Robert Ashley: Hero of the Web

The irony of the gradual, then very sudden, departure of key figures from the 1Up Podcasts, is that, over the last couple of weeks, the number of internet radio shows I’ve been listening to has jumped significantly. Rebel FM gets credit for being the first, but Ryan Scott’s The Geekbox is also a worthy listen. It was great to hear a number of personalities I’ve grown used to having in my ear during the day back to business as usual, even if they weren’t collecting a paycheck for it anymore.

Then Robert Ashley, a freelance game journalist and frequent guest on the defunct GFW Radio, dropped A Life Well Wasted on us all, and changed the game.

His podcast title is close to my blog name, but SO MUCH BETTER.

I’ve seen it said by others today, and it’s the first words that came to mind about minute into the first episode: Robert Ashley made a gaming podcast that wouldn’t be out of place as a segment or episode of This American Life. This isn’t the unedited round table conversation that makes up your typical gaming podcast, or podcast, period. ALWW is written, researched, thought out and edited to tell a story; in the case of its first episode, it’s the death of Electronic Gaming Monthly, and subsequently the greater questions its shuttering raises about the print medium versus the internet. It’s an audio version of The Escapist Magazine, a comparison I feel completely confident with despite only hearing one episode. I trust Robert Ashley.

I’m excited at what A Life Well Wasted could be.  I doubt it will become a weekly show.  It’s a fairly production heavy affair.  But it’s clear Ashley has modeled it after This American Life and other public radio programs, and I wonder if he will open it up to other contributors.  Imagine a piece about griefing, or Second Life, by Shawn Elliott. A Sean Baby story, looking at the weird demographic that made up the Nintendo Power readership. Could other people submit ideas for stories, or even finished pieces themselves? I know it’s something I’d be interested in.  Maybe I’ll rough out my idea for a story in a future post.

This is essential, nerds.  I won’t even qualify this with a line like, “If the only interest in video games you have is shooting hookers in Grand Theft Auto, this may not be for you.”  This is for everyone.  Challenge yourself.  Robert Ashley has taken our stupid little obsession with video games and made it feel important.  And for a guy who often wrestles with the thought that he’s wasted his life, it’s reassuring to know that it was a life well wasted. LISTEN.