Giant Bomb Bomb-All

Having listened to this week's Bombcast after having seen the discussion kicked off here was a little confusing. I believe that, for the games they discussed having played over the past week, they were overall positive about all of them--Hades, Star Wars Squadrons, and Genshin Impact at least. They were indeed negative about Stadia in that story about the new Chromecast not supporting Stadia but that is genuinely an embarrassingly bad story for Stadia and even the very positive folks on the DLC podcast discussed the same story in a similar way. But I am inclined to agree that I don't like the way Ben dunks on unpopular things, his approach in particular often feels to me like he's always eager to join the cool kids of the internet in a pile-on in a way I find unappealing. To each their own, of course, and the Bombcast has definitely declined a bit from the time when it was once my favorite podcast in the universe, but I still like it.

I generally like DLC, although I have never really liked Christian, both his comedy and his perspective on things. I, too, started listening to MinnMax recently and think it's pretty good, though it makes me feel like an old man, as they seem to have a younger crew of people. I gave the Easy Allies podcast a try relatively recently but wasn't a fan...my recollection is I was turned off by a really uninformed discussion they had about something that made me feel like some of their hosts just weren't that bright, though I can't remember the specifics.

Loved DLC, their take on the Stadia story was much better as well.

MinnMax is next on my list.

skeletonframes wrote:
manta173 wrote:

Saw a stream the other day with Dan, Mary Kish, and Mike Maharty (sp?) talking best games of the year so far and really enjoyed it. Maybe they will get a podcast going...

Can this be watched now, or was it just a stream somewhere? Doesn’t she work for Twitch? You think it’s saved there somewhere or was it not affiliated?

It was on Dan's channel. I'm not sure if it was archived.

Yeah Jeff can sound kind of jaded sometimes but that works for me because that's me too. Also I appreciate his and Brad's takes on the news as they generally feel more incisive than Vinny's on the Beastcast, which are always a bit hot and playing to the internet cheap seats imo.

That said, if you could turf Ben and Jason from the Bombcast and replace them with with Abby and Alex (with Jeff B as the sub when somebody else is out) that'd be my dream lineup.

What you have against Jason?

I don't hate him but I just think he's kind of not-much-to-offer. I feel like most of his contributions are "Yeah," "Totally," "For sure."

But yeah I also get that he does lots of other work besides just being a personality. And I have no idea what goes into making a podcast combo with good chemistry. Maybe having all my favorites in the room together would be too many big talkers.

I'd like to here a producer-cast. Get Vinny, Abby, Jan, and Jason all talking what goes into making Giant Bomb run in the studios, the transition to solo streams, and now trying to get back to normal from home.

Abby is leaving 11/30 rather than continuing on with the new ownership.

Of course it was great that they finally hired a non-male, but I never meshed with her personality or taste in games. I’m curious if she’ll be replaced.

Blind_Evil wrote:

Abby is leaving 11/30 rather than continuing on with the new ownership.

Of course it was great that they finally hired a non-male, but I never meshed with her personality or taste in games. I’m curious if she’ll be replaced.

100% where I'm at. There are times where I really enjoyed her work and other times I didn't.

Also wonder what will happen. GB East will be down to the original duo of Vinny and Alex. The balance seems way off since West has 5. Really hope they have the resources to bring someone else on. Vinny tries to bring on younger people that are newer to the industry with different tastes.

Bummer. I liked her work, but I'll be interested to see where she goes.

It's interesting how she framed it, choosing not to continue with the new management. Were there buyouts offered to staff? I would be surprised if she just decided to resign without more behind it. If she were leaving to take another job you'd think she'd say that. But who knows maybe I'm reading too much into the phrasing.

Bummer that she won't get represented in one last game of the year, as other folks have before leaving. I've really appreciated the variety and perspective she's brought to the proceedings for the last few years.

Cuphead should be higher.

mrlogical wrote:

Bummer. I liked her work, but I'll be interested to see where she goes.

It's interesting how she framed it, choosing not to continue with the new management. Were there buyouts offered to staff? I would be surprised if she just decided to resign without more behind it. If she were leaving to take another job you'd think she'd say that. But who knows maybe I'm reading too much into the phrasing.

I watched a clip from today's Beastcast and she says that she was looking for other job opportunities for a while, before the sale. It was her first job out of college and it's been 3.5 years, time felt right with the change over.

We'll never know if there was pressure behind the scenes to reduce payroll or the benefits package has changed.

I love Abby and will miss her dearly. Like most people that I've seen leave GameSpot and GiantBomb (Mike Mahardy, Merry Kish, Drew Scanlon, Dan Ryckert), she's probably going to wait until the day she leaves (or thereabouts) to announce where she's going next.

I hope they bring in Mary Kish more often. I liked her far more than Abby, who I did not enjoy listening to.

maverickz wrote:

I hope they bring in Mary Kish more often. I liked her far more than Abby, who I did not enjoy listening to.

She's in Seattle now, so unlikely to happen

I'll ditto the Bummer--Abby brought a perspective that was invaluable, and she gave everyone else new things to talk about. She even more than Austin seemed unlikely to stick around forever, but I still kinda hoped. Who else is going to start a show about playing Fortnite with St. Vincent as a joke on thirst, only to have it all come true (granted, much of this is likely a function of how long Current Conditions In These Unprecedented Times have had to go on).

skeletonframes wrote:

Abby is a great add and they play very well off each other. I hope she stays on the show for a long duration, though I have a feeling she will move onto to other things eventually.

Why did I even put this out into the universe? Eventually came pretty quick. I’ll miss her perspective on games. I feel bad for Vinnie. They had almost like a father/daughter rapport and I’m not looking forward to his emotional goodbye on the last November cast.

Bummer! I started listening around the time she was starting. I really loved how it went from the guys talking over her at times during Game of the Year, to her confidence and game critique experience taking a front seat.

Yeah. I'm gonna miss Abby.

Abby championed Sims, Nancy Drew, and countless indies that GB couldn't and wouldn't be bothered to engage with.

Much like Austin and Drew, a legitimate voice of content diversity lost.

Shame.

Aaron D. wrote:

Abby championed Sims, Nancy Drew, and countless indies that GB couldn't and wouldn't be bothered to engage with.

Much like Austin and Drew, a legitimate voice of content diversity lost.

Shame.

Agreed. It is quite a loss, if for no other reason than the diverse interest in games that she brought to the table.

Vector wrote:
Blind_Evil wrote:

Abby is leaving 11/30 rather than continuing on with the new ownership.

Of course it was great that they finally hired a non-male, but I never meshed with her personality or taste in games. I’m curious if she’ll be replaced.

100% where I'm at. There are times where I really enjoyed her work and other times I didn't.

Also wonder what will happen. GB East will be down to the original duo of Vinny and Alex. The balance seems way off since West has 5. Really hope they have the resources to bring someone else on. Vinny tries to bring on younger people that are newer to the industry with different tastes.

I would imagine if they bring someone on, location will be less important than it was pre-COVID.

I doubt there are even serious discussions until the Red Ventures sale goes through. It sounded like GB East and CBSi wasn’t staying in that office.

Vector wrote:

I watched a clip from today's Beastcast and she says that she was looking for other job opportunities for a while, before the sale. It was her first job out of college and it's been 3.5 years, time felt right with the change over.

We'll never know if there was pressure behind the scenes to reduce payroll or the benefits package has changed.

It may have been personal as well. I don't even really pay attention to the community stuff but could definitely tell there was a lot of extra scrutiny for everything she did.

Whatever it is, I would be surprised if there is nothing more to it than "felt like time to move on." I feel like that's not a decision you usually make during an economic period where companies are shedding jobs.

Day early Bombcast this week, due to election day.

Also, Abby was recently on Ron Funches “Gettin’ Better” podcast.

Finally, Abby is now an affiliate on twitch at twitch.tv/ybbaaabby

She’s been streaming very regularly to it too.

So Bakalar broke his mic before the Beastcast and had to change it out, where we got this gem.

Beautiful. Especially after all the audio issues he's been having.