The Origin of Species of GamersThe Origin of Species of Gamers

Posted on Sep 8th 2010 at 04:11:24 AM by (bickman2k)
Posted under Podcast, Gaming, Site News, RF Generation

I just posted episode 1 of the RF Generation podcast minutes ago. Give it a listen and tell us what you thought! Your feature requests, show topic ideas, and just plain comments about our initial go are also welcome!

http://rfgeneration.podomatic.com

Enjoy!


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Comments
 
Just listened...

Pros:
-Some of the sound effect were interesting, and thankfully you used them sparingly
-Adam's mic sounds fairly clear
-While I disagree with your claims about race in games, I was glad you were able to clearly articulate a position about which I could at least take a stance
-The idea for segments seems like you are trying to be organized, which is good.
-You don't mumble and stumble too much - fairly clear speech (if maybe just a little fast).


Cons:
-Slackur sounds like he is in a cardboard box.
-Modern game news discussion? It doesn't seem to fit with what I perceive to be the focus of the site...
-Very short.  Is this intentional? Will it be standard?
-Some kind of content preview would be nice.
-Humor that misses the mark (at least for me).  Humor is quite subjective though, so maybe I just don't get it.

All in all you should be applauded for getting it started.  You have some good things to build on for future shows and some other issues which can easily be fixed.  I host the racketboy.com podcast, and while I don't think that my show is perfect, I've learned a few things since starting last fall.  Shoot me a pm if you want more feedback, need production tips, etc.


 
While I have nothing against cardboard boxes (works for Solid Snake) we're trying to figure out audio problems, but decided to use this as kind of a test run.  Audacity and Skype were not friendly, apparently. Sad

The modern content angle is something we hope to balance with classic gaming content, interviews, reviews, and suggestions pulled from the RFGen site.  We actually had more retrogaming content (a 'this week in retrogaming Chrono Trigger retrospective' that Bickman did a great job with, but the editing and audio was being fussy so we cut it because we were already running later for posting than we originally intended.

Our original 'cast was closer to 30 minutes, and we hope future casts will hit the 30 to 60 minute mark.

We agree about a more developed intro with content previews, and that's something that should make it into the next one.

As for humor, well...I'm quite the odd nerd and hope that my style doesn't turn off too many people.  I try to stay in the strange sense of humor that I've observed in the site, and once Adam and I have built up more of a tempo and pace between us, hopefully it will come across as something true to our normal personalities.  I'm not 'in character' or anything- that's just me and my bad jokes Tongue

One thing that we do need, though, is good constructive critique like your post.  We want honesty- this podcast is for the people of RFGeneration, and we want to cater it to you guys.  It's why we do it!  Please give us a few episodes to iron out the bugs and issues, but let us know what you want out of this.  We want guests, interviews, topic suggestions, your reviews, even your recorded audio to include in the 'cast.  Lets make this a community project, and not just two guys rambling on about games.  The internet has enough of that- we want something of worth for the site.  Sure, it will probably be done in an off-kilter way, but then, that's us Smiley
 
Just had a listen and I definately liked it! Great job guys.

I disagree that Slackur may have been hiding in a Cardboard box. I'm definately no audio expert, but I thought you both sounded very crisp and clear and both have voices that are different enough (and seemingly suited to something like a podcast) I could tell who was speaking.

Having the entire thing regarding Modern Games was surprising, but at least you used big enough stories that people like me (who dont often follow the newest happenings) can be aware of the stories pre-podcast. More retro content in the future would make me even happier (although I'd probably still keep listening).

I also liked the humor. Sure it doesnt hit every single time, but when it did it was great!

I'd say that 30 minutes would be about perfect. Getting it up to an hour seems to long.

It seems like you need something to help ease you guys into a new topic. Some of the transitions seemed forced or awkward. I'm not sure what that would be, it just didnt seem to flow well sometimes.

Are you gonna keep the top 5 lists at the end of each podcasts? I liked it a lot and think it should continue.

Keep up the awesome work guys! Now I have to wait for the next one (and Adam taunting us constantly about its arrival....Tongue)
 
The problem with the audio came from Audacity, Skype, and ALSA not playing well together. I have a new program that is designed for recording Skype calls on Linux that should (hopefully) help with audio fidelity. The way it was, his voice was coming out of my laptop speakers and being picked up by the internal mic. Obviously, this was not ideal, but it was late and I was getting anxious to record.

The length I would like to hit would be 30 minutes (give or take) consistently. We recorded 30 minutes of dialog, but there were some things that just didn't sound like they fit in after listening to it again.

The content will ideally have some modern gaming news (because we are all still gamers), but there will be a lot of classic gaming content. We are also working on some segment intro music for later episodes. Again, this was our first go at it and, now that we have some bugs and nerves (for me, at least) worked out, the next episode should be much better. Thanks for the comments!
 
@Crabmaster2000:
Thanks for the encouragement! 
The transitions flow is a noted problem we identified before we even recorded, and but the time we had to devote to tech and recording issues took too much attention for the test run.  Besides writing in better flow, we're thinking about minor sound cues that signal separate sections.

We actually had a few retrogaming sections recorded as well, but again recording issues left them on the cutting room floor.  We certainly didn't intend on a strictly modern gaming slant, that's just the pieces that recorded best :p

I'm assuming 30 minutes (give or take 10) will be our average in the end.

And I'm glad you enjoyed the top 5.  It's something I'd like to keep, but like every element of the 'cast, if something seems universally disliked, we'll retool or remove. 

Keep up the feedback! 
 
I think the both of you did an excellent job at putting this initial Podcast together.  I can imagine that it wasn�t an easy task - your efforts are applauded as well as sincerely appreciated.  Based on this initial offering, I think you have the beginnings of a very successful, informative and entertaining podcast.  Here are some of my amateur thoughts/observations.

Technical Items
o As already stated, Jess does sound like he is in a cardboard box - almost sounds like this may be an overseas telephone call with Adam.
o I did not have any problem at all firing up the app - it responded quickly and was correctly buffered (no lag time at all).
o Are you able to embed/display any images at all where the PodOmatic logo is displayed during playback?  A simply text image with the current topic would be helpful to keep the listener informed.
o Sound effects were not that loud on my end - I heard a slight beep-beep-beep every now and again during the recording.  Almost sounded like message alert from someone�s cell phone.  Based on the clarity, this seemed to be coming from Adam�s end.
o Your voices do compliment each other very well.  Both are easy to understand across this medium, though Jess might want to slow down the pace a little (sometimes difficult to understand when rapid-fire is engaged Smiley

Content
o Difficult to judge due to this being an initial test.  I agree with the other poster - some Retro gaming goodness would be cool (old time gamer here).  I am looking forward to the scraps on the cutting room floor on the next one.

Suggestions
o Provide a basic test display of the topic being discussed where the PodOmatic logo resides (if possible).  This could look something like this (topics just made up for this example):

                  Retro Gaming - Atari 2600 (01:00 - 02:30) - small font (last topic)
                Modern Gaming - DLC Pricing (2:30 - 05:00) - larger font (current topic)
                    Hidden Gems - Game Name (5:01 - 6:30) - small font (next topic)

o Sometimes the conversation would stray off topic quite a bit making it a little difficult to follow.  Might be easier to state the point/your take on the topic up front, then back it up. 
o Use some type of appropriate sound effect (genre/era/etc.) to alert the user of a change in subject.  This way if they don�t really care about a Classic Gaming discussion, they can keep their ears tuned for the Modern Gaming sound alert.
o Adam needs to break in a bit more - a few more agreements or more takes would be cool.  Jess had a great deal to say, and did it well, but there needs to be more breaks from Adam to split it up so it does not come across as a monologue. 
o Roundtables are always interesting - especially if they composed of gamers from the various eras/field of expertise.

Jess, Adam - my hat is off to you for pulling this off.  I am definitely looking forward to the next installment.  If there is anything I can do to assist at all, please do not hesitate to call on me.

Terry
 
I had a chance to listen today, and I liked the trial run. I think most of the contructive has been given, but I agree with Terry's note on the pacing of your speech. I imagine that will improve as you both settle in and it becomes more conversational. Keep at it!
 
I've listened to the podcast a number of times now.  Good job, guys!  I've heard tons of podcasts that degenerate into nothing more than "umm" and silence fests quickly.  You managed to keep it quick and snappy the whole 12:16.  While there were some obvious difficulties, none of them were in the the actual content.  Just a few opinions:

- I like long podcasts.  The longer the better.

- Good job on keeping with current issues!  More retro please?  Well, more everything please?

- The more often you guys do this, the better it will get. 

- Do you see where I'm going with this?

All in all, excellent job.  If you continue to run into difficulties with audio, check out some alternatives, like separately recording audio for each person and just splicing them together.
 
I liked it. I liked the sort of here's-a-recent-story-and-here's-our-takes-on-it thing. Was different and cool. Definitely needs to be at least 30 mins. I have a commute that is about 40 mins, so podcasts like these make it tolerable. But I was kind of bummed that this ended before I was halfway to work.
 
Any way that this is going to make it onto iTunes? I do most of my podcast downloading through iTunes right on my phone (mostly because I hate iTunes on my laptop, if that makes any sense...).


 
@BadEnoughDude: I can work on submitting it tomorrow to see if it makes it to the iTunes store.
 
I enjoyed it.

Slackur didn't sound like he's inside a cardboard box, he sounds like he's on a cellphone. Probably just a crappy webcam/headset microphone. Buy something like the Blue Snowball and you should have great sound.

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As much as the world has changed, our still somewhat niche spot as gamers has adapted to the times as well as the games. We have created our online museum of our past. We share our experiences about the present. And we will evolve together as the gaming community continues to change. I hope to write about some of my experiences with gaming, as well as on some topics that were not directly relevant to me, but to the community or you personally.
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