Giant Bomb #8 | It's a Hit!

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"So I'm to believe that people aren't people, and they're actually numbers on a graph used to grade the statistics of website staff diversity? Here I thought stereotyping didnt matter." :/


Hiring someone BECAUSE they are black or a woman just to make yourself look good would be really stupid. This is a REALLY petty complaint. :/


Woolie of Two Best Friends is black, but he's not there to promote diversity. He's there because he's their friend and they all thought he'd be a really good fit for the channel. It's about personality, ability, and right-time right-place.

Giant bomb will probably have a girl or a black guy on their site at some point, dont. fucking. worry. about. it.
 
firehawk12 said:
IRC. It's where Shane Bettenhausen, Mark Macdonald, and pretty much everyone else who worked at Ziff/EGM/etc were before they got real jobs. lol
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and after they got jobs. 1up boards used to be full of people complaining how the staff always posed on GAF and ignored the official forums.
 
justjim89 said:
It might just be the defensive part of me coming out, or maybe I've just spent too much time on tumblr, but it's getting frustrating how the internet at large seems to dismiss the qualification or validity of someone because they're a white dude. I'm not trying to make some big point about reverse racism or some such nonsense, but what the hell is wrong with white men? Do women and minorities deserve a better place in the industry? Of course. Do women and minorities get a rough deal in society today at large? Yes, still. Do white men have a significant degree of privilege in life compared to other groups? Damn skippy.

But for some to say, "Oh, boo hoo, another white guy," frustrates me. Yes, another white guy. A white guy with experience in the industry and the kind of bombastic personality that should quickly fit in and assimilate to Giant Bomb's style. What a fucking shame. Surely it'd be better if they hired someone potentially of worse qualifications and perhaps not as well-fitting with the group just for the sake of a diversity hire.

Maybe I'm just salty today, don't mind me. On a lighter note, Drew seems to be a lot more vocal and animated in recent bombcasts, good to see him sort of stepping up and turning the personality up a bit.
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Sometimes change is nice. "But this one likes Yoshi and Nintendo games!" Isn't the change some of us were hoping for. It seems like (and I could be totally off base) that they took the opportunity to hire a new person to strengthen what they know works well vs. hiring someone who will expand their horizons/appeal.

It's like being offered more cake and ice cream when you were hoping for some steak. It's still cake and ice cream, but sometimes some people want something new and different.
 
justjim89 said:
It might just be the defensive part of me coming out, or maybe I've just spent too much time on tumblr, but it's getting frustrating how the internet at large seems to dismiss the qualification or validity of someone because they're a white dude. I'm not trying to make some big point about reverse racism or some such nonsense, but what the hell is wrong with white men? Do women and minorities deserve a better place in the industry? Of course. Do women and minorities get a rough deal in society today at large? Yes, still. Do white men have a significant degree of privilege in life compared to other groups? Damn skippy.

But for some to say, "Oh, boo hoo, another white guy," frustrates me. Yes, another white guy. A white guy with experience in the industry and the kind of bombastic personality that should quickly fit in and assimilate to Giant Bomb's style. What a fucking shame. Surely it'd be better if they hired someone potentially of worse qualifications and perhaps not as well-fitting with the group just for the sake of a diversity hire.

Maybe I'm just salty today, don't mind me. On a lighter note, Drew seems to be a lot more vocal and animated in recent bombcasts, good to see him sort of stepping up and turning the personality up a bit.
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Zaph said:
There is a concern out there that the hiring process was more of a formality than anything else. Similar to casting in the entertainment industry - Jeff knew who he wanted but put out the job posting as a corporate policy.

If true, this is just an unfortunate side effect of the enthusiast press moving to personality video and basically mirroring the entertainment industry. Casting calls can also be a formality if you already know who 'works' on camera for that role.

An intern from our company was hired immediately after her contract by a former client (major online news site). She really gelled with their crew when we worked for them and they wanted someone who had chemistry with their video presenters. They still posted the junior on-camera role on their corporate site however.

Like Jeff said during the recent Jartime - full time gigs are drying up fast. I can easily imagine this 'Rolodex' problem getting far worse as sites only want to hire full-timers who are ready-to-go on camera and appeal to the widest audience. Take one look at TV presenting and you'll see who makes up that demographic...
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I think it is a question of the incestuous nature of the industry meaning that very few people get a chance to break in. But I mean, Hip Hop Gamer doesn't need IGN or CBS dollars now, he can just do a gimmick and be out there making (presumably) a living on his own. I think that'll be the future of minority voices in games, because it doesn't seem like a lot of sites hiring are interested in straying too far from their circle of friends.

It doesn't help that the jobs are just far and few between nowadays, since the idea of having a giant website that covers everything seems kind of pointless in 2014. Remember that part of the reason why GB even exists today is that they had to be sold to CBS. They couldn't sustain having Anime and Movie editors on their network, and even Tested had to be saved by Adam and Jamie.
 
justjim89 said:
It might just be the defensive part of me coming out, or maybe I've just spent too much time on tumblr, but it's getting frustrating how the internet at large seems to dismiss the qualification or validity of someone because they're a white dude. I'm not trying to make some big point about reverse racism or some such nonsense, but what the hell is wrong with white men? Do women and minorities deserve a better place in the industry? Of course. Do women and minorities get a rough deal in society today at large? Yes, still. Do white men have a significant degree of privilege in life compared to other groups? Damn skippy.

But for some to say, "Oh, boo hoo, another white guy," frustrates me. Yes, another white guy. A white guy with experience in the industry and the kind of bombastic personality that should quickly fit in and assimilate to Giant Bomb's style. What a fucking shame. Surely it'd be better if they hired someone potentially of worse qualifications and perhaps not as well-fitting with the group just for the sake of a diversity hire.
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I think it has more to do with Patrick bringing a lot of diversity and gender stories, discussions and debates to the forefront of Giant Bomb in regards to the industry at large, doing a damn fine job at it as well in my opinion, yet in Giant Bomb's entire existence the editorial staff has been comprised entirely of white males.
 
BearPawB said:
I think doing Alt-F1 has been good for Drew.
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I completely agree. It's hard getting behind the microphone consistently for the first time and it seems he was kind of thrown in there after Ryan's death. It sucks to see Giant Bomb change so much in the last year, but I'm excited to see what will turn out!
 
LoveIsOver said:
Yeah I've noticed that too. It's a welcome change and I hope his personality continues to grow and match these guys on the Bombcast. I still miss Vinny though :-(
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It probably helps that now that he's got the Alt+F1 podcast with Danny to develop experience in that area.
 
conweller said:
Sometimes change is nice. "But this one likes Yoshi and Nintendo games!" Isn't the change some of us were hoping for. It seems like (and I could be totally off base) that they took the opportunity to hire a new person to strengthen what they know works well vs. hiring someone who will expand their horizons/appeal.

It's like being offered more cake and ice cream when you were hoping for some steak. It's still cake and ice cream, but sometimes some people want something new and different.
Click to expand...
There's a part of me that wishes that they'd cover Japan in a more serious manner... but then again, I know that US Gamer exists. The problem there is that Jeremy Parish hates podcasts and video, so we don't get the same "personality driven" style that I'm looking for when it comes to games coverage now.
 
firehawk12 said:
You know, it's just weird that this became an issue now, with Giantbomb of all places. No one cared about who Jeremy hired for US Gamer or who Polygon has hired when they were saving game journalism.

I think the issue matters, but Giantbomb is a personality driven site and it makes sense that Jeff would want to hire a friend (hence Alex, and then later Rorie as "new" hires after Screened was shut down). Patrick is really the only "outsider", and even he made sense since they were looking for a news guy at the time they were hiring.

Perhaps the sad fact though is that perspective-based media journalism is really focused on specific bubbles. I admit that I don't follow the written side of the industry anymore, so I have no idea if there is a genuine attempt to make a feminist or at least female-centered games journalism site, or one that comes from the perspective of an ethnic or racial group, but gaygamer.net is still going on and they've presumably managed to find a niche for themselves as being the "gay" voice of gaming.
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Well, to compare to Polygon and USGamer, both of them actually employ women and people of color.

Giant Bomb kind of stands out more because Patrick is outspoken about such issues, and yet the site's writing and on-screen staff has, for its entire history, consisted entirely of white males, and the majority of the guests that the site brings on are other white males.
 
justjim89 said:
It might just be the defensive part of me coming out, or maybe I've just spent too much time on tumblr, but it's getting frustrating how the internet at large seems to dismiss the qualification or validity of someone because they're a white dude. I'm not trying to make some big point about reverse racism or some such nonsense, but what the hell is wrong with white men? Do women and minorities deserve a better place in the industry? Of course. Do women and minorities get a rough deal in society today at large? Yes, still. Do white men have a significant degree of privilege in life compared to other groups? Damn skippy.

But for some to say, "Oh, boo hoo, another white guy," frustrates me. Yes, another white guy. A white guy with experience in the industry and the kind of bombastic personality that should quickly fit in and assimilate to Giant Bomb's style. What a fucking shame. Surely it'd be better if they hired someone potentially of worse qualifications and perhaps not as well-fitting with the group just for the sake of a diversity hire.

Maybe I'm just salty today, don't mind me. On a lighter note, Drew seems to be a lot more vocal and animated in recent bombcasts, good to see him sort of stepping up and turning the personality up a bit.
Click to expand...

I think you just need to look at it differently. People aren't disappointed in another white guy because he is a white guy. They are upset because they continuously don't see other perspectives represented.
 
firehawk12 said:
There's a part of me that wishes that they'd cover Japan in a more serious manner... but then again, I know that US Gamer exists. The problem there is that Jeremy Parish hates podcasts and video, so we don't get the same "personality driven" style that I'm looking for when it comes to games coverage now.
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What about 8-4 Play? Giant Bomb even hosts them on their website.
 
MadLaughter said:
Gender, Orientation, Race, those can all affect the perspective someone has on games.

But you know what else can?

Having a father die early.

Formerly being part of a band.

Formerly working at a game developer.

Being married.

Having a child.

Having a shotgun pointed in your face on the streets of Petaluma.

Growing up on a farm, having a high school class of under fifty or whatever it was.

Growing up in the South.

Not all white guys are the same.
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I don't think anyone here is saying all white guys are exactly the same. Everyone has different life experiences. But, broadly speaking, white hetero males have a different world available to them than, say, African American females. That's just true any way you cut it. That's not to say I think there should be some quota requirement in GB's hiring process, but equating that difference to the difference everyone has in their life experiences is naive.
 
EmCeeGramr said:
Well, to compare to Polygon and USGamer, both of them actually employ women and people of color.

Giant Bomb kind of stands out as more because Patrick is outspoken about such issues, and yet the site's writing and on-screen staff has, for its entire history, consisted entirely of white males, and the majority of the guests that the site brings on are other white males.
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That said, when Polygon first formed with the "mega stars" of games journalism, they were all men. Gies had to put out a tweet asking if anyone could recommend any women for their site. lol

Is there a point of hypocrisy with Patrick talking about various issues while the staff itself lacks diversity? Maybe. But I don't think Jeff is really interested in tackling any of those issues himself and is more interested in continuing to make content that is mostly about games coverage with his personality and opinion steering the brand.

LoveIsOver said:
What about 8-4 Play? Giant Bomb even hosts them on their website.
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I feel like 8-4 Play is a different thing and not really a GB property. My understanding is that Patrick basically asked them if they wanted to be hosted there once 1up died for good.
 
EmCeeGramr said:
Well, to compare to Polygon and USGamer, both of them actually employ women and people of color.

Giant Bomb kind of stands out more because Patrick is outspoken about such issues, and yet the site's writing and on-screen staff has, for its entire history, consisted entirely of white males, and the majority of the guests that the site brings on are other white males.
Click to expand...

To be completly fair though Polygon also has about 4 times more staff member than GB which currently employs six people, not counting Alexis. Not saying this invalidates the critic itself though.
 
Giger Pilot said:
I'm not sure if I like this old Patrick thread the best or this one?
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Patrick Klepek said:
one battle, you're totally clipping along, smacking down on evil demons and the next they're slashing away at your weaknesses, getting 8 turns in before you're even able to counter, and suddenly your entire party is dead one battle before they were all going ot level up and one of the demons was going to transform.

SHITZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
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tumblr_ltmrinYLW01qde5al.gif
 
I liked it better when we got upset how many times Brad dies in quicklooks. I come to GiantBomb & videogames for entertainment/escapism.

I don't know how to feel about all the opinions. Can't we all get along?
 
Fantastapotamus said:
To be completly fair though Polygon also has about 4 times more staff member than GB which currently employs six people, not counting Alexis. Not saying this invalidates the critic itself though.
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The pay to blog model is probably a different beast as well, since everything is much cheaper than having actual full time employees responsible for mostly video content.

Remember that at this point, any written stuff on the site is Patrick's interviews/news and Alex's reviews, with a random review from Brad or Jeff once in a while. There isn't the need to pay people to post "Top 10 reasons why Mario Kart 8 is the best Mario Kart ever" posts and the like.
 
kvothe said:
I don't think anyone here is saying all white guys are exactly the same. Everyone has different life experiences. But, broadly speaking, white hetero males have a different world available to them than, say, African American females. That's just true any way you cut it. That's not to say I think there should be some quota requirement in GB's hiring process, but equating that difference to the difference everyone has in their life experiences is naive.
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Yeah it's true that they'd have a "different world available to them", but that's not relevant to giant bomb hiring people. It's such a non factor for this. It matters for some other, shittier aspects of life, but not for giant bomb hiring editors.

.....

I can't wait to see them start (tomarrow?, tho). It'll be awesome to get some fresh blood on the site. The Jeff and Brad show doesnt seem like it's self sustaining as a podcast. Need new duders.
 
Giger Pilot said:
Perfect! Now go read through Brads entire comment history so you can find hilarious self-deprecating comments like this one.
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No.
I've already done that one time too many

There isn't the need to pay people to post "Top 10 reasons why Mario Kart 8 is the best Mario Kart ever" posts and the like.
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What? You are crazy. How else will I know the Top 10 reasons why Mario Kart 8 is the best?
 
MiniBossBattle said:
I liked it better when we got upset how many times Brad dies in quicklooks. I come to GiantBomb & videogames for entertainment/escapism.

I don't know how to feel about all the opinions. Can't we all get along?
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Discussion is fine and topics like this should be welcomed because people are invested in the site. People can have differing opinions and still get along.

Just make sure we don't feed the flames with poorly chosen incendiary comments.
 
JackelZXA said:
Yeah it's true that they'd have a "different world available to them", but that's not relevant to giant bomb hiring people. It's such a non factor for this. It matters for some other, shittier aspects of life, but not for giant bomb hiring editors.
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i don't think that's entirely true since you can't partition your life away from other factors but okay
 
LoveIsOver said:
I completely agree. It's hard getting behind the microphone consistently for the first time and it seems he was kind of thrown in there after Ryan's death. It sucks to see Giant Bomb change so much in the last year, but I'm excited to see what will turn out!
Click to expand...

Yeah, he's def had a stronger presence in the last couple of Bombcasts. I wonder if he'll regress any with the new personalities being around.
 
firehawk12 said:
I feel like 8-4 Play is a different thing and not really a GB property. My understanding is that Patrick basically asked them if they wanted to be hosted there once 1up died for good.
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Yeah, I didn't mean to say they were part of Giant Bomb -- I know they are their own separate thing -- I was just meaning as a recommendation to you since you said you were looking for more coverage on Japan. I guess you meant you were wanting Giant Bomb specifically to cover Japan more?
 
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