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>For those unfamiliar, Giant Bomb was one of the first video games press outlets to focus on premium video content. They offered monthly/yearly paid subscriptio

>For those unfamiliar, Giant Bomb was one of the first video games press outlets to focus on premium video content. They offered monthly/yearly paid subscriptions for unlimited streaming/downloads: a mix of livestreams, review/criticism content, and Just Goofing Around pre-recorded content. They typically released a few hours worth of content a week at their peak, if I remember right, and the cost was something like $30-50 a year. This was before long form video was a big thing on YouTube; arguably sites like Giant Bomb were pioneers that showed a path forward (at least temporarily) for lots of creatives. It would never occur to me to watch someone else talk about or play a game online, let alone pay for the privilege. It seems I am alone on that front.

Aesock 1y ago
[dead]
astrange 1y ago
Since gamers are a subculture, they want a mirror of any part of real life you can think of, except about games. There's a sub-subculture in this of video game journalists. There's a further subculture inside this of people who want to be writing for a video game review website (or a sports blog etc) but only ever actually write about their half-baked opinions about American politics.
twixfel 1y ago
You obviously are not alone. Sorry to break it to you.
Brybry 1y ago
I grew up in the 90s sitting on couches watching friends and family play games while we socialized. For me, watching other people play games on the internet is basically an extension of that but with the addition that I can also watch some of the best gamers in the world if I want to.
- pier25 1y ago
  The social aspect is lost though.
  - dubiousdabbler 1y ago
    Not totally. For smaller streamers, it's easy to interact with the streamer. And many people make friends in the chat and that's even why they keep coming back for - the community in the chat.
    - pier25 1y ago
      Online chats don't really compare to IRL interactions though. There's currently an epidemic of genz who barely interact with their virtual friends.
Wololooo 1y ago
To add some context here, at the time you had Jeff Gerstmann which is a dinosaur in the game journalism sphere and had insights and insider information from many different sources. He has also an encyclopedic knowledge of weird esoteric games. Add to this a series of people he had great chemistry with and people that were not familiar with some franchises and introduced by other members lead to funny moments. Their coverage of E3 was legendary. It depends how deep people are within subcultures but giant bomb did offer a lot of entertainment (even for free I never paid for the premium stuff) and honest game reviews. I can't speak for the current state because I was watching before the core team left and stopped watching after.
iamacyborg 1y ago
There are some great videos about videogames out there. This is one of my personal favourites, just for all the background it reveals about how the game was made. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0058A651EB882B48 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0058A651EB882B48
- protocolture 1y ago
  I used to spend a lot of time reading old Gamasutra post mortems.
nottorp 1y ago
> It seems I am alone on that front. No :) In a third of the time you spend watching one "content creator" "goofing around" you can go through 3-4 text reviews and figure out if the game is for you already.
- natebc 1y ago
  FYI Since you two don't seem to have engaged with Giant Bomb previously. This is exactly what Giant Bomb did NOT do. Most of their new games video coverage was their Quick Look series that was typically 10-20 minutes from maybe a few different points in the game.
  - nottorp 1y ago
    > don't seem to have engaged I don't engage. I read or watch. If it looks like engagement I close.
    - natebc 1y ago
      I apologize. It doesn't seem like you two have watched or read anything from the folks at Giant Bomb. Have a nice day.
      - nottorp 1y ago
        Well I haven't. And with the deluge of "video content" these days I'm afraid I'm not tempted.
  - __david__ 1y ago
    Yeah, Quick Look’s are what brought me to Giant Bomb initially. They aren’t reviews and they take pains to not spoil too much of the game. They give a good feel of what the actual gameplay looks like, which is almost never available from the game trailers, and which I find is hard to get a good mental picture of from written reviews (especially short ones). Just watching their quick looks introduced me to so many different game genres that I’d never tried before. It’s a shame they stopped doing those a couple years ago.
jasonlotito 1y ago
> It would never occur to me to watch someone else talk about or play a game online, let alone pay for the privilege. Wait till you find out about American Football, or Soccer, or any of the racing events. But seriously, we talk about programming. And people pay to talk about programming. Why wouldn’t people interested in gaming or other things do the same?
- protocolture 1y ago
  >But seriously, we talk about programming. And people pay to talk about programming. Why wouldn’t people interested in gaming or other things do the same? I dont watch people talking about programming and I dont pay for the privilege of watching people talk about programming.
  - jasonlotito 1y ago
    You might want to learn about society. And other people. And culture. Get outside, meet people.
    - protocolture 1y ago
      I dont see the relevance?
lanthade 1y ago
> It would never occur to me to watch someone else talk about or play a game online, let alone pay for the privilege. You must have missed all of professional sports, pay per view, etc.
- protocolture 1y ago
  Yes.
Fripplebubby 1y ago
A lot of it is just fun and silly, but for me it was also an interesting way to develop my taste in something - to hear other people who are real heavy connoisseurs of something discuss it, and learning from them. Of course, you can get this from your friends and the people who are really around you in your life (or, just don't develop your taste at all because you just like what you like), and there's nothing wrong with that, I get why some people find it odd to watch people play video games. You have to understand as well that Giant Bomb was the first of its kind in a lot of ways, this was an era where video game journalism began to loosen up from the corporate, PR-friendly, very stiff and consumer-focused era it had been in during the dominance of print media, and Giant Bomb was this novel thing where people who had been deeply involved in that era began to find their own voices. If you followed video games at the time online, Giant Bomb was this total breath of fresh air.
laserDinosaur 1y ago
"It would never occur to me to watch someone else talk about or play a game online, let alone pay for the privilege" I think that's specifically what made GiantBomb so different in the first place - people were tuning in for the personalities, more so than the game news. There were already a lot of places you could just go for game news and updates (like IGN and Gamespot), but GB had decades of industry stories that were worth tuning in for. All sorts of 'behind the scenes' stories and faces would show up, Jeff finding out about the Dreamcast being cancelled in a conference call while on the toilet with food poisoning, Drew going to a Starcraft tournament in South Korea when they were still fairly new, the crew getting blind drunk at a birthday where they duct taped whisky bottles to their hands, stories of the sheer nightmare of lugging equipment and setting up for E3 every year with Drew and Vinnys video diaries. It was a peek behind the curtain into how the industry works with a group of very likeable people that made it different - more than just a place to go and watch people play games.

Aesock 1y ago

[dead]

astrange 1y ago

Since gamers are a subculture, they want a mirror of any part of real life you can think of, except about games. There's a sub-subculture in this of video game journalists. There's a further subculture inside this of people who want to be writing for a video game review website (or a sports blog etc) but only ever actually write about their half-baked opinions about American politics.

twixfel 1y ago

You obviously are not alone. Sorry to break it to you.

Brybry 1y ago

I grew up in the 90s sitting on couches watching friends and family play games while we socialized. For me, watching other people play games on the internet is basically an extension of that but with the addition that I can also watch some of the best gamers in the world if I want to.

pier25 1y ago
The social aspect is lost though.
- dubiousdabbler 1y ago
  Not totally. For smaller streamers, it's easy to interact with the streamer. And many people make friends in the chat and that's even why they keep coming back for - the community in the chat.
  - pier25 1y ago
    Online chats don't really compare to IRL interactions though. There's currently an epidemic of genz who barely interact with their virtual friends.

Wololooo 1y ago

To add some context here, at the time you had Jeff Gerstmann which is a dinosaur in the game journalism sphere and had insights and insider information from many different sources. He has also an encyclopedic knowledge of weird esoteric games. Add to this a series of people he had great chemistry with and people that were not familiar with some franchises and introduced by other members lead to funny moments. Their coverage of E3 was legendary. It depends how deep people are within subcultures but giant bomb did offer a lot of entertainment (even for free I never paid for the premium stuff) and honest game reviews. I can't speak for the current state because I was watching before the core team left and stopped watching after.

iamacyborg 1y ago

There are some great videos about videogames out there. This is one of my personal favourites, just for all the background it reveals about how the game was made. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0058A651EB882B48 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0058A651EB882B48

protocolture 1y ago
I used to spend a lot of time reading old Gamasutra post mortems.

nottorp 1y ago

> It seems I am alone on that front. No :) In a third of the time you spend watching one "content creator" "goofing around" you can go through 3-4 text reviews and figure out if the game is for you already.

natebc 1y ago
FYI Since you two don't seem to have engaged with Giant Bomb previously. This is exactly what Giant Bomb did NOT do. Most of their new games video coverage was their Quick Look series that was typically 10-20 minutes from maybe a few different points in the game.
- nottorp 1y ago
  > don't seem to have engaged I don't engage. I read or watch. If it looks like engagement I close.
  - natebc 1y ago
    I apologize. It doesn't seem like you two have watched or read anything from the folks at Giant Bomb. Have a nice day.
    - nottorp 1y ago
      Well I haven't. And with the deluge of "video content" these days I'm afraid I'm not tempted.
- __david__ 1y ago
  Yeah, Quick Look’s are what brought me to Giant Bomb initially. They aren’t reviews and they take pains to not spoil too much of the game. They give a good feel of what the actual gameplay looks like, which is almost never available from the game trailers, and which I find is hard to get a good mental picture of from written reviews (especially short ones). Just watching their quick looks introduced me to so many different game genres that I’d never tried before. It’s a shame they stopped doing those a couple years ago.

jasonlotito 1y ago

> It would never occur to me to watch someone else talk about or play a game online, let alone pay for the privilege. Wait till you find out about American Football, or Soccer, or any of the racing events. But seriously, we talk about programming. And people pay to talk about programming. Why wouldn’t people interested in gaming or other things do the same?

protocolture 1y ago
>But seriously, we talk about programming. And people pay to talk about programming. Why wouldn’t people interested in gaming or other things do the same? I dont watch people talking about programming and I dont pay for the privilege of watching people talk about programming.
- jasonlotito 1y ago
  You might want to learn about society. And other people. And culture. Get outside, meet people.
  - protocolture 1y ago
    I dont see the relevance?

lanthade 1y ago

> It would never occur to me to watch someone else talk about or play a game online, let alone pay for the privilege. You must have missed all of professional sports, pay per view, etc.

protocolture 1y ago
Yes.

Fripplebubby 1y ago

A lot of it is just fun and silly, but for me it was also an interesting way to develop my taste in something - to hear other people who are real heavy connoisseurs of something discuss it, and learning from them. Of course, you can get this from your friends and the people who are really around you in your life (or, just don't develop your taste at all because you just like what you like), and there's nothing wrong with that, I get why some people find it odd to watch people play video games. You have to understand as well that Giant Bomb was the first of its kind in a lot of ways, this was an era where video game journalism began to loosen up from the corporate, PR-friendly, very stiff and consumer-focused era it had been in during the dominance of print media, and Giant Bomb was this novel thing where people who had been deeply involved in that era began to find their own voices. If you followed video games at the time online, Giant Bomb was this total breath of fresh air.

laserDinosaur 1y ago

"It would never occur to me to watch someone else talk about or play a game online, let alone pay for the privilege" I think that's specifically what made GiantBomb so different in the first place - people were tuning in for the personalities, more so than the game news. There were already a lot of places you could just go for game news and updates (like IGN and Gamespot), but GB had decades of industry stories that were worth tuning in for. All sorts of 'behind the scenes' stories and faces would show up, Jeff finding out about the Dreamcast being cancelled in a conference call while on the toilet with food poisoning, Drew going to a Starcraft tournament in South Korea when they were still fairly new, the crew getting blind drunk at a birthday where they duct taped whisky bottles to their hands, stories of the sheer nightmare of lugging equipment and setting up for E3 every year with Drew and Vinnys video diaries. It was a peek behind the curtain into how the industry works with a group of very likeable people that made it different - more than just a place to go and watch people play games.