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Giant Bombcast - Let's Talk About Memberships!

I havent paid a sub to any website and as much as i love giantbomb i aint going to start. I love what these guys do listen to the bombcast etc but paying for something that use to be free and i can get pretty much the same thing free elsewhere doesnt float with me. Call me a cheap shit dick or whatever is there no other way for them to be supported than making the website sub based. Does anyone else not find the situation of a website that you pay for kinda crazy??. I wouldnt mind if they sold out put ads infront of every vid podcast etc its what most if not all meduim to large websites do and i understand that as its the way they keep going.
 
Chozo said:
I think the greater point is that trying to monetize "nerds talking about video games for two hours" is not exactly the pinnacle of Internet financial savvy.
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And Ricky Gervais making fun of an orange-headed idiot is? His paid podcasts are pretty shallow, but they are funny, and so people pay for them. If people like things, they tend to pay for it. People buy Penny Arcade comic collections... for some reason. Charing for a videogame podcast doesn't feel like that much of a reach to me.

Cat in the Hat said:
:lol Oh god the irony going on here to just too fucking sweet. All the shit they talk about overpriced DLC and downloadable games and now this.
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I don't think you understand what irony means, especially when Brad has been super pissed at people calling out Limbo as too short for the price.
 
Hellsing321 said:
I want to support these guys. I was ready to pay the $50 when I saw what they were offering initially. They've given me more entertainment over the last 2 years than pretty much anything else out there, but splitting up the thing that started the fanbase they have today is not something I can support.
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Pretty much the same for me, I was ready to pay the 50bux but I'm not gonna stand for splitting the bombcast for those who are not paid subcribers
 
keithm said:
YES! I tried to listen to an episode a while back, to fill the void that 1up's shows left, and he was talking about potentially buying a complete set of Famicom games, for THOUSANDS of dollars. Your site is called Cheap Ass Gamer! There's just something super smarmy about him. It's like he thinks he's better than his fanbase or something.
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I'm probably leaving myself open to a lot of crap here but I think for alot people that hate him it's more a case of jealously than anything else, there's not many people on here who wouldn't want to be in his situation, I think he's earned the right to speak his mind and spend large amounts on money on crap if that's what he wants to do, most of us would be doing the same ourselves if we could.
 
Cat in the Hat said:
:lol Oh god the irony going on here to just too fucking sweet. All the shit they talk about overpriced DLC and downloadable games and now this.
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It isn't irony - it's hypocrisy. Especially with the all the Playstation Plus talk.
 
Dizzy-4U said:
Taken from twitter:





What are the chances for this?
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Probably good but how big of a tool do you have to be to fall for this?


DancingJesus said:
It isn't irony - it's hypocrisy. Especially with the all the Playstation Plus talk.
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Playstation Plus actually looks like a amazing deal compared to this.
 
stupei said:
They said in the chat that they have actually had trouble getting game related ads because the response has been that the userbase for GB is already hardcore enough that we know about the games and marketing to us is a waste of cash.
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They don't have to only advertise games on their site. Throw some candy or tv show ads on there. There should be plenty of companies willing to go after the gamer crowd's money.
 
wmat said:
Because it's a podcast featuring recent news about games and a bit of funny talk. There's like hundreds of free ones. So it doesn't _have_ to be monetized.

It's nothing like Hardcore History or whatever.


I wish GB all the best with this strategy, but the Bombcast is the last thing that would pull me in.
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Maybe right now, but how long will that last? At some point people are gonna want to have a reasonable way to pay for making these things. Also I personally think there are very few good quality podcasts, so there being many more doesn't mean much to me.

Sure it doesn't have to be monetized, but it doesn't sound like they can keep the podcast going in it's current form judging from the recent tweets about money problems.

Shalashaska said:
Look at the reaction to this, and it's only a split podcast that is still technically free. Also consider that most believe the Bombcast to be the best gaming podcast available.
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Hmm, I don't think it's very fair to use this an example of why pay-for podcasts can't work. Say a reasonably popular site starts a podcast but makes it pay-for from the get go, maybe making the first and second episodes free previews, what then?
 
wmat said:
Would need statistics to make a meaningful estimate.
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I believe at some point someone posted a graph from one of those traffic monitoring sites that showed GB getting like 1.7mil views a day from around the world.
 
DancingJesus said:
It isn't irony - it's hypocrisy. Especially with the all the Playstation Plus talk.
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Except it isn't, unless you think Sony is need of your Plus support to keep running. And that you got your PS3 for free.
 
I just listen to Bombcast and watch Quick Looks so there's no way I was gonna pay for this. I'll just get used to listening to the show piecemeal or waiting a week to hear it all at once.

vitaminwateryum said:
"Snide @yami4ct Won't effect the other podcasts, they're all trying to reign them down to 1 hour."

Fuck that noise.
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As someone who's recently gotten into the Tested podcast, that sucks.
 
Aaron said:
And Ricky Gervais making fun of an orange-headed idiot is? His paid podcasts are pretty shallow, but they are funny, and so people pay for them. If people like things, they tend to pay for it. People buy Penny Arcade comic collections... for some reason. Charing for a videogame podcast doesn't feel like that much of a reach to me.
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I think it is a reach. Ricky Gervais doesn't have this kind of competition, really. Competition that puts stuff out for free, and that indefinitely.

I want them to succeed, and I applaud this agressive step. I expected something like this a lot sooner. But you gotta see things in perspective.

If I can handle losing Idle Thumbs because Chris goes to Irrational, I can easily deal without the Giant Bomb podcast for any reason.
 
bkfount said:
They don't have to only advertise games on their site. Throw some candy or tv show ads on there. There should be plenty of companies willing to go after the gamer crowd's money.
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If they aren't big enough to get game companies to advertise on their site, I doubt it would be much easier to get things not gaming related.
 
lumberjack said:
This.....
How many people do this I wonder? Your just draining money from them if you like there content you should support it.
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I do not use the website. The subscription plan, as currently described, doesn't sound enticing for someone who is only interested in the podcast.
 
lowrider007 said:
I'm probably leaving myself open to a lot of crap here but I think for alot people that hate him it's more a case of jealously than anything else, there's not many people on here who wouldn't want to be in his situation, I think he's earned the right to speak his mind and spend large amounts on money on crap if that's what he wants to do, most of us would be doing the same ourselves if we could.
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and I think your wrong, to me it seems that Cheapy D is an asshole anyway and even if he didn't have a successful website he would still be an ass, I don't think it has anything to do with being jealous.
 
No_Style said:
Sponsors, money troubles... makes me wonder if the Big Live Live Show isn't going to turn into some kind of telethon.
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You know if they just did a This American Life style donations message at the beginning of the show that'd be much more effective and less stressful for them. I mean if Rebel FM can make bukoo money then Giantbomb could make a killing.
 
No way they can get 5000 subscribers in literally less than 12 hours, especially considering those 12 hours are occurring during the night for America. Besides, that whole "deal" is REALLY sketchy sounding. Makes me question their motives even more
 
That whole 5k deal is at least an effort but it doesn't even make much sense. If you're subscribing you get the entire podcast on release anyway, so what's the incentive for subscribing quickly before a deadline so that non-subscribers get the entire podcast?

They're strictly relying on people's charity here, at a time when most fans are annoyed. Asking for donations before deciding to cut the podcast would have probably been slightly more effective from a PR standpoint.
 
SirPenguin said:
No way they can get 5000 subscribers in literally less than 12 hours, especially considering those 12 hours are occurring during the night for America. Besides, that whole "deal" is REALLY sketchy sounding. Makes me question their motives even more
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Its tomorrow morning, as in Friday morning.
 
Seeing as they won't even bother to respond to a bug report of broken steam achievements, multiple times, I won't be joining day 1. If they get their stuff together on that front I can see getting a monthly sub every now and then.
 
SirPenguin said:
No way they can get 5000 subscribers in literally less than 12 hours, especially considering those 12 hours are occurring during the night for America. Besides, that whole "deal" is REALLY sketchy sounding. Makes me question their motives even more
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The 10th is tomorrow, not 12 hours from now. Yeah, I read that wrong too at first.
 
El Sloth said:
Maybe right now, but how long will that last? At some point people are gonna want to have a reasonable way to pay for these things. Also I personally think there are very few good quality podcasts, so there being many more doesn't mean much to me.
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I certainly think it's okay if they tried it out, I'm not going to say anything against their efforts there. I just don't see a huge pull because people don't pay money on the internet in general, and especially not for podcasts.

Commercial podcasts are an acquired taste. I love 'em. They're taking a chance with this though. That's what I want to essentially say, I think.
 
El Sloth said:
Sure it doesn't have to be monetized, but it doesn't sound like they can keep the podcast going in it's current form judging from the recent tweets about money problems.
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i haven't listened to giant bomb for some time (since ubi-gate, when one of them suggested studios should just "stop making single player pc games"), but i'm assuming they still rock the tried and tested "dudes sitting in a room chewing the fat for a couple of hours" format? i fail to see where the crippling overheads come from. i've never heard of an independent podcast collapsing due to production costs, only those tied to bloated, failing startups.

they've basically imported the xbl model of charging for the one thing people generally want, regardless of the fact it basically costs them dick, in order to access premium features that the majority couldn't even get a semi for.
 
I'm quite surprised by how everyone is going crazy about the podcast before even knowing how is the new format going to be. For me i don't care since I'm going to subscribe anyways because $5 is very low price seeing how much time I spend with giantbomb videos and podcasts.
 
SirPenguin said:
No way they can get 5000 subscribers in literally less than 12 hours, especially considering those 12 hours are occurring during the night for America. Besides, that whole "deal" is REALLY sketchy sounding. Makes me question their motives even more
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Dude, its still Wednesday over here. STOP LIVING IN THE FUTURE.
 
ShockingAlberto said:
Not after they basically abandoned the app.
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What?

I'd certainly pay if I could access all the content via an iPad app. I still might because HD video and no ads is something I'd like.
 
Where do you even sign up for this thing? I've been looking all over the site and can't find a way to pay anything.
 
No_Style said:
Sponsors, money troubles... makes me wonder if the Big Live Live Show isn't going to turn into some kind of telethon.
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Really... I knew what it was going to be from the beginning. Why the hell else would they do a 7 hour stream?
 
Mr. B said:
They can't even get 5k people to get do their featured quests
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Most of those failed featured quests lately have been weird community stuff that just seemed strange for "quests." It was kinda funny watching those crash and burn, while people still spam "FIRST!??!? EDIT: NO!!!!" or one word comments ("cool" "neat" "interesting") on every goddamned page.
 
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