Gaming Podcast Discussion

JonRowe · 2010-01-13T00:29:11.000Z

God I miss Idle Thumbs.

Any Idle Thumbs fan will remember this trailer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsefCmNAQR4

dwolfe · 2010-01-13T07:01:26.000Z

Troy S Goodfellow:

But yeah, I prefer that a podcast choose a topic or two and get to it pretty quickly.

Troy

Which is why TMA has been my favorite podcast of the past year. No one tries to be a ‘personality’*, you just stay on topic, and make it interesting. Keep up the great work!

*Yes, I’d like my damn cup of coffee already, Tom ;)

interman · 2010-01-13T09:26:29.000Z

To everyone making podcasts: PLEASE STOP DISCUSSING AVATAR, and in particular how much you dislike “unobtainium”.

LMN8R · 2010-01-15T11:16:57.000Z

Chris Remo made an appearance on this week’s PC Gamer Podcast. Far Cry 2 was dutifully mentioned. Good listen, for those missing Idle Thumbs.

MSUSteve · 2010-01-15T11:52:53.000Z

I’ll have to check that out. Besides Far Cry 2 mentions, I also need an infusion of Remo saying things are “great” and “weird”.

Jazar · 2010-01-26T07:55:00.000Z

I’m near the end of the latest 4 Guys 1Up podcast. Not a huge fan of drunken podcasting. Only ironmen like Garnett can take the sauce and keep things under control (most of the time).

Brian_Seiler · 2010-01-26T08:10:45.000Z

The most annoying thing is that it’s always the one new guy who they should have tested once already to determine if he would be okay. Last time it was Sharkey, and he learned his lesson. So now we’ve got Ryan O’Donnell slurring all over everything and Leigh Alexandering the podcast. Well, okay - maybe not that bad - but still, very annoying. It was a decent show up until that point.

Bahimiron · 2010-01-26T08:11:46.000Z

Yeah. Ryan O’Donnel got pretty bad in that one.

I’m at a point where I’m honestly trying to decide if my like of Karen Chu and Ryan Scott is enough to keep listening to Geekbox. Fitch just seems to be increasing the density of his douchecity. Whereas once he may have said maybe two or three supremely douchey things per hour long episode (2 dph), he’s getting into professional douche territory. I can only assume he’s training for the Douchelympics, where he will represent America and win the douche medals, returning here for a douche parade where he will be a national douche hero?

People may’ve had issues with Patrick, but I’d replace Fitch with him in a heartbeat if I could. Not since the early days of CGW with Darren Gladstone has one guy grated so much. And Darren wasn’t really a douche. He just couldn’t keep up, had a tendency of repeating other peoples’ jokes and then bragging about how drunk he was while attending events.

Seiler:

Last time it was Sharkey, and he learned his lesson. So now we’ve got Ryan O’Donnell slurring all over everything and Leigh Alexandering the podcast.

I’d have a hard time calling Ryan new. He’s been on 1up Yours before, has made regular appearances on a number of other podcasts (1up during his time there, as well as Rebel FM, Geekbox and Mobcast since) and is an old hand at video podcasts.

Brian_Seiler · 2010-01-26T08:16:49.000Z

Bahimiron:

I’d have a hard time calling Ryan new. He’s been on 1up Yours before, has made regular appearances on a number of other podcasts (1up during his time there, as well as Rebel FM, Geekbox and Mobcast since) and is an old hand at video podcasts.

I should clarify - I meant a new victim getting inadvisably sloshed off his ass. It’d be great if his guests knew their limits, but at some point Ellis has to sack up and slap the damn cup out of the guy’s hand to keep the podcasssht from getting all getting all getting all but NO IT’S A GREAT GAME. I can’t recall ever hearing Ryan get blotto back when he was still at 1Up, but it certainly could have happened and I just blocked it out of my memory.

sinfony · 2010-01-26T09:45:05.000Z

If there’s one thing the 1up podcasts have lacked since the dawn of the Garnett era, it’s the ability to reign in anything. Was there ever a Garnett or post-Garnett episode that wasn’t over 2 hours long? Was there ever one that wouldn’t have been way better if it wasn’t at least an hour shorter?

Eric_Majkut · 2010-01-26T18:17:33.000Z

I don’t get the complaints about podcasts being too long. I listen to these during my commute mostly, and there generally isn’t enough podcast to cover the entire week of driving back and forth to work. I’m not saying they should artificially drag the shows out, but it’s not like they’ve got commercial breaks they need to take or something. If they want to take two hours to talk about something, then why shouldn’t they?

Troy_S_Goodfellow · 2010-01-26T18:24:21.000Z

Eric Majkut:

If they want to take two hours to talk about something, then why shouldn’t they?

One of the great things about keeping a time limit (we shoot for an hour or so on TMA, though we’ve had exceptions) is that it imposes a little discipline on the conversation. It’s less likely to ramble and more likely to hit the important points. With epic long shows I often find that I stop part way through or fast forward.

Troy

sinfony · 2010-01-26T18:42:52.000Z

Troy’s got it exactly. I don’t need to hear a half-drunk description of everything that happened in your 45 minute preview play session, or yet another hour long layman’s take on what the NPD numbers mean. If the listener wants to fill up more time with podcasts, the way to do it is to listen to more, shorter podcasts, rather than to fewer, longer podcasts.

Bahimiron · 2010-01-26T18:49:55.000Z

sinfony:

If the listener wants to fill up more time with podcasts, the way to do it is to listen to more, shorter podcasts, rather than to fewer, longer podcasts.

Unless the listener prefers fewer, longer podcasts, then they’re free to do what they want, because we don’t live in Communist China*.

*Except for those of us who do. Sorry, guys.

kentdog · 2010-01-26T19:01:20.000Z

Bahimiron:

I’m at a point where I’m honestly trying to decide if my like of Karen Chu and Ryan Scott is enough to keep listening to Geekbox. Fitch just seems to be increasing the density of his douchecity. Whereas once he may have said maybe two or three supremely douchey things per hour long episode (2 dph), he’s getting into professional douche territory. I can only assume he’s training for the Douchelympics, where he will represent America and win the douche medals, returning here for a douche parade where he will be a national douche hero?

People may’ve had issues with Patrick, but I’d replace Fitch with him in a heartbeat if I could. Not since the early days of CGW with Darren Gladstone has one guy grated so much. And Darren wasn’t really a douche. He just couldn’t keep up, had a tendency of repeating other peoples’ jokes and then bragging about how drunk he was while attending events.

Can you give me some specific examples of Fitch douchery, because I just don’t get this? I must calibrate my douche-dar. I associate doucheiness with things like interrupting, insulting, refusing to clarify or accept others’ opinions, or dominating a conversation, which I don’t think Fitch does. He simply has his crazy opinions and I like him for it and know what to expect, and he doesn’t force them on anyone or other such douche.

Comparisons to Darren Gladstone are more confusing, as I saw him as not as effective a conversationalist as the others on GFW. Not being able to speak eloquently about why he did or didn’t like a game or simply repeating a joke that had ended 5 minutes earlier, which I don’t think Fitch does. Prove me wrong, sir!

kentdog · 2010-01-26T19:05:58.000Z

sinfony:

Troy’s got it exactly. I don’t need to hear a half-drunk description of everything that happened in your 45 minute preview play session, or yet another hour long layman’s take on what the NPD numbers mean. If the listener wants to fill up more time with podcasts, the way to do it is to listen to more, shorter podcasts, rather than to fewer, longer podcasts.

Sounds to me like the problem is more with content that is boring, more than the length of that content? Would you gladly have listened to a 3-hour GFW Radio in it’s heyday? For me, as long as it continues to be entertaining, I’ll continue to listen.

Troy_S_Goodfellow · 2010-01-26T19:32:41.000Z

kentdog:

Sounds to me like the problem is more with content that is boring, more than the length of that content? Would you gladly have listened to a 3-hour GFW Radio in it’s heyday? For me, as long as it continues to be entertaining, I’ll continue to listen.

3 hours used well? Sure. But even the GFW guys would often lose the thread in a long show. Hell, we’ve lost the thread in short ones.

Filling time is hard. Setting a rough time frame from the beginning means that everyone on the show has an idea of how much they have to bring to the table.

3 hours also usually means that someone is not editing enough. TMA released an 87 minute show last week. I cut ten or eleven minutes of repetition or stories that didn’t go anywhere or crosstalk with no resolution just so I could get under the 1.5 hour mark. And everyone knew going in that this would be a longer than normal show.

Troy

sinfony · 2010-01-26T20:10:32.000Z

kentdog:

Sounds to me like the problem is more with content that is boring, more than the length of that content? Would you gladly have listened to a 3-hour GFW Radio in it’s heyday? For me, as long as it continues to be entertaining, I’ll continue to listen.

No, but I was never really on the GFW Radio bandwagon to begin with. The longest podcast that I regularly listen to is the Bombcast, but that’s because I think the group has enough chemistry to carry the show for the ~2 hours it usually runs, and there’s also a pretty defined structure. I’ve not come across another podcast like it in that regard.

Jamie_Madigan · 2010-01-26T20:51:44.000Z

Yeah, if the guys have chemistry and it’s entertaining to just listen to them banter, I’ll tolerate 3+ hour bombcasts. c.f., Giant Bomb.

I actually didn’t get to the drunken bits of 4G1U this last time around. I got so tired of the indie games discussion that I switched to something else.

kentdog · 2010-01-26T21:21:02.000Z

sinfony:

No, but I was never really on the GFW Radio bandwagon to begin with. The longest podcast that I regularly listen to is the Bombcast, but that’s because I think the group has enough chemistry to carry the show for the ~2 hours it usually runs, and there’s also a pretty defined structure. I’ve not come across another podcast like it in that regard.

Well, yeah, I guess I should have said <insert your favorite show here>. Can’t you shorty-lovers just fast forward through the parts you find boring rather than forcing us long-commuters to have to resort to something horrible like FM radio?