I've been working for a long time on a post listing my current podcast subscription list. Every time I find myself enjoying a particularly good podcast episode, I say to myself, "Ah, I really gotta finish that post." But it's taking too long, so instead please enjoy this series of occasional posts where I highlight one podcast per. My "podcasts" tag should bring up the full list, after I've written a few.
So, first one:
He's just released two shows within a month of each other, so I'm prepared to say that Gaming Steve is back on the air, after life forced him to take a good 18 months or so off (not counting a couple of ad-hoc E3 shows he did months ago). His is still my favorite game-related podcast. Basically, Steve Glicker is a long-time producer of digital games, mainly Flash games using licensed characters and properties, and a longer-time fan of digital gaming going all the way back to the first-generation systems of the 1970s. He effectively and entertainingly combines his knowledge, his enthusiasm, and his industry connections to make a good show time after time.
My main gripes are that his interviews with other industry folks tend to lean a little on the Hi Steve, let me recite our latest press releases at you side, and on the other hand when he's alone he often gets a bit too grumblingly cynical about the workings of his business. But the bulk of his show is talking about games and why some work or sell and others don't, and these analyses are always enlightening to me.
Steve has a nice voice and a subtle sense of humor, so I don't mind that his shows usually run longer than an hour. But he needs to edit himself more than he does. He misspeaks a lot, often switching names around, and invariably mangling the German words that come up whenever he talks about board games. (The most recent eposide features him saying 'Spiegel' - let me spell that, S-P-I-E-L, yeah, 'Spiegel'). He knows he does it and sometimes jokes about it, and for all I know he does edit out most of them and I'm only hearing what he doesn't catch. But I don't think that's the case.
At any rate, it's good to hear him regularly again. I really did say "!" with a smile when I had my iPod play its most recent podcasts, and I found myself assaulted with his wonderfully overproduced theme song (quoted in the title of this post). I had missed it!
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