Giant Bomb Bomb-All

Voidburger pronounced the word niche correctly so I'm all in.

detroit20 wrote:

These changes at Giant Bomb have prompted me to rethink my relationship with gaming media - print and audio.

I'm becoming equally jaded about podcasts.

And some of the podcast formats feel a little stale. For example, Giant Bomb and NextLander use broadly the same show structure, which leaves me less-than-excited about Jeff's new podcast. One of the great things I like most about GWJ is the fact that I will usually hear something in the show that I won't hear elsewhere; be that a new member of the panel or a discussion about an esoteric aspect of gaming.

I can probably cut my podcast listening down to two - GWJ, and NextLander - and then add an online video review to my list of gaming media.

I have pretty much dropped the traditional gaming podcasts too. The only ones I listen to regularly are Triple Click and Get Played. I like the personalities of the podcasters and they aren't doing that traditional here's the new games, here's the news, etc. Get Played (previously How did this get Played?) is my favorite because I think they are some of the funniest people. They are all professionals in comedy, whether that's writing or performing or improv. And they know their sh*t.

For reviews and previews I have a few YouTube channels I like and get info from there. I don't know if there are any gaming websites I visit regularly. I do follow a few gaming subreddits. I think a lot is on discord too, but I don't know how to use discord.

Yeah, I formally unsubscribed after listening to yesterday's podcast. Not out of some grand statement about how the site is ruined now that Jeff is out (although I am a proud member of the Dan Resistance), but more that I realize I have basically been barely listening for the past year out of a need to have voices in my head while I work more than anything.

I'm now basically down to 3 - Nextlander, Minnmax and Game Junk - and even then it's a lot of similar coverage and takes on the same basic news stories.

I just want to listen to Jeff G talk about old video games. GBcast was where I had to go for that before. Now I can just listen to his thing. I really couldn't care less about much of the rest. Plus, I listen to Nextlander, and they go through all the same news and reviews anyway.

I enjoyed listening to Jeff G on the Bombcast mostly for the "insider stories", but a lot of that is the energy that the rest of the team shared with Jeff. I skipped around a bit through Jeff's first podcast and realized that I really don't want to listen to Jeff just talking at a camera/Twitch chat for a few hours. Maybe I'll check back on it in a month or two, after he has a chance to get into a groove.

As for the Bombcast, I'll stick with it for now. I enjoy listening to the different perspectives that this crew offers, so far. Maybe I should check out Nextlander again; I didn't like the first episode, but maybe they just needed time to get into a groove.

I'm actually not interested in following Jeff solo. I would sometimes try and watch his video game playing streams for GB and they would always kind of devolve into him replaying the same small selection of games he's nostalgic about over and over again and not really providing commentary. For me, he kind of needs people to bounce off of. I'm more of a fan of watching Vinny play bad FMV games.

I feel like there's a lot more validity to earlier this year in this thread where people were voicing concerns that Jeff was sounding depressed or burnt out.

Jeff definitely sounded burnt out, and he pretty much has said that the last two years were rough on him, so maybe this new venue will give him some pep in his virtual step.

He sounded more upbeat and energetic on his recent solo podcast, but it's early days. We'll see what happens. He has full control over what is going on right now, so there will be no one to blame but him.

Getting 3000+ patrons in the first three hours of a new venture is probably a big relief. Despite how confident you are that you can go it alone, there's still basically no assurance of income until those numbers start going up.

Jeff Gerstmann's first episode was really good to listen to.

Yes. I’m not surprised at all, his Jar Time videos on GB were always a treat for me. If anyone can do this solo, it’s him.

If you need to cannonball into perhaps more Dan than you would like, this weeks Dump Truck is full…

I tried to listen to Jeff's first podcast and tapped out about halfway through. Not even Gerstmann can keep a solo podcast interesting for me. I hope he brings on guests soon.

I have somewhat of a sour taste that Jeff didn’t get a last bombast to discuss/announce his departure, like all the other departures have had, to at least get some kind of closure there. That seems harsh and, well, disrespectful. I don’t like to talk sh*t, but makes me wonder if there was bad blood over something. Jeff showing up with former GB sponsors on his first podcast make some wonder. I wish them all best of luck, that business seems incredible difficult in these times.

jonnypolite wrote:

I don’t like to talk sh*t, but makes me wonder if there was bad blood over something.

I didn't get the impression that there was any bad blood between him and the rest of the staff, but likely between him and Red Ventures.

jonnypolite wrote:

I have somewhat of a sour taste that Jeff didn’t get a last bombast to discuss/announce his departure, like all the other departures have had, to at least get some kind of closure there. That seems harsh and, well, disrespectful.

I agree that it feels really crappy, but I can speculate a dozen different reasons why he left unceremoniously and half of them may not necessarily be RV's fault. It's a weird situation, especially if he had any kind of ownership left in the company or something.

My guess is something happened that made the exodus drastic during Jeff's current absence because it seems like both Jeff and the GB crew were already planning for this to happen but also were both expecting way more runway before it did. The GB podcast and the changes/announcements in particular manages to come off as something that was already in the works but also where they found themselves scrambling at the last moment.

I will listen to him ramble on a bit. He is definitely trying to find his place in this industry.

kuddles wrote:
jonnypolite wrote:

I have somewhat of a sour taste that Jeff didn’t get a last bombast to discuss/announce his departure, like all the other departures have had, to at least get some kind of closure there. That seems harsh and, well, disrespectful.

I agree that it feels really crappy, but I can speculate a dozen different reasons why he left unceremoniously and half of them may not necessarily be RV's fault. It's a weird situation, especially if he had any kind of ownership left in the company or something.

My guess is something happened that made the exodus drastic during Jeff's current absence because it seems like both Jeff and the GB crew were already planning for this to happen but also were both expecting way more runway before it did. The GB podcast and the changes/announcements in particular manages to come off as something that was already in the works but also where they found themselves scrambling at the last moment.

Yeah, this sounds highly possible. Either way, his exit certainly doesn't feel clean. Giant Bomb was Jeff and Ryan, and all the (esp old-school) crew helped make the magic.

I feels like there is a lot of care and concern for the new bombcast crew- Jeff has been exceptionally respectful and positive, Brad and Abby and others tweeted out positive vibes for the new crew- I get the sense that folks are going out of their way to make sure that the weird distaste for whatever happened for Jeff's hasty exit doesn't hurt the goodwill for the new folks who had nothing to do with it.

Still, yeah- I feel there is enough around the edges, absolutely do not think that this was a clean, truly amicable exit. Maybe John Davison will become the CEO of Red Ventures someday and ask Jeff to come and talk about it.

After watching some of the recent content, Grubb fits in so well. IMAGE(https://emojipedia-us.s3.amazonaws.com/source/skype/289/sparkling-heart_1f496.png)

Jeff Grubb is an outstanding get. Has a love and knowledge of GB. He's very similar to Jan that way.

As the anniversary of Ryan's passing passed, it was odd to think that no one on the GB podcast for the week was connected to his time with GB. As time passes I think the audience has gone along to the point that a large number of folks listening probably aren't even connected to his time on Giant Bomb.

It was good to hear even a passing reference to Ryan on Nextlander.

IMAGE(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/7uu048oeze1fyhe/burning+money+-+laughing+-+ryan+davis+-+giantbomb+-+longer.gif)

I laughed very hard.

Not mentioned: it's weird that they improved the enemy behavior but seemingly gave the player nothing new to work with.

An actual quick look.

I'm loving seeing Jeff enjoy Dragons Dogma!

He mentioned on the podcast a month or so ago but hasn’t talked about it much since. Has he been playing on streams or something?

strangederby wrote:

I'm loving seeing Jeff enjoy Dragons Dogma!

Grubb or Gerstmann?

Blind_Evil wrote:

He mentioned on the podcast a month or so ago but hasn’t talked about it much since. Has he been playing on streams or something?

He's up to part 05 of a loose series.

trueheart78 wrote:
strangederby wrote:

I'm loving seeing Jeff enjoy Dragons Dogma!

Grubb or Gerstmann?

Gerstmann.

Fixed the link above.

Also Jeff Gerstmann blowing up at his discord chat for their incorrect rapper opinions is the best. I'm really enjoying his podcast and streaming.