Editor's note: Omar's got some tough love for all of you struggling podcasters out there in Internet land. Follow his (good) advice and you'll immediately improve your broadcast. - Aaron
After moving from Canada to France I expected to be the victim of harsh culture shock. But after a few weeks in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, I didn't feel foreign in any sense. Nothing really bothered me. Not the lingering clouds of cigarette smoke, the street-side performers or even the strange language which everyone spoke.
This all changed on the first day of school. I stood by the curb expecting a big yellow bus to whisk me off to class, until my mother explained that kids walked to school in France. I was 14 years old and my parents expected me to walk for 30 minutes through the intimidating streets of Paris, not once, but twice each day. How would my wandering and imaginative mind occupy itself on the long, daily journey?
That's when I found out about The Hotspot. Every week, I would sit impatiently at the computer, waiting for the hour-long mp3 enema which Gamespot proudly served into the malleable, innocent minds of children around the world. From start to finish, there was never a dull moment. Rich Gallup, Jeff Gerstmann, and Bob Calyaco were so dynamic and entertaining it was strange to think that they worked at a videogame website instead of at a comedy club. They bounced witty retorts off of one another, analyzing and teasing the day's story at the same time. The trio possessed a chemistry which my friends and I were envious of.
I stopped listening to the Hotspot after Rich and Jeff left Gamespot, yet I still remember the silly recurring jokes which perforated each episode. The Hotspot certainly wasn't a pioneer of the medium, but it broke ground by demonstrating how occupying the sounds of three voices could be.
However, I've recently become very tired of videogame podcasts. Almost all of the series subscribe to the "Four Dudes Talking" format. They all seem to be discussing the exact same news and games, and in the exact same fashion, too. The same jokes are made, the same lines are uttered -- it's difficult to convince myself that any of the broadcasts are unique in any real way. I listen to them when I've got little else to do, or when I'm going to bed.
In light of the increased amount of unoriginality that's plaguing today's podcasts, I'd like to take a little time to spell out the numerous pitfalls that so many podcasters fall victim to. With any luck, the podcasts recorded after the publication of this article will be slightly less boring than those recorded yesterday and today.
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