I've said before that one of the reasons I started Kentucky Geek Girl was to talk about gaming. Back in 2010, when I started the blog, I was a pretty hardcore World of Warcraft player. When I use that term, I'm not necessarily saying that I was in a raiding guild with top tier gear and advanced progression. No, I mean that I played the game as often as I could and had since 2007.
We're back with another episode of The Eclectic Geek Podcast. This week is a follow-up to our BlizzCon Preview Warlords of The Dark Below. Now that BlizzCon is over, we share with you some of the biggest news about World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor, Hearthstone, and Heroes of the Storm. We share our apprehensions over the story and excitement over the Warcraft movie as well as gush over the new WoW character models. This week we unveil our new segment In My Backpack where we share some awesome things we picked up over the week. Natasha gives a review of Twelve Years a Slave and Leila is elated over the newly released trailer for Divergent. Click through to listen to the show!
In this Pre-Blizzcon episode of The Eclectic Geek Podcast, we take a look at some of the speculation and conspiracy theories surrounding potential announcements that Blizzard Entertainment may make at this year's Blizzcon. We also share some pop culture news and our Fandom Farewells, discuss NaNoWriMo, and the new book Allegiant.
Warlords of Draenor Trademark
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Jimmy Fallon kicked off the annual Late Night Video Game Week on Monday, but kicked it into overdrive last night when he brought together World of Warcraft players for a ballad to the beloved game. I played WoW for almost five years, and though I quit cold turkey, I've played off and on in the last year or so. I still appreciate the game, but I don't think I'll ever be as hardcore of a player as I was. Video after the break!
Today's the day: Diablo III has finally been released, having first been announced in 2008 at Blizzard's World Wide Invitational in Paris. In the live launch party last night in Irvine, California, Chris Metzen, Vice President of Creative Development at Blizzard, said that he has been preparing for the Diablo III release since the first game in 1996. For those not familiar with the game, Matthew Rossi over at WoW Insider has put together a great primer on the world of Sanctuary and just who Diablo, Lord of Terror really is. Diablo III: Wrath is a video released by Blizzard also helps to shed light on some of the back story as well as providing some awesome visuals.
Soon to be released MMO TERA is having an open beta weekend. I've downloaded the client and will be checking it out tomorrow. A wild Diablo III open beta appears! Yes, folks, it's true. From 1200 EST on Friday until 1000 EST on Monday everyone will have a chance to play in the Diablo III beta. Conicidence? Absolutely not.
The TERA testing is open to everyone who uses the code TERABETA on the En Masse website. Access the Diablo III beta through your Battle.net account, if you're already a World of Warcraft or Star Craft II player. Don't have a Battle.net account? No problem! You can set one up here.
There will be a Guild Wars 2 open beta next weekend, so I hope to check that out as well. Meanwhile, I still haven't received my invite for the World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria beta. EPIC SAD FACE.
Let me know what you think of the games! I'll be sharing my thoughts next week following the conclusion of the open beta testing.
PS Star Wars: The Old Republic is holding free to play weekends in April and through the end of today you can receive $20 off the game in the Origin store.
World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria was officially announced at Blizzcon 2011 and the introduction of the Pandaren as a playable race, a new continent,
and over-arching focus on "war" as the main theme and villain of has been met with mixed reactions. There has been little information released since the October event, but today MMO-Champion posted a blue post which announced a Mists of Pandaria Press Tour.
A Break in the Mists: Alert the Press!
Since the announcement of World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria at
BlizzCon 2011, we’ve been hard at work on all of the new game features,
environments, dungeons, and other content that awaits adventurers.
Today, we’re inviting members of the press worldwide to get an updated
sneak peek and some hands-on time with the latest version of World of
Warcraft’s fourth expansion at an event taking place March 13 - 15.
If you want to know more about what lies hidden within the mists of Pandaria, wait for the season’s end….
MMO-Champion said that the Cataclysm Friend & Family Alpha started on the first week of May and the actual Cataclysm press tour happened a month later. So, could we be seeing the Alpha starting in the next couple of weeks? Blizzard has said that they wanted to increase the frequency of expansion releases. Cataclysm has been out for nearly 14 months so hopefully we'll be hearing something soon!
What are you thoughts on the new World of Warcraft expansion? Leave a message in the comments!
It's coming on Christmas around here at Kentucky Geek Girl and I wanted to kick off the season with my own special 12 Days of Christmas. It'll be 12 days of awesome things that I love or that are particularly cool this time of year. Today, it's boogie2988. I'm sure most of you have seen his videos on Youtube where he plays a character named Francis. I must admit that I thought that this wasn't just a character at first. Turns out, though, that boogie is really awesome! He has a lot of great things to say about life, gaming, and everything in between. His Francis videos are hilarious. I'm including two special Christmas-themed Francis videos after the break!
Really, Blizz? Pretty sure that since your next expansion is introducing the Monk class, that you should have gone with Chuck Norris as a Monk. Also, having Chuck Norris as a spokesman would have been relevant about 6 years ago, but right now I'm just not feeling it. While I do like the "Hi, I'm X and I'm a X" commercials, this is probably my least favorite of those released.
Okay, I'm not going to Blizzcon. That would be pretty sweet, but it doesn't make much sense because I'm not playing WoW right now. To satisfy my need for all things World of Warcraft, I follow posts from WoWInsider, WoWhead/Zam and of course watch Legendary on Gamebreaker.tv. Those three entities of awesomeness are teaming up to host a reader meetup at Blizzcon that sounds like it's going to be pretty sweet.
You do not need to have a ticket to Blizzcon to attend the party, which will be held at the Anabella Hotel on October 20. There will be awesome swag, a chance to meet your favorite personalities from Gamebreaker, WoWInsider, and sites like Tankspot and Zam. It sounds like it is going to be a ton of fun and if you're not in California, like me, you can watch a live stream of the party on Gamebreaker.tv!
There's even a Facebook event page for the party. So, if you'll be in the Anaheim area on October 20, even if you're not going to Blizzcon, check out the party, starting at 5pm PDT.
I love World of Warcraft machinima. It's a thing. And I love when WoWInsider posts new videos to check out. This video by Palette-Swap Ninja isn't technically a machinima, but it's a wonderful parody of Thomas Dolby's 80's hit "She Blinded Me With Science." It sounds so much like the real thing it's creepily cool. The visuals aren't stunning like many machinima out there, this is simply a lyric video. I would love if they could create a video to go along with this. Even a live action video like "Arcade Gaming Shrine."
Not only is the song aurally pleasing, it also voices real opinions that someone playing Alliance for the first time might have. "Everyone made fun of me for playing a gnome..." "That worgen looks like it should be Horde..."
I love the song "Rolling in the Deep" by Adele. I've been a huge fan of hers since "Chasing Pavements" a few years ago. I've seen lots of people on the Youtube try to cover her songs, but this is the first World of Warcraft Machinima that I've seen. I have to hand it to Xander and PaddyDCups for this great interpretation. They take real concerns of WoW players (Read: Raiders) and bring it into musical form. The vocalist's talent really shines through in this parody.
When I heard that a feature-length documentary on World of Warcraft was being produced. I was very intrigued. Last summer, I watched a documentary called “The Dungeon Masters” which chronicled the lives of several Dungeons and Dragons players in a year following Gen Con, one of the largest gaming conventions in the world. In the documentary, we met the players and learned about their lives inside and out including how they started gaming and why, what obstacles they have overcome in their lives related to gaming, and so on. I was very impressed. So, when I set out to watch The Raid, I was expecting something comparable. I feel that while there many positive things about The Raid, there were several points which detracted from the film.
The documentary premiered on Gamebreaker.tv in conjunction with Typefrag and Curse Gaming. Over 19,000 viewers experienced the premiere along with Gary Gannon, Mike B aka Fony and the creator of the film Kevin Michael Johnson. The opening sequence features several people who are leaving their day-to-day lives to come home and get on their computers. From that, the documentary jumps right in to explanation of what World of Warcraft is and why many people participate in it. The viewer is introduced to three figures: Jesse Schell, CEO of Schell Games, Edward Castronova, Professor of Telecommunications, Indiana University, and Bonnie Nardi, Anthropologist and author of "My Life as a Night Elf Priest". Their comments provide context and enhance the discussion.
Will Mists of Pandaria be the next expansion for World of Warcraft?
Last week, Blizzard Entertainment trademarked the name Mists of Pandaria. Speculation has begun about World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria being the next expansion for the nearly seven year old franchise. Lately, player base has been diminishing. It is plausible that Blizzard developers have decided to bring in the Pandaren, a mythical race of beer drinking Kung Fu Pandas, to lure some of the prodigal players back. Everything is purely rumor and speculation now. Don your tinfoil hat and read this excellent post from Anne Stickney at Wow Insider. In this Know Your Lore column, she breaks down the possibility of the Mists of Pandaria actually being the next ex-pac. My personal opinion is that Pandaren should not be a playable race. They're neutral and could kick anyone's butt, why join a faction?! If anything, open Pandaria up for exploration. The Cataclysm rocked the entirety of Azeroth, not just the side of the globe we see when we hit M.
As a former World of Warcrack addict, I very much appreciate a good machinima. That's why I was delighted to see that WoW Insider had shared this video the other day. I have been a huge fan of Good Eats, Alton Brown's show on Food Network for many years and with his series Raid Eats and now Epic Eats, Bullworth has merged the two.
First Impressions is a meme hosted at Within Pages where we take a look at all things, mostly booky, and reflect on our initial thoughts. Non-bloggers, non-book bloggers, and everyone alike can participate on any topic you'd like. Feel free to drop your links or thoughts in the comments!
While I'm not currently playing World of Warcraft on a regular basis, I like to keep up-to-date on WoW news. I do this by watching Gamebreaker.tv's Legendary and following WoW Insider. I played a bit on the Public Test Realm this past week and did a few of the Patch 4.2 pre-quests. There are definitely a lot of changes coming to WoW with Patch 4.2, but this First Impressions Friday is all about the patch trailer.
Last summer, I gave my response to the World of Warcraft Real ID system. Earlier today, World of Warcraft Community Manager Nethaera posted an announcement on the WoW forums that unveiled Blizzard's plan to introduce functionality within the game that would allow players on different servers to group for dungeons. There has been some speculation within the community for awhile that Blizzard may roll out with this at some point. It is certainly something that players have wanted and hoped for. While all of my friends (when we consistently played) were on Shadow Council, I do have many friends from another guild on Durotan that I would love to have played with at some point. This feature, which would be available as part of the Real ID functionality, would allow a group leader to initiate invitations to players on other servers and go through dungeons.
As this is a fairly complex service to develop, we don’t have a release date to share quite yet. It’s important to note that as with some of the other convenience- and connectivity-oriented features we offer, certain elements of the cross-realm Real ID party system will be premium-based, though only the player sending the invitations will need to have access to the premium service. We'll have more details to share with you as development progresses -- in the meantime, you may begin to see elements of the feature appear on the World of Warcraft PTR.
~Nethaera
This is all of the information that has been released about this so far. Nethaera did say that only the player initiating the invitations would need to have the paid service, but do we really need to pay for this? Will they bundle it in with our normal subscriptions? Hopefully we'll get some more news soon. I have the PTR downloaded so I may check it out at some point. Thankfully, you do not have to have an active World of Warcraft subscription to play on the PTR. Many players were gifted 7 free days of play time last week and I used that so now my account is frozen again. While I do not have plans to resubscribe any time soon, I'll keep everyone up to date on the news.
So I know a lot went down over the course of late Thursday evening. I know that there have been some clues in and out of game (and I can't really participate in that since I'm not playing right now) Sadly, I wasn't really around to follow the twitter, but I logged into Facebook just a few minutes ago to see this video had been uploaded.
Not gonna lie, it's pretty damn creepy.
A #FreeGaryGannon campaign has been set up to urge Blizzard (or whomever is responsible) to release Gary from their clutches. There’s a tumblr page and you can follow along on twitter by searching #FreeGaryGannon. Also check out the feeds of @akamikeb, @devolore, @irljasmine, @gamebreakertv. Stay tuned to Kentucky Geek Girl for more updates on what I'm deeming as GaryGate. You can also like my new Facebook page!
There is new speculation among Gamebreaker.tv fans as to the party responsible behind our beloved ginger's disappearance. Some are saying that Coco himself wanted Gary taken out. Others are saying that Darnell, host of BlizzBlues on Gamebreaker.tv, is responsible. Others on the Gamebreaker.tv forums are referencing a countdown on the screen behind MikeB. Could that be countdown to Gary's kidnapping? Could this have been an inside job?
A #FreeGaryGannon campaign has been set up to urge Blizzard (or whomever is responsible) to release Gary from their clutches. There’s a tumblr page and you can follow along on twitter by searching #FreeGaryGannon. Also check out the feeds of @akamikeb, @devolore, @irljasmine, @gamebreakertv.
User @Rhonyzul tweeted me this: “@bardicmelodyhttp://tinyurl.com/6z6r8dc I think we’ve found Gary.” There is apparently a new video which implicates Darnell. Unfortunately, the network I'm on now will not allow me to access youtube.
Stay tuned for information as it becomes available. Let's just hope that the hair is still in tact and they've allowed him to keep an argyle sweater for warmth. If he's in Pit of Saron, it might be pretty cold.
I've been following Gamebreaker.tv for a few months now and I enjoy watching their web shows This Week in MMO and Legendary, which covers World of Warcraft.
Even though I'm not playing Warcraft right now, I like to keep up on the news and events. Legendary's hosts Gary Gannon, Mikeb aka Fony from Zam.com's BFF Report, and Josh Allen aka Lore from Tankspot's Weekly Marmot and PST, represent three major demographics in WoW today, casual player, PvPer and hardcore raider, respectively. On Legendary, the guys cover topics such as upcoming patches, class changes, and sometimes even their own speculation as to the future of World of Warcraft and Blizzard in general. But has this speculation finally raised the ire of Blizzard Entertainment? Is Bashiok, Community Manager for the World of Warcraft forums, responsible for Gary Gannon's disappearance? Before we get into that, let's talk about what happened during the Legendary live broadcast on Tuesday night.
Legendary, the World of Warcraft show, tapes live on Justin.tv weekly at 9:30 PM Pacific Time. Gary, Mike and Lore broadcast from their respective locations, but in particular Gary is live from the brand new Gamebreaker.tv studio. On May 3, at around 45 minutes into the broadcast, the live feed suddenly went dead following Gary's statement that World of Warcraft was growing too "fat." This came after the trio discussed the Bashiok's claim that there is a lack of resources for new raid content and that Patch 4.2 will only bring the 7 bosses of the Firelands raid.
Just about half way into the show, the feed cut out. I was thinking, Well, maybe I should just reload the page. No dice. The chatroom was going crazy. Jasmine was trying to calm everyone down as they figured out where Gary was. Then, the speculation began. Blizzard didn't like Gary's comments and decided to take him out. Just two days after the announcement of the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound, many folks in the chatroom said that Blizzard staged an invasion of the Gamebreaker.tv studio. It turns out that Gary's internet was cut, but then later it was announced that the power was out too.
Mike and Lore were eventually able to bring the feed back up briefly and they were donning their tinfoil hats, the significance of which is so Blizzard can't read their minds. Groups of players went in game and staged rallies in Garrosh's room on server Arthas. Since I'm not in game right now, I couldn't attend, but I followed along in the chat room for awhile.
A #FreeGaryGannon campaign has been set up to urge Blizzard to release Gary from their clutches. There's a tumblr page and you can follow along on twitter by searching #FreeGaryGannon. Also check out the feeds of @akamikeb, @devolore, @irljasmine, @gamebreakertv.
As a witness to the atrocities of 5/3, I can just say that I am scared for Gary's safety. I'm not sure what kind of dungeon Blizzard has Gary in, but if it's anything like Halls of Stone, he's in for a lifetime of pain and misery.
Even though I'm not playing Warcraft right now, I like to keep up on the news and events. Legendary's hosts Gary Gannon, Mikeb aka Fony from Zam.com's BFF Report, and Josh Allen aka Lore from Tankspot's Weekly Marmot and PST, represent three major demographics in WoW today, casual player, PvPer and hardcore raider, respectively. On Legendary, the guys cover topics such as upcoming patches, class changes, and sometimes even their own speculation as to the future of World of Warcraft and Blizzard in general. But has this speculation finally raised the ire of Blizzard Entertainment? Is Bashiok, Community Manager for the World of Warcraft forums, responsible for Gary Gannon's disappearance? Before we get into that, let's talk about what happened during the Legendary live broadcast on Tuesday night.
Mike and Lore were eventually able to bring the feed back up briefly and they were donning their tinfoil hats, the significance of which is so Blizzard can't read their minds. Groups of players went in game and staged rallies in Garrosh's room on server Arthas. Since I'm not in game right now, I couldn't attend, but I followed along in the chat room for awhile.