Is the quality of other gaming podcasts dropping hugely?

I've been listening to gaming podcasts for years now (going back to such shows as the old GFW Radio and GWJ) . I'm sure it's the same for alot of you on here too. The Bombcast remains solid and I look forward to it every week, but apart from the Bombcast I really feel like the quality has dropped in terms of what else is on offer for gaming podcasts. For example I've unsubbed from Super Joystiq Podcast after what sounded like someone actually filing their nails in the latest episode and week after week of cross talking from one of their team. Another example is that I unsubbed from Weekend Confirmed after listening to Garnett for years due to the quality dropping in that show too. It's free content so I'm sure many people will say if I dont like it don't bother saying anything, but listening to gaming discussion is something that has been part of my day for a long time and given the general drop in quality I feel like it is something to discuss. Anyone else feel the same?

I used to love the old Joystiq Podcast. I don't know if they've gotten worse or if I just can't get into the personalities like I have with the GB crew but the only game related podcasts I listen to anymore are the Bombcast and occasionally the CAGcast. Other regular rotation podcasts for me include Professor Blastoff and How Did This Get Made?

I've never listened to another gaming podcast. In fact, I have never listed to any other podcast. Bombcast has been my only one.

Not really no. There's tons of good gaming related podcasts out there. Besides the BombCast, I like Lasertime's Vidjagame Apocalypse and GamesRadar's TalkRadar the most. I also listen to Polygon's Besties and RebelFM every now and then. When I'm playing a MMO, I listen a lot more than that, if not it's not uncommon for me not to listen anything at all.

Recently I've picked up the habit of streaming podcast onto my PS Vita before going to sleep. What a wonderful bedside gadget.

For a while there the Hotspot was still pretty good, I liked Brendan and Kevin Van Ord a lot but then they killed it off for whatever reason. But from back to the beginning of the video game podcasts the Bombcast crew were always the best and clearly why I am here today.

It's not the quality - it's just the natural progression of time, also known as "change". I'm sure that people who join now will enjoy the podcasts as they are, and will create similar threads in the future. We, however, already reached that state, having listened to the Old Joystiq podcast, the old Game Scoop, the old Hotspot, etc.

My favorite podcast ever was Talkradar - it was absolutely magical, and VGA cannot hope to compare. Mikel is a good support member, but isn't really good as a host. I still listen to 3-4 year old Talkradar's every now and then.

@ch3burashka: I do see your point and there is an element of that in my case too upon reflection, but I think there is a difference between quality and change. The cross talking on Super Joystiq Podcast is a poor quality issue rather than a change of direction issue for example.

The old Joystiq podcast with Justin, chris and Ludwig was good, but I unsubscribed a couple of episodes after Justin and chris left. Now it's just the bombcast, British history and kermodes film reviews.

I have been meaning to check out besties though.

watch out for fireballs is pretty good (it's not just a regular talkin bout games podcast though)

There are some podcasts that cant compare to the bombcast. I've been listening to it for about two years know but it was not the first podcast I listened to. I started with podcast beyond and game scoop on IGN. I have like about 12 gaming podcasts to listen to and sometimes I just pick out the best ones in that week because I don't have too much time to spend on so many. There are some that I feel are pretty good, like the Rebel F.M. I am mainly a pc gamer so I like the Pc Gamer podcast which Is a bit on the serious side compared to other podcasts, but they give you lots of information on the various games and what they have been playing. One podcast I would like to mention that I cant stand to listen to is the destructoid podcast. I have only listened to bits and pieces from a few episodes and I seems like a very foul podcast in my opinion. The people on there talk about too many nasty things and It becomes a thing I cannot stand. The top podcasts I listen to are : the bombcast, beyond, Rebel FM, The geekbox, PC Gamer, Retronauts, 8-4 play, Official playstation blogcast, Weekend confirmed.

I think so. My first ever experience with them was the 1UP Show show and I quickly branched out to 1UP Yours. Unfortunately, I started relatively soon before the 1UPocalypse, but I discovered the Bombcast through the 1UP x Giant Bomb podcast. After that, I've listened to a whole bunch of podcasts including Rebel FM, Weekend Confirmed, Idle Thumbs, Irrational Behavior...

At this point, the only gaming podcasts that I've found are worth listening to are the Bombcast, 8-4 Play and A Life Well Wasted when it decides to come back from the dead now and again. I've dropped so many gaming podcasts because they're just terrible to listen to. I couldn't stand Rebel FM anymore and their extremely juvenile sense of humor (and Arthur Gies), the tastes of the Idle Thumbs crew really don't suit me and I've discovered that it takes a lot more than just Garnett Lee hosting for me to enjoy a podcast.

Most early shows centered around various personality with at least one snarkey/griefer. Four guys arguing with each other telling the audiences they were stupid children...because the mostly the audiences for a video game podcast 'was, is, and forever shall be' stupid children.

Early video games podcasts were like the WWF shows IMO. As we know, in professional wrestling there is the face' is a character who is portrayed as a hero set against 'the heel' wrestlers, who are analogous to villains. In early podcast you will have the calm guys like Jon Davison, Jeff Green, etc; and the crazy guys like Shawn Elliott, Luke Smith, or Scott Sharkey. The dynamics of the show has to be heroes and heels, the guys who acts sensible or avoids too much hyperbole, and the heels who were there to stir the pot. It probably wan't even planned that way, but it works, it has worked since radio drama days.

But it only works to a point because the heel has to always be on and aside form the nice guys and teh heels you start to need the 'other guy' that is always there to counter point the heel...the arrogant hero or heel for the heel...the Shane Bettenhausen

If you look at most of the successful podcasts, even some of the better ones today, you still have the snark guy - the Jim Sterlings or the Colin Moriartys . The difference is people get tired of 'the heel' if he is just that, which is why Jim and Collin work...they are snarky but not jerks like the 'personas' Shawn Elliott, Luke Smith, Shane Bettenhausen, or Scott Sharkey wore like capes.

JUST TO BE CLEAR: I hold not ill will towards anyone I talked about. Shawn Elliott, Luke Smith, Shane Bettenhausen, Scott Sharkey, Jon Davison, Jeff Green, Jim Sterling and the Colin Moriarty do their thing. I respects all of them, but I think the dynamic of being over the top just isn't helpful or healthy any more.

I only really listened to gaming podcasts featuring Jeff Gerstmann which are still going fine. I feared for the future of the bombcast without Ryan but they did a great job last week.

I still enjoy podcast BEYOND! from IGN and The Patch from Rooster Teeth.

I used to listen to the Joystiq podcast and Weekend Confirmed but the quality in both of those has dropped severally and now I just listen to the Bombcast and MBMBAM

All podcasts nowadays talk too much shit on the Wii U and Vita. They are both solid systems that have basically become punching bags on all sites. That said VidjagameApocalypse and Bombcast are still pretty solid. Podcast Beyond is alright but I really hate how much they talk up IGN. They spend way too much time every episode talking about how great the site is.

For movies I think that Keepin' It Reel is fantastic. I would love to hear the movies podcast on this site but some asshole dickhead decided to make it subscriber only :(

One Life Left

That is all...

:)

Idle thumbs

crate and crowbar

8-4

Lastertime stuff (sometimes)

all others are full of people with terrible personalities and/or uninformed nonsense, half of the longer running shows should have quit long ago.

I listened to the Destructoid podcast in its latest incarnation for a few months, and after liking it at first, I quickly got tired of the ridiculous and condescending psycho-analyzing of their userbase that started to take up significant portions of each discussion on the show. Gave 8-4 a chance a couple months back, too, and couldn't stand it either. The CAGcast is just incredibly contemptuous and that site has turned into a bunch of people conditioned into worshipping CheapyD.

The Bombcast has it's flaws here and there, but it's absolutely the best gaming podcast I've ever found, and I'm reminded of that anytime I seriously try listening to anything else. I've never lasted longer than a few months listening to other podcasts, but I come back to the Bombcast year after year.

My first and only love will always be Giant Bomb

Really just depends not only on the personalities on the podcast but also the content, right now it's worst than the summer drought of games with the new consoles approaching so really not much of anything big is coming out so it's up to the podcasts to find useful stuff but should pick up soon when the new consoles are out.

Don't really know, the only gaming related pocasts I listen are the Bombcast, 8-4 Play and Epic Battle Cry and they all seem pretty good.

Old joystiq show was my favorite but with Chris and Justin leaving, I left too.

I still listen to the CAG cast, even though it gets very annoying at times. I also started listening to the touch arcade show recently, and I'm liking it quite a bit.

Tried Weekend Confirmed last month but it's not holding on to me so I'm almost out. Trying the video game choo choo after Patrick was on it.

And the bombcast, with me following it without dropping it once since 2009.

Maybe...kinda? It's hard to say. I feel with so many people doing podcasts these days, the average quality of podcasts as a whole has probably gone down, but that's probably it. Regardless, and I'm going to rant a bit, I'm sick and tired of all these freaking skype podcasts. I respect the drive these people have to do it. Ain't nothing wrong with that. It's just...I dunno, Skype podcasts feel different. I'm absolutely sure there are some great ones out there, but, personally, I feel there is a dynamic present in podcasts where all the individuals are in the same room that simply does not exist in most skype podcasts.

I kind of only listen to the Bombcast, as far as other gaming podcasts are concerned. Every once in a while I'll go with Idle Thumbs or 8-4, but other than that it's kind of a wasteland.

I feel like most gaming news podcast started becoming irrelevant to me after I joined forums and followed the right people on Twitter. It has become so easy to get video games news and hear the general discussion.

The ones I now subscribe to -- Bombcast, 8-4, Idle Thumbs, and PS Blogcast -- have unique perspectives and/or unique content, which makes them still worth listening to. The Besties is now the only "normal" gaming news podcast I listen to because the McElroy brothers are pretty good radio hosts. I still regularly listen to Top Score and Retsutalk, but they don't exactly fall into the "gaming podcast" category.

I think a parallel can be drawn between gaming podcast and gaming news sites in general, now that almost all of them re-blog each other and only the ones worth visiting have original content.

I agree with you and I think a big part of it is that the podcast bubble burst a bit and people realized there was no way to make decent money from them. I know that was the reason podcasts from bigger companies died or shifted in quality (r.i.p three red lights) because the larger companies felt it was a waste of their employees time. That said the Bombcast remains amazing because they do not careeee about monetizing their three hours of magic.

The only gaming podcast I listen to these day's is Giant Bomb. Every now and then I look to see what is out there and it's just not very good, one main reason I think is the host's are not all in the same place so the timing is so messed up it's not even worth it. I would love it if Jeff Greene still had a podcast.

I agree with you OP. I used to listen to a ton of gaming podcasts, but most of them changed format, fell apart, or just plain turned to shit.

Now I pretty much only listen to the Bombcast.

Indoor Kids had its moments, granted I have not listened to it in awhile. the best ones seem to be where they wax philosophical, but they do ramble like crazy.

e: i only really listen to MBMB&M (which is hilarious but the advertising is a bit intruisive) in addition to Bombcast, but i know that's not gaming. i wonder how Hardcore History is.

I actually just came back to Weekend Confirmed a couple weeks ago, after having dropped it for a year or two (don't remember why). I like it, I started with 1UP Yours so it's cool to hear Garnett again, but yeah, nothing beats the Bombcast in terms of games.

I used to listen to/watch a lot more (Rebel FM, TRS, all the 1UP podcasts), but I've just found that I don't have the time anymore, even though I have podcasts play in the background of other things.

Also, I have to recommend The Comedy Button to anyone who hasn't listened to it before. It's not about games but it's pretty funny.

8-4 is still awesome!

But yeah, Weekend Confirmed has really devolved into an nonstop barrage of Sociology 101-level soapboxing.

8-4 isn't bad if you can deal with their occasionally baffling Japan-centric tastes. I haven't listened to a ton of other gaming podcasts recently, so I couldn't tell you much else, other than that Gamespot Gameplay is sort of bad.

Well, 8-4 Ltd. is located in Japan, so...

Podcast Beyond is continually solid, and honestly helped me follow the PS3 since no one I know really talks about it. And I'll listen to The Besties since it's short and silly. But I'm definitely down from the 10 or so I used to download for my commutes.

I like Idle Thumbs, but I find that it's better to spread our your podcast time between multiple subjects so you don't hear about the same games 3-4 times in one week. So Bombcast is a must listen for gaming, and then Idle Thumbs and whatever else I have in my Stitcher is a backup if I need more to listen to on the commute or a road trip.

Whenever there is a new episode of the Bombcast or Rebel FM, I typically listen to them as soon as I can, the Bombcast especially. I don't understand the juvenile humor complaint made earlier about Rebel FM as the Bombcast can be just as juvenile especially Vinny. Then again, I do listen to these while doing something else so my mind may stray elsewhere. I also listen to Idle Thumbs, and started when Brad was on, but I've relegated it to background noise these days not giving a fuck what they're talking about. I may just unsubscribe sometime down the line.

I used to listen to the Besties, but if they think and allow Russ Frushtick's shitty "humor" I can't help but judge the rest of the crew for thinking that his shitty accents are in any way funny. They're fucking terrible. I barely keep up with MBMBAM now because of him.

It's to be expected, and sometimes that perspective is refreshing. But other times it's JJ and Mark speaking enthusiastically about some insane JRPG that hasn't come out in the west and I sort of zone out.

@sonicbooms: I also dropped weekend confirmed recently. Just opinions but that crew seems to be up their own ass these days. Best way I can describe them are video game hipsters.They seem to hate anything big and popular and act like most indie games have no fault. There have also been a few times where it seemed they lied about game mechanics to help their argument. I was half listening recently but I swear one of them said the writing in Borderlands 2 was better than writing in the Last of Us. I know opinions but that seems way off and I loved some Borderlands 2. Used to really like that podcast. But damn all it seems to be now is come see my play, art art art, indie game Yah, big game pffft and pick apart every little thing and this game sucks if you don't spend majority of game walking around looking at stuff..

@starvinggamer: You said it better than I ever could.

I use to subscribe to all the gaming podcast mentioned above but I thought the one big thing that the bombcast had over the rest is consistency. The others changed it up and added and dropped a few people, while Bombcast has always remained a consistent voice. I'll also admit time is limited so it was either hog up a chunk of my time listening to these podcast or drop some of them and find something more productive to do with my time. (I'm one of those people who when listening to podcasts can't really do anything else, cause I might miss what they're saying.)

I would say the majority of the ones I listen to are getting better. A couple of years ago, Podcasts sounded like noise to me.

I'm not sure if they're getting worse, or if what I want from them is just completely different. For instance - I have no idea if any of the Podcasts on IGN.com are any good, because none of the people I enjoyed listening to are on them anymore. Except for Greg Miller, but I get plenty of him on youtube and twitter.

It seems like the content isn't as important as the personalities, at least for me.

Game podcasts died for me when 1up was burned to the ground. The Bombcast is great, but all of the most enjoyable discussion about actual videogames I've ever heard came from the 1up stuff. Even the goofy off-topic stuff was, imo, way more funny on GFW in the day. I''m glad Retronauts is back, at the very least.

MBMBaM is the only other podcast I listen to anymore.

How can you hate New York Giraffe!!!

Not too sure as I don't follow many other gaming podcasts.

The only other gaming podcast I listen to regularly is Podtoid and that's barely a gaming podcast.

Weekend Confirmed went to shit when they decided to let everyone have their own pitched segment. That was potentially one of the worst ideas ever...also, at times, they're a bit too cozy with developers for my taste. [go back and listen to the shows where they talked up PS All-Stars - Garnett's girlfriend was one of the leads on that game, and all it got was pure hype despite being shit]

Idle Thumbs can be okay now and then, and so can the CAGCast. I stopped listening to Rebel FM because I don't like Matt Chandronait's OR Arthur Gies' views on games, and the show's not worth sticking around for Anthony's skyped in opinions, unfortunately

Giant Bombcast is a gaming podcast? Since when?

Giant bombcast, Podcast Beyond, Weekend Confirmed, Vidjagame Apocalypse and Rebel Fm are all fantastic.

I liked Podtoid , but eventually I got tired of the over the top nonsense.