Man, I'm feeling down on the games discussion with Kinda Funny recently. I'm going to list some things here that have been bothering me, but I should not when I say "X happens" I mean "I think X generally happens" and it should not be taken as a factual universal statement.
- Gamescast continues to be poor, in my opinion. Conversations aren't that interesting or in-depth. And I think some of the other issues I'm gonna list affect it a lot.
- Greg and Colin feel very... predictable when it comes to their opinions and discussions. They don't seem to want to expand their tastes and try new things. They're increasingly caricatures of themselves in how they pick their sides in debates. (Greg is defending a publisher! Colin thinks the internet is overreacting to something!) It feels like they've just settled into a rut and don't challenge themselves or each other on that, which brings me to my next point...
- Disagreement leads to interesting discussions, and there's so little of it. Colin or Greg will say something that is questionable or should be dived into more, but no one talks about it further. No one challenges assertions. This leads to conversations feeling like a verbal journal entry.
- My man Colin feels particularly cynical as of late. Don't know if that's just me, a coincidence that this year is all games that he seems to be skeptical of, or what, but it feels like it and has kind of muddied the waters on some game discussions.
- Tim has clearly improved since he started the Gamescast, but I wish he would engage in the conversation more. I think more probing questions and challenging people's opinions could really help a lot on some of the points I mentioned, but he doesn't do that. Not sure if it's because he still feels like he can't hang with these guys in conversations, but he probably can more than he thinks. It might be a personality thing too, I don't know.
As far as possible fixes, I think bringing in other people more consistently to expose the crew to different viewpoints would help quite a bit. (Even having Nick on when it makes sense would be a welcome improvement!) Maybe call it a rotating fouth chair. I would also appreciate them reaching outside their comfort zone a bit with the guests, as they have a lot of repeats on when they do. As I mentioned, Tim could also try to prod the discussions to be a bit more meaty, but I realize that's not necessarily going to happen.
Anyway, thought I'd post my thoughts to see if any of you feel similarly or if I'm all alone on this. Been listening to Greg ramble for nearly a decade at this point and I don't intend on stopping soon. I'm still looking forward to the Alexa/Colin JRPGcast in a couple weeks! That seems ripe for KF goodness.
