Why "The My First E3" Podcast is incredible

TL;DR My First E3 is great because it shows the new staff evolving, improving and opening up.

So if you guys have been savvy, you've listened to every episode of "My First E3" by Ben Pack and Abby Russell.

Now this 'podcast' is interesting. The shows rarely go beyond 20 minutes, they sound like they were recorded on an Iphone, and there is little to no structure. I can't criticize any of those things, as this podcast isn't meant to be a finely produced piece of journalism, it's meant to highlight two people that just got new jobs and are spending time in Los Angeles doing probably what they have dreamed of doing for a long long time.

That's one layer of the show that I love, the second layer is twofold. First is seeing Abby Russel finally open up with her personality. As we all know this is a personality driven website, even if all you do is run video, you have to have a personality that the audience enjoys. In many jobs, the video person just does video or the sound engineer just does his work and says something here and there. Look at Joe Rogan's podcast, his engineer rarely talks at all, but at Giant Bomb the engineers are expected to join in the chat just like any other. Even Drew, who had probably the most muted and calm personality out of all the staff, got over with us fans because of his personality (and his obsession with flight simulators). Abby seems like she's been very shy on the Beastcast and at first I was disappointed in her taciturnity. In the podcast she reveals that at seeing Brad at Walgreen's she was kind of afraid to even say hi to him. She might be a shy person (and that's fine), but as the My First E3 Episodes continue, in every episode she opens up more and more and more to the point where she is being absolutely wacky and hilarious in episode 4, a side of her I have certainly never heard on The Beast Cast.

Finally, listening to Ben and Abby connect as friends is quite fun. As each shows goes by they seem to read off each other more and have better chemistry. By the fourth episode I felt like it was just Ben and Abby talking the whole time even though Will Smith was there. They really dominated the show in a good way. It's a bit sad that these two work on different parts of America since they are so funny together. I would love a 'Scoops and the Wolf" type of short form weekly.

These are the two new hires. I consider them the 'Young Lions' of Giant Bomb, and I think the future is bright. I have already made a post here about how awesome Ben Pack is, but I never made that post about Abby. Now I can say that these are both funny people and I think if they keep doing what they are doing, the "My Second E3" podcast is going to be fucking great.

5/5 would listen again

The guys made the right decision with both of the new hires. Cant wait to see who they hire as the second west coast video producer, things are looking bright.

I'm enjoying it! Abby and Ben just fit so well, which is kind of a big deal considering all the drama around past hires, so it's nice those two just doing their thing and opening up over time. Its gonna be a while before they're full-tilt into it, but I think they're doing great these last few weeks (months? I have no concept of time)

They don't seem to care about mixing gaming with politics, I couldn't have hoped for better hires tbh.

as half-time lover and half-time hater (but full-time millennial) i'm obligated to say that

1) you are correct the 'podcast' is lit

and 2) not a fan of the 'pod' (honestly that shortform who da FUQ do they think they are).

real talk they're doing a GREAT JOB.

This podcast is L17. I'm a lover for life baby!

It's a great pod. Babby is a heck of a duo.

I'd say Ben was pretty "full-tilt into it" with his Greg Miller level dick joke during, my memory wants it to be the Nintendo conference, but I think it was Ubisoft's reveal of the Kraken.

How can the new hires be evolving already if they just started?

Just mash B if you want them to stop evolving.

Everstones work too.

I'd love to have more Abby and Ben stuff in the future. I hope it's not just relegated to E3 and GOTY.

It's pretty great, I legit look forward to the next thumbnail... and podcast too. The chips bit from the last one had me cracking up although I can see someone taking it too seriously and calling it unprofessional or disrespectful, to which I remind them of the website they're in.

My question to the duders in their last AMA was what their thoughts were regarding having the next "generation" of giant bomb to eventually pass the torch to where they take more and more of a back seat role and eventually feel comfortable leaving the giant bomb brand with someone to continue. I'm not saying Babby is it, it's way too soon to tell. But there's more of a generational gap than ever with these hires than before and with Babby, we maybe getting a glimpse of that next generation.

I'm calling it now, they'll announce the west coast hire, Austin Walker departure-style, last segment of last day of E3 at Nite.

The majority of their episodes are on the trending list of Giant Bomb, above stuff like press conferences and the Nite Show, don't know if it's because the podcast is good (it is) or because the short episodes are easier to consume, but I just think it's really cool that they managed to do that.

Both the thumbnails and the podcast are great, not only because they're having fun but also because they're bringing the rest of the crew with them. Ben and Abby started their jobs on GB smoothly (specially Ben since he was an intern), but they are definitely getting even more comfortable during this E3 and it's being fun to follow along.

@lanechanger: I was thinking about this today. One day these guys are going to want to move on, but they have built such an amazing site that they are going to want the site to live on. Then again, if I worked at Giant Bomb I would keep working there as long as possible lol, and all of us fans will probably keep visiting the site for years and years to come so I mean, who knows? It wouldn't be that weird that 60 year old Jeff is covering games because by then he would have been doing it for so long and many of his peers will be that age too, plus all of us fans will be in our 50s soooooo who knows???

Right?

It's right and good and I like it.

Also, I could easily see Jeff being the first active video game journalist eligble for social security and still running Giant Bomb. Brad too.

Dan's somehow gonna end up running a fast food company or getting elected to state/federal office. Not sure which.

Not sure about everyone else.

I would totally watch/listen to weekly show with Ben and Abbey a la Scoops and the Wolf.

Sorry to burst you guys' bubbles but don't think that they don't care. Go back through their Twitter timelines. Abby has liked/retweeted FemFreq (I also remember her talking about a game's diversity on some GB content but can't remember where) and Ben like/retweets a lot of Twitter Chapo-adjacent leftists and if I recall correctly directly tweets about a lot of the same stuff Alex does. Just letting you know, so it doesn't break your little hearts in the future.

@planetfunksquad: As long as they don't bring those types of stuff to the website's content, they're free to like whatever they want on twitter. I agree with @wynnduffy they don't seem to care much about mixing it and that is great! Alex rarely talks about that stuff in here anyway, so it should all be fine.

@johnymyko: well, I disagree completely, I think if they ever decide to take it there (and again Abby already has a little) then thats totally fine. I'm just giving the heads up so that if/when it does happen no one is disappointed.

I don't really mind. This is a spoiler block for something off-topic but an example of the kind of person I'm glad isn't on the site: A worker for a huge publisher complaining about Mario using stereotypes but then blocking Mexican people on Twitter because they said they were not offended, but happy seeing Mario go Mexican in the Odyssey trailer. I think a lot of people in the game industry need to grow up.

@wynnduffy: well I agree on that so let's leave it there.

They're both rad, and that's rad.

They're doing a great job but there's really nothing meaningful in these podcasts. A video series may have been more insightful about what it's actually like to attend E3 for the first time.

All we've learned is that Garfield has a mobile game and the hotel has waterbeds on the rooftop. Maybe I'm just not millennial enough?