Quick Look: Fitness Boxing

Part of my day job is tech support. People call in tickets, and then I have to gather the info, contact all of the associated parties, look into the possible causes, do testing on potential solutions, implement the solution and then call everyone back to let them know it's fixed. I deal with about 40 tickets per day. All the customer knows is that they've called in a ticket, and then they get a call back when I have an update or I'm done.

Do you know how often I get people calling back in because I haven't given them an update in the last 30 minutes? Or looking to follow up with a ticket that I've told them I have to hand off to a third party for further investigation? I waste hours per week dealing with impatient customerts whose interference only leads to their ticket being open even longer. If I spent the time to document what an actual day in my job was like for people who thought I sat around doing nothing at all, instead of doing my job, I would literally never close a ticket.

I'm sorry if I seem irate but the idea that they're doing nothing when the cameras aren't rolling is so furiously ignorant that I have a hard time believing anybody could be posing these questions without it being a joke that's simply gone over my head. They don't need to record and post every single hour of their day for their off-camera work to be legitimate, and I guarantee you that it's mostly tedium and busywork and they don't much enjoy doing it either. They certainly don't owe it to anyone to actually prove that they're doing something worthwhile. it's like demanding an actor do a bit for you in a grocery store or asking a rapper to freestyle if you bump into them on the street. There are other things that go on in the background and it's nobody else's business to demand that they jump when they're asked to.

I have criticisms of GB but this particular one, the idea that there isn't enough video and they owe us an explanation for that, is the worst one that seems to come up over and over again.

ANYWAY.

The part where Abby said you could see the "whole ass" of the little punching men had me dying.

I think when you're both doing you're supposed to face each other and stand pretty close together, and you should probably have headgear on.

all i could hear was 'Clarence the Puppet' from Wundershowzen when that woman would speak... haha

https://youtu.be/Ec16nQOzWhE

Not bad, overall. The goal is the get in shape and build stamina, and if this gets people into doing that, then its worth it. However, I'd recommend using this as an entry tool and eventually start looking at expert workout videos once you've gotten used to exercising. There are plenty of free videos on Youtube that have full workouts, even ones that use boxing as a base.

Not a 50 dollar purchase but there's a demo. If you want to get up off your ass for a bit this isn't bad.

@the_nubster: Well said.

I got an ad during this video. I have always used the YouTube player in the past and never caught an ad before, I thought this was weird. Yes I am signed in.

I honestly don't care how they spend their days at work since i'm not the one writing their checks. However, almost all the stuff your listed they rarely to never do.

Yeah, if you up the speed and intensity, you can get a pretty good workout.

My main beef is the songs... not that they're bad but they are indeed kind of cheepy synth versions of them.

I know it's early in the year... But this is a contender for quick look of the year.

@luciddreams117: wait...what was the best Quick Look of 2018?!

weirdly okay at instructing folks on how to punch, but the combos seem fake as hell

Music licensing is kind of interesting. Weirdly enough, the rules were initially created because songwriters feared that the introduction of the player piano would lead to a drop in the sales of sheet music. The law was changed to give them royalties on "mechanical reproductions" of songs but also made song writing subject to COMPULSORY licensing.

In short, you don't need permission to record, sell, or distribute a cover of a song, as long as you pay royalties to the songwriter and don't "change the basic melody or fundamental character of the work". (Although in practice, mostly they purchase the rights from an organization like Harry Fox Agency that the songwriter allows to sell licenses on their behalf. The compulsory rate just sets a ceiling for how much they charge.)

If you want to use the actual sound recordings of Lady Gaga, and you aren't a terrestrial radio station, you have to also license "master use" rights from the owner of the recording (usually the record company). It's usually cheaper to hire someone to record a cover. I don't know if there's an audionetwork-like company that makes a whole bunch of covers for others to license, but it wouldn't surprise me.

Finally, to use the music with any visuals (e.g., in a movie, TV show, or video game), you need to license the "synchronization rights" from the songwriter or publisher, again usually through an organization like ASCAP.

@monkeyking1969: Almost certain the english voice isn't a person, it's a robo voice

@steveurkel: They're still recovering from Mario party.

@gee_rad Thank you. Interesting!

@nethlem: This is like when a kid assumes that teaching is an easy job because they only see the teacher working till 2:30pm, and they get summers "off".

@grondoth: Ha, noticed that too.

The characters looked odd to me at first... I'm like, is this anime or someone mimicking anime? Looked up the developer, and yes it is anime with those perfect anime bodies. Not complaining, just something that stood out for some reason.

You Know What? Sometime Shit's Hard: The Vinny Caravella Workout

Sheesh, who's idea was it to replace the Wii Fit Trainers with Style Savvy All Growed Up?

Really? Do the kids usually ask what goes on during the summers, to get informed how teachers also spend that time working, by grading and preparing classes, or do they just assume? Did I assume or did I ask and maybe even make it a feature suggestion?

Or are you honestly denying that the "behind the scenes" feel has heavily suffered in these past few years? Maybe you want to point me towards all the written features that take up all their time? Right, there are no more.

In that context, I think it's a legit question to ask: What goes on between those QL and regular features? Being aware of that was one of the factors that made GB stand out back when it was still under Whiskey Media, by now it feels completely gone.

Missing the times where one could see the piles of empty boxes grow between mailbag Mondays and just curious what the average day at the office looks like these days.

On the subject of what goes on behind the scenes. I dug up a post from Vinny on NeoGaf (RIP) from a few years back that outlines a typical work week at GBE.

"I'll speak to my role, since, you know... it's mine. I'm head of video for Giant Bomb. Where Jeff is head of editorial, I'm head of video. We both report into the same boss. That means for my part in CBS Interactive, I'm responsible for all our video production. That's costs, technology, archiving, how we're spending man hours, etc. Luckily, I have fantastic producers like Drew and Jason that make my job a lot easier. Being in content is not actually my main responsibility. Making sure there is video content on the site is. I think that's important to remember.

What is my week like? Currently, a lot of it is navigating this studio build and laying the foundation for more content here. Currently we have a lot of issues, from actual studio space, budget, and getting network access. All of these things need solutions. From putting holes in a wall to asking IT to allow access to Xbox Live, everything requires meetings and time. We're still working on getting air conditioning in the studio. The lights went up yesterday.

So Monday, I come in and go through data and emails. If I can I'll usually start playing a game to QL I will. Let's take an actual week. So I'm playing Castle in the Darkness prepping for a QL. Then I jump into Lisa. At about 1:30 there's a meeting with my boss to go over video and whatnot. At 2:00 there's a meeting with Drew and Jason to go over the week in production. I'll play some more to prep. That week happened to be the week our quarterly budget was due, so I probably spent more time working on that.

Tuesday we recorded Castle in the Darkness, Grow Home, and Lisa. Had a meeting from 4-5, probably did more studio crap after that.

Wednesday start prepping Supreme and Darkness Assault. Spent a long time trying to find where Darkness Assault saves, I remember that. Couldn't find it so I had to replay some stuff in the studio. Had a Wednesday meeting 1-2pm. Then I meet with Drew every Wednesday to see how he's doing over there. Not sure where the rest of the day went, but making those quarterly budgets eat up a lot of time.

Thursday we recorded Supreme, there's a weekly meeting with the whole team, and I think I spent a bunch of time trying to figure out why the colorspace on our videos was mismatching. I think I also tried to rig a better baffling solution that week in the studio. Got a new capture device as well. Figure out why one of our capture machines wouldn't record 4 channels of audio (kind of...).

Friday we recorded Darkness Assault and Sunless Sea. Did some other stuff. Can't remember, I actually have to run. Giant Bomb East is not an island. So let me move on."

I think the part that always irritates me the most from the "what do they do all day!?" crowd is the assumption that everything that they do is just "sit down, turn on camera, go."

Either way, thanks for sharing that post from Vinny. In typical Vinny fashion, he takes something he doesn't even have to do, and does it as nicely and as detailed as possible

ok, how come youtube can put ads on these videos now? are these ads paying money to CBSi or to Nintendo?

@fonzinator: They all look like Pokemon Go knockoffs. It's very 'cheaply produced in the east' game feel

Throwthestraightwhilethejabiscomingback!

Centimeters is a European thing? LOL
Isn't the USA the only country not using Centimeters?

@fightingchance: 100% agree with the budget look. The presentation and graphics in this game look as generic as possible.

Sheers

headgear? absolutely.

That was hilarious and amazing. Just disappointed Abby didn't get on camera!