I was specifically told by a fan to "man up" and get it done, so, here it is.
There is a guest host this time, Josh Fletcher, AKA Kyo Kenshin on my forums. We actually had to record this twice, though, as the first file he tried recording on his end just up and disappeared somehow. This time I recorded on my end. The quality should be about the same, as the programs we used to record are similar in function, just his is for Windows, mine is for OS X. The original was 3.5 hours long, this one is 2 hours and six minutes long... so 5+ hours of recording! YAY!
The overall audio quality, however, might be a little lower than I normally like, as I accidentally transferred the original uncompressed files to 64 kbps MP3 for editing, instead of my normal 192 kbps MP3s for editing. We'll have to see. But, I just spent a good chunk of time editing this... and I'm not editing it all over again. Deal with it. Also, for some reason, there was some slight popping during the last segment we recorded, and I don't know why. Also, this puts all the audio to one track, which means we may talk over each other at times. Not much we can do about that without each of us recording separate tracks... but editing that shit is a pain, trust me.
No Teldrassil music in the beginning, it's long enough. It just starts right up. LET THE EAR BLEEDING COMMENCE!
Actually, I'm typing this as it is exporting... because I am dumb. So I have another 26 minutes of letting Blogger stare me in the face while it exports. Me am smart. Of course, by the time you read this, the audio will be up for download.
Man, I love FiOS.. I just uploaded the 58 MB file in under 2 minutes. <3 Of course, my host makes it 60.9 MB...
Of course, then I screw up the HTML and people couldn't download the damn podcast for the past 6 hours...
DAMN IT! I just discovered why my voice sounded like I was using a different mic... I WAS USING A DIFFERENT MIC! GOD DAMMIT! My Skype was set to use my iSight, not my damn headset. I have no idea why this was... grrrrrrrrrrrr
Same video, just testing it in iTunes again. After it shows up in iTunes, I'll see how it looks there, then get into editing the video podcast. EDIT: It showed up beautifully in iTunes (not showing up on the show page, but if you hit update podcast it is there). Now I know the format to use, and the hosting site. This means a little out of game recording, then on to full edit mode!
Apologies for the audio quality being a bit lower than the last few shows. My normal mic has a short in it, so had to use an older mic.
This episode is all about the changes upcoming in patch 2.3, lots of items to discuss. Had to rerecord the entire show after a program crash, though, so some parts may sound rushed as I had already recorded them once and was a wee bit pissed.
Be sure to email me, comment here, or comment on the forms!
I also apologize for not having a Flash player this post... apparently my host's Flash player code I used last time no longer works... need to get new code. Going to attempt one here...
There are a TON of changes coming in 2.3. I should hopefully have my mic all set soon, so a 2.2 patch show and then a 2.3 upcoming changes show will be in the works.
Oh, and the in-game voice chat client sucks an ass.
So, list the changes you are excited about, and I'll mention them on the show.
Changes I'm most excited for:
Zul'aman and new heroic loot potential. Leveling changes (maybe I'll finally level up all my under-40 alts).
There are places to look for 2.3 notes, such as worldofraids.com and mmo-champion.com.
Let me know what you want to hear about, and I'll do my best to fit in as much as I can.
Leave a comment here, on my forums, or email me with your wish list based on the changes for 2.3.
Here is a show discussing some things we found about at Blizzcon. More will be coming about Blizzcon, once I fix a short in my headset mic.
I am also testing the flash player for listening through your browser with this post. Those of you who listen from the web page, tell me how it works out for you, and if you prefer it or not. I won't stop the direct downloads from the page, though, it's just an added convenience, I feel.
Here is News Show 02, all about some of the upcoming changes in patch 2.2, on the test realms now.
I'm not playing on the test realms for much of the early part of the testing, because the one feature I would have been trying out, isn't available to my Mac. /cry
After some more builds of the PTR get released, I may decide to play on it some more to test out some of the other things, like the currently missing VOIP feature.
More info on the Ogri'la group quests and the 4 dragon bosses in the area. Info on the Netherwing quests I have access to. A few small bugs mentioned. Armory tools, and small add on rambling. GO SEE TRANSFORMERS section of non-WoW stuff.
I'm sure some of you know about the proposed increase to royalties for music played on the Net. This sort of increase has been proposed for a long time, almost always by the RIAA itself (IE not the artists). But now the publishing companies representing the artists have gotten something through that may pass that will increase the current royalty rate paid to the artists by Internet radio stations. The proposed increase, just like the older RIAA sponsored increases, is astornomical and will most likely bankrupt smaller Internet-only raido stations.
The proposed increase is an increase in royalties from anywhere between 300%-1200%. If it passes, it will go into effect on July 15, and the royalty payments will be retroactive to January of 2006. This back payment that will be required will amount to potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars, money many smaller Internet-only radio stations simply do not have. Even many larger terrestrial radio stations with advertisers who also stream online are considering pulling their Net streams because they feel that the price hike is just too much.
So, check out the link in the banner below for more information.
Talk of changes with Patch 2.1.0, 2.1.1, and 2.2.2. I do make one mistake (that I heard) calling the engineering goggles enchanting goggles at first. Dunno why, I guess I'm just dumb at times. I meant to say something about 2.2, but never got to it. I'll do a show about those changes later this week or next week. It's a good change that is upcoming, and I want to see how it works out.
After a long delay, caused by an injury to me, here is a new show!
Please don't mind the sporadic coughing, I am coming down with a cold. Also there isn't much editing to this episode, mainly because of my injury. I explain in the cast.
When this injury heals up some more, I can get the ginormous show out that was recorded over a month ago, because I will be able to edit far easier than I can now.
Also, you will notice it sounds slightly different. I got a new mic the other day, so I am hoping it has increased the overall sound quality. Please let me know what you think of the new sound.
As promised, in the show, here are the links to pics showing that auto-failing quest bug:
Here is the newest PTR show for the upcoming patch, Patch 2.0, which is the bridge patch between the current game and the expansion.
Discussion on the new PvP system, 41 point talents (some of them), character sheet changes, and some more!
Not a long show, since there wasn't a whole lot of new content to test on the test realm, but you know the info I give is pretty in-depth.
DOH! Looks like I should have checked the forums! They did announce the release date for the patch, December 5, 2006. Oh well, stop your PvP rank grind now, unless all you care about it the rank itself and not the items you get from it. After this Tuesday, you can't just buy them for gold.
Burning Crusade Exposed (WoWCast/World of PodCast show) part 2 of 2
Part 2 of 2? Where's part one? Head on over to WoWCast for part one.
Alachia and I discuss a whole mess of topics, then go drool over the new Arena PvP sets and weapons before discussing some more topics.
This is a long episode, so it starts right up. No intro music or anything, the damn thing is almost 2 hours already, you don't need any extra time before the meat of the cast.
We both apologize for the slight technical difficulties that happened on the recording of these shows. We recorded on a single computer through Skype, and there were network problems that messed up our recording. Unfortunately, it seemed to happen at the most inopportune times, like at the punch line of jokes. Next time we'll bite the bullet and just record separate audio files, even though it takes a lot longer to edit.
This is a new type of show, the Raid and Dungeon show. Raid and Dungeon shows will focus on the small group or raid instances found within WoW, offering tips and strategies for getting through the instances.
The first show focuses on Zul'Gurub, and is a highly in-depth look at the trash, and the bosses of Zul'Gurub, and how to defeat them. I hope this overview of ZG will help people just starting in ZG, planning on starting in ZG soon, or working their way through ZG in making progress within the first 20 man raid instance released for WoW.
These shows will be released periodically, and I will focus on a different instance each time.
So, been a bit of news released recently about upcoming changes to the game, and I don't always stay in line and bring you all the changes I hear about.
Well, this show should help to change that. As I get more info about upcoming changes that may not necessarily be in a specific patch, I'll do these sorts of shows to get that info out to you.
Episode 9 is here! Druids, druids, and more druids!
Check out the forum post for links to the feral and balance druid talent specs I recommend for people going all out balance, or feral, and an explanation on the 44 talent points (minimum) for a full restoration druid. Remember, the feral and balance druid talent examples are not spending the full 51 talent points, especially the feral one-- which emphasizes only the talents that really help both cat and bear forms, without specializing in either form.
I just heard a mistake in the cast, though! I say to swim East after getting the bauble in Lake Elune'ara... I mixed up the directions! Swim West young druid, swim West!
This is the first in new numbering system for the Public Test Realm shows. In this episode I discuss many of the changes taking place in patch 1.11, including Argent Dawn changes, Naxx, ZG changes, UI changes, and more!
I meant to have this up yesterday... but E3, the trips, etc. always gives me a huge headache on my first few days back. As a result, yesterday was hell for me.
So, here is the cast.
I give impressions on the little bit of the Burning Crusade I was able to play... and mind you, there wasn't much to play with the limited amount of time I had.
Other impressions include: FEAR and Shadowrun for the Xbox 360, Huxley for PC and Xbox 360, Wii games and the controller, Unreal Tournament 2007, maybe something else as well, I forget right now... I've been waiting on my host to get the file up.
Sorry, I meant to have this up last night... but I was beat, and crashed early. So, here it is now.
Short, sweet, to the point. Remember to email me what you want to hear from E3 by Sunday so I can be ready. My email address is unclethursday@gmail.com for those who forget easily. Majority rules, if the majority wants to hear about just WoW/Blizz, then that's what I discuss. If the majority wants to hear about all sorts of goings on, then that's what I discuss.
As promised, here is WorldOfPodCast Update 02! I let you in on upcoming episodes, as well as technical things for behind the scenes. The intrigue! The fascination! The... ah, who am I kidding? You know you don't really care. You just wanna hear what music I put in, you can admit it.
I think I'm addicted to Google Video. There is just so much cool and funny shit on there, and a lot of WoW vids as well (of course, you can also go to WarCraft Movies for movies, too, but you don't have to download these to watch them... streaming FTW!!!).
I mean, check out this crazy stuff from what appears to be either Japanese or Chinese TV.
So, I decided to put my talk of the druid class off by a week so I could discuss 1.10. I've been on the test servers a few times, got the feel of some things, and report back. Oh, and enjoy the J-Pop intro... and this video of the song (Note I moved the video to a new post, as the video was interfering with my iTunes update, I think).
Here is the druids and innervate talk I cut from Ep 07 to make it shorter, along with some of the jokes from some of the character types in WoW. I joked I was going to edit the jokes into Ep 07... but the file was huge to begin with...
Alachia from WoWCast guest stars (and records because my sound card didn't support a function of my recording software /cry). No musical entrance, no music behind the cast... the file is huge enough as it is. We have fun, joke (learn2makejokes n00b!), and have some serious content for about 5 minutes.
Episode 07 is coming... Pause these video streams and watch when you want to
Alachia from WoWCast joins me for Episode 07. But, well, there's a ton of editing to do. We sort of rambled on about other topics at some points... porn, and variations of it, mainly... and I have to cut this thing down in size; we rambled on for around 2 hours. Well, that is as soon as I get the whole thing.
See, my laptop's sound card didn't support a feature of Audacity that would let me record us over Skype... so she had to do the recording on her end. But, she also had to get up for work, so I have to give her a little time to get the MP3 to me. Probably tonight, though, I'll have the full thing to edit. Some of the bullshit will stay in the podcast, though. Some of it is funny, some of it is just me being, well, a dumbass (like you expect any less).
But, I mention a funny as hell WoW video I saw in there, so I wanted to let those of you who have not seen it see it. The video uses WoW characters to recreate a song from the musical Avenue Q, called "The Internet is for Porn." (A pattern? We speak of porn, and a song about porn? Nah, coincidence...) There are a lot of compression artifacts in it, but, still, you can get the gist.
Episode 5 is the start of a multi-part show based around user interface modifications.
In this episode I discuss general modifications useful to pretty much everyone, in my humble opinion. Next episode I will focus on add ons that are much more class specific.
Add ons discussed in Episode 5:
Titan Bar CT CT Raid Assist Scrolling Combat Text ZgXLoot Auctioneer Informant Gatherer Loot Hog Autobuff
I have not yet been able to get the video I want to show off the mods, though. I hope to have this video ready by episode 6, but I can make no promises.
This episode is simply here for everyone to find out about those neat little doodads over to the right, and to explain what things are happening with the show in the upcoming weeks, months, and if you are really unlucky: the rest of your lives!
I explain the new podcast player, and why there is no more listen now icon down below this text.
Nic from London asked if I could help explain how to be a good group member, because he just got the game, and is just getting into running instances.
So, Nic, this is a great idea for a topic, and I appreciate the fact that my listeners are giving me suggestions. And, as a result, here is the podcast about how to be a good group player!
I got some new recording software, this is recorded with it... able to reduce hiss noise considerably now.
I also got some music files to play for the intro, outro, and during the cast so I don't sound like a NPR reject, and there's something else going on in the background. I hope to have the first podcast ready by this weekend, raids permitting. ;-P
