The Gist
Video Game Theory
*Link to features*
:: The Gist ::
So basically, what is Video Game Theory and why should you care? Well, that’s easy. Video Game Theory is a Podcast about the discussion, analysis, and general poking-fun of everything that is video games. Well, okay, so it’s not just about gaming explicitly, and then there is the whole Podcast thing… Hmm, maybe it’s not so easy. But don’t you worry, we’re going to get you through this relatively safe and sound, although we cannot guarantee that your sanity will remain intact.
Video Game Theory is a weekly audio recording hosted by a variety of people. If you want to find out more about us individually, be sure to check out The Hosts. As mentioned previously, the show is centered around video game news, discussion, and RetroViews(fancy way of saying game reviews that are of a more retro nature). However, being that we are somewhat dynamic people, occasionally some non-gaming news pops in. For example, in Episode 012, we discuss the Optimus Keyboard. Or, like in Episode 007, where we get a few laughs in about Fully-transformable robot costumes. The general idea is that the hosts aren’t afraid to talk about movies, or music, or technology, so long as it is entertaining and worth discussing. Gaming will always be the primary topic, however.
Our show is marked in iTunes as Explicit. At first, it was just in case one of the hosts happened to utter a dirty-word…But it almosts seems to have become the show’s banner. Suffice to say, our show is aimed at people who aren’t afraid of some adult language or mature content. Little kids probably shouldn’t listen without adult supervision(but then, that’s always the case with anything, isn’t it?). Teenagers are probably just fine, considering the panel primarily consists of teenagers.
Podcasting(feel free to skip this bit if you already know how it works). Let me cut off your initial train of thought right here and now: No, you do not need an iPod to enjoy our Podcast, or anybody else’s for that matter. However, it is a good way to listen to Podcasts, among other types of digital audio, so if you feel like it, by all means, grab yourself one and have a blast. Just remember, it’s optional. Don’t worry, it’s not terribly complicated to understand how Podcasting works unless you intend to start your own Podcast, in which case it does get a bit complex.
Let me just explain a bit of how our own Podcast works. Each week, we record a new episode. Then that episode gets edited and mixed down by Ricky and/or Dillon. The show’s format is generally a 64 kbps stereo MP3. Granted, those are some pretty technical-sounding terms, but chances are, if you actually found our Podcast, you know your way around them. For the non-technically-oriented folks, 64 kbps is just a technical term for the bitrate of the MP3. Generally speaking, the higher the bitrate, the higher the quality and the larger the filesize. Since our show is primarily talking with just a little bit of music thrown in, we try to use lower bitrates so that it takes less time for listeners to download it. And an MP3 is, of course, a widely popular audio format used around the world.
Then the show gets uploaded to the server, which in our case is Game-Overdrive.com, and this is where the Podcasting bit comes in. At this point, we fire up WordPress and make a post announcing the show, adding the link, listing the show notes, ect. Once posted, it’s added to our RSS2 feed. That’s where the magic happens. See, RSS(which, by the by, stands for Really Simple Syndication) is a file to which people can subscribe via News Readers or various RSS clients. If you subscribe to our RSS2 feed in a client such as iPodder or the like, then every time a new show is posted, your RSS2 client will automatically download it for you. Convenient, right? Also worth mentioning is that Video Game Theory is listed in iTunes(this link can automatically take you to our listing in the iTunes Podcasting section as long as you have iTunes running), which is also capable of Podcast subscription. In fact, it’s the preferred method of subscription for ease of use.
Perhaps the best part about Video Game Theory, besides the unbridled humor, is that it’s free. I have yet to see a Podcast that charges money for episodes, and frankly, I don’t quite understand how it could be done. A lot of Podcasts use bits of advertising or sponsership in order to fund the recordings. Video Game Theory is currently advertisement free. The downside is, of course, we lack the funding to do a really professional show, so the quality tends to suffer a bit. At the moment, the show is funded by the hosts, although we are devising methods to allow the listeners to help support the show. Currently, the only way to do so is by buying products from our Shop, which is highly recommended.
