Up next in 10
This week our hosts Liz and Joe were joined by Nick, our WoW Classic expert. While they waited very impatiently for the next round of news about Midnight, they talked about the new trend in Classic, to use addons to make Hardcore mode even more Hardcore by obscuring certain heads up data in the UI. When is enough enough? But that wasn't all. There was a new Trading Post, the Turbo Boost, and a nice little bonus for Wrath of the Lich King users in China.
But it wasn't all WoW. A whole new Hearthstone expansion was announced. Across the Timeways has a fun time travel angle with Chromie, though it feels like there are so many Hearthstone expansions these days (even though there are the same amount).
Plus, there were patches for-- wait, let me check my notes again. StarCraft 2 and Heroes of the Storm? And Heroes of the Storm got a brand new adorable mount? Man, the hopium is strong this week.
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0:00
[Music]
0:10
Hello and welcome to another edition of the Blizzard Watch podcast. Tonight I
0:16
will be your host, Elizabeth Harper, and joining me tonight are my fantastic co-host, Joe Perez.
0:22
Well, hi there. And uh on the other side, our special guest host, Nick Marino.
0:28
Hello. I I had one moment there where I was like, "Wait, what's Nick's last name?" What? Okay, I'm I'm like 90% sure
0:36
I got it right or you would have said something. See, now I'm It was going to say Nick. Nick and I
0:41
know his last name. I'll soon know his address so I can randomly send him things in the mail. It's going to be great.
0:48
Famous last name. Okay. Damn. In the sports world. Uh, no relation,
0:54
but it's been great to explain that literally my whole life from the time I was in kindergarten to last week when I
1:00
had to go do some random paperwork. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Uh, so we're actually going to have I I
1:08
was thinking while we were figuring out what our topics would be tonight that we didn't have much to talk about, but actually we got we got kind of a list.
1:14
We'll have more to say about the Midnight Alpha next week, but for now, we do know the Midnight Alpha is
1:19
starting. It will begin on October 2nd. So, uh, and the alpha, we don't know
1:27
who's going to get into the alpha. It's not a public invite. It's just invite only, but you'll start hearing more
1:33
about what's happening in Midnight as more players get to test it. Uh yeah, we
1:38
either of yall looking I was gonna say we can make a we can make an educated guess that it's going to be like with the war within uh where
1:45
it's going to be probably friends and family and then it's likely going to be a handful of content creators
1:50
uh for the alpha cuz that's usually how it goes. Yeah. Um so is there anything either of
1:56
y'all are looking forward to seeing in the alpha? Is there anything you're really keen on finding out because this
2:02
is going to be the start of an info dump? I mean, honestly, one of the things that I'm going to be interested
2:07
in is how classes are going to shift. I know it's going to be a while. It's going to be a slow roll. Uh, but we're
2:13
at the part of the current expansion, The War Within. Where power has shifted quite
2:19
dramatically. Um, this is me speaking selfishly as a restoration shaman where
2:25
I feel like I have to work a little bit harder than some of the other classes uh
2:30
because of how talents and and uh set bonuses have worked out. And I'm curious
2:35
what the new power systems are going to look like in sort of keeping things
2:40
even. So, it's going to be a little while. Uh, and it's going to be a slow like trickle of information for that, but I'm I'm those are tend to be some of
2:47
the things I focus on early and I tend to give feedback very early on that stuff. Um, some of our listeners might not know
2:55
that. Um, when it comes to like in particular,
3:00
Restoration Shaman, I have always been like a huge math nerd for that specific
3:07
way the class works. And I'm not saying it makes me the best player in the world, but I think Liz can agree. I'm a
3:13
pretty dang good healer. But I know what I need to prioritize and I know how most things interact. And I've always been
3:18
that way for for years. And all of the betas, all of the alphas going back as early as Wrath of the Lich
3:27
King. Uh, I've literally delivered like pages and pages and pages of feedback to
3:32
the devs on weird interactions or talents that aren't mapping the way that
3:38
they're supposed to math, at least not on the, you know, the way that it's presented, like things like that. So,
3:44
I'm really curious to see how that initial class math starts working so that I can start breaking up the
3:50
spreadsheets and the tables and uh start doing my calculations cuz literally I
3:55
spreadsheet everything for a while when it comes to and uh classes are something we haven't heard a lot about except that we are
4:01
going to be getting some new talent points and I believe those new talent points the Apex talents aren't going to
4:07
be available for testing initially. So, more about that in the future. Is there
4:12
anything you're looking forward to seeing, Nick? So, from the jump, uh the the system
4:18
that I'm look I most looking forward to is Prey. And that has a lot to do with
4:25
um an unrelated game, the uh the Middle Earth series Shadow of Mordor that
4:31
Warner Brothers like produced like 10 years ago and then a a sequel a couple years later that had the
4:36
Nemesis system which was basically just a um reoccurring fight system, a fight to
4:46
the death basically where different elite NPCs would come and hunt you down
4:51
to kill you because you have tried to kill them or in some cases you've successfully killed them and now they're
4:57
back to try and kill you. Um, obviously that's a little more
5:03
complicated than what would be in Midnight because for Midnight it's just zone specific enemies that you hunt
5:12
down, but they also hunt you down. And I think it poses a really interesting like
5:17
addition to the game, not just for Midnight, but I'm curious to see how far they'd take it uh for the rest of the
5:24
game because I mean, from day one, there's always been random different
5:29
elites or enemies that just show up in different zones. What better way to
5:35
spice up old zones um than to have like if for some reason
5:40
you're just walking around and have it try to kill you and then you get like some relevant level gear. Um that's
5:46
obviously getting way too ahead of myself. um or even for Blizzard's plans,
5:52
but it's like I I'm always a big fan of, and this might be a little taboo, like
5:59
new spin on old things because I think that there's a way to tastefully reuse
6:06
existing assets that, you know, isn't super intensive
6:12
on I say that like armchair deving, my apologies. uh on the dev, but also like
6:20
doesn't immediately negate everything that they've created once a new
6:26
expansion or a new patch rolls out. Um so yeah, that's probably what I'm most looking forward to. Uh and like I I I
6:34
don't expect even once Midnight releases it to be more than anything just in the
6:39
Midnight specific zones, but I'm I'm really curious to see how much it can evolve. I'm also very curious to see how
6:47
it lines up with player expectations because when you say Nemesis system like you're bringing up an interesting point,
6:53
a lot of us are comparing it to a more robust system that we've all experienced
6:58
uh that is copyrighted uh by another company. And so it's going to be
7:04
interesting to see how if at all this sort of aligns with that or comes close
7:12
to it in any regard or if it's just a scenario thing all over again. I'm
7:20
really really curious to see how it plays out and how it matches player expect. Well, I think we have seen Blizzard more will willing to listen to
7:27
player feedback and evolve features over time. Instead of saying rolling something out and being like, "Okay,
7:33
this is the final version of it. Deal with it." They didn't say that part out loud. But, you know, it was always kind of there and if it didn't work out, just
7:40
saying, "Okay, that didn't work. We'll throw it in the trash and do something else." Like in the past few expansions,
7:45
I feel like we have seen them listening a lot more and being willing to keep working on something, to keep iterating
7:52
on a feature until it works. Like we have delves, which have become like a real pillar feature of the game that
7:59
we're just I mean, we haven't had them for very long, but already Blizzard has done a fair amount of iteration with the
8:05
balance. We've gotten a few new ones with different uh design somewhat
8:10
different design sensibilities the first batch and we're going to keep getting new ones in the expansion. So, it's cool
8:16
to get a feature that will carry on and grow. And Prey feels like it could be
8:23
something along those same lines if Blizzard really commits to it. Like it could start maybe it doesn't start out
8:30
quite as fleshed out, but maybe it grows there. Maybe it'll We'll see. We'll have to see when it comes out in the alpha.
8:36
Uh, so Legion Remix and patch 11.2.5 are going to be launching next week, so
8:42
we'll probably talk about those things a little more next week. But one thing we have found out more about is Turbo
8:50
Boost, which uh, patch 11.25 does not have much going on, just a little bit.
8:57
But it does include Turbo Boost, except Turbo Boost is rolling out in phases.
9:02
So, when the patch launches on October 7th, you will be getting uh you'll be
9:08
able to upgrade your gear to more ranks and crafted items can be recrafted and
9:14
gain three to six more eye levels depending on how high you go. So, those are great, but I think those are
9:19
probably not what we're all looking forward to in Turbo Boost, which is being able to get puzzling cartel chips
9:25
and buy loot. Loot. The loot that has eluded us all expansion. Yeah. Um, so
9:32
I have a lovehate relationship with that. Like I love the idea that I can finally get stuff that I I've always needed or that I've been looking for the
9:38
entire time, but also it kind of wrankles because it doesn't matter.
9:43
Like, well, at least I I'm not I'm guessing
9:50
as important as it was. Like case in point, we we're moving through
9:58
uh working on Dementius on heroic now in our guild. And um Liz can tell you
10:03
that's such a fun fight. Um and I may be air quoting that. Uh phase one is brutal,
10:09
but there are certain things that I'm noticing. It has great music. Um there are certain
10:14
things that I'm noting where in that fight in Salad Bar cuz I refuse to call
10:19
him by his real name. Um those there are certain fights where I'm starting to fall behind because of two reasons. One,
10:27
I don't have the eye level of some of the other healers in our our guild. And two, I'm suboptimally geared in a couple
10:35
very key spots, which make an insane amount of difference. One of which being my trinket slots. I have one of the
10:44
trinkets that is really really good, but the other one is subpar. It is like in
10:50
any other part of the expansion, it's it's the sack brew. Um, in any other part of this expansion, that would have
10:56
been a godly drinking to have, but here it's just kind of like it's decidedly mid for restoan.
11:02
um we have not seen either of the other two uh trinkets that are are like top
11:09
tier for me and I'm like well now on turbo boost I can get them but but by
11:15
the time I get them the chances of already having dementia down is really really high so it becomes less important
11:22
right like and then turbo boost is really great for those that are still moving through
11:28
progression and I'm really happy to like that they're going to be able to get to do do that a little bit, but also it's
11:35
just going to wind up becoming a transmog thing for me, which is fine. Yeah. But it's just like I I wish it would
11:40
have been a little sooner. Yeah. Certainly for our guild, if it had been a little sooner than this, even if
11:46
it had launched with 1125, if it had launched at the same time as everyone else, or even maybe a week later, you
11:53
know, if we got if we got a little more we're doing well enough that if we had a
12:00
little more gear optimization, if we had a few more eye levels, that could make a big difference. And uh yes, this is
12:07
really it's it's late in the game, so I don't know, but it really feels like a
12:12
good way to help gear up your alts, help gear up any characters you're you might
12:18
use in that you might want to play in next expansion and make sure they're kind of top tier right now and have the
12:24
good stuff going into the game. But yeah, it's it's mostly transmug for me.
12:31
I might upgrade a trinket, but I might just not bother. Uh,
12:37
so is a question and this will be because I haven't strayed into the
12:43
retail side of the game in a bit. I've been stuck in the classic side. So is this is taking place of the
12:52
the turbo boost is taking place of the quote standard uh boosting system that
12:58
we've come to expect like right before new expansions dropped because when I see it it it I see that it's for mana
13:05
forge Omega and mythic content only or is that uh yeah um so I would still expect we
13:13
get a beginning of expansion event where you can just gear up everything, you know. Uh we haven't we don't know what
13:20
that event will be or kind of what eye levels you're going to be able to get, but I would expect one. This is really
13:26
uh something Blizzard have started adding to the seasonal cycle where late in the season. Did they just start uh
13:33
last season show? Was this a season two thing? Do you remember uh the catchup stuff or the turbo boost?
13:38
Yeah, I think I think we first turbo boost. Yeah, we first heard about it with uh or was
13:43
with the goblins really because it made sense. It was on theme turbo boosting. Mhm.
13:49
Uh so yeah, this is pretty recent and just kind of as the season kind of gets long in the tooth, we have a little
13:56
turbo boost where we can upgrade our gear more, where we can trade valor stones among our war band, and where we
14:03
can get these puzzling cartel chips and buy specific pieces of gear. So yeah,
14:09
but it it came pretty late last time. It's coming pretty late this time. And at least for my personal gameplay, it's
14:16
a little late to make a difference. So it's like, woohoo, transmog. Woohoo. I'm going to get that healing weapon. I
14:21
haven't gotten all expansion because I'm not healing. So yeah, stuff like that.
14:26
I got you. But it's not Yeah, it's not a big gear up for everybody. Even the gear
14:32
upgrades, I I may not be able to take advantage of them cuz you're still going
14:37
to need the highle crests to do that. And I only have access to so many highle crests cuz I'm not doing mythic because
14:44
I'm there only so many hours in the day. Uh so but we do know that stuff the
14:50
puzzling cartel ships coming late this month late in October. Uh and and maybe
14:57
they'll help you out finish that last bit of season 3. But, you know, frankly,
15:02
I think once Legion Remix launches, the servers,
15:07
the retail servers may become a bit of a ghost town. That's I'm just guessing there, but
15:13
I I don't know. I don't think so because I think Yeah. So, with the remix stuff, you you would
15:19
expect to see retail servers being a ghost hunt, but the like during uh Remists, that wasn't the case. people were still
15:26
pushing keys and, you know, doing high tier content and going through stuff like that. Uh
15:31
because I I will say that while the remix stuff is is fun, for a lot of people, it has a limited
15:37
appeal. And we were kind of talking about this in guild the other day too. Uh one of our our main tanks, uh Aiden,
15:44
uh was just talking about like it's and he had a point where when you get to the end of it, there's really once you you
15:51
complete your power fantasy, what else is there to do if you collect all of your transmogs, which you can do usually
15:58
very quickly, or at least you could in Remist? Um yeah, I don't know. I don't know. But so
16:04
like so what you saw was people would get to the end of that or they'd level their character up all the way and do whatever they were going to do and then
16:10
they'd go back to retail and we might see that same thing again or we might see people that don't care
16:15
about Legion stick around and still do things like push keys or push content. Uh one of my
16:21
employees, he's uh he's a pretty hardcore raider. Um and he has no
16:26
intention of playing this, right? Like his entire thing is like he's like we're going to push into mythics. were like
16:32
and by mythics I mean mythic rating. He's like I'm not going to have any time for for Legion. So like
16:38
it it all depends. I don't I don't think it's going to be a ghost town. I think but I think it's it'll be an interesting distraction for
16:44
people that have done everything they want to do in retail. Yeah. And I I feel like we're getting a little close there. Just I I don't like
16:51
doing a lot of repetitive content. I like doing something new. So I'm I am growing weary. But
16:59
uh retail is still fun. I am looking forward to Legion Remix. I'm going to level some alts and uh collect transmog,
17:05
which transmog is the true endgame. And speaking of transmog, it is about to be
17:10
October or perhaps it is October depending on what time zone you were listening to this in. And uh we have a
17:18
new trading post. I I promise to those listening at home, I will not scream wag because it is
17:25
officially becoming Orctober as is as written.
17:30
uh new trading post. I I think it's pretty great. Uh Nick, you did the
17:35
article about it on the website. Would you like to give us the highlights here? Yeah, so the much like you both just
17:44
covered for uh patch 11.2.5 2.5 and for Legion Remix, the October trading post
17:51
in uh retail WoW has uh Legion inspired rewards and hollowed end inspired
17:59
rewards. And what I mean by that, there are new ensembles and mounts specifically that are
18:05
uh headless horsemen like offshoots. So, they're not quite like the green fire
18:12
um armor and for the horsemen and for his horse specifically, but they're like
18:22
almost like holy light. I was going to say light themed. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. This is almost like if the
18:27
Headless Horseman was a paladin, right? Still still with like the sharp teeth and the evil malice eyes. Um
18:37
that mount. gorgeous more on the possibly good guy side question mark. Um, and you know, one of
18:46
the one of the things about the uh training post that never fails each month are the weapons. The weapons are
18:53
continuously a highlight. I always feel like there are weapons for everybody and
19:00
there are specifically uh this is where the legion inspired
19:06
items come through. There's different stabs or staves, dirks and swords for
19:12
all. And then as well as a new somehow
19:18
not related but still related in name only Capy Bara that is
19:25
uh the pet the rusty root felneuter that is blue. So it is neither legion colored
19:32
nor hollow's end colored. It actually looks closer to me like um something
19:39
from Ardan Weld's Court of Night, but that's neither here nor there. It looks like it belongs in North Rend
19:45
to me. Oh, I can see the like the icy little front paws. Yeah.
19:50
Yeah, it's super adorable, guys. Definitely. I'm getting myself a pet capy bar.
19:57
It is 100%. And I'm also Can we also call out that the Nether Ne
20:03
another ne another storm felder is Zalot? You know, I didn't even pick that one up. I I'm surprised that that one didn't
20:08
get more love. It's got a slightly different handle, but it's it's it's basically the blade
20:14
of Zalot. Like, if you look at it, I think that's really neat. I like that. Suspicious. But as for uh the bonus
20:22
reward that you get for completing the traveler's log objectives each month is a
20:28
uh burning legion inspired elic mount. Yes, that you know the bonus rewards are like
20:35
really hit and miss. And I say that with like you know I try to be fair in the
20:40
criticism of the trading post rewards and what we get and this is a good bonus
20:46
reward. Mhm. I like it because the objectives are the at least from what we know from the
20:53
preview article, they're the normal objectives. You could you have to just fill the bar to quote the 1,000 points.
21:00
Um it's not hidden behind the 2,000 points uh that we've seen in some months, but like this is like a brand
21:06
new mount. We don't know when it'll come back. It's not something like a random back piece. Like this is something that
21:11
I think really rewards people for putting the time to complete the burning or the trading post objectives. And with
21:19
this month having the Legion remix as well as the Hollow's End event, there
21:24
are some new or out of the ordinary uh play objectives that people can complete
21:31
that gives them further incentive to do the to do the trading post travelers
21:36
log. So, yes, so many trans mugs to collect. It's going to be great. But if
21:42
none of nothing in the trading post strikes your fancy, there is also a new Twitch drop starting on October 1st, and
21:51
it is a baby pit lord. I I did not have that on my bingo card. Did anyone else
21:57
expect we were going to get a baby pit lord to go along with playing Legion remakes? It kind of makes sense for going back to
22:04
Legion. I mean, Manoroth is one of those uh, you know, iconics. So, why not why
22:10
not have a why not have a little tiny pudgy baby pit lord to to follow you around and tell you how it's going to
22:16
kill you and take over the universe? Uh, this one, I don't know if I'd call it adorable. It's It's certainly petite
22:23
and round, and those two things usually combine into adorable. So, I'm willing to to let that one go. I don't know if I
22:30
want a little pit lord following me around, but also got like the little oo eyes. That's what's supposed to get you
22:36
to drop your guard before it hits you with its Oh, yeah. That's true. Uh fist item.
22:42
Well, I mean, might be. Yeah, I think I was going to make a joke here about how it's just a travel sized fell like
22:48
like capri son of demon in case you ever want to like sell your soul to the legion.
22:53
Of course, uh the big selling point for this is there's a pretty low barrier for
22:58
entry if you want to collect it. If you want to add to your pet collection, if you just love demons, which maybe you
23:05
do, fine. I'm not judging. Uh Twitch drop. You have the rest of the month to
23:11
pick this guy up and you just have to watch 4 hours of anyone streaming World
23:16
of Warcraft on Twitch. So, I mean, four hours is not an insignificant amount of time, but still that's not that's not
23:23
too bad to watch a Warcraft streamer. Yeah, that's that's pretty pretty low barrier all things considered because you can just leave it on your second
23:28
monitor or in the background. That is that is in fact usually what I do. I'll just kind of have watch
23:33
something while I'm doing something else. But, uh, yes, adorable baby pit lord just to accomp accompany you
23:40
around. Sure, why not? Why not? So, uh, there are a lot of holidays going on in
23:46
WoW right now. And, uh, I just, uh, think we could probably do some quick reminders on these guys. Brewfest
23:53
running through October 9th, so you got another week to collect all of that really cool transmog. If you want a
23:59
kilt, this is your time. This is your time to pick up kilts. But there's so much there is so much transmog and so
24:08
few hours in the day. uh Harvest Festival, which is um not one of WoW's
24:13
most exciting events, uh starts on October 2nd and runs through October 9th. And the one we are all looking
24:19
forward to, Hallow's End is October 18th to November 1st. So, yeah, you you got
24:25
events. This is really a month of events and we're we're leading into uh to the holiday season, which so yeah, heading
24:34
towards the end of the year. I don't know how that happened. Time ever marches forward. That's that's
24:39
kind of it for retail. WoW. We will of course be talking about the alpha a lot more next week, but uh WoW Classic WoW
24:46
Classic has a couple things going for it right now. Nick, you are playing a lot more classic than I am because I I keep
24:54
saying I don't have the hours in the day to keep up. Uh tell me about the Titan Forged servers that are happening in
25:01
China right now. Oh boy. Okay. So, no, I say that
25:06
politely. Um, so the the Chinese players the for World
25:14
of Warcraft Classic are getting a brand new server that is
25:19
a progression server that we've come to know uh for classic era content that
25:25
would move through Burning Crusade Classic and Wrath of the Lich King Classic. Uh it's a brand new fresh
25:31
server where everyone would start from zero and it sped up at a cadence that I
25:37
am not yet entirely sure how fast it'll go. Uh but it's going to move through all that content. And the main focus of
25:44
this was that it is for the Chinese players only. and it caused a bit of a
25:51
it's not backlash but discussion is probably more apt or like questions about the direction of WoW classic which
25:59
has turned into um a favorite joke of five games in a trench coat. I know it's normally three
26:05
but I actually legitimately at this point think it has now eclipsed five separate games. We have season, we have
26:11
wild classic era, we have wild classic season of discovery, we have myths of
26:17
panderia classic, we have classic hardcore, and we have classic anniversary realms. Um,
26:25
and as most people know, we are now in the midst of the Mist of Pandaria
26:31
Classic with the uh most recent content phase launching last week. The big
26:36
question for this is are these servers going to turn into Warlords of Drraanor classic which really is pushing the this
26:44
is no longer classic but that's neither here nor there. Um, all in all, this
26:51
basically turned into so much that Blizzard themselves did release another
26:56
blue post that basically reaffirmed that uh while this was this Titan Forge
27:03
server was for uh the Chinese market that there's still plans for all the
27:09
classic style games uh for all the other players around the world and that
27:18
basically the plans, the previously communicated plans for these servers hasn't changed. They'll update us when
27:25
the time is quote right, whenever that will be. And I think that I, you know,
27:33
there's a lot that goes on on our side of the world. So, it's easy to forget what happens on the other sides of the
27:39
world. But it's important to remember, I think, for this that it was we're we're about a year out, a year and a half out
27:46
from when the Chinese players were able to replay World of Warcraft, all of
27:52
World of Warcraft. They were cut off from the game for about a year while Netis was working out its license, not
28:00
licensing, was it a licensing issue? Um, uh, contract issue. Yeah, something like
28:07
that. Yeah. Um, so when that cut off, it was
28:13
the second phase of Wrath of the Lich King Classic. So from there, the Chinese
28:20
market did not get access to the rest of Wrath Classic, Cataclysm Classic, and
28:26
and most of Catac and like I think the start of Cataclysm Classic or most of it if not. Um, so that's what my takeaway
28:34
from this was. It was, it seems more like trying to give back to players that
28:39
missed out. But as always, sometimes when people see something that others
28:44
get and that you did not, it raises questions. There's there's no escaping it. We're
28:50
all gamers here and we all look beyond at the worlds beyond and wonder what
28:55
could have been if we had gotten this. Um, there's also in a different kind of
29:01
classic gameplay, there are some players who have decided the hardcore realms are
29:06
not quite hardcore enough for them. And uh, I've been hearing about people playing with this ultra hardcore
29:15
add-on that basically you can no longer see your own health bar. You can no longer see enemy health bars, but the
29:23
visible area of your screen shrinks as your health drops. So, you don't have
29:30
any damage text. You don't have a mini map. It's uh
29:36
I'm I'm not a hardcore sort of player. I find it interesting to watch how people make these challenges for themselves in
29:43
the game, and this is far from the only one out there. But uh wow, it'd be hard
29:50
to play without seeing your health or anyone else's health. What do you guys think? So, as someone who has tried hardcore
29:56
plenty of times, uh and I made a note about this in
30:02
our show notes, when is perma dying not enough? Because and I I say that
30:09
respectfully because with especially with self-found where you are quite
30:15
literally self-reliant on everything. You need bags. You need to either have the gold that you got from selling stuff
30:21
from vendors or you got to learn how to make it yourself. Um what you didn't pay
30:27
attention to a random mob that was in a bush. Then you're at like 30% health. Well, I hope you're ready for the
30:33
afterlife because you're about to die. Um, did you see did you see the part where like the pet
30:40
classes in this with this add-on once a pet dies you can't resummon it?
30:45
No, I didn't. Uh, I I did I I think the
30:51
one that really stands out to me is um replace buff icons with messages from
30:58
your character and it was removed for being unpopular. So apparently there is a limit to what people are willing to tolerate for making it hard on
31:05
themselves. But I find it amusing that that is the limit. Listen, I'm going to propose that this
31:10
add-on has a a Ronin mode where literally all announcements in character
31:15
in game uh are just replaced with the character Ronin uh voiceovers because
31:21
that that'd be great. You want to you players want to have ultra hard mode. What other way than raising your blood
31:26
pressure through the roof is there than to have a hard mode? I hear you and I
31:32
raise you Randy Savage or or it could just be Brand don't stand
31:37
there over and over and over again and see here we are already making our
31:43
own challenges. Uh emerging gameplay is really cool. I like stuff like this but not for me.
31:48
Yeah, I don't think this is for me either. But this is I might watch other people play it. I do watch some people
31:54
on YouTube or on Twitch who are doing uh challenges. There's uh someone out there doing a a playthrough where they can
32:02
only play in one zone until they earn enough gold to buy a WOW token. So, it's
32:08
kind of a gold making challenge as they move from one zone to the next. And in each zone, they must find a way to make
32:14
all of this gold. And it's like, this is ridiculous. I would never want to do
32:19
this. But it is interesting that people both want to and do do this. So, it's
32:27
fun to watch the games people make for themselves in the game because the game is of course 20 years old and there's
32:35
there's only so much game. Yeah. Yeah. Do it on a DDR pad.
32:42
So, that that was actually a um in Destiny 1. Yes.
32:47
Random challenges that people would take. One was defeating a raid boss on a DDR pad after a dude had defeated a raid
32:54
boss using Rockband drums. Yep. And then I think he did it blindfolded. Yeah, I think there's actually videos of
32:59
that cuz I think they did them during uh one of the games done quick uh like or
33:04
at least they showcased it. But yeah, like players players will make their own hard mode. And I can't and I'm not gonna
33:10
comment too much on it because Liz wasn't part of the guild for this, but we absolutely did in our guild where
33:18
there are two that we have that are like our claim to fame. One was defeating the
33:24
dark shaman on the rooftops of the areas in Ogmar. like literally dragging them
33:31
up to the roofs, uh, doing the all the boss mechanics, doing everything on the
33:36
roofs of Ogmar, and that was our self-imposed hard mode. or when we did
33:42
Crow'al uh where we took uh the the wandering uh mob or the wandering boss
33:49
in uh I think it was like a lural and um dragged her into the crossest boss fight
33:56
to kill both bosses at the same time and we had to kill them at the same time. So again, I am part of the problem here
34:04
just in a different way. Well, see, I'd argue that's a little different because that's like a group objective. Like that
34:11
those are core memories that you're forging with friends. Like no one can ever take that away from you. And that
34:16
sounds like when you think back at it, it's like really fond memories that sound hilarious.
34:22
Capture the video. Y'all can y'all can go watch this if you look this stuff up, by the way. Yeah. But then this is versus like I'm
34:29
gonna play this with one hand tied behind my back and my leg tied up by my head because I need a challenge.
34:37
Did you again? It's fun to watch. It's fun to watch these people. Uh, but yes,
34:42
moving on. Oh man, this is one I have to talk about because it's Hearthstone. Hearstone just announced its new
34:49
expansion and I I am actually This is pretty exciting. I think it's pretty exciting. It has a great theme and all
34:56
of the good Hearthstone expansions have a strong theme that kind of pulls the idea together. It is across the
35:03
timeways. And the story here is basically that Chrommy is gathering heroes from different places, times,
35:11
alternate universes, and pulling them into the game in order
35:16
to defeat Murzand. I believe I have that right. I am I am
35:22
not the lore expert here, but Hearthstone is also not. Uh it's it's a
35:27
funny twisted mirror on Warcraft lore. So, there is a new keyword called fabled. Each class will have its own
35:34
fabled card, which is an iconic character from WoW's past, and it gives them interesting new interactions. Now,
35:42
we don't know all of the cards that are going to be in this set yet, but um the
35:47
example is Sylvanas. You will Chrommy goes back and plucks Ranger General
35:52
Sylvanas out of the timeline and brings her forward as a card for your deck. So,
35:58
um, when you put Sylvanas in your deck, you get Sylvanas as well as her sisters.
36:03
And when you play any of the three Windrunners, the others in your deck get buffed. So,
36:11
these are all going to be cool because they have really strong, you know, story ties and themes and they sound like
36:16
they're going to be very powerful. Each class will have their own. And there is another keyword called rewind. This is
36:24
very This is a very chromy coded keyword in which if you play a card with a random effect, there are a lot of them.
36:31
If you play a card with a random effect, you have the chance to roll the outcome of that effect. So, play the card. I
36:39
don't like this random. You can you can undo. You get an undo button, which uh
36:45
gives you a little more consistency in gameplay, which uh randomness can be
36:50
fun. randomness can always also really go against you. And there's currently a
36:56
Hallow's End event going on if you wanted to pop in. Uh it's it's kind of
37:02
the same it's kind of the same thing we've seen with other events. You go and you play the game and you do quests and
37:09
earn experience and you get a few little cards or card packs along the way. So
37:15
plenty to do in Hearthstone. This expansion will be out in a in a few weeks. I believe on November 4th. So, a
37:24
little ways to wait on that one, but not long. And over the coming weeks, we will see a lot more about the specific cards
37:30
coming with it. But of course, of course, you can pre-order it now if you want to go ahead and drop some money on
37:37
it. So, it's it's a fun one, but it's also I'm not feeling Hearthstone lately
37:43
because it is you are spending a lot to keep up with the current meta. But, uh
37:49
this this does sound like a fun one. So, and I don't neither of y'all play Hearthstone, do you?
37:55
Not anymore. I have I have one addicting card game in my life. Yeah. I could not possibly keep up with
38:02
this and Magic. That's that that's off the cards. Um, but yes, that is coming out early
38:10
next month. So, if you're into Hearthstone, check it out. Log on, play some Halloween events, and uh, yeah.
38:17
Yep. So, next up, Diablo I. Diablo I launched its new season last week, but
38:24
uh, this week it launched a whole bunch of skins for a new collab, and the
38:31
collab is Starcraft. So, have either of youall looked at
38:37
these Starcraft skins? So, actually, I would say thanks to the new season dropping and um Alternate
38:44
Liz's uh articles on the Druid, I did jump back into it. I had no idea about
38:49
the Starcraft collab. So, it was the first thing that hit me in the face when I logged in because of course the store is right in your face. And I was like,
38:57
"Wow, this is aggressive." If I had played Starcraft as a kid more, then I probably would have dropped a lot more
39:04
money on this, but I didn't. Yeah, not my not my aesthetic for
39:10
Diablo. Uh, there are skins for kind of each of your Starcraft factions. There are some
39:16
Carrian styled skins and uh some protos styled skins and some Terran styled
39:22
skins. So, I I do think they kind of work. They're a little offkilter. I
39:29
think the I think the protos looks work best because they kind of come off as
39:35
like an angelic magi sort of look and there's a protos skin for the sorcerer
39:42
and who has the other one? Well, there's definitely a protest for the sorcerer. The the rogue has the dark prelet.
39:49
Ah, okay. So, some of these work really well. Well, I think the Carrian skins look a little a little out of place,
39:56
maybe. And the Carrian skins look very strange on male player characters.
40:02
That's just that's just me. I don't know if people had male character models in
40:09
mind when they were making those Carrian skins, but if you love them, embrace it.
40:15
Embrace Embrace your inner Carrian. Uh, of course the problem with Diablo skins is that they sell for$25 to $28 for the
40:24
bundle, which is of course a bundle for only one class. You buy the skins and they are only for one class. And I I
40:32
find that to be a really hard sell. They're they're just a little tiny bit pricey.
40:38
Yeah, I it's very niche. I'll say it like that. Like I know Starcraft is
40:43
popular for sure, but this is just we're kind of running into the same thing of
40:49
you're leveraging IPs that people really like for way more than what they're
40:55
actually have what they may have actually already put into a game. And
41:01
it's cool looking for somebody. I know that. Um, I just it's hard to justify
41:08
dropping almost a full game, especially if you really like or a full game's price, especially if you really play
41:13
really like it and you play more than one character. Yeah, it it's hard when it's just, okay,
41:19
here's a transm set for one character class. Even though that's that's just how Diablo is. Character sets have
41:24
always been like this, but it's a little it's hard to justify. If I
41:31
were going to drop $28 on Diablo I for, I would probably buy the premium battle pass and get the adorable the adorable
41:38
dog and his adorable armor yet, which I'm I'm still I'm still thinking about
41:43
it. I haven't bought a battle pass yet, but the option is still there. I could I
41:48
could get that dog if I wanted to, but it's it's not cheap.
41:54
Um, but speaking of Starcraft, uh, over here in our Starcraftium
42:00
corner, which if you didn't if you didn't realize, we had a Starcraft
42:07
corner. Neither did I until today. But apparently, yes, there is a Starcraft
42:12
Hopium corner in that Starcraft 2 just got some patch notes today. I just got a
42:18
a reasonably significant balance patch that is uh going through and uh that's
42:26
hm I have always speculated that Microsoft would be re reviving Starcraft
42:32
in some way and while these are not super massive crazy patch notes they're
42:40
patch notes they're fixing bugs and adjusting uh balance of different uh of
42:45
different characters. So, am am I am I seeing am I getting something out of
42:50
nothing here? What do you think, guys? Probably a little something out of nothing, but
42:56
that doesn't mean that it's not something we've been talking about and that people don't want. We've been
43:03
talking about the the idea of with Microsoft coming in before the deal was
43:08
ever finalized uh this concept of revitalizing longforgotten or long abandoned IPs. And
43:17
while a lot of our our opium at least for me and Corey has been focused on Heroes of the Storm, which we'll talk
43:22
about in a moment, um Starcraft is on that list for a lot of people. Uh yeah,
43:27
I mean it was probably the single greatest competitive RTS on the world
43:33
stage for a very long time uh when it had its heyday. And that's not something
43:39
that you can forget. And Starcraft 2, while it didn't have necessarily the reception that I think they were hoping
43:44
for, uh, and it didn't really like blow the doors off of it, it was also during a much different time at Blizzard where
43:52
instead of focusing on just making a good game, you started to Starcraft 2
43:58
was releasing at a time where they were starting to focus on cross-promoting all of their games, trying to maximize
44:05
storefronts. Um, you know, it's sometimes it's easy to forget that Starcraft 2 and Diablo II
44:11
released around the same time. Uh, with the wonderful Real Money Auction House in Diablo III. Um, and it's a game that
44:18
RTS's are, you can't monetize them like a live service game. Not really, because
44:25
people don't care like not as much. When you do an RTS game, most people care about is the game good, is it balanced,
44:32
and then does it have a good competitive scene? and Starcraft 2 did for a little
44:37
bit and then everybody moved on. So seeing maybe this which is and again it
44:43
Liz may be underelling it as a balance uh patch. It is a massive balance patch.
44:50
Um we're talking like costs and of of abilities reduction like in some cases
44:57
50%. cooldowns remove like 20 to 30% reduction in those uh movement speed
45:04
reductions, movement speed increases, fixing a bug or at least what some have considered a bug since the game released
45:11
finally which was siege tanks can no longer be abducted when they're in siege
45:16
mode. Uh you know which before it's like oh I'm in siege mode. Well tanks is getting picked up. Guess that's a thing
45:22
that happens now. So like these are these are massive changes that will
45:28
fundamentally change how a lot of these CL like these particular factions how
45:33
these units feel in them and to see it happen now. I mean I can understand why
45:39
we're reading into it a little bit. It might be that there's now more attention on this game than there was before or
45:46
people are finally being told you can go ahead and look at this now. We're not chasing the tail of a dragon on anything
45:53
else. So, I'm hopeful. I'd love I'd love to see a return in Force to, you know,
46:02
RTS's from Blizzard with another Starcraft game. I would love to see Starcraft 3. I don't know that it'll
46:07
happen, but I'll settle for a revitalization of Starcraft 2 for now
46:12
and maybe enough attention given to actually make a Starcraft 3. Adding on to that, I think it's something to be
46:19
said about a what now 15year-old game still getting massive updates like
46:24
these. Um, especially after such a large acquisition done by Microsoft.
46:29
So like I looked it up just so I had my info correct where like the last I guess
46:35
campaign pack that Starcraft 2 got was in 2016. So you know 9 years since that
46:40
whatever. But we we're now in a time where after the uh acquisition of
46:46
Blizzard that I think especially for a company like Microsoft that wants to
46:51
look at maximizing you know other opportunities which is just the corporate speak for how do I print more
46:59
money? Um, which I think that Starcraft is
47:06
probably the obvious answer considering where we already know where WoW stands and sort of just Overwatch is kind of
47:14
how do I say this nicely. Uh, in a limbo state, question mark. But for a company
47:21
like I'll take it. Yeah. um a company like Microsoft has stayed in business for so long and has stayed
47:26
at the top of the market because they look at ways where it's cost where it's cost effective for them to invest into
47:32
something that will yield them massive returns. So yeah, taking a slightly more uh tinfoil hat
47:38
theory that this seems like it could be there's there's a purpose behind this
47:44
and I don't know what that purpose is. I'd love to see I love it when people get more games that they love and if
47:50
that's what Starcraft if that's Starcraft 3 I'd love that and if this is like the precursor to interest then I'd
47:56
love to see that. Uh so I will add that this is Starcraft patch 5.0.15
48:03
and that Starcraft patch 5.0.14 launched in November 2024. So, it's not
48:11
like they've never patched Starcraft 2, but it's not it's not an everyday
48:18
occurrence. So, uh so yes, that's going to sit over here in theopium corner so
48:24
we can look at it and admire it and think fondly on it. But we do we do here
48:30
at Blizzard Watch have another reserved Hopium corner which we we admire every
48:35
day and think on and that's the Heroes of the Stormopium corner. There was
48:41
another new patch today for Heroes of the Storm and it included something
48:46
interesting which is there is a new mount. It is a store mount but yeah it's a
48:51
brand new mount. But when did they even last launch
48:56
something in the store? It's been It's been a while. Yeah, it's been a little bit. I think last year when they did uh around the
49:03
anniversary of the release or it might have been this year, I can't remember. Time is Wibbly. Um they did anniversary skins or some
49:10
some wild skins and I think we had that um around the time of Undermine. And I
49:17
think we had the Mad Maxish skins release uh for several of the uh the
49:22
characters cuz I remember Thrall getting a uh a new skin themed off like in a a
49:28
much more racy style. Uh but yeah, it's been a while, but the fact that they're still developing things like this is I can hear Cory like
49:36
Cory's Heroes of the Storm sense is tingling right now, guaranteed. Uh because again we're we're we're living
49:42
in that hopium corner that this is another game that was I want to say ahead of its time. It was competing
49:49
against League of Legends and Smite and a bunch of other MOBAs uh at the the time where MOBAs were like the peak of
49:56
competitive gaming replacing RTS's. Uh and it did its own thing. It carved its
50:01
own path and it was a wildly fun game as far as I'm concerned. And so finally
50:07
seeing, you know, these these updates that are happening really frequently uh
50:13
is one heartening, but two, seeing content in the store, that's that's
50:19
another like, you know, red push pin on the dart the dart board with red string going from it cuz you don't see that
50:27
very often. You don't you don't see new store things being added to a dead game.
50:33
So, I'm hopeful. Maybe, maybe, maybe we'll get it, maybe we'll get Heroes of the Storm back on. Maybe we'll get a
50:38
Heroes of the Storm 2. I'm okay with this. Come on, Blizzard. Give it to me. You know you want to.
50:44
Uh, and the mount. I I don't know if we ever actually said what it was. It's a
50:49
plush sheep because that's of course of course you want to ride a plush sheep out into battle. Who wouldn't? Uh, so
50:58
it's it's interesting. The the balance patches themselves are maybe a little lighter than some we've seen before.
51:04
There's some balance changes to maps and then you're getting a balance pass for classes and some bug fixes, but also
51:11
this cute, super adorable plus sheep because yeah, we needed that. We needed
51:16
that in our lives. Uh Nick, what do you think? Are we going to get Heroes of the Storm back? Is this sheep proof? You
51:24
know, every time I see something about Heroes of the Storm and I see Cory's like posting spree, my first response is
51:32
to always ask him what is Heroes of the Storm. But that's just mean. Um,
51:38
but I am kind of like in the camp with Joe where this is also one of those really deliberate things because it's
51:44
not just like a patch or something like this is a piece of content you're asking people to spend money on
51:50
after you've pulled the plug on their favorite game. Mhm. or a game that they like, which is
51:55
a really deliberate choice and not one that again for a company like Microsoft
52:02
that writes the checks, pays the bills, blah blah blah, they don't want to light money on fire. So, that's where I'm at.
52:09
Like, this is one of those ones that makes me raise my eye or it's like, oh, is this another let's test the water and
52:17
see how people react or you know what, the people have suffered long enough. We've already killed their
52:23
game. Have this. Yeah. Well, we live in hope. We live in hope.
52:28
We polish our polish our little heroes of the storm shrine every day. And uh
52:35
hoping for the best. Maybe one day. Maybe one day. Cory couldn't make it this week, but uh I'm I'm sure I will be
52:41
asking him this question whenever he's back. But I think that wraps up our
52:47
Blizzard news for the week. But we did have one one pretty large piece of news
52:53
and other games which uh could could have an impact will have an impact on
52:59
the rest of the gaming industry and that is EA has been acquired by investors for
53:06
$55 billion pending pending approvals. um pending
53:11
approval. And it has in so doing it has immediately saddled the company with $20
53:19
billion in debt, which this is something we've seen
53:24
private equity do with a lot of businesses is buying the business and then using the business's own assets to
53:31
fund the purchase of the business. And it usually goes extremely poorly.
53:36
And uh Jason Shrier has reported that this loan is expected to be rated singleB which classifies it as a junk
53:45
loan that is a high risk loan with high interest rates which will make it even
53:53
harder to pay back. Um, the most likely thing I see happening here is
53:59
significant layoffs happening quickly and uh possibly the company being shut
54:04
down after they've stripped whatever value there is from it. But uh yeah,
54:09
it's not good. It's not good news for the gaming industry. Let I mean and and for those of you that
54:16
are that maybe not understand the impact of it, I'm sure most of you that are listening to this do, but EA owns
54:23
Madden. They own uh the all of the FIFA like the fight the the stuff with that.
54:29
They have uh all of the Jedi fallen order, Jedi Survivor, all of the uh
54:36
boware stuff, the Dragon Age Inquisition and Veil Guard. They own Apex Legends at
54:41
that point. The Sims, uh, the wonderful game that we just got done, uh, like
54:47
talking about not too long ago, It Takes Two, uh, A Way Out, Mass Effect, uh,
54:52
Mirror's Edge, Burnout Paradise, uh, Alice, the American McGee Alice
54:59
franchise that EA refused to do anything with, they now uh, is now being held by, you know, what is likely going to become
55:06
an AI firm. Um, Dead Space, which just had a a a re release not too long ago
55:13
that was really wellreceived. Titanfall, the Battlefield franchise. This is
55:20
extremely significant to a lot of random gamers.
55:26
Um, and I don't know, I'm not trying to sound doom and gloom about it, but we're
55:32
gonna see things that are going to make these even worse than EA already did as far as as we can we can guess, right?
55:38
We're probably going to see way more AI slop because they've already stated that
55:44
they're going to they're going to put AI at the forefront um of what they're doing, you know, to reduce their costs,
55:50
which means layoffs, which turnurning whatever content they have available to them. Sorry.
55:55
I I believe the AI stuff is reportedly that they're planning to use AI to cut
56:02
operating costs, which uh that does seem likely in today's industry and boost profits. Well,
56:09
to to be able to afford this much debt, which even the interest payments are
56:16
going to drag you down with that much debt if you're paying high interest on
56:21
that, that's going to be insane. EA's net bookings are about $2 billion dollar
56:27
a quarter which is a lot but it's a lot but going into going into 20
56:32
billion quarters of just that right yeah and you still have to you still have to pay the bills
56:38
in the meanwhile and the bills include the developers and so yes I think we're
56:44
I think there's a 100% of chance of layoffs coming soon and uh I wonder if
56:51
there's going to be a fire sale on studio properties, IPs that aren't profitable
56:56
for EA. See, I don't know. I don't think so. And and the reason I I say that is because I think the
57:01
the folks that are are out there screaming about how they're going to use AI for this stuff. You don't let go of
57:06
that stuff. You milk it for as much as you can, as often as you can, because you own that stuff. So you feed it
57:12
through the AI machine and you make, you know, random mobile games or random
57:18
vaporware or whatever the case is and try to churn that stuff out as quickly as possible uh to again to maximize your
57:26
profits. Uh and then until it starts being not profitable uh or a a a alb
57:33
albatross that they can't deal with, I don't think they get rid of any of those IPs. And in the meantime,
57:39
I think we're going to see anything that has a marketplace be insanely aggressive. Um, especially things like
57:47
all of the monetization in Madden or, you know, any of their sports uh
57:52
franchises that have marketplaces. You're going to see other games that maybe didn't have a marketplace before
57:58
probably get one introduced. I like you're going to see AI skins. You're it.
58:04
And again, I'm not trying to be all doom and gloom. Maybe everything will work out. Maybe maybe this will be a revitalizing shot for EA, but it's
58:10
really hard to believe that with everything we're No, I mean it's I I think this is one of those
58:15
things where what you see is probably what you're going to get or what you've seen is probably what you're going to
58:20
get more of. Yeah. And I think one of the uh because I mean you you already nailed it Joe
58:26
with Madden, but really one of the franchises that is was new to EA that is
58:35
probably going to be one of their more popular ones, especially in America, is
58:40
the return of uh college football. Yeah. Like that game took everyone by storm
58:46
last summer because people had waited well over 10 years since the last one. Um, you can't call it NCAA because
58:53
reasons, legal, this, that, and the other. So, they called it EA Sports College Football. But even that version
59:01
did have a monetization um like storefront where you
59:06
it was super aggressive. It pissed a lot of people off and they slightly rolled
59:11
it back for uh the the version released this year, but you know, depending on
59:17
when the sale goes through, quote, the development of next year's that may not be the case. But I also think that with
59:24
how these sports games specifically can translate to different sort of esports
59:32
events as well, I'm curious to see what sort of effect that could have on that landscape and how much more of an
59:38
aggressive push we'll see that to be put into um state side. The other thing that I would
59:44
say that I I would recommend people listening at home, uh, if you are
59:50
interested in any of the EA franchise games right now that you already own and maybe don't have currently installed on
59:55
something, now would probably be a good time to download and install those things. um or things like grabbing the
1:00:02
uh the Mass Effect Legendary Edition while it's like $5 on Steam sale uh and
1:00:08
stuff like that because also I would expect to see deep sales on things
1:00:14
through third parties go away, right? Because you're going to be set they're going to be settled with all that debt.
1:00:20
You're not going to see uh the Legendary Edition go on sale for $5 again likely.
1:00:26
And it is also possible that they might start pulling back on allowing some of these titles to be done through
1:00:32
thirdparty marketplaces uh when they renegotiate their contracts and try to force you to use only their launcher,
1:00:40
which I'm confident will be used for AI mining. So, grab the stuff while you can on
1:00:47
platforms that you can while you can. Like, I'm just gonna throw that out there. That's just that's just that's
1:00:53
just a smart thing to do. it. This makes me really sort of pressed at games like
1:01:00
It Takes Two or Split Fiction where not they weren't developed outright by EA, but they're, you know,
1:01:06
they have help with publishing that games like
1:01:12
that now where it is just a one-off sale, I am less confident we'll get more
1:01:18
like that in favor of games that will return immediate and continuous profit
1:01:26
margins because you need to pay that you need to pay that money back and
1:01:32
depending on the terms of this loan when everything kicks in when you need to meet your benchmarks of payback like I'm
1:01:39
this is just another stone uh being taken away from or like a a stone in the
1:01:47
foundation of third party developers or smaller developers that would get help
1:01:54
in putting really good games out there. We're going to see less of that, I think. Maybe. So, I'm going to silver lining
1:01:59
this real quick. So, I because I don't want to end everything on a downer. I know we're coming out on on time. There
1:02:04
is also the possibility that we're going to see the minds behind some of our
1:02:09
favorite games leave before they get fired, right? Leave on their own terms
1:02:15
and start developing their own games. uh and maybe taking some of the ideas
1:02:21
that we saw from some of these uh and you know some of the best games that we've played throughout the years have
1:02:28
been done out of spite. And I I'm not trying to say that to be like goofy or mean, but it's because somebody else
1:02:34
told somebody that they couldn't make this game or they weren't allowed to make this game or they were fired and so they made the game that they wanted to
1:02:40
make. And a powerful motivator. it it spite is a powerful motivator and I can see people
1:02:46
and we were already talking about this with the boware stuff with uh with Dragon Age, right?
1:02:52
We mentioned I know Matt said this and and I I echo this. We're probably not too many years away from seeing a
1:02:58
legally distinct Dragon Age like you know totally not Dragon Age released by people that used to work on Dragon Age.
1:03:05
Um, and so like some of the people that are working on these games under EA may just, you know, do their own thing and
1:03:12
continue to do their their thing because, and we've talked about this before, it's we are in a wonderful,
1:03:20
bountiful time of independent development for video games. We have more quality independent video games
1:03:26
being released and we have the means to release them without bigname publishers
1:03:32
these days. Not like it used to be. Uh, it used to be you had to go to one of the big guys to get your game
1:03:37
distributed and put out there, but with digital releases on everything. It's
1:03:42
like publishing for for some stuff, it makes it easier. And so that barrier to
1:03:49
entry goes down. We see things like Unity and and other uh game platform
1:03:56
game coding platforms change the way that they deal with smaller companies to make it more
1:04:02
accessible. We've we've reported on that in the past. It's not always positive, but it's been more positive than negative in the the last I'd say 5
1:04:09
years. Um that you now have access to those tools without having to develop your own system that you can then make
1:04:16
the game you want. And because it's not like it used to be back in like the early 2000s where every game system was
1:04:22
a bespoke game system because you there wasn't an engine that did what you wanted it to do. So, we might see a
1:04:30
rebirth of games on platforms, including like the Switch and and PlayStation,
1:04:37
uh, that now are from these devs, that will capture our hearts just like these
1:04:42
other games did. And that's my hope, right? My hope is that if it does get bad and everything we love from EA,
1:04:49
which was already a stretch to keep hope alive for a lot of that stuff to begin with, we again going back to Dragon Age
1:04:56
uh and anything boware really and maybe they'll just go do their own thing
1:05:01
and capture that lightning in a bottle again and maybe with spite and maybe with passion for their project again,
1:05:07
right? And that's that's what I'm hopeful for. I'm hopeful that this will be a catalyst to maybe allow these
1:05:14
people to make a jump that they maybe were scared to do. Well, we will see. My own hope is that maybe some of the properties that EA has
1:05:22
that it does not feel are profitable, that it has not found success in like Boware, might get sold off to someone
1:05:29
who actually is really invested and loves them to develop them. Like American McGee has been trying to
1:05:36
buy Alice back for for a decade now. Yeah. So, it would be really interesting if some of these projects that EA has
1:05:42
kind of abandoned maybe get into the hands of smaller developers who are like really passionate about this one project
1:05:49
because EA is kind of stymied by the size of the company where they have to
1:05:54
they have to focus on uh big money makers. Of course, one thing to remember is that in in this acquisition, EA is
1:06:01
going private again and that means we will not see a lot of future financial
1:06:07
information from them. only what they really want to release cuz it won't be a publicly traded company anymore. So, it
1:06:14
is a strange and interesting time for gaming, my friends. A strange and interesting time.
1:06:20
Um, but I think I think that's going to do it for us this week. I do want to
1:06:26
wrap up by saying thank you to all of our supporters and listeners. Uh, it is
1:06:31
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1:07:21
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1:09:18
Uh so yes, everyone, this has been the Blizzard Watch podcast. As always, thank
1:09:23
you so much for listening. [Music]