History Characters / GiantBomb

* FanNickname: Her mother refers to the Giant Bomb crew as "the Great Balls of Fire Boys." Naturally, a fan of the site registered [=GreatBallsOfFireBoys=].com as a redirect to giantbomb.com.

* FanNickname: At some point while working at CGW he picked up the nickname "Dad" for reasons below. Internet osmosis has made it widely used.

The newest member of the Giant Bomb West team, whose hire was announced on 11/15/17. Since then, he and Jason have alternated production duties on the Giant Bombcast.

!!Dave Nilasca
A digital marketing employee for CBS Interactive who oversees revenue streams for the site. Business Dave likes it when the numbers go up.

* EarlyBirdCameo: Occasionally turned up in behind-the-scenes videos before becoming a more regular fixture in Giant Bomb West content.
* OneSteveLimit: As the second Dave to be a staff member who regularly appears in content (even though Dave Snider was long gone before he started), he tends to get referred to as "Business Dave."

Formerly a freelance games writer who has done articles for Paste, the New Statesman, and his own blog at [[http://clockworkworlds.com/ clockworkworlds.com]], Austin Walker was announced as the new News Editor at the end of the 5/29/16 Giant Beastcast. In addition to writing news articles for the site, he was a regular on the Giant Beastcast and appeared on the Powerbombcast. Austin announced his departure from the site in June 2016, becoming the editor-in-chief for the newly-established Waypoint (bringing fellow alumnus Patrick on board in the process), though he still pops up on the Beastcast every so often.

A video producer whose hire was announced on 5/01/17, and the first female member of the team. She was a regular on the Giant Beastcast and co-hosted My First E3 with Ben from 2017 to 2019. Left the site at the end of November 2020, coinciding with the site being sold from CBS to Red Ventures, in order to pursue other interests.

* HappilyMarried: Unfortunately, Ryan [[AuthorExistenceFailure passed]] only a few days after the ceremony.

Vinny left the site alongside Alex and Brad in May 2021.

Brad left the site alongside Alex and Vinny in May 2021, though he can still be heard on the "Brad and Will Made a Tech Pod" podcast with friend of the site Will Smith.

Alex left the site alongside Vinny and Brad in May 2021.

The co-founder of the site alongside Ryan and Giant Bomb's head dude. He reviews games, is a weekly guest on the Giant Bombcast, the site's weekly podcast, and co-hosted the Powerbombcast, the site's professional wrestling podcast, and All Systems Goku, a ''Anime/DragonBallZ'' recap podcast.

The lead video producer who is as prominent a personality as the editors. Vinny wrote a few reviews in the early days, but producing and managing video seems to eat up most of his time now. Moved back to his home state of New York in mid-2014 to join Alex in establishing a Giant Bomb office on the east coast. He was a weekly guest on the Giant Bombcast until his relocation, and currently hosts the Giant Beastcast.

A reviewer who joined the site in June 2008. He is the current host of the Giant Bombcast.

* UpThroughTheRanks: Now hosts the podcast.

A reviewer who worked for a movie site called Screened and also contributed to Giant Bomb part-time. After Giant Bomb's acquisition by CBS Interactive, he joined the site as a full-time employee. As of 2012, he lives in New York City and serves as one half of "Giant Bomb East", working with Vinny separate from the site's main office in California. He reviews many games, writes his own column on the site called The Guns of Navarro, and also writes some news. Alex was an infrequent guest on the Giant Bombcast before moving, and currently is a regular on the Giant Beastcast, as well as co-hosting the Powerbombcast and Box Office Bomb, the site's movie podcast.

Formerly of Game Informer, Dan joined Giant Bomb as a Senior Editor in mid 2014. At the beginning of 2017, Dan relocated to New York and became part of Giant Bomb East. He was a weekly guest on the Giant Bombcast until his relocation, at which point he became a regular on the Giant Beastcast, and co-hosted the Powerbombcast, All Systems Goku, and Danswers, a life advice podcast with Danny O'Dwyer. Dan left the site in early 2020 to become a podcaster for Wrestling/{{WWE}}.

Social media manager for Waypoint. She and Abby have become good friends, and Danika has made several appearances on Giant Bomb videos.

Producer at Twitch, and a former video producer for [=GameSpot=].

Host and producer at [=GameSpot=], and frequent guest on various Giant Bomb East podcasts and content.

Independent video game documentarian at WebVideo/NoClip, formerly a host and producer at [=GameSpot=].

Founder of FOO VR, formerly of Tested.com. Used to be part of Whiskey Media with the guys.

!!Brad Shoemaker
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/persona_brad.png]]
A reviewer who joined the site in June 2008. He is the current host of the Giant Bombcast.

* AuthorAppeal: Emotional games, deeper meanings. And ''VideoGame/StarCraft''. And ''VideoGame/Dota2''. Outside of video games, Brad has a soft spot for anything involving Guinea Pigs; and at least one of his Extra Life home livestreams devoted a number of hours to him showing off and feeding his.
* BadassBaritone
* {{Catchphrase}}: "Emails!", "[[{{OhCrap}} Oh no!]]", "Come here, you!", "I'm out!"
* FriendlyRivalry: With Dan Ryckert. The friendliness is up for debate, though, especially during the Mario Party videos.
* TheLancer: Outside of the Bombcast, he's this to Jeff.
* PerformanceAnxiety: Brad seems to have the most trouble out of everyone when it comes to public panels in front of large crowds. He's usually the most nervous/quiet host during these events.
* SingingVoiceDissonance: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JmenwVvbgc Oh yeah]].
* TookALevelInBadass: After unlocking the infamously difficult Mile High Club achievement in Call of Duty 4.
* UndyingLoyalty: Has this to Giant Bomb, according to others on the site.
* UpThroughTheRanks: Now hosts the podcast.
* TheWorldsExpertOnGettingKilled: Brad dies the most of anyone on the show; to the point that "Time to Brad" was a counter to how long each video would take before Brad's first death. Peaked at his infamous showing during the Shadow of the Colossus HD Collection quick look.

!!Alex Navarro
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/persona_alex.png]]
A reviewer who worked for a movie site called Screened and also contributed to Giant Bomb part-time. After Giant Bomb's acquisition by CBS Interactive, he joined the site as a full-time employee. As of 2012, he lives in New York City and serves as one half of "Giant Bomb East", working with Vinny separate from the site's main office in California. He reviews many games, writes his own column on the site called The Guns of Navarro, and also writes some news. Alex was an infrequent guest on the Giant Bombcast before moving, and currently is a regular on the Giant Beastcast, as well as co-hosting the Powerbombcast and Box Office Bomb, the site's movie podcast.

* AllDrummersAreAnimals: Alex is a drummer, and played in Jeff's band for a time- which is the connection that eventually got him his job at Gamespot and later Giant Bomb. He also worked for Harmonix for a time, promoting Rock Band.
* AuthorAppeal: Likes sports games (especially Madden), music games, and things that are cute- especially yarn Kirby and wool Yoshi.
* AwesomeMcCoolname: Alexis Alexander Navarro
* ButtMonkey: Alex has been forced to review terrible games since his Gamespot days, from Big Rigs to Rambo. For the longest time, his only contribution to the Game of the Year deliberations was as a call-in for an award for the worst games of the year, because he played more of those than actual good games.
* DeadpanSnarker
* FriendToAllLivingThings: Alex is a big fan of animals, and has mentioned his cats multiple times, as well as going to see animals on his vacations. One of his most consistent reactions in games is dismay and anger when characters or his co-workers do anything that could get an animal hurt, including not wanting to play Far Cry 4 because he doesn't want to hunt and skin elephants.
* InSeriesNickname: When deciding on a name for Patrick and Alex's two-man video feature, Jeff insisted on ending every suggestion with "with Scoops and the Wolf". Alex does not fully understand why he is "The Wolf".
* TheMovieBuff: For a while, Alex worked for Giant Bomb's sister site, Screened, a film equivalent to GB.
* SitcomArchNemesis: Alex has developed a longstanding feud with the very concept of {{WesternAnimation/Minions}}, which lead to the creation of "The Minion Cup", a trophy adorned with Minion stickers to be awarded to the winner of the Giant Beast Summer Games.
* StraightMan: Is this to Vinny in many Giant Bomb East videos.
* TookALevelInCheerfulness: Very apparent when looking at his [=GameSpot=] days, especially after taking on a more prominent role at Giant Bomb after Vinny moved to New York.
* TheWoobie: Alex has mentioned serious problems with depression, and spent most of his time with Giant Bomb working alone on the other side of the country from the crew. He's clearly the most nervous of them when he does show up for an event or panel, and each time he starts getting along with one of the newer members of the crew (Patrick, Austin), they end up leaving shortly thereafter. Fortunately, Vinny moving to NY and the Giant Beastcast getting formed has helped a lot.

!!Vincent "Vinny" Caravella
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/persona_vinny.png]]
The lead video producer who is as prominent a personality as the editors. Vinny wrote a few reviews in the early days, but producing and managing video seems to eat up most of his time now. Moved back to his home state of New York in mid-2014 to join Alex in establishing a Giant Bomb office on the east coast. He was a weekly guest on the Giant Bombcast until his relocation, and currently hosts the Giant Beastcast.

* AuthorAppeal: Games with a heavy focus on story. Will read companion novels (no matter how bad) and complete any sidequest promising to reveal even the tiniest amount of background information or lore. He also likes (more compelled) to complete collectables if a game has them. Vinny also has a thing for old FMV.
* CatchPhrase: "It is the best time to be playing videogames"
* ConstantlyCurious: According to Austin, even outside of content on the site, Vinny is constantly asking his co-workers to explain recent trends or things he doesn't understand to him.
* TheBigGuy
* TheGadfly: In contrast to Dan, who plays up being an obnoxious jerk while playing a heel, Vinny can switch from being genuinely honest, to messing with everyone for laughs in an instance, without anyone realizing. He's so good at it that he managed to mess with ''Dan'' multiple times during the other's trip to New York City.
* HappilyMarried: As well as a father to two kids.
* LargeHamRadio: Has been training to get a HAM Radio licence for years.
* MemeticMutation: Possibly. A Bombcast email claimed that after substantial investigation, he discovered that Vinny was actually the ''first'' recorded person to refer to something as the "VideoGame/DarkSouls of X" on the Internet (Vinny highly doubts it).
* NWordPrivileges: Vinny has a BerserkButton for Italian-American stereotypes but that doesn't mean he doesn't get to occasionally indulge in them.
* SignatureStyle: A Vinny edited video or podcast will always have the extra effort of background music where others don't and he has a strong preference for jazz.
* YoungerThanTheyLook: He's the same age as Brad but he used to look older than the rest of Giantbomb due to his shaved hair. Recently though time seems to have caught up to the crew and at this point Vinny might look like the youngest besides Drew.

!!Ben Pack
Formerly an intern during the Whiskey Media days, Ben was announced as the new Giant Bomb West hire on 5/01/17. He is a regular on the Giant Bombcast.
* AuthorAppeal: Has interests in common with several fellow Giant Bomb West employees: like Brad he is a fan of ''VideoGame/Dota2'', and is into fighting games just like Jason.
* BriefAccentImitation: Has taken to doing [[https://youtu.be/qvmBqIZxj0g?t=10286 Aussie]] and [[https://youtu.be/fWrEnuZnEzk?t=7989 Scottish]] accents on the Bombcast in response to listener quizzes about regional slang, which led to [[https://youtu.be/NIT6rSWXc88?t=9478 a bit with Jeff about studying accents at university.]]
* GoodNewsBadNews: Found out he had been hired by Giant Bomb on the same day his house burned down.
* NeverHeardThatOneBefore: Ben tends to have this reaction to tall jokes; at 6'10" he's probably heard most of them already.

!!Jeff Bakalar
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/2864954_personabakalar.png]]
[=CNET=] Senior Gaming Editor and regular guest on the Giant Beastcast.

* AuthorAppeal: Jeff is a big fan of hockey.
* DoNotCallMePaul: Jeff claims to have never liked his first name, to the point that while he was in school his friends would call him "G" (a reference to ''Series/TheFreshPrinceOfBelAir'', despite the character in question being named "Geoffrey"). However, ever since, he never came up with a satisfying alternative.
* FakeGuestStar: Despite Vinny and Alex initially claiming that there would be "rotating guests" for the Beastcast with Jeff as a fallback option, Jeff has been the guest for the vast majority of the episodes. In at least one episode, (Episode 12) Jeff was there ''alongside'' the special guest (Samantha Kalman). Even in episodes in which someone sits in Jeff's place, the others will often state that Jeff had another prior arrangement, giving the idea that the ''guest'' is the fallback for Jeff rather than the other way around.
** Jeff has also appeared on a number of [=GBeast=] Quick Looks. It's gotten to the point that he has to regularly remind people, online and off, that he doesn't actually work for Giant Bomb.
** Finally averted once Austin left and he "officially" inherited the "non-rotating chair".
* RunningGag: Vinny coming up with incredibly bad puns for Jeff's last name.

* InstantAwesomeJustAddDragons: Dude loves dragons.

Co-creator of the VideoGame/MortalKombat series, and the Creative Director of Creator/NetherrealmStudios, formerly of Creator/MidwayGames.

* FunnyAfro

!!Abby Russell
One of the newer additions to the Giant Bomb East team, whose hire was announced on 5/01/17. She is a regular on the Giant Beastcast.
* TheGamblingAddict: If the [[VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine Steal My Sunshine]] premium series is any indication. Several times she has made a bet on one outcome and, when nobody takes her up on it, switched to the opposite outcome just to be able to gamble.
* {{Improv}}: Is an active performer at [[http://www.magnettheater.com/performers/Abby-Russell Magnet Theater]] in New York City, and has brought up improv warmups both [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BXlgzfxkjc before streams]] and on the Beastcast.
* JumpScare: Seems to have a low tolerance for these, between a session of VideoGame/ResidentEvil7 in VR and getting a jolt out of a Windows 10 notification while playing a Nancy Drew PC game.
* PlayTheGameSkipTheStory: Has expressed this instinct on several occasions. While she enjoys games that have a narrative focus, in games like [[VideoGame/Hitman2016 Hitman]], where the storyline is somewhat secondary she skips the cutscenes to get right to the action.
* TheSmurfettePrinciple: Is the first female member of the Giant Bomb team.
* WhatTheHellIsThatAccent: Her "sister" Margaret pays a visit to the Beastcast to show off her flawless accent from Sydney, Australia.

* {{Adorkable}}

* TheSouthpaw

Independent video game documentarian at Noclip, formerly a host and producer at [=GameSpot=].

A site engineer and community manager, usually the one who monitors the chat during livestreams. Co-hosts Box Office Bomb with Alex.

The co-founder of the site alongside Ryan and Giant Bomb's head dude. He reviews games, is a weekly guest on the Giant Bombcast, the site's weekly podcast, and co-hosts the Powerbombcast, the site's professional wrestling podcast.

!!Dan Ryckert
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/persona_dan.png]]
Formerly of Game Informer, Dan joined Giant Bomb as a Senior Editor in mid 2014. At the beginning of 2017, Dan relocated to New York and became part of Giant Bomb East. He was a weekly guest on the Giant Bombcast until his relocation, at which point he became a regular on the Giant Beastcast, and currently co-hosts the Powerbombcast and Danswers, a life advice podcast with Danny O'Dwyer.

* AuthorAppeal: Like Jeff and Alex, is a huge professional wrestling fan to the extent that the latter two have toned down their interest in it. Also, based on the games he picks for Unprofessional Fridays, gets a lot of enjoyment out of games with floppy, RagdollPhysics enabled characters.
** Dan is also a huge fan of Waluigi, and hopes that someday the latter will get his own game.
* CaptainPatriotic
* DreadfulMusician
* {{Eagleland}}: 80's style!
* FriendlyRivalry:
** With Brad Shoemaker. The friendliness is up for debate, though, especially during the Mario Party videos.
** Even more pronounced with Patrick Klepek, since Dan has taken to creating fiendishly difficult ''VideoGame/SuperMarioMaker'' levels for Patrick to beat, culminating in a grueling 72-hour challenge known as The Ryckoning. While the two men were quite friendly, and Dan quite gracious, when Patrick Skyped Dan to accept Dan's defeat, mere minutes before Patrick had been cursing Dan's name and Dan had been lobbing grade-school-level insults at Patrick over Periscope. A rematch is scheduled, rules to be determined.
* [[GenkiGirl Genki Guy]]: He's a very upbeat and energetic fellow.
* {{Heel}}: [[InvokedTrope Very much intentionally]], being a wrestling fan. Nowhere is it better seen than in his Mario Maker rivalry with former Bomber Patrick Klepek, in which Dan will create a [[FakeDifficulty fiendishly difficult]] ''VideoGame/SuperMarioMaker'' level (sometimes with input from the audience), and Patrick will meticulously work his way through it during his Mario Maker Mornings livestream. It came to a head during The Ryckoning, in which Dan challenged Patrick to complete the eponymous level in 72 hours with no outside help, and then proceeded to break the spirit of the challenge himself by accepting outside help in the creation of the level. [[TheGoodGuysAlwaysWin Patrick still defeated him with nearly a day to spare]], but not without taking a noticeable toll in exhaustion and mental stress. Dan kept up his Heel persona (if it ''is'' a persona) by livestreaming his reactions to Patrick's attempts to beat the level, cackling maniacally at particularly satisfying deaths and lobbing grade-school-level taunts at Patrick.
** He later took this to the next level by getting his Heel wrestling manager persona featured in APW. Behold [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPG0ZTYXOjE "Dirty" Dan Ryckert, Bay Area investor extraordinaire]].
* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: Displayed this, over and over, during the Avalon stream.
* ManChild
* NobodyCallsMeChicken
* OddFriendship: Despite his pre-Giant Bomb friendship with Jeff, Dan's most frequent partner for Giant Bomb content has rapidly become Drew. So far, they have partnered for Metal Gear Scanlon (Drew plays the VideoGame/MetalGearSolid games while Dan watches), Demo Derby (Drew and Dan play through old demo discs), and Films and 40s (a ''Podcast/RiffTrax''-like podcast where Drew and Dan watch a movie together).
* SelectiveObliviousness
* SitcomArchNemesis: With Jose Canseco.
** To a lesser extent John Drake, to the point that when [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MITRcz2mHek asked if he would rather be able to shapeshift or teleport]] he chose the former mostly due to the various ways he could use the power to troll Drake.
* TheSlacker: He is apparently quite proud of the fact that he managed to complete a full college degree with very little effort thanks to strategic picking of courses and negotiating with professors for alternate projects. The results are quite apparent since he has never seen neither ''Film/TheGodfather'' nor ''Film/CitizenKane'' despite having majored in Film Studies; claimed all his knowledge about UsefulNotes/TheRenaissance came from ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreed2'' despite having a minor in History and he had no idea who Creator/JaneAusten was before discussing ''VideoGame/SaintsRowGatOutOfHell'' on the Bombcast despite writing for a living.
** His first post-college job was in the Garmin Tech Support helpline... in which he claims he would nearly always transfer the calls to someone else (especially the Software Department, which is supposed to deal with actual technical software issues, not "old people who don't know how GPS works") while he spent the day writing game reviews on his computer.
* TheDitz: After only a few weeks on the Giant Bomb staff, several comments made by Dan (including not knowing about Africa's involvement in World War II despite having a history minor, [[https://twitter.com/DanRyckert/status/491633088561029120 having to have the concept of a car's title explained to him at the DMV]], and believing that "egg whites" were actually the egg ''shells'' and attempting to cook them) have firmly established him as this.
* ThePollyanna: Although he's struggled with anxiety and panic attacks in the past, he's still an optimistic and jovial guy.
* {{Troll}}: One of his first appearances on Giant Bomb, before being hired, was [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88sRCUcNR7A detailing an elaborate prank he set up on a dating site]].
** He also admitted that during his college days he would drop ''stink bombs'' to clear queues for drinks in crowded bars.

* OddFriendship: Despite his pre-Giant Bomb friendship with Jeff, Dan's most frequent partner for Giant Bomb content has rapidly become Drew. So far, they have partnered for Metal Gear Scanlon (Drew plays the [[Franchise/MetalGear Metal Gear Solid]] games while Dan watches), Demo Derby (Drew and Dan play through old demo discs), and Films and 40s (a ''Podcast/RiffTrax''-like podcast where Drew and Dan watch a movie together).

* [[MeanCharacterNiceActor Mean Video Game Player, Nice Video Producer]]: In most cases, he comes across as a genuinely nice and happy guy. But get him in front of a game with a lot of VideoGameCrueltyPotential (especially VideoGame/SleepingDogs), and watch him turn into a total sociopath.
** In his [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV GTAV]] [[http://www.giantbomb.com/videos/i-played-some-gta-v-live/2300-7955/ video]] he stated that it was mostly for the show, and that he will regularly follow the rules of traffic for several hours in games.

* OneOfUs: A self-professed geek and gamer, to the point of providing a Top 10 Games of 2017 list for Giant Bomb in video form.

Editors at Polygon and co-hosts of Podcast/MyBrotherMyBrotherAndMe.

Of FOO VR, formerly of Tested.com. Used to be part of Whiskey Media with the guys.

Formerly of [=GameSpot=]. Used to co-host the Powerbombcast with Jeff, Alex and Dan.

* AuthorAppeal: Still plays WorldOfWarcraft. Also a huge dog lover.

The newest member of the Giant Bomb East team, whose hire was announced on 5/01/17. She is a regular on the Giant Beastcast.

!!Rich Gallup
Producer at Disruptor Beam. Used to work at [=GameSpot=] with the guys.

The newest member of the Giant Bomb West team, whose hire was announced on 11/15/17.

"The Prescriber of Pain" with a dubious doctorate, Dr. Tracksuit tends to only emerge from hiding during PAX wrestling events. The only one who can control him is his "manager" Jeff Gerstmann, to whom he bears a slight but entirely coincidental resemblance.

Community manager at Creator/{{UbiSoft}}, formerly of Creator/{{Harmonix}}. Used to occasionally contribute content to Screened during Alex and Rorie's tenure. Color commentator of the PAX Wrestling League.

* IconicOutfit: The hot dog suit he wore in the [[DoubleFine Happy Action Theater]] Quick Look has become this.

!!Jan Jerome Ochoa

!!Nick Robinson
Former Giant Bomb intern.