Episode 77 – The Number of the Other Beast

The M-Team brings big news pertaining to World of Warcraft, Warhammer Online, and more.

00:00:00    Introduction
00:02:07    What We’re Playing
00:13:33    Mail Bag
00:19:43    The Week in Gaming
01:02:40    Blog-O-Steria
01:21:18    Conclusion

TWiG

North Carolina Examines Taxing Downloads
Has it really been two years already?
AIAS nominations
Mythic Sends “Valentines” to Their Favorite BloggersHints of Future in Game Events?

Square Enix Junk Mail Pisses off Man, Man Files Lawsuit, Man Wins
More morons tout WoW as a model for training employees

Nope.  We were wrong.  Video games ARE bad for you!
Sorry!  We we’re wrong again.  That’s not what we meant to say.

Blog-O-Steria

Five Reasons MMO’s Are Broken

Sister Julie Thinks WoTLK’s ‘Phase Technology’ is Da Bomb

Musical Interludes:
01 – Mastadon – Blood and Thunder
02 – Mastadon – Ahab
03 – Mastadon – Seabeast
04 – Mastadon – Island
05 – Mastadon – Iron Tusk
06 – Mastadon – Megalodon
07 – Mastadon – Naked Burn
08 – Mastadon – Aqua Dementia

10 Comments to Episode 77 – The Number of the Other Beast

  1. Onigato's Gravatar Onigato
    February 5, 2009 at 10:10 am | Permalink

    I haven’t yet listened to this episode, but I wanted to comment about that NC thinking of taxing Downloads. Personally I wouldn’t mind paying taxes on a downloaded piece of Software IF I “OWNED” it. However, most of the time, I’m merely buying the right to USE it, due to the EULA. I’m not just referring to games, I’m talking about any computer software. (I’m staring at you Microsoft)

  2. February 5, 2009 at 4:33 pm | Permalink

    Thinking about ways to “fix” MMOs, why are there the assumptions that the games must always be about the level grind, or the DIKU treadmill? Where are the MMOs that realize the promise of alternate worlds and interesting places to explore, rather than just another pretty dungeon crawl? Why do we accept that the DIKU lineage is the only way to make these games?

  3. Sentack's Gravatar Sentack
    February 5, 2009 at 4:48 pm | Permalink

    Hey guys, great podcast, something interesting I wanted to throw out. The whole “WoW players are good workers” article made me chuckle, but when you guys brought up the whole “Millennial” workers and the concept of a class of workers who insist that if a job isn’t fun, they leave that position, was something that NPR brought up a year or so ago. Before the bubble burst and the recession hit, there was a large amount of people in the workforce, fresh out of college, who insisted on just what you read in the article. They insist that they work only in fun and rewarding jobs. Where even their most minor of accomplishments and achievements be openly rewarded.

    Of course, older individuals in the work force who get tossed into all this are just dazed and confused. But apparently it’s been a real problem lately with some businesses keeping young talented individuals working for them. Really weird, I know.

  4. February 5, 2009 at 8:32 pm | Permalink

    You just can’t beat a heavy metal Moby Dick concept album as your segue music.

  5. Saylah's Gravatar Saylah
    February 5, 2009 at 10:23 pm | Permalink

    Great show. Regarding the other WAR cities… based on what I’ve read/heard they won’t be coming. The assets that had been developed for the cities that were yanked from release are already in game. They used them to deploy larger capital city zones for Altdorf and Inevitable City – or something to that effect.

  6. Saylah's Gravatar Saylah
    February 5, 2009 at 11:11 pm | Permalink

    P.S. Not sure why anyone thinks Phased whatever is so special. The technology to do that has been in WOW since day one. If you’ve completed a quest the icon above the NPC’s head is Yellow. If the person next to you has the quest but not completed it’s gray. If the other person standing there hasn’t even taken the quest is an exclamation point. Uhm, that’s all that’s going on there. Unless I’m missing something.

  7. Onigato's Gravatar Onigato
    February 6, 2009 at 10:35 am | Permalink

    That’s not really phasing imo… The wow phasing changes the actual environment. Landscape, buildings, npcs show up/disappear/appearance significantly altered depending on the step of phasing your in.

  8. February 6, 2009 at 11:14 am | Permalink

    @Oni

    While Saylah’s description of ‘phased’ technology oversimplifies things a bit, it’s not too far off. You complete a quest, you no longer see the question icon over that questgivers head. Except in this case, you complete a quest and you see the land in front of you destroyed…or not, depending on what part of the quest you are on.

    Blizzard just took a basic concept that already exists in every MMO and took it to the extreme…which is pretty freakin’ brilliant.

    My arguement is that this isn’t the holy grail that everyone is looking for. You still can’t really change the world. You can only change the world as you can see it. It has no real positive or negative effect on anyone else.

    What happened in EvE this week is a better example of someone having an actual true impact on the world. That is the stuff of legend right there.

  9. Onigato's Gravatar Onigato
    February 6, 2009 at 5:15 pm | Permalink

    I can totally change the world. You must not have heard about me having control of the netherweave market on my server. I’ve single handily increased the price/demand of cloth by 300%, and sold more 16 slot bags than anyone over the last 12 months… ^_^

    it’s the little things that matter. (to me) hehe

  10. Saylah's Gravatar Saylah
    February 8, 2009 at 10:07 pm | Permalink

    LOL @Oni and yes, EVE Online antics are truly epic. I’m never high enough (in tough enough ship) to fly out and see the drama in 0.0.

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