Was GOTY 2018 content a little light?

Forgive my lateness in bringing this up, I'm just now catching up. I've been on the site since 2009 and while I was a subscriber for years, I don't get much time with Giant Bomb these days (marriage does that!). Getting through this past year's GOTY deliberations took over two weeks as they get longer and longer and I have less and less time. That's not Giant Bomb's fault by any means, but as I peruse the rest of the content that I _didn't_ get time to look at as it was posted, it does seem like it was very, very light. I remember Space Egypt and Ryan's tiny hat and the staff's individual Top 10s in video format. I remember the sketches and the other scripted content. I even remember the scripted "at-home" anthology series of videos they did a few years back that were really funny (like when Austin was assembling that Gundam).

But as the site has gravitated away from scripted content to "recorded live" stuff, I feel that the deliberation podcast/videocasts have become the centerpiece of the site's content rather than the by-product of the deliberations that would've happened regardless of what content wound up on the site. When Jeff did finally post the list of GOTY winners, it seemed almost like an after-thought.

Now I'm not privvy to what Giant Bomb does when they stay together for two weeks in San Francisco in early December, but it seems that as the years roll on and the staff gets bigger and bigger, the amount of content they create seems to get less and less. Maybe I'm missing something big here.

EDIT: Also, that said, I did appreciate the shift in format from categories to giving the year a full review. Having a smorgasbord of categories meant that things got negative from the get-go as everyone started to dog every game that wasn't (and all the ones that were!) worthy of the top 3 spots in each category.

It takes a lot of time to edit content like the sketches, and back when the gang was all in the same building it seemed easier for them to work on that stuff in advance of GOTY. Now we have two halves of GB with their own unique challenges with regards to filming and being able to just fart around in a big space, I'm not sure if it's viable to expect that stuff anymore. Most of the content we get is recorded by pretty fixed camera setups now, it seems, so I just don't know if they have the time or resources to grab cameras like they did with Drew and Vinny way back and blue sky some ridiculous shit in the buildings they're in.

I could be way off on literally all of this, but I feel I've passively come to understand it's not so fast and loose as it was in previous years. I'd even utter the forbidden phrase and say it's: more . . . professional *jumps out the window.*

It's not what it used to be that's right no honkadunk or rapman or Dan getting tossed around by a wrestler, but i get it. It takes a lot of time to write these scripts and film them so since a few years back they just do 5 themed UPF's. But yeah i agree on GOTY used to be better.

But the thing is, even as the crew has been separated for nearly 5 years, that edited content has come down. Obviously it's better when everyone is in the same building and it takes a while to do that stuff, but it seems even since then, it just doesn't appear to be a priority anymore.

@npfeifer: I'm pretty sure this was talked about on a Beastcast episode. Don't ask me which one, though. ;-P I think it had something to do with the costs and effort simply not justifying the amount of people watching that stuff. But don't take my word for it. It might be a question that gets picked if you send it in, though, so you could always try that. As far as I can tell, the crew doesn't shy away from repeat questions.

They've been podcasting a lot more lately than they have in the past, too. I appreciate the new format this year, but it was a slog to get through by Day 2, much like last year (25 hours or so total). The Holiday Specialtacular videos have been hit or miss, as well. Wearing the same fake sweaters as last time doesn't help either, I guess.

I think most people understand edited content takes time, but it was something to look forward to as a fan every year. Now it's feels like twice as much content but maybe not as remarkable as before. It is what it is, though; not much anyone can do.

It felt extremely light to me too, most of it feels very similar to the regular content as well.

I just didn't feel like the same enthusiasm was put into it. I like the idea of talking through the year's releases, but the format of it made it a slog. To be honest, I've never been the biggest fan of their game of the year discussions anyway. I think they end up being tedious and doesn't do a particularly good job of celebrating the year in games. I think it's kind of an inherent problem with ranked lists, so I wonder what it would be like if the site's GOTY wasn't ranked.

Also I'm not sure why they skipped doing a daily summary like in years past. Lots of people don't necessarily have the time to listen to that many hours of podcast, having to wait for the community (or GB themselves right at the end) to put up the goty category winners was a mistake.

As for the video stuff, I like it, but some of it felt really half-baked. Hitsmas and the Winter games are fantastic, and it was the right time for the return of Mario Party, but I felt like the Sim character creator stuff could have been done Pictionary style instead of just having Abby walk Jeff/Rorie through it and end up with characters that are basically the same. The Smash bros video felt like a joke that lasted half an hour too long. I'm not necessarily asking for skits like they used to do, but some more planning and thought to make content that really is a special treat for the time of year and takes advantage of having everyone in one office would be nice. Hitsmas and the Winter games are the only videos that really feel like special GOTY content to me.

@wjb: I don't know why but yeah the same sweaters totally bummed me out lol

but yeah lots of podcast content but the amount of shows seems really light and IMHO just middling quality.

I really missed the Rock Band stuff, because it's just fun to see people play Rock Band. I mostly agree though, the other videos didn't do much.

The Sims one was a nice idea, but with only two videos it was over as soon as it began.

The Millennial reacting is just Youtube levels of laziness.

The Smash Bro's one could've been a round in the Winter games instead of a whole video.

And the Mario Party one, while nice to see Drew back, it's still Mario Party.

They’re already obviously in full overtime mode, I think that’s a bit much to call them lazy or act like it’s not a ton of content. I don’t want them to overwork themselves.

I understand wanting more video over the podcast, but personally I liked the new format and while I enjoy the video, the longer the podcast, the better.

I really enjoyed the GOTY content and I didn’t have any problem with the amount of it. Sometimes when you find something unsatisfying you should stop looking around you for something to blame and instead look inside yourself. Some philosopher or somebody said that. I probably heard it in an Assassin’s Creed game.

They put out a ton of content but they're definitely focusing on the deliberations which makes some sense with all the new people with more games and viewpoints to talk about.

Hitsmas and the games were both really good and I thought the millennial thing was fun, I'm always for the game tape style videos. Mario Party was a victim of how boring that map was, the star not even moving and lack of Boo shenanigans cut out a lot of the fuckery that makes MPP work. Overall I feel like I watched a ton of GB content over GOTY time, but I guess it depends a lot on how much you care about the deliberations.

I'm happy that Hitsmas made it's return (even if that thing would ideally be 3-4 hours long in my crazy dreams), but the lack of Rock Band was bit of a shame. That's always guaranteed good time.

I also still do miss the GOTY skits and would really like to see the current Bomb crew flex their creative muscles with that stuff, but I also understand that it's a whole lot of work.

@brackstone: It wouldn't make much sense to have daily articles up about the deliberations, because for the first 3 days they were merely nominating games for categories that they would discuss during the final 2 days. I guess for those last 2 days they could've done seperate articles, but they decided to do it all in one post instead to have all the results together.

Not ranking the GOTY list wouldn't make the deliberations better or more positive in my opinion. After all, they only spent like .. 2 - 3 hours on the actual ranking? If the previous 20 hours didn't felt like a celebration of games, these last few hours are not going to change that. And the actual ranking was fairly lighthearted i felt. Jason was promised that Monster Hunter would stay on the list & the top games were pretty set in stone as well. Most dissapointing was the category where the knives came out this year in my opinion.

Hitmas, Winter Games and Mario Party were the only ones I watched. The others I passed on after like 5 minutes of watching.

The Millenial shtick needs to go, I don't really see how that plays to an audience of what I'm assuming is 90% Millenials.

As far as the podcasts go I really did not enjoy the new format. I found the run through of the year took forever and I honestly fell asleep through some of it.

I liked going through the categories and hearing the discussions, it provided a framework to focus on as opposed to 10 hours of rambling. Just my opinion though.

I listened to the year summary podcasts through and really enjoyed the new structure. I did not listen to the actual category podcasts, as I tried the first one and couldn't deal with the way people argue. Maybe I'm older, or the way the group communicate has changed, but I can't listen to them select games for categories anymore.

I enjoyed all the video content, with hitsmas, Mario party, winter games and even millennials react being watched fully.

Yeah, which makes the whole ordeal extra wasteful to me. I really don't think the GOTY final list and a lot of the hub bub is worth it at all, and, although I really appreciated them switching it up this year, in the end the GOTY podcasts were less fun without the silly categories and the end list arguments were as dreadful and shitty as ever. The Red Dead 2 stuff was insanely shit to listen to.

Especially given how they can't get the two GB crews together that often, it's a shame we don't get more fun videos and things instead. Can't be fun to make, it isn't fun to listen to either.

And as an end user, given the huge drought in content before and after... I wouldn't mind GOTY going away all together. I get why they don't do skits per say, but more videos and actually fun content would be welcome, rather than MPP and one Hitsmas video and the rest being pretty boring.

That was bad but in the list Dan and Jeff telling Brad and Alex they didn't like the Red Dead 2 gameplay as they kept saying they did and a couple other intentionally disingenuous arguments was an all time low for listening to GOTY shit. It was so stupid it made me sit back and say why have i wasted so much of my life listening to these podcasts in retrospect.

No, we got GOTY podcasts (plus new pre-discussions), themed videos as usual, and staff/guest lists.

You might not like a content format, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist?

@stephen_von_cloud: I actually thought the last day was the strongest podcast day overall. Different strokes for different folks

I just finished the GOTY content yesterday so I think there was way more than enough.

I really enjoyed the GOTY content and I didn’t have any problem with the amount of it.

I liked that they spent the first few days just positively discussing all the games they loved before the bickering started. It was great to just hear game after game that they were stoked about for various reasons, and I played and beat Donut County just after hearing Jeff be so jazzed about it.

However, in future years I'll probably stop after that - I'm interested in their insights and reasoning why they love stuff, but when the ranking starts, it hurts my sensitive little feelings a bit too much. Not a year goes by that I don't worry that somebody will quit or something. The crew cuts each other off like mad in the best of times, and hearing them interrupt and be rude to each other just rubs me the wrong way. If I want to hear people shout half-formed opinions at each other when they are all working on the same team, I can go to my own workplace ;)

Edit - I think some of the problem comes from the two geographically disparate teams. They get into games that never end up overlapping, and this leads to even bigger communication gaps right from the start. I wouldn't actually mind them expanding each team and just doing separate GB GOTY lists. It also comes into play where they have to re-explain opinions they've already made pretty clear on their own team's content.

I really enjoyed all of the GOTY content. Was it light? Maybe. But I enjoyed it all the same. Possibly even more than previous years to be honest (well, previous years after we lost Ryan, of course).

Actually kind of appreciated the positive talk in the beginning before it got SERIOUS during stuff like most disappointing.

As for video features. i feel like there was lacking some "oomph" or pizazz into some of it, but i feel the overall holiday theme is very reusable and you know to expect some level of quality into it, VS Sketches where it would either be extremely hit or miss.