Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Looking Forward: Play on Target Ep. 38

This episode Play on Target looks forward to 2015. After some technical difficulties delayed it, we finally present our predictions and resolutions for the year. Originally we’d intended this as a companion to our "Year in Review" Episode. So you'll hear a couple of out of date references. Still I think it came out decently. While we have a few obvious picks for the year, I think we go off the beaten path in a couple of places. Take a listen and see what you think.


FEEDBACK LOOPS
As we say in the episode, we want to get more listener feedback this year. We record each episode in pairs, coming up with ideas in the week or two ahead of the recording. We try to keep a list of old ideas that didn’t make it on a master sheet, but often we drop some out of the cycle. Some of these are our personal hobby horses (hence the Supers episode!). This year we want to draw more on listener concerns and questions. What do you want to hear?

Sidebar: I had an interesting experience a few months ago. I saw someone complaining on G+ that the various RPG Podcasts he’d listened to didn’t cover topics he wanted. I asked what he’d like to hear. He responded that he didn’t have time to detail the kinds of material he wanted. I know I’ve done that in the past- been dissatisfied with something, but unable or unwilling to articulate what I desired.

If you have topics you think we need to talk about, questions you want answered, issues we ought to return to, or things we should examine, please tell us. That’s especially true for the GM Jam series. Are there distinct settings or systems you’d like to hear about? Games you’re curious or hesitant about that GM insight might help you with? We’d love any and all of that. You can leave comments, pm us, geekmail us, etc.

On the flip side- tell us about things you think we need to improve. Like Lowell talks too much (which he does). Or we don’t hit on some concerns or we should structure things differently. We’ve had some advice and we’re working to improve. We nicely got a nomination for the Golden Geeks this year, and that’s cool. But what I’d really like to see is people saying they listened to the show and got something out of it. (I recognize the irony given that this episode’s more internally focused.)

THE ART OF NOISE
Speaking of quality, you may notice a drop in it this time. I hope not. I edited the episode this week, my first time working with Audacity. I did video editing a long, long, long time ago (on big machines with 3/4” tape). Various blog posts and online videos made the process incredibly easy. I remain continually shocked by how simple it is to learn how to handle simple (and not so simple) tasks, tools, and repairs. I hope that the sound quality’s decent! Having listened to the episode several times now, I’m acutely conscious of my quirks, volume, and vocal tics…for better or worse.

I’d like to figure out how to do some modern video editing. It would be cool to reshape some of my RPG History Lists into video presentations. Plus I often see employers hunting for those skills. But I’m unsure what’s the best tool for handling that. If you have suggestions, please give me a heads up. 


If you like RPG Gaming podcasts, I hope you'll check it out. We take a focused approach- tackling a single topic each episode. You can subscribe to the show on iTunes or follow the podcast's page at www.playontarget.com.

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