Harmonix Podcast

[hmxsean]

Hey All,
 So I've been wanting to get a Harmonix podcast up and going for awhile but now it seems like it could actually happen (rad).  What I'd like to know is what you'd like to hear.  Post any suggestions on here.  Keep in mind that at first it won't really be a podcast about huge breaking news regarding Rock Band (we aren't quite at that state yet), what else would you like to hear?  Lemme know.

[Kaboobi]

Any info on rock band you CAN release, any crazy stuff that goes on in the office, maybe an interview some employee every week?&nbsp; You might be able to set up a question submission form or topic where we can ask questions about anything and you'd be able to pick a few and answer them.<br>

[CoWmAn]

Full length MP3's of some of Frequency and Amplitudes songs by Harmonix members&nbsp;plz. Also "Catching Up" with some people from Harmonix that where on those two teams who left (Like Mr. Toni Trippi) :P

[Rainer7]

<p>You can announce the Blog of the month or something.&nbsp; Can also talk about games that your staff is playing.</p><p>&nbsp;I'd like to hear Harmonix's thoughts on Guitar Hero 3; the pricing, microtransactions, where Neversoft will take the game, newly announced yearly additions to the franchise, and the also new online feature.&nbsp; <br></p>

[CoWmAn]

Also you should steal my idea on HarmonixFans.Com about interviewing all the main fan site owners and talking to them :P.

[TRY2KPUP]

<P>I think it should be about how great I am. <IMG src="http://www.rockbandgame.com/file/smile/wacko.gif"></P>
<P>Seriously&nbsp; though, just give us any info you can! It can be about how this pixel is bigger than that pixel. I dont care! Just give us info! <IMG src="http://www.rockbandgame.com/file/smile/biggrin.gif"></P>

[rspooky]

<p>first of any info on RB is great , but also an insight on the thought /dev process on the games you guys made/make.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>How about discussing the idea's thrown out by the community members here on the forums? ( without committing hmx to any of them off course)</p><p>&nbsp;</p>

[tbradshaw]

<p>I thought I would cross post my suggestions from another thread to help aggregate them here.&nbsp; I'll keep thinking on the idea and post new ideas as they come:</p>
<blockquote><p>I know you guys don't have much to report about when it comes to Rock Band due to the marketing powers that be, but that's okay. Tell me some cool ??? about the making of Guitar Hero, and Frequency, and Amplitude.</p>
<p>After reading about your development house, I'd love to hear about the work done at MIT Media Labs pre-Harmonix and early Harmonix work with Disney and other stuff that's not even necessarily gaming.</p>
<p>Really, just interviews, interviews, interviews, and witty banter. Human interest pieces regarding your artists, musicians, and developers. I'm a developer, but I've never worked with consoles, I'd love to hear your developers geek out as heavy as it gets for as long as they want about the ins and outs of working with the PS2 and the newer generations of hardware.</p></blockquote>

[xarexerax]

<P>You should have a detailed dissertation regarding the differences between taking songs and turning them into multi-track beat games vs. single-track beat games; the process involved in picking apart the whole of a song and turning into user-influenced feedback. Maybe also reveal some of the things that went horribly, horribly wrong with some of your earlier games during some of the development stages -- unless, of course, you always were the flawless, shining beings that you are today and nothing ever went wrong?</P>
<P>Also how about some of that original music (either featured in previous games or, OMGWTF, new stuff being put out by all your crazy in-house artists) ... we're always itching to hear what kind of things you crazy cats are cooking up in the audio department, even if it doesn't fit the bill of "Rock Band"-esque genres (yes, that's right, feed us your electronica, we loves it ......)</P>
<P>Maybe also you could opine on the way the site is going in your eyes, let us know how you feel this community is doing in terms of getting your people active as well as the fanbase that contributes to the overall smattering of joy, and last but not least a detailed profile of all of your employees as described exclusively through the foods that they will not eat because they think that they are gross!</P>

[Smidget]

BEHIND ROCKBAND: You've (Harmonix) wanted to make this game for a long time now. Maybe talk about the specific things that held you back until now; what's making it possible now and why you feel the freedom/comfort to make it.

MUSIC GAMES: What are your thoughts on music/rythm games in the video game world now. No domestically-released console music game has ever been a smash hit upon release like GH (DDR became popular but it wasn't explosive like GH). What music games would you like to see made?

THE TEAM: It's been said that most of the team behind RB are musicians in some capacity. Could we possibly see video of you all playing your instruments? Maybe a group performance of some of you rocking out! Do a sneak attack one day on the employees who drive to work and check their car stereos to see "what they're listening to".

ZOMG CRAZY RANDOMNESS!: Just give us some awesome randomness to remind us why we love the intraweb so much.

HISTORY de HARMONIX: For those of us who haven't been involved with message boards and things of the such with your past games and aren't familiar with the teams personnel, whats changed over the years, and what hasn't changed, give us the 411 on Harmonix History! Throw in some "many people don't realize/know this but..." - esque things.

There's some thoughts :)

[HMXVegas]

Sound clips from the QA room of us hitting each other and screaming.

[vichnaiev]

It would be interesting to hear tips / comments on how to get started on a gaming carreer or even how YOU guys got started on that. That's a subject that concerns a lot of people, would be GREAT to hear about that.


PS: why does the picklist for Country when you register at the forums has only US ?? I mean, people from all over the world register here. =)

[sushi111]

I would love to see the new song announcements on the podcast...:D

[Smidget]

BUMP!


any more word on this?: )

[benjamin]

I would like you guys to discuss the music of the various indie bands you guys have had as bonus bands in the game.

Especially the Acrobrats. I really enjoy them.

[healimonster]

I would take a cue from Major Nelson who does a podcast for the XBOX360.
It is quite possible the best gaming podcast out there.

It starts with news:
Latest DCL, patches, etc

It often has a bit of small talk from behind the scenes.

It almost always has an interview:
Talk about the production of Rock Band, hurdles, triumphs, gaffs, and surprises.

Rock Band 101:
Advice for getting into rock band, least used features, best features.

---
Thats about all you would need for a good podcast.
The biggest mistake with podcasts is to not know how long to make the shows and how often to post the shows.
They have to be posted in a regular weekly or bi-weekly fashion in order to maintain a listenership. They also have to have a decent amount of content. The is no point in spending 2 minutes checking on a podcast and 2 minutes downloading a podcast that is 10 minutes long. The length should be 30 minutes at least, but ideally close to 1 hour, and come out every week on a certain day.

[LamboSan]

^ I agree with this poster haha

Who Holds the current rank of songs? New Info on DLC,Tips on some songs.

[Swanton]

I think it would be great if you could touch on some of the hottest topics on the board at the moment.

To my knowledge, the following concerns about the game are:

1. The durability of instruments
2. The lack of online BWT mode
3. The fan cap in BWT mode
4. Future DLC

The first point has been discussed to death in the forums, but I'm curious about how the problem happened? How could a vital piece of equipment for the game be so flawed that a good majority of players have to exchange guitars or use a controller from another product?

As for the second and third issue, it would be nice to hear some thoughts on why these decisions where made and if any type of patch in the future will "correct" the issues. Perhaps a concrete answer is not an option at this point, but acknowledgement that you've heard the many concerns and are working on them would be great.

It would be disappointing to hear, "We'll take care of this in Rock Band 2," but at least we could all stop speculating about it.

Of course, it would be great to hear about the next wave of DLC (insert plug for Pearl Jam, Guns n' Roses, Alice In Chains, The Darkness The Killers, Judas Priest, Poison, etc).

Is any of this doable in a podcast?

[Bakkster]

I'd love to see this be a replacement/extension of the rock blogs. Release any news statements (patch contents, DLC updates, etc), highlight some community members and do an employee interview. That would be \m/

[terRize]

Lot of great ideas already mentioned. So I'll reiterate some of them and hopefully add some not listed yet.

I'd like to know what goes into song selection. Where does it begin? With seeing if you can even license it? Or do you pick songs and then try and license? The whole process of song selection would be great.

Different processes involved in creating the game. The behind the scenes that's been mentioned before.

Fan issues... For example the fan cap, or the instrument problems (if you really want to call it that cause it could be a small minority I really don't know).. or anything else that seems to be a popular topics on the board that HMX can respond to.

Fan contests and email. Course the contests might be better suited to the website. Like best tattoo.. best rock character look-a-likes.. etc.

Have some of the bonus song bands on there as well, or even mainstream artists.. or maybe some of the leaderboard rock band groups.

And of course news about RB in general and upcoming DLC and patches.

[SoulScreme]

Hey All,
&nbsp;So I've been wanting to get a Harmonix podcast up and going for awhile but now it seems like it could actually happen (rad).&nbsp; What I'd like to know is&nbsp;what you'd like to hear.&nbsp; Post any suggestions on here.&nbsp; Keep in mind that at first it won't really be a podcast about huge breaking news regarding Rock Band (we aren't quite at that state yet), what else would you like to hear?&nbsp; Lemme know.

Well, I'd like to hear:

1) Status on issues/bugs. Information about what will be change and why other things won't change. Basically an opening news segment.

2) Discussions of plans for future DLC.

3) Possibly a segment on the leaderboards and who the top folks are.

4) Interviews with some of the Harmonix staff that have songs in the game.

5) Possibly some special events/contests.

6) Hints/tips for tricky songs.

[HPLabonte]

I would take blah blah.

meeegaahhh bumppp!!!

[boboette]

Well, I'd like to hear:

1) Status on issues/bugs. Information about what will be change and why other things won't change. Basically an opening news segment.

2) Discussions of plans for future DLC.

3) Possibly a segment on the leaderboards and who the top folks are.

4) Interviews with some of the Harmonix staff that have songs in the game.

5) Possibly some special events/contests.

6) Hints/tips for tricky songs.

Agree to every single point above, especially number 1. I understand that you guys don't want to say anything definite before you have a solid plan, because the rumors will just run wild and bite you in the end. But a simple acknowledgment of yeah, we hear ya, and we're thinking about it or working on it will mean a lot. We forum rats don't know if we are just talking amongst ourselves or you guys monitor and take notes.

[hmxsean]

We forum rats don't know if we are just talking amongst ourselves or you guys monitor and take notes.

We do follow very closely. But we also don't feel comfortable saying stuff until we have solid stuff to say. It is amazing how often that, too, bites in the ass.

[Electric_Zen]

The people at Harmonix are always interesting and fun to listen to. I'd love a podcast that didn't focus a whole lot on the gaming stuff, and had people talk about what music they're enjoying these days, what happened on their last tour date, etc.

[Ordnalac]

Info about upcoming DLC with an explanation of what songs are/are not possibilities.

[scuzme]

We do follow very closely. But we also don't feel comfortable saying stuff until we have solid stuff to say. It is amazing how often that, too, bites in the ass.
Yeah I wouldn't say anything if I were you guys either. But thanks for responding. It's good to know the big boss is watching.

[Apples]

Hah, I remember when this thread was originally posted. Amazed someone went back this far to find it. :)

[TheTogfather]

I'd like to see a recurring feature in each episode in which you call a member of Tool and ask them if they're ready to be in Rock Band yet.

Other than that though, just like someone mentioned above, I'd probably enjoy just hearing Harmonix folk being themselves. I mean, sure...mention the game if you got something to say on it, but just chattin it up and acting like the rock stars you are would be pretty entertaining I think.

[SoulScreme]

Yeah I wouldn't say anything if I were you guys either. But thanks for responding. It's good to know the big boss is watching.

To me some things need to be addressed. I get that BWT online, fan cap, etc. require some though and planning on how to handle. Things like the equipment failures, lack of PS3 Les Paul support, and inability to back up save files though, those seem to be more like bugs than new concepts, so I would think they might be able to talk to some of those.

[Smidget]

Wow, talk about an insane bump. I saw the thread title and thought "someone made a new one?" then opened it up and realized.. nope.

still a good idea

[Eastwood]

Part of the reason for loathing the current state of the community is because we now lack the feeling of involement from the people who actually are behind the scenes. I miss developer blogs and employees like Sean weighing in on topics. It was pretty cool to have someone who actually works with the company BSing around with us in the forums. I'm pretty sure that if Sean commented on anything in the RB forum, he would get blasted by an angry newb (i'm just an angry reg, so my angst is directed at the general populace)

[Eman311]

holy ass old bump

[Eastwood]

holy ass old bump, batman!

fixed it for you :p

[healimonster]

Hah, I remember when this thread was originally posted. Amazed someone went back this far to find it. :)

My love of podcasts and Rock Band is strong to quite strong.
So I first went to itunes and subscribed to a podcast called rock band 101. It took me a few days, but I finally realized that the podcast had nothing to do with the video game but some dude talking about how to create a real rock band. It was very funny how long it took me to realize that it wasn't harmonix related because many of the tips also apply to situations in the game, I finally realized it was the wrong podcast when he was talking about owning a reliable car.

So not being satisfied without a "RockBand" podcast I did a google search for a Harmonix podcast and found this very old thread.

I guess my question to Sean now is did the podcast idea get couched or are you guys just too busy?
If it got couched for legal or PR reasons. Remember podcasts are 1 way streets and unlike these forums you can only tell the people what you think they need to hear or what you want to tell them. It certainly doesn't need to to be nor should it be a weekly recording of you responding to all the people *****ing on these forums. I think a lot can be said that is not an official PR release or a commitment to future plans that will go a long way to quell the endless negative blather that goes on on these forums.
If it was for reason 2... while podcasts can be time consuming to produce they can also be as simple as having an MP3 player with voice record and taping some of your conversations during lunch.