Would it be too awkward to Skype Alex Navarro in on Bombcasts, occasionally?

He seemed to fit in well enough during the final 2012 GOTY podcast, so I think it could still work if they slot him in every so often. Not for a whole podcast, but at least allow him to chip in every once and a while.

If it's a choice between More Alex or No Alex, my vote goes to More Alex.

Somebody post the "all the familiarity of a Skype podcast" clip from the Bombcast.

It would be awkward, but that's why it needs to happen.

A lot of the podcasts I listen to are done over Skype and they are fine, the main issue is how many people are in the conversation, 6 people is a bit much on a regular basis.

He would not be in the room, not the same but who knows since its theater of the mind

is mbmbam done over skype, im pretty sure it is

@video_game_king said:

Done.

Yes, it is. That's the awkwardness I'm talking about: it's very slight, but sometimes they talk over each other, then pause and say "-ergh, you go ahead".

GOD YES!

The problem with Skype is that it's terrible if you're trying to make a professional-sounding recording.

@euandewar:It is, but those guys are family, and they do it in their free time. Alex is four hours ahead of the other guys, so he'd probably be well into his evening when they started recording. Time zones are bothersome like that. I wouldn't blame him if he wanted to keep his free time to himself, instead of spending them on more work.

You also shouldn't underestimate the lag you get when Skyping that far. Lots more people talking over each other happens in that sort of situation.

All that said, if he was up for it I'd be down for hearing him pop in occasionally.

You just made the perfect case for Swatch Internet time

Podtoid sounds fine and that's a Skype podcast

I just want more Alex.

@scrawnto: Yeah, timezones are a valid point. Even if they wanted to record the Bombcast earlier in the day to accommodate Alex, the studio they record in sounds like it has a schedule and it might be difficult to change their time slot. Taking up Alex's entire Tuesday evening is probably not ideal for him.

Still, even just bringing Alex in for the News/Emails/New Releases portion of the Bombcast would be something, especially given that, at present, the Bombcast seems to spend like 100+ minutes on Introduction/Whatcha Been Playin', then frantically rushes through News/Emails/New Releases in the last like 45 minutes of the podcast.

This site needs more Alex. It would be great to have him on the Bombcast every once in a while.

Skype is always death for podcasts, without exception.

Podcasts should always have all participants in the same room.

How? However the beats work, they don't magically make sun shine over the entire world simultaneously? SIT or not, whenever they do something on the west coast, it is still later in the day than on the east coast.

A properly produced podcast with Skype users can work really well, but with a room full of people and one guy on the phone the rhythm gets broken up too much. I like hearing from Alex occasionally, and hope all of his travel to the bay area can include a Bombcast, but I don't think it works well enough to be a regular thing. It also adds time to the production side of things because unless you want it to sound like crap, you need the Skype caller to record their audio locally, upload it to the person producing the podcast, and then they have to sync it in.

It would feel forced, if it wasn't a special occasion, like a GOTY podcast. I've come to expect that Skype conversation sound from most other podcasts these days, but one of the things that really ups the quality of the bombcast in my mind is that it is four dudes sitting around talking shop so they are able to play off each other in real time and maintain a consistent sound quality.

It worked fine in that Game of the Year podcast.

@mildmolasses: ...it was just a joke

I think the last big live live show proved that. I'd imagine feeling like the third wheel too. It would just break up the flow way too much. I don't even think he ever wanted to podcast.

If it would be too awkward to have Alex on the Bombcast proper, Jeff should just do a separate, hour-long Skype cast with him every couple of weeks so he can chime in on topics and have someone to bounce his thoughts off of. They could have a rotating third seat, too, if someone else wanted to join in. Would like to hear what @alex thinks about something like this possibly happening.

It seems to work alright for the Judge John Hodgman podcast (I think they usually use Skype for that, at least).

I wish Alex was in every podcast.

More Alex is always good.

It would be awkward, but get him on for about an hour on a podcast once every month. It would be nice to not have to wait till the end of the year to hear his opinions.

Ex. I got Hotline Miami after Alex fought so hard for it, and LOVED it. He definitely needs to get on more often.

Probably not with the Bombcast, the podcast is crowded enough with 5 crew members. Also Skype doesn't work well, look at the comicvine podcast with Sara skyping in for each episode. Half the time she either gets cut off or doesn't speak for full on segments, totally different compared to if you were in the same room with those people. Seriously would enjoy a off shoot podcast every now and then with Alex in it but not every week.

I think it could work if Alex was acknowledged as the 'primary speaker' for 30-45 minutes every few episodes, with him giving his opinions on what he's played since his last visit, with the rest of the crew maybe prompting questions for certain things they already discussed about the games, to get his take on them. Trying to have a back and forth between him and a room full of other dudes is probably not the way to go about it.

I wouldn't mind more Alex in Bombcasts.

I would say yes, but only if they can get rid of the lag. The bombcast is fast and loose, no time to awkwardly have pauses that rival a jrpg.

They should at least have him on when he's reviewed a big release, like SimCity. It would be interesting to hear him talk about the games he's played and reviewed just like the other guys.

More Alex would work for me. It might give the other guys a week off here or there.

On the topic, the way the dynamic in Bombcast works, I'm not sure if any video conference will work out well because of the way they play off each other's reactions.

On the topic of Skype itself, I find the application has gotten worse and worse in terms of interface and quality ever since Microsoft has taken it over. As shown above doing even simple stuff is stupidly complex while they made sure it was really easy to see multiple ads.

When Jeff and Brad(?) were playing Too Human, I was thinking it would be cool to have a feature where one of the bomb crew plays a online game, or MMO, and Alex joins the game with them, they cut the stream in, somehow, or just record it locally, and splice it together later.

The only stipulation is that the only communication is the communication options aloud in game.

If we want to get to solving the technical problem: Giantbomb should run their own private Ventrillo or Teamspeak server for occasions when they need this type of conferencing. They should be using those when ever they do a MP game on those live shows anyway.

Skype is poor if not terrible solution to the problem where even Google Hangouts do a better job and that says a lot.

Eh the destructoid guys have been podtoiding with Skype for years and theirs are just fine. Yeah its less professional and awkward at times but I could go for some classic Alex super cynicism now and then on the old bormcaust.

The problem with running servers at Giantbomb is the firewall thing.

I want more Alex on the bombcast

I would love it despite the awkwardness just because I'd like to hear more from Alex, but yes, that Skype lag...

I think it would be better / funnier if Alex did a periodic "report" on the bad games he's been playing, just a crazy one-man talking to himself about weird, bad stuff (reminds me a bit of another podcast that shall not be named)

It'd be cool to see/hear more Alex on Giant Bomb, I kind of miss his input from the Whiskey Media days.

More Alex would be great.

Although I would love to hear more Alex on the Bombcast, SKYPE podcasts are awful things, especially when the SKYPE caller is the only one not physically present for the podcast. The reasons why I hate SKYPE guests calling in is because the sound quality is diminished, there is a lag to everything they speak, the lag forces callers to become more forceful when interrupting the podcast in order for their voice to be heard (or they just sit in silence the entire time because of it), and again, the sound is shit.

I understand why they don't Skype can sound pretty rough and the Bombcast is probably the best sounding podcast I listen to. That said I'd totally put up with some sound funkiness to get Alex on once in a while.

The GOTY podcasts with Alex were fine, so it's clearly doable. Not every week perhaps, but it would have been nice to hear his thoughts on SimCity, for instance.

I could've sworn he was in San Francisco for a day when he sat in on them.

@bisonhero said:

I think the fact you had to second guess wether it was done over Skype makes it apparent it isn't *so* bad with the talking over each other thing. I think it works there but only because of the 3 person limit, with the Bombcasts usually being 5 an added 6th would turn into a stop frame shambles (they step over each other enough already and they're in the same room :P .)