Beyond3D podcast

[Arwin]

Is this a podcast by B3D staff or register users to their open forums?

IMO, allowing non-staff forum members to run a product under the B3D name probably isn't a good idea.

I already mentioned that we could add or remove "un" from the official bit as desired by the Beyond3D crew.

I actually have a completely unrelated problem with the Beyond3D name in the podcast, and that's the Playstation Beyond IGN podcast, which has claimed the Beyond bit in the public ear to such an extent that even when I was doing some trial recordings I had trouble not saying "BEYOOOOOOOND! 3D" ... .

I'm not sure how to solve that problem yet. We'd probably have to stress a different aspect, like "Beyond 3D Graphics", "B3Dcast?" "B4Cast?", "Through the Looking Glass". For independent projects I had thought of Gaming Meta-cast (though metacritic may not like), Gaming Podcast Listeners Podcast, etc.

Who's going to be the Halo/360 addict Luke Smith & the SDF Shane Bettenhausen? Man, that would be cool. Need to get the 360 Live Party crew for some real-time chats, maybe 1on1 against the PS3 Home guys? LOL

Tommy McClain

We sure have plenty of characters here who could play those parts. I was more thinking about assigning roles in discussions though as I mentioned before - say we pick a topic, then we'll do a week of research on it and each person will investigate how things are on one side of the discussion and then represent that part with some decent thoughts and arguments. Sure if we can put entertaining sauce over that I have no problem with it, but like I said, I would like to somehow try to keep the quality at a decent level.

 

[Arwin]

Spontaneous game discussion would be extremely cool. In particular you could do realtime reviews. Capture the audio feed as people play, and then edit to pick out the highlights. With zillions of Live! download titles of various sort, reviews of this while playing would probably attract attention.

This is what Giant Bomb does with their Quick Looks. They're quite good and have video as well,. I definitely think we could do audio versions of those with more useful comments though (they can sometimes be a bit thick/drunk/d*cks).

I'd like a developers' podcast, where developers can speak their piece and maybe slag off an unappreciative, overdemanding public! Game development from their perspective would be truly worthwhile.

I don't see that happening very soon. PR would almost always get in the way. The occasional honest interview by a first party, developers from studios that closed or have otherwise have moved on, that kind of thing, is already a lot to hope for.

But most importantly I'd like people who actually have something meaningful to say. I don't listen to podcasts because of the ones I've listened to, they have been vapid, like listening in on 14 year olds in the school yard. Lots of 'yeah, um, great, cool, <pause>, I really liked that." Way dull! Again, AlStrong's idea of a natural game chat could solve a lot of this, adding a background experience that should inspire conversation.

This would be an important aim. To be honest I'm not so sure of a natural game chat would solve this (could be a lot of waiting, pauses, etc.), but I'm sure willing to try that out - probably if you do your homework in advance, so that you have a lot of background stuff about the game, the developers, etc. to discuss when things quiet down, this could work.

I think we should just try it out some way or other. Anyone who can join in please do - if you have a laptop, smartphone, DS or whatever with which you can record your comments while playing a just-released title then give it a shot and post the results. I'll try to do the same.

 

[tirminyl]

I think we should just try it out some way or other. Anyone who can join in please do - if you have a laptop, smartphone, DS or whatever with which you can record your comments while playing a just-released title then give it a shot and post the results. I'll try to do the same.

I have been playing with micro blog casts while playing a game. One thing is for sure, something gives when you are trying to concentrate. The game or your subject matter suffers I have found that I am not the technical, omg 60fps, rasterization, bump mapping, person. I game with emotion.

 

[wco81]

You know what's a common feature of gaming podcasts now?

Discussion of iPhone games.

 

[Arwin]

Well, yes. Though not necessarily a universally popular section ... Anyway, I don't have an iPhone, and I don't think I'll have one soon - I like them, but not enough (don't have a Mac, and I want to be able to write tools for my phone). So someone else would have to provide insight on iPhone games.

@JPT: I hear you. I can imagine a feature on different online models (server hosted, peer-to-peer and everything inbetween), their pros and cons, and which games use what.

 

[rendezvous]

What about a section called "Graphics paper of the week" where a technique presented in a paper/presentation is discussed?

That would probably limit the audiance a bit, so lets just stick to discussing iPhone games..

 

[T.B.]

That would probably limit the audiance a bit, so lets just stick to discussing iPhone games..

There's nothing wrong with limiting the audience, as that is pretty much what makes B3D interesting, isn't it? Higher S/N and all that.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

There's nothing wrong with limiting the audience, as that is pretty much what makes B3D interesting, isn't it? Higher S/N and all that.

If it's not a commercial venture, definitely.

Perhaps the first priority before anything else is to determine the purpose of a podcast? Without a clear idea of the intended goal, it would likely drift around and not serve anyone. There's no point going technical if the audience is the masses, there's no point wanting to appeal to the masses if you can't differentiate from all the other podcasts, and you can't please everyone!

 

[tirminyl]

If it's not a commercial venture, definitely.

Perhaps the first priority before anything else is to determine the purpose of a podcast? Without a clear idea of the intended goal, it would likely drift around and not serve anyone. There's no point going technical if the audience is the masses, there's no point wanting to appeal to the masses if you can't differentiate from all the other podcasts, and you can't please everyone!

So what audience do you intend to get? The average gamer that visits forums? Or how about a community podcast for that those don't visit B3D often, don't stay up to date on the news, an extension of the forum in audio form.

Personally, I have a few select podcasts where it is more for the average gamer and with a high level view. I would like a more in-depth technical low level podcast. Something that offers more. What that is, I don't know because that definition can differ per person.

So are you looking for core, casual, or community? Then offer what people love that other podcasts don't offer. Then again, personality is what keep people coming back. The podcast can take itself seriously, but not too seriously.

I feel like I just typed a bunch of mindless banter, lol.

 

[wco81]

Well, yes. Though not necessarily a universally popular section ... Anyway, I don't have an iPhone, and I don't think I'll have one soon - I like them, but not enough (don't have a Mac, and I want to be able to write tools for my phone). So someone else would have to provide insight on iPhone games.

Don't need a Mac, or an iPhone for that matter.

iPhone games could be a phenomenon which is indicative of trends which will touch all aspects of gaming, whether it's the move towards mini games (see Wii Sports) for casual gamers (also hardcore gamers who play iPhone games in brief spurts during the day), digital distribution, the possible revitalization of smaller developers, etc.

These subjects may or may not be relevant depending on the scope of the podcasts. If they drill down on technical matters, probably not something to do on an ongoing basis. But there are threads about iPhone and in general mobile SOC tech. and certainly the progress in graphics for mobile devices could be tracked over time, as they increase in graphics and technical sophistication.

 

[Arwin]

Ok, so I recorded my first 'live' audio comments. Must say that it is about as boring as I expected, though I do manage to leave fewer pauses than I expected (still plenty of them though). I think this can work, but I'm not so sure it's interesting enough as audio - video would be better; even not saying anything, you can watch the full gameplay in action, video and sound. Certainly I'll have to work a bit to make my voice sound more entertaining. (it'll get better quickly, I haven't been enough English recently, and I'll work on spicing up the intonation)

I think a better use for this may be to help you record your initial response to most of the things you do in the game, for reference later on. Then use this to prepare a compact and well prepared summary of your findings. I wasn't able to right now (have to get one or two more cables), but it's going to be really easy for me to mix in high quality audio of the gameplay. I think it may be interesting to mix in some of this audio with maybe some highlights into the audio quick preview of the game.

I don't quite see the raw material being useful just yet for people interested in buying a game, but using some of the bits (for instance pausing the game and summarising some aspect of the game, your first impressions after the first level, etc.) could work if you'd want to get something up there really quick after the initial release. Still I'm not quite sure that there's a point in doing this - why would you want to listen to a podcast quickly after a game releases to know whether you should get the game right away? Just reading posts from other forum users is going to be much more efficient. I think podcasts probably aren't suitable to time-critical work. They're more weekly magazines than the evening news, I think. But we'll see.

If you want to make up your own mind about this, you can download my recording right here. Mind you, this is my first quick attempt and it's really boring right now, so it's definitely not anything like I plan to put into the podcast. This is purely research material.

http://www.niwra.nl/tmp/splosion_man_audio_impressions.mp3

 

[patsu]

That's not good ! Apologizing before you start.

If you're not too happy with the result, it's probably better not to post it yet.

Narrating the game as you play is not entertaining, and can be down-right mundane. It's like a lecturer reading his own slides. Should be better to talk about your opinion. If you're the only speaker, then you'd need to find a solid way to draw user attention. The Zero Punctuation guy uses Flash presentation, and British humor. Other podcasts have group of people chatting around a theme. Some host gamers who call-in.

Video may work for you, but content creation is a long and tedious project. I am not sure if it will serve your purpose since you want to spend time with your family Then again, I remember you had a small interesting LBP prototype. So you should be pretty handy with design and art. Doing LBP machinima may suit you especially if at one point, Media Molecule revealed that they are working on some Internet tool. I personally wanted to try Home SDK but Sony won't bother if I don't sit down to draft a business plan.

In the mean time, it may be worthwhile to reach out to other gamers first. I used to go to Gamespot where they allow people to create their own clubs. Was able to rally a team of people with the same interest to build a website very quickly in 2 weeks. Traffic was rather decent (before I got suck into work work).

 

[Arwin]

Which part of purely research material didn't you understand? I'm just showing that what I suspected is true - narrating the game as you play definitely isn't entertaining. I'm just offering people the chance not to take my word for it (pun intended). There's an inherent risk of people misunderstanding that of course, but I'm hoping on this board this is a valid method of operation.

 

[patsu]

Well, I'm all fired up to listen already. XD

 

[Arwin]

Ha ha. Well just so you know, as far as I'm concerned this kind of section is currently not making it into the podcast. It was a good exercise for me just to create an mp3 containing voice in the first place. You could already give feedback on the voice quality, compression level, audio level, etc.

Sections that I'm currently considering for the podcast are:

"Under the Hood"
- discussion of (one or more) technical aspect(s) of a game, gaming, software or hardware

"Hot Topics"
- overview of the most active topics on the forum

"Beyond The News"
- a more in-depth look into the News of the past week
(for instance picking apart one of the bigger blog rumors with some journalistic integrity)

"Side-Tracked"
- Track hardware/software that's been out.
(It was released, but where is it today? Are people still playing? Have those drivers been fixed? New features been added? Is the community growing or is there no-one online? Etc. Readers can also submit suggestions)

"Evolved"
- discussion of important hardware/software innovations, upcoming, out now, and in the past

"Listener's Questions"
- discussion of / response to questions posed by listeners

The order is not fixed. Listener input could be put at front, or mixed through the podcast. May even invite listeners to join in on a particular discussion.

Not all sections have to be live discussions, they can also be in the form of a short spoken essay on a topic.

 

[patsu]

That's a lot of content and sections ! Are you sure your wife is not going to be madder than you just browse and post on B3D ?

Voice quality is good. I could hear you loud and clear.

EDIT: I'll shutup now. Will listen to your test material and give constructive feedback.

 

[Arwin]

Between browsing and playing games, something as constructive as making a podcast actually ranks much higher with my wife. In fact, she's volunteered contributing whenever we need an "outsider's" perspective, which is cool (she has a very nice voice and actually has done voice-over work herself for advertisements).

Note that I'm not saying all these sections can be in, or that they'll each be an hour long.

Still would be great to have some additional people who will join in on a chat here and there though! Need at least one! Otherwise I will hone in on the content of the first episode, and invite specific people for the different sections and see what that brings me.

 

[Somnambulator]

I believe that I am funny and could regularly drop zingers on this podcast.

 

[Arwin]

We're on the way with preparing some features - it may take some time before we're ready to go, but I do want the first podcast to be good. We may try to do one feature in advance though, to get more feedback.

Somnambulator, PM me something more about yourself. I'm not saying that it's easy to be funny, but it's not the first requirement, if you know what I mean.

 

[ban25]

Sounds good for a first try. When doing this kind of playthroughs, you'll probably want to play the game several times before recording so that you can get your thoughts in place and perhaps jot down a few notes if not a full script.

I recommend adding more people so that it can be a conversation rather than a narrative. Also, I would suggest you tighten the scope as far as possible. Maybe 3 seconds with a 1 minute intro for 10-15 minutes total.

Good work and I look forward to listening to the result!