Never really got that deep, i did reveiws blogs but never really got into the podcast, now with that said as a fellow x 1upper i will miss that place.
My Reaction To 1UP's Last Ever Podcast
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 On 04/08/2013 at 05:53 PM by Raised_on_Nintendo See More From This User » |
(this is cross-posted from 1UP. The staff uploaded their final podcast, a 3-hour long whale of an event. They didn't state as much, but my guess is it's the last new content 1UP will see, and it's worth a listen. Sam, Jeremy, Milky, Shoe, and many others share their thoughts on 1UP. Anyhoo, on with the blog...)
Last night I downloaded the Final 1UP Podcast @ Games Dammit!. Being over 3-hours in length, I thought it'd make for delicious ear candy consumable in fragments over the course of the next work week. Once I pressed play, though, it was quickly apparent that Jose Otero had produced the goodbye podcast that all 1UP fans wanted to hear (nay, I wanted to hear). I enjoyed it so much, I couldn't press pause, consumed it whole.
My relationship with 1UP was that of a reader/blogger/commenter/EGM subscriber. During 1UP's early-mid years, I was completely unaware of the respectable (or celebratory, some would argue ) podcasts being pumped out on a regular basis, particularly 1UP Yours! and The 1UP Show. At the time, my computer couldn't process the site's higher-end media without lag, and I didn't own an iPod until '09. Thanks to the mighty power of the internet, much of this work is preserved, and I've been able to check out many episodes from the full basket of 1UP Network shows (Retronauts, Broken Pixels, etc.). It helps put into perspective the full capacity 1UP established for itself in audio, video, digital and print for someone like me who wasn't able to experience it at the time.
The Final Podcast covers these issues, and everything else that constitutes 1UP's Legacy. Jose did a fantastic job grouping staff for each segment (or maybe it was random on the fly, either way, great job!). To hear staff speak candidly about their experience, and to pay respect to each other, the industry, and to the audience answered a lot of questions I had, and was very informative overall. Everything is mentioned: ZD, UGO, 1UP's founding, its closure, the bumps along the way, and other interesting insight. Jeremy even pays respect to Gamemaster, 1UP's resident quircky megatroll that got under people's skin, but always took back what he dished out.
As 1UP rides off into that Gunstar Heroes sunset, it shouldn't be mourned as the loss of an institution, but celebrated as a launching point for the dissemination of integrity during the industry's growth as a whole. When 1UP's closing was announced, I took some time to read old articles and track down previous staff. It's not hard to do, just find one person on Twitter and follow the trail. Much of the staff has moved around the industry and still blogs or writes/edits for various websites, as many of you may already know.
To me, what's saddening isn't necessarily the loss of 1UP, but that of the battle of Quality vs. Quantity, Truth vs. Fodder, Transparency vs. Kickbacks. 1UP didn't wither due to lack of love, but to lack of corporate interest. Look to the Retronauts Kickstarter for proof of the people's passion for prolonging that project, at least into the foreseeable future. As well, most of the member community has also regrouped at the likes of pixlbit.com, ign.com and giantbomb.com, further carrying the 1UP torch through the web's hallowed halls.
Lastly, I just want to say, somewhere along all this I realized I came to 1UP because it carried EGM's mantra of integrity over onto the web. From the beginning to the end, I trusted this site to give it to me like it is, and it never wavored. Thank you.
That said, it's been great, it's been real, but I gotta get outta here before this place explods!!!
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