The TurnCast That Wasn't: PolyCast Play-by-Play

[DanQ]

In January 2011, TurnCast (TC) became the third spin-off of the Civilization strategy-centric PolyCast (PC) podcast to launch. It blends audio snippets from multiple record sessions of regular and guest players of initially Civilization IV and now Civilization V working together to defeat any number of Artificial Intelligence (AI) opponents. Running weekly since October 2008, they were not initially going to be used in the creation of a podcast but rather a more 'traditional' multiplayer focus on competitive play between humans. It was also to have been a PC side series beginning almost two years prior to what would become TC's ultimate arrival online.

With TurnCast set to reach its fiftieth episode in its fourth season this year, the pilot of the what-could-have-been [u]PolyCast/u]'s "Play-by-Play" series has been released. Featuring to-have-been regular players Daniel "DanQ" Quick, Michael "emeseles" Lucas-Smith and guest player John "bt_oz" Archer, each recorded their thoughts aloud while the game progressed; afterwards, it was edited and post-produced by Quick. A 'before' and 'after' conversation between the three also took place.

Entitled "Unification", this production carries a runtime of 75m31s. A number of factors, most notably editing and post-production time requirements, yielded a lukewarm reception between the select few who reviewed the end product which led to its shelving. This was mid-March 2009; now, five years to the day that the game this production features was played, it is being made available publicly for the first time.