Does the idea of a Force of Arms Radio Station Appeal to you?

[Sturm Kintaro]

So as some of you may or may not know, I also happen to be an Internet Radio DJ, along with being a Force of Arms podcaster (and generally all around nice guy).  I currently host a radio show 1 night a week over on EVE-Radio (www.eve-radio.com);  I go by the callsign "DJ Apoc", Thursday evenings from 8PM-11PM EST, although as the servers are based in the UK, all of their show times are based on GMT, so I'm on 0000 - 0300 GMT.  During this show, I play music, listen to and respond to client's requests/questions, I give away ships, in-game money, prizes, etc... all in all we have a blast.  And the reason it works in EVE as opposed to any other MMO is because there is 1 world/shard/server that everyone is playing on, so everyone's on the same page.

I know that we're still waiting for FoA to get to a point where we can start beta testing and going live, but I think the same concept would work for Force of Arms as it would for EVE, in that a single radio station could be a great resource for the world to rally around, not to mention be a great source for information for the community as things are happening.  As an example, when the whole GoonSwarm/BoB alliance dissolution happened, EVE-Radio was there, they got the corp leaders from both sides on the air, and it was really enlightening listening to both sides of the argument.  If anything big happens in game, EVE-Radio reports it.

If you're interested, I'd love to see your comments posted here, as well as what you think such a program would/should have for it's listeners.

In the meantime, EVE-Radio has a sister station, Total Gaming Radio, that I am also considering putting a show together for, if people are interested.  It'd be a fun place for FoA folks to hang out and just shoot the breeze while we let the devs do their thing....  I'd really like to know what time (if any) people would be willing to tune in to.

Any interest?

[Shadow Star]

Stickied for you.

[Kellzz]

With the possibility of being able to have in-game radio stations, this is an excellent fit.

[Agamemnon]

Used to be the only thing that kept me away while I mined in EVEO some nights...(not all there were a few nights I nodded off mining).... 

[XoRys]

I consider creation of in-game radio is excellent idea! Timely translation of the major game news or events would be very useful! Besides it is always pleasant to listen to good music.

[Teioh]

heya guys im new here is this game running now? well a radio is a nice idea i luv music i wanna hear the ramones and dire straits songs.




"knowing what is wrong is important so as to know what is right"

[Beovvulf]

I consider creation of in-game radio is excellent idea! Timely translation of the major game news or events would be very useful! Besides it is always pleasant to listen to good music.

There is a problem with this concept.

What is good music?  What one person considers to be good music is chalk screeching on a chalkboard to another.  Programming of the music will be problematic at best.  The post before this talks about the Ramones stated to indicate they are a favorite of the poster and I could care less about hearing them.  Would I be able to hear Hallucinogen, early Chemical Brothers, Alan Parsons, Lori Anderson, or Frank Zappa?  I am sure that most out there would not care to hear any of the artists that I just mentioned but they are among my favorites.

While I like the idea of information being passed on to the subscribing players in this manner I am not as keen on hearing music that I do not care for.  Yes, I understand that if music is on that I do not like I can turn it off but then I might miss that information I wanted to hear so why would I bother to listen to it to start with?

[Fritzgryphon]

Also,

* Don't you have to pay a fee for public exhibition of songs?  Sounds expensive.

* If the game is about a futuristic world, why is there modern music in it?

* Nerds have a face for radio but annoying voices.

[Hamilton]

heya guys im new here is this game running now?

Thanks for the interest!
Unfortunately, do not have a time for the Beta yet.

Just keep checking back.

What is good music?

The will be a channel selection to help people decide on what good music is.  Of course if we don't have enough channels or such, with use of an in-game browser might help (or just use a 3rd party app).

Yes, I understand that if music is on that I do not like I can turn it off but then I might miss that information I wanted to hear so why would I bother to listen to it to start with?

Hummm... well on method would be to set up scheduled times for news breaks, such as top and bottom of the hour (on the hour and at the half hour mark).
But for special news breaks (ie: live game event going on... Now):
I think providing a system message should work out, could be part of a Faction Chat, or just public (basically a news network system).

* Don't you have to pay a fee for public exhibition of songs?  Sounds expensive.

* If the game is about a futuristic world, why is there modern music in it?

* Nerds have a face for radio but annoying voices.

1 - Yes, the RIAA does have a licensing requirement in place.  However there are legal ways around it.  Now I'm not trying to say to we want to avoid paying the artists.  I am looking at a means to help support artists who are independent of labels or of the RIAA.

2 - Heh, we have no idea what music is going to sound like in the next decade and any music used would be considered modern (or modern pretending to be futuristic).  One of the problem of MMO's is that there is only a limited amount of music, for example 40 minutes, for users who may be playing over 20 hours a week.

3 - Actually I prefer to use Geek.  Geek is the new black.

[Sturm Kintaro]

If I can make a couple of suggestions/comments.

1) If you get a chance, listen to EVE-Radio, and see how their DJ's do things.  All the DJ's are on a volunteer basis - they're doing it because they love what they do.  You'll find that for the most part DJ's that don't get good listener #'s usually leave anyways, for various reasons (RL, quit game, etc etc)

2)  What I'm proposing would be more of a timeslot based thing.  Ideally, you'd have 3 hour timeslots for a DJ to play their "brand" of music, with a jukebox to cover when a DJ can't be on the air.  The DJ's will each have their own style of music... some will play rock, some will play house/techno, some will play Rap, and some may even play country, or a mix of all of the above.  So you will get a variety... I can pretty much guarantee that.

3) As to what Hamilton said, yes... there are ways to host a radio site legally outside the US and allow for players to listen from the 'States... but that's for a later discussion if this ever comes to fruition.

Questions?

[Deathseer]

It most certainly does appeal to me, and I have an idea that could solve the problem above, with people liking different music. Divide the radio station into differen't stations, each specialized in a type of genre, but if something important happens in-game have the DJ able to overide the stations and broadcast the news via "All Frequencies."

[Sturm Kintaro]

The only issue with having multiple "channels" of music comes down to 2 things - bandwidth and equipment.

Say we have "Cerebus Radio" or whatever we decide to call it.  People say "Great! We want channels for death metal, alternative, rock & roll, rap, hip-hop, classical opera, and country!"

So now we have 7 separate channels, which is the equivalent of 7 different streams of music.  Having a stream up 24/7, (which is essentially what the players are asking for, because we're not all online at the exact same time) is expensive.  Using some numbers from off the top of my head, it would cost approximately $2000.00 per stream per month to keep it on 24/7.  That's $14,000/month just for music.  Not what I'd call cost effective.

Now, the alternative as I had mentioned is to have 1 "main" station, and have a jukebox station that's always on, but automated, and could also cover the main station if there's no one available to staff it.  The main station can have the day broken down into timeslots, that DJ's could apply for.  This does a few things:

1) DJ's are more than likely going to be local to their main playerbase (I.E. at 12PM EST, it's going to be 5PM GMT, when a lot more of the EU folks will be playing, so very likely have an EU DJ on during that slot, because most of us US people will still be in school, working, etc.
2) DJ's will provide a lot of variety.  Because every DJ will have a different style/taste, you will get different music.  So perhaps if you don't like 1 DJ, they're only on for a couple of hours, and the next DJ plays all off the wall stuff that you're happy with.  DJ's also will come and go, so just because they're there now, doesn't mean a) they'll be there forever and b) if you think you can do better, you can always apply yourself!
3) Having live DJ's means that they can respond to world events faster, or could even have in-game world events, like having a power armor zerg run into Genoma lands just to irritate them
4) Timeslots could look something like this - (I'll use the GMT system because that's what I know.  If you're US based, I'll do this for EST as a conversion):

0000-0300 GMT (8PM-11PM EST) - US Prime Time
0300-0600 GMT (11PM-2AM EST) - Graveyard Shift
0600-0900 GMT (2AM-5AM EST) - Potential for a Morning Show, UK time
0900-1200 GMT (5AM-8AM EST) - Potential for a Morning Show, US time
1200-1500 GMT (8AM-11AM EST)
1500-1800 GMT (11AM-2PM EST) - Probably going to be still in the EU/UK concentrated part of the day.
1800-2100 GMT (2PM - 5PM EST) - EU/UK Prime Time
2100-0000 GMT (5PM - 8PM EST) - US  Prime Time

So there's 8 slots, x 7 days... potential for 56 different DJ's during the week.  I'd say that'll add some variety to the mix, no?

[khil1]

I think Sturm is on the right track. I really like the way Casual Collective does it. Their wiki can explain it much better than I can. They use a service called Live365 for their license. There are some rules but nothing major, CC has used it for quite a while and most people love it.

[Subzero Ray]

Guild Wars has a radio station too.  (web bladeradio. ) It's wonderful.  I'd love to see one for Force of Arms.  xP Blade Radio has a Ventrilo server where after the show, the DJ will connect to Vent and have a chat with anyone who connects.  If this Force of Arms radio gets one too, that would be great!

[xXx]

I did weekly rundowns for a few ladders at MWL (MechWarrior League), and ran NQ (North Quadrant) Radio a friend for 2-3 years.   I say it's a good idea, and if you can get the community involved, it can be alot of fun.