Check it out for reals! My favorite part? 6 minutes in, some very hopeful rally music. Story in music form…no one does it like Blizz and Russell and his team.
That music we talked with Russell about?
8
Monthly Archives: August 2010
Good news! One place to find it all.
As you may have noticed, with all the stuff I have going lately, it’s gotten sort of hard to have a single point of info, or a hub where all the stuff happening with shows and comics and illustrations can be found. Well, I fixed that today. While all the sites will still operate as usual, Frogpants.com will now link to everything of significance as it happens. It becomes the hub where you find out the latest from all over the network. I just wanted to make sure that the Instance crowd was aware, since I often to forget to post stuff here that might matter to people. Thanks!
The Instance #200 – The BiPodCentennial
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A Special Episode Of The Instance
Featuring:
Veronica Belmont
Russell Brower
Felicia Day
Tom Merritt
With special contributions from:
Scott Fletcher
Willie Gregory
Andrew Konietzky
Curt Schilling
Eric Van Skyhawk
Additional show content provided by Darrell the Tipgiver, Steve “Buxley” Pietrowicz, James “Acuzod” Jefferies and the outstanding Instance Community.
Special thanks to DogHouse Systems, TypeFrag and Godaddy for sponsoring this episode.
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The Instance #199 – Deathwang
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Big News Of The Week
Blizzard Is Flying High
With a little over two months to go until their celebration of all that is Blizzard, the makers of World Of Warcraft seem to have really hit their stride this week, with the future looking quite bright. At least, we think that’s the case. Maybe.
Rumors And Scuttlebutt
Saturday’s All Right For Fighting
OK, they weren’t fighting. Actually, it was just a friendly discussion. Saturday night, Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street sparred with posters in the game DPS forum in a thread called “Dude, why my totem?”
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=26435283536&sid=1
Rapid Fire R&S!
What more need be said? This week, we decided to hit several topics in this segment that are mostly unrelated, completely unfounded, and don’t need much discussion.
-Mini-deathwing!
-Reforging is in the beta!
-The new beta patch notes are getting big. Really big. Still no addons, though.
-They’re still playing Warcraft III competitively for money!
Town Cryer
Can you decipher the mystery call of the week?
Drop Of The Week
Fight For Undercity!
This is the eleventh in our limited series, wherein we’re highlighting things for you to do in WoW that you might not ever get to do again after the Cataclysm.
We learned this week that the epic Battle Of Undercity questline so many players have yet to ever do… may be going away in Cataclysm. It appears that the mechanics of the event itself (as well as some of the lore logic) just make it impossible for Blizzard to carry it forward, so it may just disappear.
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.
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We Wrapped Up That Flash Fiction Contest
Finally! I don’t think anyone expected 450+ entries, or that it would go well past Friday and through the whole weekend to get them properly judged. Our judges for the contest were wonderful, and made it a lot of fun!
Results and subsequent discussion here.
(update: fixed link following forum upgrade)
WoW Flash Fiction In Six Words
The title of this post just stirs my soul. If you’ve never encountered the form before, consider the legend that Ernest Hemingway wrote the shortest of stories thus:
For sale: baby shoes. Never worn.
Today we are giving away a number of keys to the WoW:Cataclysm beta to writers who submit the smartest, funniest, most moving and/or mind-bending six word short stories about WoW, The Instance, or something closely related to WoW or The Instance. We have asked some really talented friends of the show, like Veronica Belmont, Tom Merritt, Brian Ibbott, and Len Peralta to assist in the judging. Please post your entry as a comment in this blog. Your entry should be exactly six words long, like this:
Actual trade in trade chat? Unlikely.
Multiple entries will disqualify the participant entirely, so take your time and think about your effort before you enter it. Two of the best ten limericks (out of hundreds) entered in our limerick game were written by the same person.
Your entry must be an original work. You might want to do a Google search on the phrase (in quotes) to make sure you’ve written something original. This sort of thing – about WoW specifically – has been done on the Internet before.
You have 18 hours to submit your one entry to this contest as a comment on this post in The Instance blog. The entries will be judged starting at 2PM EDT on Friday, August 6th.
Until the judging starts, we are not saying how many keys will be awarded to the best entries. Let’s pull a Johnson and say it’s between 1 and 10. Don’t be discouraged if you see a great entry already posted! There might be another key available for yours!
Discussion here. Have fun!
A Phrase You’ve Never Heard: “Strategic Limerick”
This is going to be a very interesting contest wherein we give away eight beta key codes for WoW:Cataclysm. Pay close attention to win:
Today, you are going to write a limerick about WoW, The Instance, or something that can be related to WoW or The Instance. You are going to write and submit one and only one limerick. Multiple entries will all be disqualified. We will be checking.
You will post that limerick as a comment to this article on The Instance blog. Not on Facebook, not as a Twitter reply or an e-mail to the show. Well, not if you want that entry to win, anyhow. You can always send us stuff elsewhere. Just know that we will not be looking for winners anywhere except in the comments on the blog.
The catch: Starting at Midnight CDT (6AM GMT), we will pick one amazing limerick as the winner of one code every three hours. So you’re going to have to decide when, during the next 24 hours, to post your entry.
Post early, and you might have more competition. Post late, and your original idea might have already been used. Or maligned. You’re going to have to decide for yourself on when is the best time to maximize the chance of your limerick winning.
We will choose one winner every three hours starting at 3AM CDT, and only considering limericks posted during the previous three hours. We will check to see if the limerick is original, and that you have not entered multiple times. The winners will be re-posted here.
Have fun!!
Ahh Beta Bugs…You are so Exotic
Warning: The above pic is not of a real Cataclysm Beta bug.
After playing the Cataclysm Beta for about a week now one of my favorite things is searching for (and inevitably finding) very strange and bizarre bugs. Azeroth is full of them as Blizzard is busy destroying and rebuilding the entire world. I’ve found a few great ones but I’m not the only one as beta testers all over the Internet are taking full advantage of the lifted NDA to post screenies of some of the bugs they have found as well. Here are a few of them; some funny, some frustrating and all of them…uh…buggy. Continue reading
The Instance #198 – Hide Ya Kids! Hide Ya Wife!
Big News Of The Week
Blizzard Rolls A One
How Great Thou Art!
In the wake of Comic-Con and the release of Starcraft 2, with development on the next expansion in full overdrive, attention to the current state of affairs in the World Of Warcraft has slipped to a bit of a low this week. You can tell because if you look at the blog on the World Of Warcraft main site, and collapse the articles on Starcraft 2, what you’re left with is… art. And some of it is *fine* art.
Rumors And Scuttlebutt
Where Is This Whole Raid Utility Discussion Going?
Greg Ghostcrawler Street weighed in on a somewhat philosophical discussion this week about the buffs, and therefore the importance, that you bring to a raid. Please bear with us, this is a bit long, but it bears examination. He started by responding to a question that pertains to the larger subject. The question was
“Why does a DK not have to choose between horn of winter and desecration?“
Ghostcrawler said,
“Because that is pretty much all the DK gets.
The shaman on the other hand gets to choose among Strength of Earth Totem, Windfury Totem, Wrath of Air Totem, Flametongue Totem, Tremor Totem, Healing Stream Totem, resistance Totems and Earthbind Totem, which doesn’t even count Bloodlust / Heroism, and things like Unleashed Rage or Elemental Oath. If your buff was as competitive as theirs and you had so much versatility, we fear we’d see raids with many, many shaman in them. As it is, there’s still a good chance for 3 shaman in a 25-player raid, while the DKs might get 2 slots if they’re lucky.
You should get a slot because you are a good player, not because your buff rules.”
Town Cryer
Greg writes: Will Starcraft II take the majority of your game playtime away from World of Warcraft?
Chris P. writes: I’ve been playing WoW for the last two years and my son really likes watching me play and wants to start playing, too. I’ve let him create his own characters from time to time in the past, but sat close by in case there were any problems. I’m cautious about my kids, who are 8 and 10, playing MMOs. I trust my kids, but worry about who’s on the other side of that Blood Elf that just walked up to say “hello”. Are there any WoW related mods that I can use that can allow my kids to play WoW securely when I’m not able to be sitting right there next to them while they play?
Drop Of The Week
RAWR!!
You heard me. I said RAWR!! And it’s not just a loud utterance, it’s the name of the new super-tool for evaluating your character at angle. And Rawr can be found right here.
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.
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The Instance 197: Second Breakfast
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Big News Of The Week
It’s A Whole Other Game!
All of the World Of Warcraft – as well as the entire video gaming universe – is abuzz, because Starcraft 2 hits retail stores late on Monday, July 26th. If that doesn’t mean anything to you, get onboard!… because Starcraft 2 represents the most impressive impact on WoW that any game has ever had. Will we see you Zerging on your Terran enemies?
Rumors And Scuttlebutt
Blizzard Brings Some Epic Loot To Comic-Con
That’s what they called their panel on Thursday – “World of Warcraft: Epic Loot”. It was a gathering of all of Blizzard’s biggest partners attached to the WoW side of their business – the heads of Cryptozoic and WoW: The Magazine and the Wildstorm comic and the DC Direct action figures joined Chris Metzen and other Blizzard dignitaries for some Q&A.
Ghostcrawler Calls Out Some Beta Testers
That’s right, you’ve been served! Well maybe not you specifically. You’re cool. But Greg Street brought the what-for to the official forum where beta testers are, in his opinion, not posting at a high-enough quality.
Town Cryer
Wazdakka writes: I am lacking in dps – very, VERY, lacking. I’ve heard that naxx-geared players can crank over 5k dps. I’m wearing 3 pieces of gear from the t9 sets and 2 pieces from the t10 sets, yet I find it near impossible to top 3k dps. I’ve looked on the Blizz forums, but there are so many different answers and ideas about a destruction warlock’s rotation. As for using google, I get a zillion results, and a zillion different answers, many of them laced with profanity. Do you guys know of a specific site about talents/rotation that has a definitive guide for maximum dps?
Check out The Warlocks Den!
Cataclysmic Drop Of The Week
Here Be Dragons!
This is the tenth in our limited series, wherein we’re highlighting things for you to do in WoW that you might not ever get to do again after the Cataclysm.
One thing that can’t be avoided in a Cataclysm that rips the very land apart and is caused by… a dragon… is some impact on the world dragons. This week, we’re suggesting that you go visit and kill the world dragons. You might not get another chance.
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.
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