Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Greetings from England + EA Podcast EP 2!

Allo mates! So, go ahead and ignore all the previous post's stuff about Guildford. It would appear that I am going to be nowhere near that town, nor any other town. In fact, my entire visit to "England" will be within the confines of the Four Seasons Hotel, which means that I really could just be in, say, Missouri, with a bunch of folks with cool accents. Actually, this is quite a nice hotel within a beautiful English countryside setting, so far be it from me to actually grumble. And let's keep things in perspective: It beats sitting in my cubicle.

So I am about one hour away from The Big Show, in which I along with other producers from around EA and its various partners will be demoing our games for "key UK retailers." I ran into the Valve dudes last night, and rumors abound that the Bioware doctors are here too, though I have yet to spot them. Tonight, apparently, is a big "battle of the bands" contest with Rock Band Beatles, and since I was probably the only one alive when the Beatles were still together, look for me to win the whole damn thing. Expect ladies to swoon during my heartbreaking rendition of "I Am the Walrus" (based on my recent experiences with EA Active).

Okay, so anyway: I should head to this thing. I was told to wear "developer chic", which frightened me at first until I received clarification that that just meant jeans and a nice shirt. Anyway, I'm an American. I could probably show up in bermuda shorts, flip flops, and a "BEER: IT'S WHAT'S FOR BREAKFAST" tshirt and no one would think twice.

And now for a commercial! The second EA Podcast is now available. You may grab it here from the RSS feed, or check the iTunes link in my previous post. Apologies in advance for the sound level on my mic--not sure what happened there. Everyone else sounds fine, though, and probably at least 2/3 of what I said was nonsense, so maybe humanity is better off this way. But please, if you're so inspired, leave feedback on iTunes, because The Man is paying attention.

Alright. Time to go do my thing on stage. Here's hoping for a minimum of flop sweating and projectile vomiting. That's all I ask.

26 comments:

Alexander Cederholm said...

I left a comment on the site Jeff. The first one I believe? This was a much better podcast. Schofield was much more fun and less corperate person to listen to.
As I said in the comments, you can't fail if you show the human side of EA.I will continue to listen. Kepp up this good work!

Tyger Cheex said...

Welcome to England m'ode duck! (That's Midlander Speak) Funny how all you Americans think us Brits, (or more specifically, Englanders) talk like Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins. We might all have bad teeth, a completely different use for the word "fag" and drink ale by in pints but we have suave accents (unless you speak to someone north of Derby or west of Swindon) and that counts for a lot.
Hope you get to see a bit more than the inside of a hotel room, if you need to know what a "quid" is or need to know how to handle a groups of "Chavs", drop me a line!

Stryker Profile said...

Great to hear your voice again, dude. I'll be listening.

Anonymous said...

I left the same comment on the EA blog but it was held for moderation so who knows when it'll show up. I thought I'd reproduce it here as well just to be sure:

Whoa, this was way better than expected. I had a smile on my face throughout. The interplay between the hosts and Schofield's kick-ass anecdotes made for a very enjoyable listening experience. This interview-based format really works but the choice of guest is crucial. Schofield was a brilliant interviewee, the Dead Space Extraction guy from the last episode... not so much. I realize he had a product to sell but that just made the interview kinda boring. I'd like to see more seasoned vets from EA on the podcast, telling cool stories of their wacky adventures in the 90s when they were starting out. If someone like Ray Muzyka throws in a plug for Mass Effect 2 or Dragon Age that's cool but the focus should be on the person and not the game. Overall, I'm very impressed with the podcast and I'll definitely keep listening!

Ian U said...

Two other podcasts spring to mind as a basis for comparison: Major Nelson's and Bungie's. Although it's far from my favourite podcast, I always listen to Major Nelson's but (usually) skip all the interviews. I REALLY appreciate the fact that the interviews are kept separate, and do not interfere with the random chit-chat, which is the part that I (and I suspect a lot of other people) actually like.

As for Bungie, I could listen to Luke Smith all day long as part of 1UP Yours (especially arguing with Shane) or Out of the Game , but the Bungie podcast is too much inside baseball, and not enough opinionated rubbish. Occasionally a guest will be worth listening to (Martin O'Donnell springs to mind), but usually it just brings it down.

The challenge (as you of course realise) is getting the dynamic of the group right, and hopefully you are on your way to that. If it were down to me, I'd probably record and cut in interviews UNLESS you know your guest is a great personality to have on-board.

Anonymous said...

Didn't even read what was posted, however i just listened to the EA podcast ep 2, and it was rad. Keep up the good work :D

Sallie said...

Good podcast. Though, I was annoyed that Schofield's only 'bang for the buck' thought was backfilling $60 instead of proposing a lower price. Dead Space was excellent. I'm five chapters in (brief rental), and I'll buy it when it hits $30.

Erik said...

Good to hear you back on 'the radio', Jeff.

Jared said...

The new podcast is great, especially considering the parameters.

Just wanted to say thanks.

Joe said...

Recently visited England for the first time. It is a wonderful place, but the beer....

Oh the beer. It was damn tasty but weak. Weak! Averaging at around 3.4% alcohol by volume. Bud Light is 4.2% for god's sake!

Hope all went well and you had a happy 4th.

John Rivett said...

Sort of unrelated.. Jeff I'm trying to like Grizzly Bear, but I just can't..What the hell am I missing?

Dahman said...

F-Yeah!! Jeffrey Green, the new, the better Major Nelson from EA!

Unknown said...

Might not be the most worthwhile contribution, but the EA Podcast logo is awesome

Anonymous said...

I listened to the 'out-of-the-game' podcast last night, and couldn't for the life of me understand why you guys had chosen to insert that horribly spooky background music.

The effect was extremely chilling, and made the experience of listening to the podcast seem incredibly surreal - especially since you guys spent so much time talking about the death of Jacko.

It was only when the podcast had concluded that I realized my web-browser had had two windows open the entire time, and that the music I was hearing was coming, not from the podcast, but from the Mass Effect 2 website.

Weird.

Interesting podcast - but, man oh man, do you guys ever over-analyze stuff sometimes. It's a great show, though.

As far as the E.A. podcast is concerned, I'm waiting for something stellar, so that I can post all about it at the Gamespot forum.

Remember the old GFW forum?

Well the Gamespot PC forum is only a little less... what's the word I'm looking for here... ah yes, 'juvenile'. It's only because the Gamespot forum is highly moderated though. For example, right now I'm in the middle of a 7 day ban - somebody started a thread in which he complained about there not being any good games to play, and that PC Gaming has been in a state of decline for a good two to three years now... I made the mistake of not agreeing with this, and went so far as to suggest that nobody loves to hate his own hobby more than a PC Gamer... yup, that's what got me banned.

I had at least two dozen people telling me to get lost when I suggested that right now we're buried beneath an avalanche of great games, and that, really, if you're a PC Gamer it's an embarrassment of riches. They didn't like that at all - the result being that I was viewed (probably by some 14 year-old moderator) as being disruptive to the thread, and got banned as the result.

Yeah, whatever.

Anyhow, I'll try to promote the E.A. podcast at the Gamespot forum for you (I'm fairly well known there). The Gamespot forum guys are exactly the types you need to grab hold of - if you can make those idiots like your podcast then you know that you've done something right. :)

crscheid said...

Jeff, I know this isn't really the place, but I thought it would be the best way to reach you.

On the latest Out Of the Game podcast, you said during the discussion about Mark Sanford, and later Fox news, that you "unfortunately" (43:21) have some republican relatives.

I consider myself a social moderate yet an economic conservative, and I find comments like this disheartening. I will continue to read, listen to, and play your work, but I would ask you to consider not grouping people like this next time you have a political discourse.

Anonymous said...

Guy, that's a poor comment to make.

If you go back and look at the early days of the republic you'll see that Democrats and Republicans made comments about one another that would have blistered the hair's off a dog's back. (And this was before the internet existed.)

When Green made that comment about some of his relatives being slightly sick in the head, or rather Republicans, he was only contributing to the national debate, which has bee ongoing since about... oh, July the 4'th of 1776.

crscheid said...

I'm not trying to debate politics. I'm just saying that it's unprofessional and close minded to say that having republican relatives is unfortunate.

RAL said...

Great podcast! Look forward to hearing more.

Jeff Green said...

Crscheid: Well, I don't know about it being "unprofessional" to say that my Republican relatives annoy me, but I get where you're coming from. :) Keep in mind that I'm just your basic left-wing Berkeley wingnut. I'm going to say things that will occasionally annoy you, just like Fox News annoys me. I think my ratio of political to non-political comments is pretty low. Every once in awhile though, I JUST CANT HELP IT. :)

crscheid said...

I've always appreciated that you didn't make Shane Bettenhausen comments on GFW radio very often, and I'm glad that you've taken my viewpoint in mind.

I guess now I'm one of the people you've talked about who reconcile with you after you write back to them. You know, the EIC response power?

Also, I don't really give a fuck about Fox news, since I get most of mine from NPR and the BBC. It was the write off of an entire group that annoyed me. Not all us red blooded, truck drivin', Rush Limbaugh listen', Aahmerican republicans are the same.;)

Jeff Green said...

SRSCHEID: I apologize in advance for the new Out of the Game. :) I made reference to having offended Republicans last time, and intended to apologize, but ended up just having more fun with it. It's all in jest though. I hope we can still be friends. :)

crscheid said...

Yea, we're still friends:)

I guess I should clarify that I'm not technically a Republican; I'm not old enough to register yet.

Of course, saying that brings into question whether these opinions are my own or my parents. I am, however, much further towards the left then they are, probably enough to coexist in the Berkley Reality Bubble. :P

Unknown said...

Hey, just wanted to let you know that I finally got around to listening to the new podcast (episodes 1-3), and while I'd been semi-dreading them (Who's he going to have on the podcast? Will they be painful/embarrassing/tedious to listen to?), it turns out my trepidation was unfounded, because I've really enjoyed every episode so far. The people are interesting, at ease, and it actually makes me think of EA a lot more favorably then I had before.

So, good work, and tell your EA masters that the podcast has improved at least one of your fan's semi-ambivalent/negative view of EA.

-nathangsm/shoukanjuu

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