Hmmm. In a sense, I sort of agree with this criticism of the Bombcast, although I'm not sure it's from a lack of "crazaaaaay" goofball stuff. I continue to get a lot of enjoyment from it each week, but it definitely seems a bit... flabby? Meandering?
A podcast of this format- guys sitting around a table, a loose outline of topics, and then riffing- really needs two things: 1). and anchor personality who's job is to keep the proceedings moving, and 2). someone who can advocate for the audience. Lots of times this is one and the same person, but it doesn't have to be. For example, Gary Whitta on the Tested podcast is always asking "So, what does this mean to a non-specialist, regular person like me?" His questions are often my questions, and Will and Norm then have to clarify or explain better what they are talking about. However, Will is generally the one who is pushing the conversation along, giving enough time to topics and cutting short long digressions. Even though the Tested crew regularly goes off on their own tangents, I feel like they do a good job reigning it in before things get out of control.
On the Bombcast, Ryan is clearly leading the conversation, and he does a good job making sure all the topics they wanted to discuss are touched on. However, there are lots of time lately when there might be 30 minutes of stream of consciousness conversations on a single game, or jokes about their friends in the industry, and I sort of lose interest until the next topic is finally reached. Again, it's not the end of the world, but it would be nice if there was a bit more focus. There is nobody on the Bombcast, however, who is consistently asking the participants "So, someone who didn't go to the preview event, what should they know about the game" or "What's the big takeaway about such and such feature". The special pre-E3 podcast with Pachter was excellent, in part because Jeff and the group had limited time to ask Pachter's opinion on some important topics and so they had to make each question count.
So, maybe it would help if everyone on the podcast put in a little more effort during show prep to figure out what are the key points they want to communicate about a game/trade show/news item, instead of just winging it. Maybe that would help move things along a bit, and the podcast crew could consider what a listener might like to know about and try to answer those questions. Then when the show starts, Ryan has a deeper outline to follow and the essential stuff will be touched on earlier, and allow some extra time for the wild tangents, jokes and goofiness we definitely want in the Bombcast.
Just my 2 cents.
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