Five Reasons Why I Love The Giant Bomb Community

 It's that time of year again people.

Season’s greetings Giant Bombers, I hope you’re all enjoying Christmas Day. Seeing as this is a time of good will and celebration I thought I’d take this opportunity to celebrate the community of Giant Bomb. We’re by no means perfect but there are reasons why we use Giant Bomb as our place to discuss video games, and reasons why I’ve spent far too much time among the Giant Bomb community. Here are five reasons why I believe the Giant Bomb community is one of the best video game communities on the internet.

 

Attitude

Much like the Giant Bomb staff themselves the community of Giant Bomb manage to be simultaneously laid back, yet down to Earth. On a lot of forums there’s not enough compromise between deftly serious video game discussion and just plain trolling. The Giant Bomb community manages to hold legitimate game discussions but don’t take themselves too seriously, and aren’t afraid to deviate from the point of a subject for the sake of humour. Speaking of humour...

Humour

Pictured: A Giant Bomb fan enjoys one of our many hilarious threads.

I think the fact that the Official Staff Photo Edit thread is nearing 4,000 posts is proof enough that the Giant Bomb community are good at expressing their funny side, but I also see the Giant Bomb community come out with funny things just about everywhere on the site on a regular basis. Since the site has started up we’ve developed a rich collection of memes and in-jokes, and even crass statements are made with a self-awareness and irony that few outside of Giant Bomb seem to hold. From the love of Batman to the fear of Jonathon Frakes’ terrifying poker face Giant Bomb manages to remain humorous. In short: You guys funny.

 

Intelligence

Okay, I don’t think most Giant Bomb members are going to win a Nobel Prize any time soon but there are certainly some rather intelligent individuals among us, and on the whole I think we have the ability to hold much more realistic and intelligent discussions than a lot of other video game sites out there. As can be seen from the wiki, among other sources, the people of Giant Bomb know their games, but there’s also an air of rationality and analytical ability which I believe allows for proper debate and discussion. I know, some of you out there may be thinking “lolwut” right now, but I believe that the GB community’s ability to critique and evaluate goes way beyond the all-too-common “This trailer looks awesome so the game’s going to be great”. Even in political and religious discussion, which let’s be honest, always turns into a heated argument, users on the whole are still able to make valid and well thought-out points.

Friendliness

Pictured: A representative illustration of the GB community solving world hunger.

I’m not going to pretend I don’t think the community could stand to be friendlier and there are certainly some individuals out there who are nicer than others, but considering the “This is the internet so I can do what I want” attitude which usually permeates the social interaction on most video game websites, the community are doing a great job of keeping things civil. Yes, conversation can occasionally turn to users being just plain rude to other users, but new users are usually welcomed with open arms, there’s a real sense of community among many of the members here, and as we’ve seen over Christmas there are a select few among us who are most generous. One of the reasons I have disliked a lot of other video game communities is they’ve always turned to verbal abuse of other users and had an air of animosity, whereas Giant Bomb is much more than just your regular group of angry video   game fanatics, desperately hammering their keyboards in rage. Just look at the fantastic generosity we’ve seen over the holiday period this year.

 

Content

I’ve already referenced the countless photoshops in the staff photo edit thread but you only have to turn to ZombiePie’s community spotlight to see that the Giant Bomb community is producing great content every week. There’s excellent reviews, impressive blogs, funny lists, entertaining podcasts, and very occasionally the community will come out with something completely unexpected and blow people away, like Hamst3r’s community song or ThePantheon’s sabotaging of a morning news show with a Giant Bomb meme. Considering the size of the community, Giant Bomb also has dealt admirably with the task of putting together a wiki about everything in video games ever, and then has produced heaps of fantastic content on top of that.

End Transmission

 See you in the future Giant Bomb.

Whatever your opinion on the Giant Bomb community I believe they’re doing great things and that is why. As a side note I’d also like to thank the moderators on the site for being so good about what they do; moderation often breaks down into being overly-strict, underdone, or completely inconsistent, while the Giant Bomb mods have remained effective but fair.

This is both my 100th blog on the site and my last blog of 2010. Thanks to everyone in the community who has kept me entertained over the past two and a half years with their witty posts, clever written pieces, humorous pictures, and general awesomeness. I’d also like to show my appreciation for the people who have read and commented on all the things I’ve written in my time on Giant Bomb. I hope you all enjoy the rest of 2010 Giant Bomb community, keep doing the wonderful things you do. Good luck, have weighted Christmas cube.

-Gamer_152