Editor's Note: Settle into a lazy Sunday with the next in writer Andrew Hiscock's inteview series with notable podcasters. This time, Gamers With Job's Shawn Andrich talks about the importance of podcasts, how he keeps going after 140-plus episodes, and where he sees the medium going in the future. -Greg

Continuing my series of interviews with notable podcasters, I spoke with Gamers With Job's Shawn Andrich. While the site is a smaller and independent outlet, its Conference Call podcast has played host to some of the biggest names in development and games journalism.

As you would expect, the podcast features intelligent and mature (and not the ESRB standard) conversation, which reflects the site's written copy. The site and podcast are the brainchildren of founders Shawn and Sean Sands, and has developed a dedicated communit. It is a true success of independent game writing, and I was excited for the opportunity to pick Shawn's brain on the subject of podcasting.

Andrew Hiscock: What drew you to podcasts and why do you think they are so popular in the video game community?

Shawn Andrich: With Twitter, blogs, and podcasts so ubiquitous now, I think we forget how unique podcasting was five years ago. It reduced the gulf between game writers and readers dramatically, which is what drew me to listen at first. Participating in podcasts and eventually hosting them was something else though, because writing has always been secondary to me.

In the early years of the site it was a kind of necessary evil in order to get my opinion out there and talk about games with the community at large. Podcasting lets me cover a lot of ground and engage in some interesting debate without having to muddle about with grammar so much. Not to devalue writing at all, but podcasting is just a different kind of juice.

I do question the assumed popularity of gaming podcasts a bit, though. Even the largest shows on sites like Gamespot, IGN and 1UP only represent a small percentage of their overall traffic. We still have a long way to go before I'd consider podcasts popular outside the niche of active, hardcore gamers.

AH: On your website, you call the Conference Call a "cornerstone of the site." What exact role does the podcast play in the Gamers with Jobs site? How does reaction to the podcasts compare to reactions and commentary on the writing portion of the site?

SA: It's important in the sense that like I mentioned before, it closes the gap between our readers and our writers. It's also a great source of outreach for us, because as people discover the show, they tend to get drawn in to the website and the community that encompasses it. That's really what it's all about for us.

Reactions to the show can often be stronger in some ways, because a dynamic conversation tends to spring forth opinions that catch people off guard and compel them to post a reply. The articles often enjoy the same kind of attention, but because they're more fully formed and edited, the replies also tend to be longer and more thought out. It's all relative.

AH: How has podcasting changed from when you started? Has the shine worn off or are you just as excited for each new Conference Call?

SA: Oof. Cut to the quick, why don't you? Like any creative endeavor, it's definitely changed over the last three years. While there used to be a fair bit of nervousness and stumbling back in the day, it's more like slipping into a comfortable pair of slippers now.

We have to do less editing after the fact, since everyone has a good feel for including pauses in their statements to let others jump in. We also cover more ground and don't repeat ourselves nearly as often as we used to.

The familiarity definitely reduces the stress levels of actually recording a show, but it also breeds a certain sense of having done it all before. After 140-plus weekly episodes, you can get to feeling like you've talked about everything at some point. That's where the need for creative new segments and special guests really become important to staying engaged in what you're doing.

I've certainly had weeks where it felt like more of a chore than something I was excited to do, but that's usually related to real-life concerns more than anything. The lovely thing about my cohosts is that no matter what kind of mood I'm in when we start, I usually come out the other side feeling good.

AH: Gamers with Jobs, inherent in the name, seems to draw a more mature and thoughtful audience. How does your community factor into how you develop stories and conversations for the podcast? How does it affect what you decide to play and ultimately how you play games?

SA: There's a lot of give and take there. The content of the podcast and the front page set the tone for the kind of community we want. The community -- through hundreds of e-mails and comments every week -- reciprocates and informs the direction the show takes, often in subtle ways.

That said, we mostly go our own way with content and hope that people enjoy the fruits of our labor. Getting too wrapped up in responding to and adjusting for every bit of feedback is a recipe for disaster.

AH: Your podcast is notable for having "big" guests including Ken Levine, Shawn Elliott, Jeff Green, and Philip Kollar. How do these guest appearances come about? When dealing with people from other outlets and the gaming community, are there "ground rules" for their appearances?

SA: It mostly comes about from conversations, knowing people, and not being afraid to go out on a limb and pursue folks you really want to talk to. Jeff Green being on the show happened because I fired off an e-mail to him about GFW's top 10 PC games list including Bookworm Adventures a few years ago.

Ken Levine came on after he'd met Julian Murdoch, who was writing a piece about BioShock for a magazine at the time. As the show gets bigger and bigger, it gets easier to convince guys like John Carmack and Brian Reynolds to pop on. We're constantly surprised by how many industry folks already listen.

Our main ground rule is that we don't want anyone in a position where they might get fired for saying the wrong thing. We edit guest shows heavily so they're not getting into too much trouble. We're here to have a good time, not get hot scoops for blog rolls. I leave that to Idle Thumbs.

The only other rule would have to be that we really have no interest in talking to PR flaks or developers on a prelaunch PR blitz. We understand that everyone has something to sell, but that's not what our audience is looking for in this case.

AH: Your site is not an average videogame site that focuses on breaking news, previews, or scored reviews. In what ways does the podcast uses the general tone and approach of the site? Are there ways in which you branch out from the writing through the podcast?

SA: We definitely come closer to "reviews" on the podcast than we tend to on the site. To be more specific, we're more likely to make some kind of consumerist, "buy, rent, or avoid" statement on the show, where in the articles we tend to leave it more open to the reader's interpretation. As far as tone goes, it's all so intermingled it's hard to draw a clear line between the site and the podcast.

I wouldn't say there's any area we really "branch out" from the site aside from the occasional, often disastrous, foray into singing and other scripted bits. The less said about me singing the 12 Days of Christmas the better.

AH: Taking podcasting in general and the Conference Call in specific, where do you see the future of this new medium? Are there ways of covering videogames in podcasts that current offerings are not exploiting?

SA: It's still a young medium, so it's hard to say where it's going to go next. I think we've reached a saturation point on the "three to five dudes at a table shooting the breeze" style of show, so newcomers are going to have a hard time creating a niche unless they focus on one particular game or subgenre.

There's clearly an appetite out there for more highly produced, interesting content similar to Robert Ashley's A Life Well Wasted and nongaming 'casts like Radio Lab and Search Engine. With the Conference Call we're certainly looking for new ways to change up the production without creating a full-time job for our producer. Moving away from doing a whole show in one sitting seems like a natural evolution.

One area I think podcasts are largely ignoring is using the medium for journalism and news. There are plenty out of shows out there using audio to repeat the news we can read on blogs, but I'm not hearing anyone putting together news reports for their podcasts, complete with audio interviews and a little investigation. I think there's potential for gaming-news blogs to leverage that as a feature unto itself instead of regurgitating what they've already written.