No Goodbye Montage for Jeff Gerstmann

@finaldasa: It wasn't family or personal though. Not anymore than this one. And there were no threads allowed on the subject at all, at least none existed and I can't imagine I was the only one creating one about such a watershred moment for the site.

I guess time has made you relax a bit on this topic and change your stance.

That is what still rubs me the wrong way. No respect and decency was shown to the cofounder of the site. A farewell montage would have hurt nobody and instead would have shown some character. Without Jeff building this site for over 10 years most people on staff would not work for this site now.
But it’s fine, I moved on with nextlander and now Jeff and the new GB will find its audience.

It is telling though that most of Jeff’s videos on YT have more views than GB‘s recent videos.

Lot's of assumptions about what went on behind the scenes here. I loved Jeff on the site, but let's be real here about what we have actually seen. He hadn't been a part of any new content on this site this last year. He only showed up on the Bombcast and UPF and an incredibly rare solo stream. He's been tired and talks a lot about sleep issues. His speech and mannerisms remind me a lot of how I had and have difficulty acclimating to life as a father of two children. There is a very real possibly that he's been done for a very long time. I'm just happy that he looks to be a bit more energized then he's been for the better part of a few years and that the current staff on the site seem to be having fun.

Since we're allowed to speculate a little bit, I always wondered if those 9/11 jokes Jeff was telling during what turned out to be his final couple of weeks is the reason he was suddenly gone. There was also that time he destroyed the twin towers in that demolition simulator game and was unapologetic about it during those couple of weeks. I'll admit, I'm a sucker for a good conspiracy theory to a point, so why not add that one to the pile.

But again, he seems to be happy now and that is the most important thing. And like someone said, now you can get Jeff, Nextlander, and GB during the week. Even Waypoint as well. So it's all gravy.

If anyone involved ever wants to let what happened with Jeff's departure be known, then I would be more than happy to hear it, merely as a curiosity. However, I don't think that, at this point, it really matters. There is just as much, if not more, Jeff Gerstmann content out there to be consumed than ever, and Giant Bomb received a huge kick in the pants, as if to prove something in his absence. Whatever lead to it, the end result seems to be that everyone is happy.

Maybe Jeff didn't want or need a bunch of pats on the back and fanfare over what he helped create here. He knows his value. His coworkers know his value.The fans should know his value.That's probably enough.

@dwerkmd: Having kids definitely changes people. Also a lack of sleep will wreck havoc on your body as you get older. I say this from experience. It's a slow decline that you won't notice at first. I'm in my mid 30's. I've always been the type to stay up too late which used to be fine before kids. But now I have to get up at 6 or 7 in the morning, I probably shouldn't be going to bed at 1am....Do that for 3-4 years and it puts you in a bad place mentally. I know nothing about Gerstmann's life, but I thought he was looking pretty tired toward the end there.

About the goodbye montage, I was also bummed by the lack of one. But with such a fast departure it doesn't surprise me.

It's probably because the parting wasn't amicable.

You only have to watch, like, one of Jeff's streams to get hints about how he didn't like the new management, and leaving was not entirely his choice.

The world would be a better place if, instead of making assumptions, people could just live their lives.

Edit: It’s absurd to me this is still a talking point. It’s been covered. Everyone just keeps making assumptions on what happened. Holy fuck. I’ve followed Jeff from Gamespot too but sometimes shit happens the way you don’t like? That’s okay, you know…?

Really weird chain of events. Never would have expected stuff to end up like it did tbh. Seems like everybody is doing good though(at least surface level) so nothing we can do about it and just wait a few years and see if they ever tell the story.

Do you mean just enjoy that everyone seems happier and let what happened drift into the past and enjoy what had been as well?

Naw, let's retread the same topic over and over until the heat death of the universe.

I'm so angry you guys, when Jeff left GB he disappeared forever and now I have nothing. No house, no car, no beautiful women and my life has become a barren husk of what it once was. Where there was once laughter and champagne there is only misery and the desolate echo of the life I once had. All because Jeff is no longer part of Giantbomb and has disappeared completely from the internet, I didn't listen to him drive to go get energy drinks from a gas station a few days ago that was all an illusion by deep state cybermancers to keep me complacent, but they can't keep the truth down forever.

Stop drinking the tap water, that's how they get you.

Yes it does feel disrespectful. Jeff was GiantBomb. Continuing as if nothing happened and not making any farewell stream or video like they did for literally everyone else who left just feels, I don't know, low? Dismissive? Left a bad taste for sure. Don't know whose decision it was to do it this way but it made me realize the new GB is really not for me anymore.

@kub: Hey, it's been a month. You've been posting the same stuff that whole time, we get it and no one cares.

With the way Jeff left compared to all other staff members, and him also being a co-founder of the site, speculation should be viewed as normal.

Glad Jeff is doing well, now over 6,000 Patron's.

I do think this is notable, though I'm not sure what should be noted about it? This was immediately the case, even compared to GB videos from two or three years ago. How and why have so many people flocked to Jeff's Youtube compared to Giant Bomb? I have to imagine it's because so many people watch GB's content through the website itself (I've always adamantly watched content on giantbomb.com with the Giant Bomb player despite most content generally playing better on my old ass '08 iMac via Youtube) but it's also not like Nextlander saw that kind of bump, it was and has always been right in line with GB viewer numbers. Predictably, MinnMaxx and Waypoint operate on a tier below that. And all of these things are on a tier far, far, far, far below the Youtubers part of specific communities like From Soft and Gran Turismo creators.

So again, I see this get trotted out every once in a while but I'm not sure it really says anything about Jeff's reach inside or out of the GB apparatus. The more likely answer is that the people like me who'd have previously always watched Jeff content on this site no longer have the option to do so, so his numbers at other outlets predictably gets a bump. Even compared to Nextlander not experiencing a similar bump, I think that just speaks to his influence and reach relative to other Giant Bomb departures, though even then they have 4,000 or so more patrons than Jeff so...what are we really talking about here, y'know?

As different Giantbombers leave and do their own thing, it splits the potential viewer base. Let's face it, there's a lot of content out there, and I for one, don't have a lot of time in the day to follow and monetarily support each and every Giantbomb alum when they go off to do their own thing. In the coming weeks and months, I'm going to make some hard decisions on who to watch and support as I'm sure others will as well.

I had hallucinations that I watched him stream, can you believe this, Dragon's Dogma!?! He would never stream that!

I had the same vision. Not only did he stream Dragon's Dogma, he is now on a part of the bandwagon that likes the game! No way cynical Jeff Gertsmann is down with Dragon's Dogma. That's not reality!

@berfunkle: Yeah I've been thinking the same. I have the money to support the people I enjoy but you have to cut it off somewhere. It's turning into the streaming wars.

It's not that hard of a problem, just watch whatever interests you at the time. And don't feel an obligation to follow every video or sub to every membership. GB, Nextlander, and Jeff will be ok. I used to do more Patreon stuff but now I stick to the smaller folks that get more use out of my money.

It'll be ok. In fact, it already is.

It’s Ethan’s the best outcome of all this is in saving $50 a year, engaging only in what I’m truly interested in and dipping in/out of everything else.

2012-2020 was a hell of a ride but it’s kind of nice to not feel obligated to be 100% up to date with Mass Alex as it’s happening or devour every hour of every UPF and Game Mess just because it has GB branding on it.

The irony of this all being that now all these guys have mostly become what they once mocked - YouTubers.

The best outcome of all this is in saving $50 a year, engaging only in what I’m truly interested in and dipping in/out of everything else.

2012-2020 was a hell of a ride but it’s kind of nice to not feel obligated to be 100% up to date with Mass Alex as it’s happening or devour every hour of every UPF and Game Mess just because it has GB branding on it.

The irony of this all being that now all these guys have mostly become, in my media diet anyway, what they once mocked - YouTubers.

I wish, instead of endlessly speculating (to the point of basically creating fan fiction) we would instead have a good open conversation about burn-out, change, and the healthiness of moving on and doing it on your own terms. Wouldn't that be better??

look at these freaks on the internet much love

@f1rev2: yeah, kinda agree on that as far as the past year went

Wow, this is like Gamespot all over again.

HELL NO! I want to come up with stories that make me continuously more ANGRIER!

"Jeff was fired because he made a 9/11 joke" is what I'm going to tell people from now on when this comes up. This thread is hilarious, 10/10 ya'll, well done.

@ak416: 9/11 was a false flag to eventually get rid of Jeff. Calling it now.

for those waiting for this to spiral into crazy conspiracy town. We’ve made it

@derekuuda: Ahh yes Red Ventures....the Mega Corporation.

Oh.... You have $500 Million laying around to buy CNET, Gamespot, and Giantbomb? Thats what RedVenture paid according to articles on the internet.

much love

I mean, Jeff has been fairly open during his various podcasts over the past two months that there was some acrimony between him and RV's corporate management and it's not exactly a secret that that's what led to his departure. Both Jeff and the remaining GB crew seem better off after the split, so it's not super productive to dwell on it, but it's also pretty silly to act like anyone mentioning disputes between Jeff and RV is some crazy conspiracy theorist. I hope the remaining crew is able to fare better under RV than Jeff was, but I'm much more invested in the Gerstmann cinematic universe and Nextlander at this point in no small part due to the circumstances of Jeff's departure. Corporations fucking suck, man.

I’ve felt the same way. I never said it at the time, but it always bothered me that previous leaving alums got whole videos showcasing them, and Alex, Brad and Vinny didn’t even get a whole one between the *three* of them.

And Jeff was treated even worse. I honestly think the new group and direction has been working pretty well, but as far as my love of Giant Bomb as an entity, this is irreparable damage for me.

lul. well the check from Mr. Ventures cleared this morning, so....

@derekuuda: Considering CBS spent 1.8 Billion on Cnet alone initially, the Red Ventures acquisition for Cnet+GS and GB isn't exactly in the stratospheric range we have seen recently. I don't think anyone rolling their eyes at the people upset over Jeffs departure think you're wrong for being bummed out by Jeff leaving or the way it happened, It sucked and continues to suck I can empathize with that. I think where you start to lose the thread with me and a lot of people is, it's not like RV took Jeff out back and sent him to the farm upstate. He's making content, he seems happy and the same can be said of the Nextlander folk they all seem happy and content doing the things they want to do. I've been pretty happy with the content that I've gotten from GB, Nextlander and Jeff over the past few months and I think that's kind of what we should all be taking away from this.

I started on this Journey here when I was 19 years old, I'm 34 now. I love this site and all of the people that have made it Giantbomb over the years, Giantbomb is the community just as much as the crew. So we can huddle together for warmth and keep the dream alive, or we can argue with one another about Jeffs departure until that's all that is left. Between Nextlander/Jeffs Discord, and Giantbombs we're all still together. Just relax, we're all going to be fine.

Love you

@themaniacsgnome: @mellotronrules: LOL, fair enough... Sorry for going off earlier... I was a little upset. My apologies.

A leaving montage for Jeff would last hours. Which of the remaining guys would have the time to cobble that together? They've got to get back to the content mines.

Jeff did a preshow to his first podcast (episode 0) where he basically explained that when Vinny, Brad and Alex left he was already thinking along the same lines, but staid because of the triple whammy of (second) kid, covid and moving - basically security. that's about all he said on the topic and it's enough for me to think "glad you didn't stick around any longer if it was toxic for you". again, not implying corporate culture at RV is toxic, but Jeff definitely should be allowed to be full on creative talent. i'm sure Bakalar made this a lot easier for him, but in the end, the man needs to just be able to have a breakfast burrito and review energy drinks while playing Dragon's Dogma.