Is GameSpot Complete worth it?

[Erkki]

The annual price (30$) isn't way too much, but...

Practically the only thing I would really want it for woudl be the Ice skin. I can't stand black or dark backgrounds in websites. That's why I seldom actually read through their reviews or articles.

And it's completely offpissing how they advertise the skin. "A sight for sore eyes, (but fuck your eyes if you don't cough up the dough)"

So is anyone here a subscriber? How is it? I'm thinking of trying it out for a month.

[tabacco]

It's nice, actually, being able to see all of their content. But who needs GameSpot now that Idle Thumbs is open?

[Erkki]

Well, I caved in and payed the montly fee, which is not that much (about 6 hours worth of playing pool , which I don't do very often at the moment)

The wonders of the digital age are quite amazing sometimes. I don't have a credit card, but my bank has a nice feature -- a virtual temporary debit card, which works like a VISA credit card for online payment. It works immediately as I order it from the internet bank, costs less than 1$, and when I payed for gamespot complete, the sum was almost immediately debited from my account.

[Marek]

I was briefly a subscriber, discovered that all their developer video interviews are actually boring, and then unsubscribed.

[Erkki]

I was briefly a subscriber, discovered that all their developer video interviews are actually boring, and then unsubscribed.

I kind of like the videos. I prefer that to reading text at least, because I don't really like reading from a screen, I try to avoid that as much as possible.

And the streaming is pretty good. No wait time, I can start watching immediately and the quality is not bad. I didn't pay much attention to how much of these videos were available without Complete though.

Hehe... I just watched a Peter Molyneux presentation and he said "we have a big outsourcing resource in places like Estonia". I hadn't even heard of that.

[Marek]

I agree that GameSpot's video stuff runs smooth as butter. I just felt dissapointed when the blurb said something like "The lead developers behind game XYZ talks about the inspiration behind his game!" and then it just ends up being just like the press release except in slightly different words. They should ask better questions during their video interviews.

I only saw two really great videos while I had GameSpot Complete and they were really just the wacky ones. One was where that Nevarro guy does a "cribs" segment on his crappy home, and in another one Kasavin schmoozes unsuccesfully at a press party and gets drunk (great deadpan humor in that one).

[Intrepid Homoludens]

I'm patient enough that I can wait a bit longer to get game demos and movies from elsewhere for free, so I don't really need to pay to subscribe to any site. So far it seems none of them offer truly quality content for my money. As Marek inferred, they should offer more original and particularly intelligent content and work more towards giving the site its own distinct personality. After all, a paid subscription site really is the digital equivalent of a printed magazine, and as such should offer content unlike its competitors (other magazines).

But as it stands, I can't tell the difference b/t Gamespot, Gamespy, and IGN. They all offer the same damn thing, there's nothing idiosyncratic and exclusive in their contents that I can't get anywhere else at all, and none of them have a distinct personality. For example, no other magazine can give me the same quality of writing, tone, and ambience that The New Yorker can. See, if Idle Thumbs offered all the downloads, exclusive insightful interviews (beyond generic Q&As), intelligently written articles and editorials, all while retaining its deviant edginess, it would be like having The New Yorker in the gaming world. That would be worth my subscribing to.

[Erkki]

I agree with that. But I still like the skin Now I don't feel physical pain every time I visit the site.

I don't like Gamespy or IGN much though, they seem uncomfortable to use compared to Gamespot.

[schepton]

Everything that is "exclusive" to pay sites like those, whether it be reviews or high res screens or whatever, they can be found elsewhere for free if you just look.

[Chris]

Everything that is "exclusive" to pay sites like those, whether it be reviews or high res screens or whatever, they can be found elsewhere for free if you just look.

Well, Gamespot's funny video content, which has been brought up in this thread, tends to be stuff I can't imagine any other site would be able to rip off with even the slightest shred of conscience. How would you justify it?

Anyway, Marek: a few more worth watching are the Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing review and the Charlie's Angels review.

[Chris]

stuff

I agree that Gamespot, Gamespy, and IGN all have the same sort of thing, but I will definitely say that Gamespot does the best job. I find their reviews to be the most reasonable and their content in general to be the most professional. I go out of my way to read their site, even though its goal isn't to provide extreme editorial content or anything, because it does what it's supposed to do whereas I find Gamespy and IGN to be despicable shitpiles.

I wish I could find the Penny Arcade about Gamespy/IGN. Jake, help me out here.

[Jake]

power of ... shit!

[Erkki]

I wish I could find the Penny Arcade about Gamespy/IGN. Jake, help me out here.

Hmm... for some reason I've always though Penny Arcade was affiliated with Gamespy.

[Erkki]

I've been watching a lot of videos on gamespot today and they actually do have some problems. But not as a rule. One just won't play at the moment, and sometimes if I try to seek (fast forward) I get a long delay (over a minute even). And during the delay, any other movies won't play either, they'll just be "connecting to source ...".

[Chris]

power of ... shit!

Yeah yeah, power of obselescence. I meant a link.

[Chris]

Hmm... for some reason I've always though Penny Arcade was affiliated with Gamespy.

Bwahahahahahhahahahahahahhahhahahahah.

[Jake]

They clearly work for GameSpy.

No, you probably think that because Gabe did some contract illustrations for GameSpy back in the day, and up until just like a year ago, they were still using them in places on thes site... but PA and GameSpy are pretty unaffiliated, obviously.

[Erkki]

No, you probably think that because Gabe did some contract illustrations for GameSpy back in the day, and up until just like a year ago, they were still using them in places on thes site... but PA and GameSpy are pretty unaffiliated, obviously.

Yeah, that's it.

[GregD]

I for one would never pay for content, let alone game news/review/article content when it's free in other places.

I don't see what's so great about gamespot other than you can get some game preview movies before anyone else... big deal.

[Thrik]

Yes. To make it truly worth subscribing to, they would need to offer more things which cannot be found elsewhere. At the moment, practically anything they have can be found on one of their competing "global gaming" websites, or the specific fan-sites of the games in question. It just takes a little searching.

If they were to get exclusive footage of lots of new interesting games then I probably would consider subscribing. For example, at E3 there was an MGS3 trailer which hasn't been released in a high-res form by Konami and every gaming site only seems to have terrible low-res shakycam versions of it. If Gamespot to were to pull some strings or something to get a high-res version of things like that then I'd be inclined to subscribe.

But as it is, Gamespot's MGS3 trailer is the worst quality of all those I've seen.

[Chris]

I for one would never pay for content, let alone game news/review/article content when it's free in other places.

I don't see what's so great about gamespot other than you can get some game preview movies before anyone else... big deal.

That's not why I subscribe to them. There are a few things I like about Complete. For one thing, Complete members get access to the faster download servers, which is nice. Also, there's the Ice skin, and before anyone says TAHTS NOT ENOUGH OF A RAESON TO SUBSCRIBE!!!!1, yes I know it's not, it's just a nice bonus. I like getting 10% off at EBGames.com, which comes with Complete. Finally, I actually enjoy GameSpot's content, and they have been my primary gaming news source since long before they offered Complete. They strike me as having a good degree of journalistic integrity compared to most of the other big sites out there (IGN, etc.) and in addition to the other crap I get, I feel that the subscription fee I pay just goes towards supporting them in general. I mean, information on the internet is free anyway, I can afford to give a small subscription fee to ONE SITE which I've been reading for six or seven years now.

[Erkki]

If Gamespot to were to pull some strings or something to get a high-res version of things like that then I'd be inclined to subscribe.

But as it is, Gamespot's MGS3 trailer is the worst quality of all those I've seen.

There seems to be a high-res E3 trailer there (maybe high-res only for subscribers?):

http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/action/metalgearsolid3/media.html

E3 2004 Trailer

Check out the full length Metal Gear Solid 3 trailer from the E3 2004 show floor.

POSTED: 05/13/04 | Approx: 15m 15s | High Res - 392.3 MB - Low Res 178.4 MB

Actually, there seems to be a lot of high-res versions of all kinds of videos (that even look good in full-screen), maybe those are only on the FTP, though, which is for subscribers.

[LeChuckie]

Practically the only thing I would really want it for woudl be the Ice skin.

So correct me if I'm wrong... but your saying you'd pay for a skin???

[toblix]

So correct me if I'm wrong... but your saying you'd pay for a skin???

I know plenty of guys who'd pay for some skin.

*Ba-dum--PSH!*

[Chris]

So correct me if I'm wrong... but your saying you'd pay for a skin???

No, if you read his post he's clearly implying that he sees Ice as the only benefit. It doesn't mean it would be ENOUGH of a benefit for him to pay, since I assume he doesn't currently subscribe.