Four months later and it’s here!
The Zybez podcast (NSFW)! Before you scurry off to listen to it, please keep in mind that you get directed to an upload site that displays porno ads on it! But that’s okay, the voice of the Jay36miles is sooo dreamy that you won’t be able to help yourself. I hope you detected my sarcasm there, because if you’ve already heard the first episode you’ll know that this guy sounds ultra creepy.
Normally, I’d say “Well, it’s just their first podcast..give them a break”, but considering this has been in the works for MONTHS, I can’t spare them the benefit of the doubt. The podcast is terribly edited. Rather than inviting all of the guests for a live Skype episode, it seems like they told a bunch of random people to record themselves reading a pre-written message, then cut their audio file into the main podcast. Awful. Awful sound quality, awful content.
Let me separate this into categories of awfulness in hopes that someone from Zybez will read this and improve from my criticism.
- Content: The content is the defining factor on whether or not a podcast is going to be good. The Zybez podcast talked about a few things, “Should Children be Subjected to a Curfew to Prevent Against Crime?”, clans, a “monster competition”, and the IRC channel of Zybez events. See what I just did? I listed the contents of their podcast, aka Show Notes– something that they didn’t bother writing themselves. Firstly, most people who are active on RSC already know the clan news. RSC is the hub for clan activity and people don’t need to hear the results a week later. Secondly, what’s with this thing about children’s curfews? I like the idea of having a discussion prompt, but all they said was “check out our thread on it!” and they never listed where I could find it. Thirdly, there was almost no talk about clan chat. I’m thinking that this might be because the podcast was recorded weeks before then, possibly months. Zybez, you have a huge clan community, use your brains and host a discussion on the clan chat and spare everyone the boring crap about the IRC channel or monster competition.
- Quality: As I said, this podcast seriously lacks in quality. None of it is geared toward Runescape fans, just Zybez fans. Why would I want to listen to a podcast about the going-ons at their forum? I rather hear interesting discussion on Runescape-related things. The audio quality, again, was awful. I don’t know if native speakers of English had this problem, but I had an extremely hard time understanding them. Their words seemed really rushed and the volume was too low. It was difficult to pay attention to the disjointedness of the whole episode.
- Length: Thee minutes and thirty-five seconds may fly for the “Quick Grammar Tips!” podcast, but people want something that they can be entertained by for at least a half hour. You have to consider that many people play Runescape whilst listening to a Runescape-related podcast. Recording such a short episode is almost completely pointless.
Here are my suggestions, Zybez. Listen to an RSBANDB podcast. Notice the good sound quality, the lack of porno ads (or even ads for that matter) on our download page, the seamless flow of the episode (as it’s done in Skype), and the content. You guys have a lot to learn and, frankly, this episode was worthless.
Edit: Apparently, the second link is actually full-length (45 mins). I’ll leave it to Brad to pick up my slack and talk about it.
Tags: Miscellaneous |
August 13th, 2007 at 10:45 pm
*generic post of agreement*
August 13th, 2007 at 10:55 pm
They just said that it was recorded on April 2nd!!!
August 14th, 2007 at 12:26 am
Well, my, I’m sorry. It seems that their four months of editing did no good.
August 14th, 2007 at 2:45 am
Wait… four months to edit it?!
Doesn’t shane usually spend about an hour editing it?
Neither of the download links worked for me, and I can’t be assed to make them work.
In conclusion: RSBandB ftw.
August 14th, 2007 at 3:44 am
I’m starting to feel bad about always criticizing other fansites, when we don’t even have the databases up yet. XD
Although, it’s really not fair they’re ‘borrowing’ the things which make rsbandb unique. :/
August 14th, 2007 at 7:23 am
I don’t think that they are worthy of a podcast.
August 14th, 2007 at 7:57 am
wow thats alot of porno
August 14th, 2007 at 8:15 am
Just goes to show that idea stealing will not work out. I’m not gonna listen to it, sounds bad, and I don’t like Zybez very much.
August 14th, 2007 at 1:26 pm
Check out http://www.draynor.net/ if you like to see how idea stealing end up
August 14th, 2007 at 3:37 pm
The podcast link from Zybez site does not seem to be working anymore… Ouch…
But why are you so mean to other fan sites? Is it just competition or Draynor and Zybez are particularly bad? I have been writing on Zybez forum (in Q/A section) and it’s OK. A bit more strict to outsiders, but serves the purpose. And their prices database is very good.
August 14th, 2007 at 4:09 pm
You see, Vaskor, when people give their opinions on things, they’re not always “Wow! This is great :)” There’s plenty of that already. The fact is, that helps no one. Zybez’s podcast is indeed a horrible podcast. In fact, a while ago, I listened to an RS podcast that three 13 year olds did together and even though I thought it was horrible, Zybez’s is quite possibly worse. I never said that Zybez was a bad site, or that their content was bad. I criticised the podcast.
If I wanted to be mean, I’d give them no ways to improve their podcast. Yet, I spent 3/4ths of my post telling them how to improve. I hardly see that as being mean. Draynor is another story, I have no problem being mean to those thieving good-for-nothings.
August 14th, 2007 at 4:41 pm
Yes, you have a point there. Second part of the post, if taken separately, is a good criticism.
But first 2 paragraphs set the tone. I don’t know, it all might be just a distorted and paranoid view from my side, but that’s how it looked like to me after I read Brad’s post, your post and comments.
August 15th, 2007 at 4:48 am
I sorta wish people would stop claiming other fansites “steal” our ideas.
It’s annoying me, it’s not like we was the first to ever make podcasts or signatures, it isn’t a big deal. If i saw an idea on a website that i liked I’d happily steal it and use it for my own.
Don’t see the need to create rivalry’s over stupid things.
August 15th, 2007 at 5:57 am
I agree with CreppyPirat. This entire blog might as well just be bashing other sites to make RSBANDB look better.
Which it’s not really doing well.
August 15th, 2007 at 12:47 pm
This is her blog. This is where whe can say whatever ever she linkes about whatever she wants. This is her blog. Don’t like it? DOn’t read it. It’s up to her what she puts on HER blog.
August 15th, 2007 at 12:49 pm
Actually, RSBANDB were first to code up dynamic signatures. I’ve never claimed that Zybez stole our ideas, I claimed that they made a horrible podcast. Please, people, reading is not that hard.
August 15th, 2007 at 1:25 pm
Flamingo.
August 15th, 2007 at 1:38 pm
Four months to edit…
Wow
August 16th, 2007 at 7:49 am
Zybez= phail
August 21st, 2007 at 12:10 pm
(formally meesekiller)
Allow me to point something out. Why the hell are we helping them? If their content is bad let them figure it out…if they don’t put in enough time then let Shane and Mike reap the benefits and get more people for their site…how hard is that?
September 21st, 2007 at 12:18 am
your forums are well popular mate. brap.
January 30th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
Rsb&bupdate isn’t what i’d consider a ‘quality podcast , many times has shane said he would edit something out and not done . let zybez do what they want ,when you put something decent on the web , expect it to be copied ;D
February 1st, 2008 at 2:03 pm
I hardly see how that makes it not a quality podcast.