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GameTrailers to close after 13 years

O

Ochi

Neo Member
Bizzquik said:
Point of fact, Shane's website is doing pretty well financially; his new form of business model works.

I'll always remember that he helped build the GameTrailers we know and love.

You would probably be correct in stating, though, that major changes needed to happen (him to leave in early 2013, as one) before Kyle, Huber, and even (to some extent) Brandon could evolve their roles.
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Yeah. Shane as EIC ran GT well enough under the BIG Spike/Viacom model when GT was made of two parts, one run by shane and the other run by Geoff Keighley

Though I'd be remiss not to say hat Damiani was a big early proponent for shifting to the current model (he keeps his ear to ground and gaf) and Ryan Stevens was willing to experiment with early attempts at personalizing the office with "Thanks For Playing" prior to the big layoffs of 2013
 
F

FairXchange

Member
Bloodworth said:
Phew, made it to the end. I don't know how many threads I'll be able to read, but I made it through this one. Thanks to everyone who's taken the time to share your memories, from whichever era you started with the site, even if you stopped coming at some point or another.

I've always had a strong sense that God brought me to GT as there were so many varied parts of my past experience that made it a perfect fit when I came there at just the right time for a rare opening. Reading Shane's job description on craigslist was as if it was written directly for me.

In the eight and a half years that I've worked there, I've truly grown as a writer, producer, and eventually a manager. I started at GT from a background that was purely focused on Nintendo and bit by bit, I focused on pushing myself to be just as well versed with PlayStation, Xbox, and eventually PC gaming, and now I bounce between every platform just depending on what game I want to play. Somehow, I became known for my opinions on racing games, and for as long as I could find time, I put my strongest efforts into telling the stories of my favorite game soundtracks and getting composers on camera to tell their own. I still firmly believe that anyone would be hard-pressed to make better pieces on the music in the Mass Effect or BioShock series.

In the early days, Shane was the most influential in shaping my scripts, but as we grew and responsibilities shifted, I learned so much from Ryan, Justin, and Miguel. Even some of the younger writers on our editorial team like Patrick Morales and Michael Damiani were absolute legends, and we were backed up by the tireless work of Johnny Chang, Rich Brown, Megan Rugh, Matt Blair, Jamie Kohler, Kelly Campbell, Brad Winters, Bobby Burns, dang I could be listing people all night.

Safe to say, this team, these people from the last eight and half years, are family. We've been up through the night, sleeping in the office during E3 only to head back out on the show floor the next morning. We suffered together through brutal travel snafus. -- Ryan even bought us clothes once when our luggage got delayed. -- And we had some of the most amazing meals at Gamescom and TGS.

Every one of us was gutted when Shane announced his departure. Geoff stepped in briefly to set a new course while Ryan and Jeremy took the reins to lead the team on a day to day basis, lighting a fire under us to double down on great originals, birthing shows that have carried us to this day like The Final Bosman, GT Time, and Mandatory Update. As we began invading Brandon's VO booth, awkward first pushes like The Final Verdict began to prepare us to get comfortable being on-camera, but make no mistake, that foundation was laid with Shane when he started Invisible Walls and pushed us to write regular staff blogs.

Then came the purchase by Defy. Nothing left me in more shock than to learn that Ryan Stevens and Brad Winters, the men we relied on for direction, wouldn't be coming. Suddenly, Brandon had to take up his role as the founder of the site to lead the few of us selected to stay, and I found myself as the eldest member of the editorial team. Since Brandon had never really been a part of the review or preview process aside from reading scripts, I knew I had to take that weight off his back so he could focus on figuring out practically everything else.

The fact that we somehow reinvented ourselves among moving, changing our entire production pipeline, learning all new equipment and programs, and adapting to a new corporate culture is an absolute testimony to the strength of everyone who came with us. Don and Ian are editing monsters, churning out videos faster than should be possible, yet still they pushed to go beyond that and produce content of their own. Damiani, Elyse and Kyle are creative powerhouses and always kept us from accepting the status quo. Huber and Brad brought much needed enthusiasm to everything they did. Matt Blair worked tirelessly for years well into the middle of the night for far too long and has done so much that should be utterly inappropriate to ask of him. Ben Moore is one of the most fantastic and thoughtful writers imaginable and voracious in his breadth. And Brandon Jones is like a brother now, always leading us through the worst news with positivity and optimism. The dedication to daily programming, streaming, and the passion these guys had to make shows (even when I questioned their ability to fit it in) should not be taken lightly. It will be hard for any team to ever match them.

Right now I am on my honeymoon. I have no idea what's waiting for me when I get back. If the right offers come up, I could easily see myself writing or producing for another outlet, moving to a game studio, or moving outside of gaming altogether. But if someone has a realistic plan to keep this team together, I'd be a fool not to hear it out.

(sorry didn't intend to write a full history of my time at GT, it just came out)
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You and all the amazing people at GT kept me coming back as a viewer for years. Best of luck moving forward, I'll be sure to follow and support anything you are working on in the future!
 
I

IcyBlueStrawberry

Member
It's probably a long shot, but does anyone happen to have an archive/download of their original Shenmue playthrough?

I downloaded most of them over a year ago, but the HDD they (and a bunch of other streams/videos) were on died a few months back.
 
T

TheDarkKnight774

Member
A

Ashtar

Member
Bloodworth said:
(sorry didn't intend to write a full history of my time at GT, it just came out)
Click to expand...

Thanks so much for posting Bloodworth, Can't lie but lying there reading that last night, I teared up a bit. I hope you enjoy the rest of your honey moon, God speed.

Bittercup said:
The avatar requests from last night. I hope I didn't miss any.
5siulpfkuk6b.png


morgana24nj0d.png


huey_freeman_prince_scqk6c.png


artworkptkxo.png
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Thank you for this I appreciate it.
 
U

UrbanRats

Member
Caipirinha said:
You don't get that kind of borderline psychopathic garbage on podcasts that cover other mediums like movies etc. But it seems to have become the norm in gaming podcasts to spend 75% of the time talking about irrelevant topics. Bonus points if it involves people that the audience doesn't know or in jokes that nobody listening understands.

Yes mad now that I'm left without the one major exception to this rule.
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Wow.
Just because your favorite site has shut down, that's no reason to be an asshole, ffs.

The whole "Why do they get to have so many views?" thing makes me embarrassed to be in this thread.
And i don't give a shit about Funhaus.
 
S

sora87

Member
UrbanRats said:
Wow.
Just because your favorite site has shut down, that's no reason to be an asshole, ffs.

The whole "Why do they get to have so many views?" thing makes me embarrassed to be in this thread.
And i don't give a shit about Funhaus.
Click to expand...

Hopefully talk of all that dies down, we don't want this thread locked or getting a bad stigma attached to it folks
 
T

Tankard

Member
Bloodworth said:
snip
Click to expand...

Thanks for sharing Blood, brought tears to my eyes, not the first time this week. You guys passion for games is contagious and makes me less cynical about it.

Savinowned said:
Ben Moore just jumped onto the twitch chat:

Benmoore034: I don't want to give anyone undue hope, so take what I say with realistic expectations PLEASE. That's all I ask.

Benmoore034: But know that the people of GT still very much want to stay together and do things and we're going to try our best to make that happen.

Benmoore034: That said, we all have rent to pay and people in our lives that we need to provide for, so if other opportunities come up we can't just ignore that. But the beauty bois are definitely doing covert things behind the scenes. If you don't hear from us, it's because we're working our butts off trying to pull something together.
Click to expand...

xeKqkP8.gif


Please make this happen, pleaaaase, I will support this day 0.
 
M

MultiJhonny

Banned
Tankard said:
Thanks for sharing Blood, brought tears to my eyes, not the first time this week. You guys passion for games is contagious and makes me less cynical about it.



xeKqkP8.gif


Please make this happen, pleaaaase, I will support this day 0.
Click to expand...

Good god I hope this is true. I sadly don't think they will be able to keep all of them together but as long as there is a nice chunk of them I will be happy but I really do hope all of them are able to stay
 
trugs26

trugs26

Member
MultiJhonny said:
Good god I hope this is true. I sadly don't think they will be able to keep all of them together but as long as there is a nice chunk of them I will be happy but I really do hope all of them are able to stay
Click to expand...

I'd support that day 1 if Bosman was there. Otherwise, I'd still highly consider it if a decent chunk of the crew was there.
 
H

hlhbk

Member
Coreda said:
As far as backups go, the Archive Team are creating an archive.org compatible backup of the site and content. Anyone who is technically inclined and wants to help with the crawl can check this page.

Edit: also check out this interactive progress tracker.

3BNfdil.png
Click to expand...

So are you guys covered or do you need help? I am somewhat recovered after the last 2 days. How will you distribute the archive? Can someone tell me how to download videos from the main gametrailers site?
 
S

secretanchitman

Member
Savinowned said:
Ben Moore just jumped onto the twitch chat:

Benmoore034: I don't want to give anyone undue hope, so take what I say with realistic expectations PLEASE. That's all I ask.

Benmoore034: But know that the people of GT still very much want to stay together and do things and we're going to try our best to make that happen.

Benmoore034: That said, we all have rent to pay and people in our lives that we need to provide for, so if other opportunities come up we can't just ignore that. But the beauty bois are definitely doing covert things behind the scenes. If you don't hear from us, it's because we're working our butts off trying to pull something together.
Click to expand...

Oh my god. I would throw money at the screen if they would come back together. Seriously!
 
F

Foldedpencil

Banned
That SIFTD stream was INTERESTING! They say they will post it as an episode to YouTube for free. Certainly got me interested in tier site. Shane doesn't sound so bad.
 
J

joms5

Member
Foldedpencil said:
That SIFTD stream was INTERESTING! They say they will post it as an episode to YouTube for free. Certainly got me interested in tier site. Shane doesn't sound so bad.
Click to expand...

It starts with Shane telling people to subscribe to sifted and he will hire whoever he can.

Doesn't sound like he's doing that well financially.

Screams of desperation.

Also i don't think many of gt would want to work with Shane given their opinions on him in the past.

Edit: Also brags about how his reviews got like 3 million views and now they get hardly any. Those who remember, he's the one who introduced the new video player which made people leave that website in a mass exodus. I now remember why I don't like Shane.
Ego out the wazzoo.
 
Z

zulux21

Member
hlhbk said:
So are you guys covered or do you need help? I am somewhat recovered after the last 2 days. How will you distribute the archive? Can someone tell me how to download videos from the main gametrailers site?
Click to expand...

it seems jdownloader2 will do it (free program), though some people have issues with jdownloader2 giving them malware. (I personally use it to backup youtube stuff I want to watch later at some point when my internet goes down such as tutorials)
 
F

Fahzgoolin

Banned
Just tuned into SIFTD.

I don't feel comfortable with Shane saying to give him money in order to save the GT staff. I wanna know what the GT crew is thinking before someone tries to "save" them. Seems like he's leveraging their unemployment to promote himself.

If the GT staff says they wanna work with Shane, then I'll subscribe.
 
B

BBboy20

Member
Fahzgoolin said:
Just tuned into SIFTD.

I don't feel comfortable with Shane saying to give him money in order to save the GT staff. I wanna know what the GT crew is thinking before someone tries to "save" them. Seems like he's leveraging their unemployment to promote himself.

If the GT staff says they wanna work with Shane, then I'll subscribe.
Click to expand...
Doesn't Huber do stuff for them too?
 
Y

yoplay

Member
I always liked Shane. Great episode of Gameface.

Just came to show the GT staff some love since some will most likely read this thread. Loved their dynamic and I hope they all land on their feet doing great work. And Huber. Oh Huber. I can't explain what it is u make me feel. Such a special gamer. Good luck to the entire staff.
 
B

BBboy20

Member
Danial Bloodworth said:
The stuff that's broken is due to the site migration in November, data got messed up a bit

no, there was a whole team in NC where Escapist lives

Matt couldn't really code or reprogram the site, but he knew how to talk to the tech team and work around things to get things done

and you guys have no idea how broken the back end of the site was after 2012 replatform too

Everything about the 2012 site was forced on us
Click to expand...
He stated he'll be back in a week and a half.
 
K

kennyamr

Member
BBboy20 said:
Ok, SIFTD straight-up said that they will hire GT members if we gave them money.
Click to expand...

Please, ppl who listened to what Shane said during his podcast.
Do not give him money just because he says we will save GT.
Don't get scammed by anyone who tells you that they will save the GT crew.
Let's wait for what the official GT staff has to say first and hear their plans... only after that, we can help them directly with whatever they decide to do.
So again, please, don't give away money for empty promises.
Let's wait for the GT crew and their updates.
 
L

lowhighkang_LHK

Member
joms5 said:
It starts with Shane telling people to subscribe to sifted and he will hire whoever he can.

Doesn't sound like he's doing that well financially.

Screams of desperation.

Also i don't think many of gt would want to work with Shane given their opinions on him in the past.
Click to expand...

No thank you Shane. I'll wait to hear what the former GT staff want to do first before I start subscribing to things.

EDIT: And why would the GT staff join SIFTD when they can go out and do that kind of exact thing on their own with less overhead and full creative control? Anyway, if that's not his intention I apologize but it certainly comes across off that way. It's better to make hires first and then start asking for support.
 
Zomba13

Zomba13

Member
lowhighkang_LHK said:
No thank you Shane. I'll wait to hear what the former GT staff want to do first before I start subscribing to things.

Seems kind of shady and grimy to say, "hey, give me money and I'll hire those bums at Gametrailers that you people like....I promise scouts honor."

Whoakayy dude...

EDIT: And why would the GT staff join SIFTD when they can go out and do that kind of exact thing on their own with less overhead and full creative control?
Click to expand...

The thing is he could have every intention of trying to get them on board but that means jack shit if they decide to go on to something else or split up or if they get a better offer somewhere else.
 
Coreda

Coreda

Member
hlhbk said:
So are you guys covered or do you need help? I am somewhat recovered after the last 2 days. How will you distribute the archive? Can someone tell me how to download videos from the main gametrailers site?
Click to expand...

The more users contributing the better/faster, really. I'm only relaying the details, since I first became aware of the project after checking with the Archive Team to see if they were aware of it closing (which they were and even had the wiki page about it posted).

Once completed the WARC files (web archives of the crawls containing all the content) will be submitted to the Internet Archive at archive.org where it will be accessible at the Gametrailers.com address for browsing.

While it's a complete-as-possible crawl of the site, including videos and content (presumably the forums too), one thing that's yet to be seen is if the videos as they display on the original pages will load as-is, since I think they are Flash loaded and I'm not sure how IA's support for that is.

Spoke to someone from the Archive Team and they said the original raw WARC files uploaded from Archive Team to IA remain publicly accessible, so if the videos don't display as-is on the original pages with some script filtering the videos should be able to be found in the archives. Essentially they're just grabbing everything on the site they can at the moment using the standard web archiving formats before it's taken offline.

If others have custom video dumps they've downloaded and want to upload to the Internet Archive they can also do so. Some people already have.
 
B

Bloodworth

Member
joms5 said:
It starts with Shane telling people to subscribe to sifted and he will hire whoever he can.

Doesn't sound like he's doing that well financially.

Screams of desperation.

Also i don't think many of gt would want to work with Shane given their opinions on him in the past.

Edit: Also brags about how his reviews got like 3 million views and now they get hardly any. Those who remember, he's the one who introduced the new video player which made people leave that website in a mass exodus. I now remember why I don't like Shane.
Ego out the wazzoo.
Click to expand...

Sorry, this is the most negative cynical twisting of what Shane said that you could come up with. Sure, some of us have had personality conflicts with Shane, but he has always been genuine and always fought for us. At worst, he's overpromising because he can't guarantee that the team will want to join him.

Regardless of whether some of his remarks rub you the wrong way, everyone should watch the episode when it goes on YouTube. Goes very in-depth with the struggles at Viacom, and answers a lot of questions about why "we" didn't do certain things.It's been a long time coming, and was very glad to hear him put it out in the open.

EDIT - Sorry sentence got thrown in the wrong spot
 
Rabid Dwarf 76

Rabid Dwarf 76

Member
kennyamr said:
Please, ppl who listened to what Shane said during his podcast.
Do not give him money just because he says we will save GT.
Don't get scammed by anyone who tell you that they will save the GT crew.
Let's wait for what the official GT staff has to say first and hear their plans... only after that, we can help them directly with whatever they decide to do.
So again, please, don't give away money for empty promises.
Let's wait for the GT crew and their updates.
Click to expand...

This! I'm not giving anyone money till contracts are signed and the news comes from the GT staff.
 
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