Too much transmog, too little time

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[Music]
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Hi everybody and welcome to the Blizzard Watch podcast. Uh I'm Matt. I'm hosting this shindig and for once it's just me
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and my two magnificent co-hosts. Uh first up, Liz Harper, editor chief of the site in person who is literally
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doing everything all the time. It it's kind of it's it's really actually somewhat exploitative of us and we
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should get her some food. Uh Liz, how you doing? It's exhausting. That's that's what I got. It's been a busy day.
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Uh also with us is Joe Perez who is sort of like he's like the Q uh if we were
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like you know spies in a spy movie. He he he's the one who's constantly trying to keep everything from exploding and
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burning down and and you know we appreciate that. Thank you for not letting us burn down, Joe. It has been an exhausting year, but you're welcome.
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Yes. Um, on behalf of everybody who who listens to this show, it's been a year.
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Yes, absolutely. Um, let's just start talking about things. Um, WoW Classic
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has got some interesting stuff to talk about. The fact that the pre- patch is now live. So, if you're playing uh
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classic, Miss Mr. Pandaria has the the pre- patch on the WoW Classic servers. Um, you can roll a monk or a pandarin
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apparently. Um uh yes I should clarify this is the progression
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servers have rolled over from cataclysm. Yeah. Yeah. Not all of them. And yeah all of the other servers the many things
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in the trench coat that make up while classic are still there. You anniversary realms, classic error realms, hardcore
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realms, season of discovery realms, all still there. But uh now Miss Pandaria
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also there at least the pre- patch. The pre- patch basically lets you roll a monk or a
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pandarin and do I believe it lets you do the intro on the wandering aisle. Yeah.
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Because that's how you level your panderin off of the place so you can go join the hoard or alliance. Yeah, exactly. But the actual expansion is on
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the 21st of July. Mhm. Okay. And so there you can go to at that point. So,
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yay. Um I'm not really sure why they did
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this, but it's still pretty cool. Um, modern players, you can you can still now go level a pandarin and you can get
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the Shah House sage serpent mount, which is a pretty cool mount. Uh, it's one of the cloud serpent types. So, yeah. I
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don't know why. Is this a tiein? Like, is there I mean, yes, it it's the mount
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is only available in modern wild. This is not a mount you collect in classics. So, they're they're trying to bring more
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people in. And I bet I bet the wandering is really crowded today. I'm going to
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wait a little while for Give me some time for the Yeah. for the excitement to die down and then I'm going to go in.
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And I I am I haven't played a whole lot of classic, but I I am interested in Mr.
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Pandaria because I did not play when the expansion first launched. I was kind of on a Cataclysm exhaustion wow break. So,
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I came in later in the expansion. I missed some of the content because it was released in such a phased way. Oh,
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yeah. That makes sense. So basically, if you're like, you can get the mount for your modern character by playing on WoW
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Classic to get to level up Anderin on the in the experience. Gotcha. I was a
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little confused by this, so that's good to know. Um I I I'm looking at the mount
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now. It's quite pretty. Uh it's kind of a sparkly green color with little constellation stuff in it. So uh it
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looks like Elegon basically. If you remember Elegon, it looks like Elegon. It's a It's a green version of Elegon. kind of a a sage green. Yeah, sparkly uh
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green jade serpenty adjacent. It's It is really nice. Um but that's basically it
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for Wild Classic at the moment. Uh unless there's something I'm forgetting, but but no, I think that's it. Um sorry,
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I am trying very hard to do this, but my browser won't open our patch notes. I
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mean, not our show notes. So, I'm just trying desperately to remember the things I just read five minutes ago.
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Uh, I think we're do we we were talking about this somewhere else, but I I don't remember the conversation very well. But
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I do remember someone mentioning that they think there's going to be a void elf demon hunter um in patch 11.2 and
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it's related to a to a raid fight in the new um the new expansion and the new
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patch when it comes out uh the Kesh patch. Uh well, yeah, there's a side
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quest and a a boss fight that suggests
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maybe maybe void elves might be get getting to come demon hunter soon, but
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it also kind of suggests there may be a third demon hunter spec on the way. This is of course all speculation based on
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content on the P ptr, but it's it's kind of compelling. Well, if there's nothing
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else, it would be interesting to get more demon hunters, just plain and simple. Just more options for that because right now it's just two groups.
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I was going to say the the basis of it is I think some not just the fight, but also the idea that it started with the
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third spec, right? Like that I remember we were talking about that in in Guild and uh that was it's been sort of
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everywhere. Um, and that third spec seems to be in line with that demon
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hunter encounter because the demon hunter encounter shows a blood elf uh
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demon hunter, a high elf demon hunter, and a what seems to be a void elf demon
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hunter, which makes then the assumption that if there's going to be a third spec that it's going to be void based. And
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what better demon hunter voidbased thing than to have a void uh elf become a
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demon hunter. And the interesting thing to me is going to be if that happens, what the story of it is going to be
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because in theory, a void elf is one who has given itself over to essentially
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inviting o into the void. They are a highborn elf or or uh whatever the case
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is that has said, "Cool, I'm down with the void. Let's become buddies." And the
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void sort of lives in them. and traditional demon hunters have bested and consumed a demon. So those two
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things are very similar but also diametrically opposed. So I'm really curious if it's just going to be yeah
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I'm a void I'm a void hunter and I'm not technically a demon hunter but I got the
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void in me. I got that void in me and that's that's what lets me do all of these you know demon huntery things just
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void flavored. So I'm I'm really curious to see if that happens and how they justify. Go ahead. Sorry. There is a
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side quest in the Ghost of Crash patch that is not fully on the PTR yet, but
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there is a void elf who is working with the demon hunter and she wants him to teach her the secrets of the demon
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hunters and he wants her to teach her to teach him the secrets of the void. And I think that's that's a big part of some
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of this speculation is that you see these two talking about teaching each other and then you see this this
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optional fight in the next raid which features three demon hutters. One of them is obviously using havoc skills.
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One of them is obviously using vengeance skills. One of them is using some very
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voidcoded abilities that are new. Yeah. I mean you we've been seeing the
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confusion between demons and void elementals for a long time. Uh used to be a warhole thing warlocks did. So of
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course taking it warlocks I have
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I do I do have a question. The warlocks can they've got their blueberry. They've had this blueberry since vanilla. Are
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they about to lose the blueberry just like they lost metamorphosis to the demon hunters? Is this like round two?
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Yeah. I I think literally what's going to happen is your your warlock will summon their blueberry and then a demon
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hunter will jump down on it and eat it and it's like yes now it's inside me. It's like oh what no man that was my I'm
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going to have to summon another one and another demon hunter is going to eat that one. Like so an actual genuine lore
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question for you. Is a void walker a just poorly named demon or is it a
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creature of the void? Uh we know for a fact it's a creature of the void. Um, we've even we've even seen uh in I want
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to say Worlds of Dranor, there's a whole boss who is essentially a fusion of a of
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a fell creature, a demon and a void walker. And it's it's was a Guldon's
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attempt to like to use void in demons. Like he was actually trying to fuse the two. So this isn't the first time
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someone's tried this. Uh it's just in this particular case, it's a different
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way of doing it. Um but yeah, no, it's uh it's within the realms of possibility
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because we do know that void walkers, whilst summonable and controllable, are not demons. They straight up aren't.
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They they are not fell in any way. And there is a subset of old warlock stuff
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that was all void-based. And I think there still is. Like a lot of the corruption and curses are not
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necessarily fell but are void aligned um and have been like they used to do
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shadow stuff and everything. Yeah. Curse of shadows, stuff like that. Like those those are all void based. So warlocks
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are no stranger to the void. They are not the they they were kind of the original void
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ones before uh void uh dark well before shadow priest became a real thing. uh
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when they were sort of just like a here's a third spec, have fun type thing. So yeah, wise basis. Yeah, it it
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fits right in there. Um but now that we've gotten ourselves all concerned about whether or not we're going to get to see void elf demon hunters uh war
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third demon hunter spec or both um which you know I I right away was was
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interested in all that. Uh, we should also talk about transmog because it's
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July and which means we have a new trading post which means we have creepy undead things we can wear cuz it's
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Halloween in July. I guess I Why not? Why not? I'll take I'll take Forsaken in
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July over Christmas in July. I'm not going to I'm not going to lie. I mean, spooky season is a state of mind. And if
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you think July can't also be spooky season, that is a failure of imagination. I just I'm just thinking
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it's people going, "You know what? Let's just skip straight to October. I Let's just jump ahead. I I don't I don't need
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the summer. It's hot outside. Let's just skip this thing and move on with our lives." Yeah. But regardless, um some of
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the stuff's really cool. Um there's a the Whailing Banshee set. So, if you're looking to not at all look like
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Sylvanas, by the way, it doesn't look anything like her, but it's cool looking. Um there's various armor and
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weapons. Uh, I've particularly noticed that there's a great sword that basically just looks like you pulled
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down a someone's se someone's grave marker and are just hitting people with it. Um, it it's it's out there in in
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terms of two-hand weapons and I I say this as the guy who farmed for Armageddon back in in Wrath. You know, I
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understand that some weapons are ridiculous. This thing is extremely ridiculous. Uh, which is not bad. I'm
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I'm going to get it. I'm just telling you it it is it is not subtle, nor is it
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trying to be. In fact, I think that's one of the best things about the the Forsaken aesthetic in this patch. Uh the
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the most subdued thing I've seen so far is the giant fell pig mount. Uh and and
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that's like more that's more subdued than the screaming death horse mount, which is also, you know, quite quite
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over the top in a in a very festive way. Like it does seriously feel like this is the they should have almost held this
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for, you know, Hallows Hall's End, but you know, they didn't. So, here we are. You know, maybe maybe we're going to get
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more. I hope we're going to get more. I mean, uh, one thing also, Go on, Joe. Oh, no. I was going to say I was going
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to say the the it being July and that new Transwog is great and all, but that's not really the most important thing, is it, Liz? Cuz we've got the
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greedy emissary event. We do have the greedy emissary event. And what does that mean? Sorry. It means
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Yeah, like you John Aston all of a sudden. I don't know what happened. Uh, well, it means that we have new transmog
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to collect by hunting down treasure goblins and slaying them for their loot.
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And their loot this time includes new recolored tier sets, which you know, I
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mean, they're the highresolution anniversary tier sets. There are new iterations of them. There is also an
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Inarius mount which looks a lot like the Tyials charger that we got except different color. So I another recolor
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but it's a cool recolor except I I don't want anything to do with Narius. I'm sorry. I just dark that dark that dark
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metal looks so good on that mount though. It does look so cool. It looks so good. I mean maybe I don't know. I I
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just feel like, you know, I I never feel bad about taking the stuff of people that, you know, I I don't like. It's
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like, you know, free mount. I don't have to feel guilty. So, but yeah. Okay. So, there's that, too, as well. Um there's
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also the the collector's bounty thing. Uh doesn't that make it so you you get more increased drops for rare amounts by
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like a small small amount and it doubles transmog drops from pre-dragon flight bosses? That's that's the last thing for
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transmog that in this particular like July. Uh yeah, but that is so great. So
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the the transmog drops are hang on the mount drops the rare mount drops are
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increased by up to 10 times which which still is zero for me. a lot sounds like
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a whole lot, but some of the very rare mount drops have a sub 1% drop rate.
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So.1 increasing increasing a.1% drop rate by 10 times is still not good. I
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will still take that. I will still take that all day long. Oh yeah, absolutely. I mean, trust me, I I farmed for a fair
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of transmog shoulders. uh for literal years and I would have taken anything
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that would have buffed that percentage even slightly. Uh in the end I had to buy them off the black market auction house. This means that I will go back to
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farming mounts actually for for and I I've given up hope for like the last like 6 months. I actually I actually had
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gotten like dejected like I hit my limit. I was like I can't just keep doing this and they find a way to drag
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me back in because it's like hey what if we made it 10 times more likely that you got it. All right fine. Uh, sn, you
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know, snap my fingers you so I'm in like because I'm just I'm back.
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Read really quick. I'm gonna read the things buffed by it. Uh, because these are specific things that you can get
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that get you the the collector's bounty buffs that the drop rates on all pre-Dragon flate legacy mounts uh from
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legacy dungeons and raids. The eye of sulfuros in molten core. Uh, the golden Hearthstone card in the nightold. Uh,
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bindings of the windseker also in molten core. uh the warlaves of a of Azenoth Black Temple and Thorodol the stars fury
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in the Sunwell Plateau. Um there's some exclusions like time walking stuff is
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not is not involved in this and apparently pets and toys are not included which is a bit of a boo but
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still uh ju just the idea that people can get a a buff to that stuff is really great. Go ahead Liz. I'm sorry. Yeah.
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So, the super super rare mounts are going to have a 5% drop rate, which is you're still not going to run in and
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just immediately get one of these rare mounts. It's not going to happen probably, but that is way better than
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your 0.1% drop rate. Yeah. No, that's better. Yeah, that's like out of every
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hundred attempts, five will drop a mount, which is that's Yeah, that's that's that's not bad. Uh
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that's live for July. So if if you have a few alts, maybe it's the time to run
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them all through everything. Just just do everything. I mean, I'm sure invincible back on the
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menu, boys. I'm just going to say that, you know,
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Kalethos Kalethos is right there in Tempest Gate. Already got
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people don't. I know. So, the other great thing is that your
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pre-dragon flight raids are also going to double the amount of transmog drops.
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So, like all of that low-level loot that you could use to transmog, you're getting twice as much of it in these
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older legacy raids. Well, a lot. that's
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going to help you collect all these uh armor sets, especially now that you can
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collect transmog appearances from armor types other than the armor type you wear. So, yeah, this is the perfect buff
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for transmog hunters. You're going to go through an a raid and get so many pieces
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for classes you don't play regularly or classes you don't have raid ready or,
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you know, so you're going to be collecting sets for everybody. And that's man, I got I got to find the time
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to go through and like run every every raid, you know, like 10 times a week for
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the rest of the month. Cut to Liz at 3:00 in the morning staring blery at
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like some some boss's butt going, "Where is my crown? Where is the crown?" Well,
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you know, I I have a mage. You can just go through spamming your your arcane whatever. Wow. I'm not a very good mage,
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am I? Is it arcane explosion? one. It's It's the It's the purple globe thing
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that go that Yeah. Yeah. You can tell I don't play a mage much, but I know mage
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is one of those classes you can just go and press one button. That's your one button rotation is just hit arcane
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explosion whenever a mob gets close to you. Okay, let's do it. I'm not disputing it. That's pretty much what I
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will do. That's the I'm a terrible mage. I will freely admit this. Is this button pretty? Does it make shiny lights
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happen? I'm pushing it. Is it optimal? Don't care. Pushing the pushing the pretty button. Oh god, everything is
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near me. Freeze them. Okay, now go that way. That was my whole thing. Freeze them. Run away. I I love arcane mages
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because it's just you're throwing crazy purple orbs and shiny things everywhere. It's great. I'm very bad at playing an
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arcane mage, but also at hurling orbs every direction. Yeah,
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you've kind of gotten off topic. Well, you know, it was still in topic. Come on, babe. Anyway, transmug farming. So
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much transmug farming to do. Basically, you can go around killing treasure goblins uh in order to get the tier 2
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recolored set. Uh or you can basically just go do old raids to to get other
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transmog looks that you're looking for. Uh, and if you're trying to complete a legendary and you've just been having a
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hard time, a lot of the drops that that you might be looking for are now more
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available than before, uh, because they're also buffed. So, yeah, this is pretty much between this and and the uh
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the, you know, the the the what what do you call it? Halloween in July. Yeah, the Halloween in July with the Forsaken.
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Between those two things, uh, it's quite a lot of stuff. It's actually pretty interesting. So, yeah. Uh, plus, you
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know, it's treasure goblin. So, you you just let your let your adivistic I want to kill this little goblin mind, you
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know, explode and just chase these things around and murder them. Uh, and if you're playing an actual goblin, you
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can kill them because they're bemerching your good name and then take their stuff, which is, you know, very goblin
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thing to do. So, yeah. All told, pretty much that's well done there. That's that's that's what I want out of a July
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event really is just transmog looks. I'm I'm not I'm not picky. Any event, any
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event you could we could do this every month. I'd be okay with it. So, all right. Uh, moving on. We've got I'm
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going to mention this one first, even though it's it's a little faster to mention, but Diablo Immortal is getting adding its druids. Um, they they're
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going to be live in two days as we're recording this July 3rd for people who are listening to it recorded. Um, I
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believe that means according to the note here, that puts Mmortal up to a class a year. Like every year they put in a new
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class. um which is a blistering pace. Yeah, this game is celebrating its third
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anniversary and its third class. It anniversary was a few months ago, but still three years, three classes. So
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that's that's a lot of classes. Um their take on the druid this time seems to be more it's it's more about nature damage
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and stuff. It doesn't seem to be as heavily involved in the shape-shifting as it's been in the past. But that's
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just from like our first my first observation on it. I I might correct me wrong. It does have shapeshifting, but
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your shape-shifting consumes five of five primal power per second. And primal
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power is obviously that's your resource and you're it's uh you're using skills
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which are builders and but while you're while you're in this form, it's burning
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down your resource. So you can't just shift into a bear and stay a bear. You can't just shift into a werewolf and
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stay a werewolf. you're kind of it's a resource thing, so you're maybe bouncing back and forth a little more. Yeah. You
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you'll be in your your human form because you're trying to generate. It's basically like if you ever played like
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any class with with with getters and spenders. You're using your your gathering move to gather the resource
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and then you spend the resource and then it burns down and then you you go back and forth. Yeah, it's it's not that
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different from warriors really. That's kind of weird. That's good. It's a very Wow Warrior design element, but you
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know, that's they they are the same company. It's not like anyone's going to complain. Um, but yeah, I I find myself
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wondering like who are they going to add next? I mean, are they the first two classes they added were completely new?
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I mean, they felt somewhat like older stuff, but they were different. Like they were the Blood Knight uh and and
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the Tempest, right? The Tempest. Yeah. And the Tempest is kind of like Zappy Monk, but it own thing. It's like an
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elemental monk, like a water monk. Uh, so it's it's very melee focused, but it
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has these short uh short- range skills that are very water, wind, lightning kind of kind of
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coded. So, I think the Tempest is a really fun class. And whenever Diablo
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Immortal adds a new class, my first thought is, why isn't this in Diablo I? Except now you can't do that this way.
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But this one I can't say that with because it's already in Diablo I even though it's it has a different vibe.
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Yeah. But so wanted to mention that because it's just it's kind of a cool thing to think about. Um next up is
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Diablo I has got its patch 2.3 is live. 2.3.0 sorry. It's live. Uh season 9 Sins
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of the Harajum. I have not been able to get my Diablo IV to update properly. So I have not played it yet which is you
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know big sads. Um, but this is the one with the herdic spellcraftrafting and the new nightmare dungeon improvements.
23:24
Uh, we've talked about this stuff before. Uh, there's more of the reoquaries/ battle pass things, which I
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still don't really understand very well. Well, it's, you know, it's they they heard you liked battle passes, so they
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put a battle pass in your battle pass. Yeah. So, you can be confused while you're confused.
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So yes, instead of having one battle pass, you have like four reoquaries and you can buy them one at a time or you
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can buy them together in a bundle. And it's just it's a battle pass but more complicated.
23:54
Yep. And it it does have some cool rewards. I have to admit it has a really
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adorable baby goat. Doesn't have two adorable baby goats. It has It has two
24:06
really adorable baby goats. They are painfully adorable. One of them is like
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a normal looking fluffy brown and white goat. The other one is kind of an evil
24:17
black goat with red streaks. They are both super adorable. The the black one is only available if you buy the deluxe
24:24
battle pass. There is no other way to get it. Uh the the other one you can earn just by buying the pets uh
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reoquaryy of the battle pass or buying the whole thing. If you'd if you'd rather do that, you can do that.
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And there's also a new dog pet that you can earn by completing the season
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journey this season. It is it is a thing of horror that I am not interested in
24:48
getting. It's it's very unpleasant to look at. It's
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not as bad as the nose, but it's it's close. It's Yeah, it fits into Sanctuary
24:59
perfectly in the Singapore. Uh yeah, we're still talking about that thing.
25:06
it. Once you have seen it, you cannot unsee it and it will continue to boggle
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and confuse you. Um, this dog is just sad looking. I went to adopt it and feed
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it because it's so thin. But I don't Diablo is not that kind of game.
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Yeah, that's true. That is very true. Diablo is not that kind of game. It does. Yeah, it does look sad. I just
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went and looked it up just I guess I had to sadden myself. Um, it actually kind of looks like the same coloration as the
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the baby goat that's that's evil. The space it's the scapegoat. Um, but unlike
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the scapegoat, it doesn't I don't know. It doesn't have the cuteness. Uh, it just looks like a It looks like a
25:50
Doberman that someone set on fire. Uh, it's just move and and hasn't fed in a month.
25:57
Yeah, it's um Nope. Nope. Nope. Uh, one of the things that really surprised me
26:02
about this season is how much is coming to the base game. I mean, they have done some seasons that are largely about
26:08
improvements to the base game, but I did not expect as much of this season to
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come to the base game as is coming to the base game, if that makes sense. Uh,
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no, it does. You really It It's similar to Diablo II when they did the the companion revamp. uh except that in that
26:26
one we knew it was going to basically just be something that everybody got. Whereas this season it's like you know
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yes this is a season it's got a theme that only really affects players in the
26:37
season but at the same time a lot of the stuff in it is like the nightmare dungeon changes. Um those are those are
26:44
for everybody and it's there's a lot of that here. So yeah absolutely. Uh, so yes, that I think nightmare dungeons
26:50
felt pretty unexciting since they added moved glyph XP out of
26:56
nightmare dungeons and over into the pit. There just hasn't felt like you have a huge reason to run nightmare
27:02
dungeons anymore. I don't know if you're still going to feel like you really need to run nightmare dungeons, but they're adding new things to make them more
27:09
interesting and less punishing. the aixes on your nightmare sigils are
27:14
changing to be less punishing to specific classes. So like me on my
27:19
necromancer, if I get a sigil that's like, yeah, all mobs are take 60% less
27:27
shadow damage, that that hurts. As a necromancer, I am throwing that in the
27:32
garbage. So, they're removing aixes like that that specifically punish specific
27:39
builds and adding a whole range of new aixes and adding a bunch of new positive
27:45
aicses as well. So, you've got you've got your bad effect, you've got your good effect, and just kind of totally
27:51
revamping the sigils so that you have different uh nightmare dungeon experiences. Hopefully, some that aren't
27:58
just really tailored to be punishing to a specific class or spec.
28:03
So, I think that's all good. Everyone's getting that. But they've also added escalating nightmares, which is they put
28:10
a nightmare dungeon in your nightmare dungeon where you run. Yes. Yeah. This
28:16
is kind of a theme, isn't it? Yes. Inside inception sort of thing. Let's just Hey, you know, you were you were
28:24
scared, but now it's really scary. So, you're going to run three nightmare dungeons in a row, and each one will add
28:31
a new aics to the previous one, and they'll get more and more difficult. And when you get to the last one, you will
28:38
get to fight, if you clear the last one, you will get to fight Asteroth, everyone's favorite friendly demon guy.
28:46
Just don't let him put anything in or near your head. Yeah, I mean, that's that's that's safe for any demon to
28:53
follow those rules. Um, I I had actually thought these were going to be seasonal only, but they are also coming to the
29:00
base realms and they'll be in the game continuing. There are also herdri rooms.
29:07
Again, we heard you like dungeons. We put a dungeon in your dungeon. Yeah. And this one's just basically just get some
29:13
loot. Kill things really fast, get some loot. That's it. Yeah. It's it's a mini dungeon that you can find inside
29:18
dungeons and kill things, get loot. It's the whole It's the Diablo cycle. So,
29:24
there's just going to be more things to do in Nightmare Dungeons and more rewards and all of that is coming to the
29:31
base game and will stay in the game after season 9. Cool. All right. Uh, so
29:36
we covered that. Um, I don't know, Joe. Do you actually care about Overwatch? I mean, I care about it and I wish it was
29:43
a better That's a loaded question. That's a loaded question. That said, I would I do want to talk about the collab
29:48
here. Yes. Okay. Uh, I want to talk about one thing that I noticed. If in the 80s you were alive, which I don't
29:56
think I think it's just me, but maybe the other two were as well. Excuse you. How How old do you think the rest of us
30:03
are? Like 20. I I don't know. You're all baby. My hip and knees say otherwise. Anyway, but getting back to it, um, in
30:11
the 80s, uh, for whatever reason, Marvel Comics got the the license to to make
30:16
G.I. comics and they hired Larry Hama, a man who is relentlessly serious about
30:24
things. Um, Larry did not take this comic as a as a toy. Uh, yeah, it's
30:29
about toys. I don't care. I'm going to actually write like real stories about the horrors of war and, you know,
30:35
interversal relationships and and it was it's kind of wild to to go back and read them. But I'm just amazed that in his
30:42
time writing this book, he created two iconic couples that have stayed together
30:47
throughout. Um, Baroness and Destro, that was a relationship that he put in
30:53
there. That was his idea. And Scarlet and Snake Eyes, the the mute ninja who
31:00
doesn't, you know, because he's mute doesn't talk and you never see his face. And the crossbow wielding, you know,
31:06
G.I. show at the time only girl. They added more girls later, but at the time she was the only one. And the he those
31:13
are the two relationships he created, both rooted in deep personal trauma and betrayal and all that kind of stuff. And
31:20
those two those two romantic ships are the ones that are in the Overwatch
31:26
thing. The the Overwatch skin has death row and Baroness for you know and has uh
31:32
Snake Eyes and Scarlet a as as options. These are skins. And then there's one
31:37
more and I can't remember it. It would be Reaper as corporate commander since you've already covered the other ones.
31:42
No, now I just had to talk about this shipping thing cuz it's just it's like wow. I cannot believe how much longevity
31:48
this this thing Larry Hammer did has lasted. So, I mean, and and G GI Joe is one of those iconic things that that
31:55
triggers a lot of nostalgia for a lot of people in the same way that Transformers and uh other things uh of that that time
32:01
that sort of capture us Ninja Turtles, uh He-Man, stuff like that, stuff that we watched on Saturday morning TV. Um
32:09
which is also why you saw the resurgence of He-Man and Shir and all that other stuff. Um with this, it makes sense.
32:15
Like G.I. Joe and Overwatch is a no-brainer. And the fact that it took this long for Hasbro and Blizzard to
32:23
collaborate on this when they did the Transformer stuff already uh is mind-blowing to me. And honestly, this
32:28
should have been one of the first vertical integrations for skins. And as you said, you have Widowmaker as the Baroness. Uh you have Doomfist as
32:36
Destro, which is that skin just looks absolutely phenomenal. Like the art in the game, I will never ever take a peg
32:42
out of like take them down a peg on that. It is absolutely amazing. Um, Freya is Scarlet because Freya has a
32:48
crossbow and grappling hook and all that other good stuff and a cape. Uh, so Scarlet has a cape, which she never had
32:54
in the show, but okay, great. She has a cape. Uh, Snake Eyes is Genji. Uh, which
33:00
makes absolute perfect sense. And yeah, a little bit too on the nose, maybe. Very on the nose. And then you have
33:05
Cobra Commander as Reaper. only things the things that I thought were missing
33:11
are two very obvious like these are like lobbed pitches they could have hit why
33:16
isn't there a Duke soldier 76 skin because that is 100% Duke coded and why
33:23
isn't Genji's brother uh I Hanzo why
33:28
isn't he Storm Shadow these things blow my mind like you could have had I got to admit Storm Shadow that does the only
33:35
problem is that Storm Storm Shadow wasn't particularly archery oriented, but you know, whatever. Storm Shadow is going to bow now. I don't care. No, the
33:42
original the original toy released with his little shortsword and his ninja bow.
33:47
I remember I had that toy. Dang it.
33:53
But yeah, no, this I'm just saying he wasn't, you know, really he didn't talk about it that much, but yeah, you're right. But I mean, it's it's a it's a
33:59
cool vertical. It's something that makes a lot of sense. I'm actually very surprised that it took this long and I'm
34:04
as much as I may not be playing the game now because uh I'm a little angry at some of the decisions they've made. Um
34:11
it is nice to see that the quality of skins and in and items like that are still occurring. That said, it is still
34:19
skins. That is what the events and these crossovers tend to be. Um and that's
34:24
what this will continue to be. So, if you don't want to buy the skins, watch
34:30
the uh the the the the trailer video and, you know, get that nostalgia bump and then go play with your G.I. Joe's.
34:36
Uh, but yeah, it's it's still really cool. And I will say that the art team that works on on Overwatch constantly
34:43
knocks it out of the park with these skins. Like, they're always absolutely gorgeous. So, yeah, that's all there is
34:49
to say about that, I think. All righty, then we will move on. Um, Liz, do you
34:55
want to do site news now or do you want to do it after the uh other games? Let's do it after. Actually, do you want to
35:01
talk about Marvel Rivals first? Have you read on about their season 3 that's coming up in July? I have, but I have
35:08
not played it. So, uh, Marvel W. Wow, words are hard. Uh,
35:16
Marvel Rivals season 3 is actually taking, uh, bits of the Phoenix. Uh, so
35:22
they've had themes for all of their their content that they've released each season, uh, is almost being presented
35:28
like a mini arc from the comics, which I think is really cool. Uh, so season 3, which launches July 11th, we'll have a
35:35
brand new map, which is Clintar. The Celestial uh, which is, if you know Clintar, that's where the symbiots come
35:41
from. Uh, Celestial Husks, uh, debuts, expanding the game's cosmic battles and lore. Um, the whole idea behind the
35:49
story of the game is that this is a multi-dimensional battle through uh all the different various realms and Clintar
35:54
sort of expands that because if you've read the King and Black stuff, which they've hinted at coming um soon, that
36:02
makes sense to pull it in. It's it touches all of the dimensions, all the various uh the multiversal roles. So,
36:09
that's really cool. Um, there's going to be a new battle pass, a new uh system updates, uh, and four fresh teamups that
36:17
they're adding in there. And as was suspected, although interesting that it's coming now versus when Dracula was
36:23
the, uh, the storyline of of what was going on with season 1, Blade is finally entering the roster. Um, and then
36:31
they're just doing a lot of really cool stuff. Uh, the se the skins look absolutely fantastic. The systems look
36:38
good. I'm really happy to see that they're still looking at teamup balances and looking at like who can be what. Uh
36:45
and the idea of Jeff the Shark being a symbiot uh with with Venom uh is
36:50
absolutely fantastic. And then they're adding, I believe it's three Phoenix uh
36:57
with Gan Gray, the three Phoenix uh collaborations where I think it's Magic Wolverine and Blade have like aspects of
37:04
the Phoenix power, which is a weird call back because they didn't do Cyclops and
37:09
they could have done this and Matt could probably go on a tear about this one, I'm sure. Um, but in the comics when
37:16
there were, uh, X-Men that shared aspects of the Phoenix power, um, they
37:21
just sort of like took Cyclops out and put Blade in. So, but still hailing back
37:26
to those those wonderful comic story lines. I'm really super excited to see
37:32
this. I'm also really really really excited to see Clintar because that's a
37:39
weird alien landscape and I like seeing their art take on like the the various different like world places that we go
37:46
to in basically blow up. So, I'm really curious to see that and I'm really curious to see where they're going with
37:53
this with the whole symbiates now becoming more thing. Uh which means we'll probably get more of the symbiates. I wouldn't be surprised cuz
37:59
we already have there's an antivenenom skin in the game I think already. Um, I haven't unlocked all the Spider-Man
38:04
skins. I'm sorry. I know you're probably disappointed in me. Um, but with Venom
38:09
and there like now there's there's speculation that we're going to get Carnage or Shriek or or any of the other
38:15
ones that we've seen over the years. Uh, so maybe this is a path for that. And then there's talks about having more of
38:21
the cosmic powered entities like now we have Gan Gray as the Phoenix as a
38:27
dualist. Uh, which is really really cool. But there that opens the door for other aspects of uh the Phoenix Force or
38:36
or other things. We might get we might get Captain uh Britain after all this time. Who knows? Uh cuz that was tied up
38:43
in the Phoenix Saga if you remember your '90s comics cuz that's a thing.
38:48
Yep. The comic Excalibur for more details. Yes. Um so yeah, that's cool.
38:54
Um I I can't help but notice no ROM Space Knight yet. I mean, do they have the rights back or not? They do. I
39:00
thought they did. They absolutely do. And the ROM Space Night stuff is tied in with the Venom uh the Venom multiversal
39:05
war and the the War of the Kingdom Black. So like if they're doing this stuff, there's a chance we might get ROM. Uh it's a slim chance, but I'll
39:12
take it cuz Rom is cool. Yeah. I I when you were talking before about things that get people all nostalgic, I
39:18
immediately flashed to Bill Mant's run on on Rom. Uh because I just No one much
39:24
like Larry Hama, but in a completely different way. Nobody seemed to be able to convince Bill Mantllo that Rahm Space
39:30
Night wasn't an epic space opera spanning like hundreds of issues. Like he wrote like close to a hundred issues
39:37
of this comic like and it was a comic about a toy a toy from Parker Brothers that lasted barely five minutes and yet
39:45
for for years he worked on it and and every character got involved. Like the
39:50
X-Men had a major presence because one of the bad guys was half mutant, half
39:56
dire race. Just the whole thing. It's crazy. Guardian, it was tied up with the Guardians of the Galaxy, the original
40:01
ones. It was tied up with the Defenders, the original ones. But that's neither here nor there. Yeah. See, this is like
40:07
one of the many reasons why Spider-Man's fascinating because Spider-Man immediately bonded with this guy. He's
40:12
like, "Oh, hey, I I get your problem. Like, how? I'm a I'm an alien robot space warrior. How could you possibly
40:18
relate to that? Well, I just do. So, yeah. Uh, anyway, since I if I don't let
40:24
myself, I will talk about Ron Space Night forever in a day. Um, I'm going to mention the Steam Summer sale is going
40:29
through July 10th. So, you've got a few days as we're recording this. And I want to take this time to tell you that you
40:35
can get Tyranny, uh, Obsidian's kind of forgotten role playing game. You can get it for less than 10 bucks US. Um, it's
40:43
exactly 10 bucks Canadian, so I know it's less than 10 bucks US. Um, I think it be like $7 US. I cannot tell you hard
40:53
enough to go play Tyranny at least once in your life because we were talking in the pre-show about games that allow you
40:59
to choose what you're going to do and, you know, just let you mess around and see what you want basically like
41:05
multiple different branching paths. Tyranny is that plus you're playing as the your your character is a high-ranked
41:12
servant of literally an evil mastermind who is almost done taking over the world. Like you are literally fighting
41:20
in the last place still holding out against his tyranny and then suddenly
41:25
things change and you might you might decide I'm going to be a hero which is
41:30
not supported by the realm you're in. So, it's an uphill battle. Or you can be like, well, sure, we should have an evil
41:36
overlord, but why can't it be me and any decision between them? And there's just
41:41
so much to this game. I've I've hyped it for years. I just want to say it's literally $7 US right now. Come on. It's
41:49
it's it's an Obsidian CRPG for $7,
41:55
man. This is this is just packed with stuff at great discounts. Um, yeah,
42:01
Steam's got tons of stuff. I just want I'm mentioning that one because I know it's on sale and I want people to play
42:06
it. Uh I if anything could possibly get them to go back and make another one of these, I am all for it. Uh but I don't
42:13
think that will happen. Like straight up, that's not going to happen. But still, uh, it's like my dream that someday somebody at Microsoft will
42:20
realize that they now own the entire rights to and employ the entire creative
42:27
team for um, Arcanum of Steam of Steamworks and and Magic Obscura, the
42:33
first Magic Steampunk game that came out by Troa, one of their three games. You
42:39
you employ everybody who worked at Troa, you you own the rights to this game.
42:44
Please make another Please, please, please make another Arcanum. But yeah,
42:49
for right now, Tyranny, $7 go. There's so much stuff on sale at Steam. Yes, I know you already have 40 games in your
42:56
in your list. We all know this. We all know you're not going to play half of them. I get that. Just Just give Tyranny
43:03
a shot. That's just what I'm going to say. Either of you got one you want to hype before we move on? No. There are too many. There are too many. like any
43:09
Steam summer sale, any of these big Steam sales, it's it's kind of nuts, but
43:15
it's a good chance to go up and pick up some of those games that maybe you haven't picked up. And yeah, add some
43:21
more unplaned games to your list. That's that's kind of the whole vibe of the Steam summer sale. All righty. Uh then
43:27
next up, we wanted to talk about this one for a bit. And as both Joe and Liz were talking about it in uh in the
43:35
Discord chat, and I I was like looking over it and going, "Oh, oh, good. They they still they kept going and
43:40
apparently they really kept going because uh Fantastic Pixel Castle, the company that um there's so many people
43:48
on this company that you'd know like Greg Street's just one of them. Uh there's like literally dozens of names
43:54
you'd recognize. Yeah. It's made up of of devs that have worked on, you know, worked at Blizzard, uh worked at Riot,
44:00
worked at uh everywhere in between. Like there it's a it's a wide range of talent
44:05
and and development. Amazon's New Worlds game. uh some of the people that worked on that. Uh yeah, it's it's that's not
44:12
that's not really a selling point. Well, the game was also badly made. It's also
44:17
not what's most important, but they are working they are working on it. So, we should we should probably talk about the
44:22
actual game. So, their new game is still called It doesn't have a name yet. It's called uh Project Ghost. The development
44:29
process is what's really interesting about this one. Um, I I either you I I
44:35
maybe you can correct me on this one if I'm wrong, but I always felt like this thing is basically being almost crowd-developed. Yes. Like not
44:42
literally, but it's very much like, hey, we're working on this and it's an
44:47
extremely early days, but here's here's what we're doing kind of. Um, and so go
44:52
ahead and talk about it, Joe. Well, I want to video. Yeah. So, so one of our one of my favorite content creators out
44:59
there, Joke at uh was invited to take place in early access uh like trials
45:06
essentially and get an idea for the game. And the the whole idea since this game was first announced and they first
45:12
started talking about development is that Fantastic Pixel wanted to develop in the open. And we talked about this
45:18
when it was first reported years ago. Um, and we were curious what that was going to look like. And we all had the
45:23
same concerns that a lot of people do and was actually called out here. Uh, which is quite specifically,
45:30
uh, hey, you know, if you're going to make a game by committee, what that game going to look like? Um, and even Jocat
45:38
calls that out where it looks like it's not just going to be a game by committee. They have a very specific
45:43
vision for what they want, but they want to take player feedback into account from the start. And I think that that is
45:50
actually really kind of cool uh because these are veterans, right? And in
45:55
particular, uh Greg Street is one that I think actually in my experience of
46:02
people that I've interacted with in the game industry knows where that line is probably better than most of what people
46:10
are asking for and what aligns with the vision that you're trying to put out. Um, this is just weird conversations
46:17
that have have happened in the past and whatnot, but I it made me very interested to see how the rest of the
46:23
team would adapt to it. And with what we saw from Jokcat's video, which was timed specifically to release today with the
46:29
other video and the news uh or recently in the news releases for this game, they
46:34
wanted them specifically to do it. They're doing just that, right? Um, so
46:39
they're going to be developing in these public spaces, talking about it, having these streams where they talk about their development process, talk about
46:46
their world building, talk about their their uh thought processes, like Liz or
46:52
I don't know who put this in here. Uh they did a whole hourong video that talked uh about this process, but also
47:00
about the first class because the first playable class has been in testing uh
47:07
which is the dreamlade. And they talk about how the concept and the identity for the dreamlade started and how they
47:14
were trying to work that in with the game story and the feel and the lore and make that work. Uh and I find that very
47:21
interesting. The other thing is they're not waiting to get people in playing the game like other companies do. So, we've
47:28
all been part of beta tests. We've all done play tests. We literally just talked about uh I can't remember the
47:33
name of the the uh Wildstaresque extractionbased shooter that we just talked about not too long ago. Um those
47:41
are very polished games, right? The art style is there, the systems are there.
47:47
They're opening this up for for people and it's not everybody. They're inviting people in very smartly so I think uh in
47:54
a very raw form right so like when people are playing this game it's very like these are base assets these are not
48:01
custom art uh there are animations there are abilities in like for like the dreamlade the abilities are there uh but
48:09
and the animations are mostly there uh and things like visual cues for
48:14
refreshes and stuff like that are there but the base art you're a blue dude with a sword and a and a shield like you
48:20
that's it. That's all it is. And like you're fighting like generic mimic number seven right now as they go
48:26
through because they're focusing more on systems first and making sure the game
48:31
feels right before they go into the art direction of the game, which I think is really cool. There's more I want to talk
48:36
about of that, but I want to get your guys input on that part before we go into the other aspects. Liz, Matt, I
48:42
mean, it's an interesting way to develop a game, but at the same and and honestly, one of the complaints I have
48:48
with a lot of game devs is they keep things under wraps for too long, which can lead to incorrect impressions by
48:57
players who might expect they're getting something different, and then when you come out with a mostly finished version
49:04
that is not what players expected, that can lead to big disappointment. So, this really they're really letting in players
49:10
from the get-go. They're not keeping big secrets. Uh, and that's it's an
49:16
interesting way to develop. It's a way to develop that no major studio has ever really tried. So, it is fascinating to
49:24
watch this process and see how it plays out. And at the same time, when you watch their dev updates, when you watch
49:31
this footage of this new class being played, it's almost like it's in such a
49:37
raw state that it's hard to give feedback on because it is so early. And I mean, they're collecting feedback.
49:44
They have kind of they have the outline. They have the structure of a game they're trying to make, but it's it's
49:50
very raw. I don't know that we've ever seen a game from a dev that has come out this early, this unfinished to look at
49:58
and to let people really see, you know, we're looking at the sausage being made here. Yeah, it actually reminded me of
50:04
like if you've ever be, you know, years down the road a company releases their behind thescenes video of the making of
50:10
X. It looks like that stuff except it's people live streaming it. I on the one
50:16
hand I do I do applaud the transparency. Like I don't know how else to put it.
50:22
Like I applaud that they're willing to engage with their fans and say here it is and you know straight up guys this
50:29
thing is raw. Um you know half of the graphics aren't even in here yet. Some of the stuff is is stock Unreal Engine
50:37
uh you know just doodads because that's what we have. Um we haven't done all the art design yet. We haven't done all this
50:43
stuff. That's it's interesting and to some degree brave approach because we know what the internet is like.
50:51
I think in fact that is my problem is that I am worried that this will end up
50:56
just giving people more feedback to to go on just giving people more leeway to
51:02
do I want to I want to clarify though that this is not just open for everybody. They're they're pulling
51:08
specific people. So they're keeping the little little tight right now. So, it's not quite fully exposed like that. Uh,
51:15
it kind of is once you like invite somebody to like literally make a video about the first class of the game and
51:20
there's like literally he's even telling you as he's showing it to you, this is this is raw. It it has it is not
51:27
finished yet. I I get you. I get what you're saying, Joe. I'm not saying that they're doing anything wrong. And I'm
51:33
saying when I look at it, my reaction is that I immediately start worrying about what's going to happen in six months or
51:40
a year as they move further down this path. Are we going to get to like we've
51:45
always seen it. We've seen it with so many communities. We are we are so early in this process that I don't even think
51:51
we can worry yet. I I can always worry, man. I am very good at worrying.
51:57
Worrying is one of my things. They've also been doing this for a year. They've been releasing monthly I think they're
52:04
pretty monthly update videos and talking about game design. So they did not just
52:09
start doing this today. This is I this is probably the biggest gameplay we've seen. This is the mediest update that I
52:16
have certainly seen. But they have been committed to this open development process and they have been doing it for
52:23
a while. Also these are all industry veterans. I mean, you've got Greg Street in here who has,
52:30
you know, he's he's been through the Warcraft minds, uh, which Warcraft
52:35
commenter's not not very kind. And, uh, he went through development at Riot, uh,
52:41
working on MMO. I I think these are people who know what they're in for and understand the video game community and
52:48
that it can sometimes be rough, but it that's that's what you're that's what you're there for. you know what to
52:54
listen to and what to look for and what is maybe this is players who are angry or players who don't want to play a
53:00
different kind of game. Yeah. Well, I I do want to talk about some of the the the cooler aspects or at least what
53:07
we've seen here shown off. Like I want to talk about the positives of this that I think are and the things that I think that are very interesting as far as
53:14
developing an MMO. One I do wanted to point out is with the Dreamblade, while
53:20
this is the first of what they want to be 30 classes, which I think the way
53:25
they described it in it might be variations of these classes for specifications. Who knows? We'll find out. What's that?
53:32
So many classes. And that's so many classes. And initially they were talking about doing 50. Yeah. Yeah. But it is
53:39
it's like in the Final Fantasy vein. Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Like a a job system almost. Yeah. like one
53:46
framework. Ultimately, games couch what they're doing in that
53:52
regard. Like World of Warcraft could say, you know, hey, we launched with only so many classes, but it's like,
53:57
yes, but each had three specializations, which essentially meant that you had this many classes. Multiply the amount
54:03
you think you have by three. Um, and then they've added more over the years and each of them brings his own
54:09
specializations to the point where they only they deliberately started some classes with only two specializations
54:15
just to ease up the work. Yeah. And and and they might be doing classes as we would consider specs too. We don't they
54:22
haven't really like defined what classes mean yet. But yeah, the one thing that I do think is interesting about these
54:27
classes, at least and I just we can just go off the dreamlade right now cuz that's what we've seen and that's what we've seen the video on so far and what
54:33
they've really talked about is that unlike a traditional MMO right now there's like it's almost like
54:40
a MOA inspired set of abilities which I think is really interesting where you
54:46
have like your ability uh developer like your your ability generator uh you're an
54:53
ability spender and alternate ability spender uh and then an ultimate. And I
54:58
think that's really interesting that they're they're sort of looking at it from almost like that aspect of it
55:03
because it simplifies the character a little bit, but they're also talking about adding customization to it where,
55:10
you know, maybe you want to, you know, be Garen from League of Legends as the dream blade and spin to win. Uh
55:17
literally what they called spin to win. uh you can do that and you can you know they're they're talking about making
55:23
like talents or gear or something that allows you to customize it uh so that
55:28
that becomes your primary thing. Um and I'm curious how that's going to work out
55:33
because we talk about this a lot. A lot of MMOs have button fatigue and where
55:38
there's just so many things on your bars. There's so many things for you to keep track of and interact. And we
55:45
literally just talked about this about Blizzard and the fact that they had to put a one button rotation in because some of these classes like you have to
55:52
be John freaking Madden with like and not even actually playing. You need to be watching a replay and telling
55:58
somebody else what to do in order I'm looking at you mages in order to do actual like good DPS. like some some of
56:05
the class complexity has gotten so deep in some of these games that it's it's
56:11
having something that's a little more paired down and then given you the ability to customize on top of it
56:18
reminds me a lot of like maybe what Kingdoms of Amalure would have done in a
56:23
full MMO setting, right? like I got that sort of vibe from it. And I think that I'm very interested to see how classes
56:29
develop with that in mind. Especially because they were talking about uh each
56:35
like in the the big developer video like flavors of dream blades from different regions will have different like aesthetics and and whatnot and that your
56:42
gear you're going to be changing gear cuz it is an MMO. Like keeping that flavor like a great sword. How far can
56:49
you push a great sword before it's not a great sword anymore? Like little interesting things like that. I'm really
56:56
I'm really interested in seeing how that works. All that also to bear in mind
57:01
that classes are going to follow uh the holy triad of MMOs which is healer tank
57:07
DPS which we often talk about can a game move away from that. Um and maybe they
57:12
will in the future but right now that's the safe bet and that they're going to be doing that. So I I mean what do you
57:19
think about the initial look of classes? One thing I think is really interesting is that they're really pushing hard on
57:27
group content. You know, this is, you know, we can talk about the content. Yeah. I I mean, back in the early days
57:35
of WoW, you know, if you played a protection warrior, you were playing a
57:40
protection warrior. You were tanking. And if you played a holy priest, you
57:46
were not out soloing by yourself. I mean, he could. I've done it. It was a
57:51
bad idea. It was very, you know, they're talking about really honing in on this
57:57
game as a group content as maybe some of that classic WoW feeling where you are
58:04
forced to interact with people whereas a lot of modern games, WoW Final Fantasy
58:10
14 really, you know, you can log on, you can just run straight to the rewards and
58:17
uh WoW in particular, you can join a group and run a dungeon and never talk to anyone, never know who you're playing
58:23
with. So really, by focusing on group content, it's focusing on socialization.
58:29
But that also means with their release of Dream Blade information, it's like this game feels like it's so tailored to
58:37
group play that it's hard to know what to think of the Dreamblade without any further class context. Yeah. Nothing to
58:43
compare nothing to compare it to, right? Yeah. Yeah. And you don't know how it's gonna how is it going to fit in if it
58:50
has if you're designing a game where players have to work together where you can't just have a tank running in and
58:56
soloing things or have a healer who can keep themselves alive while also killing things. You kind of have to know what
59:03
the rest of the picture is. Yeah. And they've talked about how they really want to focus on the social aspects of
59:08
the game play. Mhm. So, I looking at the Dream Blade, I mean, I wasn't knocked
59:15
out by it or anything. I wasn't like, "Oh, this is so elaborate and new and interesting, but it it definitely felt
59:20
at least it's not just, hey, here's a guy with a sword. We call it the the sword stab guy, you know, like it it's
59:28
the dreamlad. So, it's something interesting. It's it's got an interesting thematic feel to it." Um,
59:34
like I'm never going to get over the fact that one of the the the the tabletop role playing game that started everything basically just called their
59:40
guy the fighter. Yeah. Like you know and that's what this feels like, right? This feels like just the fighter. Yeah. But
59:47
he's the fighter, but at least he's called the dreamlade. So it's not, you know, it's not like, hi, I'm Joe Punch.
59:54
It's a nightmare on Elm Street part four dream warriors. Anyway, yeah, but it
59:59
it's there are interesting things here and I am I am interested in seeing what happens. I just I almost feel like to a
1:00:06
certain degree there's a there's a flip side to being really open with your players and that is sometimes you have
1:00:11
to ignore those people. Oh yeah. And the real trick is to figuring out when you are in that zone versus But yeah, I also
1:00:20
do and there's Go ahead. One thing real fast. I also do think it's really hard to give feedback on a class when it's
1:00:25
the only class we have. Like I don't I don't know. Yeah, that's
1:00:30
what Joe said too, right? Like it's it's this is the only class everybody's playing it. We can give you like minimal
1:00:37
feedback essentially until we see more more progress. But yeah. Um the other thing it's funny you mentioned zones and
1:00:43
I did want to mention this uh which I think this plays into that group the the whole idea of community. They have a
1:00:49
three-pillar approach to developing content for the game or at least a three three-pillar goal which I think is
1:00:55
fascinating. Um they're codenamed zones right now where they have like a red zone, a blue zone, and like the yellow
1:01:01
zone. Um yellow zone being I think it's the open world. No, that's red zone. Red zone is open world. Um blue zone is
1:01:08
instance content, but and I think this is one of the most fascinating thing. It's procedurally generated instance
1:01:15
content. Um so you go into these zones, you may have a goal that you all work
1:01:21
towards. Um, and then but it's going to be procedurally generated and they're trying to
1:01:28
answer or they're at least looking at solving a problem that all MMOs have,
1:01:33
which is when you've done the content, what do you do? And we've often talked
1:01:39
about this, right? Like everybody remembers the the siege of Agamar drought, right? Like we all we all
1:01:45
painfully remember that. And while there's a lot of things to do in WoW,
1:01:50
it's ostensibly once you've done all the variations of like a small subset,
1:01:56
you're done with that content. And we we talk about this a lot off offline as well where people hit periods where
1:02:02
they're just done with the content and they wait for the next thing. We see this in guild all the time where people drop off and come back for the next
1:02:08
raid. Um, here they're trying to give you something that is never the same.
1:02:14
They're looking at rogue likes like Hades or uh Hades 2 or or stuff like
1:02:20
that and saying what makes these games infinite replayable and can we take aspects of that and put that into an MMO
1:02:27
format? And I think that's a really cool idea. Now that said, it comes with the idea that you're going to be allowed to
1:02:34
build things inside of these blue zones, which I think is sort of like that's still a very nent idea. Um, and whether
1:02:41
that sticks around uh or turns into like the OG Fortnite before it was a battle
1:02:47
royale where you built a tower defense thing like by setting traps or towers or things like that. Um, if they they
1:02:54
narrow start narrowing that down uh and make it a core part of that gameplay and then like they pointed out like does
1:03:01
that then do do those things affect other parts of the game, etc., etc. Um,
1:03:06
I'll be fascinated to see how that works. But I'm really interested in that that blue zone content because if you
1:03:11
can make something that is procedurally generated, you know, whether it's like Diablo with having your monsters that
1:03:17
have tags or different like effects or whatever, um, or riffs or things like that, can that be something that is a
1:03:25
new idea for an MMO to sort of go off of to add sort of an endless bit of content
1:03:32
that players can enjoy. And I think that's a really neat idea. And and all that to say that one of the zones is
1:03:38
open world and the other zone uh is actual curated crafted instance content.
1:03:43
They're not abandoning that portion of the game. They're just sort of adding this in as an additional layer. It almost feels kind of like what we were
1:03:49
promised with Togastas, but didn't really get if that makes sense. I don't know how you guys feel. They've tried to do it over and over again with every new
1:03:56
iteration since uh Shadowlands. Um Dell is yet another example of them trying to
1:04:01
do that again. Uh, but there still Yeah. Well, I think there's a certain degree I
1:04:06
think they are a little afraid being the company that already makes Diablo, they've already got a lot of stuff where
1:04:12
it's procedurally generated and they're like, "What if we do if we do that as well? It's going to be like what's the
1:04:18
difference anymore?" Like, you know, there is a certain amount of that. But I I don't know. I I keep thinking back to
1:04:24
like one one thing I've always wanted to see is for a game of a game company doing an MMO to be brave enough and uh
1:04:31
here of all the games uh City of Heroes was doing it for a little bit. Um steal
1:04:36
the basic idea of the kit from Neverwinter Nights and let people make
1:04:42
modules. Let people make done like like an instance content for your game and and
1:04:48
they can you could put it on like some cash shop or whatever. I just really loved that about Neverwinter Nights and
1:04:54
I think it would be cool and then it's not it's not procedurally generated but it is by other people that you know and
1:05:01
you you can control it in various ways but that's just me that's me just thinking about it as we're talking about it. Um I do think that it is interesting
1:05:08
to see them looking for different ways to get people to like keep stick around. You know if you can go into a place and
1:05:14
it's different every time that is a reason to possibly do it again. Uh, it kind of reminds me of that game that Liz
1:05:20
Blueprints where it changes every day. Yep. Yeah. So, just make blueprints.
1:05:25
Just take blueprints and put that in this game, too. Um, it feels like they're kind of trying to a little bit, right?
1:05:32
Well, at this point though, Liz, please talk about blueprints some more, but I I wanted to also say I am sorry there if
1:05:40
that was if that seemed disrespectful. I didn't mean to be. I just mean that's, you know, that's
1:05:46
kind of the dream of every game. You want to create procedurally generated content so that you can keep players
1:05:53
invested and interested and playing even when you have not released the next big
1:05:58
super tailored customized thing. But it's very difficult to make good procedurally generated content that
1:06:05
keeps players engaged and interested. It can feel sy even, you know, Diablo II,
1:06:11
Diablo II, Diablo I, you would go into the procedurally generated dungeon and
1:06:16
it's the same, you know, it's always the same thing. It's there's some randomness, but it's the same thing. And
1:06:21
the joy is in hitting the smashy button over and over again. Procedurally generated content doesn't always feel
1:06:28
that exciting. So, it's a it's a hard balance to get it just right to where you can do procedurally generated
1:06:34
content. I hope they get it right. They're working on it and we get to watch we get to watch all of this which
1:06:39
is very interesting. Yep. Uh at this point though I am going to turn to you and say could you please do the site
1:06:44
news Liz? Uh yes I want to start out by telling you that Blizzard watch is made
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sometimes it's more interesting than others. I don't know. I don't know how exciting people find us uh just going
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off on topics. But he's still talking about Fallout 4. What is going on with
1:07:32
you? Yeah, listen, everyone who has played Fallout 4 is still kind of, you
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know, just at least a little a little bit a little bit of their brain is still still hooked on Fallout 4. So, yeah, we
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We try to keep it around 4,000. And uh you know it's it's kind of normal that
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1:10:21
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[email protected], send us a message in Discord, or uh send
1:11:02
us a message on Patreon. if you are a supporter and I will make sure it is directed to the correct podcast. Usually
1:11:08
we answer questions at the end of these shows when we have time, but we haven't had a lot of questions lately. So, if
1:11:13
you have uh Blizzard gaming questions or gaming news questions, send them our way. We will talk about them at the end
1:11:19
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1:11:24
you everyone for listening. Thank you for your support. You guys keep us alive. Yes. Thank you, Liz. I that's
1:11:32
that's all I got. Yeah. No, it's that was very appreciated. Uh thank you guys for listening as as Liz just said and uh
1:11:39
this is basically going to be the end of the podcast because you know we do eventually have to do other things. So
1:11:45
uh thank you to everybody being with us. Uh thank you to to Joe and Liz for being here and being excellent as always. And
1:11:52
uh thank you Matt. And it's a it's a team effort here. Yes, I I provide the
1:11:58
yammering on about random things. That's that's my job. That's I I I take it very seriously. Oh, look, a cat. Um, but this
1:12:06
has been the Blizzard Watch podcast. Uh, thank you guys so much for being here with us, and we will be back next week.
1:12:12
[Music]

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