UWoW

Soft Open

2010-08-13T11:43:00.004-04:00

Hello - just cleaning out the cobwebs.

I've changed the look of the blog but not married to it. It shall likely change again.

I've left Jim Surge, Melissa Muromets, and Pete Peters as authors here at UWoW, but I feel as their courseload at university and other real-life responsibilities increase that we shall see very little of them in the coming weeks and months. They'll officially be considered "contributors at-large" for our purposes. I have known Jim for a while, both online and 3D, and would like to thank him for his thoughtful work here and I hope I can continue on with something close to the brand of honest critique that has been a hallmark of UWoW since the start.

I'm not sold on the idea of solely reviewing WoW podcasts - there are some great casts for other games as well. Jim made a halfhearted attempt at starting to listen to other shows on a regular basis like STO and Aion, but his interest didn't last long. I'll always be on the lookout for something good despite the game, and maybe even despite the genre.

For WoW, I'd like to at least be giving regular shouts to the shows that go above and beyond the typical here's what I did last week format, and of course mark significant anniversaries and the like.

But my vision for the blog is more to mine the content of some of these casts and drill down a little deeper and in more depth about the current issues of the day. The flexibility of a blog lends itself to such deeper considerations and I do hope readers will help contribute and help set the agenda.

I'm not a WoW-robot, as wasting half of 2010 on a bunch of alts I deleted before hitting lvl 30 should back up. I'm a fairly large baseball (Boston Red Sox) and proper football fan (Arsenal). I am also a huge fan of the Grateful Dead and Widespread Panic, I go to games and concerts, and these sorts of things are going to creep into the blog from time to time. Sorry, it's just me!

In terms of World of Warcraft, I am a complete endgame noob. I'm on Twisting Nether-US which is RPPVP, and I've leveled a blood elf priest to 80 last fall/winter, going shadow, and then for most of 2010 I've just been messing with alts of both factions until I started seriously working on a feral druid, now level 41, loving cat form.

Priest: Weledis (Herbalism 450 Tailoring 300)

Druid: Chuon (leveling with Herbalism / Skinning)

Poor Wel hasn't been dusted off since I got him a Brewfest stein back in July! I do also have one other "regular" toon, a level one bank alt blood elf huntress who operates out of Silvermoon, that I started when I started leveling Chuon.

I have a lot of rep grinding ahead for both of these characters. I still also have never run any level 80 dungeons or heroics, and am worried about ever getting there since I don't expect to have Chuon to 80 until sometime this fall, probably close to Cataclysm's release. We shall see. If anyone's on Twisting Nether and wants to help out, I'm all for it!

All for now, just wanted to say hey. So, hey.

And So On...

2010-06-18T14:52:00.002-04:00

I've got brew a'brewin'. In the meantime, enjoy this:

Odd Thought

2010-05-04T17:40:00.003-04:00

So this article about the New York Yankees in the New York Daily News sparked an odd thought.

A comment from a reader called "eli grossman" puts forward a theory that the manager of the New York Yankees might have a hard time lying to the media because he is a good Christian. I assume from the context of the previous comments and from the article itself that Mr. grossman is offering an explanation as to why the Yankees' manager sometimes seems tongue-tied, as if he's trying to figure out how to speak gibberish without technically lying.

I'm sure football fans understand what I'm getting at from having watched countless managers "engage" in vacant conversation in the post-match interview.

Another Snow

2010-02-25T09:42:00.003-05:00

Snow on the way again.

I have some travel coming up next week to the great state of Alabama. Just a one-nighter.

Did a realm transfer of my lvl 70 paladin from Anvilmar-US (PVE) to Twisting Nether-US (RPPVP) to bring a couple thousand gold over to my little hunter/rogue dual box team. But the funny thing is I actually dusted the guy off and did a level in Northrend and now might just run him through to 80 first before going back to the lowbies.

More and more have been listening to non-WoW MMO-related podcasts.

Haven't been on STO all week. Not missing it greatly. Still want to do the Lieutenant Commander levels this weekend though.

Snowdate: This Is Getting Old

2010-02-16T12:17:00.003-05:00

Yet more snow last night and today here in New Jersey.

Not nearly as exciting as Snowpocalypse 2010 which downed power lines and closed schools for several days, but it'll do nicely to turn otherwise rational people into raving lunatic idiots on the roadways.

Or maybe raving lunatic isn't correct. But the sort of mentally ill person that sees a snowflake in the air and assumes that the ground is a)snow covered b)ice covered or c)generally unsafe and therefore drives their vehicle at absurdly slow speeds, mashing down on the breaks at irregular intervals for no reason at all.

If these maggots did something crazy called "using their eyes" they would see that there is absolutely no need for the extra caution because a)there's no snow covering the roads b)there's no ice sneaking around there either, especially after the warm temps this weekend, and c)it only becomes unsafe when you're going super slow and stomping on your breaks for no reason causing people to crash into you from behind.

There's no need for it! So stop.

Anyway, have hardly played WoW in about two weeks. I was all set to do the love is in the air events on my main toon and even read a little about the changes this year, but I just couldn't go back for more than one day of that garbage. My latest plan is to go back and get my priest who is now 80 through the quest chain to pick either Oracles or Frenzyheart. He's still working on Sons of Hodir too so that will be a nice little moneymaker for the time being.

Still have a pally sitting at 70 (and he's so old his main weapon is still the Hammer of Destiny).

Been doing a little dual-boxing on Twisting Nether-US but are only at level 15 on a hunter/rogue combo.

Mainly playing STO (got James Herbert Surge up to Lieutenant Commander and tried a Klingon for PvP - love the starting ship) and NHL10 on PS3 these days, with a dose of my Out of the Park Baseball online league and Total Extreme Wrestling 2010 thrown in for good measure.

TONS of podcasts were in the chamber today, so much so I couldn't sync before my frustrating car ride to campus.

Snowpocalypse 2010!

2010-02-11T17:48:00.003-05:00

Just a quick note - the NJ area has been bashed with snow for the last few days, and the ancient power lines in Princeton just aren't what they used to be. Power has finally come back on, so expect updates to resume.

Cheers.

Stardate: You're Corny

2010-02-08T09:40:00.003-05:00

I've been playing STO quite a bit over the last week. After being in the closed beta, the open beta, and the headstart you'd think I'd have had enough already. But I haven't. I sort of like it. It's providing a great change of pace for me from my WoW playing.

I've not been very adventerous thus far in terms of my toon. My first character is a human Starfleet officer called James Herbert Surge and he is the commanding officer of the New Jersey. I just got him promoted from Lieutenant to Lieutenant Commander this weekend during the "Winter Powerhouse" that "paralyzed the east coast" on Friday and Saturday. This week, after playing around a bit with Surge's new cruiser, I'll finally roll up a Klingon and some other kind of Starfleet alien race.

It's not mindblowing. But it's pretty solid. A comment in Zone chat yesterday pretty much summed up my attitude: "it'll do until TOR is ready."

A couple of typical random WoW-related posts that are always popping up at the launch of MMOs these days made me chuckle for some reason:

"NEED A RUN THROUGH STOCKS - PAYING 5G!"

"Need heals and 3 dps for ICC25 then gtg"

Ho-hum. Certainly not as chuckle-inducing in print as they were "in the moment."

Been listening to a bunch of new and non-WoW related podcasts, but some of the classics as well. Should be posting our updated list later today.

To Meekly Go

2010-02-02T09:52:00.003-05:00

I'm really bummed that my Asus "Republic of Gaming" laptop supposedly built for gaming can't handle Star Trek: Online without going through waves of lag. Even adjusting the -fps setting to 50 didn't help. To be fair, the laptop is now almost a year old, and I guess it serves me right for waiting so long to get a new desktop rig (I can dual box WoW on the laptop with no lag, but can't even run STO for longer than 5 minutes before it all goes to hell - doesn't make sense I tells ya!).

Anyway, interestingly enough last night I did some poking around the iTunes store to look for other MMO-related podcasts for the games I've dabbled (or continue to dabble) in.

Star Trek Online
I was happy to see that Aprillian from Ctrl Alt WoW has a brand new STO-themed show that has recently released its first episode. Ctrl Alt Trek provided a pretty decent overview of the beta and an interesting perspective if you're a Trek fan but on the fence about playing the MMO.

I also downloaded but haven't listened to STOked: The Ultimate Star Trek Online Podcast by the guys from Jupiter Broadcasting.

Champions Online
There were a couple, but the one that still looks like it is active is Podcast of Champions, which just released its last show on 1/25/10. Listened to the first 20 minutes, fairly amusing discussion of the box art included in that. Some large doses of yucking present. Also some fretting about the STO release and possible impact on support & development of CO.

Aion
Disappointing, really. None of the several Aion podcasts listed have been updated since we hit calendar year 2010. I picked up the Aion Fancast (12/4/09), Aion's Wrath (10/23/09), and Black Wings of Atreia (8/21/09) just to hear some examples.

Warhammer
Not much happening here either. Downloaded the Warhammer Alliance Podcast to hear their end-of-year special episode, but there hasn't been a new episode since.

Lord of the Rings Online
Some activity here - A Casual Stroll to Mordor and LOTRO Reporter both had news episodes out within the last week, while LOTROCast's last show was #20 back on 12/23/09.

Star Wars: The Old Republic
Apparently there's more going on here right now for a game that's not even released then there is for Aion. I picked up TOROcast #41 (!) from 1/31/10 and Mos Eisley Radio but have yet to listen.

If there are any others you regularly listen to, please let me know. I'll try to give these guys a listen this week and post some initial reactions.

KYS (nws)

2010-01-27T19:26:00.010-05:00

We'd like to take this time to salute our pal thehatfield, who is all proud of himself for having his tweet appear in the crawl at the bottom of the screen on AOTS yesterday. He was so geeked up about the experience that he actually had to delete a tweet which said he was pleased with "@atos" for recognizing his tweet about Bill Hicks being "favorite stand-up commedian."

He didn't mention that there were at least 5 other Bill Hicks marks on that crawl, and maybe even as many as 6-10 more. (Only one or two brave souls mentioned Norm MacDonald or Mitch Hedberg.) Everyone seemed obsessed with Gabriel Iglesias or somesuch. He also didn't mention that he's now being followed by about 30 more no doubt insane basement-dwellers taking the time to follow people mentioned on Attack of the Show.

As a viewer I felt embarrassed for all of the Dimitri Martin mentions, but I suppose the emo crowd deserves to be represented as well.

In honor of his horrible achievement, I'm going to attempt to embed this Bill Hicks comedy segment on marketing, since Hat's soulless ass works in publishing devising ways to con people out of money.

TEW 2010 Released Today

2010-01-25T10:50:00.004-05:00

This has nothing to do with WoW, but the latest edition of the highly addictive professional wrestling booking simulator called Total Extreme Wrestling 2010 will be released at some point today by Grey Dog Software.

Needless to say, I'm quite excited! As a long-time supporter of the series, and having played the free Demo that was available this week, I'm chomping at the bit to get deeper into the new version past the one month you get in the Demo.

If you've never heard about the game before, it has roots dating back to 1995's Extreme Warfare and it has constantly been evolving ever since.

This isn't a fighting game in the Fighter Hayabusa vs. King Slender mold. At the beginning of the game you become the Head Booker of a promotion (or you can choose to start unemployed), and you try to lead that promotion to be the number one wrestling organization in the world. There is a fantastic fictional database included with the game called the CornellVerse (C-Verse, CVerse) and features promotions and workers from around the globe.

It can be a little daunting at first entering the default data for the first time, just like anything else unknown. And if you want to make an informed decision about which fed to start with it's probably going to take some quality time to read each of the worker and fed bios, not to mention checking the skillset for the workers to know their individual strengths and weaknesses. So if you can't read, or are unwilling to, this may not be the sim for you.

But that said, there's always a workaround. If playing with fictional characters isn't your thing you can check out the mods forum on the Grey Dog site. The TEW community is quite vibrant and active, and real world mods are often released by forum members relatively quickly after the new version of the game is released.

Of course, you don't have to take over a promotion right away. As mentioned above you can start unemployed and watch the game world evolve before entering. If you do go that route you likely won't be able to be hired by the biggest, most powerful feds, but it does give you a nice chance to simply sit back and see exactly how the AI books, and which workers they decide to push, sign, or release.

One of the best things about the game is that it's highly customizable. And even moreso in TEW2010. You can do everything you can possibly think of from creating your own database (which would give your universe only the feds and workers that you specify) to simply creating one new wrestler to drop down in the middle of the C-Verse to see how he/she fares. And everything in between. From storylines, to angles, to titles, everything is under your domain and can be edited. Not to mention all of the new in-game options available in 2010 which you can read about on their site.

FYI, in addition to other games, they have a very solid MMA simulator called WMMA2 which you can see also see on the main Grey Dog site.

Been a Good Week for You?

2010-01-22T09:02:00.002-05:00

Like most holiday-shortened weeks, the arrival of Friday always seems pleasantly early. The podcasters seem to have finally soldiered on through the bleak "dead period" after the Christmas holidays and new year and new episodes are once again dropping faster than Sartharion with no drakes.

Warcraft Radio is sadly winding to a close. Previously I posted a link to The Cynical Brit, which will be Totalbiscuit's new hideout. Looks like Blue Plz!, Gaming Express, and Gaming the System are the first three shows to be officially announced as part of TCB's arsenal of caustic mayhem.

A ton of shows will be moving over to OMFG who are still in the process of feeling things out, regrouping, and moving forward. A preliminary list of shows from their forums includes: Council of Six, Essence of RP, MaxSpeed, The Donut Shop, Fragged Up, PUG, Tales From Your Mom's Basement, and The Combobulater.

Looks like two of our favorite shows - Octale & Hordak vs. the World, and Casually Hardcore - will be joining forces in the near future over at Verses The World (VTW), which is presently in beta. To keep up with the Casually Hardcore gang right now you can do so over at Alpha Geek Radio.

As of right now The Emperor's Court is listed both on the VTW beta site and on the OMFG forums, so maybe there's a bidding war going on behind the scenes. :)

Have some thoughts brewing on recent shows.

Random: Despite the endless shtick from John Jakobson I'm pleased Warcraft Outsiders is back for some reason.

Hope you had a good week.

Thank you.

So, is it Still Called the WoW Insider Show or What?

2010-01-19T09:21:00.007-05:00

After travel last week and yesterday's holiday to honor the memory and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., we're back in full effect. Or (as usual it seems), at least I am!

A couple of surprising things struck me as I listened to new episodes of the WoW.com show.

First, I actually miss Mike Schramm. There, I typed it. While we sometimes had fun at Mike's expense, you know, sometimes kidded him about certain oft-repeated verbal habits, his ability to keep the show focused and moving forward I think far exceeds that of new host Michael Sacco.

The new show may still be in the process of feeling itself out, but it's frighteningly polite and painful to listen to as they do this on-air. As soon as two people start to speak at once everyone stops speaking, and then each person tells the other person to go ahead and speak. Then no one speaks for a few seconds before suddenly they both start speaking at the same time again. Then they laugh and each one again tells the other one to go ahead... you get the idea.

A surefire bright spot on the new WoW.com show is the emergence of Matthew Rossi. While Rossi was featured from time to time on the Schramm/Turpster version, he's been given a lot longer leash by Sacco and it has been great. He's been awfully funny thus far, even in the episode where he had a massive headache.

Schramm must have committed the ultimate sin - criticizing Blizzard or AOL or somesuch - for him to have been dumped so quickly. Obviously it wasn't planned because on the first Sacco/Rossi show Sacco said everything was thrown together at the last second because of the circumstances. No matter what you might feel about them personally I think I can speak for everyone when I say that Schramm and Turpster at least deserved time to put together a proper final show due to their dedicated service.

What I don't understand is WoW.com wanting to seek more "outside opinions" to add to their podcast. When I go to WoW.com I want the opinion of WoW.com. It is a brand that I can trust for at least the Blizzard side of every World of Warcraft issue. And if perchance they stray from the company line, I want to wake up the next morning to read a retraction or some other prompt apology that insults my intelligence.

If I want the opinion of other places, I'll go elsewhere. What happened on the blog this week? What were people talking about? That's what I want to hear, especially because (like many folks I know) I do not always read each post on the blog every week.

If they want to have guests like "nerdcore" rapper Fatty on the show I believe they should do it in a brief section dedicated to guests. Having random people of unknown WoW ability chiming in all show and having to crowbar-in the reason why the person is even there runs exactly contrary to the reason I listen to that particular podcast in the first place.

In all, nice to hear more Matthew Rossi. And would prefer a more Schramm-like Sacco.

Up And At Um

2010-01-11T11:28:00.003-05:00

We're getting into the groove again this week, or at least I am! I'll be taking a quick two-night trip to Detroit but there'll be plenty of down time at the airports to listen to podcasts - especially if it continues to snow out in Michigan!

Excited to see exactly what folks are up to these days.

The first ever UWoW meetup was a rousing success! No one showed up so it wasn't awkward at all. Melissa, Pete and I discussed many things like events from world history, current events, the success of the movie Avatar, Howard Stern, the ascension of China, English football, the NFL playoffs, stuffy Princeton people, townies, Carl Jung's book "Aion" and the Aion MMO, Walt Whitman, and farts. The drink specials there were fantastic - $2 for 20-ounce Miller Lites was my poison of choice. I could drink a bucket of that stuff and still be fine for the walk home.

Luckily it's a short walk.

Follow Friday

2010-01-08T10:14:00.002-05:00

We do like to maintain a degree of our underground identity here at the blog. Last year though, none of us could really tell you what that meant because it would have exposed us as a parody site.

This site is meant to be for people that somehow stumble on it. We're not serious about anything. We have no official partnerships with other blogs or podcasts or companies and that's the way things are going to stay. We don't participate in bullshit like Azeroth United to raise our profile and prove to the world how nice and what good people we are. No gimmicky contests allowed to bring about an influx of leeches, users, and other general lazy-eyed scumbags. No dumbing down our writing or writing about where our favorite pond is in World of Warcraft to take screenshots. If you're a fan of the blog, you're in on the joke.

Sure, we do Tweet about our posts from time to time, and yes, in rare instances they are re-tweeted! I have even been known to secretly submit links to this blog to such places as WoW.com, or sites like Blog Azeroth, and yes we'd still like to get a spoof show going possibly with Tristan of The Elitists, but those reach-outs are usually few and far between. The laughs we get writing faux-intellectually about World of Warcraft is all the compensation we'll ever need!

But today is Follow Friday. There are two sites I'd like to recommend:

The Big Lead
If you haven't already heard of The Big Lead, it is a very cool, unbeholden US-based sports site. Has nothing to do with World of Warcraft. You get honest takes with no agenda other than the writer's personal bias, which is what we love. Now, like us, you'll probably disagree when they try to compare Urban Meyer's 48-hour flip flop over health reasons to Brett Favre's 4-year, 8-month and ongoing childish will-he-or-won't he retire gimmick that he tried to use to get himself traded to a better team, but there's always something interesting to talk about and consider there.

For The Lore
Nice clean site. Not just WoW-centric, not just MMO-centric. Story-driven games. I am the target audience and I like it!

What Makes A Medium Server Medium?

2010-01-07T10:04:00.002-05:00

This seems to be the £628,339.69 question.

Between myself and our friend thehatfield, we've asked just about everyone we could think of. From Starman of World of Warcast to The Turpster of various projects to Adam Holisky of WoW.com to all of our Twitter followers. And we were either ignored or no one knows.

This information may well be readily available, but certainly not to me. I do not have the constitution at the moment to actually read through sites like Warcraft Realms or troll through endless pages of realm forums to see if someone, somewhere offers an explanation.

But the question is interesting when you consider the state of the economy on the two servers I'm most active on - Anvilmar-US (PVE) and Twisting Nether-US (RPPVP) - both "Medium" servers.

One thing we can actually track through auction scanners is Auction House activity. If there is a large discrepancy in total number of auctions, does that say anything about the server's overall population?

This morning I was startled to notice that there was a discrepancy of 11,236 total auctions between Twisting Nether (26,003) and Anvilmar (14,767) - nearly double the amount for a realm listed as the same size!

We know that we can't completely trust the population numbers or activity ratios of Warcraft Realms. But maybe it gives us a little background info and a range to think about.

June 2006 is listed as the online date for Anvilmar, while Twisting Nether shows as September of 2005 so we don't have a case here where the server with the higher AH activity is new with lots of toons still grinding away and flooding the Auction House with lots of everything from every level.

If you believe it, Warcraft Realms says that Anvilmar actually has more total characters than Twisting Nether, 13,769 to 10,823.

So what does this all mean? What actually is a medium server? Could Twisting Nether really be out-auctioning Anvilmar nearly 2:1 with about 3,000 less toons? How does a discrepancy like that occur?

Preview TCB!

2010-01-06T14:17:00.003-05:00

Well now we know what the next step is for Totalbiscuit, The Cynical Brit!

This is just a preview of what's to come and according to TB's twitter, and some sections remain unfinished. But it is a cool first look at the new digs. Nice clear format. Should be sweet once it's up and rolling full force.

UWoW Meet-Up: Princeton, NJ, This Friday!

2010-01-06T11:42:00.007-05:00

A couple of people asked me about this last winter when we were first getting started, so now nearly a year later and with absolutely no interest we thought this would be a great time to hold our first ever UWoW meetup at the Ivy Inn in Princeton, NJ this Friday, January 8!

The Ivy Inn is an outstanding townie dive bar known for cheap drinks and they don't serve food, so come thirsty! They do, of course, allow you to bring in food from the outside and enjoy it at your leisure. The world famous Hoagie Haven, along with favorite local greasepit George's are within walking distance. And if that isn't your speed you could get Chinese at Ivy Garden or sushi at Tomo Sushi or Indian at Kaluri Corner which are all quite close-by.

Melissa and I should be there, Pete is still unconfirmed. If you feel like chatting WoW, or about WoW podcasts, or about ideas for future WoW-related projects, come have a frosty beverage or two. For this outing you must be 21-years old to attend with valid proof of age. They are supremely strict about not serving minors at the Ivy, it just doesn't happen there.

Farewell WoW Radio

2010-01-05T11:05:00.005-05:00

It shouldn't be news by now that Totalbiscuit has decided to pull the plug on WoW Radio. In his heartfelt This is it posting on their main site, TB did have this to offer:

I can’t speak for the other staff, who will tell you of their own plans on their shows and forums, but I can speak for myself and what I intend to do in future. I have a new site which will be ready to launch very soon, which I will be continuing to broadcast Blue Plz!, Gaming the System and a brand new, daily gaming news show entitled Gaming Express. This site will feature it’s own forums, blog comment system and substantially more regular content than you’re used to seeing from me. Without the responsibility of managing a large, volunteer organisation, I expect to be able to focus my efforts on what I’ve always loved, producing top-quality audio content for you. A link to this site will be provided once it has been launched.

They also report that The Donut Shop with The Donut Boys, MaxSpeed with Speedyf40, Maxmaps, and Kae, Essence of RP with Almighty Farseer and Kexman, and But Wait! There’s Lore! with Shinoda and Snapplemonkey will remain producing new shows at a new site TBA.

I'll keep up with this and report any news I hear.

I do understand that this is hardly the end. Neigh, a new dawn approaches! But I would like to use this space to say that this blog owes a great deal to WoW Radio, and especially to Totalbiscuit, for their long-standing and enthusiastic support. Thank you WoW Radio for your uncompromising attitudes, for all the laughs, for teaching me so much about this game and industry that we all love. In a time when so many people are consumed with spreading bullshit to the far reaches of the globe you were a beacon of hope to critical thinkers everywhere. We still get hundreds of views per week here, and it sure isn't the quality or frequency of the content over the last two months. That is a testament to the enduring power of WoW Radio.

New Year, New You?

2010-01-04T10:32:00.005-05:00

I'm very keen to give the new WoW Insider Show a listen since the abrupt departures of Mike Schramm and The Turpster from the podcast. Like most regular listeners, we were completely taken by surprise by the news and interested to see if the remaining staff takes the show in a new direction.

A long while ago I made the comment that the WoW Insider Show was a confused show. Back then you'd have these intricate breakdowns on hunter mechanics by Big Red Kitty followed by 10 minutes of crying about how Noblegarden wasn't fair. It was weird. And of course, you had the random crapshoot of what would be the top article on the WoW.com blog over the last week. God forbid you'd be stuck listening when it was patch week. Or patch notes hitting the PTR. Or patch anything.

But ever since Pete pointed out that Mike tends to slightly rephrase questions he's just asked as if the questioned person can't understand the first time (ie. in quick succession: "What have you been up to lately in the World of Warcraft? Have you been up to anything good in World of Warcraft lately?") I've sort of had a soft spot for Schramm-wow.

As far as this blog, Pete, Melissa and I are still getting our own house back in order as you've no doubt noticed from the type of infrequent, non-themed posts going up. I have to admit its been pretty tough trying to get back into the regular groove of listening to these shows, especially since the three of us are each listening to more podcasts on our individual lists since the departures of Fred and Toothy. Actually that's untrue. It's been hard to bring myself to write about many of them. It almost feels like wasted words.

Pete has expressed on multiple occasions that he was very pleased with some of the changes made by the Casually Hardcore crew. He basically is the target audience for that show (many could argue, rightly, that I am too) and really likes the job they are doing.

Melissa has been doing some scouting of up-and-coming or new shows, while I've been clearing out the old, re-compiling our master list, updating all of our internal subscriptions, doing outreach to other blogs and podcasters, etc..

Urban Meyer Pulling A Brett Favre? (and other goings on)

2009-12-28T10:34:00.002-05:00

Quite perplexed by the digital sports intelligentsia in the U.S. trying to compare University of Florida Head Football Coach Urban Meyer's situation in Florida to the ridiculous ongoing off-season dramas of retired-but-not-retired NFL quarterback Brett Favre.

First of all, Meyer's about face on his resignation for health reasons is different due to the very fact that we're dealing with health issues. Favre's will-he-or-won't-he saga was said to be posturing from the QB to force a move to Minnesota because he had little faith in the skill of the team in Green Bay. The "one more chance" at glory scenario. Completely different ballgames.

Second, Meyer's "drama" happened in about the space of 48 hours, not 4 years, 8 months.

Last night the Twittersphere mentioned Florida itself might be to "blame" for Meyer's reversal after agreeing to cover medical and other associated costs. Seems as good a theory as any.

***

Don't you get tired of the way that most English football presenters gush over Arsenal's style of play?

I mean, we get it. Lots of elegant passing. Great through balls. Enough is enough already. And I'm a Gooner!

***

During this holiday season, I was able to finally level Hamsalad (Anvilmar, blood elf priest) up to 80. After all that torture he's going to rest up and work to max his fishing and cooking.

I am pleased that according to The Armory, he's just the second lvl 80 "Hamsalad" toon out there. There are now 47(!) toons called "Hamsalad" listed being at least lvl 10. When I started him out I think there were only 9.

***

After 2 days, 18 hours, 54 minutes, 26 seconds, my bank alt (the not-quite-so mighty warlock Oatmeal) hit level 2. I had to send him to Org to get some presents for his year of faithful service.

***

I started a new toon (blood elf hunter) on a random RPPVP server. Forget which one. Should be interesting.

***

I'm in the closed beta for Star Trek Online. I sort of like it. Like the idea of assembling away teams. Space combat is a little wonky for me. I'm frequently getting outmaneuvered or simply flying right by things. I need some more practice. Okay game for me so far. Of course I dislike the fact that different pre-orders come with different bonuses (ie. I need to buy two copies from different vendors to get the two bonuses I want), but when have I ever liked that?

***

Finally got Assassin's Creed II yesterday, will be giving it a solid go this week.

Morgan Webb

2009-12-17T11:36:00.002-05:00

UWoW Update

2009-10-28T10:07:00.003-04:00

I've been loathe to bump the lovely Ms. McCain from the top post, but I owe it to you good people who keep visiting to give an update.

We've been getting back into the groove over the last two weeks. We've been trying a few new things, including one that I love where the three of us sit around listening to a podcast and we comment on it in a Mystery Science Theater 3000 sort of way. That still needs some work but is showing some genuine promise. However, I don't have decent editing equipment and the fact that my microphone makes me sound like I'm in the space shuttle doesn't help either. Any tips/recommendations for quality equipment would be appreciated.

Since our last set of reviews were all done independent of each others' opinions, we're going in the opposite direction this time around. In fact, the only time we seem to be able to motivate ourselves to listen to a lot of these shows lately is when at least two of us are together. A sort of safety in numbers thing.

So watch this space, plenty of good stuff to come.

With All Due Respect To Melissa...

2009-10-16T10:09:00.003-04:00

You have to cut conservative mouthpiece Meghan McCain some slack. I mean, the girl's been blessed by the heavens and she obviously wants to share her bounty with the world. Nothing at all to be ashamed of, it's sad that she was probably browbeaten into giving an apology by her family/handlers.

Core Lore?

2009-10-16T09:53:00.002-04:00

I'm putting together a reading list for some future columns. Have any suggestions for essential core lore reads to add to:

Arthas: Rise of the Lich King
Rise of the Horde
Beyond the Dark Portal
Lord of the Clans
Tides of Darkness

Realm Famous

2009-10-08T10:16:00.002-04:00

You have to give it to WoW.com these days for providing easy-to-read summaries of MMO Champion and linking to interesting content from other sites. But with that sarcastic opening out of the way, I actually rather liked the little nugget that Mike Schramm unearthed this morning about being "Realm Famous" and so thought I'd share.

Not a very dynamic first post back, I know. Nor was it all weepy and misty like Melissa's heartfelt post. But the three of us are still pretty much attempting to figure out what's going on in podcast land and so no real schedule has been worked out yet. It seems like half of the shows I have listed on iTunes are either on hiatus, on a new feed and so haven't been updating, or have stopped production altogether. So we're in the process of re-assembling our list of regulars. And pretty much all casts that are active will be in the crosshairs, even if Jim or Melissa or I personally don't care for them.

So if you're a podcaster look out - there's an inverted red arrow bouncing up and down above your head!

Easing Back Into Things with an Apology

2009-10-05T08:57:00.004-04:00

Hiya! It's my first post back with the blog!

Before I start I want to say thank you to everyone who sent notes either to me or to Jim on my behalf while I was away. It was completely unnecessary because if you've been a long-time reader here you can tell the blog hasn't exactly been on fire since it was left solely to Jim, but flattering nonetheless. There are still some folks that I owe emails to too, namely Stompalina, and I'll be taking care of that outreach sort of stuff in the days and weeks to come.

One of the most surprising things to me, though, is that despite Jim's erratic output these days, according to stat-tracker this blog is still getting hundreds of hits per week from unique ISPs. I'd like to think that the continued activity is more of a testament to the sort of unfiltered opinions that we built the blog on, and not Jim's less-than-thrilling three part series on using Blizzard's faction change service, or his idiocy at not installing his Champions Online key properly and losing a whole day's worth of game time. Whatever the reason, it is much appreciated that some of you are sticking it out.

The early incarnation of the blog was an intense experience for all of us. The five of us barely knew each other, and rather than getting to know each other we had "The Code." In some ways it was exciting. When one of us saw the other around campus there would be a knowing smile or gesture between us that made me feel like I was apart of something bigger than myself.

But when Jim had to do his job and edit our writing, the lack of communication in those instances wasn't exciting. It was often misinterpreted as "Jim wanting to write the whole blog" or Jim not living up to the honesty portion of The Code. Our reviews were supposed to be just that, our opinions on that particular day. And while Jim certainly wouldn't change the spirit of our opinions, he would sometimes phrase things to be a little more diplomatic, which is what we thought he wanted to avoid at all costs.

So, like children, Pete (who you'll notice is now officially back as a contributor) and I used Fred's illness as a perfect time to run off. We already knew behind-the-scenes that Toothy's studies were taking up almost all of his free time and that his presence on the blog was probably going to end, so Jim was already going to be a writer down. But Fred's illness took everyone by surprise. The night we heard Fred had gone into the hospital, Pete and I both, on our own initiative and without each others' knowledge I might add, also told Jim that we were leaving.

Why am I saying this? Because I need to clear the air publicly before I feel right about writing for Jim again. Because in one day Jim went from heading up a team of bloggers that was pumping out new content daily, to it just being him left holding the bag alone. And he came under a lot of unfair criticism from our readers and some members of the WoW community when he made the decision to shut the blog down to readers as he tried to contact us and plead with us that we didn't know what we were doing.

Maybe in retrospect it wasn't the smartest thing to do because people saw a note that the blog was now "invite only," but people were making obscenely insensitive comments on the blog at a point where Fred's life was basically hanging in the balance and two other writers had just resigned and so he did what he thought was right.

Jim Surge is one of the most open-minded, funny, sincere people I've ever met and I apologize to him for not speaking with him personally when everything went down. I'm happy to put this chapter behind me, as it is something I'm far from proud of in my real life. Many of my fears, I've realized, were just misconceptions based on us not communicating.

Hopefully I've grown a bit since then.

What Part of "Maybe Later" Didn't You Understand?

2009-09-28T09:15:00.005-04:00

Happens all the time. Some random whispers you asking if you'd like to go on a run or do this or do that with them. You, likely in the middle of something (especially if you are leveling a priest), are expected to drop everything and rush to help or else you're unkind, a loser, an asshole, or worse.

The honesty approach never works. Early in my WoW playing days a Guild Master kicked me from her guild for saying: "no, I'd rather finish up my quests. I don't have a lot of time on tonight," in response to her request for me to run her new rogue through Wailing Caverns. Maybe in that case I just had an immature GM. Fine.

But there's one type of player I still can't figure out. The one where they send you a tell, you respond, "Maybe later, I have to log for dinner in a few mins," and then as their response to your response they immediately try to group you. It boggles the mind. And instead of just /ignore the person, I usually try to get to the bottom of it, and ask them: "why did you just do that?" as I decline. "Did you read what I said?"

"Yeah, but you're still on," the reply will come, "it will only take a second."

"Yes, but I'm in the middle of something right now," I reply.

At this point, it either goes quiet, or the random reveals him/herself as an "ultra." An ultra what, I'm not sure. But it isn't cool. It isn't "ultra cool."

"Yeah, so was I," the ultra has said, "but I have some time to grp up if you still want."

Now he or she is trying to flip this back on me, as if grouping up in the first place was my idea. It's borderline sociopathic. I realize - far too late - that I've been caught in the vortex. Forget about the tractor beam, I'm already in the landing bay. I'm as easy a mark as a fat American in Liverpool.

"I never wanted, actually," I'll reply, "you did."

Depending on the level of obnoxia, a second group request might be incoming. Or it might be, "lol, k, I'll friend you and hit you up later."

It's amazing, really, that people are like that.

Welcome Back Melissa & Pete Pete!

2009-09-25T09:36:00.004-04:00

I'm very pleased to report that our friends Melissa Muromets and Peter Massimo have officially returned to the UWoW fold. So now we at least have one decent WoW player here (Pete) to lend some credibility, in addition to a complete noob (Mel) and a pathetic-for-having-played-for-two-years noob (me).

Hopefully Melissa will actually do some work on the graphic side of the blog this time around, rather than just saying she will and then never doing anything about it like in the past! And hopefully Pete Pete won't lose his cool the first time I tell him something he's written is a sack of crap!

Both Mel and Pete will begin reviewing podcasts again, probably as soon as next week. Melissa has already been added back to the blog as a contributor as you may notice, and Pete shall be by the end of the day today. Pete was supposed to be back a week or two ago, but he (understandably) wanted to avoid Brewfest podcasts at all costs so strung me along until now!

With a few notable exceptions, the WoW podcasting landscape seems to have completely changed from where we left off in the Spring, and we'll look to see if that's a good thing or a bad thing. The three of us have to update our master list as well as I haven't listened to a single podcast outside of Blue Plz! and Ctrl Alt WoW in months and don't even know many of the changes that have happened, or which podcasts have started to fade, halted completely, etc.. That will probably be a collaborative effort by all three of us.

The re-introduction of Melissa & Pete will not mean the re-introduction of "The Code." The Code was a bizarre set of communication rules I put in place which prohibited the members of the blog from speaking with each other in real life. The point of The Code was to keep each reviewer in a vacuum, where none of us with stronger opinions would be able to influence the other in terms of the sort of review they wrote.

While it may have been an interesting concept, it failed miserably in execution and led to a host of unintended consequences we really should have considered before even attempting it. Toothy, who will not be coming back to the blog, is still convinced I created the rule so that I wouldn't have to be seen in town speaking with them in person. And to a degree he is correct, although In my case it is more from a time-wasting point of view than an image point of view.

When the blog started we had just met each other, so things were always going to be a bit awkward. Rather than getting to know each other, I then decided to cut off communication. While everyone was enthusiasic at first, it became clear in the very first week that it was going to cause problems. But I stubbornly refused to change without giving it a solid try first. In all, the very code that was supposed to help bring us together and help keep our opinions fresh nearly killed the blog completely.

Also, we had like 19 bazillion different email addresses and contact points which was a mess for everyone. That's all gone. If you want to contact the blog, just shoot me an email at: jimsurge@gmail.com, or follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/uwow

So, here we are, ready to give it another go. A heartfelt thank you to the hundreds who continue to check the blog on a weekly basis, your support is much appreciated. Hopefully we'll continue to give you reasons to keep coming back.

Stir It In The Sauce

2009-09-17T12:39:00.003-04:00

Some random quick hits today:

Shows just how out of the WoW podcast scene I've been lately, but did Renata leave World of Warcast? Our boy Hatfield sent me a surprising (to me, anyway) note saying Ren's Twitter bio begins: "Former cohost of World of Warcast..."

I tried poking around the website but didn't see anything official. Let me know if you have info on this!

***

Does WoW seem "more alive" to you now that you know that Cataclysm is coming? I know it isn't until next year but a few of my guildies have already started to get misty and are rolling up lowbies to run through Old World once or twice more before it changes.

"There's some new energy running through the old content now," said a guildie called Oatmeal. "Knowing that where you're walking or riding is going to be altered forever."

Semi-related, I have one toon on an RP server and all of the "clairvoyant" characters are standing on top of mailboxes shouting that 'a cataclyism is coming, listen now or you'll be lost!'

Snore.

***

Pete Pete will probably be back and write his first piece for the blog next week, although he's absolutely infuriated that he's coming back the week of Brewfest! "Can't wait to listen to 20 Brewfest shows," he texted me last night.

That one did elicit an audible reaction from me, but it was a chuckle rather than genuine laughter.

How Now Brown Cow?

2009-09-14T08:42:00.003-04:00

Hope the weekend was restful for you. It wasn't for me. A 1½ year old can do that to a fella!

It looks as though we'll see Melissa and Pete Pete back in the fold here relatively soon. Whether that means this week or next I'm not yet certain. Pete has already sent me a little something and if I get the okay from him I'll post it.

I got a note from someone asking about the next part of Hatfield's sci-fi story. I'm not sure if it was Hat himself since there wasn't much chatter about it here on the blog! It's all up to him if he wants to share more. You can hit him up on twitter at "thehatfield."

For some reason, Hat continues to refuse to write for this blog. I think he wants to go write for The Hunter's Mark, a very good blog/resource for hunters run by Lassirra.

For me... not much WoW for the weekend. Got the priest up to 64 and took a break over in Champions Online.

Updates

2009-09-08T09:01:00.003-04:00

Hamsalad hit 60! He's been running into all sorts of trouble in Outland thus far, numerous mob zergs, etc.. Seems like just when I get down to one mob left I pull just one more... and then just one more... and then just one more... and then I'm dead. I financed his flying mount already it should be fun/quick to be able to fly for all of Outland.

I thought that I'd be too tempted to ditch the priest and just level the 70 pally since the faction change but I'm pleased to have stayed with the priest for now. I think I'm going to do as much of Outland as I can stand, then start Northrend with the pally

I've been forcing myself to get addicted to Pandora again. I think I made a mistake adding the Ventures as an influence to my main station because since then I've had a TON of surf music suggestions. Surprisingly, I think some of the modern stuff is actually pretty cool when it crosses into electronica, but that's just me.

Haven't been able to get into Champions Online for a day. I don't mean mentally either. The server on their site says up, but in my launcher it says down and doesn't connect me. If it's still that way tonight I'll have to open a ticket. Sigh.

Fall In

2009-09-08T08:45:00.003-04:00

Some ongoing behind-the-scenes maneuvering may result in the return of Melissa Muromets and Peter "Pete Pete" Massimo to the UWoW blog as regular contributors.

If they do return they will resume duties as podcast reviewers which is doubly good news. The blog has suffered greatly without Melissa and Pete Pete's insights, and it will be great bringing back two of the original members of the team who really get the spirit of what I'm trying to accomplish here.

One of the biggest issues we've discussed in these talks is that there will be no silly non-communication rules between us this time. Who would have guessed that non-communication would lead to petty misunderstandings and off-based misjudgments? While it did serve its purpose well in terms of not influencing each others' writings in the early days, it was a practical nightmare for everything else from editing to deadline-meeting, etc..

So let's hope they do return and this blog gets back to being something much greater than the sum of its parts.

Faction Change Service - part 3

2009-09-04T18:05:00.002-04:00

Easy peasy. Finalizing the transfer in-game took seconds.

Well done to Blizzard for having this function so smoothly.

Faction Change Service - part 2

2009-09-04T09:24:00.005-04:00

Woke up this morning and the transaction has been confirmed. In my Account Management it read:

These faction changes have been successfully completed.
The characters are now available to play.

My old human pally Mikeadin is now going to go through a painful procedure that will lengthen his ears and make his body more supple. He will emerge on the other side as Thehatfield, to join up with Hatfield, Hamsalad, Oatmeal, and the whole Sons of Horus gang on Anvilmar.

There was a very slight problem last night... I forgot that Mikeadin was the GM of a guild called No Drama and you cannot faction-change if you are the guild's GM.

Funny story, Mikeadin wasn't the real GM of No Drama either. When I rolled my first horde toon and went 1-80 with him I left Mike in a thriving leveling guild that was about to start raiding. After I got the hunter to 80 I went back to check on Mike and all of the guildies were gone and he was the GM! So I quickly rolled another toon, transferred the guild leadership to keep the No Drama name going, and then had to log out and wait 20 minutes before I could start processing the faction change.

I'll post a quick follow-up in part 3 about actually making the switch. So far, so good.

Faction Change Service

2009-09-03T21:03:00.002-04:00

Wow, that was fast. It seems like we were just getting confirmation that faction changes were actually going to happen, and now they've already arrived! I've immediately begun the process of switching my lvl 70 human paladin over to the horde side. We'll see how smoothly this goes.

Champions Online

2009-09-02T14:26:00.003-04:00

Having some fun getting into an electricity character in Champions Online. Think I'm going to delete and start over because I haven't really been paying much attention to REC & END. Also have to get a better grip on gameplay mechanics/UI.

Tried a might character too late last night for a few minutes. Want to do a custom archetype tonight if time allows.

Not really finding a huge leap from CoH but I've not really logged any time at all yet so that's pretty unfair.

Hamsalad Turns 50!

2009-08-31T09:36:00.002-04:00

Of the 41 toons called "Hamsalad" in the WoW universe that appear in the Armory, I have one. He is a blood elf priest and yesterday he turned level 50! It's been no picnic, and while Shadowform is cool, it really does limit your rotation to maddeningly boring levels. But that said, this actually feels like one of the bigger accomplishments I've had in the game in a while, bringing a priest up this high, and made me look back at my in game history, which isn't much (nor is it distinguished).

I have always been a step or two behind-the-times regarding WoW as evidenced by the fact that I didn't even start playing until the release of Burning Crusade. My first toon was a human paladin called Barallas (default generated name), which I brought up to 55 before deleting him with the idea of doing it all over again "properly" now that I had some basic knowledge of the game mechanics. So, leveled a new pally called Mikeadin up to the level cap of 70 (this was when I was afraid of giving my real name to WoW players, paranoid guy I was). Mikeadin still exists, after spending a solid year on a bender in Booty Bay I finally sent him back to Stormwind for some rehab this weekend.

Anyway, during the time I was leveling the second pally most good/hardcore/long-term players were burning out on Kara, and I learned I was on a Pacific time zone server, while I was in New Jersey on the east coast, so finding people with similar schedules was tough when I finally did hit 70. So to pass the boredom I decided to roll a horde toon, and I took the training wheels route with a beast master hunter.

I got the hunter to 70 a solid month after Wrath's release, and so was behind the 8-ball again in terms of getting to Northrend. My horde guild, Sons of Horus, had gone from being a regular raiding guild, to a barren third-tier social guild for leveling with the defection of some major players to other guilds, including one of the old GMs. Originally founded by ex-military members and loved for it's no bullshit/no begging mentality, it sort of devolved a bit as recruiting restrictions eased.

I leveled the hunter up to 80 and left Sons of Horus on good terms (left a few lowbie alts there since it was a good guild to level in) to join Rage of the Horde, which was an active raiding guild. Almost immediately after joining Rage a bunch of the best raiders left to found Bloodmoon. Being a new 80, and being two months behind everyone else, I was not among the best raiders.

I went back to Sons of Horus, which was picking up steam again under an involved new GM. We even picked up some alliances with Knights of Thorn and Gnomes for Breakfast and were raiding again. Things were going well, but an illness to the GM and disruptions to the schedule forced players eager to raid to defect to other, more active guilds. And that's when I turned to Hamsalad.

Having my hunter buy him some shoulders and a chest piece for extra xp has been wonderful. The new riding rules have also been fantastic for leveling, although when I hit level 40 I was surprised to fondly remember the feeling of getting a mount on my first toon at level 40, and what an accomplishment that was while at the same time I was plunking down gold for an epic chicken for the priest!

So with all these xp buffs and mounts available I'm certainly taking a much easier route than the priests that have come before me. I give them much respect now when I'm in Dalaran on my hunter. Overall this experience with the priest has been great thus far. It has even made me appreciate the dps my hunter did while leveling a lot more!

My Day In WoW?

2009-07-29T10:58:00.005-04:00

I've had a couple of requests to post exactly what my typical day in WoW is. I hate this sort of thing so I'll be as quick as possible. My main is a horde hunter. My guild has really slowed down in terms of raids & dungeon runs lately and this is what I do while twiddling my thumbs:

When I first start, I log in to my bank alt who is parked in Silvermoon City away from the Org madness. Check mailbox. Maybe do an auctioneer scan.

Log in to my main who is at the horde inn in Dalaran. Immediately check when Wintergrasp will run. Whenever WG is I'll drop everything and run it.

While I'm at the inn I pick up the daily cooking quest.

I go down to the fountain and get the daily fishing quest.

Next I fly to Argent Tournament. Get the Champion dailies and the two Blastbolt Brothers dailies. When 3.2 drops I will also add the Crusader dailies to this.

I find a group for Threat & Citadel and sometimes Taking the Battle to the Enemy. Finish Battle, and do Among the Champions back at the tourney grounds, then turn those four in.

Fly to Dun Niffelem for the Sons of Hodir dailies. I'm already exalted this is just a quick money grab. I also try to make sure I don't finish the dailies without at least 20 Relics of Ulduar to sell on the AH. The Blowing Hodir's Horn and Hot & Cold mobs are good for these.

From there I fly to Grom'arsh Crash-Site for one of the Blastbolt dailies. From there to Dalaran. Port down to do the other Blastbolt daily. Port back up, fly to tourney grounds, turn in Blastbolt dailies, hearth back to Dal.

Depending on the cooking & fishing dailies, they are either worked into that routine if I'm nearby (for instance, I'll do Jack Me Some Lumber while looking for Crystalsong Carrots) or done at the end. I always keep enough Rhino & Chilled Meat on my bank alt for the cooking quests that require it. Once that's done, send all salable mats to my bank alt and start leveling my lowbie priest until the next WG.

More on Money Making
I've also recently made two raids on the market on my server.

As I've mentioned, I have been making a lot of money on Rhino Meat, selling stacks of x4 with a 10g buyout and they go fast when Mustard Dogs is the cooking daily. The key to this play is to buy out a lot of Rhino Meat in the weeks leading up to your attack on the market. I mean a lot. Because after a few weeks of doing this you are going to inflate the cost of Rhino Meat on your server to the point where your stack of x4 for 10g seems fair or nearly a bargain. When peoples' AH scans suddenly tells them the meat is selling for 2.5g each, they get greedy and start putting up x20 stacks for 50-60g. This is why it's important to have a nice stash in reserve. This is a slow burn play, initially if you put up 5 or 10 x4 stacks you may only sell a couple. But even this will help gradually push the price up. And if someone is silly enough to undercut you with a x4 stack, buy it immediately. You'll just repost it for profit.

When I started, stacks of x20 were less than 10g each! I only bought out 100 ahead of time for this test, so the gross yield is only 250g. Considering I spent less than 50g on the 100, it is still over 200g clear profit in a matter of a couple of weeks. I should have bought much more. I'm letting it cool down now so I can try pushing the price up even more in the next round. It's really not a lot of work for a tremendous profit margin.

My other recent assault has been on Mammoth Cutters. I'm always buying them for my hunter, and I've noticed since summer hit there are never very many in the AH on my server (engineers must have plenty of dosh for holidays/vacations!). There have even been multiple days where there have been none for sale. So again I really started stocking up, buying every x1000 stack I saw in the AH. Then, when there was another lull with none posted, I threw a few up for 75g. They sold, because 80s using guns pretty much need them and I'd been buying all the inexpensive ones!

The Square

2009-07-23T09:23:00.003-04:00

I'm happy to report that our friend Stephen Edwards (aka Hatfield/thehatfield) has graciously allowed me to publish some of his short stories here on the UWOW blog. This is the opening story for a series called The Square, and it is a very stark and bizarre world. For you football supporters out there, Tor Ander Flo sure sounds a lot like Tore Andre Flo doesn't it? I love this and will continue to publish more as Hat directs. Hope you like it too.

THE SQUARE
by Stephen Edwards

"Judge Yakov Shur, please report to The Elevator."

"Judge Yakov. Thank you."

Everyone gathers around The Elevator. The doors open automatically and everyone claps wildly. The officer places his arms out across the opening as if he were going to hold the doors open. The officer is smiling. The officer is missing one button from his navy blue uniform but the badge is there. A soft, soothing female voice is again clearly heard by all through loudspeakers:

"Tor Ander Flo, please report to Simple Assignment."

"Tor Ander. Thank you."

Everyone gasps. Everyone gets into a line so they can shake Tor Ander Flo's hand on his way out. Someone pats Tor Ander Flo on the shoulder. Tor Ander Flo is a dark-haired of Norwegian ancestry. Many people shake Tor Ander Flo's hand. The officer looks back over his shoulder to watch the process. The officer steps away from The Elevator, taking two precise steps forward. The Elevator doors close and those still watching clap.

"Trem Carr, please report to The Square."

"Trem. Thank you."

Everyone shouts. Some stop shouting. Most of everyone pick up large, dirty grey banners. The rest of everyone watch Tor Ander Flo exit. Everyone with grey banners start to shout more loudly than before. Most of the grey banners have the image of Trem Carr's face on it. Everyone with grey banners thinks that The Square is like a Simple Assignment for Trem Carr. Trem Carr lights a cigarette. Everyone (especially those with grey banners) quiets down and waits in silence, and then claps when they see smoke. Trem Carr is a crowd favorite. Trem Carr looks like a tough man with thick, squarish features. Trem Carr descends into The Square and everyone again shouts and ferociously waves their grey banners or their clenched fists.

"Lucien D'Bouchard, please report to The Square."

"Lucien. Thank you."

The heads of everyone drop. Everyone with grey banners thinks terrible things. Lucien D'Bouchard thinks his assignment is unfair but he says nothing. The officer smiles and readies his equipment. Lucien D'Bouchard looks old and tired. Lucien D'Bouchard's long grey hair brushes against some members of the crowd like in days past. Lucien D'Bouchard descends into The Square and everyone with grey banners screams and hurls insults. Despite his longevity, Lucien D'Bouchard is not a crowd favorite.

The Elevator doors open and everyone claps. The officer claps ferociously. Judge Yakov Shur steps out of The Elevator. Trem Carr and Lucien D'Bouchard continue to descend into The Square. Judge Yakov Shur presses the Button of Conquest. The red light flashes.

"Presentation of the prisoners."

The officer leads two sets of prisoners into The Square. The officer looks very proud of himself. Everyone with grey banners goes mad with delight.

"Trem Carr has prisoners totaling 494."

"60 of Trem Car's prisoners are women."

Everyone with grey banners continue in their madness.

"Lucien D'Bouchard has prisoners totaling 712."

"109 of Lucien D'Bouchard's prisoners are women."

Everyone calms down and gives Lucien D'Bouchard respectful applause. Judge Yakov Shur scans the barcode for Trem Carr and asks him to extinguish his cigarette. Trem Carr extinguishes his cigarette immediately. Judge Yakov Shur scans the barcode for Lucien D'Bouchard and clasps his forearm. Judge Yakov Shur nods and releases Lucien D'Bouchard's forearm. Judge Yakov Shur nods again, this time at both men. Trem Carr and Lucien D'Bouchard nod. Judge Yakov Shur presses the Button of Conquest. The red light flashes.

"Begin."

Total silence from everyone as they move to their seats. Trem Carr makes the first move. It is not a good move. Judge Yakov Shur makes a note of Trem Carr's poor move. Lucien D'Bouchard executes a Passas-a-Move but stumbles at the end and does not strike Trem Carr. Judge Yakov Shur makes a note of Lucien D'Bouchard's stumble. The red light flashes. Judge Yakov Shur awards Lucien D'Bouchard one of Trem Carr's prisoners. The prisoner is not a woman. Everyone begins to speak about the match. Lucien D'Bouchard is required to remain in his post-stumble position. Judge Yakov Shur presses the Button of Conquest. The red light flashes."

"Second Round."

Everyone again falls silent. Trem Carr requests a Concentration. Judge Yakov Shur awards Trem Carr a Concentration. Trem Carr executes a Savka-a-Move and strikes the prone post-stumble Lucien D'Bouchard cleanly. Lucien D'Bouchard acknowledges the hit with a scream. Judge Yakov Shur makes a note of Trem Carr's excellent move. Lucien D'Bouchard stands shakily but then executes a YAKOV-A-MOVE! Judge Yakov Shur is doubly pleased. Trem Carr is hit and acknowledges the hit with a scream. Judge Yakov Shur makes a note of the hit. The red light flashes.

A video screen drops down into the Square. The image of Judge Yakov Shur executing the first Yakov-a-Move is displayed. Images of Judge Passas Oliveriers and Judge Savka Ivanovich are displayed. Everyone starts to thunder.

"Lucien D'Bouchard is declared winner."

"Lucien D' Bouchard is awarded 217 of Trem Carr's prisoners."

"11 of the awarded prisoners are women."

"276 of Trem Carr's prisoners remain."

"49 of the remaining prisoners are women."

Trem Carr promptly releases his remaining prisoners.

"Lucien D'Bouchard is awarded Judge status."

"Judge Lucien D'Bouchard shall be immortalized with the Lucien-a-Move."

Everyone is thundering by now and out of their seats. Those with grey banners have lost them. Trem Carr bows to Judge Lucien D'Bouchard. Everyone lets out a great roar. Tears begin to run down Trem Carr's face. Judge Lucien D'Bouchard has no tears as he grabs Trem Carr's shoulders. Trem Carr closes his eyes and he and Judge Lucien D'Bouchard share a moment.

Judge Yakov Shur interrupts, awarding Judge Lucien D'Bouchard the Judge's Vestments. Trem Carr is led away from The Square by the officer and is brought to the Stone of Directions. Everyone gathers around Trem Carr and ridicules him. Trem Carr circles the Stone of Directons and faithfully continues the Tradition of Weeping. Trem Carr faithfully chooses South, and the officer begins to beat him with an ordinary wooden staff.

Judge Lucien D'Bouchard observes the process dry-faced. Judge Lucien D'Bouchard and Judge Yakov Shur enter The Elevator. There is no clapping.

She Wants Money (What She Wants)

2009-07-17T22:48:00.002-04:00

Happy Canada Day!

2009-07-01T10:54:00.005-04:00

All you crazy Canadians should have a good one!

This morning's NY Times features a charming collection of short pieces by expat Canadians living in the U.S. that I highly recommend.

Trade Chat's Anal Tribute to Michael Jackson

2009-06-26T10:29:00.003-04:00

I really, really have to start remembering to take screen captures when things like this start to go down. Every once in a while on the trade chat, someone will ask for an anal tribute. Then everyone types "anal" and then links something that is relatively funny in that context. My contribution, for example, was "anal [Rhino Meat]."

Last night someone called for an anal tribute to honor Michael Jackson. I was literally laughing my ass off for the first time in a good long while. I can't tell you any of the others because I was blasted out of my skull again on my allergy medicine but lots of people like to link staves or pets. Now that I type that, I wonder if that's why it was so funny.

World of Podland Podcast

2009-06-23T12:38:00.003-04:00

I'm trying to get some folks together for a satiric/comedy WoW show that would resemble the Colbert Report and spoof other WoW podcasts. Have loose outlines together already for the first two shows. I plan to have them very lightly scripted, basically just personality traits I wish displayed and topics that should be covered, but will mostly just be improv. Should be a tremendous amount of fun.

Please shoot me a note if you have any interest in such a project: jimsurge@gmail.com

EDIT: I received a couple of questions asking so thought I'd clarify: there's no need for your real life identity to ever become known on the podcast (unless you wish to do so, of course). The "hosts" and "guests" will all be "characters."

Money Making Tips

2009-06-19T15:09:00.003-04:00

Spend an hour farming Rhino Meat in Sholazar Basin, then hang onto the meat until Mustard Dogs is the cooking daily. Once Mustard Dogs is up, sell stacks of Rhino Meat x4. Depending on the server, I've been making between 10g-25g for the x4 stacks.

These are just straight resells on the AH from a vendor purchase:

Eternium Thread continues to be a fantastic long-term moneymaker for me.

Symbol of Kings are also getting a nice markup.

Has TB Left WoW Behind?

2009-06-19T10:13:00.003-04:00

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.

Funny to Me

2009-06-15T09:29:00.005-04:00

I'm always fascinated with bizarre things in World of Warcraft. Maybe fascinated is the wrong word. I find certain mundane aspects of WoW, just like real life, hysterically funny. And while I know that it is probably only funny to me or drunks who laugh at anything, I seize upon some tiny aspect of the game, and just kill the "joke" into the ground.

For example, I ask trade chat on my server "what on earth do oozes spend gold on?" about once every three months to see if the responses change. And I phrase it just like that because I know, I KNOW, someone will reply "don't you mean Azeroth?" It's an eerie conditioned response, along with the "lol" that always follows from someone else:

Me: What on earth do oozes spend gold on?
Smart Guy #1: don't u mean Azeroth?
Moron #1: lol

I doubt Moron #1 is really laughing out loud. A lot of people are like this in the gaming world and online in general. They will type "lol" or "lmao" when they are just "ma," which is mildly amused. I personally use "ma" or "nt" (nice try) unless I am actually laughing because I don't like to misrepresent myself. If one of these psychos starts to think I think they are funny they might be encouraged to continue the "humour" to me in a series of whispers that earns them ignore status. And I'd rather not have to do that if possible. Really, I'm a people person at heart.

Well, this past weekend I asked the question again. And some of the responses actually did make me laugh out loud, especially the first response, which was not (for once) the classic "don't u mean Azeroth" Pavlovian response, the first response was "cigarettes."

Now, just the thought of a green ooze oozing his way up to a newspaper stand or convenience store for a pack of smokes and having the merchant put his hand into the ooze's body to get the money that is just free-floating there in the gelatinous mess makes me laugh. Nevermind picturing the ooze with a cigarette in its mouth having a moment of quiet contemplation near whatever swamp or ruins it is inhabiting, perhaps reflecting on a life they thought would turn out differently. Perhaps working up the courage to ask the boss ooze for the afternoon off because it is his birthday after all and some free time would really help him come back refreshed for more terrorizing of adventurers.

Well, that fantastic "cigarettes" reply was quickly followed by the brilliant barb "your mother." For some reason I imagine the person who typed that was either an over-compensating American from the east coast/New England area, or a chav from Liverpool or Bulwell. I can't fault them. In my younger days I might type the same thing. The "your mother" response was followed by a few obligatory "lol"'s, but again I seriously doubt the heartiness of the laughter.

Past that a few gems:

cupcakes
ham
your cousin
rent
schooling
board games
chewing gum
concert tickets
organic milk

I like "your cousin" especially well because of those insufferable bullshit artists known as "one-uppers." You know the type... you say you leveled your toon 1-80 in 8 days of game time, someone will instantly reply that their cousin did it in 5 days flat. You finally PUG your first Warsong Gulch victory after 50 tries and they comment that their cousin wins that battleground every time, topping the damage AND healing charts along the way. You grind away at dailies to outfit your new 80 with some BoE purples and their cousin got the world first for completing Ulduar (on the PTR, of course).

Unrelated but nevertheless disturbing is Applebough, the fruit vendor in Dalaran who happens to be a tree. That he sells "fresh apple juice" is pretty disgusting. The thought of him selling his own fruit crosses a moral line for me. Not quite into the category of selling one's children, but darn close. That said though, if I were Applebough and had already crossed the line I wouldn't stop with just juice or apples. Why not sell pie crusts, apple seeds, apple cider & apple cider donuts, apple cobbler, etc. and expand the profile? Become known as "the apple guy." Might bring in some more customers.

Any strange in-game happenings that strike you as funny? Let me know!

Playing at the WoW

2009-06-12T10:03:00.006-04:00

I've been beating my head against the wall doing the Argent Tournament and picked up the Staff of Feral Furies for my hunter, replacing an even more embarrassing polearm which had spell power on it. Still need a true hunter weapon of course but it's certainly an upgrade for now. Only need to do this for a few more days for the 150 seals needed for the Argent Hippogryph, have already picked up Crusader title (and Ambassador, hardly had any Sen'jin rep prior to this daily grind).

Ran Obsidian Sanctum with one drake last night, and our guild isn't geared for it. Our guild also isn't geared for morons standing in the lava wall with no drakes, of which I was one. This was only the second time I've run OS on the hunter, and did much better the first time. Anyone have a link to a decent OS youtube? Preferably one with instruction and not lame techno-pop?

I've got a priest/rogue combo I'm still working on. The RAF bonus is gone and I still need to do tons of runs to get them a couple of pieces of heirloom gear. They're only around the level 28 range, pathetic waste of money that was. Also have a 21 pally I'm just going to park until the patch comes for the mount.

Mount changes. Man... I remember those days of running until level 40. Sucked but was such a great accomplishment when you finally got that mount. Just like the horror of having to do Strat to get the Pally epic mount. When it was all over you'd just go for a ride to wherever because hey, you could! I sort of see this move as a way to appease the crowd that wants to start all alt toons at lvl 55 as long as you have one lvl 80. Should make it a lot easier to level alts... especially since you'll basically be able to fly through Outland.

My Completely Unscientific Poll

2009-06-03T16:39:00.002-04:00

Did a "quick" Twitter poll, and 9 of the 44 UWoW followers actually responded. They were probably like: UWoW? What's that again?

The question was, if you had to name one, what is your favorite WoW podcast at the moment?

Not surprisingly, Blue Plz! topped the list. I say not surprisingly because TB has been very supportive of this blog on his show and I imagine that many of his listeners enjoy the honest, beholden-to-no-one opinions offered here. Here's the tally:

Blue Plz! 4
rawrcast 1
Ctrl Alt Wow 1
The Instance 1
All Things Azeroth 1
Bind on Equip 1

Warming to the Occassion

2009-06-02T09:14:00.002-04:00

Starting to get back into the blog a little bit now that the dust has settled.

For those of you who have asked Fred is doing well. He's moved down to Reddington Beach in Tampa, Florida where the climate and other medical factors are better suited for his particular health condition. He says you can still contact him directly at uwowfred@live.com, just remember the replies from him might go into your spam folder! I'm actually going to set up a gmail account for myself today to avoid this auto-filter nonsense.

Toothy has come in off the ledge since Nottingham Forest somehow survived the drop in the English Championship. He's still Doogie Howser'ing his way through university and does not extend best wishes to anyone. Haven't heard a thing from Pete Pete, and I suspect I may never again. Mel has been around, she is apparently STILL working on a new logo, one that will remove the words "World of Warcraft" while retaining the "UWoW" brand. I'll likely be removing the words "World of Warcraft" from the blog, and just calling the place UWoW, since it is a resource for you... the podcast-going WoW-lovers. We may still see infrequent pieces from these folks in the future, but they are no longer formally associated with the blog.

Wanted to post a note I received a few weeks ago from our friends over at The Grind Podcast, which was one of my favorite WoW-related shows:

Unfortunately, The Grind Podcast will be no more. The logistics of producing and releasing a quality show each week proved to be daunting. Steve Hamner and myself, David Sanna, have made the decision that although the Grind must end, we would like to continue. The final two episodes of The Grind podcast will be hosted at a new feed on Itunes. Our new show, Inside Azeroth, will begin recording in less than two weeks.

You can find us at: InsideAzeroth.com

and our Itunes feed is : http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=315422799

Thanks again for your blog. It's a must read for any WoW podcaster.

Cheers,

David Sanna
InsideAzeroth.com
InsideAzeroth@gmail.com

It's a shame because I really thought The Grind was getting into a good groove and it really grew on me quickly. But from these ashes comes a new show and I hope everyone will check that out too. I haven't given a listen yet but will report back when I do. The last Grind, #48, was posted on May 10.

Some interesting other news going on lately. I thought the Blue Plz! special 4th anniversary show from May 22 was the best WoW-related anniversary show I've heard. It was a flat-out party and that's what made it EPIC for me. Great stuff, good reflections by other WoW Radio folks, just well done.

I was disappointed that I missed this past weekend's live rawrcast broadcast, on which TB was a guest, so can't wait to give that one a listen. I have to hand it to Stompalina, she seems, along with the Bind on Equip and Ctrl Alt WoW folks right now, to really be making an effort to reach out to and collaborate with other podcasts and other broadcasters on a regular basis.

More to come... in the FUTURE!

Live(ish) (Sorta)Chat!

2009-06-01T19:31:00.003-04:00

I've jumped on the AIM & the Skype for the time being:

AIM: jimsurge74

Skype: jim.surge

Although I must warn you, I sound like I am in the space shuttle on Skype ATM.

Have to get a better headset. Any recommendations?

WOW vs. TWOW

2009-05-28T10:38:00.004-04:00

(NOTE: This is a work in progress...)

There have been plenty of World of Warcraft podcasts in the past who have been more like self-therapy: trying to rationalize and/or justify the days upon days that they've spent playing WoW. The often whiny, self-important host will tell you over and over that just because they have no real-life friends or interests or just because they never get any enjoyment doing things that normal people do doesn't mean they are abnormal. No, in fact, some will tell you it's the other way around! It's "fairer" in World of Warcraft because of some mechanism or other (in WoW we can just ignore, or /gkick, or we vote on everything, blah blah blah).

The host will tell you, passionately so, that they've met people they never would have dreamed of meeting through the magic of guild chat. "I talked to a Chinese," one giddy host proclaimed. "Where am I going to find a Chinese here in Alabama?" Or they will tell a 10-minute long story about the inside jokes they share with their "friends" over vent. "Every time I come on vent, deathstabberkill will always say 'hi love' which I think is so hysterical coming from someone with a name like 'deathstabberkill!' But in real life if his name is just 'Frank' then it could kind of be creepy for him to say that."

If this hasen't revolted you enough, the hogwash is ratcheted up to the next level when the self-important host starts calling World of Warcraft "The World of Warcraft." If they're not joking when they use that, it should be a clear indication that you should no longer listen.

Poor Sales of Arthas

2009-05-08T10:39:00.004-04:00

Thought you'd be interested to know how Arthas is selling in the United States. A couple of readers of the blog who happen to work in publishing have access to the Nielsen BookScan numbers and emailed me some interesting information.

Nielsen BookScan has reporting of actual "cash register" sales of most of the majors, independents, and other retail outlets in the U.S. where books are sold (B&N, Borders, Amazon, Books-A-Million, Follett, etc., even to places like Target and Starbucks, just about everything there is I think except for Wal-Mart). While they've asked me not to post actual numbers, I can say the sales (as reported by retailers and other outlets) have been relatively poor and are not even close to exceeding 20,000 copies sold. This doesn't mean the publisher hasn't advanced/sold many thousands more copies of the book to its customers; it means people aren't buying it even though it's out there in number. At this rate they said the book may well end up as a bargain "remainder," which apparently is what they call books that have been severely overprinted. These books, I've been told, usually end up in stacks in a bargain section with drastically reduced prices.

The consensus I'm hearing is that the book has obviously been typeset to hit 300 pages in order to justify a $25 pricepoint, when the book, especially with the inexpensive/poor-quality paper stock used, should only be about 180-200 pages and $17.95 or so.

Some more odd facts - the book has sold the most copies in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, with Miami, FL second, Columbus, OH, and Richmond, VA rounding out the top four before the largest market NYC finally comes in fifth.

Hatfield vs. McCoy

2009-05-05T15:08:00.004-04:00

My good friend Hatfield, a level 80 Blood Elf hunter and all-around good-natured guy who plays on Anvilmar with the guild [Sons of Horus], recently admitted that he did all of the Noblegarden events and is now "the Noble." For Hat, being called "the Noble" outweighed the indignity of gaining such a worthy-sounding title through a series of egg gathering, chocolate eating, and bunny rabit themed achievements.

He and I had sort of had an unofficial running bet to see who would be the first to cave and get a world event title, and I suppose I win! The main prize is that Hat has to come over and bake me a ham. The side prize is that I get to tourture him with a Fishing With John marathon! The only problem is that, as usual, I will likely not answer his emails, texts or phone messages and will probably never collect my winnings.

More on this important news as it develops. I'm hoping for a nice honey glaze!

World of Warcraft

2009-04-27T10:29:00.002-04:00

I haven't been playing too much World of Warcraft lately, and I'm not one of those psychos that listens to WoW podcasts when not playing WoW so I have no idea what's been going on in podcast land. I'm pretty sure I'm relieved that I missed the bulk of repetitive garbage that usually comes out of peoples' mouths around patch time.

The whole point of listening to the shows for me is to learn something new. There's a certain point that I reach on certain shows - like then it's the 10th show I've heard that week read off a list of patch change notes - when I start to wonder why it is that the host(s) is/are doing a podcast and that is never a good sign. And it's been happening a lot more lately than it did before. So I feel like I'm in a bit of an unfair place to review shows right now because they will universally be negative.

More about me, it's already the end of April and I only have a month and a half on my refer-a-friend bonus. I haven't really done a thing with it. The priest I was intending to speed level is still sitting at level 25. My wacky paladin/rogue combo imploded when the paladin refused to continue working with the rogue. My second Oracle egg hatches and it was the snake pet for the second week in a row! Made a quick 50g on that, etc.. I have been becomming FLITHY RICH by marking up Eternium Thread 2000%. They are available from a vendor in Icecrown for about 2-3g and are selling on my server for 40-50g each. I recently sold a stack of 10 for 400g.

See how annoying that is? It happens all the time in podcasts to the point where if I'm not hearing some completely unrelated and unimportant personal gaming information meant to posture themselves as WoW badasses or funny or whatever their inane point is I feel like something is missing from the show. How messed up is that?

That's why I'm saying, I need to set some actual parameters about what makes a good podcast and what doesn't. UWoW, for all of our codes and strange inner workings was still a more "gut instinct" place than I wanted it to be. That was one of the biggest problems we had when the five of us first started. What if four of us loved a show but the one who happned to be reviewing it hated it for whatever reason?

Sweeping Up

2009-04-24T09:12:00.003-04:00

I'm sweeping the place up a bit.

Don't know if everything will be deleted. I'm sort of going to feel my way around a bit and possibly get things going again.

Pete Pete, Toothy, Melissa, and Fred are all doing well and express their thanks to everyone who has supported them here but they cannot commit to continuing as regular contributors. We will still see special "op-eds" from them but they will be pretty infrequent.

We're still getting hundreds of hits on the site every day, even in these weeks since we switched to "private" readership and I thank you for that I guess. It's also creepy.

Thanks again. I haven't been online much at all and apologize to those whom I have meant to contact. Also, remember to check your spam folder, right near the penis enlargement emails might be a reply from me! Thanks @live.com!

Trouble Ahead, Trouble Behind...

2009-04-08T16:45:00.002-04:00

Pete, Melissa, Toothy and I have been shocked to learn that Fred went into the hospital Monday evening and is being subjected to a battery of different health tests. While Fred is remaining positive, by his account the outlook seems grim. Please keep him in your thoughts.

As you might imagine this isn't really the time for us to carry on about World of Warcraft podcasts. I for one didn't even want to post this but Toothy says everyone will accuse us of "blog fade" otherwise and Fred said it was okay.

If our week off taught us anything last week it's that the blog in general and our editing/posting processes in particular need a bit of fine-tuning and maybe we'll have the opportunity to address those concerns at this time.

Fred has asked not to be contacted but thanks you in advance for the well wishes. In case anyone feels the need I can be reached by email: uwowjim@live.com Skype: jim.surge or AIM: jimsurge74

Thank you for your understanding during this time.

In the Chamber: Back in Black

2009-04-06T09:25:00.004-04:00

I love when it's overcast outside as it is this morning in the northeast of the United States. Maybe it's because most other people have brainwashed themselves into having low energy or sad moods that I (bring contrary) have brainwashed myself into loving this sort of weather. Or maybe it seems more possible that during this sort of weather the veil between worlds is thin and one can see what one doesn't always see... a gateway to transcendental knowledge.

This being "Opening Day" for the Major League Baseball season based in the United States I think it's mildly appropriate that the weather is not fully cooperating with "America's pastime" given the steroids scandals that has brought the integrity of the league's last 15-20 years into question. But hey, who cares about sports, right?

Despite rumors to the contrary I have not left the blog. Everything is going to continue rolling as it was, probably for another three-to-five weeks before our next break. I think we all enjoyed having the week off last week to recharge our batteries and I for one barely listened to any World of Warcraft podcasts. I think it was Blue Plz! and Proudmore Pansies and that was it for me. We've received a couple of tips about new shows that we're going to cover and Melissa should be posting about them sometime soon. Also, Pete may actually do his Transcribing Master column (or whatever it's called these days) this week.

More to come... see you at the matches!

Widespread Panic

2009-04-01T15:51:00.003-04:00

In honor of getting tickets for the August 21 Widespread Panic/Allman Brothers show this morning, here's Down:

Also, contrary to the apparently popular belief (and I don't know where recent emailers could possibly have heard anything about this), I have not sold the blog to News Corporation, nor are we entering into any sort of agreement with the FX family of networks. No one has fired anyone at the blog, and it is not true that I will be going alone to News Corporation and leaving the other four behind in the dust. It's just not true.

Reviewing the Reviewers: All Fools Day Edition

2009-04-01T09:38:00.006-04:00

Well, the blog has been coming along nicely and we've arrived at our first week off. We've come into this treating this blog like a job (a job that we happen to like to do) and I think like Jim that if we keep this mindset we'll be able to avoid the burnout and other general craziness that seems to be going around the WoW community lately.

Anyway, what better day to review the clowns writing for this insane blog than All Fools Day? Since I've only ever done one other Reviewing the Reviewers column, and that was before any of us had written anything about podcasts, you might want to take a look at that one before reading this one to see what my initial impressions were and how they've differed in reality.

Jim Surge: Jim has been far too busy trying to play diplomat to do much reviewing, never mind getting anywhere close to saying something outrageous for the sake of being outrageous as I initially suspected him capable of. He's been playing games with the rest of us by inserting errors into our stories and seeing if we notice before we post them which led to a drama-fest culminating with Pete Pete having to face the blog a while back. Jim's also been the most diligent, In the Chamber has been right there every day even while he was knocked out sick for a week, and I think he's toned down his pseudo-intellectual persona and let more of his actual personality come through in the last couple of weeks. This immediately leaps to mind:

We might just have a couple of us reviewing and a couple doing the other columns, we haven't decided yet. But more importantly, if an asteroid hit the planet we'd just have to deal with it at that time. No excuses.

Okaaaaaay. Even though it's weird I kind of like it... it's the real Jim trying to break through. Overall I think Jim's done a good job leading the blog, even if he might be too obsessed with walking the "fairness" line. His favorite podcasts at the moment are: Ctrl Atl WoW, Proudmoore Pansies, and How I WoW.

Pete Pete: Peter has surprisingly turned out to be the softest touch on the team thus far, and maybe that's not all that surprising if you consider he grew up on the beach in California but he seems much more uptight in person. His Transcribing Master column hasn't really gotten off the ground yet. He gave a good review to a BigRedKitty podcast, an encouraging review of the WoW Insider Show, and a poor-but-looking-for-the-bright-spots sort of piece on Yet Another World of Warcraft Podcast, and memorably had a review rejected for being "too positive." He hasn't really demonstrated his conspiracy-theory madness that we thought would be an interesting aspect of the blog. I'd say that if one member were in danger of being dropped from the team it would be Peter Massimo. Pete gets all of his info from our friend Hatfield anyway so if he's not going to be doing his original pieces then he's got to figure out something else of value to contribute. We all like Pete but he hasn't been very helpful and Fred wanted him off the blog already for his Code violations (sorry Pete, but I told you this in person yesterday so it shouldn't be a surprise). Pete says his favorite show remains WoW Things Considered although he's been listening a lot to All Things Azeroth, Epic Dolls and Rawrcast.

Fred Jones: Fred liked an episode of Blue Plz!, and disliked an episode of The Instance. He has pretty much lived up to my suspicion that he's a bit afraid to be around us or contribute much to the site in case his "serious friends" catch wind of what he's up to here. Fred hasn't really been as much of a wildcard as I thought but he is a little more prone to salty or "old school" language and ideas in his posts than the rest of us (I may well be reading too much into that but that's the feeling I get). I do know for a fact that he's been playing the least amount of WoW of the five of us and therefore it's hard for him to get into listening to the podcasts regularly. So I think Fred is primarily going to do his Delayed Recall column and become more of a feature of the blog than a regular contributor going forward. Fred is the one among us who really doesn't have strong attachments to any one particular show, although he still likes newer shows and he says he too has been listening to Rawrcast, along with Bind on Equip and The Elitists.

Toothy: Mr. Toothy as an emailer called him has probably been the most outspoken reviewer at UWoW thus far. He couldn't make it past 45 minutes of World of Warcast, he liked Rawrcast even though he didn't want to, and he put a mixed but "solid" stamp on Casually Hardcore, in addition to having a decent time with Mailbag (and thanks for defending me against that emailer, Toothy). I think that Mailbag will continue to grow as a funnier aspect of the blog because if the current sort of questions remain the sort of questions we receive the piece can only be funny. Jim has taken Toothy to task on the blog recently for being a slacker, saying we've only received 10 emails in the last six weeks so he should be making other contributions. We shall see... Mr. Toothy's favorite shows at the moment are: Ctrl Alt WoW (still), and Blue Plz!

Mel: I'm writing my own this time because we're all on vacation and it seems to me that no one is checking their messages very often. I have been doing a lot of behind the scenes work, but I did have the chance to do a fantastic 7 Questions with Aprillian of Ctrl Alt WoW and also gave a positive review to Epic Dolls. I'm still a new player to the game so I like to hear WoW Insider Show so that I'm pretty much up on all of the latest official word from Blizzard and The Instance for a little more perspective on some of the top issues. I think Epic Dolls lately have done a great job in particular to keep in mind new-to-the-game players, and I think it's easy to forget that not all 11 million (or whatever it is now) players have been there since November 23, 2004. I don't think my "on-blog" presence has been very "dramatic" but again I'm doing a lot of work on the graphic side of the blog, improvements that will start to seep in over the next few weeks and months.

Well, that's the five of us right now as I see it.

Gone Fishin'

2009-03-30T01:54:00.004-04:00

UWoW will be on holiday the week of March 30. This is a scheduled break, no sudden "unforseen circumstances" to take care of or whathaveyou. We shall be resuming our normal posting duties next Monday.

I do assume though that the blog shall still be rife with activity on All Fool's Day, so please check back on April 1.

The blog may be down periodically this week for brief intervals as we try some new templates.

Fred never posted his strange story this past weekend; I'll see what's going on with him but that will be up this week in our first "Lost in Space" post.

Towards the end of the week I'll post a "Greater Good" letting you know of the developments (we're allowing ourselves to speak with each other this week so we can fine-tune and set a more uniform tone to our posts).

Thanks for reading! Be sure to check back this week for more excitement.

In the Chamber: BoE & BP!

2009-03-26T10:43:00.007-04:00

Two for your pleasure today:

Bind on Equip Episode 18 [explicit]

This past Tuesday Assault version of Blue Plz! is also now available over at WoW Radio for now while they get their archive sorted. I hear there's a classic rant on the unfairness of Blizzard requiring ad-on creators to remove an in-game donate button from all mods that culminates in his own take on the classic Martin Niemöller poem "First they came...."

Bind on Equip should be fun... I think I was listening to Epic Dolls yesterday and they said something that made me laugh... that Bind on Equip was a cute name for a podcast. And I think they were being serious. I'm pretty sure it was that show, one never knows really lately it seems a lot of the shows are blending together in my scrambled brain. But before I get caught in a cute vortex here and say something like "I thought it was cute that they thought it was cute," it was kind of cute that they thought it was cute. Sorry, haven't had any coffee yet.

By the way, Epic Dolls included a thoughtful discussion on this latest episode about being a good guildie and being a good guild leader. While what they cover might seem like common sense to most seasoned players in established, well-run guilds I think their discussion can probably be a great resource for new players or new GMs and officers regardless. Oftentimes it's the simplist things that people are or aren't doing that could avoid lots of drama so give them a listen and see what you think for yourself.

About the blog today, Pete Pete will finally get something up today... he's got a Quick Hit coming on Starting World of Warcraft that is done and approved but he's paranoid about me inserting errors into it so he's proofreading. :-) Toothy's been making a couple of slight changes to things he's previously written and I think there's more of that today from him. He also has one interesting email from someone wanting to revive the Alliance guild No Drama on Anvilmar-US, apparently our emailer is the last remaining member of the guild. It's really strange that of all of the emails we've received no one really comments on podcasts. They seem more interested in us personally, or interested in telling us about themselves!

Finally our resident blog hippie chick Melissa has uncovered a couple of new shows too and may have a "New on the Radar" or somesuch post ready for us today or tomorrow. I think the blog has had a little more bite this week which is encouraging and from what I've seen of this Mel isn't doing a fluff piece here.

FYI - the blog may be down for approximately 10 minutes later today as part of a rescheduled Blogger maintenance.

In the Chamber: The Cheese Stands Alone

2009-03-25T09:44:00.005-04:00

Nothing today, not one. According to the WoW Radio site the latest Essence of RP should probably be out sometime tomorrow. There was also a live Blue Plz! yesterday and the archive of the show should be up by Friday, which coincidentally is the date of the next Blue Plz! I was late getting to the show in my allergy-medicine haze so hopefully I can take in the full show on Friday.

I received a couple of notes yesterday that I'm "taking over the blog" again this week. Partly true, partly not. I have been the only one posting, but not the only one writing.

I rejected Pete Pete's Quick Hit of All Things Azeroth yesterday for being too positive. I gave their latest episode a listen and not only does co-host Graece get into some weird territory when she gets angry with the Chinese government for "being sticks in the mud" about the release of Wrath in China, which is one of the most absurd and unsubstantiated things I've heard regarding the topic, Medros doesn't challenge her on it and instead lets her dangle out there on her own. Med probably has to walk a fine line since his show has sponsors but really, what was that all about? So I rejected Pete's flowery review because yeah, Graece, China has nothing better to do than fuck with Blizzard. You know what else? I heard China is now under consideration for a supporting role as a high school football star bully in the next Adam Sandler film. That China just has all the luck, doesn't it? Melissa is going to review the next ATA for us now and Pete's moving on to Starting WoW.

I also rejected a poorly written, rambling piece by Fred on Monday which covered nothing in particular. Fred has sort of been lagging lately to be honest and Pete has accused him of resting on his laurels since he was mentioned by Totalbiscuit on Blue Plz! a few weeks ago. To be fair, even though he's retired he's a tireless researcher and has lots of academic commitments in the community so UWoW isn't exactly his highest priority. But he could at least make sense when he does contribute. His piece was sort of like a combination of William Burroughs, E.E. Cummings, and Samuel Beckett. I'm all for experimenting but at least try to stay on topic. Maybe that will be a good candidate to post this weekend when we go "off topic."

All for now... hopefully someone other than me will get something up today!

WoW Radio Update

2009-03-24T20:42:00.003-04:00

We all seem to be dealing with growing pains these days and it's no different over at WoW Radio. The archiving system of their new website is suffering from an error which prevents podcasts from going out on their RSS feeds. This is already in the process of being resolved and they hope to have normal service resumed as soon as possible.

In the meantime, you can find links to their latest shows on the individual show forums and right in the latest post on their main site. We'll do our best to let you know when a new show has been posted as well.

In the Chamber: The Code Strikes Again

2009-03-24T07:05:00.005-04:00

I'm glad so many of you are following us from the beginning and experiencing our growing pains along with us. Imagine a year from now when we're on some stylish website and some noob starts complaining about our site and you can say "STFU noob, I've been reading since they were on their crap Blogspot site... they're about one thing and one thing only - the writing!" Of course by then we'll have completely sold out and every post will be littered with images and interactives and we'll have reached non-aggression pacts with all of the podcasts we review so that we can have them as guests on our own podcast and we'll be no different from WoW Insider, for example.

One can dream, can't one?

Sure, some aspects of The Code may not be conducive to running a blog and getting articles posted on time or even forming decent friendships (namely, the part about not being able to speak with each other on the phone or in person until the weekend), but one man gathers what another man spills and we'll just turn those old reviews that never got posted for one reason or another into a brand new column called "Lost in Space" or something fun like that and post them months down the road when they are completely outdated and out of context. Should be fun, yes? Especially if the show no longer exists that would really be nice.

I've written a little bit before about this being a living blog and how posts and columns may change as time goes on and writers gain new perspective. Not edits, mind. I mean the entire nature of the article might change. Some of that revision is happening this week. Pete and Toothy have confirmed they are making slight changes to some pieces. We've thrown around the idea of holding a contest to see if someone can tell us what changes were made to which posts but are going to hold off on that right now until we get a consensus.

Three podcasts loaded up this morning:

WoW Insider Show Episode 82: Knock it off? Get it on!
BigRedKitty Episode Fifteen
The Elitists Episode 5

I always seem to just miss the WoW Insider Show on Mondays since I'm up early EST but word on the street is that Turpster's new song made it to the air this week so I'm sure that was a treat for both regular and new listeners because it should be funny.

Gave Rawrcast a listen yesterday - thought it was very cool that they decided to Skype a listener that had emailed them to have a discussion. I love seeing these guys bringing in some elements that you don't always see (or never see) on other shows into their podcast it's part of why I like them so much. That's the exact sort of attitude we have with our blog here. I'm also glad that they want to bitchslap anyone caught drinking the WoW Mountain Dew "drink your faction" marketing scam that sort of attitude will always earn points here.

Also heard The Grind Podcast, and they announced the sad news that one of their co-hosts, Luke, will be leaving the show indefinitely. They are also taking a week off to retool the show and come back bigger and badder so if you've never heard them before try out the Fourty First Grind and if nothing else you get to hear the stylings of Amanda, an English lass that sounds quite lovely.

The Elitists #5 is up, and I always think it's interesting to hear the first few episodes of a new show as the hosts get into their groove. Will be interested to see how they're doing. Excited to hear the new BigRedKitty podcast too.

Didn't get to hear Epic Dolls yet but should do today.

Last but not least, there will be a special Blue Plz! Tuesday Assualt today over at wcradio.com so be sure to check out the show. Although I've been flattened by springtime hayfever the last couple of days and fall asleep on my medication I'm going to try and listen live.

In the Chamber: Allergy Attack Monday!

2009-03-23T10:12:00.006-04:00

Nice shows over the weekend:

Saturday
The Instance #139 "Worldwide Hysteria"
Ctrl Alt WoW #107 Why Won't He Talk To Me (is it my breath)?
Yet Another World of Warcraft Podcast #037 [explicit]

Sunday
Rawrcast #11 "The Semi-Immortal" [explicit]
Proudmoore Pansies - Episode 30!
Starting World of Warcraft Holiday Show #21 It's Late. And I'm Tired. But the Show Must Go On!

Monday
The Grind Podcast The Fourty First Grind
Epic Dolls Episode 62 Good Guildies and Leaders

The Proudmoore Pansies aren't explicit, per say, but they do have some cursing in there every once in a while.

I thought it was a very good Instance this week, love it when it's just the two of them bullshitting WoW. Although they did of course have the guest to talk mage, the opening 15 minutes on China banning Wrath of the Lich King content was great. When you hear Randy Deluxe say "China is kinda backwards in time," you know they're rolling! And while I admit I haven't been listening to a lot of shows lately their mention that no add-ons can charge users a fee was news to me. I don't know if Patrick Beja's mod segment was meant to have as much voice effect as it did but it was inaudible.

Ctrl Alt WoW had all three members back together rather than the split format they've used for the last few episodes and it seems fans of the show prefer it that way. But of course we can understand the split format when one of the co-hosts is halfway around the world and schedules don't accommodate.

I've been told that Proudmoore Pansies is another interesting episode this week. There was a lot of talk about their Naxx run but what was especially interesting is that they're just arriving at a new point in their guild development from a small, intimate guild into a larger, almost more impersonal raiding guild. It's great to hear that they're having these honest discussions and you know with that sort of thoughtfulness their guild should continue to thrive.

Lots of listening on tap for me today. Rawrcast, Grind, Epic Dolls, Proudmoore Pansies and as much of YAWoWP as I can stomach.

I didn't post a Greater Good this week, but we're holding pretty steady with about 150-200 visitors per day. Thanks for the support and we hope to do even more in the future. Since we started tracking on March 6 we've had just over 8,000 page loads which is fantastic and certainly a tribute to the podcasters and listeners that have supported our site. Thanks again.

Mailbag #3

2009-03-22T18:55:00.004-04:00

Fitting this will be our third Mailbag, with three emails, etc. and soforth.

The weekends are usually quiet around here, last weekend I posted about Nottingham Forest which had absolutely nothing to do with WoW (but you certainly could relate a 5-0 thrashing for your football club to an inter-guild raid where drama prevents you from even downing the first boss) and I'm still kind of pushing it so that weekends here can be "off-topic." Hell, if Fred and I are the only ones that can post regularly on the weekends at least maybe we can do something completely different.

The email has been cooperating with this concept. Since we're such an odd blog we've been getting some odd questions. And here they are:

Hi Toothy,

I noticed that both you and Melissa seem to have similar avatars. Did you design them? Did you do them in Poser if so? Any info on those is there a backstory on why you two have the avatars that you do?

Thank you,
Samuel M.
Black Dragonflight-US

Thanks for the question Samuel. Our avatars are actually from the fantastic professional wrestling simulator Total Extreme Wrestling 2008, made by Adam Ryland's Grey Dog Software. Melissa and I both love the game and have played it to death. We did not create them ourselves, nor do we claim to have created them ourselves. It was pretty shocking that I found another person that played, and an American female at that. It's extremely click-intensive, but it really is a good economic simulator and you can have fun with storylines.

Jim says his horse head on a human body avatar is actually from some Halloween catalog, advertising the horse mask.

Fred and Pete I believe are actual pictures (I'm not positive about Fred), although in Pete's case it's from when he was very young. He's all shaved and looks like a Republican now and I've never seen him without a tie so that picture is (I guess) hysterical.

Hi Toothy,

Jim keeps saying Melissa is doing a lot of behind-the-scenes work about the graphics and look of the blog but nothings changes and there have been no new logos since you started. What does this mean? Is she dating one of you? It seems like she would be too snobby to date someone like you, but if Fred has any money I imagine an older guy would be right up her alley. Does this sound right?

Sue D.
p.s. - shout out to my Gnomewarrior namesakes!

Sue, if you're saying she'd go for Fred because he's old and might die that's a very cynical view of things and not appreciated here. We like to have fun but come on, shut up. This was bordering on a troll but I thought I'd do it some justice so you know we're not avoiding things or whatnot.

Mel doesn't even like to be called Melissa. She's very much a neo-hippie type and has been one of the warmest and most genuine people I've ever met. She's not dating anyone here but if she would it would probably be either Jim or Pete Pete.

If you ever meet Jim it's kind of intimidating, even for someone like me. He's really laid back but there's just this thing about him where you're afraid to say the wrong thing for some reason. Maybe because the first time I met him I was a bit altered and the Grateful Dead song "Loser" was on and right when I shook his hand I heard the line "well I know a little somethin' that you'll never know" and Jim had this little glimmer in his eye. He's got "something" which has drawn all four of us to him really so obviously I'd say Jim.

Pete Pete is pretty much a happy-go-lucky west coaster and I think Mel would be interested in him because he is the exact opposite of the typical northeast guy that's probably hit on her for her entire life. But Pete's kind of asexual. He'd rather spend all day, every day, away from people playing WoW if he could.

Mel is actually doing a lot of behind-the-scenes work. She's developing icons for each of our columns and different variations and completely new takes on not just the logo but the look of the blog and a possible webpage home as well. So she's really busy. She's also researching some questions too for her next interviews AND she's volunteered to scout out and give a first listen to new podcasts for us too. So she's a big player here please respect her work.

Hello UWoW:

This blog has been sort of weird in that I'm seeing some bickering between the five of you. Is this by design? How has it been working with the honesty code? Is this something you think you'll learn from in the future?

Mark
Brussels, Belgium
Shattered Halls-US

NOTE: tell toothy as a Genk supporter I feel his pain.

Genk have been good though recently haven't they, Mark? Didn't they have Wesley Sonck for a nice spell to topple Anderlecht & Standard? Yes, it's true Forest were promoted last year. But they were promoted from League One up to the Championship, and are still in big danger of heading straight back down. At least Genk play in the Belgian top league.

Your bit about the blog, I think that's part of Jim's whole thinking. He has said he wants people to see us fleshing out arguments between ourselves so you can actually see our personalities at work. So eventually you'll be able to know each of us pretty well simply through our writing, which will be weird, but I think the sort of internet experiment we're all excited to be apart of so it should yield some fascinating results.

I understand The Code, but I still think it's dumb that we're not allowed to speak with each other during the week and that one aspect alone has caused more delay and confusion and misinterpretation on our parts than anything else so far. Yeah I guess it does keep us "untainted" so we can have those "fresh" first listens but when I already know the score of a match before I've seen it I still watch it to see how the game unfolded for myself.

If you'd like into the mailbag please write me at: toothy@live.com, write the blog at: uwow@live.com, or tweet us a question at: http://twitter.com/uwow

FYI - If You Were Expecting To Hear From Us

2009-03-20T09:57:00.002-04:00

Hi UWoW readers.

If you were expecting an email from any of the five of us please check your spam mail folder. Our fantastic free "@live.com" email addresses seem to be going right into most peoples' spam folder.

Thanks!

In the Chamber: ATA & Warcraft Outsiders

2009-03-20T07:40:00.004-04:00

Two more in the tubes today:

All Things Azeroth Episode #105 Defleating (sic) Ulduar and Shotgunning Professions
The Warcraft Outsiders Episode 24 for Thursday, March 19, 2009

We've heard through the grapevine there's apparently some speed-reading by Medros about changes happening in the next patch which should be fun to hear.

And if you've never listened to The Warcaft Outsiders go check out their site and the lovely Michelle Madison... if she's an outsider I don't ever want to be an insider!

Short and sweet for once out of me - enjoy your weekend everyone.

Respect "The Code," Man!

2009-03-19T20:23:00.003-04:00

Plenty to say but I'll keep this brief. I find myself here today facing the boards in clear violation of The Code. There are two offenses as far as I can see:

1) After noticing a reader comment I became upset and personally offended that Jim inserted a typo into a post I made here on the blog. This is a clear violation of the first article of The Code which states in normal language that we're not supposed to take anything that is said or happens here personally. Not only that, I forgot that Jim told us in-person about the "mini-game" he intended to play here weeks ago and for that I apologize.

2) I broke The Code's second article about not contacting other UWoW members by phone during the week. I called Melissa who apparently texted Jim before she even answered my call because as soon as she picked up I got a text from Jim saying "busted!" I was busted. It was my second violation of The Code and it happened literally seconds after the first violation.

What worries me most is that I didn't think twice about the second violation. I guess I figured that since I was already done by my first violation that a second wouldn't really make much difference. How wrong I was.

Fred called a vote to see if I should be kicked off the blog for two violations in quick succession. During that vote Fred was the only one who voted me off, Jim, Melissa, and Toothy all voted that I stay. I had a vote too... and once I had a decent idea that I would be allowed to stay I made the stupid gesture of saying I should go. Which brought about a second vote. This time it was 4-to-1 that I stay, with Fred the only dissenter.

I asked Fred a couple of times why he seemed to have it in for me and he assured me I had it wrong and that it wasn't the case he wanted me out. "That's the sort of GM I am," he said, "if this were a Pendragon campaign you'd already be dead." I hate GMs like that.

Anyway - loyal readers of UWoW, and Jim, Melissa, Fred, and Toothy, I apologize to you. I shall do my best not to let it happen again.

Let the flogging commence.

In the Chamber: Get It Sorted!

2009-03-19T09:22:00.006-04:00

I should have known better. As a former schoolboy baseball player the first thing you learn is to respect the streak. Never mention the streak. As soon as you mention the streak, the streak gods come and put an end to the streak.

Same here... after trumpeting how we've been getting three new shows per day every day in recent memory, today we have but one:

World of Warcraft Podcast Video Episode 101 - Beginners Guide: DPS

Looks like this might be a great episode for newer players. I've never quite fully understood this pod/vidcast because I'm not sure that the video actually ever pertains to what they're talking about. But this is the first episode of a new feature they're trying called "Let the Players Speak" and looks like they interview a rogue so give them a listen/watch and see what you think.

Pete Pete has been crafting his face the board post, and he texted us all yesterday that he's read it close to 80 times to check for spelling errors (since only brain-dead idiots make typos), including several times out loud to check for "flow" problems. So look forward to that today.

I personally haven't listened to a thing this week aside from Proudmoore Pansies and I'm likely already experiencing a bit of WoW podcast fatigue. It's a hard line to walk to be honest without unintentionally hurting someone's feelings and being the crunchy granola boy I am I dislike that sort of vibe being sent out by the blog. So I don't know exactly where to go next. In my mind there's no way that all podcasters are going to be open-minded enough to take our criticisms at face-value and happily move on.

When I first started this I thought "well, who really cares what they think I'm going to tell it like I see it because so many of these shows are bad," but the more I realize how important some of these podcasts are (to those who produce them especially) the more you've seen me running into threads trying to reiterate the fact that we like these shows and feel comfortable enough to constructively criticize them or else we wouldn't even listen. I don't want to have to do that anymore. But we live in a crazy age where people aren't always savvy enough to pick up on satire, or notice that a critique is actually a humorous self-critique, or that a piece is simply a writing experiment.

Most of us have probably misinterpreted something someone has texted, posted, written, etc. because we bring our own insecurities to those readings with us. They're there in our heads messing with reason and compelling us to give an immature, visceral response. It's the same defensive posture we all take when we feel we're under attack.

At the risk of sounding like a used car salesman or an injury claims attorney, if there's one thing I can guarantee podcasters it is that none of our reviews will EVER be written with any sort of personal malice. We don't know you, we're consciously trying not to get to know you in real life, there can't possibly be anything personal behind our writings other than our opinion on that day.

If a podcaster ever has any issue about something we've written please write me directly: uwowjim@live.com because I'm going to delete any drama-inducing comments.

Do I still need to post these sort of notes? It it just my own insecurity here flaring up? Let me know what you think.

Quick Hits: Casually Hardcore

2009-03-18T13:13:00.012-04:00

CASUALLY HARDCORE - Your mission, should you choose to accept it...
15th March, 2009

Okay... starts up with an original song/jingle for the show and WC Radio. Good, self-branding is always a positive. Then comes the disclaimer bit about the WoW Radio network, and each of the four co-hosts takes a line while reading. I think it's supposed to show some sort of common agreement like an equal among peers thing but it sounds lame. Would be better done quickly rather than a big production for my tastes. I don't actually want to listen to that sort of audio spam so if it was non-intrusive I probabaly wouldn't even have mentioned it.

Then comes the absurd intro song "Who Needs Sleep" by Barenaked Ladies which apparently was a hit in the U.S. when I was 7 years old back in 1998. Hopefully there's some personal significance to the song and not that it's the best WoW tie-in song they could find these last 11 years - you know, playing a lot of WoW you might miss some sleep. Get it? Get it??

This is the sort of podcast where if someone says anything close to funny or interesting they all go "Wow... hey, hey, hey, family show," and laugh like that's supposed to be funny in itself just like people who laugh when they say "tell us how you really feel," after their friend has expressed frustration or negativity about something. I then sit there wondering if I'm the lame for not getting the hysterical joke or if it's them for thinking what they said was funny... and after that confusion I realize I've stuck in and listened for and hour and half so the answer could only be me.

They do have a nice rhythm to the show and I think Casually Hardcore makes the best use of "drops" in the WoW podcast community (which is saying a lot). As I've been advised by my older colleagues any podcast throwing in an Animal House drop can almost make up for using an 11-year old theme song.

For my tastes, the dynamic of the show has been a little weird since Gwenora has come back despite their best efforts to accomodate. It seems like Grail has become the Gwen B.S. detector and is quick to jump in when Gwen is talking out his buttocks although that didn't happen much on this particular show. It was very funny though on this episode if you're a long time listener like me that Gwen was the first one to say "I love you, you're pretty," to Iolyte rather than Gnomewise.

After 10 minutes though everything pretty much settled down. Grail had an extremely interesting comment that tanking has become the easiest aspect of the game since Wrath hit and that was around the 17-minute mark. He also said he ran into a Naxx PUG that said if you're under 1,500 DPS you can still join but you can't roll on loot which is awesome to me as someone who now considers himself a casual.

Half hour point, first music break. They then went into a long discussion about something Totalbiscuit brought up a couple of weeks ago and that is whether or not casuals still exist. The way the CH crew brought up the subject was wondering aloud if they should change their mission statement considering they are now raiding. Listen closely around the 55 minute mark for what sounds like completely faked and almost mocking laughter from Gnomewise after Grail tells a story.

But I'm telling you this show is worth it! Around the 1:02:45 mark Gnomewise lets known that an item is coming in Patch 3.1 that you can put down and use to destroy someone else's toy train when they are annoying you in Auction Houses (or other enclosed areas where you are prisoner to the annoyance of "chugga-chugga-chugga-chugga-woo-hoo"). Excellent news and certainly the first any of us have heard of it anywhere.

The last part of the show was listener feedback/email and this is always hit or miss of course depending on the submissions. When they aren't shout outs the gang does a better job than most about branching the questions off into other directions so you'll probably glean something no matter your experience level.

Summary: Solid show all the way through, complete with high and low points. Don't like infighting but don't know if I'm reading too much into things on that front. They have a good time with their own in-jokes and their own loyal audience but it's not for everyone. I could see younger casual listeners going for Outlandish or even Yet Another World of Warcraft Podcast before Casually Hardcore.

In the Chamber: The Streak Continues & Pete Pete Faces the Music!

2009-03-18T09:35:00.006-04:00

Eureka! Three podcasts again! And to think we just experienced a very rare math holiday in Square Root Day back on 3/3/09 it must mean big cosmic happenings are happening, right? Regardless, while you may have 7 years to prepare for your next Square Root Day party you only have a few days to listen to these podcasts before new episodes come along to wash them away into the far reaches of our memory banks:

Octale and Hordak vs. the World - Wrath Content is Killing My Guild
Bind on Equip Episode 17 [explicit]
Essence of RP - Essence of Kex

On the blog today Toothy is finishing up a Quick Hit on the latest Casually Hardcore. He also said he's received a few more emails over the last couple of days so he might throw a Mailbag up too.

But the best thing that will happen today no doubt is that Pete Pete has not only admitted defeat he has to face the boards and acknowledge a violation of The Code that happened last night. In case you haven't been following I've been messing with people's posts here from time to time by inserting extra words or changing a phrase or messing up the puncuation to leave dangling modifiers or simply creating typoes. ;-)

When we decided to start this blog among our many ideas was that of a "living blog," the idea that older posts should be revisited, changed, arguments revised in a flowing way that reflects our maturation and changing ideas as we live and grow as people. So dynamic posts rather than static and frozen in time. What I've been doing isn't quite that, I've been "testing" the other four to see if they notice errors I insert in their drafts before they post it. Pete didn't notice yesterday, and then became genuinely upset over the whole thing because he's such a stickler about spelling.

So while I admit what I've been doing isn't quite "nice," I don't really care about that. I want everyone here to be responsible for what they post, not what they intended to post. That said, though, it should be nice to see Pete Pete humble himself (as if someone who calls himself Pete Pete needs further humbling). As the only one who has had to post a "Respect the Code, Man!" post thus far in the blog's short history I'm pleased Pete is following in my footsteps like the good soldier he is.

Quick Hits: WoW Insider Show

2009-03-17T14:11:00.013-04:00

There's been a lot of talk recently about synergy. Jim gets all hot when an IRC works in synergy with a live podcast. Stompalina has been doing a great job of linking up Rawrcast with other podcasts, even running dual-sponsored contests which is a very cool idea. Alachia has recently explored in-depth the interconnectedness of the meta-verse and how fulfilling our lives can be when considering the meaningful shared experiences with others that we all go through in-game. Mike Schramm and the Turpster have both been on How I WoW and both Patrick Beja and Shawn Coons have been on the WoW Insider Show. Patrick of course also appears on The Instance doing a mods segment and in his own podcasts, including a French-language WoW podcast.

There's just something so intrinsically "good" about this level of collaboration. And since Turpster couldn't be there for last Wednesday's episode of the WoW Insider Show his shoes were ably filled by Mr. Beja who was thanked several times by Mike for being a last-minute replacement. And filling out the third chair this time around was Chase Christian who writes the Rogue column Encrypted Text over at WoW Insider.

I was pleased to get this "different" lineup for WoW Insider. While we've pretty much been holding off on reviewing shows until their "regular" hosts are all there WoW Insider is always pretty much the same thing. You might get Michael Sacco hating on Blood Elves or BRK spouting off 10,000-words-per-minute (a typical audio book is 150-160 words per minute) on the new spirit beast or Turpster talking about all the women he's had, but Schramm drives this train and he's a very capable conductor.

What I like about Mike is his cool demeanor. He does seem to have a good time during the show (even if I sometimes think it is becoming old hat to him). When I say that I realize there's certainly a difference between what I hear and the intent so... it sounds like it's very easy for Mike to host and he's very comfortable moving the conversation along to where it needs to be for the show's sake. A criticism that comes up here is that I think he's sometimes a little too quick to put a halt to silliness because you never really can tell where some of those conversations will go but that's a reach on my part.

About 14-15 minutes into the show Mike touched on a topic that has been getting a lot of podcast speculation and blog inches as of late - how much longer is everyone going to care about WoW? It's weird that this topic is coming up so much at this time. Maybe cabin fever? Spring is almost here but winter won't let go just yet? It's almost as if everyone wants to move on from WoW and are just waiting for the mass exodus so they don't end up like those folks who left for Warhammer and have subsequently come crawling back to WoW.

The show overall was well-done. I like how the emails were casually brought up during the first half hour of the show to sort of direct the flow of the conversation rather than a dedicated email segment. For a multi-host show this is a nice way to do it and it seemed fairly unique when you listen to as many podcasts as we do.

There was some nice interplay between Patrick and Chase, with Patrick saying he hates rogues at one point and accusing them of ninja'ing loot in PUGs and then switching servers. Here is where Mike is at his best when he then deadpans back "Chase, are you in favor of ninja'ing loot and running from server to server?" After that setup Chase's answer made me laugh out loud (especially since my main is a hunter): "I'm not sure if Patrick knows I don't play a hunter, so..."

I don't think the WoW Insider Show is ever going to get very heavily into deeply controversial or adult-themed topics because they know their audience is the typical WoW/WI superfan. There are consequences to saying or writing the wrong thing at WoW Insider and so they can't be overly brash or cuss or get away with comments that other podcasts can get away with. So while it's interesting to hear them operate with some restrictions it does take some "weight" out of the podcast for me as an experienced gamer who can handle hearing adult language and content without my head exploding.

Summary: It's a great resource for WoW information in a non-offensive environment, just like the site. This podcast was the first WoW-related I listened to and helped bring me from casual to "medium-core" to steal from the Proudmoore Pansies guys.

In the Chamber: Mention Number 5!

2009-03-17T09:38:00.006-04:00

Three has been the magic number lately, and that's where we find ourselves again this morning:

Outlandish Episode 53 - 03-16-09 [explicit]
Ctrl Alt WoW Episode 106 - Working Day and Night
WoW Insider Show Episode 81 - Same Place, New Time

Another great mention of the blog by Aprillian of Ctrl Alt WoW right at the beginning of the latest episode. You can read her very insightful interview with Melissa right here.

By my account that makes FIVE mentions of the blog this week by various shows which is pretty darn impressive. Thanks to the podcasters out there who have been so supportive it means a lot to us.

The WoW Insider Show broadcast last Wednesday as an experiment for listeners that can't make the live show on Saturdays but they delayed the release of the episode until yesterday (which isn't really a "delay," it's the day they normally release their new shows). Turpster is obviously a very popular member of the WoW community if the final poll results over at How I WoW are any gauge, but it was nice to hear some different voices on WoW Insider. Pete Pete says he's working on a Quick Hit today, and someone will be giving Casually Hardcore the once over since they had their full team back.

We also added a new show to the rotation, Episode 4 of The Elitists has been downloaded and so we'll be checking them out and letting you know what we think. Regardless, nice to see new shows launching there are a couple of really good new shows making some inroads these days.

All for now... some actual reviews today!

In the Chamber: Podcasts, Podcasts Podcasts!

2009-03-16T10:52:00.007-04:00

Yes our supposed weekend break is over... good morning (or afternoon, etc.). A random emailer asked so I'll tell you that the five of us are all located in New Jersey, USA, living in the same town (although not with each other as far as I know) so we are using EST which is GMT -5. That's why, Rick, my morning In the Chamber column hits you in the middle of the afternoon.

As was pointed out to me by Pete Pete, I usually come back on Monday and then have a whole load of podcasts that I tell everyone just hit that morning. That's because I don't refresh my iTunes to check for new podcasts on the weekend. Pete does, and he said that what I was doing was actually a disservice to shows that were putting up episodes the day after their live broadcast.

So, I suppose on some level he's right. And while there's no way I can commit to posting every single day of the year I can check what shows came on which day and note them on Monday, eh? So here ya go:

Saturday
Blue Plz! Season 3 Episode 22 - 7 and a half Raiders
WoW Things Considered - It writes it's self
Yet Another World of Warcraft Podcast Episode 36 - Browned! [explicit]

Sunday
Rawrcast - #10 Rawrcast "Lore & Stuff" [explicit]
Starting World of Warcraft podcast Holiday Show #20 - Diabolo 3?
MaxSpeed - Pi Day, Wish it was Cake Day

Monday AM
World of Warcraft Podcast Video Episode 100 - PvP Day: Strand of the Ancients
Casually Hardcore - Your mission, should you choose to accept it...
Proudmoore Pansies - Episode 29 [explicit]

There you go - all broken out nicely (by day) so you can see who's posting shows when. Ya? Now your brain won't hurt thinking 9 podcasts all came out late Sunday night.

I've also received some reports of fantastic mentions of the blog on some recent podcasts thanks mostly to our friend Hatfield who sneaks into IRCs and then secretly emails me all the dirt! I'm really pleased that folks are responding so well to our endeavor here. Mentioning UWoW on your show, though, is not going to win you any favor with us when it comes to review time but I'll do my best to give you a shout out in this little column or elsewhere on the blog. I hope by now you've realized we pretty much like all of these shows for one reason or another, even if some of the episodes are unlistenable.

Proudmoore Pansies, Blue Plz!, Rawrcast, and Octale and Hordak vs. the World all mentioned us this week... so a huge THANK YOU to the community for being so supportive. Octale apparently led a live thread-jacking of my Friday In the Chamber post where I shamelessly begged for comments from our readers like a hyperactive doctor without enough patients to treat. Octale gets a victory here, it's more than a fair point and I humbly and embarrassingly accept a healthy amount of defeat. But I'm not sure what makes me sadder, the fact that I begged for comments or the fact that Octale only has about 30 listeners willing to listen to him. ;-)

More to come... IN THE FUTURE!

Nottingham Forest Forever!

2009-03-15T00:11:00.002-04:00

I know we're a World of Warcraft blog, but I know we have a lot of European readers so maybe some of you can relate to my pain today. I've had to endure this 5-0 loss today at Turf Moor with the bloody ex-manager of Derby County Billy Davies standing there afterwards looking as if he's about to cry saying the club owes the fans an apology. The chairman owes us an apology for sacking Colin Calderwood and replacing him with Derby scum like you, Mr. Weepy. Now we are in a world of trouble looking to stay in the Championship for next season and this club cannot go back down to League One because then it truly is over and they're going to collapse and be forced to sell everyone off that has any ambition whatsoever. Yeah, yeah, lots of injuries but so does everyone this time of year to be fair. So frustrating to be building something good and then watch it slowly get torn right down in front of your face.

The Greater Good: Weekend Edition

2009-03-14T08:57:00.005-04:00

For all of you new readers I explained a bit last week about how the blog is currently set up and running. We're not normally going to post on the weekends but every once in a while, like now (and last Saturday, actually), we'll throw something up if time allows or some other compelling factor drives us.

I received a request last night to give an updated list of the shows we're listening to. We've actually just dropped four podcasts that haven't had new episodes in a while or may very well have already been canceled so we could clear up a little space on the iPod and they were: The Craft of War (last show 12/20/08), Women of Warcraft Vidcast (9/10/08), WoW Factor (1/17/08), and World of Theorycraft (8/29/08). So, we definately won't be writing about those anytime soon but if they come back I'm sure someone will spot it or alert us and we'll be glad to put them back into the rotation.

It was an interesting week at the blog I think. I thought Melissa's "7 Questions For..." column turned out a lot better than I thought it would, and no doubt that's in large part to Aprillian from Ctrl Alt WoW whose thoughtful answers and advice should be of great value to any aspiring podcasters out there. But when I say I thought it was an interesting week we didn't really review many podcasts this week. We were more of a general resource for the WoW podcast community. I think we're trying to strike the balance between writing our original columns and listening to and reviewing shows so don't worry, we'll have it sorted out soon-like. We might just have a couple of us reviewing and a couple doing the other columns, we haven't decided yet. But more importantly, if an asteroid hit the planet we'd just have to deal with it at that time. No excuses.

I can't speak for everyone but here are the shows I've got:

All Things Azeroth
BigRedKitty
Bind on Equip
Ctrl Alt WoW
Elune's Grace Podcast
Epic Dolls
The Grind Podcast
How I WoW
The Instance
Outlandish
Proudmoore Pansies
Rawrcast
Starting World of Warcraft
The Warcraft Outsiders
World of Warcast
World of Warcraft Video Podcast
WoW Insider Show
WoW Radio: Blue Plz!
WoW Radio: Casually Hardcore
WoW Radio: Essence of RP
WoW Radio: MaxSpeed
WoW Radio: Octale and Hordak vs the World
WoW Radio: PUG
WoW Radio: The Happy Hour Tavern
WoW Radio: Warcraft Anonymous
WoW Radio: WoW Things Considered
WoWcast
Yet Another World of Warcraft Podcast

By no means is this a complete list. Any omissions are just out of ignorance on our part and not any sort of "editorial decision." If you have a favorite WoW podcast (or host your own) just leave a comment or shoot us a note and we'll get it into the rotation.

Some good stuff this week in WoW podcast land... I wonder if we are at the apex of a WoW junkie's dreamworld right now or if there can possibly be more expansion to come in the communitiy's future? I think a lot of people who have stuck with playing World of Warcraft have always had one eye over their shoulder wondering about what's going to happen "next," when (and I'll try to write this in hushed tones) the game is overtaken in the market by something else and I (pretend you can barely read this last bit) lose interest in WoW. It's even been the theme of discussion on podcasts joking they were going to immediately switch to being a Star Wars: The Old Republic podcast one week out of nowhere and just keep the show going! I'll have to give that a little more thought for next week's Greater Good. Until then, down with pictures, up with text!

Tasty Nuggets: Should Guilds Foot Your Dual Spec Bill?

2009-03-13T11:55:00.005-04:00

This is just an idea... very much in the conceptual stage. Mining a little pearl from the depths of a podcast and giving you very brief Tasty Nuggets to discuss completely out of context! Of course, that phrase doesn't quite work since you don't mine pearls in WoW (and since I don't think it's a sentence) but who cares, right? In the post-modern world there are no rules!

But seriously, the latest World of Warcast. I thought it was a lot better than its been recently although the guest they had in there lost my interest when he was rambling on about something. I think he was one of those people who explain something and then explain the same thing again in similar but different language as if I didn't get it the first time and when that happens I glaze over like a freshly basted turkey.

Anyway, that aside I did say the show was good and they got onto a really interesting idea regarding dual specs that I think is worth repeating and that idea is that guilds should be responsible for footing the 1,000 gold bill for dual-speccing. It never really occurred to me, but it's a fascinating topic. What if you're happy with your spec but your guild needs you to be more flexible for instancing/raiding? I'm interested to hear other thoughts on this topic.

In the Chamber: Happy Friday!

2009-03-13T06:37:00.005-04:00

Lots of goodies in the bag but first - I got two nice emails last night which were very complimentary of the blog and I want to say thank you for those. One of them made the very good suggestion that I note in my "In the Chamber" column whether or not a show is carrying the explicit tag. I think that's a good idea. While we're assuming most UWoW readers are mature and confirmed that by accepting the warning that mature topics or language may be used here, it's always a good idea to have more information rather than less, right? Besides, I know there must be other people like Pete Pete who get turned off if there's any cursing for any reason, despite their age/maturity.

So anyway, thanks for the good idea. Another good idea was a suggestion from Lindsay Hewitt that we add the Bind on Equip podcast to our rotation of shows. So consider that done, picked up the new show, Episode 16, this morning (and it does carry an explicit tag ;-) ).

Here's what else fired up this morning:

All Things Azeroth #104 - Grinding out the Epic Flappie
WoWCast Episode 43
Warcraft Outsiders Episode 23 for Thurs., March 12, 2009 [explicit]

That seems to be all for now. Listened to Casually Hardcore but we're delaying the Quick Hit again because it was just Gnomewise and Grail for the second straight week. Not that they did a bad job but we want to write about them when their full team is there. Didn't get any response to our question about the importance of an on-time show vs. importance of full crew unfortunately, but there's always time to send your thoughts.

I added a new Twitter feed for the blog and to the blog, it's at the bottom of the column on the left so please follow us on Twitter! We'll be updating that feed from now on when we post new content on the blog rather than my personal Twitter (which has all of 9 followers I think!).

Finally, I have to say thank you again to Totalbiscuit. Since his mention of our blog on Blue Plz! last week we've been getting between 300-400 page views a day from 150-200 unique visitors which is absolutely amazing and we're glad you keep coming back. Now if only some of you would post some comments we'd be cooking with gas! lol

7 Questions For... Aprillian!

2009-03-12T18:46:00.007-04:00

Aprillian of Ctrl Alt WoW graciously accepted my offer for a quick cyber-interview and here's what's happening with her:

1. You recently celebrated your 100th episode of Ctrl Alt WoW which is a very rare milestone in the WoW podcasting community! First, congratulations! Second, what were your expectations when you began the podcast? Did you ever see yourself getting to 100 shows? Has the trip been long and strange?!

Thank you. I had hope to share my World of Warcraft experience with others like me. I wanted to be in it for the long haul. Around the time I started, there were a few podcasts that had started, did a few episodes on a an irregular basis and then faded away. I didn’t want that to happen to Crtl Alt WoW. My first goal was to be regular and my second was to continue for as long as I was playing World of Warcraft, so I guess I anticpated getting to 100. The trip has been great. First and foremost, it’s been a learning experience. There is no one guide to podcasting and the reason for that is that there is no one way.

2. Tying into those questions, do you have specific moments you can recall from your run that you would consider highlights or lowlights? What's the weirdest thing that's happened in 100+ episodes?

The lowlights were when I was soloing and someone made a negative comment about my voice. The highlight was when I was soloing and someone said my voice sounded like a late night radio DJ. It just goes to show you how people see the same thing differently. It also made me realize I couldn't please everyone. The best thing that happened of course, is the addition of Glanthur and when he had to take a break, I was so fortunate that Ashayo stepped in to help. I would say the weirdest is trying to explain what I do to my family, friends and coworkers.

3. In the opening of every Ctrl Alt WoW you greet everyone by saying that it is "the podcast for those of us who love World of Warcraft and love making many alts." Is it that simple? Would new WoW players get something worthwhile from listening to your show or are you assuming your listeners have a strong foundation in the game?

I would hope new players would get something out of, but of course we do talk a bit about alts and juggling two to four accounts. I think most players could get glean something. If anything, I hope we convey that the game is fun. I do feel a little guilty that some non multiboxers were sucked in after listening to Ctrl Alt WoW and now have multiple accounts as well. "One of us! One of us!"

4. You've recently been experimenting with a split format to help accommodate schedules for your co-hosts (which is understandable when one of them is in Australia). Do you want to describe the new setup a bit to readers that might be unfamiliar with Ctrl Alt WoW, and do you find you miss the live interaction between the three of you or has it been a bit more fun to spend dedicated time with Ashayo and Glanthur separately?

I think something that almost every multi hosted podcast has to deal with is scheduling. Even when it was just Glanthur and me, there was a bit of juggling. Add the 14 hour time difference, Ashayo lives in the future, and it can be difficult. We had been doing it on Sun morning 1am EST. But sometimes the guys either had to work Sun or had plans. We had one week where no matter what we did, someone had to get up way too early and then go to work after recording. It was actually Glanthur who came up with the split recording idea, and I think it works nicely. I have to edit a bit more but I don't mind. We are planning to only use the split when scheduling is a problem. For instance, this week we will all be recording together, yeah!

5. There are a lot of podcasts out there that talk about what they did last week on their characters but since you (and Ashayo, I think? not sure about Glanthur) multibox there is an added dimension that listeners like me really respond to. Can you tell us how you got started multiboxing and what it's been like for you? I'm certain that Blizzard has said on several occasions that multiboxing is fine but some players disagree on that. Have you run into any in-game criticism or experienced any in-game incidents from non-multiboxers?

I've multiboxed in other games, such as The Sims Online and Second Life. I like experimenting and seeing well if I do this, and this, what would happen. I actually started multiboxing in WoW while grinding in the Southern Barrens. I needed leather but I wasn't on my skinner and I was lamenting all the corpses left behind. At first I would kill a few animals, log off and on to my skinner who I had left in the area, have her skin, move her down the road, log off, get back on the one grinding, rinse and repeat. Then I thought about a 2nd account and referred myself and got a month free. Then of course I went crazy when the Refer a Friend program started, which did signal Blizzard nod to us multiboxers. Although I get to play a lot, my husband does not really understand the whole "grouping" mentality. There were times when I was in a group in an instance and he wanted to do something like walk the dogs or have a conversation. Not too demanding and normal things couples do. But not when you are in the middle of RFK and getting ready to take down a pat with the possibility of pulling adds. So my compromise is that I am my own group, running as many as 4 toons together. I can get stuff done that I wouldn't be able to do alone. As for criticism, never encountered any in game, but in forums and such, it seems as long as we aren't pvp-ing, most just think we are silly reclusive players. Which isn't true, we still socialize.

6. Do you listen to any other WoW podcasts? If so which one(s) is/are your favorite(s)? Have they influenced or inspired your show?

Oh I listen to as many as I can. My favorite is WoWcast, when she's talking about WoW but she is busy and doesn't come out as often. I like World of Warcast, the Instance, BOE, The Grind and Outlandish. I tried to listen to YAWoWP, but my brain revolted and left my head and only agreed to come back if I deleted the podcast from my iTunes. I think Ctrl Alt WoW is different from all of these because we don't cover uber end game stuff, although Ashayo let's me dream about it and Glanthur dances on the edge, which is good for casual player listeners. Because of this, there's not much influence, except that I try to not do something that these fine podcast sometimes do, and that is kvetch. I'm not trying to knock them for it. But I as a listener just don't find it useful so I try not to impose it on my audience. I trust Blizzard. I thank them for putting out a fine game and understand that everything isn't going to work perfectly. We are treading new ground here with an online community of what 11 million doing amazing things. I prefer to focus on the fun and what we can do and how to do it better rather than on what Blizzard should do. I hope that makes sense.

7. To close, do you have any words of wisdom for aspiring podcasters?

It's a wonderful ride. If you have the tools, I have macs, and they make it really easy to podcast, but windows has some nice software as well, go for it. Pick a topic you know and make it as fun for you as you can. And be patient. There are only a few podcast who will make it in the top 100's. Ctrl Alt WoW has a nice little niche and we like it. Oh and don't expect to make money.

Thanks Aprillian!

And thank you for what you are doing for the World of Warcraft podcast community.

In the Chamber: The Number Shall Be Three

2009-03-12T10:05:00.005-04:00

Three podcasts dropped this morning (insert "Ha Ha Ha" style laugh from Sesame Street's Count von Count).

One was The Grind Podcast, again. I just got the Thirty-Ninth Grind back on Tuesday, but nevertheless the Fortieth, dated 8th March, 2009 was there this morning.

I've said before that we sometimes experience the funk when dealing with the iTunes "refresh" when we check for new episodes each morning so if you happen to be a podcaster and we're not mentioning your show the morning after you've released one, please shoot us a note to clue us in. Usually between the five of us we're able to stay up on everything but I don't always hear from everyone first thing in the morning.

Aside from the Grind, a new Casually Hardcore titled Trying not to Fail was also there this morning and this show is in the crosshairs for the next Quick Hit.

And finally World of Warcast Episode #79 also dropped and we're eager to give that a listen.

Yesterday I listened to the latest Proudmoore Pansies, Episode 28 dated 9th March, 2009. I have to say I really am liking this show. As I mentioned once before they are basically just giving you a recap of what's been going on in their guild Pansy Division over on the Alliance side of the Proudmoore server so it's not really a show for everyone. But the way they come across as so relaxed and calm about everything they discuss makes me feel like I want to listen, and they had some fascinating stories about raiding and PUG dynamics, and honoring guild commitments this week that you could extrapolate and apply to your own guild or raiding experience. One of the co-hosts Galactyx is nearly an identical voice double for Randy Jordan a.k.a. Randy Deluxe of the Instance. I'd give them a listen if you haven't before, at least this episode. Our pal Hatfield reported that he registered at their website but he hasn't seen a lot of activity. Nate Arizona is Galactyx' co-host and they both appear to be officers for their guild.

Also started listening to The Essence of RP, which I apparently haven't heard in so long I forgot the hosts weren't Americans. More on that at another time.

Mailbag: A Few Questions

2009-03-12T06:36:00.004-04:00

We've had a few questions come in over the last week and a half and I've been letting them build up so we could have this extravaganza Mailbag column where I blast you with not one, not two, but three legitimate, completely non-Microsoft auto-response generated, emails. So let's get to it:

Hi,

Do you plan to use pictures on your blog? It's pretty bland right now with a lot of text I'm sure that turns off some younger readers.

Thanks,
Frank

First of all, this has to be the same Frank Jackson from Providence, Rhode Island that emailed us once before so I'd say he's our first blog groupie. It doesn't seem to have hindered your readership or interactiveness with us, has it Frank? Second, I'm 18 and I write for this blog so I take offense that we younger people are intimidated by words! Not all of us are morons, moron. If you want pictures go to every other site on the webs. I'm not saying that we'll never have pictures here but I guess you haven't been reading from the beginning where we say we're content with our humble beginnings for now. Everything here is going according to our schedule, not yours.

Hi Toothy -

Thanks for the work you guys do it's a pretty big service considering there's so many podcasts out there. How much time do you spend listening to podcasts on average each week?

Thea (Hamsalad, lvl 22 priest, Anvilmar-US)

Good question Thea, I can't honestly tell you. But a lot. Figure the average show is 1 hour and I have about 40 WoW podcasts on my iPhone it's probably two days worth of listening to hear every show for a particular week (since some shows do tend to go 1.5 or 2 hours). That's why we've kind of broken the podcasts up into little pools between the five of us so we aren't overwhelmed trying to listen to everything, but I still listen to my favorites too like The Instance or Ctrl Alt WoW. Still about 5-10 hours a week of listening.

Hello UWoW Team -

I see Jim usually writes the In the Chamber column in the mornings, is he actually ever going to review anything himself? Has he tried to take over the blog? I liked how democratic things were looking here initially but it looks like he has put himself at the forefront now and the reviews are secondary.

Martin W. (Area 52)

When this showed up in my inbox I immediately sent a note to Pete Pete and copied the rest of the team because I thought for sure he was taking the piss. The Area 52 thing was a dead giveaway since he's the resident conspiracy theorist. But Pete Pete swore up and down that he didn't write the email so I guess I'll give Martin W. a legitimate answer to what I know is some sort of joke by someone we know: this is Jim's blog. If he wanted to call it Jim Surge's Magical WoW Podcast Review Blog With Four Other Clowns That Can't Write And Aren't Funny then that's what he'd call it and we'd all still write for it. That's what we think of him, it was his idea, and why he's been made "tiebreaker" on any votes we have, so piss off. Yes he's going to do reviews, he's probably going to do the first "A Longer Look" piece for us in addition to semi-regular Quick Hits.

Thanks for reading, feel free to drop me a line at uwowtoothy@live.com or the main UWoW email at: uwow@live.com

In the Chamber: Warcraft Anonymous

2009-03-11T09:43:00.004-04:00

Only one fearless podcast to drop this morning, Warcraft Anonymous Episode 67 - Railvas vs The Internet. The date on it is Friday, 6th March, 2009 so I don't know if this is yet another instance of my iTunes acting fishy or if it actually just went up yesterday but hey, it downloaded so I'm reporting it! The show features Rile guest-hosting for the first time with Railvas as Hiko was tied up at school and unable to make it.

An interesting topic comes up here... and the reason I'm guest-authoring In the Chamber this morning. With the sheer number of shows that we hear each week that release episodes either shorthanded or with guest hosts because the regular hosts can't be there, is it more important to you that show x comes out on day y or is it more important to you that show x comes out whenever as long as it is "complete?"

I don't think shows with guest hosts pull it off very well mainly because I've listened to them and they often don't. Many of the hosts simply aren't skillful or interesting enough or sometimes the guest host is a dud. I'm not talking about Warcraft Anonymous specifically here but, for example, last week's All Things Azeroth with Matticus as one of the guest hosts was a tough listen. If not for Stompalina actually contributing that episode would have been a major fail. Matticus said about 10 words the entire podcast and came across to me like he didn't want to be there. Medros' modus operandi is that he formulates a question, throws it to his co-host for a response, and then responds to their take with one of his own. Doesn't work if one of the co-hosts gives two word answers.

So let us know what you think. Obviously it's disappointing when a promised episode doesn't appear or broadcast on the day they are scheduled but is that the end-all-be-all? Would you rather a show come out 4 days late but be the show you wanted to hear, or an on-time show with a guest host that changes the dynamic?

In the Chamber: Five More!

2009-03-10T13:01:00.002-04:00

Five more podcasts loaded up this morning:

WoW Insider Show Episode 80 - Listen To Your Mom
The Instance #138 - The Hot Tub Episode
Outlandish Episode 52 - 2nd March, 2009
The Grind Podcast - The Thirty-Ninth Grind
Ctrl Alt WoW 105 - Dailies, Dailies, and more Dailies

All of the shows sound pretty good, no BRK on the WoW Insider Show but initial reports are that the show was solid as always. Michael Sacco was apparently a scene-stealer again in another good appearance. We tried to get in touch with BRK a week or so ago but we never heard back from him regarding future appearances on the show. Apparently the Outlandish guys are bored with the game until Blizzard adds new content, the Instance guys broadcasted from a hot tub, and Ctrl Alt WoW aired the second episode since they've converted to their new split format.

Next Quick Hits have been updated. We've decided to hold off on reviewing Ctrl Alt WoW since Melissa is going to have Aprillian for her "interview" column. More to come on the Proudmoore Pansies and Starting WoW podcasts as well.

Delayed Recall: Blue Plz!

2009-03-09T14:03:00.009-04:00

Thanks for checking out Delayed Recall. In DR the main premise is that I listen to a podcast without taking any notes and then attempt to write about it from memory a day or two later. Last week it was Total Biscuit's Blue Plz! on Friday where I showed up for the IRC chat.

As Jim mentioned the other day, Total Biscuit gave our blog a fantastic mention near the opening of his show, I would say within the first five minutes. He also introduced me as a special guest in the chat and the Blue Plz! listeners were very kind and inquisitive. I had someone ask if Fred is my real name, which it is. You can probably imagine the amount of times, though, that I had bartenders laugh at me in my younger days when they saw "Fred Jones" on my identification. These days the only places that look at my ID are doctors offices and airports, but I digress.

Something Jim didn't mention is that the chat moderator from time to time would post a bold "as mentioned on the show" note which is a very cool touch for a show with a big audience. The note about our blog said something like: "the only blog epic enough for Total Biscuit to follow!" It wasn't unique to our blog, of course, the IRC moderator would link or bold post the main topics/themes/sites TB mentioned and while I've seen that done in other chats for other shows they could probably take a lesson from WoW Radio here. There was an air of professionalism about it that added to the live show atmosphere for me.

Of course something like this would probably look very silly or become an annoyance if you only had 5-10 listeners in the chat but luckily Blue Plz! probably had about 300 listeners there, can't recall seeing an actual tally and I stopped counting once I reached 75 and realized I was only a quarter of the way through the listener list. And of course I saw one listener request to have the moderator "stop spamming" so you'll never please everyone I suppose.

Back to the show, he went right into email. Email is always email even if TB does do it pretty well. The Blue's Clues email lead-in made me chuckle, especially since my granddaughter is watching that these days. Did you know the Steve guy wasn't a pervert? He actually just left the show to start a music career? For some reason I always thought that guy was creepy. Anyway, all five of us here at UWoW like hearing out of the box thinking and I think TB did a good job of bringing new angles to some questions that perhaps the questioner didn't quite think through all the way.

I like when TB had a drop of glass breaking from out of nowhere for "The Illusion of Choice," which is a chance for listeners to set the last topic of the show. That's a very cool feature of the show and goes straight toward the very spirit of the internet, doesn't it?

If I remember correctly he next started going off on the notion that casual players don't exist. I kind of go with the idea that there are such animals as casual players. There are people who don't read WoW blogs or listen to WoW podcasts, people who never post on the WoW forums or have never heard of WoW Insider. They're around, and they still play for whatever reason makes them happy. I like to think those sort of people are casuals.

TB's rant was based on the fact that the old definition of "casual" as "non-raider" no longer applies. I must admit my mind wandered a bit here. While it was probably informative for new players I think he took longer than needed to give the back history. One great point he made, though, was that a lot of the new end-game raid content doesn't require the huge blocks of time it did pre-Wrath and that you could basically PUG anything. To that end I can understand his point and it is nice to have something to go back at people who "hide" behind their casual status. Took too long to get there though for me.

Good flow between topics from casual players into badge loot. I'm not really concerned with badge rewards right now since I'm leveling alts while helping Melissa level but apparently there's some crying about getting yourself geared up on badge loot. Doesn't really affect me, this would probably be more of an issue for Toothy and Pete Pete but not for Jim, Melissa, or I.

TB then spoke about the Daily Mail article that picked up on the Swedish story which blamed WoW for the kid who passed out after playing the game for 20 hours straight. I think he used the memorable phrase "vomit-worthy" when talking about parents shipping their children off to doctors for pills to make them empty shells just like everyone else, attaching the stigma of being "anti-social" to them in the process. Another major point I remember is the fact that there is no diagnosis for computer game addiction at present. We all know compulsive people who are compulsive at everything they do... but a little more understanding and communication here could go a long way. I can't tell you as an older gamer the sort of stereotypes I usually have to overcome to earn someone's trust in-game. I've had whole ventrillo servers go dead when they hear my older voice. Needless to say, enjoyed this segment muchly. Sounds like more crying from bad parents trying to blame everything but themselves for bad parenting.

Total Biscuit's live shoutcast play-by-play for the 3 vs. 3 PVP game was the highlight of the show for me. TB said he felt an energy rush doing it; I actually got an energy rush and I didn't even sync up my video to watch the action, I was just listening! It was a combination of an auction house auctioneer, horse racing announcer, and football (soccer) commentary. Fantastic.

Wrapped up the end of the show with the live listener submissions and shout outs which is a great way to keep the listeners involved until the very end.

Overall, it's pretty clear Total Biscuit has his shit together. He's pretty damn funny too, without the benefit of notes I can't recall specific quips but if you can sit through Blue Plz! without cracking at least one smile you probably have some sort of mental disease. Clearly this is one of the very best WoW podcasts out there and one of the favorites here at UWoW. The format is unique and streamlined and the IRC works in perfect synergy with the show. Didn't always agree with everything but I appreciate that he's even thinking of original topics to bring into the discussion rather than the same recycled information we can find in a million other places. Would have liked the "made-up topic" of casuals not existing to be a little more on-point but what can you do? My final analysis is that it was a good episode of a very good show.

In the Chamber: Lots of Goodies

2009-03-09T10:04:00.003-04:00

Eight big shows in the queue this morning:

World of Warcraft Podcast Video
WoW Things Considered - Who's Watching the Watchmen Things Considered
Octale and Hordak vs. the World - I Might Be Porting Sewage, But At Least I'm Alone
Starting WoW Holiday Show #19 - Rant Show
Blue Plz! Season 3, Episode 20 - Takin' a Hit of the Arcane Dust
MaxSpeed - I'm A Cyborg But That's Okay
rawrcast - #9 rawrcast - Dirty South
Proudmoore Pansies - Episode 28

No doubt WoW Insider and Ctrl Alt WoW are soon to follow too as they usually are on Mondays. Speaking of Ctrl Alt WoW, looks like Aprillian has graciously agreed to be Melissa's first "interview" for the "7 Questions For..." column which is fantastic news. Thanks Aprillian!

Not much happened with us in-game or on the blog this weekend as real life intervened. Our friend Hatfield's daughter turned one year old on Saturday and Pete Pete and I were there to celebrate. And of course I kept trying to get him to agree to write for the blog, especially now that his daughter is one surely she's a bit more self-reliant than she's been! We'll see how that goes but for now Hat wants to remain anti-social and stay lurking as our "live reporter." Melissa unfortunatley spent a lot of the beautiful northeast weather this weekend in the library doing research for a paper but Fred was able to sneak in some birdwatching on Saturday and Sunday. Toothy was tied up showing his parents around town.

Fred's column is up next and a couple of Quick Hits to follow later today or tomorrow on shows we haven't had a chance to write about yet. We should also see our first "A Longer Look" next week so things continue to look good for the blog. Thanks for reading, that's all for now.

The Greater Good: Reintroductions

2009-03-07T08:27:00.006-05:00

There have been a ton of new eyeballs checking out the blog, no doubt thanks to Totalbiscuit who according to Fred gave us a very flattering review on yesterday's Blue Plz! Fred reported that he was also treated like a rock star in the IRC and wanted to thank everyone for their positivity and support. He'll be writing about the experience in his next Delayed Recall column. I can't say how happy everyone here is to know that what we're doing is seen as worthwhile (or if not worthwhile at least decently written!). But of course it won't blunt our keyboard when reviewing WoW Radio shows (blunt our keyboard? I'll work on it, hopefully you get the drift), which is I hope what you might expect from us.

For you new readers, welcome! In case you don't feel like going back and reading the whole blog (although there's some funny stuff hidden away there I think) here's a little state of the blog address as I see it.

Generally UWoW is going to be a Monday through Friday blog, in that we'll always post at least one post each day Monday-Friday, even if it's just me doing In the Chamber. We're not requiring anyone to write on the weekends although from time-to-time something might appear, especially from Fred who has less schedule restrictions. Here's what we're up to:

Quick Hits: Short reviews of a few paragraphs. Just one take on one episode.
A Longer Look: Longer reviews considering multiple episodes. Can be as long or as short as the author needs.
In the Chamber: A daily column I write recounting what hit the iTunes that morning, what I've listened to, likely upcoming reviews, and whatever tidbits that the other writers have passed along to me.
The Greater Good: A weekly column I write which gives the general status of the blog and common themes from that week's podcasts.
Transcribing Master: A regular column written by Pete Pete where he looks for the hidden meaning behind the "actual words."
Delayed Recall: A weekly column written by Fred where he listens to a podcast, doesn't take any notes, and then tries to write about it a few days later just from memory.
Mailbag: This is meant to be a weekly column written by Toothy, but of course is dependent on mail. :-)
7 Questions For...: A regular interview column with bloggers and podcasters put togther by Melissa.

So things are looking pretty good but it's early days, things could always turn into a complete disaster at any moment. Thanks for reading and we hope you'll keep it up!

In the Chamber: Zilch, Zero, Nada

2009-03-06T09:23:00.008-05:00

Well since none of our usual podcasts showed up in the ol' iTunes this morning I can continue to change "In the Chamber" to "The Daily Disclaimer" and wax on about how we are consciously writing each review in a vacuum and how we really are rooting for these shows to do well (we're not masochists and prefer not to listen to hours worth of garbage just so we can write a bad review). We try to be as fair as we can be without calling ourselves objective, because obviously each of our personal makeups plays a part in our review.

Mainly this is for the podcasters out there that we review and the readers checking us out, a bad review of a single episode doesn't mean we dislike the show as a whole. Nor will we ever discourage someone from listening to a show. What we write is simply our opinion on that day. What qualifies us to lend our opinion? Well, we listen. A lot. And have been listening. A lot. And we take notes. Lots of them.

Well no new shows today is fine with us though because it'll give us a chance to look at a couple of shows we've wanted to write about but haven't yet. We're going to hold off until the regular hosts are back before Quick Hitting Casually Hardore or All Things Azeroth, although Medros must have edited out all of the times Stompalina called Matticus cute because we heard that live but didn't hear it when the episode dropped. Stomp sounded like she had a great time though!

Fred will be in the IRC for today's Blue Plz! so if you see him please say hello! He's listening for his next Delayed Recall column which may actually appear on Sunday.

And in the interest of full disclosure I am making edits around the blog when appropriate to some of the other writers' work here (everyone has agreed). Mostly just grammar and phrasing but I'm also trying to be very conscious of the tone of our reviews and want to make sure we aren't ever mean for the sake of being mean (although with our group of intelligent writers I doubt major edits will ever be necessary). I hope you'll all afford us the same courtesy in your comments.

Holy Cryptic Riddles Batman!

2009-03-05T21:06:00.006-05:00

I got an email this evening which looks like a riddle so I thought I would share. It is from our local Princeton buddy Hatfield:

Quick; quite mum; I die notwithstanding.
I lived once, I live again. Everybody
lifts me, grips me, and chops off my head,
bites my bare body, violates me.
I don't bite a man unless he bites me;
there are many men who bite me.

I don't know the answer, bud. But thanks for the email.

By the way, I would say that Hat has sort of become our unofficial "live" correspondent. He was in The Instance chat with me the other night, and checked out Stompalina's PTR and the live All Things Azeroth for us. He won't be writing for us because of other commitments but will continue to contribute info to our reviews and help us out behind-the-scenes. He's pretty active on Twitter about his hunter on Anvilmar-US.

He and Jim should form a guild called "LevelEightyNoobs."

Quick Hits: rawrcast #8

2009-03-05T14:12:00.010-05:00

RAWRCAST #8 - YUMMY PTR COOKIES
1st March, 2009

First time for me listening to The Rawrcast Show by the rawrbitchrawr folks Stompalina and her husband Hafrot. This is a new-ish podcast on the rise that began posting episodes to iTunes back in January. Chef Stompalina has been getting lots of positive exposure in the WoW community lately, from guest co-hosting All Things Azeroth to having WoW Insider's Mike Schramm blog about and show up at her live ustream PTR broadcast.

All of the ingredients are there for me as a disaffected, know-it-all teenager to be jealously predisposed to dislike this podcast: likable host on the rise with a cool voice in Stompalina, interesting and actually informative commentary on their sleek-looking blog, co-host Hafrot who obviously knows what he's doing and has some in-game standards. In other words, all of the buzz has been good. Very good. I can't possibly become yet another mindless zombie joining the chorus by liking this show, could I? I want to bash this show, don't I? Will I still have "review cred" if I like this show?

Sigh. I really liked the show.

Stompalina's experiences and insights about the PTR have not only been fun to follow but they have been educational (for Jim, who is pants at WoW). While I've heard plenty of changes read from a sheet on other shows she and Hafrot were able to give some good descriptions of how they've experienced some of the changes as they've encountered them on the PTR. Now that's good stuff.

She also mentions something that we didn't hear elsewhere until we heard from Stomp - about the color-coded appearance of group member dots on the mini-map according to class, and also different icons for raid leader, tank, etc.. For me, I would have liked her to have put that "exclusive" content up closer to the front of the show or at least tease that she has some juicy tidbits to keep me listening rather than stumbling onto it half an hour into the show.

Speaking of juicy tidbits, Stomp wondering if she has an "e-vag" made me laugh out loud and that's always a great thing. And the fact that the rawrcast folks have a thing for big sacks is also very funny. They're creating their own set of in-jokes and I imagine that will attract a very colorful, varied audience who will appreciate that attitude and approach.

I have to strain for criticisms and will make them brief: the editing needs a little work and sometimes sounds too abrupt. The drop-ins are also a little... off. Those are just a couple of technical issues that I'm sure will iron themselves out with time and experience.

Well, this Quick Hit is getting long so I'll hit the Wrap It Up Box and get to the end. Ah-hem, in conclusion, a very solid podcast. I don't know about you Americans but as an Englishman there's simply nothing better than a Texas (okay, maybe Georgia or Alabama, maybe [hi Kate!]) accent. I enjoyed Hafrot's story about knowing your class, knowing your gear, and knowing your role in a raid. It was good stuff all around from both hosts (and Haf sounds like the sort of mentor Jim needs so he can learn how to play his hunter)! :)

Summary: Tried to hate it but ended up liking it so much I'll be back for more episodes. Loved Hafrot's story and Stompalina's enthusiasm.

In the Chamber: Elune's Grace & ATA

2009-03-05T09:49:00.005-05:00

Two more podcasts dropped for our pleasure yesterday, Elune's Grace #85 titled "Building a Raid in the Plague Quarter" which sounds like a pretty interesting topic, and also All Things Azeroth #103 which features Medros with guest hosts Matticus from World of Matticus and WoW Insider and the ever-present Stompalina from rawrbitchroar and The Rawrcast Show filling in for regular co-host Graece.

We got a nice shout on Twitter today from Total Biscuit saying:

I can't wait to be torn apart by - http://undergroundwow.blogspot.com - Finally a blog that objectively analyses podcasts.

That's just about exactly what we're gunning for but it's a tricky road to travel.

For example, Melissa has repeatedly proposed an interview column where she asks a number of questions from a WoW podcaster. Everyone except me seems to think this is a good idea so I've been outvoted 4-to-1. I don't think my objection is frivolous - I've said that if she does one of these "interviews" which are generally going to be positive spotlight-type pieces then there may be an unrealistic expectation that a review of that podcast is going to be favorable as well. And then what happens if we don't like the podcast that particular day? Probably all sorts of e-drama, precisely the sort of thing that might drive us into the Underground Lounge to escape. It's part of the reason I seem to put up a daily disclaimer (which this is in danger of becoming).

Anyway as I riff on the moral implications of engaging in quid pro quo it seems like the perfect place to mention that we do plan to oblige TB sooner rather than later on his request as I believe Fred will be taking in the next Blue Plz! live over at WoW Radio for his Delayed Recall column.

Transcribing Master: YAWOWP #34

2009-03-04T19:13:00.007-05:00

Welcome to my first ever Transcribing Master column. Normally I'm going to transcribe a chunk of text from the spoken word that makes up a podcast and look at it from a couple of different angles. Some might call what I propose to do over-analysis and in return I call them lazy. I ask "when do you critics ever spend a moment to analyze anything, ever?" Maybe their own lives would be enriched and their WoW playing more serene if they took the time to look inward before lashing outward.

When I listened to Yet Another World of Warcraft Podcast #34 it struck me that the podcast doesn't really lend itself to long excerpts. They follow the most common format of WoW podcast which is a combination of WoW news, what they did on their characters since the last broadcast, and listener email.

The hosts sound like younger guys and Fred has mentioned before that he likes to listen to this sort of stuff for perspective and Toothy recommended this podcast to me for the column but it doesn't work for me. I think there's some gratuitous cursing from the hosts for coolness factor and it triggers an auto-response from me called "rolled eyes." I also think the format is tired so you really have to be doing something special or at least be a little more slick about it if you're going to impress me. At the very least you shouldn't be yawning audibly and saying "I'm tired" during the opening 20 minutes of the show as Michael does at the 17:14 point.

This was another episode we've heard lately where all of the hosts weren't present, Michael and Cody did the show without Craig so please keep that in mind and it's basically why I won't give a full review or transcribe from the show. But there was certainly some weirdness - an absurd amount of Craig worship going on in the first 16 minutes to the tune of 16 mentions of the word "Craig," almost all of them coming from voice-cracking Cody who sometimes referred to him multiple times in quick succession.

If anyone out there would like to create a mash-up these mentions are approximately at: 1:26, 3:24, 6:04, 7:32, 7:35, 8:26, 8:27, 8:30, 10:53, 11:58, 12:32, 12:52, 12:53, 13:40, 15:49 and 15:51. And then, to add to the weirdness, no mentions of him again for the remaining 40 minutes of the show! WTF? Makes no sense.

What do I think? I think that Mike thinks he's better friends with Craig than Cody, but I think in reality the opposite is true. I have absolutely no information about this, mind you, it just "sounds that way," at least on this episode.

They did a decent job going through some of the Patch 3.1 changes and the flow of the show definitely picked up at that point but for me it lacked the insight into larger gameplay mechanic implications that I can find elsewhere.

Michael did a good job reading the lone email submission they received and I thought that was actually a funny highlight; I like the voice he affected when reading the email which basically mocked the contributor. That really appeals to the sardonic side of me.

Overall I think this is probably a really decent show if you're a younger WoW fan. Having been through that period of my life already and knowing just how lame I was means it's not quite for me.

In the Chamber: Outlandish

2009-03-04T10:17:00.007-05:00

Good morning!

Outlandish Episode 51 dropped yesterday and was the lone podcast we picked up this morning.

Gave some of Proudmoore Pansies a listen yesterday and I thought what I heard sounded pretty good: decent-sounding, laid-back hosts which is right up my alley. I was a little nervous at the start of the show because the hosts were mulling over their waning enthusiasm for podcasting but it looks like the show will continue for the foreseeable future which seems like a good deal.

I've found little-to-no info on these guys (in fact, yesterday's In the Chamber came up as the 6th result on a Google search) as it seems they're lacking a web presence but I may not be looking in the right area. If you know more please email or comment.

It seems this podcast may be based around a guild on the Proudmoore server called Pansy Division. If the guild is anything like the band I'm assuming that they are a gay-friendly group but I haven't heard the whole show yet and can't confirm that.

Pete Pete's first Transcribing Master column obviously didn't appear yesterday. He said he delayed it because he wants to go back and re-listen to YAWOWP #51 and count the number of times Michael and Cody referred to their missing co-host Craig. So Pete's on that assignment today and we should see it soon.

Quick Hits are also to come, one from me on WoW Insider Show (I'm waiting for a response from BigRedKitty about why he appeared on the most recent episiode even though he's gone from WoW Insider, and if he'll be appearing again) and one from Melissa who's going to check in with the hardest working woman in the WoW-o-sphere Stompalina and her rawrcast #8 from a few days ago. If I don't hear from BRK relatively soon I'll probably move over to the latest Casually Hardcore which features just Gnomewise and Grail.

That's all for now; see you at the matches!

In the Chamber: Proudmoore Pansies?

2009-03-03T13:35:00.002-05:00

Thanks to an e-mail tip from Frank Jackson of Providence, Rhode Island, we decided to add his favorite podcast to the rotation and that podcast is the somewhat dubiously titled Proudmoore Pansies. I picked up Episode 27 which is dated yesterday, 2nd March, 2009. Haven't given a listen yet but will do soon. None of the five of us have heard this show before so it'll be a fresh take.

Starting World of Warcraft podcast #18 also dropped, called SWoW Holiday Cast 18. This guy Cian Mac Mahon is always pretty solid in my opinion, straight-up quickfire news. I think Pete Pete is trying to get in touch with him for an interview.

My iTunes must have been on holiday yesterday because I got new MaxSpeed and Octale and Hordak episodes today too... the ones I got yesterday were apparently from last week. What's going on I wonder, my settings must be muffed.

Pete Pete has his first Transcribing Master column coming today based on Yet Another World of Warcraft Podcast.

I listened to my first ever complete Epic Dolls yesterday (Episode 61) and can see why Melissa liked it! There was an informative discussion for newer players about what to look for when joining a guild that I thought was a real highlight. The hosts also laughed a lot and unlike podcasts where the hosts laugh and you know they're laughing because they think they're funny, these hosts laughed because it really sounded like they were having a good time and that can really carry the day sometimes. Podcasts need more honest laughter like this, and less dishonest laughter like Warcraft Outsiders.

That's all for now; see you at the matches!

Delayed Recall: The Instance

2009-03-02T16:51:00.007-05:00

THE INSTANCE #137 "Come On Down!"
27th February, 2009

I actually was there for the live chat on this episode and haven't listened to it since.

Whenever I do things these days, as you might imagine even if you haven't yet "crossed over" into your 70s, the thought I always seem to come back to is that I have already lived more years than I have left. And probably by a long margin in my case. So I have little time for bullshit.

In fact, as the philosopher Harry Frankfurt argues, bullshit is a more insidious threat to humanity than lying, because liars at least respect the truth (that's why they lie). Bullshitters don't care what's true or not, it's all about framing the story in order to posture towards some selfish endgame result. They use truth and lies indiscrimentley. Therefore, liars are good-at-heart, bullshiters are evil-at-heart, and yet as a society we tend to hate liars and put up with bullshitters. This has to change.

Getting back to reality, the guest host was Tom Merritt. I had never heard of him before and he didn't seem to know much about World of Warcraft. I think he admitted to not even knowing what DPS was until he was into his 40s (level-wise) but 'm fuzzy on that. Seems odd, that's a core system component. I was catching the vibe that he wanted to differentiate himself from a "crazy hardcore gamer" and so to me he gave off an "us vs. them" vibe when commenting about members of the live chat.

The fact that he didn't say much seemed to jive well with Randy Deluxe. I remember a show some weeks ago where Randy became testy and pouted "if I can get a word in edgewise" when the guest host guy was actually contributing to the show. Can't remember who the guest was, but I actually enjoyed that episode a lot as he seemed to get on well with Scott Johnson.

Scott moves the show along when it needs it, and skillfully at that. He kept saying "a new car!" in that Price is Right announcer voice which I imagine is where the clever title came from. I can't recall if they said "Come On Down!" but I guess they did?

The chat was pretty lively. Over 250 viewers, probably more I just remember seeing that number when I first got onto ustream. Some funny lines were about the WOWMatrix MMO, and someone mentioned that WoWMatrix created the internet in the 1980s which I took as a dig at Tom Merritt who was ridiculously schooling all of us young children with communications 101, namely that the internet has been around longer than 5 years. I think Tom unintentionally offended some gamers with his wanderings into the psychology of gamers, which always had a "to be clear, I'm not one of those crazies" feel to it for me.

Summary: Didn't like this show. I know I'm not supposed to do any research or follow-up or anything for this column but when I saw tweets from Scott saying it was one of his favorites of all time I wondered if it was just a generational thing. My question would be... which part?

In the Chamber: Just About Everything

2009-03-02T11:31:00.004-05:00

We've experienced our second consecutive weekend of blog lag. No fancy get-togethers in New York City either this time to excuse us, we actually did it as sort of an aesthetic choice.

Those of you who have been reading this blog from the beginning have probably noticed we're slowly but surely getting things streamlined around here.

For instance, most of our reviews are going to be "Quick Hits." These are meant to be brief general impressions of one show on one particular day. As Toothy has already demonstrated, the reviewer isn't required to even listen to the entire podcast. But the reviewer needs to at least give some examples to show that he/she actually listened.

In addition to Quick Hits, we will have full reviews called "A Longer Look." These will be as long or as short as the reviewer wants but expected to be much more detailed and on-point. Several episodes should be considered to gauge the recent "flow" of the show as a whole. These are meant to be more about where the show is going overall rather than just looking at one episode in a vacuum.

Aside from the reviews, we have some columns:

Toothy is going to be authoring the "Mailbag" column.

PetePete is going to be authoring a column called "Transcribing Master" where he transcribes a bit of the spoken word from a podcast and then goes in-depth about possible meanings.

Fred is going to be authoring a column called "Delayed Recall." Fred has repeatedly told the four of us that his memory is excellent even as he approaches 71-years old. However, as we have learned in reality, Fred is quite forgetful. Therefore we proposed that Fred do an experiment called Delayed Recall where he listens to a podcast, doesn't take any notes, and writes about it a day or two later with his impressions. He's been a good sport to agree; should be a great read!

Melissa may author the "Reviewing the Reviewers" column on a permanent basis but she has a couple of other ideas that she's proposed which both sound interesting. We still need to speak as a group about it.

And finally I'll author "In the Chamber" which (aside from this one) is meant to be a quick column about which podcasts have hit the iTunes that morning and also "The Greater Good" which will be a general look at the blog, WoW podcasts and community discussion every Friday.

Here's what fired up at 9:00 AM EST:

Rawrcast - #8: Yummy PTR Cookies
Epic Dolls - Episode 61 - 3.1 Goodies and Guilds
Casually Hardcore - Masters of 5 - The Oculus
WoW Things Considered - Fired Up
Essence of RP - Episode 20? The Return
The Happy Hour Tavern - Nom Nom Nom Nom Nom Nom Nom
Octale and Hordak vs The World - Steaming Tangentials in the Storm Peaks
Blue Plz! - Season 3 Episode 20 Separate But Equal?
Warcraft Anonymous - Episode 66: Warcraft Anonymous Returns
Yet Another World of Warcraft Podcast - Episode #034
MaxSpeed - Moment of Silence

No doubt the WoW Insider show is close to follow too, as it is every Monday. Just wasn't there at 9:00 AM EST!

Another Ctrl Alt WoW should be out today too.

Best episode name has to go to Octale and Hordak!

Lastly, I know I have qualifiers all over the blog but I feel I need to say that we are rooting for every podcast. We're WoW fans. We like to listen and hopefully learn something, or at least have a good time while not learning! We're excited when iTunes queues up in the morning and there are several new shows to listen to. We're never going into any review looking to write a bad one. I don't think you'll ever hear a reviewer here use the phrase "I don't know why they are even doing this podcast" because we don't mean to offend anyone's personal preference, but you will get a completely honest assessment from our point of view which may conflict with your own.

We don't know anyone in the WoW community at-large so we have no vendettas or favors to repay or friends to pimp out and pump up. What we're hoping here is to eventually provide a service for readers so they can make informed decisions about what they should listen to out of the myriad of WoW podcasts out there.

Quick Hits: World of Warcast #78

2009-02-27T14:15:00.007-05:00

WORLD OF WARCAST #78
25th February, 2009

As has been mentioned on this blog we're all burned out listening to Love is in the Air talk and I was hoping I'd be able to avoid it here since the event had ended but no dice. After just two minutes Renata said Love is in the Air has caused a lot of bellyaching and then Starman basically went off on the Random Number Generator for about 15 minutes. I tried to zone out during this time. The inclusion of Cryler on the show was a little disorienting for me; I've heard World of Warcast in the past and think I prefer it when Renata speaks of Cryler and he takes on this sort of mythical presence in my mind. He seemed a little too humble for me.

Disliked the three of them then giggling during Starman's story of playing "who's the noob" during the first corner in Ramparts. Just dislike that attitude in general I'm the sort to clue the new player in so everyone can improve. And then he's like "and I try not to be a jerk" in this whiny exasperated tone that sort of sounds like what a jerk might say. He went on to say later when speaking about being frustrated by sensible and suspicious PUG'ers daring to question his credentials as a player that he wasn't being obnoxious because other obnoxious people had cried about it on the WoW forums and everyone else was just ignorant. Sounds a little harsher when I type that then it sounded though, keep in mind.

That whole time from about 20 minutes until 40 minutes I would have cut as they're just ragging on new or unskilled players or how overpowered Death Knights are. Renata defined "noob" as someone "who was ignorant and preferred to stay that way." I doubt it's always quite so simple. What if you're in Jim's boat and all your friends are horrible in the game and you can't find a proper mentor? He's a level 80 noob then, despite his best honest effort.

Starman makes a decent point about Death Knight professions though and how silly it is that you have to start from 0, "a hero that apparently did nothing" is I believe how he put it which put a smile on my face.

Renata did a nice bit on Borean Tundra which is a new server that opened within the last three months although I was a bit disappointed about the ending, which was just that the economy eventually normalized just like every other realm and people started to twink alts with their 80s. Not sure what the shock there was.

Had to shake my head. An hour still left on the podcast. I wasn't feeling it.

Summary: Didn't make it past 45 minutes. I got depressed for some reason when Renata said "I did every trick I could think of and some that I didn't even know that I had" when bragging about healing Scarlet Monestary on a Shadow-specced priest. Will try again at a later date; maybe it was the rain today.

The Greater Good: Hypocrisy Trends Well

2009-02-27T11:17:00.006-05:00

Are you noticing some strange trends around the WoW podcasting community?

After slogging through what seemed an eternity of shows registering the same complaints about the Love is in the Air achievements, particularly the sinister drop rates on the "bag of candy" (pleased I won't have to hear those charming words again for a year), I'm simultaneously catching the vibe that these same podcasters dislike the fact that Blizzard has been capitulating to the demands of "QQers." I'm catching this vibe because they're saying as much, sometimes one right after the other. On top of that the hypocrisy has been compounded by the fact that some of the complaining has come from folks who claim not to care about achievements at all!

It's enough to make you step back and really look at yourself and wonder if writing about such shallow, artificial people (or, more optimistically, people just ignorant and self-absorbed enough not to realize what they're saying) and calling them out by name is appropriate or even worth it. Does it serve the greater good ("the greater good!") which is what we're all about? Are our reviews actually going to help anything or just contribute to the problem?

As we got into a bit last week around the community everyone's view of a "good" podcast varies. It is common sense to assume that just because a show has a lot of listeners doesn't automatically mean the show is "good" in the same way a show isn't automatically "bad" because they throw in some flashy production values and solid editing. It's also common sense to note that listeners may not know what they're saying. This isn't an insult, but a reality of education, overall time spent listening to podcasts, experience in life, experience in the medium, etc..

But where do we start drawing the auto-line? Hypocritical hosts? Should we call out shows who go against the missions stated on their own websites or should we just laugh these silly matters off because shows are supposed to be "entertainment" first and everthing else second?

It's hard when theorizing about this to remember we're talking about a computer game.

I felt compelled to post this basically as the last disclaimer, before any negative reviews have been posted here at UWoW. I want everyone to know, as I think I've written before, that the reviews are only the opinions of one person on one particular day. That's the way we're taking your podcast and we're spending valuable time listening to it so please give us the courtesy of doing the same.

In the Chamber: World of Warcast; Live Instance Tonight

2009-02-26T16:14:00.006-05:00

The only new WoW podcast to come down the pike this morning when I fired up the ol' iTunes was Episode 78 of World of Warcast so pretty excited to give it a listen now that the wave of Love is in the Air episodes should be over. Toothy said via text that he wants to do a Quick Hit on it and said he feels some pressure to give the first bad review after what he said were "soft touches" from Melissa and Pete Pete. Toothy has said on numerous occasions that aside from being a dentist the whole reason he chose the name "Toothy" was specifically "because my reviews are going to have bite."

So I don't know if he's going to actually be serious or if his entire review is going to be satire or what he has in store for us but surely it will be uniquely Toothy. And I should probably just apologize to Starman and Renata up front so many apologies for the yet unwritten!

Just saw a Tweet from Scott Johnson that there will be a new Instance podcast tonight so be sure to check that out live. Barring unforseen circumstances a couple of us will probably be lurking around the live chat (as usual) so be sure to say hi!

Basic UWoW Logo

2009-02-25T21:37:00.002-05:00

Here's a first pass at a basic, political bumper-sticker style logo:

You can't go wrong with simple.

Melissa says "more to follow."