PAX West 2016: Giant Bomb Panel with CAH & 404ing It

That was hard to watch. That 404ing it mini-panel reminded me of when I was younger and would show my friends "funny" videos from the internet whilst waiting awkwardly for them to laugh.

Love it, so CAH will make a joke about everything, except one thing.

Yeah that whole thing sucked. Oh well, the fans got to see people in person! Still love GiantBomb.

*Skip to 01:12:14

I wonder if creator owned and operated porn sites can be termed "Bed to Browser"..?

Good talks and contributions, Brad.

The worst one so far, sorry guys. But hey, it can't be always great. Next time better (and maybe actually let your community ask questions again).

@nicolasvh The Q&A sessions are always the worst part.

I caught this live and thought it was easily the worst live GB thing in quite some time. Worth what I paid for it tho! Also, nice to see Austin, even if it was in a poor way.

I rarely ever say this about these things because even bad banter could be funny but this was a bit rough all around.

@sylect: Yeah, I was a bit confused by that as well. I understand why he's turning that specific thing down... but at some point, isn't not making of a topic worse? Essentially like saying "lots of the fans and supporters of our really terrible/dark humor game can dish it out but can't take it, we don't want them to be mad at us."

I'd much prefer to have these panels simply be "Let's do the Bombcast, Live!" since this was so awkward to watch and listen to. Did have the same flow and momentum as the podcasts and was kind of a drag to sit through. Some funny segments though.

Whatthefuuug. Half an hour of GB? That's at least an hour short.

Short and sweet. Nice to see them fill up that huge-ass theater, though.

Also: isn't been ages since they did a GiantBomb Live show Live?

Their "Live, In Person & Fully Clothed" from last years PAX prime is my favorite live show from Giant Bomb. The Mario Party next day was excellent as well. It's a shame this year was such a bummer.

The bigger these panels get, the worse they are.

really don't understand all the negative sentiments towards this panel!

stuff like this is a fun change of pace and I hope they do more panels like this just because it is a chance to do something different

if I want the regular ol' giant bomb crew doing regular ol' giant bomb stuff I'll listen to the podcast...

Hmm. I feel like if you're going to do the whole 'surprise popping out of a giant cake' thing, you need to actually jump up out, not just slowly poke your head up like Lang did. It seemed like the audience reaction was a lot more muted than they were expecting because of that. But then the Lang-zone does ruin everything it touches... :P

hot backstage mics

Man... I miss Ryan.

I love GB but man they need to plan content more if they're going to go up in front of 2,500 people. I actually had passes for Saturday and I'm so glad I skipped going to this. This needs to be more like the Big Live Live Show Live and less like the Bombcast.

Awkward.

I feel sorry for the people who paid money to see this (they did, right?)

If you have nothing to talk about except for a few announcements, then maybe don't do a panel? I get why all these sites have to send people to PAX, but I honestly think it might not be worth it. It kinda sucks the energy out of everyone and some of them get sick every freaking year.

Maybe just do one PAX a year and have some live Quicklook/Marioparty-Segment. That would work a whole lot better than this. Sorry guys, but the criticisms are valid.

No.

Maybe force Brad to host next time. Jeff looks stretched thin from both managing and hosting duties, especially when he's under pressure to cram the panel into 30 minutes. I think Brad can rise to the occasion.

@av_gamer: seems to be some decent overlap of PAX goers and hentai watchers on the ole ven diagram

I would rather see the guys in a smaller venue than crammed into a super tiny window in which nothing much happens. These shows are generally very entertaining, but this one just didn't do much for me.

The saddest part is how 404ing it was so incredibly short. That panel is always great because Pat keeps it very positive. On the other end was the CAH guys just dumping on everyone constantly, and is it weird they were just displaying everyone's email addresses to a huge venue like that?

Man, that band did not look like they wanted to sit through that panel haha

As someone who watches the panel when it gets archived every year for like 7 years now or whatever I have to agree. This format (being crammed in with CAH) does not work for the Giant Bomb guys. It's unfortunate, but you know- they do a billion panels a year now plus all the live shows. So, it's fine. Not everything is gonna hit right.

I will say it was cool to see 404ing it there. That show is always great. More people should watch it.

Edit: Now that I think about it, a live performance is a "living environment" and when you're not used to performing in front of people who don't know who you are you don't have the energy from the crowd like usual. I think that's why this show falls flat and why it feels like it doesn't really go anywhere. This show, as opposed to how they usually do shows, should probably have been done with that in mind. This show in particular probably should have had more preparation just because so many in the crowd won't even know who they are (as seen by CAH constantly asking if people know wh Giant Bomb is and every time except once they had no idea) so the majority of prep should have been that they need to let the audience know who and what Giant Bomb even is. I mean, Giant Bomb is fairly niche- always has been. It's not weird to expect no one going to a CAH panel to know who Giant Bomb is. They don't cater to specifically a Giant Bomb crowd.

That's ok. I'm sure someone learned something from this experience. Again not everything is going to go perfectly. It was interesting to see, still. It makes me think of stories I've heard about how famous comedians would do training sets where they would practice routines in front of audiences and since they weren't routines they were used to doing, and the bits were experimental, the crowd wouldn't get it. Similar thing happened here I think.

I'll throw in something positive: That short 404ing It bit was terrifically fun and made me a fan not only of Pat, but the panel in general. I'd never seen it before and I'm going to seek out past sessions if they're online. So whoever devised that as the halftime entertainment, thumbs way up.

It sounds like there were some problems with the video file, so thanks to Drew and Jason for getting this up.

Wow. The harsh criticism on this panel is a real bummer. It wasn't my favorite panel, but I just didn't get the same "awkward" vibe people are referring to. The cross-talk was annoying, but they didn't seem distracted by it.

I do agree that the GB crew works better in a single panel setup, whereas everything here just felt rushed, but overall I was entertained.

The Q&A's are always the worst. It wouldn't be so bad if the questions were screened before hand but they're never not awkward. You may get a good question but 1 in 10 is not a good ratio. I think the panels need a bit of a shake up. Coming out, doing a bit, talking about what they saw, is pretty dull to me at this point. It's like a shitty Bombcast where only Jeff talks and It doesn't help that 3 out of 5 of the people on the panel aren't very comfortable talking in front of large crowds. I just don't think a panel format works to what the GB crew does best. They should use PAX as a way for the community to get together and hang out as they seem to dread going because of the work involved so ditch the work, have fun and just talk about it on the Bombcast like they do anyway.

I don't really want to be another body in the dogpile, but I've always had a sneaking suspicion that the audience crossover between Cards Against Humanity and Giant Bomb is maybe not as big as initially projected. GB and CAH themselves probably get along well in person, but whenever they're presented together for audience viewing the result feels awkward and contrived. This is a good example of that. Even though I don't care for Cards, I was interested in the prospect of seeing GB on stage with people they hung out with- hell, that's half of what this site is built on and it usually works fine- but the result ended up feeling like a business arrangement to split time on a stadium rental more than anything. Just presenting the two in parallel seems like it elicits shrugs from either half of the audience at any given time.

Then again, the tail that got cut off was the Q&A section, so I guess this is actually the best GB PAX panel ever.

Having the CAH panel beforehand really didn't help. That thing is so relentlessly toxic, chock-full of some of the most smug and self-satisfied people I've ever seen, that it was always going to take the gloss off anything that followed it.

qft

I don't think this was by any means the best panel the guys have ever done. They obviously had to sacrifice a lot of their time to do stuff because they grouped up with Cards in order to have a bigger venue to get more fans in... but even so... either the size of the theatre sucked up the volume of the crowd or the crowd was just completely DEAD.

I went to Pax in 2008 and that experience, along with these videos, I continue to think I am aging out of gaming. And it makes me sad. Also, I don't want to say don't do things with CAH (I can just not watch that content) but they are just gross.

I skipped the cards segment and even still this is the first time I couldn't actually finish the panel. The conversations were completely unfocused and boring and the cross talk was incredibly annoying. Glad to see you changed up the format of the panel though, just didn't quite work out for this one (in my opinion).

CAH /404 was the only good part it was a nose dive after that. So many people left the theater when it was giant bomb. I felt bad for them but it was a really boring panel. First time I didnt feel like it was worth going to.

The fact that the CAH guys shied away from offending people was a little disappointing. I mean isn't that what it is all about?

Oh wow. This was kind of hard to watch. Usually the banter has ended up being all right, with some improv highlights like the "What is Firewatch?" bit, but this was half an hour of absolutely no entertainment value. I get that the guys don't plan these things, but maybe try some activity or something at the table?

@lonelyspacepanda said:

Word.

Gross that GB still involves Max Tempkin, given his problematic history.

@branthog: If you are ever accused of anything 'problematic', you'll soon find out who your real friends are.

Just catching up after a few weeks on vacation. Pat Baer is a treasure.

Wow, I've never gone from so excited to watch something to immediate disappointment before. When the first thing the CAH guys did was read a political email in a nerd voice it was just way too awkward to continue viewing.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who finds Cards Against Humanity and Max completely lame and not funny.