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By Beertiger
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Popo

Popo

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I was sure I posted in here about Back Page Pod before, must have been another thread. It’s fantastic. Two presenters with great chemistry, who are extremely articulate and very game-literate. It’s basically the template for how to make a great podcast. 
 

The episode they did where they each set up a publishing house and competed for developers to buy out was hilarious - in fact, all the episodes where they’re picking games to fill out a list are great, because there’s a competitive edge to it that really ups the ante. The best PS2 games episode comes immediately to mind, where it very quickly became apparent that they both wanted Silent Hill 2, and the acrimony/jubilation right at the coin toss was pure podcasting magic. 

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Jamie John

Jamie John

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It's interesting to me how much of a small world British gaming media seems to be. It makes sense, obviously, but it still amuses me how incestuous it all is. As an example, on last week's Backpage Pod, they mentioned Jon Denton, who used to write for a lot of different gaming mags (he's probably on the forum, for all I know), but is now a fairly big music YouTuber; he seems to be good friends IRL with Dave from TCGS (I don't know how they know each other), who in turn is obviously friends with Sean Bell, who knows Joe Skrebbels, who used to work with Matt Castle on The Back Page, but now writes for IGN, and so on and so forth.

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Mogster

Mogster

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I've been listening to The Back Page for a while now too, and like it so much that I've started listening to the earlier ones too. It became my favourite podcast more or less instantly. :D

 

Their enthusiasm is definitely infectious. The Phoenix Wright episode got me playing the Trilogy on the Switch, which I'd been meaning to play for a while.

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deerokus

deerokus

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3 hours ago, Jamie John said:

It's interesting to me how much of a small world British gaming media seems to be. It makes sense, obviously, but it still amuses me how incestuous it all is. As an example, on last week's Backpage Pod, they mentioned Jon Denton, who used to write for a lot of different gaming mags (he's probably on the forum, for all I know), but is now a fairly big music YouTuber; he seems to be good friends IRL with Dave from TCGS (I don't know how they know each other), who in turn is obviously friends with Sean Bell, who knows Joe Skrebbels, who used to work with Matt Castle on The Back Page, but now writes for IGN, and so on and so forth.

And on the new episode, the guest is Matt Castle's wife. Who runs RPS.

 

It makes sense when you think that in the days of print media they all had to live in Bath, that social circle is going to be quite tight knit.

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Jamie John

Jamie John

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1 minute ago, deerokus said:

And on the new episode, the guest is Matt Castle's wife. Who runs RPS.

 

It makes sense when you think that in the days of print media they all had to live in Bath, that social circle is going to be quite tight knit.

 

Yeah, I guess.

 

I don't understand how Dave knows Jon Denton, though, or how Sean knows Joe S. The other week, Neil from the Inbetweeners was on TCGS, but (from what I could gather) he and Dave just happened to be school friends.

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KartoffelKopf

KartoffelKopf

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9 hours ago, Jamie John said:

 

Yeah, I guess.

 

I don't understand how Dave knows Jon Denton, though, or how Sean knows Joe S. The other week, Neil from the Inbetweeners was on TCGS, but (from what I could gather) he and Dave just happened to be school friends.

 

I've been listening to the TCGS crew in various podcast forms since, what feels like, the late 19th Century and Blake has guested a couple of times as far as back as the JoyPod days. Pretty sure Dave mentioned a few times over the years that he went to stage school when he was younger so assuming he and Blake know each other from there.

 

Jon Denton used to do a gaming podcast (before he chased those bizarre YouTuber 'reacts' dollarz!) and also guested on Joypod as far back as 2015/16?. He was also co-host of TCGS when Dave was on paternity leave.

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elmo

elmo

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Yeah I’ve known Blake since I was 14. We met at the BRIT school and have been mates since. He’s a Millwall fan and lived close to the ground so I’d often go back to his on Friday after school and stay until Sunday going to the game on the Saturday.

 

Jon Denton started a Podcast with Chet Roivas back when we were doing Joypod. He posted a link (I think in this very thread) around episode 5, I listened and loved it instantly. I then recommended it on Joypod a lot so we got chatting because of that. Met up a few times and become really good mates.

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Garwoofoo

Garwoofoo

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I really really like The Back Page, it's the first podcast I've listened to regularly in years.

 

I wish they'd lay off the endless magazine anecdotes a bit though, it's like being trapped with a couple of pub bores endlessly talking shop. Two gaming gammons waffling on about the war.

 

As @Jamie John says, the whole scene is a bit incestuous. Whenever they have a guest on, it's always some mate of theirs, you know they're just going to swap stories about stuff that happened ten years ago on magazines I never read. I just skip the first 20 minutes and get down to the good stuff.

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Jolly

Jolly

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I think the magazine anecdotes are naturally likely to decrease over time as they tell them all, but magazine culture and history is a fundimental part of the appeal to me. 

 

I'd never read PSM2 nor heard of Dan Dawkins prior to his appearance and I think it was one of the best episodes. Made me wish I could go back and be a bit broader in my reading, rather than just picking up Edge every month because I got super fucking snooty about games when I turned 20. 

 

Hoping they go a bit further back at some point and get someone in from N64 magazine. God, I fucking loved that thing. 

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Sarlaccfood

Sarlaccfood

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If anything I want more magazine anecdotes. 
 

I’m quite pleased the The Back Page has opened the UK game journo scene up for me. The last few years have become so dominated by the (way more incestuous) North American crew and it will only get worse when EDGE magazine inevitably closes. I do enjoy their output, but I’m increasingly weary of the unabashed hype of Easy Allies, Keighley etc. not to mention all the ex-Gamespot, IGN employees that have all worked with one another multiple times and have each other on their podcasts constantly. I enjoyed something like Minnmax for a while, but the recent lacklustre not-e3s of covid times and the Ubisoft/Activision allegations really highlighted to me how much that scene softballs the industry. (It was so cathartic to hear TCGS fucking rip into them in a way I wasn’t hearing on my US podcasts)
 

Now thanks to Back Page I have people like Andy Kelly and Chris Schilling mixed in my timeline. Voices and perspectives that match a tone I identify and grew up with and who’s output I’ll be able to carry on enjoying in a post-EDGE/future landscape. 

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Radish

Radish

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8 hours ago, Sarlaccfood said:

but I’m increasingly weary of the unabashed hype of Easy Allies, Keighley etc.

 

Ubisoft/Activision allegations really highlighted to me how much that scene softballs the industry. (It was so cathartic to hear TCGS fucking rip into them in a way I wasn’t hearing on my US podcasts)

 

Easy Allies aren't ashamed of being excited by something (nobody should be) but that doesn't mean they're hyped about everything. They frequently criticise stuff, a lot of it heavily, and not just games. The latest example being their reaction to the Ubisoft and Blizzard stuff, where they did rip into it. I think this was their initial coverage of it.

 

The biggest thing that annoys me though is that they all do absolutely love Keighley. Presumably because they've all worked with him in the past, but I still don't get it. 

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Popo

Popo

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21 hours ago, Garwoofoo said:

I wish they'd lay off the endless magazine anecdotes a bit though, it's like being trapped with a couple of pub bores endlessly talking shop. Two gaming gammons waffling on about the war.


As a counterpoint - and insurance in the event that Matthew and Samuel do see this thread - I LOVE the magazine anecdotes. A read a lot of magazines growing up, so I really enjoy these peeks behind the curtain. 
 

Perhaps if the anecdotes were the same two or three going round in a loop I’d agree with you Garwoofoo, but they’re not. I think it’s fun to wallow in a bit of nostalgia from time to time, plus they’re always entertaining. Matt’s anecdote about how they made a papier-mâché version of Mario Galaxy’s planets was properly funny, like milk-spraying-out-nostrils funny. 

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Jamie John

Jamie John

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I Patreonised (patronised?) Duckfeed.tv this month for about £4, which is the name for Kole Ross and Gary Butterfield's podcast platform, i.e., the guys behind Bonfireside Chat and Watch Out for Fireballs. I'd been planning on doing it anyway as I really appreciated all the free episodes of BFSC and wanted to give them a bit of a tip, but as soon as you pony up you unlock masses of content. These guys actually do this as their career; one of the early goals on their Patreon was to get to a point where they could quit their jobs to podcast/stream full-time, and that's exactly what they've done. Sounds pretty good to me, though at the same time it would immediately turn playing games into work, so I suppose your relationship with them would change.

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Mogster

Mogster

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Yeah the magazine anecdotes are part of the appeal, surely? It's called "The Back Page", with the description of the two hosts "talking about video games and their years covering them professionally". Wishing away the anecdotes is wishing away half the point.

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McCoy

McCoy

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On 04/09/2021 at 12:03, Garwoofoo said:

I really really like The Back Page, it's the first podcast I've listened to regularly in years.

 

I wish they'd lay off the endless magazine anecdotes a bit though, it's like being trapped with a couple of pub bores endlessly talking shop. Two gaming gammons waffling on about the war.

 

As @Jamie John says, the whole scene is a bit incestuous. Whenever they have a guest on, it's always some mate of theirs, you know they're just going to swap stories about stuff that happened ten years ago on magazines I never read. I just skip the first 20 minutes and get down to the good stuff.

 

6 hours ago, Jolly said:

Great start to the latest episode of The Back Page for all you magazine anecdote fans. 

 

I think Garwoofoo owes them an apology. They'll never be able to escape being known as the Gaming Gammons now :lol:

 

But yes, surely the mag anecdotes are half the appeal of the podcast. It is what sets them apart from everyone else (and that they actually have a really interesting and variable podcast format and that they avoid waffling for half an hour about what they had for breakfast that day). Its one of the very few podcasts that I look forward to appearing in my feed every Friday. 

 

Would love them to have some N64 Magazine era guests on, I think for a lot of us that was the golden era of magazines. 

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