Icy Dice - A Podcast About Major Command

[BearNecessities]

I am really starting to like this game. I'd love to help popularize it and build excitement within the player base.

Towards that end, here is a first swing at producing a podcast about Major Command.

The podcast will cover MC basics, advanced strategy, and a discussion of the community of players.

Episode 1: Doubles Crown Series -- A deep look at the participants of the forum tournament.

Big thanks to Tapeworm for taking part!

If you'd like to contribute to a future episode, please let me know!

 

[engineerairborne]

Bear, this is great I am listening to it right now, and I love the review of the players. Great Job, welcome to MJ hopefully you will bring in some new players, and help the site keep rocking.

 

[Roscokov]

Amazing.

Good work Fellas!

 

[th-child]

I didn't think I'd listen to all of it, as it is quite long, but I did. Nicely done, both of you!

Bear, you seem to have a trained voice. Is speaking in your line of work?

I LOLed at the grumpy old men comment. True that! TheGeneral's being here for more than 8 years is crazy. We are getting old, fellas.

Engineer, congrats on your kills! More than 3 thousand since 2016 is brutal. (I know Rosco has even more, but Rosco is a known madman, so I guess that doesn't count.)

I hope we can avoid the embarrassment of not getting through the group stage. With that supadupa high score we have it would be mighty unpleasant.
So much luck is involved, though. We went first in all 3 of our games and had wonderdice for the first two turns. Now, should it have been the other way around, man, we'd be in much trouble. So I expect to see some surprising results, I just hope it won't be us. We'll see.

One thing I always wondered is how come sannheten and eric don't play doubles together. I think we all are lucky they don't. (And psst, don't let them know I said this. They might get ideas.) F15 and micky can hold their ground as well, so I guess I expect those duos to get far.

For me, the toughest group is blue. I'm happy I'm not in there. Would it be possible for all of them to just get disqualified or something after group stage? I'd vote for that for sure.

 

[Tapeworm]

Great work Bear, this sounds terrific! I'm listening at work with headphones!

I kept referring to the "most defeated opponents" scoreboard as most "UDOs" which is making me kick myself because I definitely meant the former scoreboard.

 

[BearNecessities]

I didn't think I'd listen to all of it, as it is quite long, but I did. Nicely done, both of you!

Bear, you seem to have a trained voice. Is speaking in your line of work?

It is indeed long! I was chatting with Tapeworm about possibly doing this shorter form - 15-25 min. for the next episode. I'd like to give that a shot for the sake of lowering the barrier to entry for folks who are resistant to hour long podcasts. Longer topics can be broken into multiple episodes and will make editing a bit easier. This took a long time to edit and mix because of how long it was. I'm also stupid nit picky about cutting out dead air and "ums" and other vocal tics.

I'm not in radio professionally, though I did a tiny bit of it on my college radio station back in 2007-2008. For work, i'm an entrepreneur. I own a company in the packaged food industry, engaged in manufacturing and brand building. I'm actually in the process of starting a podcast for the company as a way of keeping customers engaged with the brand.

 

[Tapeworm]

I'm too drunk to make this work properly, apparently, but these are my podcast notes.

https://imgur.com/a/0zNeH17

 

[BearNecessities]

I'm too drunk to make this work properly, apparently, but these are my podcast notes.

https://imgur.com/a/0zNeH17

By the beard of Zuse, Tape! Were you writing with two hands?

 

[clarkenfeld]

I listened in the supermarket, at least to the first two groups. Nicely done! It's great hearing about players and remembering they're real people at the other end of the interweb.

FWIW I've never played WITH once until this tournament, but I have played against him many times and been beaten most of them. That's why I'm playing in the tournament, because he gave me a chance to piggy back on a top opponent.

Thanks again!

 

[BearNecessities]

Thank you all for the kind words and encouragement! This is exactly why I'm invested in doing my part to make MC successful.

Quick update on the podcast -- Icy Dice has been submitted to iTunes and is currently undergoing review. I don't expect it to rejected, but they aren't providing any guidance on how long it will take for the approval process to clear. Once it available to the public on i-tunes, I'm going to need some help from the MC community in providing reviews for the podcast.

iTunes rankings are largely dependent on reviews. The more good reviews a podcast has, the more new listeners it is likely to attract via search-rank. I see the podcast as a means for bringing in new players as much as retaining the existing player base, so your help is going to be important.

In order to function properly as a means for attracting new players, I'm preparing to do some episodes designed for folks who are unfamiliar with Major Command -- introductory material designed to ignite interest in the uninitiated. Topics will include an overview of basic game mechanics, the game features that contribute to MC's uniqueness, and discussions of the community, describing it in terms that fairly represent it as a friendly environment, very much unlike other multiplayer games where "flaming" and hate is all too common.

If you'd like to play a part, either by contributing outlines or detailed material for us to include on the podcast, or even participating as a guest on the show, that would be terrific.

I don't have a specific timeline for when I'll be tackling the next episodes, but a pace of 1 episode a month seems doable. The hard work of setting up the intro and getting the hosting of the content arranged is all complete, so it should be less of a time investment for me on a per episode basis moving forwards.

Thanks again for your interest. Looking forward to the next steps!

 

[Sebrim]

Great job, bearnecessities!

When you do an intro, I would make a point out of the game engine being rebuilt - not on a commercial basis, but as a side project of the owner. It is going forward, but by far not as quickly as some people here would like it to do. Therefore the current engine is playable, but not really ideal, and there won't be any new features added until the new engine is out.

If you had been around some five years ago, you would know what I'm talking about, since the forums were teeming with ideas and suggstions, which were actually implemented, as well as new maps, which were developed live in the forums. That is all a really great part of the majorcommand experience, but it is currently not really happening. I for one look forward to the new engine, and hope the community spirit of that time returns!

 

[BearNecessities]

Great job, bearnecessities!

When you do an intro, I would make a point out of the game engine being rebuilt - not on a commercial basis, but as a side project of the owner. It is going forward, but by far not as quickly as some people here would like it to do. Therefore the current engine is playable, but not really ideal, and there won't be any new features added until the new engine is out.

If you had been around some five years ago, you would know what I'm talking about, since the forums were teeming with ideas and suggstions, which were actually implemented, as well as new maps, which were developed live in the forums. That is all a really great part of the majorcommand experience, but it is currently not really happening. I for one look forward to the new engine, and hope the community spirit of that time returns!

Thanks for that context, Sebrim. I'd love to do a deep dive on the evolution and trajectory of the site + engine. This is really helpful to know.

 

[riskyone]

:rock:

Thanks for that context, Sebrim. I'd love to do a deep dive on the evolution and trajectory of the site + engine. This is really helpful to know.

Thanks Sebrim. Bear I have to say I really enjoyed the pod cast. Never listened to more then 5 minutes of the other two I was exposed to. I easily got to the end. In a way it was like listening to ABC's Wide World of Sports as a kid. The color commentary was superb. Just like it was the World Cup or the US open tennis tournament in New York. I want more. Can't wait for the next. I need a fix. Thanks so much. How fun:cheers::tee::biggrin::thrasher:

 

[F15FreeEagle]

I really enjoyed this! It was great to get "voices" to go along with the user names, at least for you 2. :laugh:

Great job Bear and Tape!

 

[once]

yes. i also found it slightly disorienting to hear a) human voices in this context & b) you projecting us coming out last in our group?? hmpf.
i was gone for about 24hrs and then this dropped, a pretty weird sensation, like seeing oneself on television. or hearing about oneself in a podcast i suppose. in any case, you two did excellent work, it sounds really professional, was fun to listen to (except certain bits), and i really like the idea of a proper coverage following these events, i hope you will keep this up. you mentioned the difficulty of following the actual moves in games - and it really would be great if these micro-dramas could somehow be accessed one day. could be quite entertaining beyond the old "my dice are bad yours are fixed" narrative. i know there are some particular games i have fond memories of, but nothing i could even recollect: epic suspense peaking with uncanny luck or brilliant ideas or glorious failure - fun.
anyway. great job guys, an asset to this site i think.

 

[Cardinalsrule]

Did Tape really say you were going to finish last in our group, Once? I mean, I know it's a tough group, IMO the toughest of the 4, but still. I wouldn't have put you last. I don't know Crypto or Clark, but overall I'd have said it's a toss-up between the top 3 with the 4th team being the dark horse.

 

[BearNecessities]

Did Tape really say you were going to finish last in our group, Once? I mean, I know it's a tough group, IMO the toughest of the 4, but still. I wouldn't have put you last. I don't know Crypto or Clark, but overall I'd have said it's a toss-up between the top 3 with the 4th team being the dark horse.

Tape and I were having some fun with our "pickems" for group stage. Some of our picks were more along the lines of wouldn't it be interesting if rather than I truly believe that the outcome favors so and so.

I think that the cumulative scores are somewhat predictive. Obviously there are some seriously under-rated players participating in the tournament that making things a bit more complex, but overall, the charts and tables are likely the highest probability outcome.

 

[once]

Tape and I were having some fun with our "pickems" for group stage.

thats how i took it. as in: too bad we cant play tape & you sooner.

and i agree with cards, this group is very much a tossup.

 

[clarkenfeld]

Did Tape really say you were going to finish last in our group, Once? I mean, I know it's a tough group, IMO the toughest of the 4, but still. I wouldn't have put you last. I don't know Crypto or Clark, but overall I'd have said it's a toss-up between the top 3 with the 4th team being the dark horse.

Yep we were touted as wooden spoon winners, which is fine... dark horses coming up on the rails... you guys just worry about finishing off the tougher opponents. Once and I will roll over and die.

And that rhymes, which is nice.

See you in the Middle East!

 

[empirejeff]

Now I know what tapeworm sounds like.