Friday, June 19, 2009

Has TB Left WoW Behind?

In a few tweets yesterday TB mentioned that he had well and truly canceled his WoW subscription! I'm not 100% sure if that is for real but knowing TB it probably is! This has sort of been a recurring theme with him lately, his boredom with the game, and should make today's Blue Plz! required listening for everyone out there in WoW podcast land. Expect a major diatribe about the absurd 3.2 changes which continue to make a joke of the honest efforts of many legitimate players and hardworking guilds.

Haven't been listening to too many podcasts this week. Have stopped listening to WoW Insider and How I WoW completely, the former because I was basically a BRK mark and things just haven't been the same since his exile, and the latter because there's just too much ass-kissing of techno people that I could give a rats ass about. I used to really like How I WoW for some of the psychological areas it got into, it's just not my cup of tea anymore since it seems to have veered too far to the pretentious.

Have basically given up on All Things Azeroth as well, and that's more because they cover topics that everyone covers and are a little less interesting (to me anyway) while doing it. They're basically doing a lite version of WoW Insider or The Instance, and that's not for me. They do have a nice, dedicated listenership though and I must admit it is funny from time to time but in terms of where I'm at as a WoW player and what info I need to improve as a player I can't get it from ATA, I need more theorycraft.

5 comments:

  1. If we are too pretentious for you, then I consider that quite an accomplishment! It's like someone being too bizarre for Billy Bob Thornton. :)

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  2. If I told you this entire blog was a satire of self-important WoW players/podcasters, complete with a lead character that frets about hurting podcasters' feelings with negative reviews, would that change your mind? :)

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  3. All Things Azeroth is a lite version of the Instance? While I enjoy Scott and Randy's weekly talks, and they do a great job on the one or two topics they are most interested in, they never cover as much material as WoW Insider (who I would expect to do the best job) or ATA. Graece and Medros nearly always present an opinion that I haven't heard anywhere else.

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  4. I also stopped listening to All Things Azeroth. The show doesn't really add much to any discussion. They kinda just seem to skim over WoW.com's rss feed. The show is also regularly inaccurate.

    The Instance has all the same flaws but is held together with production value and a large guild. The actual content is slim to none. The host so badly want to be a part of the much larger technorati.

    TB at least has informed content, even if its a bit rant heavy. If Blue Plz! ends I guess I'm left with Rawrcast, WoW Things Considered, and possibly WoWCast.

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  5. I wouldn't worry too much about a Blue Plz! cancellation, there is plenty of content to cover and since our downloads have doubled over the past few weeks (which I think puts us ahead of pretty much everyone if the numbers I've been given are accurate), I'd be an idiot to cancel the show now. It's not uncommon for people to cancel their subs between major content patches and from the perspective of a broadcaster, the information is readily available to comment on from a wide variety of sources, and since it isn't in the game yet, one can hardly say that experiencing it is paramount. It wouldn't be the first time I've cancelled my sub, I doubt it'll be the last.

    Re : WI - That show has always had the issue of trying to cover way too much, way too fast and the discussion ends up as deep as a puddle. Mike has yet to learn how to properly moderate a discussion and keep people on track and his over-eagerness to blitz through his content means that WI ends up being a cliff-notes version of the week's news, only with an unhealthy dose of opinion and puff as opposed to fact. If you're going opinion and puff, then you have to go in-depth and if you're doing quickfire news, you have to keep it neutral and stick to the facts. You can't do both, it just doesn't work, either you cut down the number of topics and go in-depth, or you stick to the facts and give them the week's news in a nutshell.

    RE : ATA - The problem with ATA is the problem with many WoW podcasts and that's that there's only a limited amount of content to cover and if you don't have some unique features or original spins on it, then your show is going to end up sounding dry. This is a piece of advice to all budding WoW podcasters, you're doing a radio show, not some crazy new-media BS, it's just a radio show that you pre-record to give yourself a safety net. That means if you don't have an outstanding voice/on-air personality, you'd better damn well come up with some original features and content, otherwise all you're doing is sperging into a mic for 2 hours a week, which anyone can do.

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