Official State of the Game Podcast Thread - Page 38

Let me open this with some praise. I love the podcast. It satisfies my curiosity when it comes to how pros think about things, giving a glimpse of the mysterious "inside". In addition to being informative and insightful, it's also utterly hilarious -- in particular the contrast created by Incontrol and Nony.

As much as I love it, however, I still think it could be improved. In fact, I'm sure it will improve naturally, as the participants become (even more) comfortable with each other; with the various segments; with how to interact without stepping on each other's toes. In a few months, SotG should be a superb production.

For now, I have some suggestions:

1) The length is really pushing the limit for a podcast, as most people don't often have a 2-hour slot open in their daily lives. Streamlining the content is probably a good idea. If you feel some segments didn't work out all that well, consider cutting them out before release. I'd imagine this is a difficult choice, since there'll be listeners who think any Idra time is gold, but I'd probably have been happier never knowing about the lightning quiz, as an example. Quality over quantity, if you don't mind.

2) Don't invite more than one guest at a time. It's fun to hear different opinions, but it starts getting tedious cycling through 6 people for every single question. It also affects listening comprehension, when you accidentally get so many people talking at once. I think 4 members is ideal, but I appreciate the weekly guest, and it's not like I want you to cut out a regular. Just... try to stick to a singular guest. Keep it focused, and give your special guest some love.

3) Plan out the format more carefully ahead of time, so you can cut down on awkward pauses and overly meandering discussions. Specifically, be more forceful with guiding the conversation, and I think you should find a visual aid to help you (silently) "point out" speakers, so you can avoid breaks where people try to figure out if it's their turn yet.

4) Fix the sound issues ASAP. You don't need every member present to make sure they can be heard properly ahead of recording. It's usually very hard to hear what Incontrol is saying, because his voice will suddenly drop into a whisper, which is sad when he's so witty. If he needs a new microphone that doesn't suck, I'm sure listeners wouldn't mind donating a dollar or two. (And next time, ask Idra not to puff straight into the mic, just move it out of the way of his breathing path.)

5) Stop reading entire patch note paragraphs out loud. Everyone's seen them and know what you're talking about. Just condense them into short bullet points before recording, so you can move through them more quickly.

6) Introduce people properly at the start of every episode, so new listeners know who's who. The group has a tendency to call each other by first name (Jeff, Sean, etc), but when I first heard the podcast, I had no clue that Jeff = Incontrol or Tyler = Nony. Keep the confusion to a minimum.

7) Consider splitting the podcast into biweekly episodes, so you can run 1-2 regulars + guest(s) and mix them up depending on who has time, etc. This may simplify things a lot. Might be hard to find the time, though. Still, it seems like you have plenty of things to talk about, especially during GSL season, so I doubt you'd run out of topics.

8) Force Day9 to retweet new episodes, so it reaches more people. He's been neglecting it lately! With his 7000+ followers it would bring in tons of new listeners.


Hope this doesn't come across as nagging, because I really, really enjoy the show. SotG fighting!

A lot of good points, but I don't really agree with #1, 2, and 7. The length is great because the content is there to support it. I've never gotten bored listening to a SotG podcast. Honestly I wouldn't even have a problem with them being longer. Its not like you absolutely have to listen to the whole thing in one sitting.

Multiple guests is fine, and it's been fine in the past. I'm assuming you're referencing Psy having very little speaking time, maybe I'm wrong, but multiple guests has been fine before, and I don't see any reason to specifically limit it to one. One thing to limit the cycling through many people for every question point you made, is to direct certain questions only at one or a few people, which JP already does occasionally.

I think #7 directly contradicts your #1, in that a bi-weekly podcast would mean it would be even longer, and it also means the topics are less up to date. Things that happened like 12-13 days ago would either be old news, or cut completely, and that is kinda lame. Also cutting it down to so few people would make it less entertaining as well I believe. Honestly point #7 just sounds like it'd water down the whole experience and make it not nearly as entertaining as it is now.

Also as far as #8, a shoutout on the daily would probably do much more than a retweet, if I had to guess.

Keep up the good work JP/everyone involved, if nothing else, this podcast is far and away the most hilarious starcraft content out there. I can't say I've ever cried laughing to anything else.

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