Happy New Year Giant Bomb and Community (why I decided to re-sub this year.)

2021 was a year of upheaval around the world but I think it's safe to say that it was also the year that Giant Bomb changed forever. With the departure of three of the longest tenured members, all of whom dated back to the Gamespot days, and the relocation of remaining staff away from the Bay area I think it's safe to say that the Giant Bomb we all fell in love with no longer exists. A lot of us old timers think of Giant Bomb as a scrappy upstart of a few 30 something guys in a basement in Sausalito, and it hasn't been that for a very long time now, but a lot of the ties to that era have now been severed. Giant Bomb is different now. It is the ship of Theseus and it has been rebuilt to the point that it's a new thing.

A lot of people are upset about this. Some have canceled their memberships. Some have stopped visiting the site. Some have angrily flounced, making their displeasure known on the way out. This is not that kind of post and I don't want it to become that kind of post.

The truth is that everything changes. Everything has to change. The people who founded the original Giant Bomb have changed. The Internet has changed. The economy has changed. The video game industry has changed. The world has changed. It is impossible for Giant Bomb to remain static when the world where the original site came to be no longer exists.

But the ideas that Giant Bomb represented haven't really changed.

What Giant Bomb has always meant to me is a personality driven site, focused mostly around games, with a goofy, weird, sensibility and a commitment to editorial independence. The version of Giant Bomb that exists in 2021 is still all those things. The personalities have changed. That stings to those of us who grew to love the old guard, but Alex, Vinny, and Brad are still out there making content at Nextlander, which lessens the sting. Giant Bomb has always rotated personalities, though, and has always remained the same website. We learned to love Austin's depth and analytical approach to games. We learned to vibe with Abby's sometimes dry humor and completely different history with games than the rest of the site's cast had. We learned to appreciate Dan's chaotic energy and...sometimes chaotic mind.

The current cast brings a lot to the table. Jeff continues to have an incredible knowledge of games and unassailable list of contacts in the industry. Jason is a great producer and brings an infectious enthusiasm for the genres he is passionate about. Jan is a delight. Others we are still getting used to and learning their strengths. I'm not sure what this @rorie guy is all about or whether he'll fit in with the Giant Bomb vibe (does he even like Alpha Protocol?) but we need to give him a chance. Giant Bomb has also added some part timers who don't interact with the main cast much, but each of those people (or groups) brings a different energy and set of strengths to the site. And they each fit in with that central mission in their own way.

Like a lot of people I haven't loved every new show that Giant Bomb has put out in 2021, but the truth is that I've never loved every single thing the site has done. There are widely beloved features of the past that just weren't for me for whatever reason. A site where everything is for everyone is a site that puts out a lot of broad and not very interesting content. That's never been what Giant Bomb has been about.

I was thinking about whether I wanted to resubscribe to Giant Bomb and I came to the conclusion that I did not just for the stuff I liked from 2021 but for the potential for 2022. GB is going to be expanding its core cast and hopefully continuing to settle into a new rhythm after this massive disruption. The Bombcast chemistry of the current cast, which is good, will continue to improve over time and reach the heights that some prior eras did when everyone was used to working with one another for years (and, at the time, shared the same physical space, which helped.) There will be new shows and ideas and contributors and I am sure that Jeff and crew will figure out what works for the audience and what can be tweaked and improved. I hear that Jeff Gerstmann is a smart cookie who knows what's up. He has like 7 copies of Gex. Probably. So he's got that going for him.

After all these years Giant Bomb remains one of the most positive places on the Internet for me. It remains committed to goofy humor and doing dumb things in the smartest way possible. Some of the stuff will resonate with you and some of it won't, but at least for me that's always been the case. Just because this may not be your favorite period doesn't mean that your favorite period isn't right around the corner. This new direction has just started and its already generated some awesome stuff. 2022 should be unlike any prior year the site has seen.

And meanwhile the forums and other community features of GB remain among the most positive and friendly places on the web for video gamers, with the ironic exception of discussions about the site itself, which tend to emphasis people who are angry or disappointed. I think we all understand why. It's unusual to post "hey, this thing I like is doing pretty good, let's hope it keeps doing that and doing well."

I guess I just wanted to start the new year with a show of support for a site that has meant a lot to me over the years and that I still fundamentally believe is doing good work despite difficult circumstances. A lot has been said over the last year that the staff of this site don't work hard, and I don't think that's true at all. I think that it has been an enormous amount of work to keep this thing going despite a fundamental change in how it does business, mass staff turnover, and a lot of behind the scenes stuff we don't know about. I think that part of the job is not letting those things show because the cast are ultimately entertainers, and when they're doing a good job that work is taken for granted.

So thanks to the cast of Giant Bomb, past, current, and future, and to the community moderators who have created the best video space for video game discussion on the web, and the community members who continue to stick around and contribute and keep making this place viable. Giant Bomb has meant a lot to me over the years and I'm glad it's still around and fighting the good fight.

It would be great if others could post something positive here as well just to start the year off on a more supportive and positive vibe, but I'm also fine just saying this stuff into the void. Expressing hope and gratitude are good for the soul. Just like a nice anecdote from Jan on the Bombcast.

P.S. I'm sure that @rorie kid will figure out how he fits in eventually. We just gotta give him a little time.