Big News Of The Week
Talking Pet Store With Tom Chilton
On Wednesday, Blizzard added a new dimension to their online store and the game itself with the release of two new premium in-game pets. At a cost of $10 or 10-Euro each, you can have one of these two new companions following every character you’ve got in game. This marks the first time that Blizzard has done direct pay-for-content microtransactions in World Of Warcraft, and it got a lot of people talking. So much so that we found the only fitting way to get to the bottom of the worry to be – An exclusive interview with Blizzard’s Tom Chilton! Have a listen, and look to this blog for a full transcript coming soon!
Rumors And Scuttlebutt
What’s Going On In China
It could almost be a World of Warcraft game session — two competing titans, plotting against each other, swapping blows, embarked on a quest for a single prize that only the stronger of them will claim.
But this is not virtual reality. The titans are two agencies of the Chinese government. And their quest, during which they have traded a few blows in the past week, is for a potentially rich prize: the power to regulate the real World of Warcraft, among the most popular online games in China. The background: On Monday, the Chinese General Administration of Press and Publication ordered the Shanghai-based operator of World of Warcraft, NetEase, to shut down its servers for World of Warcraft. The agency said that it had rejected the company’s application to become the new host of the game’s four million Chinese players. But by Wednesday, the Ministry of Culture had struck back. “In regards to the World of Warcraft incident, the General Administration of Press and Publication has clearly overstepped its authority,” a ministry official, Li Xiong, was quoted as saying in the Economic Information Daily, a newspaper in Beijing. “They do not have the authority to penalize online gaming.” The ministry said it had that authority. And it said NetEase was perfectly free to offer the game on computers in China. The matter now appears destined for settlement by the State Council, the Chinese government’s cabinet.
So begins an article by Michael Wines in the New York Times this week.
Blizzard Is Now Showing Off What The Tier 10 Priest And Paladin Sets May Look Like
Town Cryer
It’s an all-calls Town Cryer this week!
Drop Of The Week
Our New Favorite WoW Blogger
OK – he’s not new at all, and most hardcore WoW-market enthusiasts have been reading his blog for at least a year, but we somehow missed The Greedy Goblin until just this past week, and if you’ve not yet read his writings at Blogspot, well, you’ve got a *lot* of catching up to do. Greedy Goblin writes a J.K. Rowling novel worth of updates every week, and focuses on both in-game and real world economics, in-game politics, and most humorously, making fun of his adversaries by posting screenshots of their reactions to his auction house tactics.
Additional show content provided by Darrell the Tipgiver, Steve “Buxley” Pietrowicz and the outstanding Instance Community.
Special thanks to DogHouse Systems, FigurePrints!, TypeFrag and SquareSpace for sponsoring this episode.
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Quick comment regarding changing Shaman totems mid encounter. While you cannot change the selected group of totem dropped by the mass drop/recovery buttons; you can still drop individual totems mid-fight by selecting the totem and clicking in the individual totem button, its a two step process.
Great to hear Tom Chilton go over his reasons for the pet store – as a wow playing family I have spent a loot of money on a card game we don’t play, so I get that point.
But I don’t like the idea that wow seems to be a nickel and dime the player base to death.
Come on the game is not cheap it costs a crap-load just to by the 3 games and we still pay about 15 a month on the game, so please feel free to charge us for vanity items but consider giving each account (or each max lvl player) one free realm move a year. It costs you nothing to do this – and if it does fire the database guys and hire someone that can auto mate this stuff!
What was the song at the end of this show?
I was just listening and I wanted to point out that although the portable hole sounds inappropriate, the joke behind the bag is not so bad.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YX8OIu-QSCA
Hey guys awesome show (as usual)! Really loved the interview!
I was wondering however… What is the techno/pop-ish/rock song that you played close to the end? It was a great song, and I was wondering how I could get it! Thanks!
Hey Guys… good show…. and to completely nerd out on you … Haris’ Portal Hole is a omage to DND where the bag to end all bags was the Portal Hole… every adventurer wanted one. Regardless of that… being able to say Paris’ new Hole repeatedly is worth most prices….
Keep up the good work
Yeah what is that awesome song at the end of the episode? I definitely need to get ahold of it for my own collection cuz well, its amazing.
How do we find out if we won a grunty the marine murloc pet?
I’m assuming, that you’re emailing the people or something, which leads me to assume I didn’t win anything.
Great show as usual guys,
However, there is one issue that I would have loved to hear Tom Chilton explain:
Why on earth are the new pets more expensive for players in Europe? They cost 10 euros, which at the going exchange rate equals 14 dollars.
I really can’t think of any good reason for this, except for Blizzard wanting to make some extra money. I mean, it’s not like there are shipping costs….
I know it’s a minor point, but it’s not the first time Blizz has made some players pay more for the same service as others.
Any thoughts on this?
When you were discussing the rewards for the new fishing tournament, you said that one of them would be a device that would allow the user to teleport to Booty Bey. You referred to this as the third teleportation tool available to any class or profession, the others being the hearth stone and the Argent Crusade Tabard. You forgot something. The jewelry vendor Harold Winston sells Kirin Tor rings that, in addition to other enhancements, will allow the owner to teleport to Dalaran.