Badadum Blogroll

On my weekly 8-hour drive, I typically listen to a few podcasts. This week, I tried a couple of new ones alongwith the regulars and thought I would give a review for you, my readers. Most of them are LotrO themed, what with the expansion coming in less than two weeks. Enjoy!

LOTRO Reporter

A Canadian duo (I hear your accents!) with clear voices and delightful humor talk about their adventures in LotrO as well as news and updates about the game and community. This week, they also had an interview with Sapience, the CM.

I loved the podcast. I think the interview was terrific, the best really of the three four I listened to today. The co-hosts interact well with each other, audio is well-tuned and well-edited, and the show was organized and varied enough to make the 1:24:xx length fly by. Thumbs up.

GameOn!

A  professional interview with two of the Turbine folk. This episode is really just an overview of all the new things coming in SoM. I say “just” because I am a rabid consumer of media and already knew most of what was said. However, he did ask his guests some questions from the community (including one of my own), the answers of which were quite interesting.

Although Shawn’s voice was clear, the two guests sounded like they were on a rather crackly phone line and one of them was much louder than the other. Regardless, the show was less than a halfhour in length and well worth a listen if you are craving SoM, in the know or not.

A Casual Stroll to Mordor

Here we have another duo, husband and wife this time (also a baby hobbit *gasp*). On this episode, they also interviewed Sapience, but this time along with Patience. It is a good opportunity to learn more about the two CM’s as well as the daily life of a CM and their thoughts on the future of LotrO.

Although the episode is a bit long and the interviewing was just a blunt Q&A, some good conversation and fun came out of it. I found myself chuckling along with the CM’s many a time. As to audio, the guests come through very clearly, but occasionally the two hosts are undertuned and the episode could have benefited from some (more?) equalization.

Massively Speaking

This podcast isn’t centered on LotrO, but it is one I listen to almost every week. Shawn does a superb job covering news from across the MMO world. This week he had Sera and Rubi on as guests – Sera of the terrific personality and strong opinions as always and Rubi of the sexy voice (less of the personality and opinions). If you are like me and enjoy keeping your finger on the pulse of this genre, definitely check them out. The show usually hovers around the one-hour mark, is well-organized, and pristinely edited.

Another Castle

This was my first week listening to this podcast. It seems to be simply two guys from college who interview various professionals in the gaming industry. This episode they host Richard Rouse III, game designer and author. I found it incredibly interesting for my own work because they speak at length about the place of narrative in gaming and how narrative and design interact.

Sadly, audio quality is dreadful. They sound like they are in an auditorium with the microphone in the 20th row while various members of the orchestra warm up backstage. Atrocious sound, but some good conversation.

—

After these, I started listening to a BBC philosophy podcast and then just hit shuffle until finally, I arrived back at home!

If you have any suggestions for my iPod, please send them along. Find me on twitter or send me an email (adaplays AT gmail DOT com) – I’d love to hear from you.