OdysseusVA
Banned
Cons
- Gearbox guy
- Barnett
Pros
- Everything else
Really enjoyed the panel Rami and Blow were on.
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Giant Bomb @ E3 2014 | Ice Cream Truck vs. The Electronic Three
- Thread starter Hot Coldman
- Start date
- Status
Cons
- Gearbox guy
- Barnett
Pros
- Everything else
Really enjoyed the panel Rami and Blow were on.
Great point.
Cowboy really got to talk very little last year, too, which is a bit of a shame, though this year i feel his panel was much quieter than 2013's., so maybe more fit to his personality (or at least what shines through of it)
Good selection of guests but too many on the panel at once. Also I think you'd make a better host than Jeff.
Hahaha. When you put it that way, it's quite amusing. But he was just saying that when you are super passionate about your work, the fact that it becomes all-consuming isn't necessarily a bad thing.
firehawk12
Subete no aware
I didn't mind any guests, but I think the problem that comes up with you have a lot of game journalists show up is that it gets too much into navel gazing about E3 itself. It's not that E3 stories aren't interesting, but if you've been following this whole shebang for a decade, you can only tell same E3 war stories so many times before it becomes a bit rote.
I'd say try to feature more "bigger" (ie, from the big companies) developers, but we already have GDC for that and depending on the person you get, they might have to stay on message... and we know that almost never works out when you have someone who is there to sell a product instead of have a conversation.
My feedback is not necessarly about the guests but the site in general. First of all I think you guys did an amazing job on the E3 coverage overall. My issue is with the website itself. The sudden flood of content over the week made it almost impossible to find what we were looking for. Especially since most of the streams/videos/podcasts all had very similar names. Might be worth investing in a special site redesign for next year's E3.
I would have preferred a smaller group of people for the discussions, but getting as many people involved as possible also had it's benefits. It seemed like everybody got to say at least a little bit, so there was a lot of perspective. When you have a group of people talking with a lot of history it can be tough for a new face to find his moments, but hopefully having them on, and it being a positive experience, will lead to future opportunities with them. Building those relationships has led to an enjoyable cast of reoccurring characters in the Giant Bomb world so keep doing that!
Also, don't listen to the Barnett hate. He was the only one who wanted to talk about the important stuff like the free shit everybody was carrying around and the booth absurdities. Some folk just can't get over the dungeon keeper stuff for whatever reason.
Also, don't listen to the Barnett hate. He was the only one who wanted to talk about the important stuff like the free shit everybody was carrying around and the booth absurdities. Some folk just can't get over the dungeon keeper stuff for whatever reason.
Really enjoyed the day 1 and day 3 shows but yeah I do think this may have been an issue in some segments. Some people naturally dominate conversations and when there's many guests it gets difficult to circle back to some of the more introverted guests (who still do have interesting things to say) in time.
Castle Doctrine
Member
It was good to see Jeff Cannata bring a dose of class and interesting videogame talk to the proceedings. He's also a natually funny man without a need to smash humor over head with a sledgehammer like Greg Miller was doing.
While it'll mean you guys will have fewer guests, I think limiting the number in a segment to 3 at most would allow for more in depth discussions.
I think you did a great job, I love that so many viewpoints were represented from top level executives, to AAA devs, to indies, to press people big and small. Only thing missing are some GAFers =)
If I have any criticism its that 6 guests may be too many, particularly when its full of big personalities. For instance, the Sony-Lang-Johnny-Insomniac segment felt over packed. I loved hearing all those guys talk and when it was over I felt like I didn't hear enough of any of them.
That said, I don't know if you did it on purpose or not, but I like that you mixed in new guests and old. Just because if the new guys didn't fit, the "legends" could carry the segment and keep it entertaining.
close to the edge
Member
Overall, I thought it was excellent. I generally prefer guests that are game developers and especially ones that are on the technical side of things (like Cowboy) because those are the guys whose perspective you don't hear too often. My favorite panel was probably the one with Jonathan Blow, Zoe Quinn, Cowboy and Rami Ismail. If you could get, like, John Carmack, that would be the best thing. I also really liked Palmer Luckey, he seemed very genuine (same for Phil Spencer and the Playstation guys) I guess I just really enjoy hearing programmers talk shop. Brad Muir was sorely missed this year.
I really liked this years panels, Great job booking Patrick. My only suggestion would be giving Jeff a break, maybe for the quieter groups and host yourself. Only because he ended up repeating himself a fair amount for (understandably given he must have had the same conversation with 30 odd people).
Keyser Soze
Member
In terms of pure entertainment, day three was not the best night, but it was the night I liked the most. Started out nice and slow with Ed Boon, and did not get out of control as much as other nights. While unrelenting madness is good (at times), stuff like this was a great watch. Maybe giving some of the industry higher ups some One on One time (like happened with Boon) could lead to some good content on future shows
Only one negative that stood out. Mikey Neumann was the only guy that caused me to want stop watching over the course of the three days. I am sure he is a nice guy, and my hate is not directed at him as a person, but his attitude on the night did not mix at all. At times, it felt like he did not even understand he was been broadcast live - constantly jumping up from his chair to grab drinks. Greg Miller was a more louder presence on the same night, but the stuff he did seemed much less of a hassle than Neumann's antics. Once again, this is not an attack on Neumann, but maybe make sure people realize there is some code of conduct to abide by even if they want to get crazy.
I think this has been brought up before, but striving to get more female personalities on would be nice. Maybe not an "all female segment" (as that would come across as too pandering), but having more than one women per segment would be nice. Having Abbie in one segment, Cara in another, and the rest on their own too, felt kinda like they were been the "token girl" of the segment. Dont be afraid to have two or more female personalities in one segment - if it fits.
Also, with Giant Bomb crew now spread over 3 different States, maybe make sure the last segment is solely devoted to the main guys on staff. Paul Barnett seems a great guy, but got some hate for been part of the few chances the main staff gets together to talk each year. Would be nice if there was a segment added to shows to make sure the main staff gets to talk among themselves - which means not having to rush their opinion into 10 minute chunks on Day 3 as the show shuts down. Vinny in particular seemed like his was having to put many hours worth of thoughts into the 5 minutes he got to speak.
However, overall it was a great show. Lots of madness, and some more relaxed moments. That is a hard mix to accomplish, but it worked well for the most part. Well done to you, and everyone else involved.
PS: Give Rami Ismail his own show.
I enjoyed the selection this year, but two things really stood out to me;
- Only three female panelists for the entire event, as far as I saw. If I missed any others, I'm sorry... but it did feel a little like there was a gender imbalance. Hard to do, but would always appreciate more people!
- The bookings were good, but maybe slightly... safe? There weren't any weird combinations that worked through sheer luck (like the genova/ryckert once upon a time), but I'm sure that's a really weird thing to try and consider when bringing people on. The closest we got was Yoshida being on with Lang, that was pretty good. In fact, that whole first day was excellent.
You did a damn good job considering it was your first year doing it.
Hey_Blinkin
Member
I really wish they would have given Phil Spencer and Adam/Shuhei their own segments. No offense to the other guests, but most of those guys you can talk to by picking up the phone. How often to you get to sit with and bs with Adam and Phil?
linko9
Member
Thought this year's was the best lineup yet, nice jorb.
Not sure how feasible this idea is, considering everyone's differing schedules, but maybe try and group people together in a way where they're together with guests from similar parts of the industry?
You could have one segment be with game devs who can talk about making/demoing their games and stuff like that, a press section where everyone can talk about what they're excited for/what they've seen and then a "joke" section where you can throw all the really funny guys like Lang or Johnny V.
I feel like especially during the Lang and Johnny V segment, those two sort of overshadowed and overpowered the other guests on the segment.
All that said however, yall's coverage this year was awesome and I really enjoyed almost all of the guests, except for one or two here or there. Keep up the good work Scoops!
I thought it was the best collection of guests to date. There were (usually) specific themes to each group: lead developers, corporates, programmers, media -- each one appropriately silly and serious. Gave well-rounded perspectives from the different people who occupy E3. Getting people to feel comfortable is something GB does better than anyone else as a media outlet, so seeing people on stage at E3 be themselves in the show is a really unique experience.
Personally I like the nitty-gritty stuff so my favorite regular guest is Cowboy; humble as hell and giving a taste of what it's like to work in trenches. I'd love to have more talks like that to be encouraged so people like him have a chance to share more anecdotes and personal experiences of being at the ground zero level. I always feel like he talks about this stuff when he can, but the discussions that normally happen at these things don't call for it.
Shuhei and Boyes built a great rep for themselves to the point where every media outlet pretty much treats them like real people now (because they act like real people on camera), and Shu's talk was easily some of the most interesting and entertaining from the show.
Maybe Johnny V and Lang should sit on opposite sides of the table next time (you know, like troublesome grade-school kids); I love their chemistry but at times it was completely dominating the panel (and maybe scaring Shu a little lol).
There are always guests who don't talk much after their initial spotlight of "what did you play, what was your E3 like", and when that happens it's just up to host to keep the dialogue going, which is a big responsibility. I don't want to say that cutting down on people who aren't very vocal is what should happen, but the only alternative I can think of is that the host be more engaging with people who don't speak much, which is a pretty big demand. Switching off hosts or co-hosting could be a solution, depending on if the situation calls for more comedy/shenanigans vs insight.
Keyser Soze
Member
Viewing the man solely as a media personality (no need to get more personal about it), I find it hard to hate him for those 10 minutes of madness after the multiple hours of interesting content he offered in the years before that. Sure it was a weird thing to say, and maybe a bit of a reach, but it was not that bad,
I gave that Dungeon Keeper game 6 hours of my life to try and understand the hate, and I agree it is a hard game to defend. I could not bring myself to defend it - even if I tired. Barnett had to defend it (to be professional as part of his job, and to respect his colleagues that worked on it), he reached to defend it, maybe he reached a bit too far, but it is not the end of the world.
Adam Scott Aukerman
Member
I thought the lineups were a really good mix of people, personally. The only thing I probably would have tweaked was the seating arrangement/set, as it seemed to restrict conversation a bit as it was quite a 'formal' layout.
Perhaps this is just senseless perception, but based on the past GDC and E3 coverage I've seen, the seating arrangements seemed to be more relaxed and conducive to conversation.
This year's coverage was very good overall though
Perhaps this is just senseless perception, but based on the past GDC and E3 coverage I've seen, the seating arrangements seemed to be more relaxed and conducive to conversation.
This year's coverage was very good overall though
Ninja Scooter
Member
It sounds like organizing everyone is a huge pain in the ass I'm not sure they had a ton of leeway with those after shows.
My Name Is Luke
Member
I know I'm late on this, but holy shit this year's behind the scenes video is great. I love it when they put out stuff like this.
MattPeters
Member
I think my only complain was that panels were a little large, some people didnt get a chance to speak up, but its just a minor nitpick. Fantastic E3 coverage, and Ed Boon solo was awesome, Boon always gives fantastic interviews.
I don't hate him or wish him any bad luck in future endeavors, I'll just avoid him.
Incandenza
Banned
Hey Patrick, awesome job with guests this year. The lineup was almost universally fantastic. Here's what I'd recommend for next year.
- Having 6 guests at once does them a bit of a disservice because at least one or two people will end up overshadowed by the bigger personalities at the table. I think 4 guests plus two GB guys is a good number.
- What I liked about this year was that there was a mixture of high-energy comedic segments (Dave Lang's bullshit) with more chill, serious talk (Rami et al). Lean into that! Changing up the pace like that keeps the shows fresh and hopefully makes the quieter guys feel more comfortable when they don't have to compete with Miller taking his shirt off.
Also, and this doesn't have much to do with guest scheduling, but deep development talk is way way more interesting than "So what did you see at the show this year?"
BUNTING1243
Banned
I thought these were by far the best live shows you guys have done. I feel like all the guests worked well, which is probably a first for these shows. I've seen some people complain about the guest combinations, but I actually thought they all worked pretty well, it was cool seeing guys like Spencer and Lucky talk with developers (having Shu on to contrast the John-Lang-Adam craziness in particular was great). I remember seeing you talk about how much you liked Ryan's ability to combine guests in weird but really interesting ways, and I think you carried that on really well.
For next year, it'd be cool if there was a Giant Bomb staff only segment at the end of each night just to talk about the games you saw during the day, but I get you might all be too tired to do that. I feel like impressions of games get a little sidetracked with the guest craziness. Really good year overall though!
Edit: Maybe more diversity in the panels? It didn't bother me that much personally, but I've seen some people talking about the relative lack of non-white-males on the show.
As someone who has followed the site since the beginning, this year was by far my favourite E3 coverage by Giant Bomb. It had the best guests, and the most interesting discussions. I agree with those who say that 6 guests might be a bit much on each panel, 5 at most maybe? But sometimes that worked too, so it's a tiny nitpick. Also, Jeff did a fantastic job hosting.
As an aside, I suspect that if MS had a show similar to Sony this year with a lot of bullshit non-games stuff in the middle and Spencer went on the show trying to justify it by giving a "monologue" of several minutes like Shu did, people in here would call him a "shill" and worse. That didn't happen when Shu did exactly that on the night show, so I guess that's what goodwill gets you.
As an aside, I suspect that if MS had a show similar to Sony this year with a lot of bullshit non-games stuff in the middle and Spencer went on the show trying to justify it by giving a "monologue" of several minutes like Shu did, people in here would call him a "shill" and worse. That didn't happen when Shu did exactly that on the night show, so I guess that's what goodwill gets you.
My main complaint is what others have been saying, the number of guests on each segment was probably ~2 people too many on average. Several times there were so many people talking at once that I had no idea what anyone was saying. In the room, it's probably just that there are 2-3 groups of people talking to each other and it's fine, but all the microphones putting it on the stream makes it unintelligible.
Other than that, immensely enjoyable streams.
Other than that, immensely enjoyable streams.
SmoothRunningGun
Member
Always these things have too many people at once and we get people talking over each other. It's hard to follow in audio only form. The guy from "No Man's Sky" was really good.
Haunted
Member
Suddenly explains why GB managed to snag up such high-profile guests. Getting Sony and MS bigwigs to come into your little (tall) booked room was pretty impressive.
Personal favourites were Jon Blow and the 8-4 pair. Love those guys.
Great job with the guest list. I think you should be especially proud of reaching out to people who you thought wouldn't be interested/allowed to show up. It shows you really wanted to make this year special and it surely was over the four day marathon.
I think you did a good job of shuffling the GB regulars with the newbies. Sometimes the regulars kept the conversation away from other guests, but overall I think the mixing of new and old lead to a more relaxed atmosphere that created fluid conversations.
The newer guests worked well with each other for the most part. There were a couple of times a lot of the viewers got frustrated with certain guests, but after some thought, I think those guests were just nervous; particularly the ones who weren't appreciated by the community in previous years. Maybe it'd be a good idea of screening newer guests right before they're about to go on to see if they're comfortable enough with a larger group or something a bit smaller. Although I'm sure that would be difficult since everyone is on a schedule at E3.
Also there were some points where it felt like certain questions were being held back until a specific guest had left because it would upset the guest. I know you all want to have some of the bigger guests back, but I feel like GB has done a great job at asking uncomfortable or harder questions in a light hearted way. It would have been interesting to hear what certain guests had to say about a specific conflict their company or game are currently facing in the context of GB's friendly nature.
I realize how difficult it is to put something together like this and overall the shows were absolutely great. The guests were great. The weaker moments were mostly out of your control. To try to improve on them would be silly, especially when those imperfect moments completely define the tone of what GB is.
Great job again.
I'm incredibly disappointed that we didn't get a rundown on how many teens were monetized by Dave Lang.
You guys sure love to skirt around the serious questions with a 5 hour segment of shirtless people smearing chicken wing sauce everywhere and beer bottles flying all over the room.
Very un-GB like.
I also felt that Vinny and Drew could've worked a little harder. We barely saw them on camera, so I have to assume they were passed out in their hotel rooms with steakums all over the floors or something. I don't know.
3/10 for me.
E3/10.
You guys sure love to skirt around the serious questions with a 5 hour segment of shirtless people smearing chicken wing sauce everywhere and beer bottles flying all over the room.
Very un-GB like.
I also felt that Vinny and Drew could've worked a little harder. We barely saw them on camera, so I have to assume they were passed out in their hotel rooms with steakums all over the floors or something. I don't know.
3/10 for me.
E3/10.
When you have a guest that might not have a strong presence, it is good to have him/her on when the panel isn't crowded. For example, Ed Boon was great when it was just him alone and the crew can focus on including him in the conversation or asking him questions. The problem with doing this though is that there might be too many people who want to be on the livestream so you may not be able to get them in a less populated panel timeslot due to volume, and of course scheduling can be difficult.
Loved it this year. Perhaps some people might have liked more specific talk on games, but realistically any reps will likely fall back into their scripted PR talk if you aren't careful. I loved the random chat and the general chemistry was great.
Day 1 had me laughing out loud way more than I'd have expected. Day 2 with all the journalists was surprising and enjoyable. Still need to get to day 3 but very much looking forward to it.
I liked the 'we talk over the conferences' too. I avoided them for live footage, so I watched the conferences directly first, then re watched on giantbomb for your reactions. I think that worked well.
Definitely would be interested in this.
Bring a breathalyzer next time. And a shill-o-meter if someone invents it by next year.
I think the guests were fantastic but maybe you could separate the segments of all the crazy regulars into a single long panel each day and the guests that you think will have a lot to say or that have a lot of insight to a more intimate panel.
Other than that i really cannot complain, your coverage has been excellent and you should all be very proud.
Other than that i really cannot complain, your coverage has been excellent and you should all be very proud.
I think this year's E3 shows were the strongest you guys have done, and the lineup was pretty fantastic. Good mix of people and some impressive gets over the course of the week. There are certainly a couple of personalities that don't fit in the mix as well as others (not naming names but I'm sure you have a good idea given the general feedback) but generally it was fantastic.
The only minor nitpicks as also mentioned was how depending on who was on, some guests wouldn't really have the chance to interject or say much vs other more dominating personalities. Also was disappointed you guys didn't close with just the main staff discussing their thoughts on the show given how fragmented the crew is getting.
Over all though I really enjoyed it, kudos to Jeff for holding it down and Drew/Vinny for their crazy good work.
Fried Food
Banned
Thanks for publically soliciting feedback.
My only real "complaint" was with Brad on the third day. I get that the week was probably pretty brutal for you guys, but if your not going to say anything, might as well sit that segment out and fill that spot with another guest.
Rabbit Lord
Member
For the most part everything was good, here's a couple complaints/critiques though... too many guests on at once. Leads to discussions that are all over the place and at the end really lead no where. The right mix guests on at the same time could be a little better. At times you had on guests who were there under some official capacity paired up with people who were there to just hang out, that leads to some lackluster content.
Sorry for bitching! Thank you and everyone else at GB for all the content and hard work. Keep it up! The editorial video was really amazing, pat on the back for Drew? Vinny?
Haunted
Member
Watching through their live days today. GB did a great job this year.
Also i had no idea how likeable Phil Spencer is cause every live event he does he seems like a robot.
Im watching the stuff today. The choices are excellent so far. I really like how you are able to nab some really high-up folks from Sony and MS
Also i had no idea how likeable Phil Spencer is cause every live event he does he seems like a robot.
Im watching the stuff today. The choices are excellent so far. I really like how you are able to nab some really high-up folks from Sony and MS
acheron_xl
Member
Having a giant bunch of guys really works the best when they're not all drunk. There's a few bits here and there where it sounded like there were three conversations going on at once, and all of them were loud.
Other than that, impressed with the big names. Agreed that it can be the best venue for guys that you usually see exclusively through the lens of media training. Getting them to think on their feet, while not putting them on the defensive is a valuable service to provide.
Other than that, impressed with the big names. Agreed that it can be the best venue for guys that you usually see exclusively through the lens of media training. Getting them to think on their feet, while not putting them on the defensive is a valuable service to provide.
I'll echo what has been said already and say that there were maybe too many guests. For me the best segments you guys have each year are always those with fewer guests, like with Jonathan Blow and CliffyB last year. With too many people, even when there's a meaningful conversation going on it never really goes anywhere because by the time everyone has chimed in the segment is over.
I guess a little chaos does work with guys like Greg Miller and Dave Lang, but we're not really interested in what Greg Miller and Dave Lang have to say about video games, we just want to see them drunk and half naked. So I guess I like a bit of both, but this year was just a little too crazy.
War Peaceman
You're a big guy.
The guests you got were pretty much as good as I can envision. I think you did a fantastic job (and Giant Bomb in general was fantastic, thank you very much). It might have been better if GB's friends (Lang/Johnny V etc.) were separated from interesting, new guests (Shuhei, for example) just so we can better hear from them instead of being bogged down with in-jokes. Don't get me wrong, GB's friends are great to see, but they can overshadow newcomers. It would also have been nice if Barnett was not on the final segment, not out of any personal dislike, but because it would have been good to just have 'core' Giant Bomb. Just a personal preference.
The main area to improve on would be hosting. I feel like the guests were great, but they were not pressed as hard as they could have been. Obviously there are limits to what is going to be said, and you clearly try to maintain a casual-ish approach, but people like Cowboy, Yoshida, etc. felt under-utilised. Brad asked some good questions of the No Man's Sky guy, which was great and a good example of what should be done. I feel you might be a better host than Jeff, for this purposes.
Thanks again! GB was great this year at E3.
NumberThree
Member
I think others have brought up these points already, but here we go:
- Overall you guys did extremely well (not just the night shows, but entire E3)
- Some panels were a bit crowded. There were what, 6 or even 7 guests on some segments? I thought this year's GDC event was better in this regard.
- I'd like to see some more grouping up of people with similar presence in the same panel. If a person is naturally a bit quiet putting them on the same panel with Dave Lang won't help
- While mixing up people from journalists to developers to Spencers is great, maybe some panels could be devoted to more specific subjects. Though I'd have to see the results to know if it'd actually work...
I realize trying to follow these guidelines would make organizing the event even more of a logistical nightmare, but you asked!
Please stop inviting Brad Shoemaker, that guys suxxxxx! More like Brad Snoremaker amiright.
The Dutch Slayer
Member
E3 2014: John, John, John, and Disney Infinity: Marvel Super Heroes (2.0 Edition) RAW
hahahhahaah that video is FANTASTIC
John Drake is fantastic love it!
hahahhahaah that video is FANTASTIC
John Drake is fantastic love it!
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