ART Ep. 26: Jon's Polyjuice (feat. Ashanka)

Doing a podcast can be weird. Sometimes it almost feels like acting, except the role you play is yourself. When I started all this as the "Achievement guy" on Arcanum of Azeroth I pretty much just came in and was me. When that show split into two shows, one being live, and the other being pre-recorded I gained an appreciation for what podcasters do.

I'm not suggesting that we're fake. Odds are if you talked to me in my day to day you probably wouldn't notice a disparity in my personality or anything. It's more that when you are on a show, trying to offer opinions, ideas, feed off the co-hosts, and try to be entertaining all at once your personality gets turned up to 11. More specifically aspects of your personality.

We all have our roles to play I guess. Ben is our mild mannered host. There to guide us from point A to point B no matter how far off track we go. The guest is something of an X factor although it tends to be safe to say that they are playing the part of participant in the trip Ben is leading. Offering their own thoughts and ideas as we go. That leaves me as something of a wild card. Now I'm not saying that I am not this way by default, but when everyone is looking out the right side of the plane saying, "oooh," or "ahhh." Sometimes you need a guy to look out the left side of the plane and say, "I like it over there more." Typically this guy is considered the troublemaker of the group.

I guess that's the part that I find so odd. Looking back at what I think now is almost a year of doing this I don't think of myself as particularly bitter, angry, or overly opinionated. I tend to see myself as open. You ask me to be on a show about WoW and want my opinion on the game, well I'll tell you when I think it's great, I'll tell you when I think it's terrible, and I'll tell you what I'd do differently. I've never seen a reason to do otherwise.

This episode contains what I guess could almost be called a rant, but it really isn't. This episode has me telling you probably the most bare bones truth I feel about this game. It seems weird that everyone thought it was so out of character. Although to be fair I willingly played up that it might have been. It all boils down to this though. Ben and I have known each other for a really long time. We've been co-workers, friends, and now collaborators. I don't think either of us would continue to do this if we thought the other was putting on a show.

So I'm happy to be the voice of criticism (or reason) just as I'm sure he's happy to be our upbeat guide. They are roles we play, but it's also us, even if some parts show a little more than others. Just some food for thought the next time you think I'm too harsh or Ben too soft.




AzerothRT on Twitter
E-Mail us at AzerothRoundTable@gmail.com

You can also catch Ben on:
Geektopia and Battle Pets

You can find me here and on my writing show Parallel Words.

Finally if you don't already please feel free to subscribe or give us a review on iTunes.