Weekly Podcast Roundup: Oct. 3-9, 2011

Every Monday evening, WoW Insider brings you a long list of WoW podcasts that were published the week and weekend before. If you don’t see your favorite World of Warcraft podcast listed, just let us know in the comments. Be sure to leave a link to it, and we’ll pick it up next week.

All podcasts and content belong to their owners. WoW Insider is not responsible for what you hear, and some of the content may not be safe for work.

[hide]All Things Azeroth[/hide] You want it? You got it!

[hide]The Instance[/hide] Opening the Red Door

[hide]Twisted Nether Blogcast[/hide] The Saund and The Fury
[hide]Continue reading Weekly Podcast Roundup: Oct. 3-9, 2011[/hide]Filed under: [hide]Podcasting[/hide], [hide]Weekly Podcast Roundup[/hide][hide]Weekly Podcast Roundup: Oct. 3-9, 2011[/hide] originally appeared on [hide]WoW Insider[/hide] on Mon, 10 Oct 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our [hide]terms for use of feeds[/hide].[hide]Permalink[/hide] | [hide]Email this[/hide] | [hide]Comments[/hide]

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Accessible content, valor points and the alt


I play a lot of alts. I don’t have as many alts as my friend Kol does (in Wrath, he had a max-level alt of every class in the game and several more besides), but I have four warriors at max level, a shaman at max level, two paladins in the high 70s, a druid who just dinged 73, four or five DKs between 60 and 80 on various servers, and a mage I don’t like to talk about.

I also raid. My raiding is semi-casual from my perspective, three nights a week for three or four hours a night, but we’re pretty exclusively doing hard mode content — so for some people, that’s fairly hardcore. I won’t pretend it’s easy for me to do much beyond 5-mans and BGs with any of my alts. I play about 20 hours a week, more than some, less than others, and am pretty happy with my main and what he can do.

One of the problems when playing one of my alts is that they’re simply not capable of even coming close to my main. Struggling through yet another Zul’Gurub slog on my Worgen becomes almost impossible when I know I could blast through it on my Tauren — but the Tauren wouldn’t benefit, whereas the Worgen needs the gear.

The announcement of [hide]Raid Finder for patch 4.3[/hide] has me thinking about how many of my alts will actually get to see raid-level content. [hide]New heroics[/hide] will also debut with patch 4.3, and for the first time in Cataclysm, a heroic dungeon will offer gear on par with raiding. (Up until now, even the ZA/ZG tier of heroics offers gear a step below the Tier 11 raids.) This means that we’re about to enter into a new way to play your alts.[hide]Continue reading Accessible content, valor points and the alt[/hide]Filed under: [hide]Analysis / Opinion[/hide], [hide]Raiding[/hide], [hide]Cataclysm[/hide][hide]Accessible content, valor points and the alt[/hide] originally appeared on [hide]WoW Insider[/hide] on Mon, 10 Oct 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our [hide]terms for use of feeds[/hide].[hide]Permalink[/hide] | [hide]Email this[/hide] | [hide]Comments[/hide]

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Chris Metzen discusses the role of the writer at GDC Online


So how does a writer fit into World of Warcraft? If you ask Chris Metzen, they are the cheerleaders, torchbearers and keepers of the flame, responsible for the keeping the heart in the game. In a presentation at GDC Online in Austin, Texas, Metzen talked a bit about the balance between writing and gameplay and the job of a writer at Blizzard.

Though lore has taken more of a front seat in Cataclysm, it’s ultimately the gameplay that comes first with Blizzard, even before the story. According to Metzen, if you don’t make it fun in the first 3 minutes of gameplay, you’ve failed. If the gameplay is a turn-off, it doesn’t matter how wonderful the story is — people still aren’t going to want to play it. The presentation is an interesting look at some of the less-highlighted aspects of game development, and Gamasutra has coverage of the whole presentation. For those interested in what the job of a writer looks like at Blizzard Entertainment or wondering what goes on when creating a story as massive as Warcraft, it’s a really [hide]interesting read[/hide].

But that’s not all from GDC Online — Blizzard writers also got together to discuss great gaming moments and the challenges of game design. The coverage of the event discusses more about the writing process, fan feedback, and creating memorable stories. Check out the [hide]full story[/hide] over on Gamasutra as well.

Filed under: [hide]News items[/hide], [hide]Cataclysm[/hide][hide]Chris Metzen discusses the role of the writer at GDC Online[/hide] originally appeared on [hide]WoW Insider[/hide] on Mon, 10 Oct 2011 21:00:00 EST. Please see our [hide]terms for use of feeds[/hide].[hide]Permalink[/hide] | [hide]Email this[/hide] | [hide]Comments[/hide]

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Today in WoW: Monday, Oct. 10, 2011


Join us every weekday evening as [hide]Today in WoW[/hide] runs down all the WoW news that you could possibly want. From comments from Blizzard’s blues to the latest datamining info — we’ve got you covered.

Don’t forget to check out [hide]The Daily Quest[/hide] and our [hide]Weekly Podcast Roundup[/hide] to find out what else is going on in the WoW community. And if you have a news tip, feel free to [hide]drop us a line[/hide] and let us know.

[hide]Blue posts[/hide]

[hide]WoW news from other sites[/hide]

[hide]News and features from WoW Insider[/hide]

[hide]Links from around the web[/hide]
[hide]Continue reading Today in WoW: Monday, Oct. 10, 2011[/hide]Filed under: [hide]Today in WoW[/hide][hide]Today in WoW: Monday, Oct. 10, 2011[/hide] originally appeared on [hide]WoW Insider[/hide] on Mon, 10 Oct 2011 23:45:00 EST. Please see our [hide]terms for use of feeds[/hide].[hide]Permalink[/hide] | [hide]Email this[/hide] | [hide]Comments[/hide]

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Tuesday Morning Post: Kitten-based economy edition

Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. Once again, Blizzard’s let the big news wait until Monday. Yesterday, we learned that the Blizzard store will feature [hide]a bind on equip Guardian Cub[/hide], allowing you to place it on the auction house. Essentially, you’ll be able to spend 10 dollars to buy an unspecified amount of gold. As you can imagine, people have opinions on this. Me, I’m just thinking [hide]Cats4Gold[/hide] was a little ahead of its time. The time of the kitten based economy is upon us. How many cats do you think it’ll take to buy a [hide]Vial of the Sands[/hide]?

In addition to the cat stuff, we also have more news from [hide]patch 4.3[/hide] and elsewhere to cover. [hide]Downtime this morning[/hide] is from 5 a.m. to 11 a.m. PDT, so you should have time to get caught up. Join us after the break for a roundup of all the best stuff from the past week.[hide]Continue reading Tuesday Morning Post: Kitten-based economy edition[/hide]Filed under: [hide]Realm Status[/hide], [hide]News items[/hide][hide]Tuesday Morning Post: Kitten-based economy edition[/hide] originally appeared on [hide]WoW Insider[/hide] on Tue, 11 Oct 2011 07:00:00 EST. Please see our [hide]terms for use of feeds[/hide].[hide]Permalink[/hide] | [hide]Email this[/hide] | [hide]Comments[/hide]

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Новая анимация заклинаний друидов на PTR

В установленном на PTR билде 14809 патча 4.3 появилась новая анимация для заклинаний многих классов MMORPG World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. Например, друиды получили новый вариант умения «[hide]Ураган[/hide]», с которым можно ознакомиться в представленном ниже ролике: с неба падают несколько небольших циклонов вперемежку с молниями. О новой анимации способностей шамана и чернокнижника [hide]мы сообщали[/hide] ранее.

(c) [hide]GoHa.Ru[/hide], [hide]WoW.ru[/hide]

([hide]Читать далее..[/hide].)

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Новые питомцы в 4.3: скарабей, Гневион, лампы

В патче 4.3, находящемся на тестовом сервере MMORPG World of Warcraft, появились новые питомцы и транспортные средства, [hide]сообщает[/hide] Wowhead. Среди них: ездовой [hide]гиппогриф скверны[/hide] (WoW TCG), копия босса Гневиона, скарабей (из следующего набора коллекционной карточной игры, а не из археологии, как ожидалось) и две новогодние лампы в версиях для Альянса и Орды.

[hide][/hide] [hide][/hide] [hide][/hide] [hide][/hide] [hide][/hide]

(c) [hide]Читать далее..[/hide].)

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Breakfast Topic: How do you feel about using guns in WoW?

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This [hide]Breakfast Topic[/hide] has been brought to you by [hide]Seed[/hide], the AOL guest writer program that brings [hide]your words[/hide] to WoW Insider’s pages.

A while back, I wrote a [hide]Breakfast Topic on technology[/hide] that got folks up in arms. It seemed that while most people were fine with the majority of steampunkish Gnomish and Goblin technology (and some absolutely loved it), the one piece of equipment that ground more gears and got the cranky juices flowing was the gun. The people who didn’t like it found it intrusive and at odds with the world around them.

I’m personally of the «Are the stats better? I’ll take it!» variety, so gun or bow, I don’t think about it that much. I don’t care for the noise of the gun, but that’s my only gripe. At the same time, I don’t do much roleplaying, so I don’t have to worry about whether a gun would be appropriate for my character’s storyline. Plus, my characters that are able to use guns are alts, so I’m not terribly committed to them.

What about you? Are you vehemently anti-gun? Or are you cool with it, as long as the stats are an improvement? If the stats were exactly the same, which would you go with — a gun or a crossbow? Aha — see, you do have a preference! Tell us what drives it!
Filed under: [hide]Breakfast Topics[/hide], [hide]Guest Posts[/hide][hide]Breakfast Topic: How do you feel about using guns in WoW[/hide]? originally appeared on [hide]WoW Insider[/hide] on Mon, 10 Oct 2011 08:00:00 EST. Please see our [hide]terms for use of feeds[/hide].[hide]Permalink[/hide] | [hide]Email this[/hide] | [hide]Comments[/hide]

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The Daily Quest: Zero to hero in no time flat

WoW Insider’s on a [hide]Daily Quest[/hide] to bring you interesting, informative, and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere.

Has it become too easy to become a big damn hero? I remember the difficulty of the original 1-to-60 grind— and man, it was a struggle at times. But getting to level 60 meant that you’d finally grown past all those random gathering errands and got to face the challenges of a true hero in Molten Core and other raid dungeons. That’s changed a bit since the early days, hasn’t it?

Today we’ve got a few posts from around the blogosphere talking about those changes and other changes that we’ve seen in WoW over the past several years.

[hide]Flavor Text[/hide] has a particularly intriguing essay on failure, challenge, and the apparent [hide]decline of both in WoW[/hide].

[hide]Priest With a Cause[/hide] comments on the odd homogenization of the [hide]opposing factions[/hide] in WoW.

[hide]HoTs & DoTs[/hide] shares some experiences with the Dungeon Finder through the eyes of someone [hide]new to most heroics[/hide].

Is there a story out there we ought to link or a blog we should be following? Just leave us a comment, and you may see it here tomorrow! Be sure to check out our [hide]WoW Resources Guide[/hide] for more WoW-related sites.

Filed under: [hide]The Daily Quest[/hide][hide]The Daily Quest: Zero to hero in no time flat[/hide] originally appeared on [hide]WoW Insider[/hide] on Mon, 10 Oct 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our [hide]terms for use of feeds[/hide].[hide]Permalink[/hide] | [hide]Email this[/hide] | [hide]Comments[/hide]

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Around Azeroth: It’s lovely out in the woods today but safer to stay at home

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Well, actually, it’s not a lovely day in the woods, but it’s pretty in a Halloween-type context. [hide]Edstrom[/hide] of [hide]Blackmist Brigade[/hide] on Darkmoon Faire (EU-A) took this intimidating glamor shot of his guild leader [hide]Wulfenbach[/hide] with his … uh, «mighty» axe [hide]Gorehowl[/hide]. Can’t they update these neat lore items from vanilla WoW and BC so they’re no longer laughable? Grom Hellscream deserves a better legacy and a better weapon.

Gallery: [hide]Around Azeroth 3[/hide][hide][/hide][hide][/hide][hide][/hide][hide][/hide][hide][/hide]

Want to see your own screenshot here? Send it to [hide]aroundazeroth@wowinsider.com[/hide]. We strongly prefer full-sized pictures with no UI or names showing. Please include «Azeroth» in the subject line so your email doesn’t get marked as spam, and include your name, guild and server if you want to be credited.
Filed under: [hide]Around Azeroth[/hide][hide]Around Azeroth: It’s lovely out in the woods today but safer to stay at home[/hide] originally appeared on [hide]WoW Insider[/hide] on Mon, 10 Oct 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our [hide]terms for use of feeds[/hide].[hide]Permalink[/hide] | [hide]Email this[/hide] | [hide]Comments[/hide]

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