321GoCast: A retrospective

December 22, 2009 was the first official release of 321GoCast episode 1 (which you can still get on iTunes and RSS feeds until I take down the podbean account in a month) What a lot of DTOIDers,, including those involved with it, called the spiritual successor to FailCast debuted 3 years ago. Though the show has changed its roster, format, where is it presented weekly and its time slot, 321GoCast is (as far as I know) the longest running Destructoid community production podcast/show in DTOID history. As the guy most closely associated with the show I thought it a good idea to give a retrospective on something that has been a huge part of my life for the past 3 years.

In the beginning

321GoCast started as the brainchild of Crocbox, who suggested that our weekly Dungeons and Dragons pre and post game chatter was funny enough to share with the DTOID population. The sessions, which featured the like of Analoge, Cataract, King3vbo, Cataract, Crocbox and myself) were just silly banter, ribbing on each other and talking about random topics. We agreed that it would be a fun idea and after a month or so of planning, working out logistics and schedule, we sat down and recorded. For the first couple of months or so the show was broken up into 10 to 15 minute segments, since our designated recorder only had the trial version of the software suite Pamela, which only allowed for short segments to be recorded at at time. We decided to fill the gaps between segments with songs, which at first were suggested by the cast members, then based off the current conversation, until ultimately it devolved into whoever edited the show decided which songs to use. The first official line up for the show members was Ryu89, Analoge, myself, and a guest host which changed every week for about a month or so. We used silly blog intro paragraphs for each show and through the first 15 or 20 episodes I went through and highlighted stuff that we talked about, which came to be known as the epic Show Notes.



Issues

Editing became the first issue that plagued the podcast. Since day one Ryu and Analoge had an ongoing argument about who should do the editing. Ryu was our principal editor for a majority of the early episodes. But as with anything involving The Goof Troop (Analoge, King3vbo, Pangloss, Ryu, Dyganth, and myself) someone eventually get tired of doing their part, in this case Ryu grew tired of editing and handed that duty over to Analoge. Editing came to a screeching halt after the release of episode 45 or so.

Another issue was scheduling, but as with anything being produced by people in different time zones, scheduling always gets in the way.

The Guests

One of the coolest parts about 321GoCast has been our many, and even recurring guests over the years. The likes of community members Stella Wong, Mikey Turvey, Garison, Philanthr0py, Bill Zoeker(RIP Billy Zoe), Spaceburrito, Rubyfair, Catarct, etc. It has also featured Dtoid staffers, such as Zodiac Eclipse, Jordan Devore, Powerglove, Conrad Zimmerman, and Chad Concelmo. We got to talk to these people, generally shoot the shit and have a fun time while doing it. Jokes were made about Stella being our emergency guest (which was true) and fun times were had by all.



Success

Beyond our wildest expectations, and our inside joke about Stella being our only listener, we actually got a decent following here on Dtoid. It was enough to get us a badge on the forums, our segment (however unused it was) on the community shows subforum, recognition from the cblog recaps, a successful charity show, and invited to be the first community based show on the still relatively new Dtoid.tv. This added more recognition as the show added not only new guests, but viewers. With the start of StreamToid, 321GoCast moved over to the community based streaming channel and is more or less its flagship program.

Cast members

We started out with just Ryu, Analoge, Crocbox and Me. Croc being extremely busy dropped out soon after, then we had Cataract for a few episodes and he had to drop as well. Our longest running foursome was Ryu, Analoge, Tactix who joined soon after his second consecutive guest appearance, and me. After being on the live channel for a while Tactix left us, and finally Analoge did as well. Now the foursome is Chris "Bleachboy" Healy, Ryu 89, Pangloss, and myself, though we will soon be saying goodbye to Pangloss as he prepares to go live in the land of moon runes and anime.



The end my friends

One last thing Id like to tell you guys about 321GoCast is just how ridiculous this whole thing has been. Coming from being a no name community member, who lurked for a while, change his username and was an avid listener of all the dtoid and community shows, it just is surreal to be writing this right now.

I have had a very weird success in my life with this show. I have grown as a person, gained friends, a reputation, recognition and just overall satisfaction with how I run my silly little round table show. I just want to finish this up before I tear up and thank everybody involved with the show, everybody who has ever listened, subscribed to our RSS feed and iTunes, Dtoid.tv for letting 4 guys with no idea what to talk about most of the time take up a Sunday evening time slot for about a year or so, and I personally want to thank my friends in the Goof Troop for being there for me and the show for such a long damned time. Three years of 321GoCast and I don't plan on stopping any time soon.

Thank you everybody.

[Here are two fun little segments from past shows if you have never seen or heard 321Go before. Here and here More highlights can be found on the Dtoid.tv highlights page!]

---

LOOK WHO CAME:

JohnnyViral   

smurfee mcgee   1

Phil    1

Ramminchuck   1

Spencer Hayes   1

M Randy   1

PhilKenSebben   1

JohnnyViral   1

FalconReaper   1

Zodiac Eclipse   1

Arttemis   1

Jesse Cortez   1