The latest edition to the Frogpants Studios lineup is Hypothetical Help, with Scott and Turpster, who you may know from loads of stuff. This new 12 episode series is a blast to make, and I think you’ll like it. Get the show through the methods below:
Expect a new episode every week for the next 12 weeks! Will we have a season 2? Have to listen and see!
Big News Of The Week
3.3.3 Is Like Saying The Same Thing Repeatedly
It went live to the world on Tuesday, and while it may not have had a name and accompanying video, patch 3.3.3 shook up the World Of Warcraft in so many key areas that we don’t have time to talk about them all.
Blizzcon Is Like, Only Seven Months Away
They surprised us with the official announcement just this morning that the now-annual mecca for WoW players will occur again in October, specifically on Oct. 23 and 24 of this year.
Rumors And Scuttlebutt
Community College Is Like Outland
Clearly defined goals and fair, incremental rewards are two game design techniques that could motivate the ‘gamer generation’ in the workforce, according to one US academic. Lee Sheldon of the Indiana University believes managers may have to rethink how they engage the next generation entering the mainstream workforce. He’s a gamer, game designer and assistant professor at the university’s department of telecommunications. He said “As the gamer generation moves into the mainstream workforce, they are willing and eager to apply the culture and learning techniques they bring with them from games.”
Guys Like Girls, And Girls Like Money
At least, that’s what we’ve heard. The widespread belief that there are no girls on the Internet is taking a turn down a dark alley this week, as a new social service called GameCrush launched with the hope that all you guys are willing to pay for the opportunity to play with girls.
Town Cryer
Holmespally from the Quel’dorei server writes: I’ve gotten most of my epic gear via pvp rewards. I know it’s not ideal for pve, but would you guys consider this gear okay for randoms?
Drop Of The Week
Getting Together With Nerds Is Like Nerdtacular!
Tickets went on sale this week for the annual Nerdtacular, this fun little event I’ve been putting on for the last few years, and this year is going to be our biggest Nerdtacular yet! It’s all going down May 8, just six weeks from now, in Salt Lake City, where we’re going to be filling a big movie theater and watching Iron Man 2 on the weekend of it’s huge release, gathering together to meet and greet, and partying the day away nerd-style.
Additional show content provided by Darrell the Tipgiver, Steve “Buxley” Pietrowicz, James “Acuzod” Jefferies and the outstanding Instance Community.
Special thanks to DogHouse Systems, FigurePrints!, TypeFrag and SquareSpace for sponsoring this episode.
BIG thanks to What’s The Mats for sponsoring this episode!
- The RSS Feed
The MP3 File
- The iTunes Subscription
The Zune Feed
It’s go time, people. If you are planning on attended this years Nerdtacular event, head over here and get your tickets reserved while they last! They are going quick and we only have a limited number.
All details about the event, and years past, can be found on the Nerdtacular site as usual. Lots of WoW lovers expected again this year. Gonna be fun! – Scott
Big News Of The Week
Mastery Means More Mojo
In our last episode, we brought up the new, forthcoming statistic called “mastery”, and called for more details on it. Lo and behold, Blizzard provided us with a mountain of new details on mastery this week! It came in the form of a post from Eyonix, who wrote:
With this system, we want to accomplish three things: give players more freedom in how they allocate talent points, simplify some of the “kitchen sinky” talents that try to do too much at once, and add a new stat to high-level gear that makes you better at your chosen role.
Rumors And Scuttlebutt
Magazine Makes March Mayhem
The new issue of the UK edition of PC Gamer hit the shoppes and carts of London’s gamer community this week with a surprise that no one saw coming – a number of speculative changes to the political structure within World Of Warcraft that have not yet been confirmed by Blizzard. The PC Gamer guys know what they’re doing, and wouldn’t just guess this stuff in print, but since it is not yet confirmed information, it presents us with a challenge.
Town Cryer
Alistair N. writes: Hi Scott & Randy, just wondering, am i going to get my collection of battleground points swapped for honor points when they get rid of them in the next patch?
Anonymous writes:My guild has a little problem. We have a really super nice elderly member who is always on time for raids, is eager to help out anyone, and is an all-around nice guy. He has several level 80s ranging from warriors to warlocks. However, as nice as he is, his DPS is really in the toilet, on every single alt he plays. We’ve helped him get gear on every one of his level 80s, hoping that one combination will jive with him, and all of the level 80s have gear scores in the high 5000s. But even his mage can barely pull 2.5k dps. I really like the guy, but every time we run with him, especially in ICC or Halls of Reflection, his low DPS is a contributing factor to wiping. I know everyone secretly hates running with him for that reason, but because he is such a consistent player, we find it hard to tell him anything. We’ve tried giving him tips, helping him with his rotation and enchants and gems and EVERYTHING, and he is always eager to learn and appreciative for the help…but nothing helps. What would you do if this person was a member of your raid team?
Drop Of The Week
A Penny Saved Is A Penny Pwned
Do you visit FigurePrints to create your own unique character statue, or Printwarcraft to exercise your artistic talents and make your own character poster, or SwagDog to grab some personalized Horde and Alliance apparel? Well they’ve got a deal for you! FigurePrints, Printwarcraft.com, and SwagDog are currently offering a 10% discount on select custom World of Warcraft products until April 30. All you need to do is enter the promotion code Blizzard at checkout and you’ll instantly receive 10% off of your purchase of select merchandise.
Additional show content provided by Darrell the Tipgiver, Steve “Buxley” Pietrowicz, James “Acuzod” Jefferies and the outstanding Instance Community.
Special thanks to DogHouse Systems, FigurePrints!, TypeFrag and SquareSpace for sponsoring this episode.
- The RSS Feed
The MP3 File
- The iTunes Subscription
The Zune Feed
Big News Of The Week
There’s Nothing Sexier Than A Good Statistic
This week, Blizzard gave us a complete essay on numbers changes coming to the game with Cataclysm. There are apparently going to be big numbers, and little numbers, and if Blizzard has their way, they’re going to make a bit more sense than they currently do. Eyonix started the big post on their forums with the following quote:
Our ultimate goal is make gear a more interesting (and less confusing) choice by making each stat valuable to more players. While the reasoning behind some of the following changes may be clear, we understand that you may have questions about some of the less obvious alterations.
The goal is that classes will want to wear the gear intended for them.
Rumors And Scuttlebutt
Five Creepy Ways Video Game Designers Are Trying To Get You Addicted
That’s the crazy title of an article by David Wong on Cracked.com today, and it’s a doozy. The psychological impact of playing video games has been studied for decades, but only recently has the audience began to catch on to the complexities of what encourages them to buy a game, or play a game into the wee hours of the night, or pre-order the next game.
Town Cryer
Jim writes: I was wondering what the economy was like on your server? I blame Gold Sellers and Gold buyers for the inflation of level 264 gear going for 15K plus and the damn “Battered Hilt” scaling the top of the charts at 30K a pop! Do you know if Blizzard is planning on addressing the issue?
Tymonger P. writes: What is the best website to get information about being the best healer?
Drop Of The Week
They Finished The Mosaic
We’ve mentioned it a few times over the many years and years that Blizzard has been working on their Battlecry mosaic, and we will now talk about it for the very last time. The Mosaic is complete!
Additional show content provided by Darrell the Tipgiver, Steve “Buxley” Pietrowicz, James “Acuzod” Jefferies and the outstanding Instance Community.
Special thanks to DogHouse Systems, FigurePrints!, TypeFrag and SquareSpace for sponsoring this episode.
- The RSS Feed
The MP3 File
- The iTunes Subscription
The Zune Feed
Such was the case in Chile this past weekend after a devastating earthquake rocked the country, killing more than 700 people. A 33-year-old woman named Karen, who lives in Santiago about 200 miles northeast of the epicenter of the quake, was sifting through shattered ceramics, broken glass and destroyed music cases, worried about her family and friends who were much closer to the quake’s origin. But as she started to clean up the mess, she came upon something that made her smile and gave her hope: A World of Warcraft “Blood of the Horde” stein she had recently purchased from the United States. She said that seeing the ceramic mug virtually intact gave her hope that her family was all right.
Interesting story. (Thanks, John!)
Big News Of The Week
3.3.3 Is Bringing The Pain!
It’s been a while since Blizzard made wholesale changes to the PvP system in WoW, and they’re about to do so again in the next patch 3.3.3. The constant drive to streamline PvP in terms of rewards and your ability to improve your character so that you can match up better with other players is taking a fairly sharp turn in this next patch, and it is hard to say how it’s all going to shake out.
Wintergrasp is getting adjusted again! Over on the forums, Zarhym wrote: “In the next minor content patch, we will be making some minor alterations to the way in which the internal balance system for Wintergrasp works in an attempt to better support realms with greater variations in the level of participation between the Alliance and Horde. Since we have never gone into much detail about how this hidden system currently works, we’d like to explain exactly how it will work in the next patch. Keep in mind that, although this information may feel very new to you, the actual changes being made in the patch to the current system are relatively minor.”
Rumors And Scuttlebutt
Another Week, Another Blizzard Dev Chat
Well, not exactly. Blizzard checked in with their third open developers interview this week, and we figured it might be fun to go over a few of the more interesting questions and answers.
We Want A 2-Person Rocket Mount
MMO-Champion thrilled us with the production of a graphic from the game that appears to be a flying mount in the shape of a mean-looking rocket, with two seats!
Town Cryer
Drop Of The Week
We Always Get Asked About The Chatroom
Most every day, someone e-mails us or asks us in our forums, or Skypes one of us and says “How can I be a part of that chatroom you always refer-to during the live recording of The Instance?” Well we’ve decided to do this thing right here, right now!
Additional show content provided by Darrell the Tipgiver, Steve “Buxley” Pietrowicz, James “Acuzod” Jefferies and the outstanding Instance Community.
Special thanks to DogHouse Systems, FigurePrints!, TypeFrag and SquareSpace for sponsoring this episode.
- The RSS Feed
The MP3 File
- The iTunes Subscription
The Zune Feed