PAX East 2018: The Giant Bomb Panel

The general lack of any pre-scripted gag segments makes this one of the best GB Pax panels in awhile.

They should just have a live feed of the studio that can be seen from their desks. It won't be exactly the same as the first basement days but at least you can sorta see what's going on with stuff.

Some of the best stuff the site has ever done has been them covering random games they didn't know about, so the staff's admission that the tone of the site has changed and will keep changing is a bit scary to me if they're only gonna cover stuff that want to cover from now on. It does lead to them not even really seeing or touching games they didn't already care about.

It's not amazing at all to me, in fact it's very predictable. Most years, Brad does the same thing on the GOTY podcast, and the internet response is generally "Oh that knucklehead Brad, what's he going to dig in his heels about this year?" When Abby did it, the response was largely "She ruined my precious Game of the Year podcast! Cast her back from whence she came!"

After all, who can say what the differentiating factor could be between Brad and Abby that might cause a segment of internet commenters to react so differently? It's a secret to everybody.

Some serious reaching there.

Great panel, guys!

Man, 10 years of GB eh? Considering the podcast and videos I can't even begin to think how many hours I've spent on this site or listening to the crew....

Hell, I'm not even sure how to follow up that thought except than to say thanks. You guys are great.

And may the Biggest of Bombs live on forever!

Great panel, and another reminder that Jeff is a seriously talented host. Giant Bomb at Nite has become one of my favorite streams, because he just kills it. I mean people seem to revere Tim Schafer for his comedy, and Jeff had him in stitches. Seriously, you guys have so many industry people there in SF, just make this a regular show. If not I'll take a game show either way.

On the flip side we have the GOTY discussion that's creeping up again. I personally think that stuff has reached critical mass and either needs to go, or change. So it's hilarious to me that individual people are being blamed for ruining it. The process and the format are putting them in that position in the first place. They don't seem to be enjoying it either. I think it would be much more entertaining to just have a year in review wrap up where people talk about what really stood out that year.

BTW did people go after Brad in 2014 when he had his Destiny evangelist rant? That made me cringe so hard that I had to skip ahead, but I didn't take to the internet to try to start a movement to get rid of him. I'd ask what the difference is, but I'm afraid of the answer.

@rocketskates: Am I reaching? What? I'm not excusing people being absolute shit on comments on YouTube, I'm just trying to put it into perspective as to why they might still be hung up on this stuff. I think everyone here is to some degree passionate about games, because why else would you bother actually discussing them with strangers online, which is why some folk out there still can't let something go months or even years later. Why you still see some folk bring up Brads Minervas Den thing or whatever, cause hey people care. OF course that doesn't excuse you from acting like an awful human being.

I agree to some degree but I feel that moving forward 90% of the comments regarding Abby's GOTY stuff will be from the "hey I know what will trigger (insert GB personality) so I'll keep putting it out there" school and not some pure reaction to her stance/content because someone felt different. I suppose it is just the Internet as it is in the end.

@matticus: I'd be on board for them nixing the GOTY talks in favor of like twice as many Holiday Specialtacular features. Those are always so much more fun, seemingly for everyone involved.

Wow, I personally had no idea there was an issue. Yeah it was obvious that the tension was high during GOTY's finale but I didn't realize there was a lasting issue...

On a related note, I have made it a personal standard NEVER to look at YouTube comments. That place is a hell hole.

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@orion1189: hellz yeah. Two birds with one stone.

@otterchaos: Yah sure there are a lot of terrible, usually young people out there that still get a kick from being shitty online. That said, as a person that genuinely enjoys Abby quite a lot, even I was kind of groaning through some of her back and forth about Nier and Dream Daddy.

That was a great one. I was honestly going to skip watching this and I'm glad I didn't. Definitely not consuming much content as I use to as I'm in the camp that there's too much to watch and not enough worth watching but I do appreciate all the work ya'll do nonetheless. This crew right here is kind of the cream of the crop in terms of pure improv skill, which I think has been a cornerstone of content since the site's conception. As sad as it was for Vinny to move back East I had a feeling that the duo of him and Alex would be one of the sneaky best things to happen and I'm happy to have been proven right. Abby's been positively delightful since she joined and in so little time has already made so many memorable moments for even long time fans like myself. Jeff's voice and silver tongue has rightfully earned him legendary status among both site users and professionals in the games biz. I can't help but worry about him burning out considering he's bordering on full time podcasting at this rate on top of owning this corporate yet scrappy website. I'm sometimes in awe that this site is still going despite all the ups and downs. Thanks as always and keep up the great work.

@kevin_cogneto: People complain about Brad all the time, thought. "Pulling a Brad" was a thing and people were always annoyed by his GOTY discussions.

I've been following these antics since the Gamespot days.

Abby is the best thing to happen to Giant Bomb in years.

Always great to see Vinny and Jeff together, partly because it reminds me of the classic Giant Bomb days. I'm all about the original 4! Sausalito!

Abby rules

Absolutely the best Q&A I've seen on one of these Giant Bomb panels. Not a single cringe moment.

Great panel. I completely agree as someone with anxiety with what the audience member said towards the end.

A Giant Bomb Remastered series where they watch and talk over some older videos may actually be a great idea for a feature.

Oh yeah it was that bad (the comments), even here on the GB site I thought I was looking at a 4chan or political reddit forum at times.