Today I pose a few questions regarding podcasts to my small but loyal readership:
- What things keep you listening to a podcast?
- What kind of content do you like to hear in a podcast?
- Do you prefer a freeform discussion with few topics or a structured format?
I have a few podcasts in my feed, and might be looking to add more, so I’m curious about which podcasts you like to listen to as well.
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Hmm, I’m not as positive as you so I generally unsubscribe to podcasts for the following reasons:
1) Too long. How long is too long? That depends on how compelling the content is. I listen to Giant Bomb’s Bombcast and it can run 2 hours but it never feels like filler… the 4 guys cover a lot of topics every week and they have info that I can’t get on my own, being full time professional gaming journalists. But *generally* speaking I think 30-45 minutes is a good length.
2) Insider jokes/chatting. Some podcasts are filled with ‘humorous banter’ between the podcasters. That gets old fast, and more so when it’s banter about stuff that we don’t know about. Like, y’know, something that happened during a quest last week with their guild that the whole guild thought was so funny. If the event was funny, tell us about it: that could be interesting. But don’t allude to it via off-hand comments to each other that your audience doesn’t get.
3) Off-topic stuff: If you’re running a podcast devoted to a game other than WoW, don’t talk about WoW. I’ve listened to podcasts about Game X where the podcaster spends so much time talking about how WoW does things that I start to wonder if I d/led the wrong file!
Worse? I don’t care about what your baby/wife/siblings/pets are doing. I mean once in a while is fine and funny. If your dog barks once right in the middle of recording and you just acknowledge it with a funny quip, I’ll chuckle. But I don’t need a weekly update of what your dog has been up to. Unless I’m listening to a petcast. Which might be fun.
Along the same lines, a lot of MMO podcasts have a “What we’ve been doing” section up front. If you’ve had a busy week and haven’t had time to play, sure let us know. But we don’t need details. “I haven’t had time to log in much this week because the kid was sick and puking for two days, then my idiot boss made me work overtime and Thursday I had Mexican and got the runs and was in the toilet for 48 hours and couldn’t play!” Nope, don’t need those details.
3) Repeating news. If you’re an amateur doing a podcast about a specific game, assume the people who are tuning in are probably pretty interested in the game. Doing a quick overview of recent news is cool, but you don’t have to (essentially) read news posts to your listeners. Cover the highlights, provide a link in the show notes, and move on. Most of your listeners probably read the news at the same time you did, anyway. Those that didn’t get read the details on their own.
4) Don’t be a slave to a schedule. This one might be controversial, but I’d much rather listen to a podcast that comes out on an irregular schedule but is always interesting, rather than a podcast that comes out every week like clockwork but ends up being kind of flat. Some weeks are just dead weeks. As an alternative, maybe don’t be a slave to length. If it’s been a slow week do a quick 15 minute update. And when, say, a new expansion comes out and there’s a ton of stuff to talk about, you might do 2 1-hour podcasts in the same week.
5) Don’t hate on your game. I’m surprised at how many people do a podcast about a particular game and then complain about it constantly. Sure, criticize now and then. But if you’re an amateur podcaster, I *think* (and I may be wrong) that most of your listeners are people totally jazzed about the game who are tuning in during times they can’t be playing. They don’t want to hear you whine for 15 minutes about how hard a quest was. Sure, make a note that such-an-such a quest seems difficult at level and warn players to bring extra help, but report and move on. Stop whining!
So there are my overly-pessimistic ideas for ways to get me to stop listening!
What things keep you listening to a podcast?
Chemistry between the podcasters. I’ve never managed to listen for long to a podcast delivered by just one person or by two people taking it in turns to read from notes. It needs to feel like an active and lively conversation.
What kind of content do you like to hear in a podcast?
MMO armchair theory, news about games I’m playing, general MMO news.
Do you prefer a freeform discussion with few topics or a structured format?
Doesn’t matter. If you divide an hour in 12 sections and give a disciplined 5 minutes on each or whether you ramble for random lengths and get about 4 things covered. I’ll keep listening if you are a) interesting and b) clearly enjoying yourselves.
-What things keep you listening to a podcast?
I’d more often rather be entertained than informed. Information is great, and you have to have it in the show, but unless it’s about something that the podcaster holds more stock in than what I can dig up on the internet, I usually zone out of listening to it if the show isn’t humorous.
-What kind of content do you like to hear in a podcast?
I really like to hear about peoples personal accounts of games. I love it when I hear something negative from podcast “A” about a game, and something positive from podcast “B”. Everyone has a different take on gaming, and I find it quite interesting to see excuses of differing opinions.
-Do you prefer a freeform discussion with few topics or a structured format?
I think the podcast has to have a structure, but when the hosts veer off the beaten path it can be rather entertaining. Giant Bombcast and Gamers with Jobs are pretty much my favorite podcasts. They have a format, but the off the cuff parts are often the most entertaining to me.