Quick Hits: WoW Insider Show

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.

The Podcasts We Follow

Here is a listing of the podcasts we still listen to on a fairly regular basis:

• All Things Azeroth
• BigRedKitty
• The Craft of War
• Ctrl Alt WoW
• Elunes Grace Podcast
• Epic Dolls
• The Grind Podcast
• How I WoW
• The Instance
• Outlandish
• Starting World of Warcraft Podcast
• Warcraft Outsiders
• Women of Warcraft
• World of Warcast
• World of Warcraft Video Podcast
• WoW Factor
• WoW Insider
• WoW Radio: Blue Plz!
• WoW Radio: Casually Hardcore
• WoW Radio: Essence of RP
• WoW Radio: Octale & Hordak
• WoW Radio: PUG
• WoW Radio: The Happy Hour Tavern
• WoW Radio: Hiko & Railvas
• WoW Radio: WoW Things Considered
• Yet Another World of Warcraft Podcast

As we get started much of the focus will probably be on this group of podcasts, give or take one or two who may not be active at the moment. This by no means is an exclusive listing though, please feel free to contact us anytime at: uwow@live.com and we'll start getting your podcast into the rotation.

Since we are an independent group and not beholden to anyone we'll try not to pull any punches in our analysis and critiques. For instance, Pete Pete thinks it's pretty obvious that Marc hits on Ali during The Craft of War and also thinks she at times sounds like she's a prisoner. He said yesterday during our brainstorming session (and without any means to back himself up) that Marc's flirting is the reason there hasn't been a new episode since December. Melissa, however, thinks Marc sounds charming and said Ali is "trying too hard to be cute."

Now of course a lot of the commentary is going to be subjective and superficial (how could a blog about podcasts about World of Warcraft not be at least somewhat superficial?) and that's just fine by us.

But we are willing to get down to the nitty gritty when we have to, even if it involves self-critique. Look at this horrible troll-ish email I sent to the How I WoW show:

On Tue, Jan 20, 2009 at 9:01 PM, <jimsurge> wrote:
Hello -

I hate being the guy who never writes in unless he has something to complain about so I will preface my remarks by saying I am a long-time listener and very fond of your podcast. As you commented last week, your show is perfect for those of us powerleveling our mining after changing professions, or waiting for a full instance to empty, or locked out of our realm, especially today when there is extended maintenance and I can't bring myself to load up City of Heroes. The show is at times a bit too ass-kissy for my tastes but that's probably my own issues rather than anything you're doing.

The Mike the Beer Guy segment was horrible. I have had dinner parties and played just that part of the podcast for friends and colleagues and the consensus is that he is shockingly pretentious and out-of-touch, especially when it comes to his "precocious child" who's so intelligent she can't even tell the difference between real life and a cartoonish video game. Our 5-year old is in the middle of her second year of Chinese-immersion pre-school where all lessons and discussion are taught in Chinese. Not only this, she can speak and write rudimentary Spanish and French in addition to English. I'll also tell you that despite being the dumbest kid in her class last year - finishing 25th out of 25 - she knows the difference between games and real life. Guess why? Because my wife and I try this crazy thing called honesty with our child. It's the reason we're going to stop the Chinese lessons come May... she doesn't like it and prefers the Romance languages instead.

I know that perhaps standards are different for everyone but does he have to keep repeating how adept she is while in the next breath saying she doesn't have the capacity to draw the line between game and reality? And the solution is to hide from their child while playing? Come on now, I'm surprised Patrick didn't have a comment there. That sort of behavior only piques a child's interest more and can lead to deeper problems of mistrust down the road.

Please - no more self-serving segments like that. I don't know if this was an owed favor or what the motivation was for airing that but it was excruciatingly painful to listen to. A black mark on a previously unblemished record for How I WoW.

Best,
Jim Surge (or, if you want to pretentious it up, James M. Surge IV)

First of all, not only do I not have any children, I do not have dinner parties where the conversation would ever veer to World of Warcraft podcasts (discounting last night, of course). Amazingly, Patrick Beja actually took the time to send a polite reply:

On Feb 5, 2009, at 6:56 PM, How I WoW <show@howiwow.org> wrote:

You are certainly entitled to your opinion. I'm sorry you didn't like it, but we did enjoye Mike's segment very much. I guess you need different people to make the place a wonderful diverse place. :)

--

Patrick Beja

http://www.frenchspin.com

I had to send a red-faced email the next day saying I didn't remember sending the email after a few glasses of wine, which was partially true. I did remember sending an email but certainly not as mean-spirited as the above. But it was in my sent mail folder so it must be true. We give Patrick a massive amount of credit for taking the high road (no telling the sort of emails he must get) and can only hope we'll be as measured when some moron decides to get his drink on and drunken email.

What's the point of this over-long post? Just letting you know we're not above mistakes or criticism (or self-criticism) ourselves.