Game On! Salutes Welcome to the Goo

It’s rare that you find a gaming podcast that can have a serious discussion without it sounding too nerdy or hardcore – Welcome to the Goo is one of those rare cases that is insightful, interesting, hilarious and just a great show all round. Hosted by Scott and Adam – these two gents not only produce one of the best sounding shows around but also one of the best gaming podcasts on the internet.

As part of our salute we like to speak to someone from the show and Scott was gracious enough to take time out of editing the latest show to speak to us about Welcome to the Goo.

Where did the name Welcome to the Goo/Gamers Only Older come from?
I somehow figured that would be the first question people asked when we first decided on that as a name. It’s no accident that we go by two names, because our show always had a two-fold goal. Yes, “Goo” is an acronym for Gamers Only Older, but the word itself also has a very adolescent connotation with it as well. We always wanted our show to have that feel: adult intelligent conversations that never forget the fact that playing games make us young at heart.

How would you describe your show?
Adam and I spent many a night in college at a local bar pouring over pitchers of beer and chatting up video games. I like to think our show is that at heart, except for now we’re doing it with microphones in front of us. Our top 5 segment comes from the fact that we used to hinge a lot of these discussions on “Best of…” or “Most…” We didn’t do it intentionally at the time, but it just sort of happened naturally. The feature discussions we do made up the other half of the philosophical bar discussions. Truth be told, now it follows a little bit more of a formula, but at it’s core, not much has changed. In the end, the podcast is an absolute @#$! ton of work, that I would never give up for the world.

What made you decide to start a gaming podcast?
Growing older can be difficult. A lot of things change in your life as you move away from home, go to school, get a job, get a wife, and get a family. We make jokes about being “Older,” even though as most podcasters go, we’re actually on the younger side of things. The podcast originally was really a way for us to hold onto the youthful passions we have of gaming, and still be able to look at it in a new more adult light. Adam and I get together (if even just online sometimes), talk games, have a few beers and get to hang out with some of the best people on the planet. Why the hell wouldn’t you want to do that?

Was there any other gaming podcasts that influenced your style or segments?
That’s funny. I think it would be easier to list the podcasts that didn’t influence us in any way, it’s probably a much smaller list. The easiest ones to pay homage to would probably be Gamers With Jobs, Interactive Distractions, and PSNation. They all bring a very different quality to the podcasting world, and are all great shows in their own right. GWJ was the epitome of what I wanted our show to feel like. They laugh and have a blast every time they record, but more importantly, their sincerity and passion come through in every cast. Interactive Distractions was huge for me because of how they incorporated their fans and audience into the cast. I never wanted to do a show where we talked to the cloud of the internet, I wanted to know that people were listening and engaged. They were also a huge help in getting it off the ground, and have become some of my closest friends. In terms of friendship, the same can be said for PSNation. Among other things, one thing that I really took from their show though was the attention to detail. The number of times I’ve spoken with Glenn where he’s told me, “I think this is the best audio quality we’ve ever had,” is staggering. What that means though is that they’re always trying to improve: audio quality, format, structure, new segments, you name it. Being stale can become an issue, and their show is far from that. There are many others, that I still look to for a lot of specific reasons, but those would be the heavy hitters.

What do you think sets you apart from other gaming podcasts out there?
It might sound pompous, but in one word, honesty. We don’t pretend to know things we don’t, and we admit it openly on the show. More importantly, we designed it to be a two person show so it would be easier to bring others on. I might not know the answer off the top of my head to something, but someone will, and that’s who we’ll talk to. We try really hard not to come across as fake. Realistically there’s certainly some difference between “recording Scott” and “in person Scott,” but we try to always let our listeners know where we’re coming from. If you can’t trust us as podcasters to be honest, we wouldn’t keep you as a listener, and certainly wouldn’t have the awesome community around us that we do. Besides, it’s what I want out of the podcasts I listen to.

What made you decide to do a fortnightly show instead of weekly?
I mentioned the whole job/wife/family thing right? I kid, but it’s also true as half the argument. The other half of the argument is that I’m an anal bastard when it comes to audio editing. More often then not, 90 minute shows take me close to 6 or 7 hours to edit, and that’s not because it needs that much work, it’s because I’m way too picky. By the time you tack on recording time, actually producing the show, and then publishing it; we’re pushing 10-12 hours of work. That would be way too much to do in a single week. Other shows have a more slimmed down process, and that’s not to their detriment, but for me I just know that the Goo carries our names and I want it to be something special that I can be proud of.

What’s been some of your personal highlights from the show?
I can’t speak for Adam on this, but mine are fairly easy: the Ian Cofino interview, our 1 year anniversary Live show, and our Extra Life episode. I’ve really had a lot of fun doing the show with everyone that’s been on the show (and we’ll have some fun new additions coming soon as well) but those three are probably the most unique. Ian Cofino was really invigorating to find a separate side of the media in video games that had the same sort of passions we did. The live show was a blast because of the group involved and the community interactions. The uniqueness of the Extra Life special was a ton of fun while still being for a fantastically worthwhile cause.

You discuss games for old and current systems on the show – what’s you opinion on this current generation of gaming compared to previous generations?
Again, I can’t speak for Adam on this, but this generation of consoles is an interesting one. It’s really the infancy of console internet gaming, and it’ll be interesting to see how it improves for the coming generations. If it were possible to throw nostalgia away, I’d probably advocate the current generation as one of the best. Mostly, I think that’s because there’s a level of immersion and realism present that just isn’t there in older games. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not talking about graphics, I’m talking about the complete package. Perhaps if Mario had the Havoc physics engine back in the NES days, he wouldn’t have had that weird combination of slippery and sticky for controls.

Your show is one of the better produced shows out there – has there been many obstacles getting the show up and running?
Initially? Not really. Like I said before, we had some great help, and I also had the benefit of being into sound and audio quality before walking in. I didn’t have to learn it to podcast, I just had to learn how to adapt it to podcasting. I guess that’s the benefit of being a band geek and a tech geek all at the same time.

You guys are also one of the most intelligent podcasts around while also being able to keep it entertaining – what do you think is the secret to achieving this?
Don’t you know that flattery will get you everywhere? In all seriousness though: “Release the Inner Child.” It’s no big secret, we have fun having those discussions, and the fun is what it’s about. This is a hobby, and it’s got to be fun or else we would go mad. If we’re having fun, then the listener will have fun too. Kind of like a Goo’ey osmosis.

Do you find you get more gaming in now that you do a podcast?
Um…. Yes and no. I buy a lot more games now, does that count? HA! I think I probably buy and play a wider variety than I would without it, but at the same time the podcasting work does sometimes take the place of actually playing games. On the flip side though, every now and again, I can get away with the “Sweetie, I was really hoping to get some time in on X before we record, do you mind?” kind of rationale. I also use the “research” argument for purchases occasionally, but that one rarely gets me anywhere.

Finally – why should people listen to your show?
I’m pretty sure that if you’ve read the interview until now and don’t want to give us a try, then likely nothing I say here will change your mind. I’d rather you just go give us a try, and then tell a friend why they should listen if you end up liking us. Now I should probably get back to editing…. peace.

You can find Welcome to the Goo on their website, iTunes, Facebook, Twitter and the Zune Marketplace. It’s a must listen to for any gaming fan.