Gaming podcasts galore

Seems like two months ago, I couldn't find a gaming-oriented "podcast" to save my life. (Sometimes called "audio blogs," "podcasting" is poorly named after the brand of technology that seemed to lead the demand for such offerings, the Apple iPod. I prefer "audio blog" for blog-like material. I'm not sure about more polished shows... "radio program" sounds right, except there's no actual radio involved. Kind of the same problem with the term "podcast"... a radio program without a radio is poorly named. Maybe just "audio program," like "audio drama" has replaced "radio play" since audio drama seems more common on the Internet than on actual radio nowdays.)

Anyway, all of a sudden, there are gaming-related audio programs popping up left and right... here are the ones I've found so far:

• "Have Games, Will Travel"
• Capsule reviews
• "All Games Considered"
• Reviews, news bits, chatter
• "Dice Make Bonk"
• Chatting about games
• "Starting Now"
• A D&D group recaps their gaming session
• "The RPG Publishing Gauntlet"
• RPG publisher advice from Louis Porter Jr
• "Ogre Cave Audio Report"
• A game store owner and the editors of Ogre Cave talk about the biz
• RPGMp3.com
• Included for completeness, RPGMp3.com isn't really the same class of audio program.. instead of someone telling us about something, they're primarily recordings of actual game sessions. They've been around for awhile and have twenty-some sessions of The World's Largest Dungeon recorded.)

Now, I'm a big audiobook and audio drama listener. I've got a subscription to Audible.com, and I listen to shows off the net where I can find them. So gaming audio programs have to have something "real" to offer if I'm going to take a break from a riveting audiobook to listen to someone gab about gaming.

So far, what I've listened to has been a rather mixed bag. Some of these programs have a very clear idea of their audience and their purpose, others just gab about whatever and have no message or target audience. It seems like, "We wanted to do a podcast, so here we are, gabbing about games." They might be funny, but funny doesn't hold my interest for week after week.

There's a wide range of production value... some do almost no editing (including not editing out the "we're going to edit that out" comments), while "Dice Make Bonk" spent two months, with over four hours of recorded material to produce their first twenty-minute show... and with all that time spent, it still had the "we recorded it in the kitchen" echo to it, and was nothing but talking about how they got started in gaming.

I want to say that the best in terms of knowing what it's about is "The RPG Publishing Gauntlet," except that Louis just spent the last two weeks telling us about his experience with Haven: City of Violence getting optioned by a Hollywood producer. Not exactly the kind of advice small-time RPG publishers are likely to need. But Louis is fun to listen to, and aside from the Hollywood rabbit-trail, his program has been informative to the relatively small audience. But at least he knows his audience.

I've been thinking about doing an audio program myself. I've had an interest in recording audiobooks and audio drama for some time. An audioblog would be fun to do... but I don't know what my message or audience is. So I'm not doing anything at this point. It's all about content. I'm not sure what I write in my blog is worth getting out on audio. I know what I'd do if I could fly around the world and do recordings with other people. But that's just not in the cards.

One thing I'd like to see someone else do is create a comprehensive industry news program. Something that would let me stop reading GamingReport.com and let me listen to it instead. But that's not the one for me.