Up next in 10
This week our host is our special guest, Liz Patt, who has a lot of opinions on Diablo, but she's also here for a discussion of patch 11.2. The team love Tazavesh, 10/10 city, no notes, though they remain a little skeptical of Broker culinary pursuits. We also looked at the Race to World First, which is underway as raid guilds contend to see who can get the first Mythic kill of Dimensius. Plus, General Manager Rod Fergusson has left Diablo, and we aren't quite sure what that means for the series. And in a segue which is no way jarring, we turn from Diablo to the Wholesome Games Festival on Steam, and some of the cute and cozy titles we enjoyed from that showcase.
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0:00
[Music]
0:10
Hello and welcome to the Blizzard Watch podcast. I'm Matt. Wait, no, I'm not.
0:16
I'm Liz Pat and somehow I've managed to take over this intro and I am joined
0:21
today by the actual hosts with me, Joe Perez and Liz Harper. Say hi guys.
0:28
Well, hi there. you you're an actual host. You're you're here. You're hosting. You're an actual host,
0:33
you know. Um yeah, it's not actually all that
0:40
glamorous, but uh yes, thank you for joining us today. Yeah, thank you for having me.
0:46
Well, I'm glad that you're here because now I get to have two Liz's and then I can say, "Hey, Liz, I get both of you
0:52
are like you can you can start getting in there to see which one I mean. It's going to be great. I love this.
0:59
But I think it's going to be dangerous. But I think we should start as we often do with some World of Warcraft news
1:05
because well, last two weeks have been pretty busy. We had the new patch 11.2. It's been live for about a week now and
1:12
the official new season has started. So I guess let's start with first
1:18
impressions. Like have you guys gotten to dive into it at all? I know that it's been a very busy couple weeks. So, I'm
1:24
curious to see if you have been able to get in there and what your thoughts are on it, Liz. The prime
1:29
uh I have. I think the zone is so interesting. It's um I love I mean I
1:36
love the setting. I love that we're on Caresh. I love Tazesh because it's so
1:41
intricate and detailed and it feels like a real living city, which of course it
1:47
felt like a real living city back when it was a dungeon, but now it's a city.
1:52
Uh, it just feels real and alive and inhabited and why did we bring this city
1:59
to this terrible place, but okay. Okay, we got a nice city to hang out in. Uh, so I have been enjoying it. I feel like
2:05
maybe there's a little too much to do. I I don't know if I'm making sense there.
2:11
Like it feels like there's maybe a little too much time commitment to even do the basics to get into which opened
2:18
this week. Um, yeah, there's there's a Well, there's a little bit of of of heft to the volume
2:25
of stuff that you need to do. Yeah. I But I I have been enjoying it. I
2:30
love the change of scenery. I love how everything is delightfully sparkly.
2:35
Mhm. Uh I mean I maybe I'll get over the delightfully sparkly stuff. I don't
2:40
Maybe by the end of this tier I'll be like no more glitter. Stop. But uh right
2:46
now right now I'm enjoying it. Um, phase diving, not enjoying quite as much as I
2:52
thought I would considering how it was described. It sounded really awesome. Go into like this alternate phase and hunt
2:58
things down and instead it's instead it's going go into this alternate phase
3:04
where you can't mount up and you walk everywhere very slowly. Uh, that's a little less exciting than I
3:10
was hoping for, but uh it's another way of doing world quests. It's it's there. It makes everything so much pinker,
3:16
which that's not bad. That's not bad. I'm gonna take it. I do also like that it comes with it own set of flight paths, too, though, which
3:22
I think is kind of neat. Yes. Yes. And I do think that is something that not everyone is aware of.
3:29
Yeah, I I I was going to say that. Yeah, cuz I didn't know. If you know the little pads you go and
3:35
tap on to be transported into phase diving. Yes. You go, you tap on them,
3:40
you're in phase diving. you can tap on them again and it opens up a fast travel
3:45
network where you can go to any of these other pads. So that is actually going into phase diving. Tapping the pad and
3:51
going to another phase diving pad is actually the one of the fastest ways to get around kesh particularly if you're
3:57
going somewhere where that's that's the nearest thing. I mean there are some flight paths but
4:02
there are more of these. Yeah. And I was going to say and the phase diving ones tend to be closer to points of interest. Like there's one
4:08
very very close to the new delve. uh not the question mark one with the
4:13
the main uh antagonist, but like there's one right next to the archives. Like you
4:19
it it's like maybe a hop, skip, and a jump away. Like it's 10 yards or something like that. Not very far. So like they're they're
4:25
pretty close right here. There's one right by the man forge entrance. There's also a flight path there. Like it's neat that they're spread out. Like
4:31
it's also um I think really cool because we've had this feature in in past
4:36
expansions in um Dragonflight and Shadowlands, but they've been time bound
4:43
occasionally and that didn't feel as good. Th this is really fun. Like this is
4:48
cool. You just zip around. You're in neat new places that are beneficial to be in. And yeah, A+. Yeah, I'm I and
4:57
honestly like I I like the idea of the what of phase diving in principle. I'm
5:03
hoping that it gets a little more interesting um as far as like what they add to it like with rares or other
5:08
things because they can do a lot with it. Uh although it was really curious to see people's reaction to the world boss the
5:15
first week because phase diving is a part of it. It's it's sort of like almost like mini prep for the raid when
5:21
you are going to be, you know, doing stuff with phase diving and not
5:27
everybody knew that you had to phase dive or what you needed to do for the boss. So you and I I'm pretty sure most
5:35
people the first day or the first week had the same experience where the boss just took forever to kill uh until a
5:41
group of people figured out that oh I need to go into this phase and DPS him and TBS the boss here as well. But now
5:49
that people are starting to know how to do it or learn how to do it uh it's really neat. Also, I think it's
5:56
fascinating that that's probably the closest to a vanilla experience I I
6:01
think I've seen in game in a very long time. And and and stick with me here because we we've talked about this
6:06
before. We are so inundated with data. I mean, we're part of this this whole culture, right? We report on stuff
6:12
early. We have guides. We do this stuff. It is very rare to watch people learn
6:18
organically in real time how to do something. And it was like the first
6:23
time I saw it, I literally sat back. I was like, "Huh, I figured people would have like read up on this or watched
6:28
YouTube videos on it and figured out what to do and like they didn't." And then like
6:35
they just figured it out by bashing their head against it or doing it. Like I saw the same names and like general
6:40
chat organizing and like getting groups together for I was like this is the most vanilla experience I've ever seen in the
6:48
last like 15 years. like this. It was really interesting. Yeah, you don't even really get that
6:55
experience. Um I know with raids the the last boss is is not tested during the
7:02
PTR period, so it it was really exciting to see. Although I also can't think and
7:08
I'm thinking back through the last few expansions, have we had a phase shifted world boss
7:16
before? I I can't think of one. Uh we kind of did. So we kind of Azraos 1.0
7:26
had a spirit form. Uh and then the uh Dragons of Nightmare technically had a
7:33
like a a plane shifted like little phase. So like technically but not like this. So, I I
7:41
think that's also really cool, too, because the the devs are are playing
7:46
with that functionality that we see in Raid, um, but in open world, so maybe
7:51
people that don't raid can can experience it and try it out and and see like, okay, this this actually isn't as
7:58
much of a pain. Um, it's accessible. Yeah. And I I I'd like to see maybe this
8:05
I know we live in an era where like stuff shows up and then it gets abandoned and maybe it comes back later,
8:11
but phase diving is one of those things that like I think could be really really neat. Um there was a mechanic in and why
8:20
can't I can't think of the name of the game now and it's going to really bother me. It's the from the the folks that made Apex Legends um one of Matt's
8:27
favorite games, Titanfall. Titanfall 2. Um, there's a time shift mechanic where
8:32
like you and and I think there was one in the second game for Dishonored as well where
8:39
you would shift back and forth through time to solve puzzles and get from point A to point B.
8:45
And I really liked that mechanic in those games. I thought it was really interesting and fun. phase diving can do
8:50
something similar and I think we do that during the raid which I think is um but they could do that elsewhere like you
8:56
could have something like that we're integrated where like you're switching between a reality overlay on your own to
9:02
get somewhere else and we've kind of done that in the past with the Shadowlands but not really like it could
9:07
be really cool for puzzle solving it could be really cool for the secret server to have to find something uh it
9:13
could be you know cool for hunting down rares or or stuff like that I I don't know like I I I just hope they do more
9:20
with it, I guess. Yeah, definitely. And I mean, I'm glad you kind of noted that, you know, we we
9:25
did stuff like this um in Shadowlands because one of the one of the characters that took us through that experience and
9:32
had us kind of shifting in and out of of uh reality or attention from our enemies
9:38
is is backari. It's almost like I prepared with a professional segue.
9:44
Never. Um, so I I I don't know about you guys,
9:49
but I am uh absolutely delighted to to be interacting with Venari again.
9:56
I am too. Like Venari is in in the Brokers and the Ethereals. And I'm going to stay away from spoilers here, but the
10:03
story revolving around them is really interesting. And the reasons why the characters are back is very fascinating
10:11
to me. I mean, I I I'm going to sound so like self-centered here. I mean, Matt
10:17
and I called this years ago, and I'm sure we're not the only ones, but it's interesting to see it play out in real
10:23
time, and then to see that involvement. And the voice actress for Venari, 10 out
10:28
of 10. Like, I that p that person could call me an idiot all day long and I'd be still
10:34
smiling because it's just that character is absolutely phenomenal. But the whole broker society, the whole idea of what
10:41
they're doing on Caresh, uh, and what they're doing, and because we're not actually on Caresh, we're on little
10:47
planettoids of Caresh, cuz you see Caresh in the background, like you are literally like looking at it, which is
10:53
also uh based off the key art that we saw way back during Legion. Uh, just, you know, throwing that out there. Um,
11:02
and it's really neat to to see like they're experimenting here and they're doing their stuff this way so that they
11:08
can reclaim the whole of the planet or do whatever they're going to do. And
11:14
it's really cool and it's really cool to see like I again I just love an Ari. I'm going to let you guys talk about about
11:19
any of that you want. Well, and also um like brings us into a phase we don't we
11:26
don't see as often, which is um more minor characters getting getting a uh a
11:33
repeat performance where you know instead of okay, you know, thr Jed and
11:39
um you know the the greatest hits have have showed up again. And I I I really
11:45
love that both with um Venari and with Tazesh cuz like the layout of Tazesh was
11:50
obviously you know this is this is a city it has a marketplace and um you
11:55
know seeing it come back like cool. It's not it's not just dollar that that gets
12:01
to have that kind of repeat. Yeah. Can we all talk about how Taz is possibly the best city?
12:06
Oh my god it's incredible. I'm still getting lost occasionally, but it's Oh,
12:12
it's so pretty, too. It's like Liz said, it just has such a great vibe. It has. And I mean, I think part of it, it feels
12:20
different than the other cities. You know, sometimes you can be like, "Okay, we've walked into it. We here's the new
12:26
horde city. It feels like the last horde city we walked through in an expansion." Tazesh feels really distinct. It feels
12:34
it has this very distinct broker architecture and it just you know you're in Tazesh when you're in Tazesh. It's
12:40
you can't mistake it for anywhere else. Yeah. It reminds me a lot of like um and maybe this is going to sound weird and
12:46
and I apologize this is not meant to like offend anybody but it reminds me of like a representation of like Arabian
12:52
marketplaces almost like from movies and popular media. Like when you first get
12:57
into the city, like yeah, there are these buildings, but if you look at like all the archways and how everything is mainly open and there's not really
13:03
doors, uh it's mostly stalls or if there is some something like a door, it's more
13:10
a like a curtain or or something like that. Like it's a lot lighter, which I think is really neat. And I and
13:17
I I really like sort of like that nod to that that architecture again because I'm an architecture nerd, so of course I'm
13:23
going to like it. Um, but it's just really cool and then it just flies around space and and reality because why
13:30
not, you know, literally, but it's like the architecture is part of the storytelling. We've got environmental
13:36
storytelling in how Tazesh is designed telling us how the brokers and
13:42
etherealss may have lived in the past and how what Kesh may have been like in the past. It's just these little subtle
13:51
hints that suggest what this place once was. And we're
13:56
Sorry, go ahead. It's just It's just great when you can do that and it's like they're telling it
14:03
textually. They're telling it in the story. They're telling you these things, but they're also telling it to you
14:08
subtextually by zone design, by art design, by just what Joe was saying, just by
14:16
looking at the doors and the outdoor marketplaces, how Tazesh is designed
14:21
tells you the kind of place Tazesh was, where it began. And that's I I love it
14:28
when games tell a story without just here's a page of quest text.
14:35
Yeah, exactly. So, and it makes it feel more real and more immersive and I it's
14:40
probably part of the reason I loved Hazesh. It just feels like a real place. Yeah, it's it's an experience.
14:47
It It really is. And and I'm hoping everybody out there is having as much fun with it or enjoys it as much as we
14:53
are cuz there's a lot to discover, including a bunch of hidden treasures, right? Cuz uh that's I I I stumbled upon
15:01
this cuz I didn't know that this existed. and again organically come up as I discovered, ooh, here's a glowy
15:08
purple bit. I should go click on it. Um, that apparently
15:13
rep grinds are a thing, right? Um, and Caresh is no stranger to that, although
15:18
the renowned track is uh appears potentially to be better than what we've we had even as recently as last year.
15:25
We'll see. Time will tell. Uh but apparently you can get an entire uh level of renown just by doing the
15:32
secrets of the Keshi achievement. Uh which is essentially going out and doing
15:37
a treasure hunt, which I think is really cool. Yeah. And it's fun. The the treasure
15:42
you're uh you're exper I is the Is the cookie recipe a spoiler?
15:48
I I do not personally think the cookie recipe is it's the first thing. I don't think it is.
15:53
Okay. So like there there's there's things that really uh take you back to our experience with the the brokers in
16:01
in Shadowlands without having like the negative Shadowlands connotations like this recipe for cookies where they
16:07
include three tablespoons of cinnamon, which is a fair amount of
16:15
cinnamon for a cookie recipe that I think has like two cups of flour.
16:20
Mhm. Two. There's quarter two and a/4 cups of flour. Yes. So, it's
16:27
That quarter cup is doing a lift. But it also has two cups of chocolate
16:32
chips in it. Okay. Look, I'm I'm not going to I'm not going to pretend I haven't Yeah, I I'm
16:37
not going to pretend I haven't eaten, you know, cups of chocolate chips out of the freezer uh that were meant for
16:43
baking. But um it it's especially delightedful because uh friends, when
16:48
you actually go collect this, read to the end because someone who we see in
16:54
game occasionally as as another like side character recurring um has left a
16:59
comment on their experience with the cookies from this recipe and it's it's A+ a
17:07
chef's kiss. But this also kind of fits in with that environmental storytelling. I mean, yes,
17:13
this is something you are going and you have to read through all of it and then you have to think about it in your head about what it means to have a recipe
17:20
with two cups of sugar of flour and three tablespoons of cinnamon. Uh it it
17:27
does make you think about, okay, what kind of recipes is a broker going to
17:33
have to cook? It's not going to be a recipe for them to eat. It is going to
17:38
be a recipe to experience with their other senses with this absolute mountain of spices that are in it. Uh, and I this
17:47
does this does maybe it fits in I think very well with Shadowlands cooking in which we were learning weird broker
17:54
recipes. Yeah, that's the immediate reminder. Okay. It's they're they're they're
18:00
helping us learn to cook still with this delicious cookie recipe
18:05
cuz we know that all the food all the food they learn how to cook is always good. Post on the site that is like this but
18:11
edible and maybe affordable because who can afford three tablespoons of cinnamon in this economy? Oh, but that's so much
18:17
cinnamon. So much cinnamon. But it sounds like we're uh we're
18:22
because we've advanced forward a week from patch day. we we have even more to experience, right?
18:28
Yes. Which I will preface this by also saying beware spoilers. Those who go forth Marina that we're going to give
18:33
any, but all the cinematics are now currently available, which means watch yourself if you don't want to be spoiled
18:40
and you want to experience it yourself. Easier said than done, but you know, protect yourselves. Yeah. But yeah, we
18:47
have uh what this week we have the man forge Omega has been opened up on normal, heroic, and mythic. Uh the first
18:53
wing of elephar is open. Uh the delve season has reset which we'll talk about in a second. Uh the mythic plus season 3
18:59
has just started. PvP season 3 has just started. Uh and then even after this
19:05
next week we'll have even more as story mode and LFR wing 2 for the raid will
19:10
become available. So there's a lot that just unlocked today. Um let's talk about
19:16
delves I think real quick because your progress has reset. That's what happens
19:23
every time you every time a new season starts, which I think is to be expected at this point. Uh there is a new prime uh villain,
19:32
prime antagonist that you have to deal with antagonist. Yeah. Uh which is the princess uh Nexus
19:38
Princess uh Kyza, I think is the name. I can never remember. Yeah. Uh so be prepared for that. And uh Kyza
19:46
has a really neat portal hidden away inside of Tazesh for where you go fight them. Uh which I thought was really
19:53
funny because it like it looks like you can't get to it. And then you walk through an invisible wall or a uh a non
20:00
a non-colision wall to get to it, which I think is really cool. Uh and there's a sign outside that says it's closed for a
20:06
private function cuz you know, of course, why not? Uh so I thought that was really cool.
20:11
I I'm more interested to to hear your guys' opinions on your Delve progress resetting. We've done it twice now. Do
20:18
you hate it? Do you mind it? Is it something that is manageable? Do you
20:23
think it's fine? Because I think you all of your Delve progress, no matter how high you got, you get reset down to
20:30
four, which means you have to clear all the way back up to what your previous level was. Yep. and the eye level requirement is
20:36
harder now, which means you're going to progress slower than you did. I think it I'm actually like kind of
20:43
kind of delighted the way you described it um as being part of the seasonal reset because I hadn't thought about it
20:50
that way before. When they first introduced delves, they were introduced as this way for, you know, the more
20:56
solo-minded among us, of which I I tend to be, um, to to actually get to
21:03
experience the Great Vault and to be able to progress their gear and and so on and so forth. So, I hadn't really
21:10
thought about it as as you know linked with the seasonal cycle even though it
21:16
absolutely is because like that just that wasn't the ex expectation that was
21:21
set forth. But it it's it's basically, yeah, this is your form of seasonal play. And thinking of it that way feels
21:29
better because before I I was last season, you know, when we first had the
21:36
reset experience, I was frustrated as heck. Um, and having to go through and
21:43
level that up and I was also trying a different character at the time. Um, or a different class, I should say. uh and
21:50
it just it it the combination of the two uh did not did not sit well. Um but
21:57
thinking of it in terms of like the seasonal cycle, which again now that you've said it makes complete sense,
22:03
this is this is your your seasonal progression, your seasonal ladder. If you're not a Mythic Plus player, if
22:09
you're not a a PvPer, this is this is you, you know, coming in at the ground
22:15
level with the gear that you start with with this patch and progressing your own
22:20
ladder. And I think I think that feels better um to think of it that way. Liz Prime,
22:26
I just think it feels a little tedious to grind back up even
22:31
just it's not hard to grind back up. You know, I had 11s unlocked before, which
22:38
is as high as you can go. And obviously 11s are more difficult this season. It makes sense that I'm not going to jump
22:44
right back into an 11. I haven't gotten that many levels of gear since I started playing again. So, but it also it feels
22:52
kind of tedious to go back and unlock them because you unlock new levels of delves by running a Dell of of the
22:59
previous level. So, you start at four, you run a four, then you can get into a five, you run a five, then you can get into a six, etc., etc. And you're there
23:08
is one new delve this season. So you could be doing the one new delve, but you've got to do it uh a bunch of times
23:16
over and over and you could do a bunch of different delves. You could do the same delve over and over. But it does
23:22
feel kind of tedious having to unlock the difficulty levels again. I don't think it feels very fun because if I am
23:30
going in and doing a tier four delve, there's no gear. I mean, I'm over geared
23:36
for a tier four delve even right now before I've stepped foot in the raid or done any like late game content except
23:42
questing and doing stuff in Kesh. And it just it feels like I am doing something that's just spinning wheels. I'm going
23:49
to run through this and then I'm going to run through it again and then I'm going to run through it again and then I'm going to run through it again and
23:54
then maybe after I do this, you know, five times I might see something useful gear-wise out of this and it's just it's
24:03
not my favorite thing. Yeah, I I I'm with you, I think, on that one.
24:08
I do understand that this is part of the seasonal reset. There's new rewards track for it to work through. brand is
24:15
starting from scratch, which I also don't love, but I think it makes a lot of sense that you're, you know, this is
24:20
a new season. You need to recollect new skills and abilities for Bran and
24:26
but I feel like starting back at the lowest level delve, not the lowest level, level four, it just feels it
24:34
feels like it takes a really long time to get back up to 11. And it would be
24:39
nice is if it let you to uh you know maybe doing a four gets you
24:46
two levels up instead of just one. Maybe doing one without any deaths gets you
24:51
two or three levels you can jump up instead of just the one. Yeah. So or maybe
24:57
maybe if you had 11s unlocked you could still have 11s unlocked. Just it would be a really bad idea to run straight
25:02
into an 11. This just feels a little slow. I haven't finished unlocking highle Dells again
25:09
and I'm just kind of I'm already a little bored with it. Yeah, I uh I I definitely agree. I I'm
25:16
fine with the reset. I think that's fine, but I think that needs to be a mechanism that lets you I don't want to
25:22
say like over jump something, but I think there should be other factors
25:28
involved in it. Like one thing that I was thinking about is when I started doing my my grind back up. Uh and I I'm
25:35
capped at around seven right now. That's where my my my main can get because I'm unfortunately not very good at elemental
25:42
and uh I can already hear somebody saying laughing at me about that. Uh but yeah, I'm I'm a healer by shaman. That's
25:49
what I know. Mhm. Um I still cleared a four exceptionally quickly and I'm surprised that there's
25:56
not like a catch-up mechanic or something like this like oh you cleared it with you know x amount of time we're
26:03
going to give you access to two or three levels higher than you currently are. Mhm.
26:08
Right. Like something that says okay if somebody is taking it as slow and is having a hard time. Okay that one by one
26:13
progression makes sense. You're gearing up and you're doing it. But I went from four, I could easily do a seven. Four
26:20
took me less than 10 minutes to to burn through the entire place. Um, and I did
26:25
the new one, which was really really quick. The first the first story that it had available was really quick. Uh, and
26:31
then I got up to where I needed to be and got my my my uh rushy rap upgrades.
26:36
But it was just I I'm surprised there's not a mechanic or a function that allows
26:41
people to do that. And I hope that as they look at this, I like delves. I think delves are fantastic content.
26:47
I think they're really they're fun with friends uh as like quick content. They're not quite dungeons, but you can
26:53
still have fun with them. Um great for solo players, great for if you can get into a bountiful delve to do
26:59
to get gear and do catchup stuff. I I hope that they continue to refine it and maybe they put an option like that in
27:05
and make it a little more accessible for for folks to not feel like they're burning uh more time than they need to
27:12
in it. And I'm not saying that we shouldn't spend time in it. I'm saying I want to try to push my my boundaries. I
27:17
don't want to do all the stuff that I know I'm capable of doing already over and over and over again.
27:23
And maybe it wouldn't feel as tedious if there were, let's say there were five
27:29
new do new delves this season or they were bringing back delves that we hadn't seen for five years like we do in uh
27:37
Mythic Plus. They pull back some they pull in some very old dungeons sometime into the Mythic Plus rotation. Yeah, I
27:43
was thinking it really does remind me of mythic claws. Yeah, it's exactly the same kind of
27:48
idea, but uh I I like it. Delves are really fun. I
27:55
understand why it resets. It just it grinding back up to the top level of delves just I'm kind of I'm a little
28:02
over it. I'm a little over it. I'll get there. I'll get there. It's not It's not hard, but that's kind of the problem.
28:07
It's not hard. It's kind of just brainless brainless work that I wish I didn't have to do and go on to something
28:14
interesting. But it's it's there. It's okay. It's okay. That's that's what I'll
28:19
give it. All right. Well, I think we've talked about Dell's enough and uh you know, we can all feel how we feel about Bran, but
28:26
let's move on to uh and this is another one where I'm going to let Liz talk about it because I I think this is more
28:31
your jam than mine. The race for world first has officially started. Oh, and I I do love watching the race world first
28:39
because it is madness. It is madness to watch, you know, these groups of 20 players trying to kill the hardest
28:46
things in the game as quickly as possible. You know, you and me, all of us here, we do raid, we do we do eleph,
28:53
we do normal, we do heroic, we don't try to do the madness that is mythic, but uh
28:59
it is fun to watch people try it. And I think the most fun thing about Race to World is watching people playing the
29:06
class that you play every day and just playing it in a totally different way or on a totally different level than you
29:11
play it. I think it is so fun to watch these streamers just go at it. So,
29:17
Mythic opened and uh that that means race to world first here. It opens first in North America, which is where you
29:24
have Team Liquid, primarily the uh reigning world first champion for the
29:29
past two raid tiers. But on Wednesday, the European servers will open. You'll
29:36
get Echo and Method both jumping in. And then after that, you have the Chinese
29:42
servers opening up. So, this is a crazy race in that it is also in no way fair.
29:48
Um, for example, uh, Team Liquid has already had someone banned that was on
29:55
their roster, and it's not because of anything they did. It was because something they did in the last race to
30:02
World First, that time period in which they were not a member of Team Liquid, but they are now on Team Liquid's
30:07
roster, and they are now not doing this early work because they don't have an
30:13
account for six months. So that's uh so you you get snags. You get snags.
30:21
You have delays because you know Europe starts a day later. China starts a day
30:26
later than that. And there's there's not a fixed start line. There's not a fixed finish line. There could be hot fixes at
30:33
any time. There could be nerfs or changes at any time. So, it's it's just a thing of madness and it's going to be
30:40
going on 24/7 for about probably the next uh 10 to 14 days. I give it a
30:46
couple of weeks on the outside. It is fun to watch. I think it's going to be really really entertaining. One of the
30:51
most interesting things is watching China get back into the race because they have not been back in World of
30:57
Warcraft for very long, but Net Ease, who operates the game in China, has been offering a cash reward for Chinese
31:04
guilds who get a world first kill. Now, with that much of a delay, we have not
31:10
seen any Chinese guilds get there yet, but they have been making a hard push.
31:16
And this raid tier, Net Ease has offered a bounty for any guild in the top three,
31:23
which amounts to about $70,000 if a guild a Chinese guild breaks into
31:30
the top three, which would mean kicking out Liquid, Echo, or Method. So that's
31:35
that's a big challenge. But if the Chinese guild gets first place raced to world first, that'sund about
31:42
approximately $190,000. So these are big rewards and net ease is
31:50
continuing. If someone doesn't claim them this tier, Net Ease is going to add a little more money in and it'll still
31:56
be available next tier. I Yeah. at a full at a full mythic rate of 20 people depending on how you split
32:02
that up that's what somewhere between I think on the top three each person get like three grand and I think uh for the
32:09
it's almost 10 grand uh ahead for the raiders plus whatever overhead I don't either the support staff that they pay
32:15
out for it too but like that's that's not insignificant change that's significant money yeah
32:21
yeah so it's it's interesting and we have seen Asian guilds becoming more
32:28
competitive. We've seen Asian guilds breaking into the top five. We've seen Asian guilds getting into third place. I
32:35
believe last race for world first, we had a guild that sat in third place for quite a while before method finally got
32:40
ahead of them. But uh it's really interesting. I think the race has gotten
32:46
really interesting. Well, the top three has remained this triumvirate of liquid,
32:51
echo, and method for a long time. I I'm very interested to see if China can
32:56
actually break in because they're they're fighting hard for it and uh Net Ease is making big promises.
33:03
Yeah, I I'm going to be really curious to see that, too, because it'd be interesting to see things shaken up a little bit. Uh because and part of the
33:11
reason Race for World first stopped being a thing for me is because it was like it's going to be one of the same three. Who cares? And this is just me
33:17
personally. Me personally, if you if you enjoy this stuff, not taking it away from you. Um but it was just like but
33:23
now if there's things where it's like now these three might be sweating a little bit. Okay, now I'm interested.
33:30
I mean, part of the problem that the race is so dominated by the same names
33:35
every year is because it takes a lot of time and effort and
33:40
resources to do this. While there are 20 players playing the game, they all have they have tons of people
33:47
behind the scenes. You know, there are analysts making week or watch going over logs. There are people arranging splits,
33:54
arranging heroic splits, collecting volunteers and arrang making it work. so they have the best chance of getting
34:00
loot on all of their splits. There is a lot of work behind the scenes and even just having a team of 20 raiders coming
34:08
together in the same building to play together. You've got to organize the space, the computers, casting desks
34:15
because the big teams also have uh live stream shows with casting talent to explain what's going on and to entertain
34:23
the people when the race gets boring and they're making their hundth poll of something. So, it's a lot of work to do
34:31
this. And I think the real problem for the average Warcraft player is you can't do this casually. Yeah,
34:37
you can't be a normal guy who goes in and oh, I'm just going to do raced world
34:43
first. That's no, that's a huge commitment. Takes a lot of time and skill and work
34:50
and support. You can't just, you know, even if we and our guild decided today,
34:56
oh, we want to do mythic world first raiding. It's like, okay, well, where's
35:02
the money to raid, you know, to put our best raiders up for that much time and
35:08
not go to work and be focused? Who's going to do the week? You know, there's so much support that you need beyond
35:14
just I really like this game and want to play it and I I do not want to be a
35:20
world first raider. I just enjoy watching them on TV. It's not the only thing to look forward
35:25
to. Uh since we have more stuff coming in the future and we can move on to other games after this, I think uh
35:31
Gamescom is starting soon. I think uh what roughly a week uh from the time of this recording. Yeah.
35:37
Uh and we are expecting to see a midnight reveal trailer during the opening night live. uh which looks like
35:44
it is starting at 11:00 a.m. Pacific, 2:00 p.m. Eastern because of course it is because I'll be at work and I won't
35:50
be able to watch it until after I get out. It's and doing a big announcement in
35:56
Germany does make for some awkward time zones, but yes. Uh and of course opening
36:01
night live could be 2 hours, could be 3 hours. We don't know when it's going to be during that time frame. So maybe it's
36:08
right at the beginning, maybe it's in the middle, maybe it's right at the end. We don't know, but we have been promised
36:14
a midnight reveal trailer that will be followed by a deep dive video on the
36:21
game. So, lots of details coming up very, very soon. I am I'm really I try
36:28
not to get excited about these things because if you get caught in the hype wagon, there's inevitable disappointment
36:34
to come. But, I'm pretty excited. I'm I'm always excited announcements,
36:40
especially when it involves a trailer or like hands down like g give me the shiny
36:48
new uh video that that your experts have th like they they never disappoint on
36:55
these trailers and like we know it's coming. It's e even though we know Midnight's on the radar, like this is
37:01
supposed to be the expansion announcement trailer. Um, so you know,
37:06
it's it's going to be beautiful. It's going to be impactful. Um, I'm sure it's timed. They they took
37:15
this uh patch into account when they came up with, okay, we're going to announce this at Gamescom because the
37:22
raid the raid is out. We know, you know, what's going to be driving us forward into midnight. No spoilers. Um, but we
37:30
you know, we know it's to flow in. So yeah, this is this is just it's keeping
37:35
the hype going uh or or starting up the fresh expansion hype. So
37:41
yes, I I'll I'll be excited for it. I'm not going to be tentative about it.
37:47
No, I'm One thing I one thing I do want to point out specifically is that for people at
37:52
Gamescom, there is going to be a player housing handson. This is going to be a public hands-on for anyone at Gamescom
38:01
to jump in and do player housing, which I'm not at Gamescom,
38:07
which is a problem. Sorry. I Yeah, I'm I'm not catching a flight to
38:12
Germany tonight, but uh I I will be watching intently to see how this how
38:17
this plays out. So, it it's housing. It's housing that I'm so excited about.
38:23
I mean, sure, I'm sure the game's going to be great. I'm sure the story is going to be interesting, but I am going to get
38:31
to carve out my own little piece of Azeroth as a house just for me with a
38:36
gazebo outside of some type and maybe a pink flamingo. Yeah,
38:42
it's going to be great. It's going to be so great. I I'm wondering if it's going to be similar to the the build that we
38:48
show that was shown or given to um the press or the people content
38:53
creators. The content creators. Yeah. Um or if it's going to be a new build. So, I'm really curious to see which
38:59
version we get cuz I remember with um I want to say it was Mr. Pandaria. Uh
39:05
the build that was shown at the BlizzCon that you got physical hands on with uh
39:12
was the same build that uh press had gotten like I think a week or two prior that they were
39:18
allowed to like look at. Um so I'm curious if it's going to be the same build, if it's going to be an updated build, how far along it is. I'm I'm
39:25
really excited for player housing as I'm sure most people are. Uh I have never been so happy to be wrong about
39:31
something in my entire life. Um, I honestly didn't think we were ever going to get it and I'm really
39:38
impressed with what I see so far. So, yeah, I guess uh I'm excited to see what comes out of that. Now, there is a
39:44
little bit of WoW classic news, which is uh celestial dungeons are now live. Uh,
39:50
which I don't even remember what these things are, so somebody else can go ahead and chat about them. Well, you don't remember what they are
39:57
because they're new. Um, so in WoW classic and progression classic, I
40:04
suppose we should call it, there have been a series of differently named dungeons which kind of kind of replicate
40:10
the mythic plus experience. They're kind of there to help you catch up on gear.
40:15
They're kind of there to maybe you might say they replace RaidFinder because they offer easier to access small groupoup
40:22
content that has uh excellent rewards. So, these are it's an optional endgame
40:30
dungeon difficulty system in Missipendary Classic that will give you
40:36
if I am remembering correctly, it gives you loot from the last tier of raiding.
40:41
So, that's correct. Yeah. So, it doesn't keep you up to current, but it's a great way to catch
40:48
up to the last tier and get there or to keep gearing up even if you're only
40:53
doing fiveman content because there's no LFR. There's no flex rating. I don't think there's flex. Okay. Yeah, I should
41:00
stop talking about things that I do not know about. So, this is much like a mythic plus dungeon in Modern WoW. You
41:08
are going to go into a uh you're going to go into the dungeon and you will be
41:14
greeted by the August Celestials of Pandaria who will grant you a buff to
41:19
help you and you will go through the dungeon with a increased difficulty and
41:25
uh hopefully you walk out of there with some loot. So I I like this one in
41:30
particular because it really embraces the Pandaria theme and I I love the Celestials. They're so cool. They have
41:37
such cool themes. And of course, there's Chi, my very favorite celestial, because
41:43
he is an insane crane who has had way too many cups of coffee.
41:49
That's that definitely sounds like your avatar. Uh yeah,
41:55
but that's it. Yes, those are live today. They will continue getting upgraded as the expansion rolls out uh
42:03
to their loot is going to keep increasing. Their difficulty is going to keep increasing. So, it's a lot like
42:09
mythic plus in modern WoW except this has a way cooler theme. They get to hang
42:14
out with celestials. We don't get to do that, man. Fair enough. But I think I think we can
42:20
slide over from that into some Diablo news cuz Well, that's been an interesting one. Uh, and I'm gonna start
42:26
there's been a lot. I'm gonna start with the big one because I think I think this is probably the meat and potatoes of it really.
42:32
Um, Rod Ferguson, who was the the the lead GM for that arm of the the company,
42:39
uh, who had been there franchise manager. he was a franchise manager for the last 3 years and he had been working
42:44
on Diablo I or in the Diablo franchise for 5 years uh has left and uh it's leaving a lot of
42:51
people to wonder what is going to go on or there's been a lot of speculation and a lot of uh I will frank let's just come
42:58
out and say it a lot of really shitty comments um on a lot of posts about it
43:04
because people feel that uh Rod's to blame for everything that they hate which is I guess we should expect at
43:10
point. That's that's the downside of being the guy in charge. Everyone, gamers in
43:16
particular, look at whoever is the most visual. And if they are not happy with the game, that's it's that person's
43:22
fault. And when you're the face of the franchise, you're the face. It reminds me of the time that uh or the
43:28
number of messages I received when I started writing for our site way back when about how I was the worst thing ever to happen to Shaman. I get it.
43:36
Ah, the good old days. Yeah. I don't know. But we also don't know who
43:43
Go ahead. Yeah. Yeah. We No, I I think we were about to say the same thing. um we don't
43:48
know who's next up on on the plate or uh what what this means in terms of um
43:57
coming content because you know while while Rod was the face of the franchise
44:02
as the franchise manager u he is he's one voice one you know probably deciding
44:08
voice in a lot of decisions but it's still just one voice and we have to remember that uh Diablo content the
44:16
development velment pipeline starts pretty early. So even while there's, you
44:22
know, season 10 in development, season 9 currently active, the next expansion h
44:27
has been in work for a while now. They've been talking about it or they I
44:32
won't say they've been talking about it. They've been dropping notes about the next expansion for months now. I I do
44:41
want to clarify, we are talking about Diablo I here, the the latest iteration of Diablo, but Rod actually, we had gone
44:49
through a decade of nothing but Diablo II when Rod showed up and we've got
44:55
Diablo I, Diablo I expansion, Diablo II resurrected, Diablo Immortal. I know people don't like Diablo Immortal, but
45:01
it's actually it's a fun game. Fun game. Just don't don't play the end game. It's bad. It's Yeah, but
45:08
ignore the monetization. Yeah, that's once it starts to get too monetization-y
45:14
uh yeah, you've got to bail. But Rod has overseen a lot of Diablo happening here.
45:20
Uh Diablo I is certainly the biggest and most uh and most visible, but Rod has
45:28
pushed the franchise forward in ways that it hasn't been pushed forward in He probably literally
45:34
he picked it up he picked it up from being stalled. Let's be honest. Yeah. Yeah. Because uh you know, Diablo
45:40
I was really a revolving door of game directors. It lost a number of key staff
45:46
during the Blizzard sexual harassment lawsuit and Fallout and it was, you
45:53
know, the game had a really, you didn't know what's was going on there. Okay. So, yes, Rod got in there
46:00
and finished the game, finished the expansion, and supposedly they were working on the second expansion already
46:05
when the game came out, but it was delayed until 2026. We expected it in
46:10
2025. It's been pushed back. Is that related to Rod? We don't know. Uh, so
46:18
it's all questions. We don't know why he left. Yep. We we don't know anything.
46:24
Yeah. I mean, I was going to say that, too. We don't we don't really know like if this is it. Uh if if this is
46:30
retirement territory, if he's going to go work for maybe some former friends that have game studios now. Uh cuz I
46:37
mean be honest, Rod's been a lot of places. Uh yeah, he kind of been an industry uh
46:42
name for a while. Yeah. I mean he's I mean he's worked what he was at Microsoft in late 90s to
46:49
the early 2000s. He worked at Epic Games, Irrational Games, uh The Coalition before winding up at Blizzard.
46:56
Uh so like he's he's got a bunch of stuff under his belt. Like he's he's done a lot.
47:02
So which to say, you know, Rod, we wish you uh maybe take some time off, man. You
47:09
you've been uh it Diablo is is a harsh
47:14
mistress, I think. Yeah. And and yeah, I mean, go ahead. the last game director of
47:21
Diablo got thrown out uh with a lot of hate from the community. I mean, I do
47:26
not think this is an easy job because people will look at the game and if they are not enjoying the game that's out
47:32
there, they will blame you for ruining their childhood and destroying everything that was ever good about
47:37
Diablo. So, I it's it's a role with some really some really high expectations to
47:45
make the community happy. And I I don't think Diablo I is perfect.
47:51
I think it's a pretty good game, though. Not perfect, but pretty good. And I don't think it deserves quite as much
47:57
hate as Rod has been getting since announcing his departure. I would agree. Um, one of the
48:03
I was going to say I I whether you love or hate Diablo I uh or certain things
48:10
about it, like it's one of those games where I like Diablo 4, I just it doesn't
48:15
have anything for me to draw me into play it consistently aside from when the expansion releases and then I get
48:20
through it. Um, but I do appreciate that the franchise moved forward, that it is
48:27
trying new things. It is, you know, it may not do everything that I agree with, but at least it's it's a very enjoyable
48:35
playable game. Uh it's just, you know, it it may not be my idea perfect, but I
48:41
want to again rod over, like you said, it was tumultuous. It was uh very choppy
48:49
waters to try to write that ship and get it sailing in the right direction. And he did. Mhm.
48:55
And what this means for the future now that he's gone, we don't know. We don't know who's going to step up to pick to
49:01
to fill those shoes. And hopefully that the direction of the game will continue to
49:07
uh move up or trend upwards. I'd love to see Diablo return to its former state of
49:12
like beloved glory for everybody. Uh will that happen? Who knows? But I can hope. Yeah, I think that's also at least
49:19
for Diablo I a lot harder now because earlier t in the lull of Diablo II
49:26
earlier titles like Diablo II that were so university beloved and so pivotal
49:34
inspired spin-offs like Path of Exile and Last Epoch and Path of Exile 2 is now in in alpha
49:41
beta. POE 2 is hugely popular right now with its public test. Um, so Diablo IV just
49:48
by by definition has more competition. Um, but uh I will also note that one of
49:57
the things that uh kind of ramped up under uh Rod's guidance just to to carry
50:05
us forward uh were the campfire chats and those are changing too.
50:13
How so? So, uh, we don't have a ton of details yet, but we would normally be
50:18
getting a campfire chat right about now, within the next like week or two, you
50:24
know, Gamescom notwithstanding, uh, for the season 10 PTR and, uh, Adam
50:32
Fletcher, who's their basically their director of communications for social
50:37
and content marketing, I believe is his full title, uh, put out a tweet last
50:42
week that said they be changing this communication model, the campfire chats,
50:47
which have grown into these, you know, 2hour long live streams that you sit
50:55
through and and it it's a it's a it's a dedicated event. Um they haven't described the
51:02
changes that are coming yet, but in the interim um the season 10 PTR discussion
51:09
is going to be through what they call a Discord sanctuary sitdown in the in this
51:14
sanctuary community discord. Uh that'll happen with the release of the PTR patch
51:20
notes. So this is this is a shift. It's a shift. It's I'm I'm curious to see where they
51:26
go from here. Sanctuary sit down is not what I would have called it, but
51:35
if you sit down in Sanctuary, demons jump you. Yeah. Yeah. It It seems
51:40
dangerous. Uh minimally, you're going to get dirty. There's It's sanctuary. It's
51:46
There's no good place to sit down. That's the problem. No, there's blood everywhere.
51:52
And one of the things Rod Rod Ferguson was certainly said more than once when
51:58
he was first getting started about how he would rather have a live stream than do a blog post or anything like that,
52:04
which it's that is definitely one of my pet peeves because I do like written.
52:11
Shockingly, I like the clarity of a written piece of information that tells you what is happening. And for a while
52:20
they would do live streams and not blog posts. They've gotten a lot better about the blog post coming out immediately after
52:27
the live streams to their credit. To their credit, yes. But the live streams has also gotten longer as you
52:33
say. They're about it's going to be about 2 hours for them to lay out the next season and then you get a blog
52:40
post. So, I think I So, did this have something to
52:46
do with Rod's departure that they were allowed more free reign over how they set these up? Maybe, maybe not. Maybe
52:53
this was just something whose time had come because they have been changing them gradually and adding more written
53:00
content, content in other formats to help players know what was going on in the game, even if they did not have 2
53:07
hours of their lives to devote to watching the latest live stream. So, I'm
53:12
very interested. I'm interested just to see what they do. What's the best way to communicate information in 2025? How do
53:19
you talk to a gamer? Is a Discord chat the best way to communicate? It's a good way to talk back and forth, but it's a
53:25
bad way to archive information because uh Discord is it's it's all
53:30
chronological mostly unless you really fight the chronology of it. So, I don't know. I
53:37
don't know. It is good that they're giving that sort of direct line of communication that you can do in a Discord chat and a Discord Q&A, but
53:45
we'll see. It is a tough challenge with a community as dedicated and sometimes
53:51
as unhappy as Diablo is to have
53:56
effective communication that keeps everyone happy. Keeping every everyone happy is a tall order. It is. And
54:03
they've done um kind of I'm sure they are scheduled but the the sit down kind
54:09
of Q&As's in in the sanctuary discord uh previously. So, you know, they're
54:16
they're not like a brand new thing. Um, they're they're not widely publicized.
54:22
So, this is this is very new. I also don't know. I have not heard of them before before.
54:27
Okay. I have not heard of them before they announced this one. They had one uh the the most recent one
54:33
was actually after the live stream uh preceding uh season 9. they there was like this
54:39
brief kind of interview style conversation and I think that's what uh you know these the discord as a forum is
54:48
good for and I don't know if that lends itself to communications for a PTR for a
54:56
patch um for a season that you know the the live streams have been informational
55:04
they've but they've also just been lengthy So, you know, maybe in the
55:09
future they, you know, they can do things like take a page out of the the World of Warcraft
55:16
uh playbook and and give us like a summary video and then we have, you
55:21
know, the blog post with the patch notes and the announcement to to go through and that's that's got the full details.
55:27
People consume information in different ways, but you don't have to verbatim. It
55:34
reminds a little bit of like reading off a PowerPoint. Uh, you know, to have both the written and the visual. You there
55:41
there are ways to present in a way that's more concise, which is really ironic when I just took, you know, 30
55:47
seconds to a minute to say that. I is that I think everything for Diablo
55:53
can or is there anything else we really need to mention? It is for the most part. the um I you
55:59
know I I had noted when talking with uh Liz a little bit about this counterpart
56:06
Liz not not myself uh that the forum post does also mention you know heading
56:12
into the next year with the new expansion. So presumably they still plan for 2026 to have an expansion, but we
56:21
have nothing so far about it. And when we're, you know, living through and
56:28
playing seasons that feel a lot like uh past seasons with a new shiny color over
56:36
the event markers. Um it it does feel a little a little repetitive and I don't
56:43
want to say content drought because technically speaking there is content um but it it less engaging to me.
56:52
All right. One thing okay I I got to throw in one more thing which is Diablo did publish a
56:58
2025 road map but we are at the end of that road map. So that also leaves us a
57:04
little uncertain and well I wouldn't I would assume that Rod's influence will continue because things are just planned
57:12
out so far in advance. We don't know what the future holds. It will be interesting to see. Hopefully it's good
57:18
and the end of the road map was on fire. So yes, it was literally on fire when they
57:24
showed it off. Uh hopefully Rod winds up doing something great. Whether that's another game, whether that's a really
57:30
long vacation, I I hope he does well because uh this is tough job. It is. And uh yeah, I think we've we've
57:38
said all we need to on that one. Good luck, Rob, and whoever follows you in your wake.
57:44
Uh and then I do want to mention one last thing before we close it out here because I think this is actually really neat. Uh there's a wholesome game
57:52
celebration uh going on right now where there's uh what is it? seven new games
57:57
or a whole bunch of new games or there's a bunch of nice launches parallel with games. So yeah, go ahead. Who wants to
58:03
talk about their favorite from here? Cuz I like wholesome games. I I think Liz should go because you wrote the post about it.
58:10
I did. Um, and I had a lot of fun coming up with a completely uh official and
58:16
patented Blizzard watch rating system uh that is not both wholly made up and just
58:23
saying good things about everything because they were all delightful. Um,
58:28
five of the seven had demos. So, if you want to check them out, check them out. My favorite was
58:35
Tiny Bookshop. Yeah, I knew it. Which when it was in K. You knew it. Uh, when it was announced
58:41
at Wholesome Games Direct, I think both Anna and I immediately hit the wish list
58:48
button so hard we broke something. Uh, it's it's so cute. It's so chill. The
58:55
colors are this nice pastely environment. You're you're running a little tiny bookshop out of a trailer
59:03
hitched to your wagon in a seaside town and you're just you're selling books.
59:08
You're you're making book recommendations to the people that walk up and check it out and you're making
59:14
friends by by swapping favors and it's precious. It's precious.
59:20
Liz Prime and I I'm afraid I really have nothing to add because Tiny Bookshop was
59:26
the one that immediately went on my Steam wish list as well the moment it was announced. And while there are a lot
59:33
of great of great new wholesome games they released with this event, this is
59:38
the one I bought. So, and the one I definitely have tons of free time to
59:44
play, but I bought it, which is the first step towards playing it. It's not like I would just buy a game on Steam and not
59:51
play it. I would never do that. I don't know what you're talking about. I should also note that not all of these are only available on Steam. Some of
59:57
them are also available on other platforms like PlayStation, Xbox, uh your game pass as well as the Switch,
1:00:04
uh such as, you know, Tiny Bookshop. I was contemplating purchasing it uh for the Switch so that I could enjoy
1:00:11
it with my partner um because I think they like books more than me. Um and I
1:00:17
don't mean that more than I like books. I think literally they like the books more than me.
1:00:22
But the other one that actually caught my eye eye was The Ritual of Raven. I normally don't like farming sims. It's
1:00:29
one of those things where like I never got into Stardew Valley. I I never got into like Palia. Like it's just not my
1:00:35
thing. But this, well, it's it's got a story behind it.
1:00:42
It's unique. It's unique and it's got this arcane whimsy about it that is really like
1:00:48
something I'm into. It's like, oh, you don't do the farming yourself. You enchant things to go do it for you. and
1:00:55
that perked my attention up. The art style is delightful. Uh this is actually something that I will probably try the
1:01:01
uh the demo of uh and very likely purchase. Um also I did notice that you
1:01:08
can set instructions for your constructs that look a whole lot like machine binary learning.
1:01:14
I was I was going to say this is going to speak to you as a fellow old. Yep. Uh a and I'm speaking in terms of
1:01:20
being internet old, not chronologically, although that is a factor. Um the the
1:01:26
way you program your constructs is through so your constructs are tarot
1:01:33
card themed. Yep. Your initial construct is a fool, which is in the tarot card sense. It's not
1:01:39
actually calling your construct an idiot. uh but you're programming the instruction sets through a series of
1:01:46
cards that you're kind initially given uh as part of the tutorial and it's
1:01:52
exactly like programming instructions through punch cards. Yep. And that that spoke to me so much. Um it
1:02:01
it it's it's whimsical. It's delightful. You're not going to go wrong with any of these seven.
1:02:06
Yeah. Like they're they're really great. So, if you're into the the more cozy side of things or you want something a
1:02:12
little more wholesome, maybe maybe less demons or less blood and gore, uh you got some options out there. And it does
1:02:18
look like as time progresses, we're going to get more and more like uh Moonlighter 2 is on the horizon. If you
1:02:25
liked uh that whole thing there there's tons of cool games coming out that we're
1:02:30
going to be talking about in the near future. So, I'm excited. And uh yeah, sometimes you just need some wholesome
1:02:35
wholesome stuff. But now I'm going to go ahead and turn it something different. Something different
1:02:41
sometimes. Something different. Break up the norm. Sometimes Sometimes you just need it. Uh, but I will turn over to Liz Prime to
1:02:47
uh do some of our our shopkeeping here uh for the site if you don't mind, Liz.
1:02:53
I do want to say Blizzard Watch is made possible due to listeners like you
1:02:58
supporting us on Patreon. Your support is exactly what allows this site to
1:03:05
thrive, grow, and exist. We're here for you. So, uh, our support right now on
1:03:12
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1:03:19
it up to about $4,000 to give us some breathing room and especially when
1:03:24
there's so much going on right now that we would like to cover. So, if you are able to support us on Patreon, you can
1:03:31
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1:03:43
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1:03:50
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1:03:58
So if you can support us in any way, that really helps us out. We're here for you guys. And uh but even if you can't
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find our stuff, and that helps us out. So, you can do any of that. Please do.
1:05:12
And of course, if you enjoyed this podcast, consider enjoying some of our other podcasts. We also do a tabletop
1:05:18
gaming podcast called Tavern Watch and a video game story podcast called
1:05:24
Lurwatch. I said video game, but sometimes it goes off the rail and they talk about Jurassic Park for like four
1:05:29
hours. We cover all media. It's fine. But a lot of video games, a lot of
1:05:36
Warcraft. I I I think a lot of the nerds listening to us right now are probably interested in Warcraft lore. So there
1:05:43
it's a lot of that, too. Lore is universal. Lore is universal. Lore never changes. Anyway,
1:05:50
so thank you so much for your support. You guys out there, keep us going. Thanks so much.
1:05:56
And thank you very much, Liz. And as a reminder, folks, for you at home, if you do want to send us any questions, while we didn't answer any today, we do have
1:06:02
them. We do appreciate them, and we always need them. Please send them in. Uh you can send them into podcastwatch.com. Specify the show that
1:06:09
it is for in the subject line, as well as any special pronunciation of your name. You can also hit us on Discord. We
1:06:14
have the Q and Podcast questions channel, which is open to everybody. Same rules apply. If you happen to be a
1:06:20
Patreon supporter, again, thank you. We have the Patreon Q and podcast questions channel, which we set aside as uh
1:06:26
basically a first look channel. We tend to look there first. Uh it's your extra bonus and our way of saying thank you
1:06:32
for helping us keep the lights on. Or you can actually send us a message on Patreon. Uh and you know, Liz will get
1:06:38
to it and get it to us when she can. Uh we do appreciate that folks. We appreciate your continued support. We'll
1:06:45
see you next week. [Music]
#Massively Multiplayer Games
#Competitive Video Gaming