F1REv2

Giant Bombcast 685 - May 11th 2PM

A Relaxed Friday Stream - May 14th 4PM

Come on Rorie, surely you are playing something you could upload? Please?

First of all this is not another topic (out of many) to question WHY any member has left Giant Bomb, but to discuss speculation in general. After this week's bombshell news that 3 out of 4 alumni are leaving the site it's been hard as a community member to not speculate why. Maybe it's a human thing but when any company goes through a huge change, regardless of the industry and regardless of the company, people want to understand why.

The thing that has been a head scratcher for me about speculation in general is anything involving the inner workings of Giant Bomb in general on this website has been frowned upon by certain moderators and users in general. For the last 5 years (arguably longer) I have watched 2 dedicated GB podcasts a week that provide almost 1 hour of their shows speculating on gaming industry news stories. From anything to do with next gen consoles, studio closures, online stores, anything Switch Pro related, Epic vs Apple, Game Pass, E3, even as recent as Jeff Kaplan leaving Blizzard. And yet, someone leaves GB and as a premium member I'm told to wish them the best (and duh why wouldn't I) and to not speculate why.

So why? Why is it that we are ok listening to what a GB employee has to speculate about gaming news every week, and yet when the community wants to discuss GB its frowned upon? After reading several speculation posts over the last 3 days I have to say I don't think any of it comes from a place of hatred, its a genuine curiosity and while those questions may never be answered there is nothing inherently wrong with asking "why?" in general.

Anyways, that's all. I could go into detail why someone who pays for a premium membership on anything has the right to question the future of a product but that's probably for another topic.

I love you all, I myself shed many a tear on today's Beastcast as many of you did I'm sure. I trust in My Two Jeff's to move this site in a new direction and I'm excited to see where they take it and I will be renewing my premium sub to help them out. I just shouldn't be made to feel like scum by any GB member or mod to speculate why this happened at the time it did.

-F1RE

"While I certainly would have loved to solve these challenges with my longtime friends and coworkers by my side, it just wasn't meant to be."

Throwing speculation aside, this sentence alone broke my heart.

Honestly I'll miss Vinny, Brad, and Alex deeply. At the same time if this allows Jeff to hire additional people and try something new I'm all for it. Theres no shortage of industry veterans, gamers, and personalities that him and Red Ventures can sign or get to be on podcasts. I'm reminded of feeling gutted when Ben Pack left and Danny was brought in to fill that spot on the Bombcast, one door closes and another one opens.

I speculate that they will be focusing more on streaming from home moving forward instead of working in a studio, but that to me just means they aren't stuck hiring people that are only in SF or NY which really opens up the possibilities to work with many others.

I guess this means though that finally Call of Duty will win GOTY.

Makes you think that CBSi or Red Ventures doesn't pay enough to GB or Gamespot compared to what you can make on Patreon.

@frytup:

I dont think anyone is saying that. However if you are paying for premium I think its ok to voice a complaint or offer a suggestion about what you would like to see out of your premium subscription. I'm paying for a product, I'm allowed to give an opinion on said product. And I don't think anyone in this thread so far is being antagonistic or suggesting anything outlandish.

@ehbunner:

Agreed. I was kind of shocked on a recent bombcast or Hotspot Brad mentioned he dropped off Valheim hard because he didn't have anyone to play and coordinate with. I find it odd they didn't just make it another series as you had 4 current members, Abby, and Danny playing the game so it's not like there wasn't enough people.

If they can't move Hotspot, which again I still don't think it adds anything being on a Friday, then maybe they can get another prerecorded series going that releases on Monday? Again, not everything needs to be a live show and not everything needs to be a quick look.

Maybe this is just a problem of having the smallest staff they have had in years though. It's time for Rorie to just pump out more content 😀

@finaldasa: so like I said move Hotspot to Mondays then. It's not exactly a news oriented podcast and then you still have UPF if any of the guys want to discuss breaking news. Anyways it's just a suggestion, I love GBs content but Mondays are definitely lacking in content

@finaldasa:

I dont see the problem in recording a pre-recorded play date on a Friday and then releasing it on Monday. I doubt the community would be bothered that it wasn't live. Better than having Monday be a nothing day and Friday being front loaded with 2 shows.

Maybe even move the Hotspot to Monday instead of having it and UPF an hour or so apart on Fridays. I'm assuming Monday is probably an office/meeting day for them, but still it would be nice to have a scheduled play date or something to fill in what is otherwise a dry content day from GB.