Giant Bomb #8 | It's a Hit!

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I'm of the opinion that Giant Bomb can't afford to take chances for diversities sake.

The position they were in, they really needed to go the safest route possible.

If it ended up being Jeff, Drew, Brad, and two new people who ended up being duds, for the next year or two, the website would have suffered considerably.

Jason and Dan are the perfect new hires, Dan knows and has chemistry with Jeff, they have lots of experience with the stuff Giant Bomb does in general, and Dan and Jason worked together for years.
Completely agree with this.
 
I can't wait for this week's UPF. I'm really looking forward to seeing how the new guys change the dynamic and i imagine Dan is going to bring a really bonkers game to play.
 
It's strange, these guys on twitter absolutely have a point in their criticisms, but it's coming off in a super weird and myopic way that I'm finding hard to articulate. Almost like all their frustrations with the industry and annoyance with scraping a living together on Patreon are being laid at GB's feet.

GB engages and has tried/continues to bring awareness to a lot of issues with the industry, but getting mad at them for not doing exactly what you wanted to see, exactly when you wanted to see it seems awfully self-righteous.

It's like my local cinema does a lot to highlight and promote independent film, including hosting events which lose them money. But I'm not going to then bitch when they schedule Transformers during the summer, like they've betrayed their values.
 
New hire wasn't from the southern hemisphere?


Don't they know 50% of the planet is the southern hemisphere? Why u hate diversity Jeff?


Actually by surface area 50.34% of the planet is the southern hemisphere, by landmass 47.4% is southern hemisphere, by population 34.2% is southern hemisphere and 100% of this post was made up.
 
Well, thats firmly in the your problem camp. They can't do anything about the fact you don't visit the site.. except hire some wicked freelance work.
Well, the site has become 90% podcasts and video. I think anyone who says otherwise is kind of kidding themselves.

I mean, do you read GB reviews? I haven't in ages, since I just listen to the podcast or watch the QL of a game to get their opinion of it instead.

GB is not Polygon or Kotaku or even GS, and that's fine. I think ideally, they could pay someone to do video "articles" for them, much like all the "rant" videos you see on other sites (aka Jim Sterling, Yahtzee on the Escapist). That would at least tie into the core strength of the site.

Patrick mentioned awhile ago that they were going to get budget for freelance writers, I think.
That's fair enough. That blog by that "spurned" writer hinted at being asked to pitch a story to some "big game site", so I assume she is referring to that anyway.
 
I can't wait for this week's UPF. I'm really looking forward to seeing how the new guys change the dynamic and i imagine Dan is going to bring a really bonkers game to play.
You mean UPT.

Also, I hope the presence of the new guys doesn't diminish the amount of Danny. I still expect him to show up at least half of all UPFs.
 
I'm not familiar with Jason, but as a fan of Game Informer, I've been saying for years that Dan Ryckert was born to work at Giant Bomb.

I'm looking forward to his Quick Looks and Endurance Runs. :P
 
It's strange, these guys on twitter absolutely have a point in their criticisms, but it's coming off in a super weird and myopic way that I'm finding hard to articulate. Almost like all their frustrations with the industry and annoyance with scraping a living together on Patreon are being laid at GB's feet.

GB engages and has tried/continues to bring awareness to a lot of issues with the industry, but getting mad at them for not doing exactly what you wanted to see, exactly when you wanted to see it seems awfully self-righteous.

It's like my local cinema does a lot to highlight and promote independent film, including hosting events which lose them money. But I'm not going to then bitch when they schedule Transformers during the summer, like they've betrayed their values.

To be fair, using this theater analogy, Giant Bomb is more like a theater where one of the projectionists will pin up a piece of paper in the lobby every week talking about where you can actually go to see independent films.
 
Look how sacred GB has become in the industry, hiring somebody gets so much scrutiny. Who would care about this stuff at any other site?
 
It's strange, these guys on twitter absolutely have a point in their criticisms, but it's coming off in a super weird and myopic way that I'm finding hard to articulate. Almost like all their frustrations with the industry and annoyance with scraping a living together on Patreon are being laid at GB's feet.

GB engages and has tried/continues to bring awareness to a lot of issues with the industry, but getting mad at them for not doing exactly what you wanted to see, exactly when you wanted to see it seems awfully self-righteous.

It's like my local cinema does a lot to highlight and promote independent film, including hosting events which lose them money. But I'm not going to then bitch when they schedule Transformers during the summer, like they've betrayed their values.

They wield a good point like a sack of doorknobs, almost as if they miss the point entirely...
 
The correct way to go about it is to get diversified perspectives through freelance contributors. The guys on the couch are a very different thing, it has to be like finding a bandmate or something. Who knows whats in store, but anyone making waves about this is just stirring the pot for the sake of it.

I've followed GB about as closely as anyone reasonably could since it opened and they have made great efforts to showcase the breadth of gaming as a culture. Compare the Giantbomb of today to the Giantbomb of 2010 and you'll see the change plain as day. They're pretty keen to the sociological climate of the internet and conversation at large. I see absolutely no reason -whatsoever- why these hires would open them up to criticism.

I'm sorry but I was pointing out the hypocrisy of Jeff saying he wanted new people on for new perspectives then hiring a buddy, I don't see how I'm stirring the pot for the sake of it? I'm fully cognisant of why they're hiring Dan; He's great in front of a camera, he has good chemistry with Jeff, he's got a similar sense of humour. He's a good hire in that sense, however wasn't the criticism I put forward. On another note I don't think any of those traits are unique to Dan, he got hired because he was Jeff's friend above anything else and that opens them up to criticism. I'd also argue the haven't made great efforts to showcase the breadth of gaming as a culture outside of Patrick's input.

I get that they're good hires who match up well with the current site. I just feel the way they went about the hiring exposed the fact that they had no intentions to diversify.
 
Look how sacred GB has become in the industry, hiring somebody gets so much scrutiny. Who would care about this stuff at any other site?
I will agree that this is particularly weird. But then again, I don't follow any other gaming sites so I have no idea if any of them have made any hires recently.
 
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Guess patrick isn't too happy about the new hires.
 
As much fun as it would have been to get a woman on the staff, when I think about how creepy the internet is and how weird just this topic alone can get.... yeah. Yeah. Maybe this is for the best.

Besides, more husbandos for me.
 
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Guess patrick isn't too happy about the new hires.

I'm typically a-ok with Patrick and things he discusses but if he's legitimately upset over this, that's just too much. They hired who they felt was best, I doubt there was any agenda going on by any parties involved.
 
Patrick also favorited Elizabeth Simins tweets from a few weeks ago. I think this just adds to how he takes criticism seriously.
 
Patrick is just the type that will be open to any criticism and also wants to be open about that fact. I wouldn't read too much into it.

I also hate that 'social justice' has been used like a pejorative because I can never tell now who is trying to be snarky by using it as though it's a bad thing.
 
While I'm thinking about it: What happened to the Achievement list system at GB? Did that go away after the latest redesign? I can't recall the last time I saw it, but I know it's been a while.
 
Patrick also favorited Elizabeth Simins tweets from a few weeks ago. I think this just adds to how he takes criticism seriously.
I suspect he may favorite tweets so he can quickly return to them, whether for a blog post or to respond to the author.

Regardless, I think it's unfair to infer intent in the action, especially given how it could unjustly create conflict where there is none.

While I'm thinking about it: What happened to the Achievement list system at GB? Did that go away after the latest redesign? I can't recall the last time I saw it, but I know it's been a while.

I believe it became harder to pull info from Sony and Microsoft. In addition, they kept changing APIs on GB, which meant it was constantly breaking. They decided it was more trouble than it was worth, and other sites were doing it better.
 
Its weird that GB has actually been tagged as being "inclusive". Patrick writes only about white women, he has never actually branched out to other minorities at all. GB really is a white ass website.

GB actually could really use from some not middle class white people.
 
As soon as they started talking about cooking hot dogs I knew Jeff was going to talk about boiling of them. Worst prep method. I mean, I'd eat one, but come on.
 
Its weird that GB has actually been tagged as being "inclusive". Patrick writes only about white women, he has never actually branched out to other minorities at all. GB really is a white ass website.

GB actually could really use from some not middle class white people.

Why?
 
As much as I'd like more diversity on Giant Bomb, it is hard to argue that Dan and Jason aren't incredibly qualified for the jobs they got. Dan's been on a ton of videos similar to what Giant Bomb does and Jason has basically been producing quick looks for Game Informer. I wouldn't be shocked if they were the most qualified out of the applicants
 
I think cara Ellison is awesome but they have to pick someone. I think Dan has a good track record of stupid, fun, and clever video content.

Zoe Quinn makes games, so I didn't really see how she was in the running.

There really are very few black VG press, so I wouldn't know who to nominate.
 
I believe it became harder to pull info from Sony and Microsoft. In addition, they kept changing APIs on GB, which meant it was constantly breaking. They decided it was more trouble than it was worth, and other sites were doing it better.

That's unfortunate. I actually quite liked how they laid out the achievements earned when compared to other sites such as Raptr.
 
Where are we seeing that he isn't happy about the new hires? Patrick should just chill out and worry about the thunderstorm happening right now. It kinda sucks, I don't wanna lose my power.
 
As much as I'd like more diversity on Giant Bomb, it is hard to argue that Dan and Jason aren't incredibly qualified for the jobs they got. Dan's been on a ton of videos similar to what Giant Bomb does and Jason has basically been producing quick looks for Game Informer. I wouldn't be shocked if they were the most qualified out of the applicants
Yup, they seem like perfect fits. If they were the best of the bunch then I don't see the problem here. Hiring worse applicants just for the sake of diversity is dumb as hell.
 
Its weird that GB has actually been tagged as being "inclusive". Patrick writes only about white women, he has never actually branched out to other minorities at all. GB really is a white ass website.

GB actually could really use from some not middle class white people.

GB could use the people who would produce the best and most entertaining video content. Man, woman, black, white, Australian, who cares!

It just happens to be that most of the us games press is white dudes in their 30s. That's not giant bomb's fault or problem to fix.
 
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