I'll admit that I'm a lapsed PC Gamer; there was once a brief period when I split my time equally between computer and console gaming, but my meager budget eventually made me cut the more-expensive option out of the equation. It wasn't until a little over a year ago that I was brought back into the PC gaming fold--budget be damned--by a little podcast called GFW (Games for Windows) Radio; and now that it's over, I am very, very sad.
The death of GFW Radio comes at a surprising--yet somewhat expected--time; with keystone member and 17-year Ziff-Davis veteran Jeff Green leaving to work for EA last week, I immediately thought, "Co-host Shawn Elliott is going to leave for Valve next." I was half-right--he's leaving Ziff, but to work for Ken Levine at 2K Games in Boston. There's no doubt these guys are lucky bastards; but in exchange for their personal success, we're losing out on one of the best gaming podcasts in the universe (you heard me, outer space). We, the listeners, are merely victims of this job-leaving spree. I ask you, when will it all end?
The writing was sort of on the wall since the closing of GFW: The Official Magazine back in April; yet even without their magazine, the crew soldiered on with the podcast and were evnetually disseminated into the ranks of 1UP.com. But it was never going to last long; co-host Sean Molloy--another lucky bastard--moved on to work at Blizzard in June, and the crew had always expressed their disapproval with the politics and rhetoric of the games journalism biz. But that's why GFW Radio was such a great podcast; it was extremely candid, intelligent, and had a hilarious mix of highbrow and lowbrow humor. And while their game chatter was great, the best parts of the show came from the guys telling personal stories or just bullshitting about nothing in particular. If they somehow got together in the future and independently did a non-gaming podcast, I would listen. Hell, GFW Radio is one of the few podcasts I keep archived on my iPod; even the reruns are good.
So if you haven't had a chance to grab the final episode, DO THAT NOW. And if you've never heard an episode of GFW Radio before, I recommend you start with this one. It's unlike any of the others, but it's a fantastic episode, as well as a nice preview of where the show might have gone.
And here's a nice clip of one of the show's best moments:
I need to go lie down, you guys.
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