Giant Bomb Thread 2: A thread on a popular internet message board

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I find it pretty funny in hindsight all the people bitching at me in this thread for wondering out loud why there had been so little content on the sites recently.
 
Calcaneus said:
I remember when Jeff got fired, a bunch of 1up staffers went and did a little rally outside the Gamespot offices. That was back when Ziff had a huge staff of editors, multiple magazines, and great content. Now Jeff is back with Gamespot (in a way), and 1up is bleeding editors. Its been an effed up 5 years.
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Nobody wants to work for Sam Kennedy.

Plus 1up was built around personality like GiantBomb. If the editors leave people follow, where as Gamespot has been around for so long people know them by their brand.
 
cuevas said:
haha a common theme in the complaints of GB has been "they were better when they were alone in the basement".
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Exactly... This may sound a bit overdramatic but for me Giantbomb kinda died when they moved out of Sosalito. Sure the last two years were still better than any other website on the net but they were never as good as the first two years.

And you can't compare the original office and the CBS buyout. In fact, they are complete opposite. They went from a small group of friends working on an indie website in a small basement to a much bigger gang working still in an indie website and then finally to a ton of people working for a giant conglomerate that will probably shut down Giantbomb in less than two years.
 
Megasoum said:
Exactly... This may sound a bit overdramatic but for me Giantbomb kinda died when they moved out of Sosalito. Sure the last two years were still better than any other website on the net but they were never as good as the first two years.

And you can't compare the original office and the CBS buyout. In fact, they are complete opposite. They went from a small group of friends working on an indie website in a small basement to a much bigger gang working still in an indie website and then finally to a ton of people working for a giant conglomerate that will probably shut down Giantbomb in less than two years.
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I'm not comparing, I was just sayin'. It will be interesting to see how this goes. I've been following the site since it was just jeff's blog after he got fired and it's evolved quite a bit since then to say the least.
 
Megasoum said:
Exactly... This may sound a bit overdramatic but for me Giantbomb kinda died when they moved out of Sosalito. Sure the last two years were still better than any other website on the net but they were never as good as the first two years.

And you can't compare the original office and the CBS buyout. In fact, they are complete opposite. They went from a small group of friends working on an indie website in a small basement to a much bigger gang working still in an indie website and then finally to a ton of people working for a giant conglomerate that will probably shut down Giantbomb in less than two years.
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Agreed. I stopped visiting when they started "Whiskey Media" and the offshoot sites. And that's mostly because of the change in content and the website revamps that killed the "blog"/news section.

I mean go over there today: There's a blog-post as "news" about Patrick's gamesave with Miranda dead and that's all "Really?"/HarrisonFordWHOGIVESASHIT.gif

They were better when they were posting announcements and stuff, personally.
 
cuevas said:
haha a common theme in the complaints of GB has been "they were better when they were alone in the basement".
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Really? I thought GB really took off when all of Whiskey Media came together in their new office and had awesome crossovers and random industry guests. Oh well.
 
darkressurection said:
From Jeff's Twitter: "It didn't line up properly, but my initial idea for all this announcement stuff was to do an NWO-style run-in on On the Spot. And the people I was pitching that to were all for it. That was a great early sign that the people at GameSpot are ready to party."

GOD, I wish that would have happened!

Edit: Hey Patrick, if you see this can you ask Jeff or Ryan if this means they can now do Time Trotters and/or Button Mashing stuff now?
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And none of us would have seen it lol
 
Calcaneus said:
I remember when Jeff got fired, a bunch of 1up staffers went and did a little rally outside the Gamespot offices. That was back when Ziff had a huge staff of editors, multiple magazines, and great content. Now Jeff is back with Gamespot (in a way), and 1up is bleeding editors. Its been an effed up 5 years.
Click to expand...
gam_1uprally2_490.jpg

supportreviewers.jpg
 
darkressurection said:
From Jeff's Twitter: "It didn't line up properly, but my initial idea for all this announcement stuff was to do an NWO-style run-in on On the Spot. And the people I was pitching that to were all for it. That was a great early sign that the people at GameSpot are ready to party."

GOD, I wish that would have happened!
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FUUUUUUUUUUUU
 
TheSeks said:
Agreed. I stopped visiting when they started "Whiskey Media" and the offshoot sites. And that's mostly because of the change in content and the website revamps that killed the "blog"/news section.

I mean go over there today: There's a blog-post as "news" about Patrick's gamesave with Miranda dead and that's all "Really?"/HarrisonFordWHOGIVESASHIT.gif

They were better when they were posting announcements and stuff, personally.
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Their news was essentially reposts from other websites before Patrick came on, and Jeff and the others knew it was a huge weakness it the site since none of them could really keep up. Now he's the one getting the big stories and the news section of Giant Bomb is actually noteworthy because they have 2 people managing it full time.
 
More than anything I really hope in today's interview with Jeff is that he is completely honest.

I don't want any revisionist bullshit history where he tries to explain it was just all one big misunderstanding, because clearly that wasn't what happened.
 
One thing I will miss is the mom and pop shop feel the site had. From the Welcome Back Tricaster Party, the Big Live Live show Live, to the day long streams when the sites went down because of Amazon. You know, when shit just broke and they still made the best of it.
 
darkressurection said:
From Jeff's Twitter: "It didn't line up properly, but my initial idea for all this announcement stuff was to do an NWO-style run-in on On the Spot. And the people I was pitching that to were all for it. That was a great early sign that the people at GameSpot are ready to party."

GOD, I wish that would have happened!
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Haha, that's so cool.

I just want them to get to their new office and start banging out content again now. "How to Move a Bomb... Again" videos surely on the way?
 
So let me see if I've got this straight:

  • GB wasn't making money (or enough money) in its current incarnation
  • Gamespot buys them out thinking they can turn it around
  • GB claims it's going to be the same old site we know and love
That makes no sense.

Gamespot obviously thinks they can wring a profit out of GB, they're not buying it out of the goodness of their hearts. If GB stays the same presumably it will generate the same revenues (even less now with people cancelling their subs.) So how on earth can it remain the same?

I've yet to see a merger of this nature go well, and I remain pessimistic as to the outcome of this one.

Still, hope springs eternal, and I will continue forward with the GB crew and hope for the best :).
 
Now I'm beginning to wonder about the 4pm live stream with John Davison and Jeff. Did Jeff really, truly address why he left GameSpot even jokingly? I hope they're not gonna put a spin on this.

Is this gonna be like that one time a huge mug of Bill Gates appeared on a Titantron infront of Steve Jobs and Co. at Macworld?
 
cuevas said:
One thing I will miss is the mom and pop shop feel the site had. From the Welcome Back Tricaster Party, the Big Live Live show Live, to the day long streams when the sites went down because of Amazon. You know, when shit just broke and they still made the best of it.
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I feel alot of that had to do with the people and less with the means (or lack of them). Hopefully more of it will carry over instead of less.

One thing I always loved was the whole attempt at pseudo-professionalism. They'd always try and then just say fuck it and talk to the people behind the camera or running the quick look anyway.
 
Ventilaator said:
About 5% of the people that are saying they are totally going to cancel.
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I bet a ton of people purchased the black Friday and Big Live Live Show Live memberships for a year.

I know I did.

And most of the posters have memberships for a year. How long was this in the works for? Did they know they were going to be bought out when they did the Second Live show last year?

ztR2b.png
 
Eterniti said:
Now I'm beginning to wonder about the 4pm live stream with John Davison and Jeff. Did Jeff really, truly address why he left GameSpot even jokingly? I hope they're not gonna put a spin on this.

Is this gonna be like that one time a huge mug of Bill Gates appeared on a Titantron infront of Steve Jobs and Co. at Macworld?
Click to expand...

Sounds like the NDA is now lifted, and they're going to go into detail about what happened. I trust Jeff to really delve into things.

Fox318 said:
I bet a ton of people purchased the black Friday and Big Live Live Show Live memberships for a year.

I know I did.

And most of the posters have memberships for a year. How long was this in the works for? Did they know they were going to be bought out when they did the Second Live show last year?
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Guessing this has only been in the works for the past few months.

I'd also guess the BLLSL2 didn't do as well as they were hoping, and discussions about the future of the company probably started there.
 
I'm not sad that Giantbomb gets to be bigger and better. I trust those guys to keep it real.

What really bums me out is breaking up Whiskey Media. I loved the idea of all of these disparate sites working under one roof, and the incredible atmosphere all of that diversity produced. Now, the family has been broken up and while I'm so happy that everyone seems to be moving on to bigger and better things, I can't stop feeling this melancholy.

The guys are holding it together so well, but they have been riding an emotional rollercoaster for the past few weeks (months really).
 
Risible said:
So let me see if I've got this straight:

  • GB wasn't making money (or enough money) in its current incarnation
  • Gamespot buys them out thinking they can turn it around
  • GB claims it's going to be the same old site we know and love
That makes no sense.

Gamespot obviously thinks they can wring a profit out of GB, they're not buying it out of the goodness of their hearts. If GB stays the same presumably it will generate the same revenues (even less now with people cancelling their subs.) So how on earth can it remain the same?

I've yet to see a merger of this nature go well, and I remain pessimistic as to the outcome of this one.

Still, hope springs eternal, and I will continue forward with the GB crew and hope for the best :).
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Coming from the video (if you are inclined to believe them which I am) it seems that they may have been able to get by financially, but they felt stifled. They wanted to do more, and people kept offering, but nothing felt right. Then he talked to John Davison and liked what he had to say. Who knows why CNET decided to buy them. Perhaps John saw a future in the type of content Giantbomb excels in and thought they could bring it to more people over at CNET. Sure maybe they lied to the Giantbomb guys and are going to step in and control everything. We don't have any information on what exactly the contract says.
 
Arlecchino said:
http://www.giantbomb.com/news/premium-members-faq/4036/
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Dave Snider said:
Hey, this has me worried. I've seen others sites get purchased and become pretty crappy. What makes this different?

It's a valid concern. But if you've made it this far (let's be honest, some of you have been supportive of us for years) you know that beyond the logos on our sites are a group of people who have committed their lives to building a better Internet. Our sites will continue to thrive because quite honestly, it's what keeps a lot of us going every day. And as hokey as it may sound, we want to continue having an audience that trusts us as stewards of our respective expertise.

Continue to keep us on our toes. Now let's start building.
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They have certainly earned a bit of loyalty from me over the years. I'm worried, but will continue to follow the guys wherever they go.
 
PSA: keep up with Klepek and Gerstmann's formspring. A far amount of tidbits. Forums won't merge (thank god), and it does seem that having more resources will allow Klepek to do some more interesting articles.
 
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