Patreon and The Reason: Early Plans for 2016

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So here we go! The Paid to Play Podcast’s first official Season will commence in the next couple of months; in the meantime I’m working to make sure this season goes a lot more steadily and coherently than those previous (even though they weren’t technically seasons, just semi-consistent runs of episodes – which is why I want to make sure Season 4 is as tight as possible).

I want to place myself so that I’m bringing you great chats on a regular basis, but also getting back on the horse with regard to getting paid to play – and getting Patreon to help me do some cool things for the podcast this year.

What cool things? Read on…

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What’s Your Play? – Episode 72

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I’ve spent over seventy episodes talking about my guests’ play and my own. But what abut your play?

I want to hear from / read you! Please let us know, whether by email, by comment here or on Facebook (including the Fans of the Podcast group), Google+, Twitter or Patreon (if you’re a backer – and if not, why not?), about the things that you’re doing right now or have been doing that you love to do, that you can’t not do, even if you have no idea of the value they might have for anyone else!

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A Break in January

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The main image for this posting is the box in which I keep my sound kit; mic, mixing board, USB interface, cables, headphones and pop filter, with cloth cover and silica gel bag. I took the picture this morning after disassembling everything and packing it away under my desk.

(Handy little box, isn’t it? Great for mobile recordings – if my netbook weren’t buggered.)

The last few days have been pretty heavy on for the Podcast, between compiling a wishlist of guests for 2016, recording thank-yous to my 2015 guests and Patreon patrons and finally making Lost Episode 70 real. But in the name of preserving my sanity, I think the best thing I can do now is put it all aside for a little while, quite possibly until the end of the month. So no contacting potential guests, no scheduling, no recording, no editing, no posting.

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2015 in Review and the Podcast in 2016 – Episode 70

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2015 has been a great year for the Paid to Play Podcast, with folks backing it on Patreon and even a live panel at Cairns’ first pop culture convention! It’s had a few rough moments too, mostly of my own making.

In this last episode of a solid year, I count down two Top Tens of your favourite episodes, look at how the podcast changed for the better and what I’m looking forward to bringing you, and experimenting with, in 2016!

Happy New Year, everyone!

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Season 4 Wish List, Supplemental: Critical Role and Geek & Sundry

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So after lots of typing, chasing links, copying and pasting, I’d saved the posting of my wish list of folks I’d love to get on the show in 2016.

Then I realised I’d left someone off,someone I’d included in my tweetings but not in the Facebookery, because the person in question doesn’t have a Facebook page.

So, here he is: Matthew Mercer, voice talent and dungeon master for Geek & Sundry‘s web series Critical Role.

…

Come to think of it…

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Keeping It Private – Episode 68

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As 2015 draws to a close, I talk about how I want to do things differently in 2016, in the hope of getting more things done.

This is the first of the two Lost Episodes of Paid to Play 2015 – in other words, I didn’t get around to recording them in time for their release in show order. I intend to record and release Episode 70 before the New Year.

This is also the first episode that I’ve seriously edited together for the YouTube format. The podcast episode itself is twenty minutes of ramble; the YouTube version is half that (with a few slightly dodgy cuts, thanks to Windows Movie Maker).

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Gamified Geeky Fitness: Tonja Davis – Episode 71

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Tonja Davis is an incredible fusion of geek and fitness enthusiast. She’s not only worked in technology and for one of the biggest business names in the geek world, she’s also taken her own struggles with with chronic illness and injuries – in her own words, “If there’s something you can break, I probably broke it!” – and turned them into programmes to help those whom the mainstream fitness industry neglects.

The business born of the fusion of these loves is Action Hero Fitness, a comic book-themed body and health coaching business that aims to help geeks struggling with fitness. Tonja levers web technology and even online-enabled game consoles to run coaching sessions for people whose health issues prevent them from going to gyms or outdoor fitness courses.

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Bringing Princesses to Life: Sharna, Ever After Parties – Episode 69

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It’s interesting how things tuned out: The recording order of my chat with Sharna, owner and operator of and performer in Ever After Parties, comes out twelve months after she started the company!

Ever After Parties specialises in making make-believe a little more real by bringing beloved characters from animated movies to children’s parties. It’s cosplay in one of its purer forms; it’s no coincidence that Sharna was a cosplayer before she got into performing at kids’ parties.

We chat about Sharna’s love of anime and Disney, going from a princess party company employee to staring her own company at just sixteen years of age (while still at high school) and the support you can get from the most unlikely quarters as long as you stand by your paid play!

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Video Game Freelancing: C.J. “Rhykker” Miozzi – Episode 67

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C. J. Miozzi is the paid player I want to be when I grow up. He’s a writer, graphic artist and voice talent, and he’s built his revenue streams around his love of video games, especially Diablo III. He’s probably best known for his YouTube channel of advice for players of Diablo III, for which he goes by the handle of Rhykker.

We chat about the difference between personalities and content providers on YouTube, the conflict between outsourcing and the desire for complete control, pursuing a career almost completely outside your field of study and planning for the inevitable changes in any modern career, not just freelancing. Oh, and we have a bit of a geek-out about Dungeons & Dragons.

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