The Samurai Gunslinger

Review of the Drop Podcast

Description: Games Workshop related news, views and resources.

Frequency: Bi-Weekly

Feed: Drop Podcast

Website: Minatures Wargaming Union

REVIEW:

This year has seen a dramatic change in the format and, in my opinion, quality of the Drop Podcast. As the only current pod-cast giving significant and consistent coverage to the full Games Workshop hobby, this podcast has a lot of material to cover and a large audience to satisfy. Initially the podcast was done in a very informal and unscripted format which led to many episodes devolving into random arguments between the hosts or meandering non-sequitors that caused the show to drag. Even with these shortcomings they drop podcast crew did a good job of covering the full world news and upcoming events in the GW universe.

As 2007 came to a close the team behind the show made a point of asking their listeners for suggestions on how to improve the show. As expected when you throw yourself at the mercy of the Internet, they suffered a good number of slings and arrows, but to their credit they took this constructively. With the start of the new year they launched a new format with significant changes both the the format and the tone of the show.

The new format is broken down into several segments each episode and they have managed over the first four episodes of the new format to keep this fairly consistent.

Each episode begins with a breakdown of any news or significant rumors surrounding the various Games Workshop games and product lines. The news is done in a free-form manner without a defined script but with a set outline of subjects to be covered. This allows them to keep the friendly banter that has always been a strong point of the show without going to far and loosing track of their subject. The news is topical and due to the bi weekly nature of the show, reasonably current. Fans of GW forums will certainly have heard this news before they listen to the show, but I enjoy hearing their opinions and interpretation of the news even if it is not new to me.

This segment is followed by the unit of the show section. In this portion of the show they will go into an in depth examination of a single unit type. This alternates with each show from 40k to Fantasy and the show notes always list the unit reviewed for each episode. The reviews are good, if not to the level of a forum tactica. Anyone who has extensive experience with GW will not likely get a great deal of new ideas here but it is ideal for players looking to try out a new army or for new players not fully familiar with the game.

The next segment is a review and discussion of a listener submitted army list. Here the hosts dissect an army list submitted by a listener and offer suggestions and criticisms. Again these will not give you the kind of intense minutiae you would get from reading a long forum army list discussion, but they do cover all the basics and usually offer some good advice. Once again this section is ideal for players looking to try out something new as well as a great way to get a new take on a familiar list build. To date they have only done 40k, but this is due to the fact that no one has submitted a Fantasy list for them so they cant be faulted for this.

The next regular section is the featured story for the episode. This can range from in depth discussions on upcoming game releases to reviews of army new army books or even discuss some of the many video games based on the GW IP’s. This is usually my favorite section of the show as they give themselves time to really discuss the subject at hand. The different opinions of the hosts can lead to some entertaining but light hearted arguments. In the previous format this could lead the show off track, but within the new format they seem to keep things in hand without being a hyper scripted news magazine.

As with most podcasts, the show wraps up with a listener feedback segment where they read emails, play voice mails and answer or react to the questions or points raised therein. The crew is very good at answering questions respectfully and with as much detail as possible.

One other excellent feature of the podcast is the show-notes. Each episode has show-notes on the podcast site that not only list the subject of each segment but also give the time stamp. This handy feature allows a listener to jump ahead to a subject that particularly interest them or to skip a topic they don’t want to listen to.

On a whole the show is well produced, nicely informative and highly entertaining. For fans of the GW universe it is an excellent addition to your iPod or Zune or however you like to listen to your audio media. If you tried the show before and did not like it due to the format or the occasionally rambling nature of the discussion, I strongly suggest you give it another chance. The Drop Podcast team have made a very sincere effort to listen to their audience and respond to it’s wishes. I for one wish them all success.

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