More Podcast Recommendations

TOROCast

At last, I, too, have started listening to "SWTOR's longest running fan podcast" (according to the associated website). Considering that they are up to two hundred episodes by now, I can believe it. I actually avoided this podcast before because a long time ago someone warned me away from it by telling me that the hosts were all terribly jaded and just bashing the game a lot. I haven't gone back to listen to all their old episodes, but the show has clearly undergone some changes since then. In fact, this was the reason it actually got my attention after all this time, as one of the current hosts guest-starred on other podcasts I listened to and sounded nothing if not cheerful and enthusiastic.

As it stands, the show is hosted by Road, the aforementioned serial guest star and community-minded extrovert, and super hardcore raider Mae, though they sometimes have other people joining them to chat. The two of them make for an interesting combination that leads to the show presenting a bit of a "top-down" view of the game, with a focus on overarching issues such as game direction and class balance. Mae can still be quite critical of the devs sometimes, but not to the point that it would make the show a downer.

The TOROCast site also hosts the "Galactic Gamers Coalition", an irregular spin-off show that brings hosts from different podcasts together to be silly and have fun together.

SWTOR Escape Pod Cast

This relatively young podcast is hosted by two members of the AIE gaming community, which I only really know of as the home of Scott Johnson of Instance fame (though I have no idea how much people who play different games within that community actually interact). Of all the podcasts I've listened to, I feel that this one is the closest reflection of two friends just chatting about the game with each other. Aside from the intro that gives the podcast its name and involves an astromech droid being ejected in an escape pod, they don't seem very focused on having fixed show segments. This isn't necessarily a bad thing if you enjoy hearing stories about what people have been up to and listen to them cracking jokes.

The only "issue" I have with this podcast is that both hosts are quite soft-spoken. Considering that I mostly put podcasts on as something to listen to in the background while I play the game, having a show where neither of the hosts has a particularly commanding voice makes it easier for me to get distracted and lose track of what they were talking about.

Bad Feeling Podcast

This is the youngest podcast on my link list and only up to fifteen episodes at the time of me writing this! The hosts, Chuck and Brian, sound like they are still relatively new to the game as well, as they get excited about basic features like hunting datacrons or getting to marry their companions, but personally I actually find it quite charming to be reminded of all the simple things you can enjoy about the game.

They also do a fair bit of swearing, which might not be everyone's cup of tea, but personally I find it amusing more than anything.

At around thirty minutes an episode this is one of the shorter podcasts out there, but I actually tend to enjoy the shorter shows, as they always leave me hungry for the next episode.