Whenever we do a very popular podcast, it’s inevitable that there will be email or forum comments asking for transcripts of the podcast. This is especially true if the game we are talking about is one with a global audience.<\/p>\n
And it’s understandable to an extent. If English is not your first language, then reading usually comes easier than listening – especially to three or four very different voices. And before the glory days of excellent podcast sound quality, I could feel the pain.<\/p>\n
But we don’t do transcripts.<\/p>\n
I know why people want them. They can read faster than they can listen, and our shows are an hour long in most cases and sometimes longer. The Alpha Centauri show – which has signs of becoming one of our top shows ever – was eighty minutes. If you are not a regular listener, you think your time is valuable and don’t want to waste it listening to people you don’t really care about except for now.<\/p>\n
Thing is, our time is valuable, too, and transcribing is very difficult, time consuming, boring and expensive. For every hour of audio it takes close to three to get it into a good text form. Not to mention we need to have a standard format and a public FTP to host the files permanently. (One listener did transcribe my E3 conversation with Jon Shafer back in 2010, but it was a fifteen minute interview and just the two of us.) And we aren’t paid to do the podcasts, each of which takes longer to prepare for than the hour or so you listen to each week. Planning, playing, pre-game, scheduling multiplayer if necessary, wrangling developer guests…not small tasks and each can an hour or three in a week (playing much more) if things go wrong. Adding transcription time is cruel.<\/p>\n
I have nothing against transcripts. But a podcast is a conversation, ideally. If you are a regular listener, then you know how much we like and appreciate each other and our audience, and that the words themselves are only a part of what is going on. It’s not ask and answer – it is true exchange and there will be talking over and the tone of voice is so, so important. <\/p>\n
Mere text really can’t capture Bruce Geryk.<\/p>\n
Paying someone to transcribe would be prohibitive. And I would never ask or accept a community volunteer to do it because it is really onerous and once we start doing it, we really can’t stop. I started doing show notes last summer, and though it was fun to listen to old episodes again, it was difficult to stay consistent. <\/p>\n
Transcripts wouldn’t have that problem, at least, but they would take longer and, I think, diminish the connection between us and our audience. The temptation to just read what was said and move on is there and we would never be able to build. <\/p>\n
In the best of all possible worlds, we would have a super server, theme music, costumes and could bookmark our podcasts so that people could jump to parts that we thought were worth highlighting. (30:00 – Reynolds rejects proposal, 15:32 – Murdoch mentions ASL, 22:47 – Geryk rant begins, 1:45 – Chick offers coffee), but we’re not there. Rob’s done great to find an excellent producer in Michael Hermes, and I hope he gets a little something from next month’s pledge drive.<\/p>\n
So no transcripts, and I’m sorry but they aren’t coming soon.<\/p>\n
Do other podcasts get requests for transcripts by the way?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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