1518: New Media

I’ve been contemplating the ways that people “consume” (ugh, I hate that word, but it seems to be the one in use most frequently these days) content online, and trying to determine a way it could be applied to our currently-stalled podcast over at The Squadron of Shame.

The Squadron of Shame SquadCast certainly worked extremely well for the episodes we did it for, but it did often end up being a little more demanding on the editing time than I would have liked, particularly as we’re all amateurs making use of not-brilliant equipment that often results in things like background hum, echo and other annoying flaws that are difficult to edit out. Much of my editing time was often spent manually trimming out echoes and funny noises, and in the case of a 2-3 hour episode — which most of our episodes tended to be — it would take the majority of the day to do this.

One of the things I’m wondering right now is how relevant the podcast format still is. Obviously I know that there’s enough of a market for sites like Giant Bomb to keep making one every week, and for established podcasting personalities like Garnett Lee to be able to start a new show and have people follow him to see what he’s up to. But I’m also conscious of the rise of alternative means of “consuming” (blech) content in the last couple of years, with YouTube being one particularly disruptive influence, and live broadcasts such as Twitch streaming and Google Hangouts being another.

Awareness of these alternative forms of media has made me ponder whether the standard podcast format is absolutely the best possible thing for the SquadCast going forward, or whether it’s worth contemplating an alternative means of presentation (with an accompanying means of archiving/downloading where necessary.)

The SquadCast has always been a “book group” style of discussion surrounding a game or gaming-related topic, and it’s worked well for us in the past. But gaming is also an inherently visual medium, which makes me wonder whether some form of video presentation might be worth experimenting with, perhaps combined with live broadcasting.

Another reason I bring this up is that Skype, which we have previously used to talk to one another and record the discussions we have, has become a largely unworkable mess ever since Microsoft bought it, making it impossible for me to “archive” the complete conversation just in case someone’s individual recording fails to work properly. I haven’t needed this facility on many occasions, but on the couple where someone’s recording was destroyed by Audacity’s frequent crashes, having that backup facility was a godsend. With the way Skype works now, though — you can’t run it in more than one user account on a Mac at once, which is what I used to do — working this way is impossible without an unnecessarily convoluted setup involving more than one computer.

What I’ve been pondering is making use of something like Google Hangouts, which allows for a number of features that would seem ideal for a discussion about games. It allows participants to converse via either audio or video chat, and it also allows for the footage of the participants to be intercut with other things such as videos from YouTube and the like. For example, while discussing a particularly interesting scene in a game, making use of Google Hangouts would allow you to find that scene on YouTube and then broadcast it to the people watching the Hangout, which strikes me as an eminently good idea. Presumably it would also allow for playing footage while the conversation continues over the top, which is a little more interesting than just gazing at a bunch of talking heads for a few hours.

Google Hangouts can also be easily archived to YouTube, and then one of the many YouTube-to-MP3 converters out there can be used to archive an offline version of the discussion’s audio, which can subsequently be released as a standard podcast for those who wish to continue listening in that way. It’ll be rawer due to the lack of editing and its inherently live nature, but I’ve often felt when I edit a show that I was making the job a lot more difficult and time-consuming than it really needed to be.

Anyway. I’m just thinking out loud here. Interested to know your thoughts, though, particularly if you’ve been either a listener or a participant in the SquadCast at any point in the past. (Those who are neither, you can educate yourself thanks to our archives here.)

#oneaday, Day 69: #PAX Day 2

Wow, what an insanely hectic day. This is going to be a short one as I’m absolutely knackered.

Today we caught a couple of panels – firstly, the “Death of Print” panel that my brother was appearing on along with several others, and then the “Podcasting for PR” panel featuring Shawn Elliott, Jeff Green, Ken Levine, Major Nelson and a guy from Insomniac whose name escapes me right now. Both were excellent, thought-provoking discussions. The podcasting one in particular gave us some great ideas for future podcasts, and the “Death of Print” panel raised some interesting questions and food for thought about the future of the print vs online divide. Particularly after hearing those guys speak, I firmly believe there is a future for both, but each should stop trying to be the other.

I got the chance to spend some time with my brother today, which is an extremely rare pleasure, with the last time I saw him, if I remember correctly, being our wedding well over a year ago. I also got to hang out with Shawn Elliott, N’Gai Croal and some other media types whose (I apologise) names also escape me right now in my super-tired state. Not to sound like that pathetic fanboy, but it was actually quite an honour to get the chance to sit down and talk to a selection of people who have helped shape the games industry into what it is today. So I guess this is a public “thank you” for those guys giving me the time of day – and hopefully not just because of my last name. Thank you to big bro for letting me tag along, too.

Didn’t get the chance to hang with the Squad as much as I wanted to today but, you know, family has to come first sometimes. Tomorrow, though, will be a different matter, as John flies back early in the morning leaving the day free for Squad activities. And I am certain there will be plenty – watch this space for further details!

I have more to talk about but I can barely keep my eyes open right now. More tomorrow!

The only last thing I do want to share is that PAX is awesome. It’s such a good feeling to be in a place with sixty thousand other “harmless” and “nice” people. Normally I hate being in crowds as it makes me feel self-conscious, but the wonderful thing about PAX is that we are surrounded by people who are just like us – people who like the same things (to varying degrees), people who don’t feel the need to be unpleasant just for the sake of it (the fear of which is what causes the greatest amount of anxiety to me) and above all, people who are just friendly, pleasant, intelligent and fun to be around.

Also, there was a totally hot Bayonetta cosplayer wandering around today, which made both Chris and me very happy indeed. You can mock cosplay all you want, but when someone is 1) attractive and 2) making a proper effort the results are just… wow. Anyway, enough of that. Late night delirium talking. *wipes dribble off chin*

To anyone still out on the town tonight: have a great one and I’ll catch you tomorrow. To anyone back at home wishing they were here: you should definitely make the effort to come to a PAX if you ever get the opportunity. To anyone back at home reading this and thinking “what the fuck is he talking about?” – politely respect the nerds in your community and continue about your business.

Good night!

#oneaday Day 61: Call me Gordon

I’m a free man! Yes, my contract finished today so as of right this moment I am unemployed. At least as far as that pesky full-time work goes. I’ll tell you one thing I won’t miss, and that’s the 40-mile commute with the immensely predictable traffic around Winchester. I don’t know what it is about that place, but the M3 slows to a crawl and all of the roads in and out of the city also slow to a crawl, so it’s impossible to win whichever way you choose to go. I let fly with quite a few obscenities on the way home tonight as all I wanted to do was get home.

I’m not going to be sitting on my ass doing nothing, though. I have plenty of things lined up. I have some music pupils starting this week (and, of course, if you know anyone in the Southampton area who is looking for a music teacher, kindly point them in the direction of http://www.pjedmusic.co.uk) and I am shortly to put up a site advertising IT tuition services. Then I’ll be doing some writing, too, for a couple of different sites: Kombo.com and DailyJoypad.co.uk, both of which are going to be a great way to get some exposure for my writing, along with the stuff I’ve done for Good Old Games and WhatTheyPlay in the past.

Right now, it’s late, there are drunken morons shouting incoherently outside my window and I’ve just finished recording an episode of the Exploding Barrel Podcast with the ever-awesome Minotti brothers. Just looked out of the window and the noise was being made by two… I hesitate to call them “men” because they were acting like the kids I’ve been teaching. Two of them. It sounded like a bloody football crowd. And this after Southampton was (apparently) voted “most welcoming and friendly city in the UK“. (I call bullshit on that, by the way, in case you hadn’t guessed).

Tomorrow is the first day of a new beginning, or something. I’m meeting one of my (potential) new pupils, I’m getting some stuff sorted ready to do my website writing and I’ll have the chance to kick back and actually relax a bit for what feels like the first time in months. It’s like a big weight has gone from my shoulders.

I feel bad for my colleagues I left behind as they are without exception awesome people that I will miss a great deal, and they’re in a tough situation that is going to be hard work to get through. What I won’t miss, however, is the stress of that job, the (8-year old) kids who climb walls and get brought in by the police, the reams and reams of ultimately fairly meaningless paperwork, the finger-wagging “official” people telling us that we don’t know what we’re doing and… well, you get the idea. Here’s to a more positive future, but I will spare a thought for those great people I worked with regularly.

I’m just rambling now, clearly. I think it’s time to go to bed. Up and at ’em tomorrow morning… and PAX is creeping ever closer. I can’t wait.