The Diablo Podcast: Volunteers Wanted

[Flux]

As a reader said 2.5 years ago, "let's make a podcast!"

Us! Diii.net, diablo.incgamers.com, The Unofficial Site, the thorn in Bliz Irvine PR's paw, etc, are starting up The Diablo Podcast very shortly, and we're looking for Diablo community members who want to participate semi-regularly. To play along you'll need skype, a high speed connection, headphones/mic, good ability to speak/understand English, at least half an hour to chat every now and then, and a passion for some aspect of Diablo III or online gaming in general. You do not have to be an expert on everything about Diablo III, and in some ways it's better if you are not. See the background/theory section below for an explanation.

What I'm looking for right now are fans who really care about some aspect of the game, positively or negative. Do you love the Wizard and magery style of play and think melee chars shouldn't even be in the game? Do you know all about Diablo's lore and want to discuss it in comparison to other fantasy/scifi? Do you love fantasy movies and want to talk about how a diablo movie could be made? Do you play WoW even though you hate the cartoony look of it and read and reread every item about the art controversy while bitter tears roll down your cheeks? Do you love modding and think D3 will suck since Bliz is doing all they can to prevent it? Then I want to hear from you!

These are not (necessarily) specific examples. They're more to give you an idea of the sort or thing we're looking for. Interesting discussion on items in the news and other major issues in the Diablo 3 community, from unique perspectives and people with strong opinions. We'll also cover the recent news, of course, especially when something big has just happened, but the goal is to make TDP much more indepth and varied in topic and presentation.

You are more than encouraged to pitch ideas and to recommend yourself or others as guests. You guys have hundreds of great ideas for podcast discussions that I've never thought of. Reply in this thread, or send me a PM or email (flux@incgamers.com) if you're interested. (I will also post regular requests for people with a specific area of knowledge/expertise, so if you're not feeling it right now, you might in the future.)

We're planning to release these weekly.I'll be the main host, and in each installment I'll basically basically interview/discuss various topics with you guys, and a wide variety of other guests. (Some of my RL friends who have expertise in various areas, plus several ex-Bliz North guys, plus some other RPG devs are already lined up as future guests, and we certainly hope Bashiok or others on the D3 team will want to play, though I kind of doubt they'll be allowed to, the way BI PR is these days.)



Background and Theory

As I said at the top, we nearly started a podcast back in 2008. At that time I'd talked extensively to Kym about it via email, and we were planning on a co-host format with occasional guests who were experts on various topics about the game, such as lore. (Honestly, that was a half-assed plan, since lore was the only area we ever really imagined experts in, mostly because that was the aspect of the Diablo series I wasn't well-versed in.)

That podcast never started, since shortly before we were going to get rolling, Kym nearly died in a car crash, spent a month in the hospital, and apparently redefined his life priorities afterward, as he left the diablo gaming community. :(

Back then, podcasts were still fairly new and uncharted territory, and while I thought the idea was cool (if possibly too soon for D3, since I figured it would be 2010 or later for a release) I did not have any real idea how it would be structured. Which is why Kym was doing most of the organization, and why I didn't go ahead and start it myself after he dropped out of sight.

Ever since then we've planned to run a Diablo podcast at some point, at least once the beta started. And as I've listened to podcasts over the years (mostly for my non-gaming interests) I've always considered how they were structured, and thought how I'd run one of my own, focused on the Diablo community. Those thoughts have grown more urgent since Blizzard has begun making believable noises about the beta starting later this year, and lately I've been talking a lot to Elly and Rush about how we could run a podcast, since they ran one on IncGamers for over a year, and may relaunch it again at some point.

There are a lot of other gaming podcasts these days, but most of the ones I've listened to (more for research more than personal interest) follow a fairly standard formula. 2 or 3 fans of a game or gaming, all fairly well informed about the topic, talk about recent news events in a semi-lectury style. Occasionally they get fantastically excited when they have a PR guy or game dev on the show, who they proceed to question in the most fawning, subservient, "your every blessed world is spun gold, my dearest friend" fashion.

That approach is simple and easy to do, but it's only as interesting as the people talking. (Which often means "not very.") Those sorts of pods are most valuable for noobs to a game or community, since they're informative. (Except of course noobs don't know they exist.) They're much less interesting/useful for people already in the community, since the pod isn't telling them anything they don't already know, and since the people running such pods are generally "fawnsite" types, they're unlikely to talk about anything controversial or point any real criticism at the game dev.

I don't exactly have a "favorite" podcast, but the one I listen to most often is by a sports writer on ESPN.com named Bill Simmons. His is structured a lot like TDP will be, Simmons hosts and in each pod he interviews/converses with someone with a particular area of expertise. Usually just his friends who are into some aspect of sports, with regular celebrity guests. But celebs who can talk and are experts in their field; NBA commissioner David Stern, for instance, rather than just some random mush-mouthed NBA player.

I also like the style of Simmons' pods, since they run 40-60 minutes, go in depth, and aren't afraid to follow a good train of conversation even if it goes off topic. I'd much rather listen to a interesting discussion that digresses from the main point than to people who stay exactly on topic and have little of interest to say about it. (A sentence that pretty well sums up my objection to the style of conversation on the vast majority of gaming pods I've listened to.)

I realize some people will disagree with me on this point of style. Those people will probably think TDP goes OT too often, or too often focuses on slightly obscure aspects of gaming or Diablo. If that's you, then you just might not care for TDP. Alas.

And of course TDP will evolve over time, and some shows will have more of a general news focus while others will be largely about specific issues, like the art controversy, or RMT, or the best/worst monsters in D2, etc. I've got a lot planned for the months/years to come.

[Flux]

Background and Theory

As I said at the top, we nearly started a Diablo podcast back in 2008. At that time I'd talked extensively to Kym about it via email, and we were planning on a co-host format with occasional guests who were experts on various topics about the game, such as lore. (Honestly, that was a half-assed plan, since lore was the only area we ever really imagined experts in, mostly because that was the aspect of the Diablo series I wasn't well-versed in.)

That podcast never started, since shortly before we were going to get rolling, Kym nearly died in a car crash, spent a month in the hospital, and apparently redefined his life priorities afterward, as he left the diablo gaming community. :(

Back then, podcasts were still fairly new and uncharted territory, and while I thought the idea was cool (if possibly too soon for D3, since I figured it would be 2010 or later for a release) I did not have any real idea how it would be structured. Which is why Kym was doing most of the organization, and why I didn't go ahead and start it myself after he dropped out of sight.

Ever since then we've planned to run a Diablo podcast at some point, at least once the beta started. And as I've listened to podcasts over the years (mostly for my non-gaming interests) I've always considered how they were structured, and thought how I'd run one of my own, focused on the Diablo community. Those thoughts grew more urgent once Blizzard begun making believable noises about the beta starting later this year, and lately I've been talking a lot to Elly and Rush about how we could run a podcast, since they ran one on IncGamers for over a year, and may relaunch it again at some point.

There are a lot of other gaming podcasts these days, but most of the ones I've listened to (more for research more than personal interest) follow a fairly standard formula. Two or 3 fans of a game or gaming, all fairly well informed about the topic, talk about recent news events in a semi-lectury style. Occasionally they get fantastically excited when they have a PR guy or game dev on the show, who they proceed to question in the most fawning, subservient, "your every blessed world is spun gold, my dearest friend" fashion.

That approach is simple and easy to do, but it's only as interesting as the people talking. (Which often means "not very.") Those sorts of pods are most valuable for noobs to a game or community, since they're informative. (Except of course the noobs don't know they exist.) They're much less interesting/useful for people already in the community, since the pod isn't telling them anything they don't already know, and since the people running such pods are generally "fawnsite" types, who are unlikely to talk about anything controversial or point any real criticism at the game dev.

I don't exactly have a "favorite" podcast, but the one I listen to most often is by a sports writer on ESPN.com named Bill Simmons. Simmons hosts, and in each pod he interviews/converses/digresses with someone with a particular area of expertise. Often just his RL friends who are into some aspect of sports, but he has regular celebrity guests as well. Celebs who can talk and are experts in their field though; NBA commissioner David Stern, for instance, rather than just some random mush-mouthed player.

I like the style of Simmons' pods, since they run 40-60 minutes, go in depth, and aren't afraid to follow a good train of conversation even if it goes off topic. I'd much rather listen to a interesting discussion that digresses from the main point than listen to people who stay exactly on topic and have little of interest to say about it. (A sentence that pretty well sums up my objection to the presentation of the vast majority of gaming pods I've listened to.)

Obviously I'm doing a lot of projecting here, since we've only got the first 5 or 6 episodes planned out at this point. Of course TDP will evolve over time, and some shows will have more of a general news focus, while others will be largely about specific issues, like the art controversy, or RMT, or the best/worst monsters in D2, etc. I've got a lot planned for the months/years to come, though, and I think these will be fun. Now I just need to work on my speaking voice, since I tend to talk way too fast, and every time I listen to myself on a recording I'm slightly horrified.

[pcguy]

I would like to hear a section of the show dedicated to class skills. There would be a focus on a single skill or a small group of skills for a particular class, what kind of rune effects you'd expect to see, what would be a neat effect, if the skill has the potential to be a focus for a build, and how it would play into the strategy of a class.

A new skill or set of skills could be featured in each podcast.

When the game actually comes out and we gain details of all of the skills and how they work, you could perhaps switch the focus to character builds and feature a different build each podcast.

[nasarius]

Re: sports podcasts, Football Weekly is something every podcast should emulate, at least conversational-wise.

since they ran one on IncGamers for over a year, and may relaunch it again at some point.

I'm not kidding when I say I would *pay* for new episodes of that podcast, with Tim, Tamer, Bill and the rest. It was hilariously funny. And it got me reading IncGamers on a regular basis.

[Due]

Sounds like a great idea. I know that Force Strategy Gaming has something similar, thus not a podcast, but what they call purgatory episodes. I've been listening to theese even though it has been needless thanks to your great job updating us every day on the latest Diablo news.

I contacted "mr force" but have yet to recieve reply :( so this comes as good newssince i would love to make something similar with diii.net and you Flux, so count me in! If you want me to elaborate on my diablo knowledge or anything else, feel free to PM

[Zarniwoop]

I'd be happy to contribute. I'm told I have a good radio voice, but I won't be popular with fanboys as I really like some areas I've seen, but I am a vehemently against what I see as the dumbing down of games in general.

[diablosminion]

i would love to see something like this start up, and i would like to be involved and help any way a fan of the diablo series can. Being a long time Diablo player i know what problems that the current games have and what makes them so great imo.

[Nizaris]

I want to give a tentative "yes, I would like to contribute." Diablo was one of my inspirations to follow a career in game making and has stolen an ungodly amount of hours from my life. My schedule is quite packed, but I would enjoy contributing given that the stars are aligned correctly.

[AxeX]

I would of loved to contribute, seeing how my take on everything Diablo III is like the color ratio in a bag of M&Ms. Sadly I know how horrible my own voice sounds and while I'd take pleasure in torturing my peers, its bad enough they have to deal with younger children with more annoying voices screaming in their ears about how they hack and cheat. I wish you guys luck on this podcast!

[Flux]

Glad to see some interest from you guys. I'll be in touch with you via PM later this week. What I'll want to hear then, and that anyone else can provide in reply here or direct msg to me, is what you want to talk about. What aspect of the game are you really passionate about, for or against.

I gave some examples in the TLDR posts above, but the theory isn't just Flux talking to 1 or 2 other guys about general stuff. It's Flux asking questions/conversing with 1 or 2 guests about specific topics that they (the guests) are especially interested in.

F'rnstance, one of the first shows will feature me talking to a couple of RL friends who were big d2 fans, then moved to wow, and are now eagerly awaiting D3. Plus they were both at the last 2 Blizzcons, so they've actually played D3 a bit. I'm curious to hear how they compare the different game experiences, what they enjoy about WoW, what they expect D3 to do for them that WoW doesn't, etc.

I think that'll be an interesting conversation, but I wouldn't tap those same 2 people for a conversation about melee vs. ranged play styles, or PKing, or the evil gleam in Bobby Kotick's eyes, etc, since those aren't issues of special importance/relevance to them. Hopefully you see my point.

Also, since a couple of people have asked about it via PM:

Skype.com -- It's free for computer to computer conversations, which is what we'll be doing with the podcast. You just need to DL it and register a skype user name so we can connect.

Also, you don't need a super fast cable modem type connection, but if you're on some janky dial up service that gives you a lot of disconnects or buffering issues, then conversation would probably be sketchy, laggy, dropped words, etc, which wouldn't make for a very enjoyable listen. If you can play WoW or other MMORPGs, and especially if you use VOIP or Ventrilo or something with them, your connection is probably good enough.