g.man wrote:

No it isn't. Seriously Dean, if we can't even have a debate about this without everyone taking offence to any opinion other than there own, then we're fucked before we get out the starting gate. If you want to make shit happen, then I humbly suggest you consider leading by example. peace g.man

@g.man , I've done nothing other than be positive, accepting and enthusiastic from day one of this forum.

Even in this thread I've gone to lengths to explain my points, be reasonable and give examples of why and how I think we should do certain things.

At no point did I resort to name calling.

At one point I did resort to snide remarks and for that I apologise - but to pretend that I've just been sitting idly by poking fun is both disingenuous and insulting.

The above post from Monkey basically sums up the issue I'm having. 

I'm genuinely trying to be positive. If you have issue with that, then perhaps we need to have a chat about that offline? 

From this thread I've gathered that certain people want things and certain others don't. 

I've suggested ways of making this place turn a profit which were shot down straight away. 

I've suggested ways of getting the community to interact with each other that have been met with a few negative reactions.

I'm confused on both accounts. It seems that regardless of how and when I want to step up and help I'm met with a confusing array of negativity from a few different corners.

P.S. I took offence because to mod because this is an internet forum and both of us weren't communicating effectively which is a particularly common problem. Both of us are over it I'm sure. Members like Monkey do not help when they raise the tension with snide little remarks after 150 posts where they had zero involvement.

This will be the last thing I say on the matter for a couple of of days because it's 5PM on a gloriously sunny day in Vancouver, it's my birthday tomorrow and quite frankly there are more important things on my agenda. 

BUT: I'm extremely proud of this place. I have very fond memories of the last seven years of being with you guys and I want to do my best to make this place last for another seven. I believe the best way to do that is to communicate as best we can, be positive about suggestions and not belittle each other in threads like this. The very fact that someone could consider making this place more functional and appealing to it's members a negative confuses me. But regardless, I want the best for this place and I'll continue to open myself up to criticism in the pursuit of those ideals. 

Have a good weekend everyone.

LOVE

We all need to learn to that Dean. This is our house now. It's important.

enjoy your weekend

g.man

I'd be interested in contributing the odd piece of wordery concerning gaming stuff in Korea. I could even try and go pro at Starcraft. We could make a documentary about it if we had some funding.... TO KICKSTARTER, GENTLEMEN.

I'd be eager to see this place expand and give creative types avenues for expression, opinion, and all that jazz. I like what Google has suggested, though anything along the lines of a podcast should be put on the back burner for now.

We've got plenty of design people, let's do a topical gaming webcomic, there aren't enough of those on the web.

Debate about adding some kind of community based blog type functionality.

and suchlike

g.man

@google

I've had a sleep and I want to apologise for shitting on your podcast idea. If you want to do/organise it then great, however I've got some suggestions for how it should look which I'd like the forum opinions on.

Be inclusive. Don't just pick two people to do it with and that's that (point JonB was making)

Regularly offer up others the chance to join in. Perhaps keep a core of two and then two guests each time (month?)

Make it more of a show and less of a chat down the pub. Have interviews with community members about their specialist subjects (Lawro talking about Shmups for example)

Allow people to submit pre-recorded sections/features. Not sure what that might entail but it might be someone talking about their Trials addiction for example

Be a host, have a structure that allows different types of segments and be able to interview/link sections when needed

Ask the community to produce the intro and outro music and maybe a logo

Host it off site say Souncloud purely for bandwidth considerations.

Basically, get as many people over the course of many episodes involved as possible. Don't let a tiny group be the "forum voice" like JonB was saying. People might actually prefer to record a segment than write up a blog post. Obviously this is a bigger ask than just recording a Skype conversation, but if it's worth doing then it's worth doing right.

WWWWAAAAA I HAS ALL THESE IMPORTANT THOUGHTS ABOUT GAMESSS.
THIS WEEK I AM LISTENING TO SOME OBSCURE THING THAT'S TOO COOL FOR YOU AND I LIKE THAT FILM TOO IT ARE GRT.

Too cool for podcasts. Post-podcast = fuck all podcasts.

XTC_NRG_4_DARKRAVER wrote:

Can there not just be a forum without the need to get all fucking manic then forget about it in a week.

This *10^99

My worry is the forum is secondary to blogs, pods and articles, which it shouldn't be. I also share Mods fear that it becomes a popularity contest vying for a spot on the pod or whatever

I wanna talk shit with friends, if by some miracle I say something interesting then by all means share it, I claim no more ownership than I do over letters to Edge or From the Forum posts. I hope you guys are careful enough to do the same

I remember me, Reg, Tempy and possibly a couple others were going to make a drunken games podcast.

I imagine it would have been horrific but probably would have been a hella lot of fun.

Gonzo wrote:

come on larry, just think of all those people insta-smelted in the towers. Do it for them.

Think of the h8 mail.

I have an idea for a podcast. I listen to quite a lot of them right now, thanks to having a 90-mile-a-day commute, and I don't think there's any room left for a generic "what have we played, what's the gaming news, what's coming out, hey let's talk about E3" style of podcast. There are dozens of professional ones of those tied to gaming news sites, and hundreds of amatuer ones too, so I can't see any real reason why someone leafing through iTunes or whatever would choose to pick up a B&B-themed one.

However, I've started listening to the Cane & Rinse podcast, and as imitation's the sincerest form of flattery, I think there's a lot about their approach to flatter; and I think the concept fits in better with the idea of a community podcast, and makes it less likely to end up as just the same 2 or 3 people. It can even avoid the need for a volunteer to be the anchor every time.

C&R, for those who haven't heard of it, don't bother with the usual news/reviews/opinion stuff, and instead focus each podcast on an individual game. They have a team of 8-10 people, and have between 3 and 6 people participating on each episode. Each game is picked by consensus, and all the participants replay it, start to finish, and then they spend a couple of hours looking into it in detail. They've done some retro stuff, Luigi's Mansion and Eternal Darkness on the GC, and a quite wide array of modern stuff, from Deus Ex:HR to Bastion, and this week's was on thatgamecompany's games.

It's a nicely different approach from 2 or 3 identikit "what have you played" podcasts, where frankly you only end up listening because you like the personalities; that's all that separates them from the others. With this sort of approach though, we'd at least stand out a teeny bit.

It helps make it more inclusive as well. There's no reason at all why I couldn't stick a post up in the podcast thread saying that I fancy chairing a discussion on (say) Far Cry 2, and recruiting 3-4 people to join me. If 12 people wanted to do it, we'd have to sensibly trim it down to get a cross-section of views, but realistically I wouldn't suspect it was oversubscribed. So we could have me talking about FC2, DS supporting me on its brilliance, Tempy joining in because he's never played it so got it specifically for the podcast, and Workid (for example) there because he hated it.

Next episode could be gav, Optimark and reg talking about a Dreamcast game. The one after that could be metagonzo, ere and SomeGuy talking about Minecraft. The next one 5 people talking about a big PC release, then 4 of us older ones randomly talking about an Amiga game.

A thread on each episode would help thoroughly engender discussion here, and as I said, the concept helps keep it inclusive and avoid any fear of cliqueness. It avoids the need for a core team, except a handful of editing volunteers. It stands out a bit too, as something different from "some people you don't know with no background in the games industry talk about this week's gaming news." Some episodes might be total shit, but every podcast seems to start like that until it finds its feet a bit.

I like the idea of different people each time, as while I'd love to join in with a few, I'd also love a few I hadn't participated in for this commute.

Any thoughts?

Without wishing to offend anyone (for a change), the idea of a podcast with people talking about games is a about the most boring, anal and depressing thing I could think of. I've never heard any gaming podcast that wasn't mind numbingly dull. I frankly can't see any reason for it at all. I mean, everybody's opinions are expressed here already. What would be the point of an audio version of this?

Tempy wrote:

We've got plenty of design people, let's do a topical gaming webcomic, there aren't enough of those on the web.

Loller

I like Elm's idea, or at least the notion of picking a topic well in advance so as to gather a cast list prior that actually have strong things to say 'pon topic. For reference, this is what Selectbutton do, and they've churned out nigh 50 episodes now. (Which isn't to say they're stellar, 'cuz they ain't - not enough personality tangents and they've near zero comic panache.)

Also wouldn't restrict the subject to videogames - I like to suppose there's more of something approaching expertise in other fields aplenty around here now.

Am also a podcast addict, though. A poddict. Particularly when a show guarantees hardball Information.