That Gerstman is not only the founder but the man in charge. That Brad and everybody else are subordinate. They seem to be presented as equals but are they really?
sinfony
3802
Wikipedia says Gerstmann and Ryan Davis co-founded it, but it’s part of Whiskey Media, which neither of them runs.
If you read further down, it goes into more detail:
“Gerstmann considered his options after his dismissal, eventually deciding he did not wish to work in game development or public relations. He began to work with a team of engineers he knew and trusted to begin developing a new site.[2] In the process of deciding on the name for the website, over seventy different domain names were considered. Gerstmann wanted the website name to be catchy and original, saying there were too many video game websites with the word “game” in them.[2] In addition to Davis, who recorded early episodes of the site’s podcast, the Giant Bombcast with Gerstmann, former GameSpot editors Brad Shoemaker and Vinny Caravella joined the site in June 2008.[5] Giant Bomb started as a Wordpress blog, which opened on March 5, 2008.[6]”
It makes it sound like it’s mostly Jeff’s babe. Yes it’s part of Whiskey Media but still, sounds like Jeff would be higher up on the food chain than Ryan, Vinny and Brad.
BTW I think Nolan North from Alpha Protocol was completely robbed of the Northies by Nolan Norths from Mafia II
I always got the impression that Jeff and Ryan were equals on whatever passes for an org chart at Giantbomb, with Vinny, Brad, and the others hanging down a rung or two. That said, I bet the place is pretty egalitarian when it comes to that stuff. I don’t have any sources to back that up, though. I guess it just comes from the fact that Jeff and Ryan were the two original hosts of the Bombcast and its predecessor.
I’m with Madigan, though technically Arrow Pointing Down was originally Davis’s cast only, not the pair’s. And the GB site was a standalone before Whiskey came along.
That is a great point about Limbo, but I really don’t ever expect that level of critical thought on game design from the Giant Bomb guys. I love listening to their podcasts and quick looks, but I don’t often see a lot of deep insightful analysis from them.
Hearing the Giant Bomb guys–who I frequently find to be entertaining–seriously discuss Starcraft II as having the Best Story of the Year in gaming makes me wonder if any of those guys have any sort of critical eye for, well, anything.
“Next up, novelist of the year! Dan Brown or Dan Brown?”
Otagan
3810
I found their mandatory, no-discussion-allowed inclusion of Civilization V in the top 3 PC exclusives of the year to be extremely disappointing. Starcraft 2 is a no-brainer, but Civ V is not so good as to deserve an automatic entry into the top 3 of the entire year. Not at all.
They talked a lot about it when Civ V came out. It’s good to remember that Ryan never really got very far into Civ IV - I think he dropped out of the series around 3.
Plus, hey, it’s their opinion. In their opinion, they think Civ V is the most accessible version of Civ, which they think has value. I don’t necessarily think they’re wrong, either - I’ve been playing Civ ever since the original, and I think Civ V is a great game too.
Otagan
3812
I would have at least liked to see some discussion of the game and acknowledgment of some of the game’s flaws. I can appreciate that others may see a great deal of merit in what the game has done in terms of accessibility and ambition, but I know that when I look at the game I see it fall flat on its face in terms of overreaching what they were capable of.
Basically, I wanted to see it talked about, however briefly. It’s not a terrible game, and I can certainly respect that they like it quite a bit more than I do, but it definitely warranted a little bit of discussion, especially when they can spend an hour talking about two pieces of DLC.
Then again, as has been noted multiple times earlier in the thread here, it’s rather clear that they don’t spend too much time with PC games in general, so I really shouldn’t be surprised.
Yeah, I think that had more to do with Civ V’s automatic inclusion than anything else. They struggled to come up with a third game to include, even discussing briefly games that none or only one of them had played.
Yeah, exactly my point. The single player campaign story was the most overwrought and strained thing blizzard has ever done – and that’s saying something. I say this as someone who would put SC2 multiplayer in my top 5 of the year for sure.
Civ5 I can understand better because hearing Ryan talk about the game it was clear it was the first time he’d ever really caught the civilization one-more-turn bug, and I can’t really fault him for his enthusiasm.
They used to bring Dave Snider (a designer at GB and obviously a hardcore PC gamer) in now and then, but I haven’t heard from him in a while. Wonder why.
Because he’s busy as all holy hell. I’ve corresponded with him briefly by email regarding getting some video feeds set up so that my PVR can eat their stuff, and he does not seem to lack for things to do. I believe he’s on this week’s, though. Kind of sad that I can’t remember to three hours ago.
Dave is also not just a GB employee, but does a lot of stuff for the entire Whiskey Media group.
It’s pretty obvious that the AI faults of Civ V and OMGWTF changes from Civ IV to Civ V don’t really matter to people who don’t have a lot of experience with PC strategy games and didn’t get into Civ IV.
If games like Starcraft II and Civ V gets the console and action centric (but very entertaining) GiantBomb crew to pay more attention to PC strategy games then that’s awesome. If I want nuanced analysis of a strategy game I listen to Three Moves Ahead and read Flash of Steel (which are entertaining in their own way).
I believe they have this discussion in the sixth podcast when they’re talking about the actual GOTY. Jeff mentions the criticism he’s heard about the AI’s tactical shortcomings, and Ryan admits that he never noticed any AI stupidity because he’s not very good at Civ.
Otagan
3819
Looks like I jumped the gun a bit, being on part 5 of 6 myself. If they actually say that somewhere in part 6, I’ll have to retract my previous grievance. While I don’t expect nuanced discussion of any sort related to strategy games on a largely console-centric podcast, the acknowledgement of these sorts of issues (or even the possibility that they exist) is exactly what I was looking for. Admittedly, I may be being unfair to Civ V based on my own preconceived notion of what it should have been (and could still become), but in its current state it is a flawed gem desperately in need of polishing and smoothing out. That’s not a game of the year for 2010, but it’s a damn strong candidate for 2011’s 2010 game of the year.
Listening to the Debriefings in question, all of those morons can go fuck themselves. Culver’s is a marvelous experience. Asshats. It’s arguably the thing I miss most about Austin. And who hasn’t heard of Fazoli’s? Is Texas just the central depository for every fast food chain in the entire nation?
The offhand comment about the podcast awards, on the other hand, struck me as comparatively tame.
