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

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Maybe I'm being a little sentimental but it's quite hard to watch Jeff talk into the camera about his recent family stuff. Although he's not doing it "blow for blow" quite rightly, I guess he must be finding some release saying this all to camera, in a cathartic way.

Poor guy. I really hope it gets better for him and his family soon. It humanises people that can be seen as just Internet characters at times.
 
it's usable.

I just always forget 2-3min in that it defaults to 360p, and have to rebuffer it all again.

The new player doesn't actually display HD content at true resolution at full screen, from what I can tell. It just scales up the web-sized window, so you see pixels everywhere. It's easy to spot if you download the HD version and then compare with the web player.

Edit: Apparently it's not the new player's fault, just the way GB handles full-screening. With Youtube videos played directly from the site the same thing happens. The pixelation even happens with the icons and time at the bottom of the Youtube player.
 
Fell half asleep during Jeff's Jar Time and woke up as he was getting really mad/passionate about patches and at people being mad about on-disc DLC. I can see his on-disc DLC stance. I don't see how he can state that the real problem with patches is that they allow publishers to ship a broken game (paraphrased), and then part of his argument for on-disc DLC (or rather anti-anti-on-disc-dlc) being that no one really ships completely featureless games, turning all features into DLC instead. Has either of those really ever really happened for any major console game? Skyrim PS3 is the most recent really broken game I can remember that got patched, and even then I don't think the issues were actually solved.

About these pre-E3 journalist events, what are they really for? Showing journalists aspects of things that are to be shown that would be unsuitable for showing to the public? Deeper looks at things there would be less time for at E3? I'm not seeing the point if no one can write about it until E3 anyway, and then those articles obviously have to be about the content shown at E3 to make sense. Are they basically the exact same demos?
 
Maybe I'm being a little sentimental but it's quite hard to watch Jeff talk into the camera about his recent family stuff. Although he's not doing it "blow for blow" quite rightly, I guess he must be finding some release saying this all to camera, in a cathartic way.

Poor guy. I really hope it gets better for him and his family soon. It humanises people that can be seen as just Internet characters at times.

It's definitely depressing. I can't even imagine trying to handle those kind of problems while simultaneously dealing with the stress that comes along with E3.

+1 Hoping Jeff's Dad gets better.
 
Fell half asleep during Jeff's Jar Time and woke up as he was getting really mad/passionate about patches and at people being mad about on-disc DLC. I can see his on-disc DLC stance. I don't see how he can state that the real problem with patches is that they allow publishers to ship a broken game (paraphrased), and then part of his argument for on-disc DLC (or rather anti-anti-on-disc-dlc) being that no one really ships completely featureless games, turning all features into DLC instead. Has either of those really ever really happened for any major console game? Skyrim PS3 is the most recent really broken game I can remember that got patched, and even then I don't think the issues were actually solved.

Fallout 3 ps3 also shipped with another game ruining bug that would crash the game any time you got a notification. so any time someone on your friends list went on/off line, any time you got a message and any time you unlocked a trophy it crashed. They patched it pretty quick that time though. Within the first month compared to the 3/4 month wait for skyrim ps3 to be fixed.

Also plenty of online games have shipped with busted online that needs to be patched to get working right.

About these pre-E3 journalist events, what are they really for? Showing journalists aspects of things that are to be shown that would be unsuitable for showing to the public? Deeper looks at things there would be less time for at E3? I'm not seeing the point if no one can write about it until E3 anyway, and then those articles obviously have to be about the content shown at E3 to make sense. Are they basically the exact same demos?

Moneyhatz!

But really its a chance to let pubs show key members of the press stuff before the event and get more time with guys like Jeff and the other big sites then at the show they demo stuff to every Tom, Dick and Harry who can get a e3 badge.

Also it can be a dry run to see how demo's over before final tweaking.
 
The new player doesn't actually display HD content at true resolution at full screen, from what I can tell. It just scales up the web-sized window, so you see pixels everywhere. It's easy to spot if you download the HD version and then compare with the web player.

Edit: Apparently it's not the new player's fault, just the way GB handles full-screening. With Youtube videos played directly from the site the same thing happens. The pixelation even happens with the icons and time at the bottom of the Youtube player.

That as well. Yeah.

And from the sounds of things, the engineering team is busy with new site design... I do hope they get around to fix this bug at the very least.

Video is kinda big for GB.
 
About these pre-E3 journalist events, what are they really for? Showing journalists aspects of things that are to be shown that would be unsuitable for showing to the public? Deeper looks at things there would be less time for at E3? I'm not seeing the point if no one can write about it until E3 anyway, and then those articles obviously have to be about the content shown at E3 to make sense. Are they basically the exact same demos?

It means these guys:

  • Have to worry a little less about rushing around the show floor trying to squeeze in coverage with everybody (though this still happens!)
  • Get informed on upcoming announcements so pieces can be written in advance and set to go up the moment the announcements are made
  • Have extended time to write more coherent, extended impressions on certain games
  • Have a quieter, more calm environment with fewer lines to experience said games
 
Damn, Tested's traffic has really dropped in the last month or two, if quantcast is to be trusted.

I hope Jamie and Adam's Will and Norm pull through...
 
Damn, Tested's traffic has really dropped in the last month or two, if quantcast is to be trusted.

I hope Jamie and Adam's Will and Norm pull through...

How was their traffic before? Either way... Hopefully it turns out well.

I wonder what the podcast subscription to website traffic ratio is.
 
If you got to quantcast.com/tested, you can change all the intervals to see whatever data you want.



Or people have had a real bad reaction to this whole "Jamie and Adam's" thing. I know I have.

Why...its Jamie and Adam? Plus the site is relatively the same, except for the design.
 
Why...its Jamie and Adam? Plus the site is relatively the same, except for the design.

The design pisses me off. It just screams of "Hey, we totally bought this site". It's probably great for newcomers though.

Yeah, Jartimes would be great as a premium podcast feed. I have quite a few lecturecasts already, one more wouldn't hurt. And it's not like he really needs the visuals (except the hilarious bits when he spots a spider or something)
 
Damn, Tested's traffic has really dropped in the last month or two, if quantcast is to be trusted.

I hope Jamie and Adam's Will and Norm pull through...

Have Jamie and Adam done anything on the site yet other then ruining the logo?


I know they are busy guys and all but you would think they would have done some video content by now.

Maybe once they start doing stuff on a regular time table things will get better.


Also it doesn't help Will and Norm are not exactly putting out quality content right now ether.

Podcast is still solid but I could go the rest of my life without seeing another "hey look at this thing on my iphone" video from them. Maybe if they did it for android / WP7 phone it would help break things up.

Loved the nuclear reactor and paper airplane videos though.


I check tested.com out of habbit but even I could tell I was visiting less and less.

I managed to miss 2 weeks of the podcast.

Was great when I needed 4 hours of stuff to listen to when I went shopping for clothes earlier in the week.
 
Damn, Tested's traffic has really dropped in the last month or two, if quantcast is to be trusted.

I hope Jamie and Adam's Will and Norm pull through...

Tested flaw is the same flaw it had with Whiskey. There is no focus. And while that can lead to diverse topics it doesn't really make it stand out from any personal blog.
 
How was their traffic before? Either way... Hopefully it turns out well.

I wonder what the podcast subscription to website traffic ratio is.
MnXGT.gif


WOW indeed that is not good :( I love tested but I think the "new" website did not help.
 
Honestly, I've visited Tested only a few times since the split, whereas with Whiskey I used to drop by the site whenever I hit Giant Bomb.
 
Having that redirect on the bottom was mostly how I visited screened/tested

Same, and I agree that Tested may have screwed up by going too broad with their topics. So many of the articles on the site now are just of no interest to me. I kinda wish they would just go back to tech stuff, although I imagine the Mythbusters partnership is one of the reasons they do so many science based articles now.
 
The focus problem has gotten far far worse.

Old Tested Mission Statement
Who Is Tested?
We're just a bunch of dudes who really, really love technology. No, not in a I'm-gonna-hump-your-Kindle kind of way, but in a wholesome, all-American I-just-want-to-test-out-all-the-latest-gear-and-see-if-it's-awesome! kind of way. Collectively, we've written about everything from PC hardware, e-book readers, and smartphones to squirt guns and Internet porn--not to mention games, video, and a whole boatload of other stuff over the last 10 years. If we didn't have a day job that let us test out all the latest gear as soon as it was out, we'd probably just spend a LOT of money on this stuff. Also, Tested is a part of WhiskeyMedia, just like GiantBomb, ComicVine, and AnimeVice.

That was the short answer. If you want the long answer, click here.

So, What Kind of Technology Are You Into?
The short, pithy answer is: We'll cover any technology that's awesome. The longer answer is that we're going to start with the categories we're really excited about: smartphones, laptops, e-book readers, TVs, netbooks, tablets, headphones, coffee, and even PC components.
However, our number one rule is to make Tested the site that we'd be interested in reading. If you think there's something we should be covering, but aren't, please let us know.

Why is Tested a Preview?
Well, right now we're showing just a tiny fraction of the eventual site. Over the next few weeks, we'll launch a bunch of new features, including a massive product database. We're calling Tested as it is today a preview, at least until we pull the wraps off the rest of the site.


now
WHO IS TESTED?
Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage are champions of science and technology, who worked on special effects for seminal Hollywood films before teaming up ten years ago to educate and entertain millions of viewers around the world. Through the course of his 25 years of work in the effects industry, Jamie has had his hand in producing effects for over 800 commercials, dozens of feature films, and has built hundreds of prototypes. Adam has multiple hobbies and is passionate about restoring his vintage four-wheel drive vehicle, and researching and accruing new pieces for his movie prop collection. When not shooting shows or working on pet projects, Adam and Jamie travel the country to corporate events, museums, and colleges, for groups as small as 20 and as large as 20,000, telling tales of experiments, explosions, and hijinks. Tested is their home on the web.

Will Smith and Norman Chan have been covering consumer electronics and the Internet for the past ten years, the last two of which were spent building Tested as a place for users to learn about technology and share their passions. Will works to master many coffee brewing techniques, is learning novel and traditional cooking styles, and keeps trying to expand his dog’s vocabulary beyond 150 words. Norm loves learning new photography tricks, is fascinated by comic book and cosplay culture, and is still on the hunt for the perfect pair of headphones. Both Will and Norm are unabashed adult fans of LEGO. As the curators and producers of everyday stories and video on Tested, trust Will and Norm to bring the off-beat enthusiasm and pragmatic coverage that long-time Tested readers have come to expect, infused with Jamie and Adam’s sensibilities and hallmark inquisitiveness.

SO, WHAT KIND OF STUFF CAN I READ ABOUT ON TESTED?
The short, pithy answer is: We'll cover anything that's awesome. The longer answer is that we have many interests, ranging from breakthroughs in science, amazing tales of exploration, and discoveries in nature to emerging technologies and new consumer products that promise to change our everyday lives. Tested is the place where we’ll explore those topics in depth, asking the hows and the whys about the things that excite us the most.


The number one rule of Tested is simple. We want to make Tested the site that we'd be most interested in reading. If you think there's something we should be covering, but aren't, please let us know!

The old tested would cover into new topics like Will's coffee thing but now its all over the place.

Its clear that they wanted to build tested like GDGT but I think Whiskey's funding, costs, and their corprate lifestyle really stretched things thin. They were trying to sell memberships to sites with supposed premium content that just didn't exist. AnimeVice was dead after the move away from a more industry focused site, Sceened really should have never been created, and Tested focus problem and the sites ultimate goal was never really set into place.

I honestly believe that Whiskey's finances were set up so that they needed to be acquired to sustain their bottom line. I actually think the day everything kinda hit panic mode was when Vox Games was announced or around Thanksgiving when they had their membership sale.
 
Posted a while ago on the oficial Tested.com thread my opinions regarding the "new" Tested.com and it seems a lot of people in this thread share my point of view. It went from being a great tech site with ocasional cool tangential content to a site devoted to the tangential content. I frequented Tested because of the reviews, the opinion pieces on consumer technology, their comments on current tech news, and now it seems everything that I liked about the site has taken the back seat.
 
Posted a while ago on the oficial Tested.com thread my opinions regarding the "new" Tested.com and it seems a lot of people in this thread share my point of view. It went from being a great tech site with ocasional cool tangential content to a site devoted to the tangential content. I frequented Tested because of the reviews, the opinion pieces on consumer technology, their comments on current tech news, and now it seems everything that I liked about the site has taken the back seat.

I still listen to the podcast but I don't really visit the site anymore. And even the podcast isn't even that much of a thing for me anymore. Now I consistently listen to the Vergecast before Tested. That wasn't the case before...
 
Posted a while ago on the oficial Tested.com thread my opinions regarding the "new" Tested.com and it seems a lot of people in this thread share my point of view. It went from being a great tech site with ocasional cool tangential content to a site devoted to the tangential content. I frequented Tested because of the reviews, the opinion pieces on consumer technology, their comments on current tech news, and now it seems everything that I liked about the site has taken the back seat.

I think tested is far more interesting to me now because its giving me something that I didn't already get elsewhere. Their paper airplane and nuclear reactor videos are two of the best things they ever produced.
 
It's probably too early to make a judgement on Tested's future. They haven't even moved into their office yet. Also, whenever you change your focus like they did, it's only natural their numbers would dip as their new audience finds them.

New Screened is so fucking weird though. It's like a hermit crab died, and another hermit crab moved into the old one's shell. The site looks exactly the same, but it's different people doing it.
 
I think tested is far more interesting to me now because its giving me something that I didn't already get elsewhere. Their paper airplane and nuclear reactor videos are two of the best things they ever produced.

I agree that it was awesome. But their whole site is just appalling now, will rather go through youtube to watch their stuff. There's not even any way for the embedded videos to be be bigger or anything on testeds site and there's no video categories anymore? Yeah... fuck that.
 
Yep tested has turned into a link aggregator. It doesn't add anything novel content wise. The articles and topics are primarily from science blogs, r/science or already in my Instapaper feed.

Their opinion doesn't really matter on these topics because they are pretty much reporting/copying facts. They don't seem to have prior knowledge on what they are talking about, which really shows when they discuss anything on the podcast. And don't get me started on their video content; iPhone apps and cheap accessories. Come on guys! Also the web site is stupidly designed and barely functional.

I feel the podcast has also taken a hit because of this. It feels very forced, especially when Will is trying to talk about what they wrote on the site. I know they said they will be offering premium content down the road, but feeling pity for them is not enough for me to stay subscribed.

/rant
 
Yeah, if I'm totally honest, Tested has lost a bit of it's luster for me. Not just the site, but also the podcast. Hard to say exactly why. Don't want to give up, though. Will & Norm are awesome.
 
Maybe I'm being a little sentimental but it's quite hard to watch Jeff talk into the camera about his recent family stuff. Although he's not doing it "blow for blow" quite rightly, I guess he must be finding some release saying this all to camera, in a cathartic way.

Poor guy. I really hope it gets better for him and his family soon. It humanises people that can be seen as just Internet characters at times.

Wait his pops is ill again? ouch :( :(
 
Wait his pops is ill again? ouch :( :(
I've only watched the first 10 minutes or so, but he didn't really give specifics. Sounds like that's the case, though. Definitely feel for him. My Dad has had some scary heart problems over the last 2-3 years. Never an easy thing to go through.

Hope things improve for him and his family. Must be tough to have such a busy schedule coming up with that stuff going on =[
 
Yep it feels like will and norm are being squeezed out from the website. It feels nothing like the old days i think the fact it seems they are doing the vids from wills house just feels i dunno strange.
 
You know people say that, but other than having Jamie and Adam at the top of their site it's been relatively the same, only substitute boring phone news with a few science articles.

If you've been following them their editorial stuff is still mostly the same. They cover crazy events, some apps, there's a bigger focus on cameras it seems, and will's going crazy trying to make a third person camera.
 
Damn, Tested's traffic has really dropped in the last month or two, if quantcast is to be trusted.

I hope Jamie and Adam's Will and Norm pull through...

Yep I used to go to tested almost every day, multiple times when I was bored at work. Now? Once a week. I went to tested for their videos, now their video section is half stuff without will/norm in it at all, and the other half is iphone camera apps. Couldn't care less about either group of videos.
 
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