Gamer Podcasts

Parallax Abstraction wrote:

You're not. I've taken stick in several places for just disliking Andrea because she's a women and that's crap. I dislike her because she's annoying and doesn't contribute much of value.

Precisely.

Like you, I'm a completionist as well, so I endured those two WCs. I find myself wondering just what Weekend Confirmed wants to be. Garnett's Tree House of Pals? A weekly professional discussion of gaming? Who can say?

If these are so-called professionals, then don't drink when recording. Because it always shows. If they want to talk about something, maybe make notes about it instead of forgetting what it was they wanted to say. (Hello, Andrea.) Yes, these podcasts are free, but our time isn't. We have taken the time to download the show, have taken the time to give it our attention. There is a cost involved. If your ego and/or need to create a podcast is there, you need an audience. Stop treating them like they should be so honored to hear your slurring words of wisdom.

On the bright side, (new year's resolution in effect), I also like Andrew Yoon. I hope he finds a good podcast to be on one day.

Parallax Abstraction wrote:

You're not. I've taken stick in several places for just disliking Andrea because she's a women and that's crap. I dislike her because she's annoying and doesn't contribute much of value.

I was sure that was me :p. Receiving the stick, that is. Although just on this website.

I've never been called out directly but on other occasions where I've mentioned a dislike for an episode Andrea was on, the context of the discussion immediately shifted to the "because she's a woman" angle. A similar issue happened after both of the E3 Bombcasts Leigh Alexander was on. I'll be the first to admit that there is plenty of sexism in both the game community and the development/commentary industries. I just wish that I didn't have to prefix any criticism of a female gaming personality with "This isn't because she's a woman but..." Such is how things go sometimes though so meh.

I'm confused. Is this the default podcast thread now? Because I posted a link in a different one.

The trap I fell into was that I said she was so completely awful that the only reason she was on there was to try to address the gender imbalance. For the record, I liked Ariel on the show (especially when she covered JRPGs), a shame that her job at Sony seems to preclude her from regular appearances.

Anyway, I'm not so fussed these days but in the beginning it seemed like she was on almost every episode. Now it's more like one in four.

KidDork wrote:

People getting drunk do not make for enjoyable podcasts.

What is worst is when they drink really close to the mic and you can hear them gulping. Instant shift+delete.

My feed to so full of podcasts that I haven't listened to that came out December. I cant wait to dive back in to that. The only podcast that I've kept up with is GWJ, by far my favourite.

What method do you guys use to keep up to date with the latest Podcasts?

I firstly use Google Reader and connect all the RSS feed there.
Then I use Feed Demon and link that to Google Reader. I then disable images and adjust the layout a bit. Then whenever I browse my feeds at work it looks like a basic email client. As soon as people see a browser open or a picture on an email they ask why I'm not working. This way I can give myself that short break in between workloads.

On that note I subscribe to the following podcasts:
•8-4 Play (Good to listen to when I want a break from regular western gaming)
•Epicbattleaxe (I quite enjoy this)
•GWJ (my favourite)
•Giant Bombcast (Very funny at times)
•Polygon Besties (it was funny at first, but seeing that most of their podcasts are about iOS gaming I do feel left out for the most part)
•The Indoor Kids ( Very awesome. Highly recommended to people looking for a gaming podcast that doesnt go on about the latest games but rather more on gaming in general or random interviews etc)
•4Player Podcast( only recently discovered this one it seems nice but ill have to listen a bit longer to get a real feel, I didnt like the cocktail time sister podcast at all though)
•Career tools -NON GAMING ( very nice tips for the general workplace environment such as resume building to asking for a raise.)
•Freakonomics -NON GAMING (interesting but short)
•IGN Gaming Podcasts - I love Game Scoop and Nintendo Voice Chat (Beyond and Unlocked is nice to hear their analysis on latest news topics)
•PC Gamer - They dont really deliver podcasts often but it's nice to listen to once they do release one.
•The Moth -NON GAMING - I love the stories

I subscribe to many more general news feeds though.

I simply subscribe via Zune and let my Zune grab 'em as they come out.

I will say I really love how early GWJ puts theirs up. I leave my computer on overnight on Tuesdays/Wednesdays so I can have it for the drive into work every Wednesday. No one else seems to do it like that, and Weekend Confirmed would be a lot better if I had it available for Friday instead of Monday.

1Dgaf wrote:

I'm confused. Is this the default podcast thread now? Because I posted a link in a different one.

It's the default gamer podcast (though the Whiskey Media one sits in a close second). This one also has the distinction of being the Weekend Confirmed disappointment thread.

demonbox wrote:
1Dgaf wrote:

I'm confused. Is this the default podcast thread now? Because I posted a link in a different one.

It's the default gamer podcast (though the Whiskey Media one sits in a close second). This one also has the distinction of being the Weekend Confirmed disappointment thread.

I think you guys should just start that thread. "The Weekend Confirmed Disappointment Thread" has a nice ring to it, and it seems like 80% of this thread chatter is essentially that already.

Other suggestions:
The I wish Andrea Renee Would Shut The Hell Up Thread.
The Good Lord Garnett, Please Grow Up Thread
The This Show Was So Much Better With Brian Leahy Thread

But then what would people discuss in this thread?

I'll try to remember this is the 'official' thread, so I'll post this again.

What can I say, Weekend Confirmed's popular. It's not like it's forbidden for people to talk about other shows. If anything, the controversy seems to be a big part of its popularity. /shrug

"Any press is good press I guess." -Harry Hess

I didn't enjoy the last Giant Bomb, that off the cuff live thing they did when no one was there. It wasn't up to their usual standard.

alexjg42 wrote:

•Career tools -NON GAMING ( very nice tips for the general workplace environment such as resume building to asking for a raise.)

Awesome, I need exactly this right now. In turn, I'll give you three of my favorites off the top.

Player One Podcast: They mostly talk about the news that week, what they're playing, and quite a few joking tangents. They're probably the most consistently funny gaming podcast I listen to, but know going in that alot of their jokes are self-referential. Stick with it!

Idle Thumbs: They get into deep game discussions about mechanics, experiences, narrative, and what is game. Fun is still had, though; a balanced affair.

The Bugle: World news comedy. Put out weekly, their mostly smart joking about the world never seizes to amuse me. I can remember only one episode where I didn't laugh out loud.

I fully support Dyni's Weekend Confirmed threads for they shine with comic wit.

I'm so old school when it comes to downloading. I keep a notebook beside my computer of what I've listened to, and then go to iTunes and download where I left off on a podcast. I keep notes on what I liked, what I think I've had enough of, and I also write down the ones suggested here. (Thanks, alexjg42!)

I'm currently listening to Player Ones as far back as the release of Halo 3, while trying to catch up on far too many I've fallen behind on. It's ironic I'm up to date on the one that raises my blood pressure the most.

I got rid of the iTunes plague a while ago but unfortunately, there's no easy way to download podcasts from RSS on PC any more. All the dedicated podcast downloading tools have long since stopped being supported. Many of them can't be downloaded any more and most of the ones that can are lacking important features like being able to run in the background or save stuff to specific folders. I'm currently using Doppler which is a bug ridden piece of crap that crashes constantly but it's the only thing I can find that does what I want. If I could program, I'd totally write my own freeware one.

I have a Mac so iTunes is not so bad as PC, at least so I'm told.

Yeah, iTunes pretty much takes care of podcasts for me. I subscribe and then just scan down the list for new episodes. Most have a regular release day so I often automatically go to those on my iPod without needing to check.

Pixel by Pixel has had some interesting GOTY discussion but, like they've admitted themselves, the versus format has been a little weird. XCom vs Farcry 3? Tough!

Some more Weekend Confirmed titles:
"Yoon's sexy lisp"
"Spicer's funnier when he's not trying so hard"
"Jeff Mattis can eat my lunch anyday!"
"Bring back Ariel!"
"Jeff Cannata's god damn show"

No Mac for me but I do have an iPhone - Instacast for me.

Mr GT Chris wrote:

I have a Mac so iTunes is not so bad as PC, at least so I'm told.

I don't like the iTunes user experience as a whole but enh, to each their own. For podcasts, I also like having something that checks every few hours in the background and just downloads them to my Dropbox. But I have kind of specific requirements because podcasts are all I listen to at work so I like to get them right away and without having to leave a large application running all the time.

Parallax Abstraction wrote:
Mr GT Chris wrote:

I have a Mac so iTunes is not so bad as PC, at least so I'm told.

I don't like the iTunes user experience as a whole but enh, to each their own. For podcasts, I also like having something that checks every few hours in the background and just downloads them to my Dropbox. But I have kind of specific requirements because podcasts are all I listen to at work so I like to get them right away and without having to leave a large application running all the time.

Have you tried subsonic? I have a dedicated ubuntu server running it. I have it check every hour for podcasts. It works very well for podcasts if you listen to them on a PC. The phone and tablet apps are not well developed enough for podcasts, however.

Parallax Abstraction wrote:

I don't like the iTunes user experience as a whole but enh, to each their own. For podcasts, I also like having something that checks every few hours in the background and just downloads them to my Dropbox. But I have kind of specific requirements because podcasts are all I listen to at work so I like to get them right away and without having to leave a large application running all the time.

I need iTunes to sync with my iPod Touch (2nd gen, iOS ver 4) so I'm kind of stuck with it no matter what. But, aside from that, it manages the task of syncing podcasts, music, photos (from iPhoto), and Mac apps like Calendar and Address Book, fairly seamlessly. I don't really use it for media consumption except for listening to the occasional podcast at my computer. So, yeah, I really don't have any problems with it.

The Zune software is free and totally fantastic. I love how it organizes my music library and has always been fantastic to use, and makes Podcasts painless.

It's also not much of a resource hog.

Big fan of Downcast for my iPad and iPhone.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

Have you tried subsonic? I have a dedicated ubuntu server running it. I have it check every hour for podcasts. It works very well for podcasts if you listen to them on a PC. The phone and tablet apps are not well developed enough for podcasts, however.

Hunh, ain't that a thing. I use Mezzmo on my PC as a streaming server but it doesn't grab podcasts and the like. I may have to give this a look cause yeah, Doppler is driving me right round the bend. Thanks!

Parallax Abstraction wrote:
tuffalobuffalo wrote:

Have you tried subsonic? I have a dedicated ubuntu server running it. I have it check every hour for podcasts. It works very well for podcasts if you listen to them on a PC. The phone and tablet apps are not well developed enough for podcasts, however.

Hunh, ain't that a thing. I use Mezzmo on my PC as a streaming server but it doesn't grab podcasts and the like. I may have to give this a look cause yeah, Doppler is driving me right round the bend. Thanks! :)

Subsonic would be perfect except for that when you stream podcasts to mobile devices, I haven't found that the iOS or WP7 apps to be very good. I haven't used iOS in a long time, so iSub my have been updated to do a better job. Anyways, it's worth checking out.

OK, this is getting OT, but since we're already here: anybody recommend a good android podcast app? I continue to use Google listen since it mostly does what I need, but it's discontinued and I need a replacement. Most promising apps cost money and while I'm willing to pay I'm not willing to just buy one without some assurance that it does not suck.

I use BeyondPod. I really like it. I've tried others but BeyondPod gives me a lot of control over how it works and it's very easy to use. Since I have a long commute, I can stop one podcast and switch to another when I'm at a light without any trouble. I really really like it.

I used Listen for a while and then picked up Pocket Casts for free via Amazon as a daily free app. Far from sucking, it was pretty solid.

+1 for pocket casts. I have it on iOS, and I'm pretty satisfied with it.