The Negative World Podcast hits its sophomore slump as a Pandareus confident in his abilities to lead a podcast by himself gets hit with a harsh dose of reality! Hopefully the magic of editing will make it so that no one but the people there (Paleo, Zero and Warerare) will know what really went on on that fateful day.
Before launching into each participant's topic Zero, lord and master of NegativeWorld.org, explains briefly the origins of everyone's favorite Nintendo site/forum, and even hints at future plans for the site. That's exclusive info, folks!
Then we discuss Paleo's excuse to bring up Endless Ocean, educational games and how they could motivate kids to learn more about certain topics, if only those games were of a higher quality! Zero has a lot to say about this topic as well, as teaching kids is his day job! I think that means we can legitimately call ourselves "a panel of expert". No plural.
Zero then asks each person to talk about an overlooked game of their choice. Who picked 999, Deadly Creatures, Retro Game Challenge and Disaster: Day of Crisis? Only one way to find out!
Pandareus thinks it's a good idea to ask to a bunch of people without any actual experience designing games about game difficulty and the challenge of designing games that will satisfy both gaming savants and newcomers. Selectable difficulty levels are all well and good in action games, but what kind of good does that do to Nintendo who primarily makes platformers and adventure games?
We save the best for last as Warerare recounts his day at an even where he was chased by zombies and got to play the 3DS. You are so totally jealous right now. Listen as the three other participants attempt to live vicariously through him by asking him why he looked so damn happy on that photo of him playing Face Raiders.
As usual, the best part of the podcast is when no one has started talking yet and a cool intro tune is playing. There is more where that came from, so why not check it out?
My only bit of feedback right now is that the intro was kind of awkward. There were some long pauses in between us saying our names. Either we need to get on the ball there, or the host can just introduce everyone (with a quick "hi" or something from the user after each name) and then it might be a bit more fluid.
On a side note, listening to the podcast I'm realizing that I had a thought about DKCR in my mind... and said almost the opposite once I started speaking. Guess I froze up and lost my point. I said that mirror mode only affects the enemies and not the platforming, but what I was thinking before I started speaking is that mirror mode is a good example of something that affects both, as it also removes the chance to use Diddy Kong, thus making the platforming tougher without the jetpack hovering.
I got some feedback, but you gotta take into account: a) These "mistakes" are completely normal. I would've done them too. It's as if I was critiquing professionals. b) my tastes are weird.
I didn't listen to the first one because I don't like listening to myself :P but I did listen to this until the end; and honestly, I got a bit bored at some points. Not necessarily because you rambled, though you did ramble on quite a bit. Especially about educational games, I mean, how much is there to say? But my main problem is it was too strict. I tend to prefer more genuine sounding conversations, more laughs, etc. "Can I touch you". "Sure. If you can move over to another continent". "Where is this podcast going". "Okay. Let's stick to the topics"
AGAIN, I understand how hard this is considering you don't know each other, and I dunno, maybe other people prefer to listen to information/opinions 100%.
Here's an example of what I, personally, enjoy in a podcast. And hey, the video's made by me :P
Well I meant the "where is this podcast going?" as a joke, not as a criticism that we were getting off-topic or anything like that. But well... I like hijinx, but too much hijinx starts to frustrate me. Especially if it isn't quite as funny as the people doing it think it is. IGN had some good podcasts sometimes, but other times they had podcasts that were an hour long and not much of anything substantial was said, just a bunch of goofing off.
I think one place where we are lacking is back and forth dialogue. We did the best with this during the difficulty conversation I think, everyone was joining in. But otherwise we kind of just sit back and let one person go on for awhile. I don't know about the rest of you guys, but I tend to find it tough to jump in because I feel like A. it might lead to too many awkward periods where I'm trying to speak as someone else is B. I might jump in and start talking when someone else had something to say C. I might step on the "main" person talking's toes, yada yada.
I think it will take some time for us to get used to each other, even moreso since there are only two regulars in the podcast (one of whom wasn't even there for the second episode...) but probably dialogue will open up more and more in time.
You know I was joking right Didn't mean to come off offensive at all I am really glad for the feedback as I would love to be on one of these in the future.
I think for sure though we have some of the best DISCUSSION in a Nintendo podcast. We just need to work on the presentation a bit, maybe. Get a more light-hearted, fun feel to things.
@Zero Yeah definitely. And it's totally awesome for a two-episode deal. I was just going for a personal best case scenario here. And you're right about lack of back-and-forth dialogue. It's sort of what I meant to say but couldn't find the right words.
@warerare Well my post turned out less sarcastic than I meant it to be :(
Back and forth dialogue is going to be near impossible for people who arent in the same room, you need to read peoples manneurisms in order to know when is a sake time to butt in. I suppose having webcams may be an option
@warerare Sort of, but I think when you get used to talking to specific people more you start to learn the way that they talk, and then you can do a bit of back and forth without even seeing them.
Webcams could potentially help, although it might slow things down a lot. Not sure about the technical details there.
The thing about the back and forth has everything to do with the fact that
a) we don't know each other that well, that's true; b) we're doing this over Skype.
I don't think it's possible to have as much chemistry as coworkers talking in the same room. They know each other, and they see each other, a huge bonus when you can pick up cues on when you can insert a joke or a comment in the middle of someone talking.
Even on RFN, they use Skype but they said this week that it means there is a TON of editing to do. We don't hear the awkward pauses and the instances where they talk over another because they cut them out.
If I edit future episodes, I'll try to be more mindful of the silences. Actually, I deleted a bunch and I had some fun doing it, but at the same time in a lot of cases I was afraid I was making everyone sound unnatural, like machines that never pause or need to breathe, lol.
Anyway, again thanks for the feedback.
The next episode won't have a need for a NW introduction anymore, so that's a plus...
Towards the end of the podcast you could hear you guys' voices get a little "metallic", a sign that the connection wasn't so hot. I wouldn't risk using webcams, to be honest. It's better to take the time to edit out the pauses.
Voice acting would be a career I would love to try out... it will be interesting what you guys think of my voice when it's my turn to talk.. I'm always wondering if my voice would pass as a 'serious/anime' type character in some wacky crime drama..
I think one place where we are lacking is back and forth dialogue. We did the best with this during the difficulty conversation I think, everyone was joining in. But otherwise we kind of just sit back and let one person go on for awhile. I don't know about the rest of you guys, but I tend to find it tough to jump in because I feel like A. it might lead to too many awkward periods where I'm trying to speak as someone else is B. I might jump in and start talking when someone else had something to say C. I might step on the "main" person talking's toes, yada yada.
I find that this happens a lot with Skype podcasts.
Didn't mean to come off offensive at all I am really glad for the feedback as I would love to be on one of these in the future.
now i look like a fool 
