I think the thread's slow mostly because of the Discord being the place for general bullshit these days. There's a lack of content, sure, but that doesn't mean there isn't shit to talk about.
It makes me wonder why they're not doing a lot. It's obviously not going to be laziness or unwillingness.
When your job allows you to sit down and play any game of your choosing there's no shortage of ideas or possibilities either.
I know they're in a lot of "meetings" but even that can't take up the majority of the day. I still don't know why it's seemingly impossible to create 90-120 mins of premium content per day, especially with two offices... but then I've been wondering that since premium content was introduced so it's not going to change now...
I'll resub for the ad free podcast and UPF, having listened to these guys since 2004 it's the least I can do for the 1000's of hours of content they've given me. I think they could do with a more robust schedule of content outside of the podcast and UPF though. Throw in Game Tapes every other week or once a month, alternate it with Demo Derby, Encyclopedia Bombastica. With the depth of knowledge that Jeff and Brad have of the industry it's always fascinating to hear their stories about the industry from the time periods these features invoke. Basically I think they could lean on that side of their personalities a bit more to put together regular content. But hey, they've been doing it for years and prefer to not be so regimented and I can't hold it against them.
Vinny had a death in the family recently and I'm sure their hands are a bit more full than usual following Austin's departure, so I can't really be too hard on the East crew. Even so, Dan did a good job of keeping things exciting over there. The Olympic feature was a lot of fun, and the past few Beastcasts have been stellar.
As for the West, I'd say that their content output has gone about as I expected it would without Dan being there, which isn't good considering the possibility of him moving to the East Coast permanently. Whether it's true or not, it just feels like he's the person that makes the magic happen on the West, and some features don't really pan out as well without him (that Jeff/Brad Hitman video, while not outright
bad, wasn't as entertaining as any of the Dan/Brad outings).
Even when Dan's on the West Coast, though, I think UPF is the biggest problem with the site right now (I know that's a huge shock coming from me, but seriously). It's a middling-to-bad feature that has essentially run its course. It's not
fun anymore. That would be a bit more acceptable if it was just a small part of what you get with a premium subscription in 2016, but it's a significant chunk of their current premium content. I recall Jeff saying on the Kinda Funny podcast he did a while ago that he doesn't want to do a more regimented approach schedule-wise because he wants to have the site flow freely to keep things site exciting, and he doesn't want to get "stuck" doing something forever. It's a valid point, but it's hard to have faith in that when roughly half of the site's current premium output is, well, a feature they're seemingly stuck doing forever.
That being said, I don't necessarily think "make more videos" is the solution. They could easily strike a balance and have a free flowing approach while maintaining a regular schedule. The weekly show doesn't have to be the same feature week in and week out. You can keep UPF around, but why not do live Demo Derbies, Old Game Shows, Game Tapes, or Ranking of Fighters on Fridays along with it? Have a rotation of features on Friday instead of constant UPFs. It keeps Fridays from being as stale as they are currently, and it would ideally keep fan favorite features from being months apart from each other. It'd solve the content problem
and the UPF problem.
