Jesus_Phish

I would agree that the overlap between the three podcasts and the loss of more unique voices has made it less interesting to listen to all three podcasts - so I don't. But I also get what people are saying in that they're just very same-y now.

I know the time zones are a little easier on them, but something like Waypoint Radio is done entirely remotely at this point and has been for a long time (even pre-covid). They do two episodes a week and they just rotate who is on it out of their (admittedly smaller) staff.

Both the main podcasts here for me went from must listen audio to "Ehhh I'll get around to it". I think personally I would rather at this point they drop all pretense of "coasts" and just pull in 3-4 people per episode twice a week.

@av_gamer: I think another important point is that many people seem to think that $35 is the actual price, or is at least the price they are willing to pay and will make sure to "top up" during the sale period.

@thedrivein: What circle jerk?

There's a handful of people who have said little more than "yes it costs too much" or "yes it's too much, I liked it in the before times". And when I say a handful, I mean like maybe 5 people including the OP who just flat out said yes with very little to no explanation more than what you allude to.

There's way more people saying they feel the price is currently not worth it and would not re-sub unless things improved - this is literally a question that would appear on an exit form from any subscription service or a customer happiness questionnaire.

There's plenty of people saying they just see the subscription as a tip jar and aren't overly concerned with the week to week output so long as the podcasts keep going.

There's even more people saying "no, the cost is fine, it's $35 a year and that's cheaper than most Patreon/Twitch subs" - though as others have pointed out - the $35 sub is already a discounted price which isn't available all year long.

There's even some people suggesting they wish they could pay more.

@bigsocrates: Either the mods are doing a good job of cleaning it up or we have vastly different ideas of what constitutes as an attack on someone's character. I'm seeing a lot of people saying "the output has dropped" - not a lot of "Staff Member is so lazy, what do they even do??"

The most insulting thing I've seen are people making statements about other peoples finances because "It's one banana? How much could it cost!?".

Regarding knowing nothing - Vinny tried to remedy some of this by posting in the forums "Here's whats coming up on GB this week". And then that stopped four months ago. Notice a pattern about what people are upset over?

EDIT - while killing time in a meeting - nobody in this thread has used the word lazy other than someone saying they themselves are too lazy, not a member of staff. You are the first to bring up that accusation of someone accusing them of being too lazy.

People saying "Their output is lower than a solo streamer or <insert any other group like MinnMax/KFG>" is not calling them lazy.

@cyborgx7: The going rate for a premium podcast doesn't mean much tbh. Just because the going rate is $5 a month for an episode a week, doesn't mean that's good value if you think it's not good value.

@sombre: Even the "coming up" seems to sometimes be missing features up until about an hour or so before it'll actually happen. Like the drum stream won't show up in that box, but it'll still happen at the normal time, but if you don't know that's the normal time it makes it look like nothing is happening.

@humanity: They have alluded to it on video a few times that the sub numbers help keep the site going. Obviously none of us can see those numbers or what they really mean, but I'm going to assume Jeff and Vinny are decent people and are not lying. Maybe the sub numbers are the thing that stop the owners from just rolling GB and GS into one unit. Maybe there's some weird backend deal thats grandfathered in. Who knows.

But I get your point. If I was someone new to both sites - I would question why the site with less output has a subscription fee over the one with more output.

I've no idea about the output of Gamespot, I know from hearing people talk about it that they do podcasts and shows etc, like most sites. Do they let you download videos? That's something I've not seen many places do and one thing that they at least do on Giant Bomb.

I'm fine with the price point, I use it like a tip jar like others have suggested - however would I suggest to anyone if I think it's worth it to become a new subscriber? Honestly right now probably not. I'd maybe suggest to buy a month and then go back and watch X, Y and Z and then let it lapse. Or just get the trial. I haven't really been checking out any of the premium stuff in a while now for more than a few minutes because it's just not that entertaining to me.

I agree with others that anyone questioning how people spend their money or saying shit like "Oh if you can't afford $35..." is all sorts of shitty.

@arcticpandapopz - most podcast apps will let you paste an RSS URL which will contain a key that unlocks the premium version. There's a guide about it here

This is what I did. I feel bad for paying so little for Hitman 1 in the first place, so I'm making it up now by paying for the deluxe.

I do not think the content in the deluxe has been worth the money at all, and if I wasn't paying for it purely out of feeling like I want to help support the studio for all their good work and looking at it like a sort of tip or bonus to them, I would probably be very annoyed with both them for charging that much for what they give you and myself for spending it.

The silliness of throwing a wrench at someone and how good that feels to do. The stealth is secondary for me. It's the clockwork nature and me screwing with it that makes me enjoy it.