Videogames are teh artzorzzzzzz!
March 5, 2010 9:54 AM Subscribe
Help me find some video game podcasts that are game theory and analysis focused and not news and reviews focused.
I really like Penny Arcade, Idle Thumbs, and A Life Well Wasted (although I think Robert Ashley may be slipping). I’m down with a casual format. I don’t care about upcoming releases as much as interesting discussions of different game play styles and examples of genres to try. Intelligent discussions of interesting things people do with the medium are what I am looking for. My favorite episodes from the Penny Arcade podcast are the ones where Mike and Jerry talk about the experience of playing WoW and compare notes on the MMORPG usage cycle. I love when the Idle Thumbs guys talk about emergent systems. Ideally I’d love to find an Idle Thumbs that’s more tightly edited and less PC focused. (More of a console gamer.) Also the joking around that happens in both casts is nice. Bonus points for any with some female voices.
tldr: Help me find video game podcasts where people talk about interesting things happening or that have happened with the medium.
I really like Penny Arcade, Idle Thumbs, and A Life Well Wasted (although I think Robert Ashley may be slipping). I’m down with a casual format. I don’t care about upcoming releases as much as interesting discussions of different game play styles and examples of genres to try. Intelligent discussions of interesting things people do with the medium are what I am looking for. My favorite episodes from the Penny Arcade podcast are the ones where Mike and Jerry talk about the experience of playing WoW and compare notes on the MMORPG usage cycle. I love when the Idle Thumbs guys talk about emergent systems. Ideally I’d love to find an Idle Thumbs that’s more tightly edited and less PC focused. (More of a console gamer.) Also the joking around that happens in both casts is nice. Bonus points for any with some female voices.
tldr: Help me find video game podcasts where people talk about interesting things happening or that have happened with the medium.
Best answer: Can I plug my podcast? I'm part of a trio that discusses this sort of thing from time to time in addition to news events. We're Power Button. Turn us on.
(Ooh, I think I just came up with our slogan!)
Prior to Power Button we were on the Kombo Breaker podcast for one year and fifty episodes. That show was more interview-based, but might also be worth a look as we liked discussing the game creation and play process with developers and publishers. Power Button is basically the same format, but a bit informal and conversational.
posted by Servo5678 at 12:21 PM on March 5, 2010
(Ooh, I think I just came up with our slogan!)
Prior to Power Button we were on the Kombo Breaker podcast for one year and fifty episodes. That show was more interview-based, but might also be worth a look as we liked discussing the game creation and play process with developers and publishers. Power Button is basically the same format, but a bit informal and conversational.
posted by Servo5678 at 12:21 PM on March 5, 2010
Gamasutra was doing this for a while with their GDCRadio (xml) podcast. There are episodes from 2007-2008. Actually, as I look at gdcradio.net that now forwards to a "store" where there are for more recent (and some much older) Game Developer's Conference recordings. $7.95 a pop for the ones I see. Some might be worth it. Hard to say.
A Google search for podcast site:gamasutra.com comes up with some earlier ones that have dropped off the feed -- mp3's available. I've not listened to all these, and some look pretty good.
If anyone wants to help identify all the older ones I'd be happy to turn that into a permanently living feed suitable to grab them all. Downloading a la carte mp3 is a pain.
posted by artlung at 12:41 PM on March 5, 2010 [1 favorite]
A Google search for podcast site:gamasutra.com comes up with some earlier ones that have dropped off the feed -- mp3's available. I've not listened to all these, and some look pretty good.
If anyone wants to help identify all the older ones I'd be happy to turn that into a permanently living feed suitable to grab them all. Downloading a la carte mp3 is a pain.
posted by artlung at 12:41 PM on March 5, 2010 [1 favorite]
You can add fatpixelsradio.com/rss (xml) and there are many more Gamasutra feeds available.
Possibly redundant, if you're comfortable on the command line and have
...to download episodes 1 to 30 at least. I don't know how high the numbers go.
posted by artlung at 12:58 PM on March 5, 2010
Possibly redundant, if you're comfortable on the command line and have
curl installed (Mac users have it) you can do curl -O http://cmpmedia.vo.llnwd.net/o1/gdcradio-net/GAMA/Gama_[001-030].mp3...to download episodes 1 to 30 at least. I don't know how high the numbers go.
posted by artlung at 12:58 PM on March 5, 2010
Best answer: Another Castle.
Another Castle is an interview show focusing on creators and thinkers in the New York game development scene. It is hosted by Charles J Pratt and produced and edited by Noah Sasso, with music by Chris Graves (www.kracfive.com) and art by Rachel Morris (www.rachelem-illo.com).posted by MesoFilter at 1:38 PM on March 5, 2010 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Brainygamer has a podcast, but he hasn't done anything since his '09 roundup.
There's also the Out of the Game podcast which has been in limbo since around December as well, but when it's on point (many of the episodes have people absent), it features Shawn Elliot, Jeff Green, N'Gai Croal, Robert Ashley, and very occasionally Luke Smith. They digress a lot into non-video game stuff, but I'll listen to anything with Shawn Elliot and Robert Ashley together in it.
The Gamers with Jobs Conference Call is not bad (especially when they do a developer interview), but not nearly as likely to break out into ludicrous in-joke inanity as I'd like (read: like Idle Thumbs is wont to do).
posted by juv3nal at 3:49 PM on March 5, 2010
There's also the Out of the Game podcast which has been in limbo since around December as well, but when it's on point (many of the episodes have people absent), it features Shawn Elliot, Jeff Green, N'Gai Croal, Robert Ashley, and very occasionally Luke Smith. They digress a lot into non-video game stuff, but I'll listen to anything with Shawn Elliot and Robert Ashley together in it.
The Gamers with Jobs Conference Call is not bad (especially when they do a developer interview), but not nearly as likely to break out into ludicrous in-joke inanity as I'd like (read: like Idle Thumbs is wont to do).
posted by juv3nal at 3:49 PM on March 5, 2010
My friend and I are launching a podcast of just this type! I'll post on this thread again once we've got an episode recorded. It's good to know that there's interest in this type of thing.
posted by lhall at 8:37 PM on March 5, 2010
posted by lhall at 8:37 PM on March 5, 2010
Response by poster: Thanks for the responses. Kind of arbitrarily picked bests based on linkage to actual updating podcasts. And lhall I'm looking forward to you posting.
For anyone looking are this question later Another Castle has interesting content (buried under a severe need to edit, but it's there). Gamers w/ Jobs is a tamer Idle Thumbs, and the others I'm still figuring out.
posted by edbles at 7:48 AM on April 6, 2010
For anyone looking are this question later Another Castle has interesting content (buried under a severe need to edit, but it's there). Gamers w/ Jobs is a tamer Idle Thumbs, and the others I'm still figuring out.
posted by edbles at 7:48 AM on April 6, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
I can save you the trouble of trying the GameCritics.com podcast that I tried while Idle Thumbs was on hiatus. It's really, really terrible. Terrible sound quality, no real criticism to speak of, and an annoying car-salesman-y showboating "host." Does not want.
I'm really hoping you get some good suggestions. I would love to have more of this to listen to. The new not-necessarily-weekly format for Thumbs leaves occasional holes in my listening patterns that I would very much like to fill.
posted by heresiarch at 10:27 AM on March 5, 2010