Off-Topic

The Big Live Live Show Live 2. What could be said about this madness? I'll highlight the winners, losers, and jousters with these scientific awards.

Award: MVP of the Show

Nominees

1. Matt Rorie for once agin giving us the gift of Jah Steele.
2. Alex Navarro for saying "Fuck that haters" and coming out to get wrecked at Blitz.
3. Norman Chan for winning.
4. Jean Baudin for the deft playing of an 11 string bass.
5. Buzz_clik for the awesome new shirt designs.

And the winner is...

Norman #Chan. Norm always wins. The SC2 commentary, the Powepoint, lock picking, and eggs. Norm was the constant. If there was a good BLLSL2 segment, chances are Norm was in it.

Award: MVS (Most Valuable Site)

Nominees

1. Screened.com/chat
2. JeanBaudin.com
3. Volpinprops.blogspot.com
4. The Big Red Phone
5. jasteele.com

And the winner is...

The Big Red Phone for a crazy amount of guests, including Gary Whitta calling Will Smith a fucking idiot. Giant Bomb was disqualified because it was down for so long.

Award: LVP (Least Valuable Player)

Nominees

1. Intern Perry for giving Pope lukewarm nuggz, effectively turning the man off for good.
2. Tony Guerrero for having a terrible beard, and showing no emotion.
3. Vinny and Drew for technical performance. (You motherstuffers are taking this one way too seriously. Chill)
4. J.A. Steele for managing to make a more pretentious, confusing, but better produced film than Denizen.
5. Moses (the father of Noah) for letting his tiny son spend all of his time on a video game, naming him Noah, and putting him on a set with tons of older people on a show he shouldn't be watching.

And the loser is...

Vinny and Drew. As much as it pains me to say it, and I'm sure it's much harder than it looks, the show was bad from a technical standpoint. Tons of background noise during segments, mics not being on, censoring J.A. Steele's boobs and ass, and superfluous transitions between segments made the much hyped BLLSL2 seem slapped together. After some consideration I decided that it's not their fault for the errors. They were asked to do too much. And the "too much" was stuff no one really cares about anyway. The true loser is...

Moses! The creepy father who forced his son into an adult geared environment and let him waste years of his life on a fucking video game.

Award: Best Guest

Nominees

1. Darth Vader for doing clap push ups.
2. Jean Baudin for bass.
3. John Drake/Eric Pope for dancing, nuggz, and Sir-Mix-A-Lot
4. Chainsaw for playing the two best things in all of Twisted Pixel's games on a ukelele.
5. Brad Muir/Greg Rice for being hilarious and tall as always.

And the winner is...

John Drake/Eric Pope. Much like Norman Chan, Drake and Pope were always in the best segments. Drake came in with his trademark brightly colored plain shirts, and Pope with his sideburns and hat. VidRhythm. Bom! Pop! Psst!

Award: Best Segment

Nominees

1. Screened Trivia
2. The Third Society Screening
3. Tested Lock picks with music by Jean Baudin
4. VidRhythm demo
5. Found me the Bomb by Buckner and Garcia

And the winner is...

The Third Society Screening for, even though it didn't top last year's Denizen watch, and even though Ryan wasn't present, still being the funniest thing on the show.

Award: Worst Segment

Nominees

1. Anything Comic Vine. Before you say it, it's not because I don't care about comic books. Or at least, not just because I don't like comic books. These were just poorly put together and boring.
2. Telltale interview although the stuff in between the questions was fun, interview itself bored me to tears.
3. UMVC3 demo with Noah for being boring. Also, uncomfortable borderline child/intern abuse.
4. Tested, As Seen on TV. Tested has done hilarious stuff with these products, but it's been beaten to death at this point.
5. John Penney and Brian Yuzna Interview for once again being boring, uninteresting, and weirdly kiss-assy.

And the loser is...

Comic Vine is always the worst on these shows. The editors just have no idea how to make the stuff they love interesting to an outsider. Last year, their segments were so lo-fi and bad that the reason I hated them wasn't because they were comic related. This managed to not be as horrible as last year, but it was still shit. Interview with the transvestites? Suck. Interview with other people I don't care about? Suck.

That's about it. Overall I was disappointed, but there was some fun stuff. I just don't think the guys can sustain such a long broadcast, at least where the content is so clearly planned ahead of time. They have done magic for several hours, but that was all impromptu stuff.

I disagree with saying that Vinny and Drew failed in any way. Their censorship was necessary because nudity over the internet has to be 18 and up so broadcasting that out would have been illegal. Background noise occurred because they aren't in a studio, they are in an office building, with a bunch of chuckle heads drinking and hanging out around their makeshift studio.

They took 3 live streams, that never went down, and about a thousand cables to take care of and gave us an 8 hour show. They juggled a million cameras, a million feeds, and a million distractions and if the only technical complaint you have is a microphone not being on then thats not much of a complaint.

Like FinalDasa said Vinny and Drew had an enormous task with this show and they pulled it off pretty well. If they didn't censor nudity, It'd be consider pornography. However I do agree about ComicVine, I'm a big comics person but I really don't find Tony or Sara the least beast interesting. However I found the interviews with James Robinson and Geoff Johns interesting even if they were talking to Geoff Johns over the phone and that that segment was clearly done earlier in the day because he was eating breakfast at the time. Still thinking about it, I enjoyed the show a lot and thought it was one of the best things these guys have ever done. It took a lot of work to make it work and they did it.

I was just disappointed that they didn't "sell" me on why I wanted a subscription. Last year, I think, Ryan had these small segments where he'd tell us what I'd get for throwing money at his face. This show felt like an extended Happy Hour and I stopped going to those since they got so stale when it wasn't Rorie and/or Alex unless I just wanted to spam the chat with my obscenities. I only care about Screened and I really don't "get" these network in-jokes of Hardcore Dave and that silly Cube thing, and I'm not a particularly huge fan of Giant Bomb either, but they have interesting people working there and I respect how much people they can draw to outside events like PAX and the like. This $15 coupon and Red Phone thing are the only "new" things I'm remotely interested in having and using.

Anyway, show was on the disappointing side for me. Just hearing how excited Dave was on the Red Phone probably made me more excited than I should have if I was just going to see the same guests over the past year, plus that one man's very stringy hair.

@pantaloons said:

I was just disappointed that they didn't "sell" me on why I wanted a subscription. Last year, I think, Ryan had these small segments where he'd tell us what I'd get for throwing money at his face. This show felt like an extended Happy Hour and I stopped going to those since they got so stale when it wasn't Rorie and/or Alex unless I just wanted to spam the chat with my obscenities. I only care about Screened and I really don't "get" these network in-jokes of Hardcore Dave and that silly Cube thing, and I'm not a particularly huge fan of Giant Bomb either, but they have interesting people working there and I respect how much people they can draw to outside events like PAX and the like. This $15 coupon and Red Phone thing are the only "new" things I'm remotely interested in having and using.

Anyway, show was on the disappointing side for me. Just hearing how excited Dave was on the Red Phone probably made me more excited than I should have if I was just going to see the same guests over the past year, plus that one man's very stringy hair.

Same Here. Screened is the site I care the most for and while I like the Giant Bomb crew, the site doesn't really do much for me. I have never understood the Hardcore Dave phenomenon and probably never will. For me, they sold me on why I want a subscription but seeing as how I'm 17 and have never had a job; it's quite impossible for me to get a subscription to the site. As a non-subscriber, I never get to see Happy Hours but from the few I've seen I can say most of them are boring until Rorie or Alex are on. What is the Red-Phone and how is it subscriber only if it is a phone?

@CrimsonAvenger: The Red Phone is "always on" which can mean it doesn't always get answered but when it does get picked up I think it's pretty cool. Usually they show something that you need to describe on the video feed which is usually a comic book through this special page accessible through the members-only premium hub, but last night during and after the Live Show they just picked it up without asking if you're a member. Sure, you can call the number, I can give you the number actually, but that would be unfair to subscribers. I personally have not heard someone get a member check wrong, but if someone did I'm sure they would not mind if you called.

@FinalDasa said:

I disagree with saying that Vinny and Drew failed in any way. Their censorship was necessary because nudity over the internet has to be 18 and up so broadcasting that out would have been illegal. Background noise occurred because they aren't in a studio, they are in an office building, with a bunch of chuckle heads drinking and hanging out around their makeshift studio.

They took 3 live streams, that never went down, and about a thousand cables to take care of and gave us an 8 hour show. They juggled a million cameras, a million feeds, and a million distractions and if the only technical complaint you have is a microphone not being on then thats not much of a complaint.

Me not being able to hear 15 minutes of the Screened segment isn't a legitimate complaint? Then what is?

I thought the part where they played MVC with that young kid was awkward. That kid totally didn't like being there.

@Pickle: 15 minutes out of 8 hours. Not bad. Not to mention its not just up to Vinny and Drew to flip some switch. They have to plug and unplug different cameras and feeds to ensure sound and video come from both the movie and from the guys on the couch. Plus the input from their own mics as they give the commentary while watching the movie.

I'm not trying to downplay your complaint as much as I'm trying to say what they did for 8 hours was extraordinary and on a lower budget than most local news stations. They had 5 people, one of them a brand new production intern, to run the videos and sound and had no bigger mistakes than productions with triple the amount of people working for them. So all in all definitely not a failure.

I'm going to echo a few other people in this thread and say that Vinny, Drew, and the rest of the production department deserve a medal for their work. The four producers managed a show that included something like eight cameras, dozens of guests, and the potential for catastrophic disaster at every segment. Aside from a few hiccups, the show went incredibly smooth.

@FinalDasa said:

@Pickle: 15 minutes out of 8 hours. Not bad. Not to mention its not just up to Vinny and Drew to flip some switch. They have to plug and unplug different cameras and feeds to ensure sound and video come from both the movie and from the guys on the couch. Plus the input from their own mics as they give the commentary while watching the movie.

I'm not trying to downplay your complaint as much as I'm trying to say what they did for 8 hours was extraordinary and on a lower budget than most local news stations. They had 5 people, one of them a brand new production intern, to run the videos and sound and had no bigger mistakes than productions with triple the amount of people working for them. So all in all definitely not a failure.

Not a failure, sure, but somewhat disappointing. I think a video crew this small shouldn't be trying to do more than they can. I'd rather have a 7 hour SNES live stream go smoothly than a 7 hour variety show with hiccups. Which brings me to a larger complaint about the way Whiskey runs things. Not that they need to hire more people, that they need to realize what they can and can do better. Was anyone really asking for another telethon ahem I mean Big Live Live Show?

Edited the blog so that Moses is the true loser. I'm considering calling Child Services after that.

@Pickle: I disagree about you saying Tony Guerrero's beard looks awful. He has been getting a lot of positive comments about it on Comic Vine. Its only a beard and I don't get why you're hating on him for it. I think he looked stylish myself, he wore a nice shirt and tie, and he dressed well for the show. Usually he just dons a comic book related T-shirt for the videos and such which is fine, but he looked good yesterday. I am a heterosexual male and I am saying that.

Regarding Comic Vine's being accessible to anyone not into comic books, well you have some points I partially agree with. However I think that part of the problem is the fact they didn't have quite as much time devoted to their segments as well. If they did, I think they could have devoted more discussion and attention to comics to explain to those not familiar what to look forward to on the Vine. Hell, they could have mentioned all the fun things about the sites, like Quests, but nothing was mentioned, so yeah, a bit of a disappointment in those areas. They weren't as entertaining as last year I totally agree. Needed a lot more action and humor but I don't think they deserved to be hated. I know a Mod showed up in the chat hating on comics in Comic Vine and I thought that was exceptionally low. You're a Mod, be cool, not a jerk. I though THAT was deserving of a low point. Although I agree to an extent, Vine's segments could have been better.

I really enjoyed the show but some segments I thought were bad or I just didn't like. I actually thought Screened was the weakest part of the whole thing, I enjoyed the intern quiz more than the Third Society screening and of the screening the funniest part was when they didn't know they were on camera and were just talking. It was an odd choice bringing back a feature that was canned in the past because of low viewing numbers. I also thought it weird that two guys from GiantBomb were the ones doing the interview with the two B movie directors. Why wasn't anyone from the WM movie site in the segment that was actually about movies?  Comic Vine was fine for the most part I have no interest in comics but it all seemed fairly engaging. I don't know why everyone singles them out as the worst in every event I mean the Giantbomb stuff was mainly rubbish. They started with a lame Dreamcast segment that seemed thrown together, then the Move game in the bar was dull and then yet more Trenched gameplay, the MVC3 thing was dull and awkward, the Twisted Pixel guys were meh  and the Starcraft 2 match was just okay. The Giantbomb song by Buckner and Garcia was great though, the spy game was pretty good and Jean Baudin was great again. Tested was fun, Will was great but Norm was the king of the show (was it just me or did he keep changing his clothes between segments?) however eat your words seems a little flimsy as a subscriber thing.  
 
Vinny, Drew, Joey and Ana put on a great show and the only complaint I had was the background chatter on some segments.
 
I thought it was weird that they didn't mention anything about the subscriber content. Even weirder was that after the show Ryan thought he did too much shilling of the membership stuff when he barley talked about. I didn't even know they were offering a new subscriber T Shirt until the end when Ryan mentioned the store and I went there to see what there was. I was disappointed they didn't give any information on even the known subscriber content like the thing Jeff is doing. There is only one piece of content that I would actually like to watch which is subscriber only and that's the Vinny/Dave PC video, there is to me nothing compelling about the subscription. The general focus of everything on Giantbomb is odd too I know it's the flagship site but all the shirts in the store bar two are GB shirts and all the GB shirts are really crappy looking except for the Hardcore Dave shirt. I spend a lot of time on GiantBomb but what the hell is the green cube t-shirt about?  The Tested block head shirt is easily the best looking, to me anyway. Not that it makes any odds since I can't buy them if I am not a member.  
 
I thought it was a great show and I do plan on subscribing in the future (when I get a credit card) but I wish they had said anything about new subscriber benefits.

@Tartarus i agree with pretty much everything you said, the live show was awesome but they didn't mention any new sub stuff at all

gonna hold off on the renew until if they'll bring out more member stuff

It was kind of OK. The Move game in the bar was incredibly lame, though, and there were plenty of segments that were just bad.

Dude that's still mean for even including Vinny and Drew into the category! They can handle so much and the stream didn't go down and considering it's a seven-eight hour show, that's still impressive.  
 
And the Buckner and Garcia and Jean Baudin segments are awesome!  
 
Your nominations suck and you are an asshole for bashing Vinny and Drew

I didn't watch the show, but I would like to drop in and say that someone thinking that the pre-pubescent years are the "best years" of a lifetime is the saddest thing I have ever seen.

@Winston said:

Dude that's still mean for even including Vinny and Drew into the category! They can handle so much and the stream didn't go down and considering it's a seven-eight hour show, that's still impressive. And the Buckner and Garcia and Jean Baudin segments are awesome! Your nominations suck and you are an asshole for bashing Vinny and Drew

I feel like I can't not at least nominate them.

@sissylion said:

I didn't watch the show, but I would like to drop in and say that someone thinking that the pre-pubescent years are the "best years" of a lifetime is the saddest thing I have ever seen.

You haven't seen much then. When you're 8, life's pretty sweet.

@Pickle: No.