Lurker Lounge Podcast - Episode 1 is Live.

[Chesspiece_face]

Greetings everyone!

A gathering of fellow Lurkers (Frag, RTM, Monty, Treesh) and I got together to celebrate the beta weekend and put together the first of, what may become many video game related podcasts.

Tentatively named "The Devil in the Details" we brave the hell of illness and minor technical issues to pontificate on all things Diablo.

If you find the time and inclination to check it out feel free to critique!



Direct MP3 download can be found Here! (Right-click VBR MP3 file and select "Save As")

[Treesh]

Yeah, I think I'll try a different mic for next time. This one really has some weird distortions. =)

[LavCat]

Greetings everyone!

A gathering of fellow Lurkers (Frag, RTM, Monty, Treesh) and I got together to celebrate the beta weekend and put together the first of, what may become many video game related podcasts.

Thanks! I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but I found the commentarty thoughtful and interesting. Unfortunately we are having much rain here and my Comcast connection went out fifty minutes into the video. Now that the Internet has come back I seem to have lost my sound.

[Bolty]

Chesspiece_face, mind if I "frontpage" this by moving it to the news forum? It's really great stuff.

[Chesspiece_face]

Chesspiece_face, mind if I "frontpage" this by moving it to the news forum? It's really great stuff.

By all means go for it.

[NuurAbSaal]

As I said on the YouTubes: I really enjoyed the podcast!

Can't wait to hear more from you or maybe even get some co-op gameplay done in the future.

take care
Tarabulus

[RTM]

I found the video I mentioned in the podcast:

http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1015306/The-Art-of-Diablo

It's a fascinating look at the graphics design of D3 and the process they went through to get the end result.

[NuurAbSaal]

I found the video I mentioned in the podcast:

http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1015306/The-Art-of-Diablo

It's a fascinating look at the graphics design of D3 and the process they went through to get the end result.

Highly interesting, thanks for the link.

take care
Tarabulus

[Crusader]

Nice show guys.

1: I heard Treesh talk for the first time. Knowing someone for so long and then hearing them speak for the first time is so darn awkward.
2: A lot of topics I can only agree on. I'm in the 'old school diablo players' group you guys are so I could only nod at most of the stuff.
3: The Real Money AH: I agree I won't spend a penny, but I will put items on it. That way I'll have digital cash I can spend on other items. I think that won't be so bad. I'm personally curious how that economy will evolve.
4: Ladder resets vs Saturation vs Real Money AH: You spent money.... but suddenly you are not in the Ladder any more? But if they don't reset the ladder, it will saturate. Interesting topic I think.

[Treesh]

4: Ladder resets vs Saturation vs Real Money AH: You spent money.... but suddenly you are not in the Ladder any more? But if they don't reset the ladder, it will saturate. Interesting topic I think.

Well, they could do it like the hardcore characters and just not let ladder characters access the RMAH. *shrugs* We'll see.

[MonTy]

1: I heard Treesh talk for the first time. Knowing someone for so long and then hearing them speak for the first time is so darn awkward.

Just wait until you see the webcam edition! Hehe jk, but thanks for the positive comments of the show.

[Chesspiece_face]

Nice show guys.

1: I heard Treesh talk for the first time. Knowing someone for so long and then hearing them speak for the first time is so darn awkward.
2: A lot of topics I can only agree on. I'm in the 'old school diablo players' group you guys are so I could only nod at most of the stuff.

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it!

These are good points.
1. We've got a lot of Lurker staples and anyone who is interested in participating is welcome. If scheduling/technical details can be worked out I think guest stars is an interesting opportunity. The more points of view the better.
2. Even if people don't want to be on an episode or aren't available I'm always interested in hearing ideas for discussion topics.

I can always be PM'd if people are interested in joining in or if anyone has their pet topic they would like hear discussed.

[Treesh]

1: I heard Treesh talk for the first time. Knowing someone for so long and then hearing them speak for the first time is so darn awkward.

Just wait until you see the webcam edition! Hehe jk, but thanks for the positive comments of the show.

And until he hears me swear up a storm at the game.

[swirly]

And until he hears me swear up a storm at the game.

I don't think anyone can claim to have really heard you until they have heard you swear.

[swirly]

I started watched this and then stopped 10-15 minutes in. I didn't really look at the time, I just know it was somewhere near the start. It was just boring me to death so I stopped and did something else for a bit. Knowing the people involved on various personal levels made me decide to go back and finish it that same day. (This was when it was first posted so it has been a little while now) I skipped past some of the start and let it play for a bit and then when I started being bored again I'd skip forward some more. I did eventually finish it and overall feel like I'll listen to more, but that is probably largely influenced by knowing the people involved. Skipping past bits seems a bad sign.

I've been thinking about what was boring me and I think it is when any one person had a big chunk to say. It's like when raiding in WoW and somebody spends 5 minutes explaining the strat. Invariably half the raid ends up missing a bunch of the explanation cause people just tune out when it is the one voice going on and on. I think it is the same with netcasts. (Tis what I call a podcast when it incorporate video of some type. I mention this since you questioned what to call it.) It is really tough to have a block of only one person talking and keep it entertaining. In some bits the conversation was more back and forth and that is where it was better. I'm sure that will improve with time and getting used to doing it together. Something to keep in mind though. To try to steer things toward the interactivity rather than the one person relating their whole view/experience and then another person doing the same.

I've debated whether or not to post my experience with it, but figure it is probably useful to hear more than just people saying they loved it.

[MonTy]

Hey Swirly, thanks for your feedback. We would not be lurkers if we couldn't take criticism! Hope you enjoy future episodes, I know we'll get better with time

[Chesspiece_face]

I've debated whether or not to post my experience with it, but figure it is probably useful to hear more than just people saying they loved it.

Thanks for your feedback. This is actually a multi-faceted issue. Some of it will undoubtably get better with time, but some of it will stay throughout future recordings.

You mention raid preperations. One of the major reasons that most raid preperations end up like that is because they often use Vent, Mumble, or Team Speak. These programs have inherant delays between the broadcast of speach. This causes serious issues if you have multiple people speaking at the same time with increasing feedback and distortions the longer it occurs. This isn't an issue with our recordings as we are using Skype, but it is still a habit that people bring into the recording process from experience with the other programs. It is something that with time we can probably break.

Another issue is how we decide to record the vocal tracks. For episode 1 we recorded everything on to one track. This inherantly makes it more difficult to edit multiple vocal sources with varying levels etc. when they are talking at the same time. This is something we may decide to alter, but it really depends on how much of a hassle it will be to everyone.

Lastly, we are all Lurkers through and through. We like to talk and theorycraft ad nauseum. That will probably not change and even if we do adjust to some of the above issues there will still most likely be long periods of pontification. That's just how the structure of the production is. It may not be for everyone.

A seperate issue you bring up is vidcast/podcast. I definitely view this experiment as a podcast. The only reason that it is primarily going up over YouTube at the moment is because it is simply easier to publish content through that service. Because it is going up on YouTube I feel a semi-responsibility to add in some video content that relates to the discussion in some way. This may be a destracting factor to the main content, but I will probably continue recording video for the Youtube publications. I hope to have basic audio recordings up through iTunes at some point but that requires looking into hosting and things of that nature. It can be a pain.

[NuurAbSaal]

It is really tough to have a block of only one person talking and keep it entertaining.

I enjoyed those parts quite a bit. I have more problems with people talking simultaneously and stopping-starting a few times. I guess it's a matter of taste and what you want out of the series, something more in the form of a dialogue or, as Willy puts it, "pontification".

I'm ok with both, if the subject matter is interesting to me (which it was). I'd appreciate better audio quality though

take care
Tarabulus

[Treesh]

I'd appreciate better audio quality though

take care
Tarabulus

We are definitely working on that, especially on my end. =)

[Chesspiece_face]

Episode 2 is up!

Progress is made on the technical side of things and we get to practice more of our rambling skills in preperation for the upcoming launch of Diablo 3!



Mp3 Direct Download can be found Here!