Sebmojo
4481
Do people listen to Gamers with Jobs? It’s my only one at the moment, and I’ve always found it really solid - they have consistently tight structure which means it’s rarely a chore to listen to.
Though the last one was apparently all bitching about Skyrim so I’m not listening to it coz I don’t wanna lose my buzz, man.
Vesper
4482
I listened to GWJ regularly until they added uh… Corey? Didn’t like him at all.
If I had a nickel for every “is it me or does Ryan Davis seriously hate x” I would have a few nickels. No Ryan definitely does not hate Will. BRAD on the other hand…
My turn: is it just me or is gossiping about GB personalities the closest you’ll ever come to enacting the psychology of someone who watches/reads a lot of TMZ?
Quaro
4484
The Achron interview drove me nuts. There’s so much ground to explore with the primary mechanic, but the show just went on and on about all this ancillary stuff: the reception, bugs, graphics, business contracts, reviewers, etc. I kept thinking: I want to hear about game and the mechanic.
The problem I have with Patrick K is that he doesn’t add much to Giantbombcast in terms of tastes or opinions. I’m glad he’s there for quicklooks but I find that 5 voices are too many in a podcast all the time. And their knowledge seems to be lacking; recently they said Origin is just getting hate because it’s EA while Steam gets a pass for the same thing. They didn’t know or at least didn’t acknowledge that Steam’s is an opt in while EA’s is mandatory and seems to be much more invasive.
And that Ryan Davis vs Will Smith thing: Peep this.
Tony_M
4486
Speaking of work in progress. Have you seen this quote from Ira Glass. I think its relevant since you’re always talking about how the show is a learning experience, and Ira is a master of the form. You may have already seen it, since its was mentioned in an interesting article by Jeff Vogel, and picked up by RPS in The Sunday Papers. Heres the full video of Ira Glass where he expands on that quote.
Tony
Yes, they record in a room now instead of doing it over Skype. On the other hand senior staff is absent many times and interns podcast experience is not always the best, so episodes quality is not consistent.
The latest Irrational interviews with Guillermo “sailor mouth” del Toro was interesting, with Julian Murdoch assisting Ken Levine, has Chris Remo moved up in the company like Sean Elliot?
JM1
4488
Ditto. I think the weekly format is doing them no favours - they’re coming up to 100 shows and I think they’re struggling to get everyone together each week and they’re certainly finding it hard coming up with good topics.
I’ve been listening to it for so long now that the predictable things are starting to grate (like someone’s habit of repeating a joke that’s just been told!) which isn’t necessarily a fault of the podcast, just an acknowledgement that things can get stale no matter how good it is.
I’ve been listening to a lot of miniature gaming podcasts as part of my crash course in learning the Warmachine/Hordes system and they’re a breath of fresh air - it’s almost a chore listening to my old regulars now. I’ll see what the PCG and Eurogamer podcasts are like, maybe they’re more to my taste.
Just listened to the AC Revelations episode of 1UP’s new Games, Dammit! podcast. Really great stuff, thanks for the pointer.
Almost nothing, personally! Well, a couple of betas. And Blood Bowl. Who has time for new things! (That’s why the blog has been a wasteland for a while.)
We’ve done those “What’s up?” shows from time to time, and they’re good filler shows. And yes, forcing a theme is bad. We’ve rejected a lot of ideas because they wouldn’t work, often at the last minute. But sometimes an idea just has to sit a bit until you are ready to tackle it, or you find someone who knows more about it than you do. (An upcoming show fits that example perfectly.)
But we do need another audience question show soon, you’re right.
Re devs, personality is huge and Soren and Ken are geniuses, which helps. And I wasn’t suggesting that only talking about other people is the way to go - I just think it leads to a very interesting show where no one is on the defensive. But Vic Davis is a great guest, Johan Andersson’s enthusiasm is infectious, Brad Wardell is always interesting, and many others we’ve had because they are interesting people who think about what they do in interesting ways - sometimes in retrospect like on our Elemental show.
As for Achron, I am with people who don’t want us to talk too much about media stuff on the podcast. I’d prefer to pass over that or do it on one show a year unless there is a big scandal or something. But then, the games industry is our job, so it will bleed in a little from time to time.
Troy
Yeah, I like Patrick too. He often goes beyond making news actually about news instead of announcements by doing some analysis, applying some context, and making some educated guesses about bigger picture stuff. He’s a strong addition to the podcast. I just like Will better because he seems all around sharper and has a quicker wit. (And, admittedly, because he’s closer to my age.) Though I think he’s a bit of a alpha male podcaster so maybe he wouldn’t continue to mix well since Jeff and Ryan both kind of fill that role on the Bombcast.
Why are we talking about Will as though he’s a permanent addition? Did I miss something important? I thought he just filled in for an episode because Vinny was unavailable. Because Will already has his own podcast to deal with, and I don’t think he even does that much writing for Giant Bomb (in comparison, I see Alex and Rorie bylines in my newsfeed fairly often, and they’re both also only occasional guests).
Will is a runner of podcasts, though. Before Tested he handled the MaximumPC podcast (coincidentally, I believe he was running it for the entire time I found it tolerable).
My one criticism of the Bombcast guys is that they occasionally come across as apologetic towards publishers. I appreciate this when it means not devolving into a bile-spewing Internet entitlement mentality, but occasionally they just don’t call companies on shit when they need to be called on it. But then again, sometimes they do (c.f., Vinny’s screed against GameStop’s selling the Catwoman DLC in Batman: Arkham City).
And that Ryan Davis vs Will Smith thing: Peep this.
Ha! Awesome. That whole “executable” thing cracked me up when I first heard it, but the animation really sells it.
Brian, I’m not. At least not seriously. He’s obviously just a fill-in and I greatly enjoy the parts of the Tested.com podcast when they’re not going on and on about iPhones (I’m looking at you, Gary).
I felt for Will there. For the longest time I was convinced that .exe files meant Executive files. Cos they’re, uh, the most important files? I guess?
I donno.
Garnett actually said that he wasn’t cutting the music break because of Spicer’s awful and embarrassing contribution, but he did seem to be saying it was the last straw. He said straight out that the quality of the music hasn’t been up to par, so he was cutting the segment until/if it made sense to bring it back. I’m sure he didn’t mean to include the contributions from their producer “Del Rio” as part of what’s not been up to snuff, but he may as well have. I loved how Mark MacDonald made fun of Del Rio’s track, “White Boy Wasted” on the most recent crossover podcast with 8-4. I’ve always enjoyed Del Rio’s mixes, by the way, just not his original rap tracks, including the one that closes out the show.
The week before last’s show didn’t have a remix, but I didn’t realize those were being completely cut. I haven’t listened to last week’s episode yet.
Ha! I get the feeling that Will is just one of those guys that everyone picks on, in a good natured way, of course. Everyone was getting in on it.
They’re skidding into snowdrifts more and more as well.
I think the worst was 4-6 weeks ago when they had Jeff Cannata of Totally Rad on the show as a guest panelist. RAGE had just come out, but since Cannata had a review copy and no one else on the show did, he’s the one guy who’d played it. He talked it up effusively as being the be-all, end-all of gaming greatness, with the other GWJ guys saying “Wow, I’m buying THIS!!!”
You could almost watch the money stream from Bethesda/Id into pockets there.
On a later show a week or so later they offered a much more reasoned take on RAGE, pointing out the many flaws in the game.
And so on Skyrim Week they have Cannata back on, and there’s some good-natured ribbing about his RAGE love. Cannata praises Skyrim as a great game, but is far more reasoned in his take about why it is a solid game. Others who have played weigh in.
But…I think the “Let’s rage about Skyrim” show that GWJ did last week was a half-witted attempt to do what they did with RAGE a month earlier, only this time it was unnecessary. Their initial take on the game involved a couple of folks who’d spent time in the game; they mentioned the issues with it alongside the pluses to the game already.
I think that points to the Tom Chick-inization of too many podcasts of late. Tom’s a fantastic podcast guest; I find him witty and urbane and easy to listen to. Even when I disagree completely with him, he makes his points well in a very non-confrontational and thought-provoking way. Problem is, more and more you get guys on GWJ (like Cory) and JTS (like Brandon and sometimes Todd) who try to do the Tom Chick contrarian thing without really understanding what it is Tom’s doing, and the result is that the podcasts they’re on tend to devolve into specious and ill-conceived rants.
I’m a regular listener of the GWJ, I think you are reading to much into hidden intentions. Cannata and Justin love Skyrim so the episode was almost all positive, in the next one Rob Zacny was not so impressed with Skyrim so they discuss more the faults of the game.
For more than a year GWJ expanded there cast, probably to avoid saturation of having always the same crew and also besides Sean not everyone plays that many different games so in order to have more diversity in games they have more guests, that also means there is no consistent tone to the podcast, every guest brings their opinion.
LMN8R
4499
Totally agreed. It’s always seemed like genuine people speaking their genuine opinion. Reading into these things thinking “oh well they must have thought <x> about last episode so this episode they’re deliberately doing <y>” seems ridiculous.
I haven’t listened to GWJ in a good two or so years. I think that the last straw for me was an episode where one guy was playing Saints Row 2 so all of the other guys made fun of him because they assumed they knew what the game was all about, talked over him when he tried to make his case for the game and then when he said he’d like to play some coop with him they basically laughed at him. As if they’d ever deign to play Saints Row 2! Goodness me!
Has it gotten less shit? I could use a decent PC-focused podcast and the bank hasn’t returned my calls since I applied for a five hundred million dollar loan to bring back Idle Thumbs.
