Partnering with Jay Taylor (previously my colleague and producer at GamerDork) and Tony Atkins (formerly of The Digital Cowboys) to set up a new blog and podcast, I wanted to pursue the very clear vision that we had to avoid many of what we believe to be the pitfalls which many sites and shows fail to. These include a lack of research or basic knowledge of gaming and its history, opinionatedness backed with little substance, a lack of ruthlessness with the editing and the failure of presenters to express perceptive opinions clearly and through interesting language. I’d like to stress that I’ve been guilty of all these sins and more in the past.
Our philosophy is that the games and their creators are the focus, ahead of PR-driven media razzmatazz or industry gossip and speculation. Most importantly we want individual titles to be afforded equal respect regardless of format, genre, age, development budget or marketing spend. Backed up by a hand-selected team of people we know who share the same passion as the three of us, as well as the ability to deliver quality contributions to both the blog and the podcast. The intention is to attempt to provide gaming related written and audio discussion to rival the equivalents for cinema such as Mark Kermode on Radio 5 Live, and for television, Charlie Brooker’s Screenwipe. Lofty aims that we may very well fall short of, but nonetheless these standards are what we shall strive for.
Such is the faith of Ready-Up (twice Games Media Award nominated, Best Games Blog category) editor Dan Bendon in us delivering strong content that he, well in advance and sight unseen, invited Cane and Rinse to be a part of the Character Select Network along with Ready-Up, Console Arcade, Thumb Culture and Jay’s and my former home of GamerDork. We are extremely grateful to him for this and we urge you to sign up to our forum and join in the discussion.
Thanks for reading and welcome along to Cane and Rinse.
Congrats! Good to see you guys up and running.
Congrats on the launch. New podcast sounding good and new site working nicely on my computer/phone 🙂
Good luck with the new venture chaps, I’m really looking forward to the new show and content. This is like the formation of an über-group…so exciting.
Just one tiny thing, please can you tone down the negative and slightly barbed comments on other podcasts. The stuff you guys will make will speak for itself and I don’t think you mean to come across so strongly. Just remember many people make podcasts for the fun of doing it and give up their time and effort, even if the quality may not be up there with the very best.
I accept that my tone is slightly bullish Gary, but I genuinely mean no offence to the many fine podcasts out there which I love to listen to – and of course inspired me to try it out for myself. I’m only having a gentle pop at the worst examples. I have no problem at all with amateur rhetoric and opinion – that’s all I can ever offer after all – what I particularly object to is people passing their ill-formed judgements off as gospel. If people want to make those shows and listen to them then I’m not stopping anyone, but we want to achieve something more. Perhaps you’re right, perhaps it doesn’t need saying but I want people to give us a listen who may have given up on the podcasting scene after one too many barely-listenable show.
Indeed, it’s more an editorial comment on the blog post. I think you could remove the first paragraph (save the intro) and it would read as a really positive and exciting show based around ideals which you guys all share.
It’s context I guess: starting with a negative position and offering a solution is a little jarring knowing what you guys are really like.
I listen to very few video game podcasts anymore, for many of the reasons given, so I am very excited by the Cane & Rince project.
Following feedback that the introductory para was a little strong I have edited it to tone down it’s antagonistic potential. My point is that it only takes a little more effort than many are willing to put in to make a much better show, and it does frustrate me that some podcasts ask for time and attention yet do little to warrant it. As I’ve also said on Twitter, as much as anything this ‘mission statement’ is about lighting a fire up my own backside. I hate the idea of peddling a lazy show and so I want to publically make our intentions clear, even if it might set us up for criticism in the future. I’m not saying that we’ll be perfect, that every show will be a classic, I just want people to know that we’re thinking hard about what we put in, and put out there. Thanks for the feedback so far.
Absolutely buzzing about this, best of luck guys, look forward to how you get on!
Woot! Great news, can’t wait to see it all come together!
Congrats on the launch. Looking forward to the first episode.
Sounds like a great aspiration & I can’t wait to get your shows buzzing through my ear drums. I am looking forward to the groups opinions and your ‘take’ on whatever subject matters you guys choose. I am sure it will be a hit regardless!