PAX West 2018: The Giant Bomb Panel

Didn't expect Nick Robinson to show up let alone catch that crab leg

Dan brought pizza for dessert

I’ve finally decided that turning off the comments would be a wonderful idea.

Yup.

Honestly, I had fun with this one. I don't mind a silly, out-there concept to the GB panels. I get enough video game discussions through the podcasts, QLs and various other videos, so why not let them expand a little and just have some fun? :)

EDIT: Also, weight loss definitely agrees with Jeff! He looks a lot healthier in this video.

I'm almost there. Everyone has copious ideas for what GB should be doing.

"I don't know if I've ever been to an island"

Works and lives on an island.

Best reveal of PAX

"Puto bong-bong...

...this IS the thing from The Quiet Man."

After hearing Patrick's description from the Waypoint panel, this was hilarious.

watching Dan eat that crab leg is maximum Dan. *pounds wildly with hammer* *tears meat out in tiny chunks and shoves into mouth* *pounds wildly some more*

@zinkn: Agreed

@blabbermouth64: he probably means a “tropical” island that largely uninhabited. Manhattan is a piece of rock on top of which theyve built a city. Central Park is quite a feat of engineering.

As someone who has been watching this for 10 years, I'm kinda happy they graduated from snack tasting, to crab legs and puto bongbongs. I think I generally enjoy them the most when they leave their comfort zone. More even if they manage to expand it.

@bladeofcreation: I waited 2 hours for this panel. Absolutely loved this panel.

@dgtlty: That's not Nick Robinson, that's just like generic PAX attendee #12549. Nick's too busy getting millions of views on Tetris Effect videos whilst pretending he's not a weirdo sex monster.

Time to wrestling- 6:42 (just one mention, main talk starts 13:20)

Probably the best panel in years. I love it.

isn't the food thing worn out by now?... Wish it was.

This panel was genuine and endearing and Dan was at maximum Ryckert.

Jeff: "I feel like dessert has been ruined."

Dan: "I tried."

I’m happy to hear that Jeff is a friend of borbs, concerned of their wellbeing due to their natural, self-destructive behavior.

You are all crazy, and I love it.

Most deaf people I've met are pretty quiet. There was a facility for deaf folks that I responded to frequently when I worked in a different county's 911 system. They prefer to use ASL because (especially if they're deaf since birth) they don't have the experience with tone in their own voice.

Probably the lamest panel GB ever did

Watching this in the background while i was doing something else and it was totally ok. The very tail-end where we get some games talk between some people who don't interact a lot was fun. Over all, it was fine. Not great, but fine.

If I had gone in person? I think I would be dissuaded from ever attending another one of these panels ever again. I'm sure that might place me in the minority, but man this would have been a bummer of a panel to attend live for me. "We eat dinner, take no questions and talk games in the last 10 minutes" would have gotten a "I'll pass thanks" if they had announced the content ahead of time for sure.

I know you guys don't like reading the comments due to potential negativity, but it's hard to say anything positive about this one. I could just say nothing at all, but that would mean that I don't care. I'm very close to that point though with the website in general outside of the Beastcast.

This was flat and I don't understand how this trip was worth the price of the hotels and plane tickets to Seattle.

A lot of it reads to me as just loving the sound of your own voice and not thinking too hard about the actual content. If you think about it for a moment it might make you angry at the disrespect shown for the audience's precious time. So many panel appearances, so many duds. Just because you can sit down in front of a crowd and open your mouth, doesn't mean you should. Unless you have something of value to offer them.

I’ve found that a lot of the comments on GB tend to be either people being aggressively negative, or people complaining about negative comments. In my opinion, both are obnoxious. I think it’s valid to offer criticism of a site whose content you pay for, assuming that criticism is delivered politely and with the actual intention of hopefully improving future content. Who wants to read a comment section that’s just two pages of people saying “Great video”?

All that said, I just don’t think this panel was too great. I don’t normally watch their PAX panels, so I can’t really compare it to any of the others, but it kind of reminded me of the intro part of the Bombcast where the guys just shoot the shit about random topics before getting into the show proper.

Don’t get me wrong, that stuff is great, but I don’t think that’s enough for a panel. When it was over, I couldn’t help feeling like I’d essentially just spent an hour and a half watching strangers on a stage eat food. And it really didn’t seem like the crowd was that engaged, based on their relatively muted reactions to most of the panel. I’m just worried that anyone who was maybe dragged to this panel by a friend or something will now have sort of a negative perception of what this site is.

The GB duders are awesome and their laissez-faire attitude leads to a lot of great content, but I think this is one situation where more structure is needed.

I've never had Chinese snacks before

PS: I am Chinese too.

I'm of two minds on this. On one hand the panels where they talk about the current climate of video games is boring, because Jeff and the gang literally do that for 3 hours every week. The most memorable panel moments are like what others say; the shenanigans. I haven't watched this but it looks heavy on the shenanigans. Breast milk anyone?

I dunno I liked it. There was a bit of goofiness up front and then they talk about some videogames in the end AND NO Q&A so hey I'm all for that.

No Vinny so thats instantly -1000% good, but I still liked it.

Still thought it was fun.

Jeff never having crabs was a surprise, really.

@tikicobra: As someone who was at the panel, and did enjoy it for what it was I also I can see your points.

Since I live in Seattle, I've been going to PAX West for a long time, and been to most of Giant Bomb's panel here over the years. I think the problem is that their panels used to be longer, or they used to let them go over so it was an hour and half to two hours long. The last few years, they've had a hard stop at the one hour mark. Whether that is PAX telling them to keep to the schedule, or the fact they've been on Sunday night that last few years, I am not too sure. I think both could be a factor and I also don't believe they get too much of a say on when their panel is. When they used to be on Saturday they were longer but if I remember correctly, they were also in smaller spaces and sometimes had run out of room. Perhaps to alleviate that, that's why the change was made. You mentioned a bit more structure, and perhaps that would help. I remember (I think) the earlier ones having a bit more structure but then again, that's they had more time to shoot the shit and then converse about topics outlined it seemed.

I still highly recommend their panels if anyone ever gets a chance to go to a PAX. They're lighthearted and fun, even if they are mostly off topic now and not necessarily hugely game related.

btw apple seeds are poisonous

Jeff's hosting skills were on point as always, but I don't know, these panels always feel a bit...aimless? Like they are trying to improv a bit they came up with the night before. Didn't land with me, but hope the crew and audience had a good time regardless.

Holy digital audio distortion. Thanks for the upload.

Wait, what - doing dumb shenanigans not video games related for an hour on a panel? Yes, please and thank you. Old school and keeping it fresh at the same time. That's why I'm here. :)

As someone who listens to Giant Bombcast and Beastcast, this was an awesome change of pace. I didn't need more of game talk this week.

This panel was another episode in the never ending show that is Giant Bomb. They can’t all have the drama of a season finale, some content is going to come across like mid season filler. Half the team went to do panels and the other half continued to deliver content from home. It’s all good.

I didn't know Jan is Filipino. Way to represent!

That was so fun to watch.

So what was under the seat? More space needle tickets?

@alternate: Signed shampoos from Jeff's hotel room because they're zany!

This was a tad underwhelming tbh. It was fun, just didn't hit the spot.

I think this is a really good analogy. Compare this to the anime expo panel that was only just Jeff and Dan. It felt like a culminating event coupled with a fun premise.

meh

I attended Pax West for the first time this year. I usually go to Pax East because it’s a lot closer to me. I had to head home Sunday and missed the GB panel this year. I did catch 4 other panels that included GB members. None of those panels including talk of gaming (real games to be specific). I enjoyed all of them. Watching Jeff, Abby, and Dave Lang improvise postmortems on nonexistent games was comedy gold. I listen to HOURS of gaming podcasts a week and don’t need to hear them discuss gaming live. Personally I ok with pointless pax panels as long as they are funny. I’ve seen a few that were very flat and some that were golden. Patrick in the hot dog suit throwing stale hot dogs around the room and other moments.

I have enjoyed them discussing games at Pax when Ryan and Patrick were around but I actually prefer silly fun.

Over too quick :(

FWIW, I'm pretty sure this is that "Asian Rice Krispie Treats" thing (or at least one version of it) - it's basically fried dough with a sesame/nutty-ish sugar syrup. https://www.yumofchina.com/sachima/