Tamtu's VAA blog.

You remember the time when voice acting was my life and everything? It died down when I started... you know. Working fulltime. The only things I was able to do after work in the evenings that didn't require a lot of energy, volume and more importantly, effort, were my good old videogames and art. I actually had time to play FFXI more frequently and immerse myself with this game and explore it further. My friend Krissy (She was Rikku in my FFX - Unexpected radioplay) pointed out Limit Break Radio to me, a FFXI podcast which I did come across before, but didn't think much of it at the time.

But I started with two episodes other than the first two. Since I love questing in FFXI, episode 10 covering various quests was especially interesting to me and episode 3 just had a fantastic Ballista story.

Fast forward to episode 33. After making some parody songs for LBR and helping out with graphics, I became a summer host to cover unlocking the extra jobs in the game, and filled in for hosts that don't make it to a recording session during the summer. It was at one point where I offered to read an e-mail when poor little Kallo was struggling. He ended up getting it right, but that's when I started thinking about a podcast of my own.

I had the audio editing knowledge to get a high production value to "rival" LBR. But it wouldn't be just like any topic-discussion podcast for FFXI. It would be an e-mail show, where the content would be decided as such by the listeners.

And it would be in-character.

I watched an episode of Dr. Phil (don't judge me) and got the idea of a couple tackling the emails to discuss the topics sent it. They wouldn't always agree with eachother, which could totally lead to funny situations. Theeeeeeeen I was reminded by Sapphira and Jerry's old advice website. I needed a "She" to help me with this FFXI version of "He Says, She Says". Cue my duo-partner in FFXI: Sooraya, also known as my lovely fiancée Nikki. Having problems with coming up with a name other than HS/SS, I figured I'd just go with it. It was a concept known to many people found in magazines and websites all over. So with the subtitle "A Final Fantasy XI podcast" to make things obvious and the newly registered domain "asktamandsoo.com", the show was born.

This is where I went to stick with my VAing roots. Each show would start with an intro skit, setting the mood and setting of the episode, or matching the topic at hand (like the x-mas and the valentine's specials we did). I relived the joys of making little radioplays, collecting lines (...this is a joy? x.x), and writing scripts. All set in an estrablished world that I've grown to love so much. (Screw you, Azeroth.)

You see, back in the AVA days, I loved taking part in Final Fantasy projects. I loved making them too, using the fantastic score, playing characters I enjoyed and hated. Now, I'm shaping up my own story with my very own protagonist, Tamtu (...stop judging me, damnit.) and among the listeners of the show, some already consider the characters Tamtu and Sooraya a reputable part of Vana'diel as the adventuring, advice-giving couple (which is *awesome*).

Now, remember when I used to draw a lot and talked about dreaming of working for Square-Enix? Getting acknowledged by them for the things I do? Granted, it's a (pipe-)dream of many but that never mattered. It was a goal.

I have to say that I still haven't reached the "working for SE" goal and most likely won't for a while. But 10 episodes of "[url=http://asktamandsoo.com]He Says, She Says[/url]" later, Square-Enix decided to use the podcast medium to collect and discuss feedback from the playerbase.

Cue [url=http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/index.shtml]Square-Enix' Podcast Tour[/url]. They pick Limit Break Radio, Pet Food Alpha and He Says She Says to cover all of the community bases.

SE community staff will be appearing on my show.



Excuse me while I die happily now. But first, [url=http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Reraise]Reraise[/url], of course. Because I will truly die when Nomura Tetsuya approves my designs or something.