#giant bomb

[eirikrjs]

I can't believe how old this list is now. (15 years.)

[thegildedcentury]

Only The Future Crabs Can Judge Me: Disco Elysium and The Politics of Failure

[trutown-the-bard]

We need to take down DSP next. He’s had it good for too long! Too long I say!

[folansstuff]

wild watching games criticism, real actual games crit without the shit of influencers and Geoff Keighley and sponsorships and the sort just like

Die

And its just because it doesn't make money in the billions, as if the cultural benefit is meaningless

[ijustthinkevilunoisneat]

#OTP: I love him dearly, as a person, whether we're on the podcast or off the podcast

[256gb]

goty season means it's time for this to play on loop in my head nontop for the rest of the month

[fishysplayhouse]

When me and my cousins were younger, we had this blue giggle doll at my Grandma & Grandpa's house. When you pressed the hand it would start vibrating like crazy for a minute before giggling and saying "tickle me!" When we would play with it though, we'd throw it across the room when it began vibrating and take cover behind a couch, bed, table, etc. Like it was a nuclear bomb and we were all about to die when it said "tickle me!"(meaning that it exploded and we were all dead)

[implausiblyjosh]

Thoughts On Giant Bomb Spread Out Over A Year

This is a series of posts from my cohost, edited for tumblr.

OCT 20, 2023:

fear

OCT 20, 2023:

cute cat in the video, fears gone

OCT 21, 2023:

this video was really good (please watch it), and i think articulates a ton of thoughts i've had about the site, while also talking about things from a historic perspective. there's a solid part at the beginning that talks about the wild corporate histories of GB ownership, as well as gaming publication ownership, which puts a lot of stuff into perspective. for instance, talking about how insular the site was pre-Austin Walker, and how insular a lot of the opinions expressed about games coverage from core founding crew is/was.

it's now made me think about if you could recapture lightning in a bottle and make something similar, even if it's not Giant Bomb, and I think the biggest hurdle is lacking a physical office, and really lacking the window dressings of "professionalism". something that i get from this video and my own thoughts about GB is that one of the things that really worked was that they had professional dressings, but they were doing "unprofessional" things. they had a nice office, access to The Industry, nice equipment, and all this "professional" stuff, but they were doing "unprofessional" things in that environment. using a tricaster, a piece of professional broadcasting equipment, to goof around on a Friday/Thursday afternoon while playing games in a nice professional office with professional coworkers and getting paid to do it all. it's sitting in a nice podcasting booth, with all your professional coworkers, asking "bat or knife" or talking about energy drinks, all while you're supposed to be talking about video games. it's the appeal of "what if i got paid to use the nice conference room with the cool professional tech at my 9-5 office job to play Skyrim with my coworker friends", and that's what's missing from the current iteration.

and it makes me wonder how much any of that is possible nowadays, right? on Patreon money, could you rent out an office space and hire a group of other people you like to work with or are friendly with? on Patreon money could you have the trappings and aesthetics of corporate professionalism, but produce goofy shit? idk! seems way too expensive to make that a reality!

JUL 24, 2024:

I've been watching the Giant Bomb Sweet 16! video and thinking about these posts again. I've already had my emotionally raw reaction to Giant Bomb's anniversary, and now I'm left thinking about how different it is.

Part of me thinks that the new, post-COVID era has brought in some things I really enjoy. I think Game Mess Mornings rules, actually. Having what amounts to a daily radio show about the games industry is good, and I have made listening to Jeff Grubb and friends a constant part of my morning routine. This is something that, likely, couldn't really exist in An Office, it makes way more sense as part a Zoom Thing. I could imagine a universe where an in-office podcast studio is made to look like video taped radio shows (I'm imagining something like the LBC studio, and the only shows that happen there are gaming related, and that makes me chuckle), but I don't think it's necessary to capture the vibe of The Radio, ya know?

But, again, seeing all these clips from the history of Giant Bomb of the chemistry in-person really shows how Zoom is not an adequate replacement. And I get it, it doesn't make sense to move everyone from WFH situations into a physical studio, especially because a lot of the crew have partners, kids, families, and so on. The resources are not there anymore after the COVID-era to get everyone together in an office to make a website about video games. It doesn't mean that it's not a considerable step down from where things were. The in-person office created an energy that they have yet to be able to match, and I don't think it's possible to match. The in-person office helped not only the chemistry flourish, but it also allowed for aesthetics of professionalism to show up as a contrast to the silliness of the concept of Giant Bomb. If Zoom of 2024 existed in 2008, and Giant Bomb started as a remote webcam thing, it would lose a huge part of what made it special. The secret sauce of Giant Bomb is mostly a great mix of interesting personalities, but the faux professionalism is also part of the secret sauce.

Previously I wondered if it was impossible to recapture Giant Bomb's lightning, and I think ultimately the answer is no. But that's because you'd never have those personalities as the building blocks again. You couldn't have a young Ryan Davis and a young Jeff Gerstmann again in 2024. However... they were people who left the more traditional side of games coverage at that time to do something different, with a huge chip on their shoulder after having given so much to the old ways that ground them and others up. They made a site that played with the idea of what a "gaming site" could look like at that time, and used the aesthetics of professionalism to contrast where they came from with what they were doing different. You cannot recapture that lightning because it'll never be 2008 again, but I think the building blocks exist to make something similar for a modern age. I hope it can happen!

[drifloonss]

Is this Oppenheimer in Chicago?

[jasvvy]

alpha protocol is a perfect game with no flaws. 

[billerdmann]

For those who don't get it, google USSR Premier Nikita Khrushchev's "We will bury you" speech in 1956. And, no, he wasn't threatening to bomb the USA and its allies...

[ijustthinkevilunoisneat]

[fireflys-locket]

[engineergaming69]

It's true 😘.

[uprightbat]

It’s a weird feeling when you’re heartbroken for people you’ve never met. Best of luck Jess O’Brien and Jason Oestricher, as well as everyone else affected by shitty fuckin layoffs.