Yep! Decided it was way overdue. If you’re interested in following what’s happening on the show and the site, this is a great way to do that without getting swamped in the personal twitter accounts that Randy and I maintain. Of course, feel free to keep following us there, but for nothing but Instance news, look no further than @instanceshow.
![rolling_stones_bp[1]](http://www.myextralife.com/wow/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/rolling_stones_bp1.jpg "rolling_stones_bp[1]")
Blizzard has implemented a slew of minor holidays into World of Warcraft over the last few years, and if you only play on one or two days of the week, they’re easy to miss. The very next short in-game holiday is Day Of The Dead, which is set to run from Sunday, Nov. 1 through Monday, Nov. 2. For the duration, you’ve got a chance to obtain some unique items, a very temporary companion pet, and a holiday achievement.
Want to win a Grunty The Murloc Marine in-game pet from Blizzard and The Instance? To win today, just add your thought to the holiday question posed in this thread in The Instance forum before 8PM PDT today (that’s 11PM EDT). One poster wins!
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It’s 18:46 long, and…
In our eleventh episode of BlizzCast, we have a roundtable discussion with members of the community team to recap the major happenings, announcements, and other highlights of this year’s BlizzCon. Join our discussion as we relive some of our favorite moments from the show.
Want to win a Grunty The Murloc Marine in-game pet from Blizzard and The Instance? Here’s what you do! Just go to Twitter and do a post @extralife or @randydeluxe and tell the world what you think about WoW podcasts in 140 characters or less! Just do so before 12:30AM PDT (that’s 3:30 AM Eastern time) and we’ll randomly select one person for the win!
![lowrance-lfg-250[1]](http://www.myextralife.com/wow/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/lowrance-lfg-2501.jpg "lowrance-lfg-250[1]")
It looks like Blizzard updated the 3.3 Test Patch notes last night, and this new tidbit just jumped out:
The Looking For Group chat channel has returned and can be accessed in all major cities (similar to the Trade chat channel) without the use of the Dungeon system interface.
It’s a brave new world. But how is this going to play out in the wild? Does this mean that there will now be two channels filled with drivel? Will one rise above the other? If so, which one and why?
If you’d like to win a Grunty The Murloc Marine in-game pet from Blizzard and The Instance today, just answer one or more (or all) of the above questions in a comment on this blog post before 1PM PDT (that’s 4PM EDT) today. One commenter will win!
![downey-jr-tropic-thunder[1]](http://www.myextralife.com/wow/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/downey-jr-tropic-thunder1.jpg "downey-jr-tropic-thunder[1]")
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That’s right, you can now use the Account Management tool to purchase a race change. The charge is $25 per change, and you get all of the options you’d expect in making your new look just right. Blizzard has posted an updated FAQ on the thing, and we got a brief announcement by Zarhym.
And today, we’re giving away a Grunty The Murloc Marine in-game pet from Blizzard and The Instance to one person who answers this thread in The Instance forums before 8PM PDT (that’s 11PM EDT) today. All you’ve got to do is have your say to win!
![a_3021[1]](http://www.myextralife.com/wow/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/a_30211.jpg "a_3021[1]")
Big News Of The Week
3.3 Is Going To Be Bigger Than We Thought
Last week, we spent most of Rumors And Scuttlebutt talking about what players are telling us they’re dreaming about getting in World of Warcraft… someday, and since then we’ve gotten all sorts of interesting tidbits from the Public Test Realms, where Blizzard implemented build 10676 on Friday. We’ve had some looks into the future ourselves, and listeners have been sending us all sorts of notes and screenshots from within.
And have a look at the new shots of Tier 10!
Rumors And Scuttlebutt
Crank It Up And Rip The Gnome Off!
This week on The Instance, we’re doing something we’ve never done before right here in Rumors And Scuttlebutt: We’re going to talk about the best WoW-related songs of all time. Or at least, of the last five years or so. World of Warcraft has inspired hundreds upon hundreds of musical deeds by every kind of amateur musician – parodies, style remakes, and pure original compositions. We love the WoW-related music scene.
In no particular order:
The prolific Ryan Myers, who has cranked out parodies like “Ninja Raiders” and “Clint Felwood”. Our favorite tune by him is “Action Bars“, a parody of “Handlebars” by Flobots.
One of the best pure singers making WoW parodies is known by the name Dax. He’s the guy who put out “Puggin’ Kara” last year – it was a re-working of Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues” – and his best song is one of our favorites. It’s also based on a Johnny Cash song – this one is “Walk The Line”, only Dax’s version is called “Aggro Is Mine”.
Way back when The Instance was still counting its’ first 20 episodes, and raiders were running Molten Core and Blackwing Lair, a musician named Cranius burst only the WoW music scene with a heavy complaint song called “Big Blue Dress.” He’s the guy who last year, released his best song about WoW, called “Darrowshire”. It recalls the sad story of that lost town in what is now Eastern Plaguelands.
Ever since the folks from Stone Falcon Productions turned out “The Ballad Of The Noob”, everyone in the WoW music scene have just waited for their next musical works. They’ve got several songs available at their website, which we have linked in our show notes, such as “Enrique’s Dance Party” and “Feel The Burn”, but “The Ballad Of The Noob”, which is almost a parody of “A Boy Named Sue” by Johnny Cash – but not quite – is still their best.
There are dozens and dozens of parodies of Weird Al Yankovic songs that include WoW lyrics, and most of them are… unfortunate. But sometimes a couple of kids in their dorm room decide to take on a truly difficult one, and the gold standard is a duo who call themselves Pizza And Fries, who changed Weird Al’s “Your Horoscope For Today” into “That’s The World Of Warcraft That You Play“.
Summergale is an unusual musical artist in this rundown, given that she’s a she. You might recall a song by Summergale called “Hard Like Heroic”. Her best song so far came out just this year, and it’s a collaboration with the aforementioned Cranius, and it’s a parody of “The Way I Are” by Timbaland and Keri Hilson called… “Ulduar”.
And our final song tonight is our favorite, but we can’t play the whole song for you. That’s because it’s not open licensed. But you can buy it on iTunes, and you won’t be among the first to do so. We’re of course talking about the most commercially successful WoW-related song of all time, “Do You Want To Date My Avatar” by Felicia Day and Jed Whedon, with the cast of The Guild.
Town Cryer
It’s all calls from listeners this week.
Drop Of The Week
Ren Faires Just Got A Little Bit Creepier, If That’s Even Possible
First it was TavernCraft, who released new WoW beer steins just in time for you to… drink something. Now we get word that Museum Replicas, the company that so many role-players turn to for long boots and cloaks and fair maidens’ dresses… has teamed up with Windlass Studios and Blizzard to offer a line of life-size tabards and banners. They’re 100% cotton, custom dyed & embroidered with some of the most iconic symbols and heraldry from the game, and they’re this year’s must-have accessory for the WoW player who wants to be spotted from all the way out in the parking lot at Medieval Village.
Additional show content provided by Darrell the Tipgiver, Steve “Buxley” Pietrowicz and the outstanding Instance Community.
Special thanks to DogHouse Systems, FigurePrints!, TypeFrag and SquareSpace for sponsoring this episode.
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Oh look, you read all the way to the end! Guess what – we’re giving away today’s Grunty The Murloc Marine in-game pet from Blizzard and The Instance overnight! We’re trying to vary the time of the day we give them away. Leave us a comment in this thread today before midnight PDT (that’s 3AM on Tuesday in EDT), and we’ll draw one person for the win!
We’re recording a new episode of The Instance tomorrow night (at ~7PM MDT on Saturday, to be completely non-specific), and it occurs to us that we need one thing to really make the show special: More questions! We don’t have enough. Especially of the one-liner questions for Randy to ask Scott variety.
Want to win a code for a Grunty The Murloc Marine in-game pet from Blizzard and The Instance? Leave us a comment in this thread today before 5PM PDT, and include a question for the show or a QuickFire Question™ for Scott. One person who participates will be randomly drawn the winner!
With only a few days to go before you run out of time to order a premium WoW mask for your Halloween costume, the folks over at Buycostumes.com have added killer Draenei and Illidan toppers:
Masks like these don’t come cheap, but these guys are offering free same-day shipping for orders over $65. That’s hard to beat.
Want to win a code for a Grunty The Murloc Marine in-game pet from Blizzard and The Instance? E-mail us with a description of your best WoW-oween costume concept today before 7PM PDT. One person who participates will be randomly drawn the winner!
![disenchant_0[1]](http://www.myextralife.com/wow/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/disenchant_01.jpg "disenchant_0[1]")
The subject came up on the last episode of The Instance during Rumors And Scuttlebutt: Could Blizzard give the disenchant skill to another profession? What else could be changed in the game to make it so that a party of five (that included no enchanter) could come away from a boss fights with shards and dust, instead of vendor trash?
Want to win a code for a Grunty The Murloc Marine in-game pet from Blizzard and The Instance? Give us your best answer to the disenchant question in this thread on The Instance Forums before 4PM PDT today. One poster who participates will be randomly drawn the winner!
You can join Blizzard this Thursday, October 22, at 3:00 PM PDT on Twitter for a developer chat with World of Warcraft’s director of production Tom Chilton, and game director J. Allen Brack.
You can submit your questions via Twitter on Thursday, by messaging Blizzard’s @Warcraft Twitter account. Chilton and Brack will then answer via postings in the official forums, with links to the answers provided through Twitter.
Want to win a code for a Grunty The Murloc Marine in-game pet from The Instance and Blizzard today? Just re-tweet a post in Twitter made by @Extralife or @Randydeluxe today between 8AM and 12-Noon PDT. One lucky person will take the code!