Games Journalism General -

[Dom Cruise]

This.

2009 was one of the worst years of my life due to personal reasons but at this point, I'd like to have that year back minus one or two specific events.

Every year from 2008 onward has been a continual downward spiral with the possible exception of 2010, which was an unusually quiet year in America and a relatively positive year in my personal life.

Maybe the meme about "2007 was the year everything went to shit" was entirely wrong and 2007 was actually just the last good year before the the malaise of the Great Recession and the horrors of Current Year.

2007 was the last good year or at least the last great year, nothing was ever really the same after 2008.

 

[Syaoran Li]

2007 was the last good year or at least the last great year, nothing was ever really the same after 2008.

Agreed on that one.

For me, 2010, 2012, and 2014 were good years for me on a personal level but 2014 was when the culture war BS of Current Year truly began to seep into the mainstream with Ferguson and GamerGate and I'd say 2012 would be the year the war began with the decline of Occupy Wall Street and the earliest discussions of SJW's.

2010 was a great year for me personally but a sorta decent year for the country with the only major disasters or scandal anyone ever even remembers being Deepwater Horizon.

2007 and 2012 both had this weird yet very palpable aura of major change being on the horizon and a seemingly paradoxical feeling of dynamic while also being a calm before the storm. Especially 2007.

The strangest thing is that I felt it at the time it was happening, not just in retrospect.

I've asked a few other people I know both online and IRL from multiple age groups about this. Apparently, I'm not alone in that feeling so it wasn't just me getting older.

 

[Xerxes IX]

Agreed on that one.

For me, 2010, 2012, and 2014 were good years for me on a personal level but 2014 was when the culture war BS of Current Year truly began to seep into the mainstream with Ferguson and GamerGate and I'd say 2012 would be the year the war began with the decline of Occupy Wall Street and the earliest discussions of SJW's.

2010 was a great year for me personally but a sorta decent year for the country with the only major disasters or scandal anyone ever even remembers being Deepwater Horizon.

2007 and 2012 both had this weird yet very palpable aura of major change being on the horizon and a seemingly paradoxical feeling of dynamic while also being a calm before the storm. Especially 2007.

The strangest thing is that I felt it at the time it was happening, not just in retrospect.

I've asked a few other people I know both online and IRL from multiple age groups about this. Apparently, I'm not alone in that feeling so it wasn't just me getting older.

You know that meme about how 2012 was the end of the world, we just didn't notice yet?

I'm starting to believe it more and more...

 

[Dom Cruise]

Agreed on that one.

For me, 2010, 2012, and 2014 were good years for me on a personal level but 2014 was when the culture war BS of Current Year truly began to seep into the mainstream with Ferguson and GamerGate and I'd say 2012 would be the year the war began with the decline of Occupy Wall Street and the earliest discussions of SJW's.

2010 was a great year for me personally but a sorta decent year for the country with the only major disasters or scandal anyone ever even remembers being Deepwater Horizon.

2007 and 2012 both had this weird yet very palpable aura of major change being on the horizon and a seemingly paradoxical feeling of dynamic while also being a calm before the storm. Especially 2007.

The strangest thing is that I felt it at the time it was happening, not just in retrospect.

I've asked a few other people I know both online and IRL from multiple age groups about this. Apparently, I'm not alone in that feeling so it wasn't just me getting older.

Nothing was ever quite the same after 2008, but 2010 was a good year for me, as was 2012 (save for one thing) and 2013.

But I could tell when Gamergate and Ferguson happened in 2014 that we were headed into some bleak days and sure enough I was right, but weirdly 2015 was a decent year all things considered, but it was like the eye of the storm, the election season of 2016 is when things truly became dystopian.

 

[ltlftp]

Expect to see someone even worse than Ben/Abby replacing them.

It's gonna be some troon..

I honestly wonder if they'll hire anyone at all. Everyone works from home now so it'd be easy to finally get rid of the whole east/west thing and just focus on doing 1 strong podcast instead of 2 weaker ones.

Also it'd be kind of impressive if they managed to hire someone worse then Abby. Even a tranny would be an upgrade if that person actually liked video games. That was ultimately always the problem with Abby, she made it very clear early on she had no interest in gaming whatsoever but they put her on video/podcasts anyway for some reason.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

As much as I don't like Ben - at least he seems to be putting some "good" distance between himself and a bunch of drama.


If he's trying to not get sucked into videogame drama constantly, good for him. I would imagine that GB is a pretty exhausting job if you aren't ready for it.

Doesn't he have some weird health problems from being a soy boy Lurch?

 

[Tanner Glass]

Doesn't he have some weird health problems from being a soy boy Lurch?

He had some heart problems earlier in the year, if I recall correctly. He doesn't cite them in his "I'm leaving" message though.

I'd imagine he probably doesn't like that he's (and likely Abby) were the least liked people on the show when after a year or so the previous new hires (Dan, Drew, even Austin) were generally accepted as "part of the crew".

Also, a lot of people are talking about hiring but it looks like the parent company hasn't put out and job recs as of yet.

https://careers.redventures.com/positions.html

They really don't need to hire anyone straight away because with everyone working remotely there's no justification to fill up two offices, so it doesn't matter if one side gets a little "light". I haven't watched in a while, but hopefully them losing staff (and not replacing them) means they can stop doing so much separate East and West stuff and cross-pollenate more than they used to do.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

He had some heart problems earlier in the year, if I recall correctly. He doesn't cite them in his "I'm leaving" message though.

I haven't watched any of their stuff in a couple of years but I think he had something weird going on with his foot that also required surgery. Googling for it and I just found out he's got Marfan syndrome and that someone uploads pictures of him to a tall man fetish wiki.

 

[Win98SE]

GB got a new studio already. It's in the same building they were in IIRC, just a floor down or something. Their GOTY stuff is also next week and is happening LIVE. They've reworked the format this time around since the last 2 or 3 years weren't received well.

Worth noting that they've been doing a 3rd podcast called "The Hotspot" that combines both east/west. There was a free episode released a couple of weeks back and I enjoyed it.

I didn't dislike Ben. He played off Jeff well and had more obscure knowledge of some niche games/communities. If you didn't listen to the full segment, he mentioned he has an opportunity to make a "major change" in his life and decided to go for it. Seems to be ditching his online presence after GOTY stuff. Good for him.

 

[Alter Ego]

Giant Bomb just finished their traditional-but-delayed GOTY show. Any amusement to be had from it, outrageous or otherwise, or has it been another dull presentation? Would've skimmed Neogaf's GB thread, but Evilore closed it a week ago because of the negative sentiment.

I gather from the reddit comments that GB was really dismissive towards Final Fantasy VII Remake.

 

[ltlftp]

I gather from the reddit comments that GB was really dismissive towards Final Fantasy VII Remake.

Uhh, what were people expecting after the Unfinished video they did lol? The whole video was Brad talking about all this stuff that wasn't in the original game and I'd have to go back and suffer through the video again but iirc literally 100% of the things he said weren't in the original, were in fact in the original game.

Also he went the entire video almost exclusively holding down the attack button in combat. Which for people that haven't played the game, holding the attack button just makes Cloud do a simple aoe attack that doesn't give very much ATB charge. You get a normal combo by actually hitting the button. He accidentally did it a few times so it should have been obvious you don't just hold the button, but this is GB we're talking about. He was basically doing nothing in combat and then complaining about how simple it was lmao.

 

[murdered meat bag]

Uhh, what were people expecting after the Unfinished video they did lol? The whole video was Brad talking about all this stuff that wasn't in the original game and I'd have to go back and suffer through the video again but iirc literally 100% of the things he said weren't in the original, were in fact in the original game.

Also he went the entire video almost exclusively holding down the attack button in combat. Which for people that haven't played the game, holding the attack button just makes Cloud do a simple aoe attack that doesn't give very much ATB charge. You get a normal combo by actually hitting the button. He accidentally did it a few times so it should have been obvious you don't just hold the button, but this is GB we're talking about. He was basically doing nothing in combat and then complaining about how simple it was lmao.

brad has always been bad at games. but 7 remake is a boring game.

last friday's beastcast was pretty good, it's sort of like the older pre-abby goty ones.

 

[Jimjamflimflam]

How do people's whose whole job is to play vidya suck so badly at it?

 

[Wingnut]

How do people's whose whole job is to play vidya suck so badly at it?

Because the only reason they are a vidya journo is because someone was better on their knees at NYT so they couldn't be real journoscum.

 

[AnOminous]

Because the only reason they are a vidya journo is because someone was better on their knees at NYT so they couldn't be real journoscum.

Nobody actually wants to be a games "journalist." I'd say like nobody wants to be a cocksucking ass-gaped whore, but some people actually do want to be that. It is a profession for absolute fuckups and failures at life, people even more pathetic than the gaymers they look down on who are supposed to be their audience. And they know that if they are games "journalists" that they are complete fuckups, so they take their self-loathing out on that audience.

 

[Megaroad 2012]

I wanted to be a games journalist when I was a kid, back when magazines were a thing.

 

[Totally Awesome]

That was ultimately always the problem with Abby, she made it very clear early on she had no interest in gaming whatsoever but they put her on video/podcasts anyway for some reason.

Is there any proof of this? Did she admit to not liking games?

 

[Stasi]

How do people's whose whole job is to play vidya suck so badly at it?

I've been thinking about this recently, is this why they all raved about the glut of walking sims a few years back? Games that are literally idiot proof and pretend to be philosophic or artsy.

I played Soma a while back and am playing through Observer at the moment and I swear it feels like I'm playing the same game with a re-skin. Walk down a hallway, solve piss easy non-puzzles, listen to exposition dump. Rinse and repeat for ~7 to 8 hours. Games look OK and obviously had though put into them but are average at best. Had a look at review scores out of interest and they got rave reviews. I'm left wondering how they got such high praise. Maybe I'm too much of a sexist male racist to understand the deeper meaning in Soma's ham-fisted take on philosophy.

 

[Water-T]

I wanted to be a games journalist when I was a kid, back when magazines were a thing.

Me too. But then again, I grew up in the glory days of EGM, Nintendo Power, GamePro, and GameFan. This was back when the writers all seemed to not only enjoy video games, but knew how to play them and didn't REEEEEE about why a disabled black trans Muslim lesbian woman wasn't the main character in Super Mario Bros.

 

[Marissa Moira]

Thanks game journalists, you drove the price of the fucking PSvita through the fucking roof and it's now more expensive now than it was when the system was new.

I've got the regular Vita and the PSTV so hardware wise I'm set. But only having like 30 games for the system it's now super double expensive to expand. You're looking at 70-90 dollars for a good number of titles.