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Gathering of Engineers

Ludographic considerations from the Silicon Forest

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Keep Your Enemies Closer

I am now free to reveal that, as a direct result of the slappage I gave out to the Dice Tower podcast lo these many weeks ago, I was asked to contribute a regular segment. It is called "Fun With Mr. Whiney," and it debuts in Episode #51, alternately titled "Everything You Know Is Wrong."

Despite the obvious irony (which I love), I'm looking forward to contributing up to 3 minutes of unadulterated bile. In general, I've tried to keep this out of my posts on this blog (go ahead, Mr. Anonymous, take your cheap shot), but now I can wax annoyed on purpose, although I strive to use my indoor voice. I've already sent in five segments to Tom, and he appears to be pleased with the general content. The first segment he chose was, appropriately, "Why I Hate Top Ten Lists."

I'm not sure how long I'll be able to keep up a weekly rant without starting to sound like I'm repeating myself, so feel free to give me any ideas of things that drive you crazy in the gaming industry. No cow too sacred, no topic sacrosanct. As long as it's about gaming, of course, I save the religio-politico-socio commentary for the disclaimer, and that's all mine, baby.

As such, and since I've ended up taking on a couple of extra creative-type jobs for the summer, I'm unlikely to be posting often to this blog, although I've still reserved Wednesdays, especially if a topic occurs to me. It's not so much the typing, it's coming up with something "interesting" to say. By that I mean, of course, interesting to me. Because I'm Mr. Whiney. Nyah.

Anyway, check out the show. I'm not sure that all of the other folks Tom has lined up to do segments have "radio voices" (hint: compression and EQ work wonders in post-production, but you still need to sound like you've been awake for more than a few minutes if you want to keep anyone's attention), but the audience will help him decide what works and what doesn't. And of course, that includes me, the controversy-creating portion of the show, so by all means tell Tom how upset you are that I'm given any air time at all.

4 Comments:

  • At 2:01 PM, Blogger Jonathan said…

    While I think it's interesting that Tom asked, why did you decide to do it?

     
  • At 5:05 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Your involvement in the show is to your credit. Well done.

     
  • At 6:26 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I generally feel the same way about the "rant" format/segment as you do about top 10 lists, Dug, but I liked your Mr. Whiney piece. Shiny.

     
  • At 4:42 PM, Blogger Dug said…

    I've been away from reading this blog for the past week, so apologies for not responding sooner.

    jon, I accepted Tom's offer because it sounded like fun. Plus, I already have a "rep" as a whiner (for a pretty small percentage of my posts on this blog, sadly), so I can play up that as my persona. It's been fun, but it will require some creativity to keep it fun, both for me and for the content.

    While I'll agree that any one-dimensional segment can get old after a while, I think that there is something to be said for rants. Dennis Miller (before he took 9/11 personally) and Louis Black do this very well, and have built careers out of it. Not that I'm doing that, mind you.

    The challenge for me is to keep the material interesting, a bit self-depricating, funny (at least a bit of every rant is tongue in cheek, the first one particularly so), but still bring up an issue that bugs me. It's not so much the idea of a Top Ten list, it's the idea that we have to jam ten items in there whether they fit or not, a point that came across pretty well. If I can make a point and be funny (to the audience, I already think I'm funny ;-), I'm doing what I'm supposed to.

    I've already got a couple of ideas on how to mix things up a bit in future rants, and I may decide to take a different tack after a while, but it's been fun doing the six or seven segments I've already sent to Tom, and I've got at least three or four more ideas close at hand.

    As as to my involvement being a sign of good character, I'd point that finger first at Tom himself for asking me. A gutsy call, and I hope that my involvement improves the show.

     

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