Hoo boy... What is the Zelda Working Title Podcast? I fear I could write an entire novel on what it is and how it got started, but I’ll try to keep this brief. The Zelda Working Title Podcast is a podcast that some online friends and I do. Don’t let the name fool you. While we do talk about Zelda from time to time, we usually just talk about video games in general. We talk about recent industry news, games we’ve been playing, games we’re looking forward to, etc. Sometimes we ask questions such as “which video game world would you want to live in,” “are video games art?” “what can video games learn from other media and vice versa?” Of course, depending on the topic, some episodes are more serious while others are completely random and crazy. Be warned that this podcast is marked explicit because we do not censor our language. That said, anything offensive said is never serious. Well, almost never ;)

Now for a brief (again, I could go on for hours) history about the podcast’s origins. Back in, I want to say 2003 (though it may have been a bit later), news got out about the next Zelda game being made. I, along with Zelda fanatics around the world went crazy. Online message boards became flooded with fans geeking out over what the next game would be like. I found myself at GameFAQs’ message board dedicated to this newly announced, or rather rumored, next Zelda game. Because the game did not yet have a name, the message board was called “The Legend of Zelda (Working Title).” The sheer amount of constant activity that occurred on that board was astounding.

Eventually, as more information about the game found its way onto the Internet, even more people started joining in on the conversations. However, too often the conversations being started would be ones that had already been discussed time and time again. Becoming annoyed at how actual conversations immediately become lost in the endless flood of those started by n00bs and trolls, a number of users (myself included) moved to a different message board created by one of the top contributing members of the community. Soon this smaller group of people became a close-knit group of online friends. However, after a few years, the board administrators visited less and less frequently. Because of this, there were requests for repairs and modifications to the board that could not be done (since only the admins could perform them). Again, those remaining decided to move to a new message board.

By that time, the game that had started it all, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, had been out for a while. The new board was appropriately named the Zelda TP Social Board. By this time, many of us were old enough and comfortable enough to start using real names (as opposed to screen names) as well as talking over the phone and Skype. Skype conversations were always enjoyable and were becoming more and more frequent. Eventually, we decided that perhaps others would like to hear our conversations. While they were often silly and random, they were always fun, and sometimes we did talk seriously about gaming-related topics. And thus the podcast was born! Originally the name “Zelda Working Title Podcast” was just that—a working title. However, the name stuck as both a joke as an unnamed podcast as well as a tribute to the name of the message board where we all met all those years ago.

And there you go! A history of the podcast. Now stop reading and start listening!