Being a very British gamer (the clue’s in the title), I’m always looking to celebrate things that have to do with gaming that are also very British. The Cranky Gamers UK podcast fits that bill wonderfully so it was a pleasure and a privilege when I got the chance to speak to its co-host Toz, the self-dubbed crankiest gamer in the UK.

If you’re not aware of the CG:UK podcast, it’s one of the most popular in the UK despite the fact that it’s not run by one of the professional gaming establishments like GameSpot or PC Gamer. It’s up there on merit, too, as its listeners will testify, thanks to the down-to-Earth views of the two hosts as well as the always enjoyable banter on offer between a Brit and a Yank. So, when I chatted with Toz, I asked him about the difficulties of running an ‘indie’ podcast, his views on the status of British gaming and what it’s like working with his American co-host, Fly.

Toz had an awful lot to say as you’ll discover, so we decided to feature a cut version of the interview here at TheGameReviews. However, the full, uncut version will be featured as part of Cranky Gamers UK Episode 56. Tune in and you’ll get the chance to hear Toz and I wax lyrical about prices in UK as well as the unique opportunity to hear how awful my voice sounds on radio. So, read the interview then check out Cranky Gamers UK for more views from a fellow very British gamer. Enjoy:

Cranky Gamers UK interview, January 7th 2009

VBG: So, it was October 2007 when you started up Cranky Gamers UK. What actually made you start a gaming podcast? What was your inspiration?

Toz: Strangely enough I get asked this question absolute loads, one of the first questions I get asked. To be honest, I didn’t get into podcasting until very, very late – I had not heard of it, didn’t know what it was. I think I didn’t listen to my first podcast until around August of that year and I immediately decided I liked it. I think everybody does as soon as they listen to a podcast, it’s one of the greatest things on the Internet! Obviously, I’ve been playing games for a long time now, 30-plus years... yes I am that old! I just put two and two together. Some people will know that I originally started it with Kid Dogg. I met Kid on the Achievement Junkie website playing Gears of War for a few nights. We spoke one night and that was it. Funny enough, Kid Dogg actually only lives five miles from my house, which is one of the craziest things. It was bizarre when I found out.

VBG: You started all the way back then and now it’s arguably the most popular UK gaming podcast. It’s always in the iTunes charts and it’s always doing really, really well. Did you expect it to really do that well or was it just a project that you thought would be fun to do?

Toz: I think it all starts as fun. It did get ridiculously popular very quickly. Looking back on it I think it was purely to do with very little UK gaming podcasts being about. There were always a lot of American podcasts and there still are. It must be 90% to 5%, if that. The popularity was amazing, took us all by surprise. In fact after only four shows we had to quickly look for better web hosting. The free ones on the web give you something like 20mb a month, and after the first four shows we were clearing that in a day. I think what did it though, again edging back to Achievement Junkiel – they’re one of the biggest in the world for games podcasting, and they, off the top of my head, used to get 15 to 20,000 hits per showl – was that they were really good to us and actually put some plugs for us on their website and asked us if we were interested in doing a mini, joint-thing with them, and that took our numbers sky-high.

VBG: It’s not really been plain sailing all the way because earlier this year Kid Dogg left to start up his own podcast. I remember that you and your current co-host Fly wanted to keep things hush-hush at the time. It must’ve been quite hard to keep the community on board with the split.

Toz: It was. It was a sticky period, and some saw it as a nasty break-up. I wouldn’t like to say it was a nasty break-up, it was just a case of things not working out at the right time and people pulling in the wrong directions. Fly’s now on board and the way he got on board was through the Gears/Achievement Junkie link. When we quickly used our bandwidth up, we simply had not got the funds. The money being quoted for webspace was way, way far and above what we had. As luck would have it, we met Fly and he had a few websites of his own that he ran. He kindly offered to host our website which was absolutely superb. The split was really that Kid wanted to go do his thing, and Fly, for all intents and purposes, was the sole funder of the website, and still is I may add. Due to my circumstances I simply don’t have the finances. It was just a case of things coming to a head and we decided to go our separate ways. In the end it’s all worked out well and I think both sites are doing okay.