd have worked that out. But before now, many people have chosen to ignore that fact. And now it's been forced into the spotlight of their minds, and knee jerk reactions will fly all over the place. Using words like "Betrayed." They never owed you anything. They can therefore, not betray you, only go a route which you did not wish them to take.
The real tragedy is the Hypocrisy of the situation. Just last week, a certain Ryan Davis was lamenting PAX, and how it's gotten too big and corporate. How the feel, the heart of it may be being sacrificed for increased monetary gain. The irony almost makes me chuckle.
I'm not angry at Giant Bomb. The Bombcast has always been fun, it's kept me going on dark days, and I'll stay listening. I think. But the damage has been done. The format is no issue - the fact that it's so clear they are planning and monetizing the format is. It's something that's blindingly obvious, that we all knew from the beginning, but now the elephant in the room has brought the house down, we've gone into a state of panic. No matter who picks up the pieces, it'll still be a broken home.
And with that terribly emo last line, I leave you all. I shall not be supporting whiskey with my money. At least, not yet. My only real enjoyment on the site is the Bombcast. And with this sheer huge community uproar, I don't know how it's going to feel to listen to the next one. It'll be an interesting experience. Maybe one day, I'll decide that it's worth it, that my measly money is worth spending. I'm not angry. I'm not betrayed. I'm just a bit "Eh, alright then." Though, I do want to see what Endogene would think of this. Can I still make jokes about that? I've been away for a while.
Ta, ta