*NOTE: The opinions presented in this piece are those of The Opportunist, and do not represent the opinions of the other rpgmusings’ contributors.*
I have been following D&D for quite a long time now, and have more recently delved into the realm of podcasts. The first one I found was something called ‘The Power Source’. I started actively listening to this podcast, as a new DM, wanting advice on how to run a game. It seemed that The Power Source might be a good place to find what I was looking for. I began to listen.
Sadly, I could not have been more wrong in my initial assessment. The Power Source is a self-serving abortion of a podcast in which the host seems to know as much about running D&D as Patricia Pulling.
Oddly enough, I enjoyed The Power Sourceat first. Some of the insights were thought-provoking, even when the host abused the word ‘interesting’. (It’s called a thesaurus. Get one.) I could even tolerate the gross mis-pronounciation of certain words (Bulette: Byoo-Let, not Boo-Lay). There was even a segment that encouraged me to write a campaign arc that I’ll post here, in time.
At a certain point, things took a turn. What exactly that point was is hard to say. Was it when the show went to only one host? Was it the point when Jared (the host) convinced a book publisher to publish a character class for him, giving him a product to constantly and shamelessly be peddling instead of talking about actual published material? Who can say? All I know is that I grew more and more in my opposition with the opinions expressed on the show, and noticed that Mr. Glenn’s opinions had less to do with honest reporting of the material, and more to do with whether or not he actually bothered to read things through.
In fairness, I think part of my problem stems from the fact that I started listening to other podcasts that I found to be adhering to a much higher standard. The Tome Show, The Bear Swarm! , Role-Playing Public Radio, & others (including 4geeks4e, featuring rpgmusing’s own DMSamuel!) are informative, well put together, and also possessing of a sense of humor that is all but absent from The Power Source.
The Content
Mr. Glenn has produced 2 base classes for D&D that, if you listen to just one episode of his vocal diarrhea, you’ll be made fully aware of how awesome they are. They are called the Explorer and the Jester. It needs to be said: I HAVE NOT READ EITHER ONE, NOR DO I INTEND TO.
The Explorer is meant to be a Martial Controller, and is apparently modeled after Indiana Jones. That’s all well and good, but I tend to agree that the Controller role is something not well suited to the Martial power source. I like the idea, but most Martial Controllers I’ve read about really feel like a shoe-horn tactic for the completist, and not really a genuine class. This seems to be no exception. While we’re on a subject related to Indiana Jones, I think we should take a minute to understand who he actually is. Indiana Jones is a Striker. Hit fast, hit hard, and don’t worry about the clean-up. Specifically, I’d call him a Rogue who spent a feat on Whip Proficiency. There’s no need to make something up, and hope nobody notices the seams of your shoddy stitching showing through.
Next, the Jester. I’ve played one of these before, and it was great fun. I love how the… Oh, hold on a minute, I was playing a Bard. I always get my Arcane classes based on traditional forms of entertainment mixed up. This is probably because, when I play a bard, I usually play them as a clown. There’s no need to make up a class with a mechanic built in that forces my character play options. If I want to really play an Arcane Controller (which is what this is), I’ll play a Wizard. If I want to play an entertainer, I’ll play a Bard. If I want to play both, I’ll play a Hybrid, or I’ll multiclass my Bard into Wizard. I’ll tell you what I won’t do: I won’t throw down $15 to play 1 class. In case your curious, The Player’s Handbook costs $34.95. The Jester costs $14.95. The Player’s Handbook has 8 classes in it. The Jester has 1. Add on to that the fact that The Player’s Handbookcontains all the rules you need to start playing, I just don’t see the point in shelling out that kind of scratch for what basically amounts to a fraction of a splatbook. The same holds true for the Explorer.
Apart from that, there’s not much else. The segments are not segments as much as they are free-for-all wrestling matches for the guests to get a word in. The segment bumpers are at first cute, and mildly entertaining, but after hearing them for the thousand and eighteenth time, they grate on you. Jared’s reviews of products are shallow, and offer nothing in terms of useful information. My time is wasted enough, thank you.
After all this has been said, the big question is: Why am I so infuriated as to write all this? I guess it boils down to a very simple thing. I had already been growing weary of The Power Source’s inanery, but then the Player’s Handbook 3 came out. I loved it, and when I expected to hear what the show had to offer, I was shocked to find that Jared didn’t like the book. Not only did he not like it, he seemed utterly disgusted by most of it. As I listened, I learned that the things he disliked were the very things I enjoyed immensely about the book. One issue in particular was the Runepriest. I have already said that, as a Divine class with just the right twist, it alone could be the reason to buy the book. Mr. Glenn, on the other hand, found it to be too confusing, and built around a mechanic that would require you to remember strange rules over the course of time. First off, it’s not, but secondly, that’s what his Jester is built on. A mechanic you need to remember you used so that it has any appreciable effect.
I wrote an email to the show, telling Mr. Glenn that he must have read it wrong, and that the mechanic is elegant, and easy to use. I sent this email secure in the fact that it would be read, and possibly answered on the show. He had been complaining that there wasn’t enough listener feedback, and anything sent in would get a response of one kind or another. Well, that was back in May.
I came to realize that, just like the content of his show, if there’s nobody home, it must be Jared Glenn.
Links to Good RPG Podcasts, Not Mentioned Above
The City of Doors – A nice discussion forum. They use a fun “The One With The…” naming dvice for their episodes. It works.
Fear the Boot – The least serious podcast on the internet. Reminds you that, where there’s smoke, there’s a kid with no eyebrows and an empty book of matches.
Radio Free Hommlet – Ever wonder how to tweak out your character? This crew has. They may the D&D CharOp forum look like a Girl Scout bake sale.
The Dungeon Master Guys – Here’s the idea: Get three solid DMs together, and ask their opinions on gaming subjects. It’s bound to work, right? Not only does it work, you may actually even learn something.
The NewbieDM.com Minicast – It’s exactly what it sounds like. Newbie DM answers one question, usually with a guest. Short, simple, to the point. No need to get long winded.
As always, feel free to comment…
Haha too funny. I actually listen to this podcast. They usually get their podcast out at the same time every week which is a big plus. I have enjoyed their Primal Worlds segment the in the past. I actually agree with Jared. I think PHB3 fulls rushed and some classes broken. I played 7s session of D&D encounters Season 1 without once being able to use my battlemind’s mark attack. That being said, I’m pretty close to dropping this podcast. I only made it halfway through this weeks podcast before the crowing about the Jester, Explorer and Alluria Publishing got to be too much. The shilling is drowning out the content.
Right. I can understand not liking something. Hey, everyone’s entitled to their opinion. But to make arbitrary claims that show you didn’t really read the book all that well, and then compare it to something you wrote is like Stephen Spielberg saying he didn’t like “Star Wars” because it wasn’t “Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind.” I really don’t give a rat’s hindquarters.
El. Oh. El. Great stuff @TheOpportunist. Personally, I had given up on the Powersource before the Jester even released. When the whole deal went down between Scott and Jared, I dropped the show like a bad habit. I still communicate with Scott via Twitter (@TheAngryDM) and he’s a cool guy. Jared is far too self-consumed for my taste.
I actually gave it a second chance a few months back when @gamefiend had tweeted that he was on the show, but Jared worked so hard to talk above him that I just couldn’t take it.
It’s sad that everyone but the host is worth listening to on that show. If I want that, I’ll watch Leno.
Remind me never to piss you off online or offline :)
Please… Piss me off whenever you like. I usually respond by wanting to come to a mutual understanding. I tried that with TPS, & there was no resolution.
BTW, your guest episode was one of the best when the show was still moderately good.
I’m probably the second or third-most appropriate person to respond to this message – Jared and maybe Ted moreso – so I feel like I ought to. I don’t know if Jared has seen this blog post yet and I will point him to it. Whether he will respond for himself or not, I don’t know. That being said, many people, particularly myself, feel part ownership of The Power Source so a condemnation of the show in general also makes it my business.
Probably the best way to go about it is to comment on the validity of your claims. First, the Explorer was published well before the show started; so far only the Jester has been released afterward though as I’m sure you know by now, there are more classes to go. I know it’s kind of a silly nitpicky thing to say, but just a friendly reminder to watch your fact-checking. I’d also comment on the variety of the builds of Explorer and Jester, but to your credit you said you haven’t read the books nor do you plan to, so we’ll remove that from the realm of the debate and continue on.
$14.95 is a lot for what amounts to a “fraction of a splatbook” (though on RPGNow, you will find you can actually get each one for $8.95). I’m in complete agreement with you there. PHBIII is about 2/3 devoted to classes with a price point of $34.95, meaning you can roughly say you’re getting 6 classes for $23 or a little under $4 per class. It’s a big discrepancy. However, Alluria actually owns the classes and they set the price point so you can’t really fault Jared (or the Source) for that. Goodman Games and One Bad Egg, other 3rd party publishers, have costs per class basically equivalent to this so your criticism is entirely valid, if slightly misdirected.
Next, guests talking over one another is not a problem unique to the Power Source. You will notice that other shows on your that have several hosts like Hommlet and the City of Doors also run into this problem from time to time. What makes this particularly vexing for the Power Source unlike Hommlet, for example, is that we record entirely by Skype so we don’t have body language or visual cues to know when another guest is going to try to speak. Kicked in the Dicebags has this same issue. Many other podcasts are recorded by people all sitting in the same room (JankCast, RPPR, Bear Swarm!, Brilliant Gameologists, TrapCast), people with visual connection via webcam (Order 66) or multiple hosts doing individual segments (Dungeon Master Guys). We are aware that this is a problem and have some ideas on how to correct it, but are ill-equipped to do so at the moment.
Not much to say about the segment intro bits. Either you like them or you don’t. You obviously don’t. Fair enough.
Shallow review of products is the first place where I will really stand up and call you out. There are other excellent 4E D&D podcasts that do really good in-depth reviews, particularly Hommlet and the Tome. We’re not trying to do in-depth reviews; let others who are good at in-depth product review do in-depth product review. Icosahedrophilia is actual play and Return to Northmoor tends toward more long-term campaign building, so we’re not about that either. The Power Source is intended to be an entryway to each of these areas. We’ll do a little product review, a little campaign brainstorming and a little of many other things the other shows aren’t touching such as the impact of rules updates, articles on DDI and auxiliary product releases such as Masterplan, the Gale Force Nine token sets and yes, 3rd party sourcebooks. Though you may not have caught them recently, three of my “Aberrant Rules” segments have been devoted to other 3rd party products NOT written by Jared. We are consciously about breadth and exposure, not necessarily depth. Where you see a bug, we see a feature.
I’m also a little surprised that, given some other valid criticisms you have made of the Power Source, what set you off is that Jared doesn’t like PHBIII? Really??! I hope I’m misunderstanding that paragraph there because to be honest, it seems somewhat petty. I happen to like PHBIII far more than I and II but Jared’s lynching of the book didn’t turn me off of the show. I assume what’s really important about the event here is that your letter was not acknowledged despite the call for listener feedback and thus when you disagreed you felt censored. For that, I can offer no excuse and apologize for your being ignored. If you still have anything in terms of game content you want said on the show after this blog, send it to me at ryvencedrylle@gmail.com and I will do so personally the next time I’m on. (For reference, we just recorded Episode #36 today on July 10 so it would probably be another month or so, though I could also do an AR segment about it, I guess.)
I’m almost done here, and thank you for reading thus far. I just have a couple more points before I finish. First, there is no question that Jared has something of an ego. But who in the blogosphere/podosphere doesn’t? I know I certainly do. You have to be the kind of person who thinks people will want to listen to you if you’re going to be involved with a podcast or blog. It’s just par for the course. Second, we shill. Not just that, we shill unabashedly – proudly even. We have a passion for all things 4E, official or not. All of the guests that come on our show can pimp out whatever they’re working on – from Quinn Murphy’s At-Will blog to Matthew Cicci’s Fey Folio and Phil Menard’s One Page Dungeon Codex – because what other podcast (except perhaps the Tome) features this material? Sure, Jared is on every week and if you get tired of hearing about his classes, I get it. It can get repetitive. Still, behind that pitch is the love of the game and all the things produced for it, even by people not on the WotC payroll. Finally, who else has our level of fan interaction? Between Martial Practices, the Flurry of Blows and the rotating guest host format, we give the listeners more opportunity to be heard than any other 4E podcast out there. While I’m at it, name me one other 4E podcast that provides gaming opportunities for its listeners. I run two bi-weekly online campaigns and will be running the upcoming Alluria game online a few times for those not involved with the normal campaign. We also have another listener, maybe two, preparing a series of delves in the Encounters style to build community.
So to close, we’re not perfect. We have flaws and try to be honest about them. You’ve obviously had a bad experience with the show and I’m glad to have read this post so that such things can be ironed out. I hope you will reconsider and check in with us from time to time. Perhaps you will be pleasantly surprised in the future.
And hey, we’re up for an ENnie. We’ve gotta be doing something right!
Thanks for the review! It wasn’t favorable, but it was honest, and I like that.
As for your e-mail, I must have never received it, because I really was wanting more mail back in May. I just did a search of my old mail (I never delete), and I couldn’t find it. You really should have sent it again! I love reading people who disagree with me on the show, so you might want to send it in again, if it’s that important to ya.
Ryven pointed out the main points I’d have to make. I’m glad that you’ve stopped listening if you didn’t like it. In fact, I consider it a point of pride that we make sure that we keep only those who like the format. We’re not trying to please everyone, just as many as we can.
Yeah. Sure, I’m full of myself, but I’m not like this in person. People who listen to the show are often surprised, because I’m quiet and shy, in general. So they hear me talk like this on the air, and are shocked. In order to do a show that’s entertaining, I decided a long time ago that I would have an over-the-top personality for the show. I would either love something or hate it. It’s more fun, and it draws people to write in and disagree. In short, I understand that you disagree, but hating PH3 got you to write in, didn’t it? If I’d got your e-mail, I certainly would have read it.
It does seem that you generally dislike me on a personal level, so I hope this doesn’t bug you further. It just seemed that you wanted a reply, and I’m happy to oblige. It doesn’t upset me to see this review, so I hope you’ll go on to listen to other shows that are more your style. That’s why I’m a member of a couple networks, so people can go listen to City of Doors on d20 Radio and The Tome on Vorpal. That’s the way things were meant to work, and I’m glad to see they do.
Yeah, I’m proud of what I wrote. Yeah, I say words in weird ways. Yeah, an e-mail didn’t make it onto the show. If you had a Podcast, you might make similar choices. You might not, but there would be other problems.
I don’t expect you to take back what you wrote, but know that, while the offense was intended for entertainment purposes, ignoring your e-mail wasn’t. Especially when it was so important to you.
Good luck with the blog! I’ll be taking my first steps into blogging myself soon, so maybe I’ll get a more blog-like perspective on how awful I am. =P
Thanks again! :-)
Jared Glenn
Host of The Power Source
http://www.powersourcepodcast.com
I’d just like to take a moment and add in a few of my own personal remarks to those that Ryven and Jared gave above.
First things first, the article itself.
You contradict yourself a number of times in your writing. First off, you complained about Jared reviewing his classes instead of “published material” when, in the same sentence, you claimed he had “convinced” a 3rd party publisher to print his stuff. Is it published, or isn’t it? Or are you just meaning “officially” (ie WotC) published material? Personally, I’m glad the show takes a look at 3rd party material, because, in my own opinion, that’s where the true exploration of the system, for good or ill, comes into its own.
Second, I’m a little bit confused. You explicitly stated that you hadn’t read any of his classes, but then later in the article you call out a mechanic that the Jester operates on when talking about the mechanic that the Runepriest operates on that Jared apparently didn’t read well enough to understand. I’m not trying to provoke anything here, but this seems quite the case of the pot calling the kettle black here.
One final thing, speaking this time as a semi- (now almost) regular contributor to the show with Threat Assessment and a monthly campaign arc. A couple weeks ago, I noticed that Jared hadn’t played one of my segments that I had sent in. So, first things first, I checked my email outbox and saw that indeed I had sent it in. Then I asked Jared if there had been a problem with him receiving it over Twitter. He got back to me within an hour saying that he had the segment, and had quite simply forgotten it was in his inbox. He apologized for the mistake, and it got played on a later show. No harm, no foul. I guess what I’m trying to say is that if you were so concerned about the email, the first logical step (at least in my mind) would have been a simple follow up. It’s been my experience that Jared will happily respond to anything sent to him, and he makes himself more than reachable through email, through Twitter, and through other social networking forms. Tossing off another email or shooting him a tweet asking him if he had gotten it could have avoided a lot of problems right from the get go.
That being said, yes, the show does have its flaws. No show is without them, whether its recording schedule, or audio qualities, or certain things the host(s) say or do. However, as both Jared and Ryven said above, I will echo their hopes that you give the show another try at some point in the future. It really is a very entertaining part of my week, both the work put into recording my segments for the show and actually listening to it come together.
To my last three posters (Ryven, Ben, and especially Jared):
Thank you all for reading my rantings. I’m sure, at points, it wasn’t an easy read. I appreciate not only that you read it, but that you felt the urge to comment. That takes backbone, and helps diffuse some of my argument about being ignored.
I’ll give a more thorough response to each of you later tonight, when I can devote some time to each comment.
Also, I have re-sent my prior email as a show of good faith, this time to both Jared and Ryven.
Once again, thanks.
Ryven, you’re up first.
The price point. I know Jared didn’t set the price. I know that the issue lies on Allustria. The point I was trying to illustrate is that, after I had made the decision not to buy it, I was being constantly reminded of it. Even if I was going to buy it, I wouldn’t need the constant reminders. It’s become gratuitous. The ‘cast seems to be becoming more an advertisement than actual content. As for your point mentioned later, everyone’s allowed to get their stuff out there, to be fair, but too much time spent doing that is wasted time, when more actual content can be put in.
Talking over. I know. It even happens on live talk radio, where guests are in the same room. My problem is that Jared seems to be the one doing the interrupting. That’s where I start to lose interest, when content is sacrificed so one person can agree. Repeatedly. About almost everything. Something to be aware of. It’s a turn-off.
As far as the content goes, I like where most of the content comes from. The reviews are a bit too shallow, though, insofar as, when someone reviews something, the goal is to enlighten their audience to their point of view. When a review dislikes something, displaying what seems to be nothing more than a cursory examination of the material, credibility suffers. Especially one week, where Jared ditched the DDI segment because everything that came out that week “sucked”. Well, great, but get specific, or I don’t know why you brought it up. Maybe instead of pushing something I won’t buy on me, tell me what you did or didn’t like.
My problem with the email does come off as petty. I represented myself poorly. My email (which you now have) asked for Jared to read through the Runepriest a little more closely, and why, after seeming to love Psionics in all the preview material, he suddenly didn’t like it. There were other problems I had with the review, but I don’t want to waste time nitpicking now. I also did add that I disagree, but I included the reasons behind it.
I guess my problem is less that the show is flawed, and more that, from my perspective, there were flaws that were set against the possibility of being addressed.
Your Abberant Rules pieces are excellent, by the way. Toward the end of my listening run, I looked forward to those bits as the last bastion for decent insight.
And of course (I mirror this sentiment to everyone involved with the show), congrats on the ENnie nom.
Opportunist-
Quinn Murphy is in process of making a feed of Aberrant Rules on the At-Will Blog so if you want to continue listening to it, check in occasionally. He and I were just talking about it tonight, in fact. Which reminds me I need to write up the header paragraph before I go to bed…
I have received your email and passed it along to Jared when he commented to me that he still did not receive it. Turns out you sent the message to ‘powersource@gmail.com’ when it should be ‘powersourcepodcast@gmail.com’ so rest assured that you will be aired this time.
Anyway, I’ll let Jared handle it from here on out since it really is directed at him. Thanks again for the review; there’s often more to be learned from criticism than praise.
Ok, Ben, here’s where I’m at with your comments:
I made a HUGE mistake. I was wrong when I used the word “published” to mean WOTC-produced, and to suggest that 3rd party material was somehow unworthy. Mea maxima culpa. Really. I mean no sarcasm.
I also misrepresented myself. I have not read the classes. I read a review that mentioned that (the Jester’s) mechanic specifically, and I was confused where that intersected with his seemingly erroneus dislike of the Runepriest.
Now, with regard to the email, as I’ve said, I was burnt from putting up with all the prior issues, and the (seeming) dismissal of my concerns made it seem as though my concerns didn’t matter. Couple that with the way a voicemail was handled some time prior. It’s the one where the girl called in ranting about how awful the show is. Mockery was made of her on-air. To be fair, she was near-incoherent, but this led me to think I’d either be treated that way (if my concerns seemed like something that could be made fun of) or ignored (if I was right). Given that I heard nothing, I assumed I had been ignored. I wasn’t terribly interested in following up.
I may try the show again, but, for now, the issues outweigh the value, and I need to take a break.
I think a lot of the vitriol towards the podcast comes in people’s assumptions going in.
Elsewhere in the DnD social media sphere, there is a constant, open conversation going on. Tweets with the #DnD spawn epic conversations, blog posts debate and argue things. Podcasting, by its nature, will have some delay in adding to the conversation, but they are more than often part of the zeitgeist of the community. This is all part of the casual nature of these interactions.
The Power Source, however, does not come across a casual, hobbyist podcast, but a marketing podcast, where the main purpose is to show something to the community rather than be a part of it.
This is not a bad thing. Let me repeat, this, in itself, is not a bad thing.
The official WotC DnD podcast is also a marketing podcast. When I subscribed to it, I had different exceptions for what it was going to be; held it to a different light. They were going to stress certain things more than others, and they were going to try and drive the conversation inward. This is not a bad thing, it’s just a context switch you need to make in your head when you listen.
The Power Source is very similar to this. One segment of the show, “The Stars Are Right”, reads 5 star feedback from the iTunes store. A positive 4 star review is omitted. By agreeing to help prop up the podcast’s rating for the life of iTunes, you can exchange a glowing review. This is a decision to help bump the ratings in the iTunes store, not engage the listeners. This is also not a bad thing, just something a marketing podcast does.
The split with @AngryDM early on revolved around that. You can find the links to both sides of the story out there. The theme both sides shared is that the show, in the end, is Jared’s baby. Others are welcome to help out the podcast, but in the end, it really is Jared’s. This is not a bad thing, just something a marketing podcast does.
When someone steps in, expecting another node in the swirling never ending exchange, and comes face to face with something that is vastly different from this, more often than not is rubs people the wrong way. I have no problem with WotC’s podcast pimping their goods, and I have no problem with The Power Source pimping Jared’s goods. I expect that from those type of podcasts.
Note, I’m not saying communication stops with these type of marketing podcasts, that their sphere of influence is actually a black hole from which nothing of value comes out. The discussions on the WotC podcasts are often interesting, and likewise on The Power Source. I just simply expect different things from these marketing type of podcasts then I do from hobbyist.
I haven’t listened to The Power Source since around mid-April. I finally gave up the dwarf-like “I don’t like listening to this, but I can’t put my finger on why and until I can say what bothers me I’m going to stick it through”. I downloaded the most recent episode, and gave it a listen, thinking about it more as a marketing podcast. It didn’t bother me as much. (My main criticism that exists is that it is far too long a podcast. Going through my list of 220 unlistened-to podcasts and 70 or so more listened to episodes that I keep, 32 are over an hour, with an NPR All Songs Considered ep in at 1:30:57,
Jared. Once again, I’d like to thank you for reading my ramblings. It shows definite stones to stand up and take it, especially when you don’t know me from a hole in the wall, and I know what I know of you from the podcast.
Ego is great. Be full of yourself. Honestly, who else SHOULD you be full of? I’m a show-boater, myself. It just seems to me that there’s a difference between showboating and steamrolling, which is the impression you have tended to give me. Yeah, I wrote in because of what you said. I was worried that you were giving people the wrong information, and I wanted to make sure you knew what you were talking about. After that, I wanted to express my own personal disagreements, and see where you stood.
I actually don’t dislike you personally. I don’t really know you. I’m sure we could get along great. My hope here, like with your over-the-top hosting style, is to get you thinking, and encourage action, for good or ill. I hope that you take my words into consideration, and see if these are things you want to do something about, and, if they are, do something.
I’ll say it again, I didn’t expect you’d even read my post, let alone comment on it, and for that, I’m grateful. Good luck with the ENnies. Obviously, at present, you wouldn’t get my vote, but that doesn’t mean I can’t wish you well.
And do be sure to keep me informed on where you stand now.
(looks like the wrong post of mine was deleted, had submitted half of one and finished that and submitted again, but the incomplete one remains. Stupid fat fingers. Continued)
with 3 NPR All Songs Considered, over 90 minutes and the climax episode of one of my podiobooks at 2 hours 2 minutes. Of the last 15 episodes at this writing, only 2 episodes were under 90 minutes, 6 are over 2 hours, and 4 of those are over 2 and a half hours.
Splitting the single podcast up into 2 or more smaller podcasts, (Power Source: Primal Worlds could easily be its own podcast) and tightening up and editing or removing existing segments that go a bit too long (Flurry of Blows is in my opinion the big offender here) would really improve the podcast.
The Power Source is probably the best podcast I intentionally choose not to listen to. It’s got a lot of good stuff in there, but it often takes effort or patience to find the good. I would start listening again if things were tightened up some or decrufted, but I’d have to go in knowing it’s a different type of podcast.
Am I really the only one who found the tone of this post offensive?
“The Power Source is a self-serving abortion of a podcast in which the host seems to know as much about running D&D as Patricia Pulling.”
“even when the host abused the word ‘interesting’. (It’s called a thesaurus. Get one.)”
“hope nobody notices the seams of your shoddy stitching showing through.”
“My time is wasted enough, thank you”
“I came to realize that, just like the content of his show, if there’s nobody home, it must be Jared Glenn.”
I’m not a Power Source listener. I gave up on it after the first few episodes because I was annoyed by the constant nipping at WotC. In fact, one of the earlier episodes mentioned an email they received from from me telling the hosts to stop acting like teenagers.
But I do believe that this post should never have been published in its current form, and those involved in the Power Source have been amazingly restrained in their response to it.
I had mentioned in one of the comments that I pushed the envelope with tone. The point was to get people to think about what I’m saying, and respond.
As far as whether or not it should have been published is concerned, that’s what we’re here to do. We take things in, we think about them, and react honestly. If your opinion on that differs, you might need to read more blogs. Many blogs take a VERY strong tone in the things they say without any concern as to who may be offended. In some way, my point was to offend, but only to get people’s attention long enough for my point to get across. We’re not vanilla here, and we’re not going to try to be.
Common courtesy and respect does not equal vanilla, and rudeness and ad hominem attacks are not the only way to be honest.
ChattyDM chimed in above, and his review of XDM stands as a good comparison of how to do criticism right. Yes, there are offensive and unmitigated blogs out there, but do you really want to be the rpgpundit?
A few things:
Firstly, be careful with the term “ad hominem”. I think you’re using it incorrectly. “Ad hominem” is a personal attack designed to devalue an argument. I’m not addressing an argument here, I’m talking about the show itself. Insults and personal attacks while, admittedly, impolite, do not qualify as ad hominem attacks.
Secondly, ChattyDM’s review, while an entertaining read, is irrelevant here. In that review, he comes across as being very polarized, in other words, he loves XDM, and yet he hates it. Read an unfavorable movie review sometime. They can get pretty ugly. I’m writing what I feel about the subject, something that should not be filtered down.
The reason it shouldn’t be filtered is because I wrote to get a response, and get a response I did. This was meant to open a dialogue, and now that dialogue is open, and the discussion can continue back and forth until we reach resolution. Sometimes, to make ripples, you need to throw a big rock.
Thirdly, you can’t compare me to RPGPundit, whose insane ramblings seem to be the RPG answer to Glen Beck. Read the other reviews I’ve done. Those reviews are overall favorable to the products reviewed. They are, however, like this writing because I didn’t screen my words. I said what I felt.
To follow up here, I have been in contact with Jared, and it appears as though we will be working one or more things out. Allow me to take a minute to put out there that the feelings of being ignored come from an emailing error, and not blatant disregard.
Be aware, I will continue to speak my mind about things, and if I don’t like something, you’ll know.
“Insults and personal attacks while, admittedly, impolite, do not qualify as ad hominem attacks.”
When you use those insults and personal attacks to justify your dislike of a product (“the host seems to know as much about running D&D as Patricia Pulling” and “if there’s nobody home, it must be Jared Glenn”), I’d say you’re sailing pretty close to ad hominem. But arguing the semantics of what is and isn’t ad hominem is just a way of avoiding the real issue.
“I didn’t screen my words. I said what I felt”
Good for you. Doing so is not always appropriate.
You’ve expressed your justification. I’ve expressed my dissatisfaction. I’ll move on now.
Well, no, the real issue is whether or not it’s ok for me to speak my mind when I have strong feelings about something. You called it an ad hominem attack. That’s not correct, and I told you that’s not correct before I went on to argue my point.
I’m not going to try to force you to see my point that it’s ok to dislike something, especially noting the level to which I dislike it. I’m especially not going to do that because you’ve already admitted that on some level you agree with my dislike.
You’re arguing, it seems, that it’s ok to dislike something, but if I dislike it more than you’re comfortable with, suddenly it’s not ok? That’s hypocritical, and also suggests that I should hold my tongue if there’s a chance the target of my dissatisfaction can’t handle it.
You also come pretty hard on me when you suggest that I shouldn’t do so to another.
I just suggest you might have been better off if you’d moved on earlier.
“You’re arguing, it seems, that it’s ok to dislike something, but if I dislike it more than you’re comfortable with, suddenly it’s not ok?”
Not quite. You can dislike the Power Source to the Nth degree. You could hate it with the fury of a thousands suns and your hatred wouldn’t bother me at all. There is a difference between your dislike and how you express that dislike. It’s the latter I object to.
“also suggests that I should hold my tongue if there’s a chance the target of my dissatisfaction can’t handle it.”
Again, not quite what I’m saying. Whether the target can “handle it” or not is irrelevant.
Your post was boorish and rude, and remains so regardless of the fact that Jared has taken it in his stride.
“the real issue is whether or not it’s ok for me to speak my mind when I have strong feelings about something”
The real issue is HOW you speak your mind when you have strong feelings about something. I see from your bio that you’re a father. Is this really the sort of post you would/do encourage in your children?
“I just suggest you might have been better off if you’d moved on earlier.”
Perhaps you’re right. I didn’t intend to post another comment. I’ve done so only because it appeared my criticism wasn’t being understood. I’ve made it clear now. I won’t comment further.
Took the words right out of my mouth. Haven’t enjoyed the show since the first ten episodes. I did download the Dave Noonan shows, I’ll admit, but no way in hell was that for anything Jared had to say.
You should hear the newest episode. A real eye-opener, if I do say so.