The folks at Icy Veins have seen fit to bestow a preview of Horridon from the 5.2 PTR:
307 – Thrall is ready for his closeup
Our illustrious Instance team returns to us after a week hiatus to give you all of your WoW rumors and WoW fact. Unfortunately, Turpster has volunteered to be test subject in a pilot program conduct by the University of Phoenix in the study of vegan-ism and overly aggressive sleeping and he has not been heard from since. Big news dropped this week with the announcement of Duncan Jones as the director of the Warcraft movie. Jones, most notably, was the director of Moon and Source Code and is the son of one David Bowie. Let us all hope he will be able to live that down one day. Currently Warner Bros. is looking at production starting in late 2013 for a 2015 release. We’ve also got some new stuff to discuss with the 5.2 Patch on the PTR and some rantings of one Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street about the talent system.
Some emails are coherent, others are not. And this one deserves to be quoted entirely:
“Hi there,
How are you doing?
I’m pleased to share my good experience with you…:)
I’ve bought an iPad mini for myself last week!!lol
It’s amazing, even beyond my imagination!!
This is the shop i got the iPad mini: www.*****.info tell them you heard the news from me, they may offer you free shipping or some discounts for sure. lol
And i watched the movie The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, I really love this movie, I expect when the next one will be shown lol
Next month i will do some trip to the country side.
Best regards.
Sincerely Yours:Chris”
So… “lol” I guess? Also, how would you feel if you not only had a house in WoW, but a family with kids? Our dynamic duo answers these important questions.
Do you have questions? Be sure to email us at theinstance at gmail dot com or leave us a voice mail at 206-202-3-WOW (206.202.3969)
Special thanks to our sponsors this week: Audible.com, Doghouse Systems, and Typefrag.com. Get your guild web site going at GuildLaunch.com with the code “theinstance”. Great web hosting provided by ZeHosting!
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The Warcraft Movie Has A Director
The news came out today that our long-awaited, and much delayed, Warcraft movie (officially, this time) has a director. Duncan Jones, most notably the director from Source Code, has signed to direct the project. And with that, Warner Bros. is looking to start production by the end of this year and have a 2015 release. The current script is being written by Charles Leavitt and produced by Stuart Fenegan and some guy named Chris Metzen.
Now, lest we forget, this movie would be added to a seemingly wonderful year for movies: Star Wars, Avengers 2, Justice League, Avatar 2, and now Warcraft. Enjoy it folks, this kind of line-up doesn’t happen that often.
Source: Hollywood Reporter
PTR Preview 5.2 – Lei Shen
There’s a pretty cool video preview of the Lei Shen boss fight from the folks at Icy Veins. Have a look:
Newsie Twitter Bits
This week Blizz gives us a bit of information as to what a GM actually does… been wondering that myself lately.
Ghostcrawler hints at some unannounced features:
@ghostcrawler Wotlk gave us the random dungeon finder, cata gave us LFR. Which new mop feature do you think has had/will have a huge impact?
— rikki reeves (@RikkiReeves) January 22, 2013<
@rikkireeves We haven’t announced it yet.
— Greg Street (@Ghostcrawler) January 22, 2013
Another great tweet from Ghostcrawler regarding player-based feedback and it’s affect on WoW:
@zarasz Off the top of my head we changed Prep, TfB, Gargoyle, transmog restrictions, rep for dungeons… all based on player feedback. — Greg Street (@Ghostcrawler) January 6, 2013
For the amount of criticism this man in particular receives on a daily basis, it’s amazing to me that every other word isn’t an expletive. Having said that, you should really follow Ghostcrawler on Twitter if nothing more than for the entertainment value.
And, in case you all hadn’t noticed, the Heart of the Swarm trailer hit this week, and it’s fantastic.
Heart of the Swarm Opening Cinematic
Heart of the Swarm is upon us, and this opening cinematic is appropriately awesome.
306 – Welcome to Joyland
In continuation of our host drama series, also known as the Instance, Scott and Turpster join us this week while Dills is off doing his Saturday-like adventures. This week our hosts discuss the rather abrupt departure of Jay Wilson from the Diablo project to move on to something else. It should be noted that he has not left Blizzard, he as only stopped work on Diablo. Let the conjecture commence! In other news our hosting duo gets into the 5.2 official notes, a ton of pictures have surfaced about “Blizzard-themed” amazement park in China, and one development water cooler discussion about how Blizzard tunes encounters is worth the read.
You all have questions, and we pretend to have legitimate answers. One fellow has not had a friend contact them via Real ID in over 43 years… it’s at this point that I should remind people that WoW is only 8 years old. Also, Scott and Turpster inform everyone about which chat room one should actually attend in order to view the live stream and when they actually schedule shows so all may observe the history in the making.
Do you have questions? Be sure to email us at theinstance at gmail dot com or leave us a voice mail at 206-202-3-WOW (206.202.3969)
Special thanks to our sponsors this week: Audible.com, Doghouse Systems, and Typefrag.com. Great web hosting provided by ZeHosting!
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WoW Theme Park
You may recall a big hullabaloo a while back regarding a WoW theme park in China, one reddit user was kind enough to post many images of their expedition to said park. May your happiness index increase as a result of viewing these images. Here are few choice images, you can see the entire album here:
305 – Cleaning up the big cities
So, as the saying goes, one step forward and two steps back. We have apparently regressed back to our two lovely hosts as Turpster did not adhere to the “Don’t lick hobo armpits.” rule, and is now down and out with the pox. We all wish him a speedy recovery. And so, once again, our crew opens with some weather talk, but luckily the discussion moves on to Warcraft. Dills recounts his heroic efforts of soloing bosses now that he’s beast master spec and Scott gives us the news that people in the big cities are now actually fixing the destruction that Deathwing reigned down an expansion ago. Also, PTR data mining has revealed “Defense of Alehouse” which most people believe is a DotA style battleground in development. In other news, for those of you feeling like you’re not paying enough for Warcraft, the Swift Windsteed can be yours for a mere $25, and more power to you.
Our Instance team loves to take your calls and emails, the this week the team discusses adding more items to the PTR, players actually getting a place to live, and the big “what if” game of real people getting sucked into the game and living out your life. Also, Scott and Dills discuss the rise of streaming media in Mists as well as in the gaming scene in general. And lastly, the long awaited contest comes to a close and, ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner.
Do you have questions? Be sure to email us at theinstance at gmail dot com or leave us a voice mail at 206-202-3-WOW (206.202.3969)
Special thanks to our sponsors this week: Audible.com, Doghouse Systems, and Typefrag.com. Great web hosting provided by ZeHosting!
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Some Blizz Advice on Getting Into the Gaming Industry
Many of you have aspirations on getting into the gaming industry in some form or another. And, in a response to a forum post from an eight year old, Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street wrote up a rather lengthy response on how to accomplish just that. You can read the post in it’s entirety here. Definitely worth the read, and it definitely speaks to what Blizzard looks for in their staff. One excerpt I’d like to note regarding qualities that Blizzard values:
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A good design sense. Analyze systems as a game designer, not just a player. A player might look for the most efficient way to progress through a game or search for the most powerful choices for their character. A designer understands why a certain way is more powerful or efficient and if that’s even a good thing for the game (and again, how to fix it).
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Creativity. This is less important than a lot of folks outside the industry think, but it’s still important. Creative problem solving is often more important than creativity in naming creatures or coming up with good stories.
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Implementation. We spend 5% of our time brainstorming and 95% of the time sitting at a keyboard trying to get things to work. (We use our own proprietary tools, but also a lot of Photoshop, Excel and Visio.) We want people who can handle bugs, manage their time, solve roadblocks, survive pressure, handle critical feedback, know when to quit and when to soldier on, and overall just not get distracted. This is one reason why seeing finished work in a resume is so valuable.
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Communication. As I said, we talk to each other, other members on the team, other people at Blizzard, and the community of players. Constantly. Designers need to be able to think on their feet, criticize ideas without causing hurt feelings, accept feedback, and understand what other people are saying. The best designers make you feel like you are being heard. We do have introverts on our staff, but it’s probably more challenging for them.
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Passion. This is probably the easiest one. It’s important though. You need to love games to do this job. I’m not sure what the most surefire career is for making millions, but this isn’t it. You’ll be asked to work long hours. You’ll be asked to playtest a game long after you’re sick of it. You’ll be expected to play new games as they come out to see what you can learn from them. You’ll be asked to cut your favorite feature. Passion for games is the reason most people want to get into the industry in the first place though, so you’re probably fine here.