Recently a site approached me about a merge, I'd close my site and transfer everything to there site. My writers would all move to their site also. I'd still have admin/full creative control but so would the other guy. I'm not sure what I should do.

Here are the pros:
The site we'd be merging with is
-bigger than us
-gets more traffic
-has more Twitter followers
-gets more ad money
-has people who know what they are doing in terms of technical aspect of running a site (I wouldn't have to learn/figure out everything by myself nemore)
-has a Custom CMS
-has some cool features that I'd like to have but don't since I don't know how to add them
-having another admin running the site would take a ton of work off me. Right now I do everything for my site, if I have another admin helping who knows how to run a site it'd help out a lot.
-By merging we'd have even more staff, more members and more traffic cuz we'd be combining all our stuff and their stuff.
-I'd still be full admin with full creative control, still top of the food chain
-I'd finally get the traffic numbers and podcast download numbers I've always wanted and worked so hard to try to get
-Finally be in charge of a bigger site, with Go Gaming Giant and the other site combined, our site would probably become pretty big and that's what I always dreamed of, I've always wanted to have a huge gaming site under my control. I've always wanted Go Gaming Giant to be huge and by huge I mean like Top 1000 on Alexa huge.

Here are the cons
-It turns out I'll have to give up my site name (Go Gaming Giant)
-gogaminggiant.com would point to the new site but I'd lose my old site
-all our links that are gogaminggiant.com/.......would just take you to the new site
-I'd lose the brand recognition and name recognition of Go Gaming Giant
-I'd lose everything I worked so hard to build over these past 8 months

That's all I can think of now

I'm pretty conflicted, I'm not sure what to do

Isn't 8 months a little early to be dissatisfied with not having a mega site? Wouldn't they want you even more when you're bigger?

How sure are you that you'd actually retain 'full creative control' once the merge was complete? Are we talking 'legal documents' sure, or 'smile and a handshake' sure? If you'll forgive my cynical nature, the latter kind of deal never seems to turn out well for all involved.

Two responses:

A) Make sure you enjoy working with these people, and have a good relationship with them. You don't want to fall out with them two months on, and then not have your site, nor be a part of theirs, etc. If you get on well with them though, it could be the start of great things.

B) Why do they want to merge? What's in it for them? There must be some advantage to bringing you onboard, yet you say you'd "lose everything I[you] worked so hard to build"...surely they like some of what you did, and want to merge it into their site, otherwise why would they even offer? I.e. surely all will not be lost!?

The most striking thing is how many positive points you listed.
Just do some due diligence to check it's not too good to be true, etc.

Couldn't you consider some type of "affiliate" situation to make it more of a network of sites?

That wouldn't even have a fraction of the same effect on each site as merging would. I've heard of GoGamingGiant. It's a really good site. It's very well-done. I've spoken with Matt before, too, though he may not remember it well. He had a real problem with devoted workers. Put it this way, if you join with them you'll have everything your writers desire and give them every reason to be more devoted. Those who aren't devoted will probably get the boot. I'm betting the other site's staff is pretty into it, too, no?

Also, in this industry there's rarely a situation as fortunate as the one that's been presented you. You have a chance to take a very huge leap with your site and staff and prominence on the web. It could tank or it could be a major success, but one thing's for sure: it won't be anything like right now. And wouldn't it be better to take that chance than to stay like you are?