Cause and Effect - Ideas for next season

alek wrote:

2. Shorter episodes. There were some lasting more than 2 hours, which is really long.

I'd second that. Personally, I think that pod/videocasts that are more than 30 minutes had better be worth my time, and one's that are >1hr had better be spectacular. Your C&E are certainly good! But they are a bit too long. Perhaps you're over-discussing things?

*IF* the podcasts get down to 1hr or less, I'd also like to see an audio-only .mp3 option (ideally, would be <700MB, so I could burn it to a CD and listen in the car).

Lots of great feedback so far. I'm already starting to think about possible solutions. Keep it coming!

KevinM wrote:

alek wrote:

2. Shorter episodes. There were some lasting more than 2 hours, which is really long.

I'd second that. Personally, I think that pod/videocasts that are more than 30 minutes had better be worth my time, and one's that are >1hr had better be spectacular. Your C&E are certainly good! But they are a bit too long. Perhaps you're over-discussing things?

*IF* the podcasts get down to 1hr or less, I'd also like to see an audio-only .mp3 option (ideally, would be <700MB, so I could burn it to a CD and listen in the car).

I'll chime in my additional two centavos. Shorter episodes will be better. Podcast formats will be an excellent choice, though I doubt anyone would watch the video on an iPod/iPhone. I watch at work so shorter episodes are more manageable.

Perhaps you can consider recording everything on one day then chopping up the segments into specific episodes.

For example:

1. C&E 2012 Wk 1, Ep 1 : Feature crypt card + sample deck + discussion
2. C&E 2012 Wk 1, Ep 2 : Feature library card + sample deck + discussion
3. C&E 2012 Wk 1, Ep 3 : Deck challenge winner + discussion

Then you can churn out the episodes every 2 days or so. Win!

Personally, I think that pod/videocasts that are more than 30 minutes had better be worth my time, and one's that are >1hr had better be spectacular.

Just be cautious about shortening episodes too much. I don't think that any serious deck analysis can be done in 30 minutes. IMO, one topic for the episode is a good way for making episodes shorter and keeping good quality of discussion.

Shorter episodes

I do not agree with this to 100%. I really enjoy the in-depth analysis of decks, how to play them, how they rack up against other deck types, discussions on single library/crypt cards etc. Sometimes I'm actually a bit disappointed that the discussions don't go deeper.

I'd say that the main problem I have with the length of the show is the level of "preparedness". Sometimes you seem quite prepared, though sometimes it seems that you really need to "think on the fly". It's impossible to prepare enough that you never have to "think on the fly", but the more prepared you are as to what details of a deck/card you will discuss - the less time has to be spent on thinking during the show which will heighten overall impression of quality and maybe even shorten the episodes a bit.

Also - and this is something that has gotten better with each episode - you could be more "in sync" with each other so you don't have to spend time arbiting the discussion but have a better flow in it. Instead of the "take it away Adam" and "can we get this card on the screen?" and interrupting each other and so on you could have certain things decided in advance such as "Adam will always present the decklist and have the first word there" or "when Isak starts talking about Lutz's friends we switch to showing these cards". Then I think you would get an even more streamlined and professional looking show.

What can however be shortened from the episodes is some things like "how has your vtes week been". Yea, it's nice to hear, but I have to say that I think most of your viewers are not tuning in for hearing about your vtes weeks (sorry ), but rather to hear the very high quality discussion of the game. Still, there's not that much of those kind of elements in the show, so even cutting those parts out you probably wouldn't gain much time.

I actually disagree with shortening the episodes too much. If it would be shortened I'd want more episodes a week and I guess that's more demanding for the hosts.

One topic could be changing of meta. Everyone knows the meta game differs slightly from region to region but I wonder about your own experience how your meta (Swedish/Stockholm/Örebro/Göteborg) has changed over time, or how the meta changes in general, for example to you deal with heavy bleed with bounce, walling, archon and so on. Different regions seem to have dealt with this differently.

Also, maybe a bit on bad clans as well, why they are underachieving and potential strengths (and which ones do you like yourselves).