Originally published on Trevor Trove on August 20, 2016
I was originally going to write up my review of Bound tonight. But then I had the time of my life on the Irrational Passions podcast, despite a whole host of hiccups. So I thought I would instead take the time to celebrate that instead.
If you’re a regular to the site, or you read my previous Trevor Trove Tribute for Alex O’Neill, you know just how much this young man means to me. He is a constant source of inspiration as we both strive to make it in this industry. But no man is an island. And Alex has some of the very best working alongside him at Irrational Passions.
I’ve admittedly only been listening for the last year or so and as such, can’t speak to the rest of the podcast/website’s six-year history, but the current line-up of hosts – Alex, Brian “Nabeshin” Jackson, Tony Horvath, and Scott Guthier – have an incredible back and forth report with one another and I have been honored to meet three of the four members (someday Scott…).
And tonight’s episode, which I was fortunate enough to be invited on when original guest Jonathan “Xyger” Landeros backed out to be in Chicago for Let’s Play Live this weekend, was a pitch-perfect example of why Irrational Passions is a special collection of guys.
Each and every week, they guys record their show live via a google hangout. People are encouraged to watch live and even participate asking questions using #IPQ to ask questions. Alternatively, the episodes are then on the YouTube as video-on-demand episodes and Alex (or possibly Tony) will also edit the show together for the audio-version to release early the following week.
Typically the format is as follows: video-only “Bonus Content” (typically 30-ish minutes of talking about each other’s week), then the proper show begins with a run down of Irrational Passions housekeeping (new articles on the website), the games everyone is playing, gaming news of the week, and then occasional an ending segment. Tonight I spent roughly 5 hours talking to these wonderful people when all was said and done.
Fellow guest Barrett Courtney of bzgamers.com (because Alex double-booked us in the effort to replace Xyger), often runs into some minor technical hiccups with his setup where the Google Hangout starts getting a bit choppy for him. That occurred about an hour into the recording tonight (or about an hour forty-five into the overall show since the Bonus Content piece isn’t captured on our mp3 files). But we covered for him while he disconnected and got reset. He also stopped recording for a few minutes when the program crashed but he wasn’t really involved in the part of the conversation so there probably won’t really be any notable edits.
Alex ran into a similar issue where his recording was skipping and jumping a little bit so he stopped and we worked to get him re-synced in. Both of these examples, and how quickly and easily they were addressed speak to some podcasting basics of how to cover yourself. For example, from then on, I made sure I had a split screen on my monitor so I could see my recording software and the Google Hangout at the same time and notice as soon as possible in my recording ever died on me.
The real fun began when Alex’s computer completely failed on him and we lost him from the Google Hangout. Now, now because he was also the host broadcasting the Google Hangout, the entire stream that are friends were watching went down. The rest of us (save Alex) could still see each other and we were all still recording our own separate audio so we were able to continue the conversation as per the usual format of the show.
We kept the conversation going for roughly an hour in this “offline” state that will only exist in some form on the audio version when it’s all edited together from our independent files. With Alex pre-occupied trying to fix his own setup, the other hosts, Barrett, and myself took turns driving the conversations and asking questions of one another. All the while, we were checking in with Alex on his status and providing him with ours.
At long last, he borrowed his brother’s computer and was able to get back online. Since the original Google Hangout was “finished recording,” we started a second one and got Alex synced back up with the rest of the show, filling him in on some of the highlights he missed.
And then we got right back into the flow of things and recorded another hour and half. Re-energized by the whole gang being back together.
I was, and continue to be, humbled by how these guys carry themselves and I’m so grateful they come let me hang out with them every now and then. They are all, along with the entirety of Irrational Passions, an inspiration for this very site and I hope to continue growing and learning from them.
The full audio version of the show will go out next week. But if you would like to enjoy the 4+ hours we caught over the two segments, check out the videos below. I’ll be back with the regularly-scheduled review of Bound tomorrow.