#250 – The Instance: The Panda Reality Distortion Field

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Big contest announcement, and MORE Blizzcon news keeps trickling in a week later. :) Dills and Scott kick it off, and Turpster joins us later! Dig in!

Big News of the Week
A lot more talk about what it means to get Diablo III for free, way more Mists talk, with some clarifications post-Blizzcon, raids, dungeons and more! Too much to list here.

Rumors & Scuttlebut
Blizzard’s Morhaime: F2P not right for WoW “I think that there’s an underlying, a fundamental assumption right now, that the less you charge, the more money you make. Which isn’t true. And it doesn’t necessarily make for a better game. I mean, everybody likes free… I think that definitely, players have seen a lot of really great quality free-to-play experiences, but I’m not sure it’s the best model for us right now,” Morhaime explains.

Drop of the Week
New Guild Services Now Available! Guild Master Faction Change costs $40 US. The Guild Master Realm Transfer costs $35 US. The Guild Name Change costs $20 US. You will receive a $10 discount when purchasing Guild Transfer and Faction Change in the same transaction, for a new total of $65 US.

Special thanks to our sponsors this week: Squarespace (use code WOW6), Audible.com, Doghouse Systems, Rage Quit Relief, and Typefrag.com.

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37 thoughts on “#250 – The Instance: The Panda Reality Distortion Field”

  1. Tupster is entertaining and might be fun to sit by on a very short plane flight however I now see he is a complete and total Pokeman nerd- anyone who will actually claim to have been a Pokeman fanatic and decry the lack of well crafted pokeman esque games is beyond pathos and should be put on a special Island – maybe reopen Bird Isalnd? Therein he would have a solar generator and a stock of old Nintendo and PlayStation cartridges he could play endlessly only to stop to leave his hut to eat pineapple and spear fish to also consume raw. Children could be flown in to observe the strange sexless addicts and taught with the real life display that moderation is needed in alcohol, soccer, and of course pokeman.

    I unsubsribed to WOW because I could not get the IDIOT Uber purple Archaeology Troll sword – then I resubed for a month and canceled after 2 days. WOW is fraught with vulgar children and I do not want to raid with vent and subject myself to that. Also, warrior talents are messed up after Wraith. I will maybe try Star Wars and hope they let the Warrior Sith/Jedi be fun like my 70 warrior was before the expansion. I might do a one month subscription if I make a few bucks on the Real Money Aution house for the panda land… or perhaps before if for the new instances / random raid… but I am doubtful on that…

    Also why are you completely quiet on the controversial Hateful/violent/and extremely vulgar swearing of the Bliz Con Group Canniabal Corpse? Could it be you do not want to shed lighton the poor judgement and bad taste of Blizzard for allowing that movie at Blizzcon…? Mmmm I guess you are all hoping for another free 25 year card and do not want to spoil your chances by bringing up an obviously insensitive and slanderous endorsement by blizzard…

  2. The quiver for hunters will be a visual, there wont be stats on it. At blizzcon they stated that since all other non range people would loose their range and relic items the stat loss would level out over classes. So Technically all stats as a total will be less.

  4. @Lord Wulf No idea what that movie even is. And dude, seriously, take a deep breath…none of this is as life destroying as you make it out to be. :) I promise.

  5. Vyzz is correct. Hunter bow/gun will have more stats on it, like a 2H has. Everyone else is losing relics. So…..Hunter Bow will be the same as a Pally’s 2H mace. Over all everyone’s stats will be a hair less then you see them today but everyone will be losing the same amount of stats.

  6. Forgot to mention. The quiver won’t be a slot at all. It just comes along with the Bow automatically. If you have a bow, then you will see a quiver on your back. If you have a gun you will see a ammo pouch on your hip.

  9. I’m thinking the 1 year offer is only for previous subscribers, because they are more likely to stick around. Although you are not “allowed” to cancel, there will certainly be a percentage of defaults they may or may not be able to collect on, and they can’t do a hell of a lot about it. If they opened up to anyone, that burden on the company would be much larger. Of course in corporate land, you don’t talk openly about that, which is why they kinda mumble and don’t explain it much. It’s a reasonable policy.

  10. Wanted to leave a comment thanking you for covering the upcoming expansion. Your excitement at hearing the news was infectious and I am looking forward to exploring this new content.

    I also wanted to thank you for offering yourself up as a target for the vast amounts of nerd rage that has been heaped upon you. One would think, based on some of the comments and vitriol directed your way, that you personally were responsible for killing someone’s puppy.

    Thanks for doing what you do and please don’t let the naysayers keep you from giving your honest opinion on this game we all love.

  11. Hi guys, great podcast but one small error to be corrected. Dills is happy that he’s getting a player from Tasmania and from Australia. Tassie is a state of Australia. Anyway, keep up the good work and grats for dinging 250.

  12. For those trying to sign up for the annual pass and get an “ineligible” error, do not jump to conclusion about why that may be unless you talked to Blizzard’s Billing.

    I had an active account on October 18, satisfy all requirements and still got the error. Checking on WoW forums reveal that I am not alone. If your BNet account is merged from a WoW account way back before they ask you to confirm your date of birth (which is probably the majority of the old school subscribers), your account is ineligible because they cannot determine whether you are an adult. A call to Billing or a ticket (on BNet, not in game) will let you know what is the reason to your ineligibility.

  13. Of course it goes without saying that, once they added my date of birth into my account (you cannot change it yourself), I am now on the annual pass ans eagerly waiting for my free Diable 3.

  14. You do not have to pay for a year of sub all at once when you sign up. I’ve asked Blizz this and they said it can be month-to-month or you can change your sub to 3 or 6 month sub anytime during the commitment. I do plan on buying 6 months worth myself when I sign up for it. I want to be able to pay for the six months at the time I sign up to commit then I won’t have to worry about the sub for a while. You can also go visa-versa and go from 6 month to month-to-month.

  15. Pingback: Weekly Podcast Roundup: Oct. 24-30, 2011 | gQuit's WoWPress

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  18. Pingback: Pandaria.nl – Mists of Pandaria blog » Blog Archive » Weekly Podcast Roundup: Oct. 24-30, 2011

  19. First off, I so wish I didnt have to work during the live show. Anyway. Panda Mounts. Bikes. So many bikes in china and japan. But what for the epic version? Just a thought.

  20. Pingback: Weekly Podcast Roundup: Oct. 24-30, 2011 | mists of pandaria

  21. I’ve done a little looking and haven’t found it on your site yet, so I’ll ask. I keep hearing Scott say that there has been no Asian influence in the game. As far as music goes, I agree. What of the Night Elf architecture and cultural cues?

  22. I’m the biggest Blizzard fan you could probably find, however, it is a bit weird that almost no WoW news sites or podcats are touching upon the issues raised by the video shown at the closing concert at Blizzcon.

    WoWInsider said they didn’t want to give any more coverage to the rant (which I understand) but what about the issue of Blizzard or some subset of Blizzard thinking it was appropriate to show even an edited version of the video in question. Frankly, if the video had to be heavily edited and censored, didn’t anyone think maybe they shouldn’t show it? And why would anyone think it funny to use that video to mock, yet again, one portion of Blizzard’s customer base (Alliance players) at their annual convention? Faction rivalry is fun in-game, but this is taking it too far. It also doesn’t seem to make good business sense. Can you imagine Apple or Toyota showing something like this at a convention, as a comedic insult to one portion of their customers? Of course not.

    As a dad that plays WoW with his teenage kids, how was supposed to explain away what was shown on the virtual ticket at the concert? Yeah, kids hear bad stuff all the time, but there’s more to it than dismissing it in this manner. I appreciate that Mike Morhaime apologized for the incident on the forums. It’s not that big of issue in the world scheme of things, but it undermines just a small bit of trust in Blizzard and the kind of gaming culture they should be promoting. Why these issues are not being explored by the wider WoW media makes me think people just want it to blow over so Blizzard isn’t further embarrassed, rather than confronting what actually happened.

  23. I will be honest. I probably never would have bought Diablo but I have been recently Diablo-curious with all the hype. Well that free game was the deciding factor for me to sign up for the annual pass.

  24. Pingback: Weekly Podcast Roundup: Oct. 24-30, 2011 | theabsolutebest2012

  25. I remember in a old show Scott mentioning a code for Figureprints and that they still worked, haev been searching through my old podcasts but can’t track it down. Does anyone know what it is?

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