Yeah, genre specific ones are going to be your best bet for more obscure (relatively) games, outside a handful that really take hold in podcast land like Rimworld or Duskers. But other than 3MA and some DotA/MOBA focused ones (most of which have fallen by the wayside), I don’t really listen to any so I can’t suggest specific names.
Thraeg
5002
Ditto. Loving the subject matter isn’t enough if the audio quality is distracting or the actual conversations on the show aren’t interesting enough.
Daft Souls is back! Yay! But Idle Thumbs is going away! Boo!
JoshL
5004
Wait, what? Does that include Three Moves Ahead??
No, don’t panic!
They’re just stopping IT as a games podcast, at least (maybe) temporarily. They’re starting up a new, more general culture (and presumably robot news) podcast, and dropping the games one. Idlethumbs.net isn’t going anywhere.
I heard them talking about this on the last podcast I listened to and was kind of confused, because they don’t really talk much about video games as it is. /shrug
Thraeg
5007
Huh. I’ve been catching up on the last few months of Idle Thumbs after feeling burned out on podcasts for a while. Haven’t gotten to wherever they talk about the changes, but if it’s just recognizing that they talk about all sorts of random stuff rather than just games, I’ve got no complaints. They’re entertaining no matter what the subject matter.
Well, last episode that’s what it was, and this most recent episode it became let’s just scrap Idle Thumbs altogether and do a proper non-gaming podcast. Which I’m a bit sad about. I liked the digressions a lot, because I share many of their non-gaming interests, but there aren’t many podcasts that talk about games the way they do. IT had an extremely high insight per minute ratio.
Okay, hang on - are you saying they don’t talk about gaming at all anymore? I thought they were just going to be more casual about it because they were getting burned out trying to play new games all the time to have something to talk about . I’m okay if they want to just talk gaming in brief when a game strikes them they want to talk about, but if they are dropping gaming as a topic, I’m much less cool about that…
Like I say, last episode they were talking about doing what you thought. This episode they announced that, after thinking about it some more, they’re stopping IT as a gaming podcast altogether (after a few minisodes and episode 300), and eventually launching a new, non-gaming podcast. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some gaming talk on the new one, but it’s absolutely not the focus of the new podcast.
Vesper
5011
The way I took it was that the new podcast will have other stuff plus games. They just wanted to put official IT on hold because they want to talk about non gaming stuff as well.
Considering the strong feelings they all have about the current political nonsense going on I wonder if the new podcast is going to be about politics. Or at least some politics. Maybe they feel like it’s time to do this as their way of fighting back?
Thraeg
5013
I was wondering the same thing. I just recently heard the November podcasts, and it definitely felt like they wanted to say a lot more than they were allowing themselves to.
The Besties are back on a monthly schedule, after a couple years of just being yearly. I think this might be my favorite just-games podcast, although I have to ask myself if that’s because it has the best, catchiest theme song ever. No, actually, it’s because it’s a structured discussion with an effective gimmick (they each nominate a game for the month and then have to wrangle at the end over which one is best–then compare it to the winner from the previous months. It’s a dumb way to actually pick a best game, but it generates good discussion.
Does anyone remember this one really high quality podcast about gaming topics that only lasted for about 3 episodes or something? It was like a well produced documentary about certain topics in gaming, about on par with Indie Game or King of Kong type documentaries, but in audio form obviously. I stopped looking for new episodes years ago, and just remembered the podcast vaguely now. Does anyone remember the name? And did they ever produce another episode since then?
EDIT:
Some googling produced results! It was A Life Well Wasted, and they did indeed produce a couple of new episodes since the initial run in 2009! Woohoo! Looks like they did two more episodes, the last one in 2013. So hopefully they’ll do another episode in the coming year or two.
It was Robert Ashley who did those. I wouldn’t hold out too much hope for any more, unfortunately. I really loved that show (and Ashley’s game journalism in general). On the plus side, there’s a lot more of that sort of content available now than there was then, though usually not quite as well produced.
jsnell
5017
Rob Zacny has joined Waypoint as a senior editor. My understanding is that he’ll continue doing 3MA and Idle Weekend.
But it probably means I have to give the Waypoint podcast another try. I’ve found it kind of insufferable so far, but if anyone can salvage it…
Syzygy
5018
Interesting. Had to google it as I don’t think I’ve ever been there, but I see that Danielle Riendeau and Patrick Klepek write there now?
Speaking of Rob, Danielle and Podcasts, I like both of their viewpoints from a singular point of view, but listening to their podcast together didn’t do it for me as they both seemed hesitant to challenge one another’s viewpoint. Just a lot of validation – which while “nice” isn’t as interesting.
kentdog
5019
The latest update to the iOS Podcast App has me very frustrated, and I’m now shopping around for a new iOS podcast app (lower case). Anyone using anything that they like a lot? Please don’t say, “switch to Android”.
I love PocketCasts because it syncs with a web version so I can listen on my computer when I want to. It’s super easy to subscribe and queue up shows, and you control which shows you download to your device and which remain in the cloud. It’s so great.
Caveat, using the web version costs a one-time $9 fee, but it’s so worth it.
