In this episode, Berzerker and Jez are finally giving their reactions to the Dragonflight epilogue stories in Patch 10.2.5! Was Gilneas sufficiently reclaimed? Is the story complete for now? And what the hell does a surgical procedure and strange brews of power metal have in common?! Find out on this exciting episode of Unshackled Fury!
[00:00:00] Warding This program contains strong language, auditory violence and mental
[00:00:06] nudity.
[00:00:07] It is intended only for mature audiences, listener discretion is advised.
[00:01:01] Love is in the air, and a new moon is rising.
[00:01:05] The Super Bowl Hangover is in full effect.
[00:01:09] So welcome back, episode 142 of Your Uncensored Home for World of Warcraft News and Opinions,
[00:01:17] Unshackled Fury.
[00:01:18] I'm your host Berzerker, and with me once again, is a one man gang known as Mr. Jez Corden.
[00:01:25] Welcome back again, good sir.
[00:01:27] Hello, and how are you doing man?
[00:01:29] It's been a little while, a couple of weeks.
[00:01:32] A little over a couple of weeks since we recorded I suppose.
[00:01:35] A little over, we're a little late, this is my fault.
[00:01:38] We had Super Bowl, which you may or may not be aware as an unofficial American holiday.
[00:01:45] Or maybe the Monday after should be because everybody gets all fucked up because of the Super
[00:01:49] Bowl on Sunday and then Monday everybody just drags ass into the office, assuming you go
[00:01:54] into one.
[00:01:56] It's terrible.
[00:01:57] And yeah, it was my fault because one had the Super Bowl to deal with, and I might actually
[00:02:05] talk a little bit more about that later.
[00:02:06] Hmm, let's see something on the agenda.
[00:02:09] But the other was, I actually went and saw, leave it or not, I saw a show, a Broadway
[00:02:16] show about six of your queens.
[00:02:22] We got more than six damn.
[00:02:26] Well, these were the ones that were married to Henry VIII.
[00:02:30] Oh, oh, that whole thing.
[00:02:33] Yeah.
[00:02:34] Did they all count as queens?
[00:02:36] I thought maybe some of them would be consorts or something.
[00:02:39] Well, maybe some of them might have been consorts but it was a...
[00:02:41] I didn't take history at school, you see.
[00:02:43] It was in Britain, you can choose between history and some of the subjects.
[00:02:47] And I dropped history like a brick.
[00:02:49] So I've got huge gaps in my knowledge that I think most of the people know pretty
[00:02:54] about it.
[00:02:55] Yes, I think.
[00:02:56] Well, it was both informative and enlightening.
[00:03:01] It is a modern take on the six wives of Henry VIII and they're all embodying the personalities
[00:03:09] of pop stars.
[00:03:10] So it's like a very like, glamorous affair.
[00:03:14] And they all take turns.
[00:03:16] How come does this?
[00:03:17] It's called six.
[00:03:18] And each one of them takes turns like singing a song and pleading their case that
[00:03:24] they had at the worst.
[00:03:26] And you know, my girlfriends told me about this.
[00:03:30] It's...
[00:03:31] I'm gonna say right out of the gate here.
[00:03:34] Definitely not intended or marketed towards me.
[00:03:37] Right?
[00:03:38] When my demographic is...
[00:03:39] I was one of maybe but five like clearly straight white male and middle aged capacity.
[00:03:49] I was very much in the minority there but always appreciate a good Broadway show and it
[00:03:56] was quite a production.
[00:04:00] Anne Bolin going on the whole time about being decapitated.
[00:04:03] It was pretty hilarious, fair.
[00:04:05] Sounds good.
[00:04:06] Yeah, I got a little history lesson on your people.
[00:04:11] So...
[00:04:12] That's wonderful.
[00:04:13] You probably know more than me now.
[00:04:17] Well, this is also on the heels of...
[00:04:21] It's also on the heels of us seeing an exhibit at a museum in San Francisco several months ago.
[00:04:27] About the Tudor era.
[00:04:32] And that's what got to see a lot of interesting stuff there.
[00:04:34] So yeah, you know, I'm trying to catch up, man.
[00:04:37] I'm trying to catch up.
[00:04:38] So I know what I'm doing here.
[00:04:40] But one other thing that was going on and this is gonna play into our metal album.
[00:04:46] Of the week and it's gonna we're gonna go for a little bit of ride here just.
[00:04:50] Oh.
[00:04:51] And if anybody listening to this squeamish, I apologize in advance because we're gonna
[00:04:59] go places.
[00:05:00] So here we go.
[00:05:02] A week ago yesterday, because we're recording on this on a Tuesday, Tuesday was a 13th and
[00:05:09] I promise I will get it out tonight to find people because we're already delayed.
[00:05:13] A week ago yesterday, I had to go in for a little procedure on my back.
[00:05:20] And as long time listeners of the show know, many moons ago was in a horrible car accident,
[00:05:27] had some spinal damage that is long lasting into this day and will forever get worse.
[00:05:31] It wasn't that, surprisingly enough, but it wasn't a very close area.
[00:05:36] I had this like disgusting growth that was growing underneath my skin.
[00:05:45] And I know it was the, I think they call it like a lipoma.
[00:05:48] So if you look that shit up, you might see what that is.
[00:05:50] But it's essentially like a sack.
[00:05:52] Nobody knows why it's there and nobody knows where it came from but it's like a sack
[00:05:55] that fills up with like gunk.
[00:05:58] And it like pushes up on your skin so you, you know, you look like a doctor pimple popper
[00:06:02] patient like you got this thing like there, right?
[00:06:04] And years ago, I had it drained because they said, well, you can have it cut out or you
[00:06:08] can have it drained.
[00:06:09] And I said, well, I don't know, I don't know, cut it out.
[00:06:12] Just drain the fucking thing because I'm thinking they'll just jam in a big ass needle,
[00:06:15] which I've had like drain of a knee and they pull out fluid and whatever it's fine.
[00:06:19] Oh no, they like cut me open and squeezed this shit out and it got infected and long story
[00:06:26] short, I ended up with like seriously, it looked like a bullet wound scar on my back where
[00:06:31] this thing was.
[00:06:32] Oh snap.
[00:06:33] And it was not and they told me, well because we didn't remove the sack itself, there's
[00:06:39] a good chance it'll come back.
[00:06:41] It'll fill back up.
[00:06:42] I'm like, oh fuck.
[00:06:43] Well that's delightful.
[00:06:45] Well that's delightful right?
[00:06:48] Well, fast forward to last week and I had an appointment to have it cut out.
[00:06:53] And I'm thinking all right, well, they're just going to get it.
[00:06:55] You know, it's pretty good size at this point.
[00:06:57] Just a few inches, like you know in terms of its diameter and I'm thinking well they'll
[00:07:03] just make a little slice and they'll just pop it out and sell me back up.
[00:07:09] That was also their plan but that's not exactly how it went down.
[00:07:15] So as I'm laying there on this table, the very nice doctor surgeon who's in charge of
[00:07:22] this.
[00:07:23] There's a team of these five, these five women that are working on me over here and
[00:07:28] one of them says, hey what do you want to listen to?
[00:07:30] Who let you pick?
[00:07:31] And I'm like, oh shit.
[00:07:32] That's awesome.
[00:07:33] I'm like, that's the fly said.
[00:07:35] That's very nice of you.
[00:07:37] I said well, I don't know, you got any power metal.
[00:07:44] And she's like, well I've never heard of that.
[00:07:45] I said well, fire it up if you can find it.
[00:07:48] And I said, well, I got Spotify right here and there's a power metal playlist.
[00:07:52] And I said, oh that's perfect.
[00:07:54] Fire it up.
[00:07:56] So they press play and I have no fucking clue what song is coming on.
[00:08:01] I'm like, I've never heard of this.
[00:08:03] This is not the power metal I'm thinking of.
[00:08:05] This is some terrible opening act bullshit.
[00:08:08] I'm like, I don't know what this is.
[00:08:09] This sounds awful.
[00:08:11] And they get to, you know, they get to business.
[00:08:12] They get to cut, you know, they've numb me up to a certain part and they open it up while
[00:08:16] there's, you know, horrible music is playing.
[00:08:19] And they go, I hear like, oh, hmm.
[00:08:23] Oh, would you look over there and see, oh we got to go.
[00:08:27] And I'm like, oh hey, hey, hey, what's going on back there?
[00:08:31] Oh well, it's a little more complicated than we thought.
[00:08:36] So what do you mean by that?
[00:08:37] Is it, well, it's not just like in a nice little kind of shape.
[00:08:41] It's kind of spread out all over the place.
[00:08:44] It's good to be listening to whatever this power metal is.
[00:08:48] I said, yeah, it's usually about like dragons and stuff.
[00:08:50] And she says, well, this is kind of like a dragon.
[00:08:52] It's got like horns and fangs and claws.
[00:08:57] And like we're really going to have to start digging back here.
[00:08:59] And I'm like, oh god damn it.
[00:09:02] So they've numb me up for the most part.
[00:09:04] But they did zap, they're like using like one of these electric scalpel deals, right?
[00:09:09] Where like they have to put a huge patch, like a conductive patch on my forearm.
[00:09:14] So that way that could like make sure that the circuit doesn't break and they don't
[00:09:18] like electrocute me or whatever.
[00:09:20] And so I can feel them like tugging, it feels like a rubber band snap.
[00:09:23] And it's like, and they're like working around this area.
[00:09:26] And they've clearly got me flayed open because they asked for like skin hooks at some
[00:09:29] point.
[00:09:30] So I know that like I'm sitting there looking like I'm out of fucking hell razor or something
[00:09:34] if I got a chance to look at it.
[00:09:36] And they're cutting away and they're doing their thing.
[00:09:37] And like the next song comes on and it's son of some other fucking terrible.
[00:09:41] And I'm like, I know that this is within the power metal vein somewhere.
[00:09:44] But this is like the shitty version.
[00:09:46] And I'm apologizing to these women and I'm like, I'm sorry, I meant to like, I should have
[00:09:50] just said fucking Metallica or something like way more mainstream.
[00:09:54] This is terrible.
[00:09:55] I don't know what this is.
[00:09:56] And they're cutting away and they're cutting away.
[00:09:57] And the next song comes on and it's another shitty song.
[00:10:00] And I'm like, oh my god.
[00:10:01] And you know, I'm getting tugged on and pulled on and cut open and all this stuff is
[00:10:06] going on.
[00:10:07] And I can feel stuff squirting around.
[00:10:08] I mean, this is chaos all over the place.
[00:10:11] Right?
[00:10:12] Finally one sabaton song comes on that I know about the red baron and it's a really good
[00:10:15] song.
[00:10:16] And that comes on like, okay, great.
[00:10:18] Oh, I said, I said, I said, now this is power metal.
[00:10:21] This is real power metal.
[00:10:22] I don't know what that other shit was, but this is real power metal.
[00:10:26] And they're keep then continue to work away.
[00:10:28] This was supposed to be like a 15 minute procedure.
[00:10:29] We're like 30 minutes in now.
[00:10:32] And then the next song comes on and some other shitty band.
[00:10:34] I'm like, oh my god.
[00:10:35] This is terrible.
[00:10:36] I don't know what this is.
[00:10:38] And I am so sorry, I should have picked something else.
[00:10:41] They tried to use Siri on their phone to like change it and they couldn't because they're
[00:10:44] all gloved up now.
[00:10:45] They can't change it.
[00:10:46] They can't touch the phone right?
[00:10:47] Everything's secured.
[00:10:48] Clean sterile.
[00:10:51] So we're getting towards the end of this whole expedition with the shitty songs on here
[00:10:57] and I'm getting pulled and tugged and I'm still recovering a week later and I've got
[00:11:00] a four inch incision that's just nasty looking on my back.
[00:11:04] I mean, it's a clean job but I got big old stitches and a whole bunch of shit going on
[00:11:08] back there.
[00:11:09] It's bruised the fuck because clearly they had to work in a much wider area than I thought.
[00:11:14] But as they're getting done, as they're getting close to done, a song comes on and I'm like
[00:11:21] I think I know what this is because it sounds like pirate music and I'm like, I think
[00:11:28] I know this.
[00:11:29] And as I'm listening to it and as they're finishing up, it's like, I'm a fucking pirate.
[00:11:35] I'm a fucking pirate.
[00:11:37] Fucking pirate.
[00:11:38] I'm like, oh my god.
[00:11:40] What?
[00:11:41] I'm like, ladies, I am so sorry.
[00:11:42] I don't know.
[00:11:43] And they're like, I think we had enough and they are like, let's sew him up.
[00:11:46] And then one of them de-gloved and turned off the music.
[00:11:51] So I have for you today by the band Ails Storm, seventh rum of a seventh rum.
[00:11:58] And the song, the Battle of Cape Fear River is the one that we were listening to when
[00:12:03] they were playing.
[00:12:04] That's the one that turned off the music.
[00:12:06] Ails Storm is a great band.
[00:12:07] They have a great motif.
[00:12:08] They're actually a Scottish heavy metal band.
[00:12:13] And their stuff is always this sort of play on more mainstream, serious metal and they
[00:12:19] have this pirate devive to it.
[00:12:23] And they're great.
[00:12:24] They have a great aesthetic and it was the wrong time for this one, I think.
[00:12:32] But needless to say, I'm sure that that surgeon and that team will never forget the time that
[00:12:38] they were introduced to power metal by some asshole that they were having to cut open
[00:12:44] and work on who was like, let's listen to it.
[00:12:46] And it all ended with I'm a fucking pirate.
[00:12:49] So seventh rum of a seventh rum that is your metal album of the week by Ails Storm.
[00:12:59] Oh man, Ails Storm is a great band to listen to when you drink.
[00:13:04] Really great band.
[00:13:05] 100%.
[00:13:06] They're I've caught them over the years and they're definitely they have such a good attitude
[00:13:14] and it's such a it's such a it's such a welcome vein in the right setting.
[00:13:20] That's all I would say.
[00:13:21] So I did mention something about a Super Bowl earlier and I do have a raid segment that I
[00:13:29] need to make happen.
[00:13:30] So I'm just going to apologize ahead of time, Jess.
[00:13:34] I'm sorry.
[00:13:35] Let's rage.
[00:13:42] So as I said Sunday was the Super Bowl.
[00:13:45] But Jess, I don't expect you to know what that is, but it is it is American football.
[00:13:50] The two best teams supposedly get together and do it out for the championship for what
[00:13:54] they call the Super Bowl championship and they get what's called a Lombardi trophy, which
[00:13:59] was the name.
[00:14:00] Vince Lombardi was the first coach who won a Super Bowl with a great band.
[00:14:04] Right.
[00:14:05] They got a ring and they get a big ass ring, which we have a family friend who used to work
[00:14:08] for my favorite team who was in the Super Bowl.
[00:14:11] San Francisco 49ers and I've seen one of these in person and it's their fucking massive
[00:14:15] bro.
[00:14:16] Like you could crush your mountain with these things.
[00:14:17] I know I know about the ring because of ice Ventura.
[00:14:22] The first there you go.
[00:14:23] Ice Ventura pet detective.
[00:14:25] My 49ers beat Dan Marino's dolphins for that Super Bowl.
[00:14:29] And so there you go.
[00:14:31] So I've seen Super Bowl.
[00:14:33] I watched them all my life.
[00:14:34] Football fan number one.
[00:14:36] I grew up a 49er fan and great times in the 80s and 90s and the last time they won
[00:14:41] the Super Bowl was a 94 but they remained competitive for a long time.
[00:14:45] And we got back a couple of years ago, four years ago against the same team they played
[00:14:50] last weekend and then several years ago against another team.
[00:14:54] And it didn't go our way.
[00:14:57] It did not go our way.
[00:14:59] No.
[00:15:00] But it does.
[00:15:01] I've got to ask you, even if you knew nothing, nothing at all about this sport or any
[00:15:07] other would you think that as the coach as the head coach of a team that you should know
[00:15:16] the overtime rules if you were in the championship game of your given sport?
[00:15:21] I would have thought so.
[00:15:23] What what what what went down exactly right well in the Super Bowl or the playoffs one
[00:15:29] or both apparently there are different rules for overtime concerning how many times people
[00:15:36] get the ball and what happens if they score with it when they first get it in a regular
[00:15:41] season.
[00:15:42] There's a little complicated but if you kick a field goal which is three points with the
[00:15:47] first possession and overtime, the other team gets a chance to get the ball and go down
[00:15:51] and score if they score a touchdown which is where six points then they win if they kick
[00:15:56] a field goal and tie it again then they just play into whoever scores next sudden death.
[00:16:03] In the Super Bowl, if you score a touchdown with your first possession you don't automatically
[00:16:08] win the other team still gets a chance and that changes the calculus when you're trying
[00:16:15] to determine possession so they do a coin toss to determine who gets the ball first
[00:16:19] and knowing those rules will help a team determine should you keep the ball or should you give
[00:16:25] the ball away first and our dumbass coach choke artist Kyle Shanahan did know the rules.
[00:16:36] And after the game he and a couple of the players were like we didn't know the rules
[00:16:40] and I am beside myself with anger against all the grief I feel for once again blowing
[00:16:47] the biggest game of our lives.
[00:16:49] It didn't know the fucking rules as the head god damn coach and I don't know how that
[00:16:55] sounds like quite an esoteric kind of rule is that like a generally well known rule did
[00:17:01] you know the rule?
[00:17:03] I did not know that but I'm also not being paid millions of dollars to coach that
[00:17:08] yeah I suppose so but like most people know like most of the rules of like soccer as you guys
[00:17:16] call it.
[00:17:17] Yeah I love that you put the American accent on it good for you.
[00:17:21] When I'm watching soccer with my homeies but I get the impression that football, British
[00:17:31] football, European football well global football really is basically football in every other
[00:17:37] country except America.
[00:17:40] The rules are fairly simple kickball internet and then that's probably much better.
[00:17:48] But like American football when I have court it every now and then in TV show or you know
[00:17:56] just in passing it seems fairly complicated.
[00:18:00] It's very complicated and that's why they every one of these head coaches is supposed
[00:18:06] to be some mental level genius in order to come up with all the plays and scheme against
[00:18:13] all of these things.
[00:18:14] It's like this very brutal form of chess in a certain kind of way and especially the 49ers
[00:18:22] coach Kyle Shanahan he's supposed to be some sort of you know genius because his father
[00:18:27] was a head coach, won some super bowls and so now he's trying to live up to pops you
[00:18:32] know like a scene.
[00:18:35] It's just it's been bad.
[00:18:36] Now I was originally I was going to come on here and I was going to talk about how do
[00:18:40] you not make your fucking extra point kicks because our kicker Jake Moody is the like
[00:18:44] the worst kicker in history.
[00:18:46] Poor guys are rookie and he missed the most basic, easy extra point kick after touchdown
[00:18:50] and that could also won the game.
[00:18:52] But when you have people come on and say that they don't know the fucking rules and over
[00:18:56] time in the most important game of your life that's just this unforgivable does I don't
[00:19:03] know, I don't know and now we have to live with the stink and the shame and the ball and
[00:19:08] chain that is this game for the rest of our lives.
[00:19:12] Well explain this to me.
[00:19:17] Yes.
[00:19:18] What did Tyler Swift have to do with it?
[00:19:20] Honestly almost nothing other than the fact that she is dating one of the one of the best
[00:19:28] players on the Kansas City cheese which is the other team and they've been dating and
[00:19:34] she shows up at the games and so because she's like the biggest pop star in the world
[00:19:38] they show her on TV and she's gotten a lot of frankly she got a lot of women and girls
[00:19:43] interested in the game that never could have given a shit less.
[00:19:45] So their viewership is exploding so it becomes lost in the cacophony of you know, it's a secret
[00:19:54] ops government bullshit because like God forbid a famous woman showing up to football games
[00:20:01] that's supposed to be an exclusively masculine domain.
[00:20:03] I had so done.
[00:20:04] It couldn't give a shit like isn't annoying yeah it's annoying as hell like I'm there
[00:20:10] to watch the game.
[00:20:11] I'll give a shit who's in this dance like the whole celebrity culture around the NFL has
[00:20:14] gotten like way out of hand but you know what she's putting more people's attention on the
[00:20:20] game and that I think is good because I'm always happy to have more people like the game
[00:20:25] because it's my favorite.
[00:20:27] Well I suppose even I am vaguely aware of it because of the entire Swift drama so you
[00:20:35] know it's not a thing here at all like you don't see it on TV it's not on the news nobody
[00:20:43] but because of the title Swift stuff it's been like oh this is a thing now so I think you've
[00:20:48] even got like British British women watching it as well probably.
[00:20:52] See that's how big it is and the NFL is getting a little bigger in Europe so you know they'll
[00:20:58] take anything they can get but yeah there's like four people watching it now instead of two.
[00:21:03] That's right there's almost enough for one part of a bar one one one leg of a bar somewhere
[00:21:12] so that is your that is your rage segment for this week I know a lot of people are happy
[00:21:16] to choose one I'm not so I will be happy when baseball starts in a month but that's what
[00:21:22] we've got for now and we've got plenty of new stuff already taking up 20 minutes just talking
[00:21:26] about my garbage so let's talk about some new stuff and some actual Warcraft stuff the people
[00:21:30] tuned in for let's head into our news.
[00:21:42] Last time we were here it was a pretty somber affair because we were talking about all the layoffs
[00:21:47] and all the horrible shit that happened and surprised everybody.
[00:21:50] And there hasn't been a whole lot of news coming out like since but we have seen a few more
[00:21:59] people that have given their I don't know noticed so to speak or their job was affected in some way
[00:22:06] so there's still been more here and there that have trickled out it wasn't quite settled the last
[00:22:12] time we were here so there is still some more news coming about that but there was one name
[00:22:21] that has popped up recently that doesn't appear to have to do with the layoffs directly we don't
[00:22:27] know what actually happened here but Steve Denuser who was the like lead narrative person for World
[00:22:34] of Warcraft appears to have left Blizzard back in November and nobody knew.
[00:22:42] Nobody said anything there was no announcement of any kind the only reason that we finally picked
[00:22:47] up on it is I believe a Spanish news site picked up on his LinkedIn had been updated to say that he
[00:22:54] had been gone since November and that's all we know nobody else has said anything
[00:23:04] nobody else has commented on it and jazz you've been around a lot of these departure situations
[00:23:10] and to me this feels like either somebody got in trouble or they just really didn't want
[00:23:21] any kind of fanfare about it at all. Yeah it's a weird one I actually interviewed Steve Denuser
[00:23:30] I think I interviewed him twice over the years but there's different World of Warcraft expansions
[00:23:36] and patches and stuff it seems like a cool guy you know I didn't really get to speak to him
[00:23:42] in an informal capacity at all but he's been he's been the subject of quite a fair bit of
[00:23:48] criticism I would say from some corners of the World of Warcraft fandom people blaming for
[00:23:53] shallow lands and some of the you know the I don't know I hesitate people always call it fan
[00:24:01] fiction when they don't like the way a character has been written or the direction of characters
[00:24:06] gone in but fanfiction and Steve Denuser seem to seem to crop up in the same paragraphs of critique
[00:24:13] very often you know with regards to the way some of the characters are evolved or devolved over time
[00:24:19] I would say I don't know if it's fair honestly like I haven't had an intimate conversation with
[00:24:25] anyone a blizzard personally about who who was making the line share of some of those less popular
[00:24:34] decisions I would I would guess they was maybe a group effort and that Steve Denuser was scapegoord
[00:24:40] a little bit maybe but who knows maybe maybe it was all of his fault but um
[00:24:47] but yeah one of the big areas of criticism for where it has been the right in every
[00:24:51] years like people always say the arts great and on point like the gameplay's you know
[00:24:55] been decent the raids have been good and for the most part um
[00:25:01] shallow lands dropped off you know the art was still good in shallow lands I would say but
[00:25:05] shallow lands dropped off in multiple multiple ways I would think
[00:25:10] but the writing is something that's been criticized pretty much consistently for a quite a long time
[00:25:17] so um his departure was like I was like oh damn this is the guy everyone doesn't like
[00:25:25] that's kind of like I was surprised but also I don't know maybe not at the same time
[00:25:33] um I will I will say like just uh you know as an adendum to the the layoff story
[00:25:40] the FTC just before we get into Steve Denuser himself the FTC yeah the FTC is being scrutinized
[00:25:46] and it's and they've been trying to use it as part of the court case because they have
[00:25:50] the FTC for some reason they've got a serious bond to pick with Mark softbine Activision
[00:25:54] they think it's monopolistic behavior even though uh PlayStation 10% of very sort of companies
[00:26:01] uh non-American companies in fact are still bigger than Mark softbine revenue
[00:26:04] and even though Mark soft paid a massive premium for ABK and even though they've reported a
[00:26:09] 500 million operating loss from buying ABK which is not a good place to be if you're you know
[00:26:16] if you're Xbox Mark soft does not like its divisions operating at a loss ever
[00:26:22] so that's spooky but um apparently despite all that these layoffs were already pre planned by Activision
[00:26:30] and Mark softbine submitted you know under oath basically that that was the case um in a in a
[00:26:38] formal response to that so these laughs would have happened regardless and that that begs a question
[00:26:46] did Steve Denuser leave or was were they planning to let him go you know because I suppose good
[00:26:54] question um could this have been like you know sort of the mental like let's assume for example
[00:27:03] that Mark softbine does have evidence these layoffs were pre planned and I would presume they have
[00:27:08] if they've submitted that to a judge um yeah they wouldn't say that and then and then the judge
[00:27:15] asked for evidence or whatever and then be get proven wrong because you know Mark soft
[00:27:20] will be sure you don't need to lie to judge yeah you'll be stupid to lie to a judge in general but
[00:27:24] especially not when there's 75 billion dollars on the line so let's just assume that all the laughs
[00:27:31] were pre planned as um as he suggested and let's assume that Steve Denuser didn't leave that he was
[00:27:39] actually laid off is that because Chris medicines back on the scene run the show and there's a clash
[00:27:47] of ideologies a clash of ideas I after I after I have to wonder you know if I if I'm Steve Denuser
[00:27:54] and I've been responsible for the direction of the warcraft the warcraft sort of cannon as it were
[00:28:00] for the past god knows how many years and all of a sudden you know Mikey Barer brings Chris
[00:28:05] Metzenback and Chris Metzen's and the first the first point of call is yeah we're gonna we're gonna
[00:28:11] do us do a whole basically Chris Metzen cinematic universe I've written out three whole last
[00:28:18] expansions it's a whole story arc designed by me I'm presented at BlizzCon not Steve Denuser all
[00:28:24] this kind of stuff it felt like even back then Steve Denuser had been utterly utterly sidelined
[00:28:31] if he hadn't have left already by then anyway so it does kind of feel like um
[00:28:37] um uh this was possibly intentional I mean I do wonder like if um you know because when when
[00:28:45] you unsubscribe to world of warcraft they give you that little survey don't they where you can
[00:28:48] like submit reasons for leaving I've never unsubscribe I don't know
[00:28:52] do they is that what they do yeah they yeah they do yeah I haven't subscribed a couple of times
[00:28:57] over years and you do you do get a little survey a little question a like why did you leave and
[00:29:02] you know and you can you can talk about reasons why and I spoke one of the one of the bullet points
[00:29:06] I haven't unsubscribeed in a while now but back with the last time I did the one of the bullet points
[00:29:11] was like you know story and writing and stuff like that so as well as if they had metrics that
[00:29:16] one of the pain points for user retention was the quality of the writing and Steve Denuser
[00:29:22] was responsible for that then it kind of you know proceeds the idea that maybe he was fired on that
[00:29:29] basis but that is the purest form of speculation you know I have no idea why left he could have just
[00:29:38] been like screw this somehow don't want to work for Microsoft maybe maybe he's an apple guy you know
[00:29:43] he just prefers apples though um but that's what you're right it all we have a speculation and that's
[00:29:52] what's funny I think kind of seeing the fallout of this and people finding this out is now now
[00:29:58] everybody knows why everybody knows why he left or what he was responsible for or what's his fault
[00:30:08] when the one thing that I've discovered in my time playing this game and being around it as a
[00:30:14] content creator or what have you is most of us have no fucking clue what actually happens inside
[00:30:22] the halls of Blizzard like we don't know how work is divvyed up we don't know what the flow of
[00:30:28] knowledge is we don't know what the assignments are we don't know any of those things we know titles
[00:30:32] and we know faces when we see him in interviews and stuff but I have I have no earthly idea right now
[00:30:38] what he was actually responsible for what do you have the final say on now is is part of my fantasy
[00:30:46] that Chris Benson got mad because Arthas got done dirty and maybe had to you know make a sacrifice for that
[00:30:54] maybe you know I mean I wasn't happy about that was was was the was the retconning or whatever
[00:31:02] of Sylvanas my favorite no I didn't like that either is there some evidence that Stevie Denuser was
[00:31:11] was as the as the internet kids say a simp for Sylvanas and inserted himself as Nathanos into the story
[00:31:18] I don't know these things this is what I see in conversation none of us know these things it could be
[00:31:26] true it may very well be the furthest from the truth we just don't know and if nobody says anything
[00:31:32] and all we're left with is okay well here's my best guess and at the end of the day it may not matter
[00:31:39] my honest opinion is we know what happened with Alex of frasia we know there was a dumpster fire going
[00:31:44] on over there and we also know that they have to work years ahead when they're building these
[00:31:49] expansions so my honest gut feeling has always been was that Denuser and his team got handed whatever
[00:31:56] was left that when a frasia be got booted they tried to do the best they could to wrap up shadow
[00:32:02] lands and then to give us dragon fight was that was different it was fresh it was yes it was more
[00:32:07] light and familial and so it was more Disney more soul bearing like all of those things right
[00:32:16] but up until recently people were along for the ride people were pretty happy with dragon flight
[00:32:22] and now that it's kind of winding down I noticed a lot of people having criticism that
[00:32:27] well now that now that we're looking at it now now we've had you know the clarity of hindsight
[00:32:32] well now this was a problem and that was a problem and I'm not saying they're wrong it's just
[00:32:38] I think he did a pretty good job for what he had and was it what I would have done no was it
[00:32:43] would have what other people would have done clearly not but just because something like you mentioned
[00:32:48] just because something doesn't match my head cannon doesn't make it wrong and it doesn't make it bad
[00:32:55] it just makes it different a lot of the time now I know that there's people who have done deep
[00:32:59] lore dives and there's inconsistencies and there's problems across stuff and I'm not saying that
[00:33:03] there isn't but what I am saying is that I think that we've gotten a pretty good deal up to this
[00:33:09] point and if the company decided they were going to do something different make it even better to
[00:33:13] do the Chris Metz and fucking Infinity War saga are I'm fine like I'm okay with that I just I wish
[00:33:22] Stevie Stevie Dan well and you know hopefully hopefully he's okay I'm sure he'll land somewhere
[00:33:29] yeah I mean you kind of you kind of said it right that they've had a mess to salvage in some ways but
[00:33:37] for you hopefully lands well I'm sure I'm sure he'll he'll he'll write himself something
[00:33:45] Nathanos the one is fanfic and get him actually really like Nathanos man I did too
[00:33:53] my laptop's named Nathanos in the in the in windows all my devices have got like different
[00:34:02] who's the simp now oh god
[00:34:07] I love it well in the meantime some of his I assume some of his work finally came to light
[00:34:13] here with patch 10.2.5 which we have not even talked about yet because of all the other bullshit
[00:34:21] that's been going on we talked about it I think our first show that it was that it was
[00:34:28] a first show together here of the year that it was coming and then there was a bunch of stuff in
[00:34:32] it and we'd talk about it when it happened and then the floor fell out from beneath this and so now
[00:34:37] here we are patch 10.2.5 it's been out for a little while once you've probably played through it
[00:34:43] and forgot about it but we're gonna we're gonna cover some stuff here so if you remember this
[00:34:48] a great if this is news to you then awesome thank you for getting your news from Unchirical Theory
[00:34:53] I really appreciate so first and foremost out of the gate the biggest thing certainly when I saw it
[00:35:00] and when the patch hit I knew this wasn't going to do first is the reclamation of Gilnayus
[00:35:07] that was that was the biggest that was the brightest star for me because it's a zone that I think
[00:35:15] is super cool and it's one that's underused and just from an alliance side like yes let's get it
[00:35:19] back let's make it a city let's do the thing let's close Gens storyline to an extent we've been
[00:35:28] following us since I'm cataclysm let's let's go let's get this let's get this done and so it gave
[00:35:33] us an opportunity to play through a quest line where ordinary alliance meet up there's the scarlet
[00:35:42] crusade the scarlet forces whatever they're there in Gilnayus we're gonna blow up some gates and
[00:35:47] we're gonna kill some dudes and we're gonna fight back and we're gonna reclaim Gilnayus and
[00:35:53] and what I thought was honestly a surprisingly short quest line um yeah it was we got it we got
[00:36:02] it done it was great you know we fought the scarlet leader who turned into this massive light elemental
[00:36:07] and we had a battle and all of that but before I get to the very very end I I hate to say I was
[00:36:16] a little underwhelmed I thought there was gonna be more yes that's me being married to my own thoughts
[00:36:27] but I thought there would be more where are you I mean first of all yeah I thought there'd
[00:36:36] been more too but I think part of it is like the night I was got a whole like patch cycle and rage
[00:36:43] dedicated to reclaiming their home yeah right and so it's sort of like
[00:36:52] do you watch the WWE off not as much as I used I've been kind of slowly getting back into it but
[00:36:59] I'm well aware of existing storylines and personalities but it's kind of like it's kind of like in
[00:37:04] the WWE where like you build you build the someone up and you know they're up and coming and then
[00:37:12] you sort of you sort of throw them under the bus for whatever reason you know it was just the
[00:37:17] Cody roads I suppose that's what's on my mind yeah but um but it was just kind of like we had this
[00:37:24] this big build up to what a city reclamation patch should look like with um with uh you know
[00:37:34] the emerald dream the whole thing and then we get this sort of five minute little god I think I had
[00:37:41] that whole thing done in like maybe less than 10 minutes with weak with weak everything like what
[00:37:48] honestly like I add this kind of feeling with the forsaken the forsaken heritage quest line kind
[00:37:54] of ties into the reclamation of Gilnaths I don't know if you don't know if you knew that but I
[00:37:59] went and did the the forsaken heritage quest line on my priest and I was pretty disappointed with
[00:38:06] that but it was like yeah whatever it's a heritage quest line or whatever but it's like the scarlet
[00:38:11] crusades back in force and it's like wait what how where why when how did this happen why is the
[00:38:19] scarlet crusade back we how many more times we teach you this lesson old man kind of think about
[00:38:26] the scarlet crusade it's just it just kind of feels like they they shuffle the deck of cards and
[00:38:30] was like we need a villain that makes some vague kind of sense to being a lauder on the only one
[00:38:36] that makes any sense is the scarlet crusade but at the same time it doesn't make any sense really
[00:38:42] why why all of a sudden they've managed to recruit presumably millions of new soldiers to assault
[00:38:50] the undercity by themselves um didn't make a whole lot of sense but I was just like yeah whenever
[00:38:58] it's just a heritage quest line right I was disappointed though because some of the heritage quest lines
[00:39:03] are really cool the all the all heritage quest line is one of the best quest lines in the whole game
[00:39:08] I think and then the forsaken quest the heritage quest line is just lame um but then it was like
[00:39:15] it was sort of like a follow on like the the Gilmast reclamations a follow on from the heritage quest
[00:39:19] line it's like okay you push push the scarlet crusade out from the undercity and now they've been pushed
[00:39:25] all the way back to back to Gilmast where they've been apparently hanging out in secret for since
[00:39:31] cataclysm which nobody knew because most people were using Gilmast for furry erotic roleplay reasons
[00:39:42] but um uh part of it all open yeah so in canon all the all the organ hanging around in
[00:39:52] in Gilnayas on the RPS service we're actually hanging around with Scarlet Crusade crusaders apparently
[00:39:58] building an army all this time which you know the horned alliance summarily show up and
[00:40:04] immediately decimate in mere seconds and then you've got this whole sort of new thing which is like
[00:40:11] the light void elemental monstrosity thing which is also got people confused it's like
[00:40:19] like what is that exactly it's a void walker but it's also a light thing and I know those
[00:40:27] they've they've shown up before and um I think they're in what's that zone they're in
[00:40:32] Revendreff aren't they I think those sort of light thingy magi's void walkers if I remember right
[00:40:38] um don't really know the real nature of them are they just are they actually anything to do
[00:40:45] the void walker or is it just a convenient model to recolor and stuff like that you never know
[00:40:50] sometimes and blizzards always like yeah gameplay comes first overwriting and we know they're
[00:40:55] painfully well that gameplay comes first over writing and stuff but this felt like a real opportunity
[00:41:02] a missed opportunity to you know do some justice to the zone maybe update the art have a like full
[00:41:11] patch out of it may you know like if they'd if they'd kick the can down the road and maybe like
[00:41:16] the war within you could have like a whole you could have a whole patch dedicated to silver pie
[00:41:23] and maybe where like the world like you know how the forbidden reach patch was where it's like
[00:41:29] you could have like a whole patch to you know there's an explain a bit more why the scholar crusades
[00:41:35] there and you know and then have like world quest there maybe add a dungeon or two there you
[00:41:41] know um to sort of flesh out the lore of that zone and sort of do it the do it just do it just this
[00:41:48] in the way that you did the night elf reclamation storyline you know so it does feel like this horrible
[00:41:55] missed and rushed opportunity where they were just kind of like we need something for this patch and
[00:42:01] we've sort of married ourselves to this road map which you know is cooling one sense but at the same
[00:42:09] time it's like the fact that you were so aggressive in pursuing this particular road map has now left
[00:42:15] us with this sort of off-baked content which for anyone who's you know passionate about their
[00:42:23] their character or their war going or the lore around that it leaves a bit you know a real sour taste
[00:42:30] in the mouth right it's kind of like okay so night elves are what what blizzard saying there is
[00:42:35] night elves at night elves are super important to us wargans not so much you know yeah
[00:42:41] stuff like that orcs are really important to us forsaken not so much you know and and people aren't
[00:42:48] even happy about what the night elves are getting like the night elves aren't even happy about what
[00:42:52] they've got they got a lot yeah yeah I mean I know night elves are unhappy because it's not tell
[00:42:58] dresser you know and it's yeah it's like I don't think I personally don't think that's a big deal
[00:43:03] that it's not tell dresser I mean tell dresser burnt to a crisp for god's sake oh man
[00:43:10] go over it you know you look you're lucky you're lucky you get you get this tree back you know oh my goodness
[00:43:17] oh listen this is what I was right you know by the way anybody that listened to the first episode of this
[00:43:23] show please understand that it was a full on joke about not knowing jazz is a horde line person because
[00:43:33] man has a fucking horde tattoo right on his forearm it's hard to miss yes I love the case dude I
[00:43:42] loved the whole I know people were freaking out so bad about bath rath and the tree burning down
[00:43:48] and that whole thing I loved that patch I was like yes this is why I've been waiting for all
[00:43:55] these years is a actual serious war between the one alliance war and what baby I loved it I was like
[00:44:03] yes this is what I always knew Sylvanas was waiting to do you know all the hints that she was actually
[00:44:11] actually a psycho evil bitch you know and now here it is fully at least I love that whole lot but
[00:44:19] there's so many people like oh no not my wife who you know I was like oh come on they're not
[00:44:24] they're not gonna give her how can you read how can you be redeemed from genocide you can't do
[00:44:31] it there's no there's no coming back from this but they still tried it's just like
[00:44:37] there's no way she should she should have been killed by Malfurion or Tyrande or something like
[00:44:45] in a battle to the death and then you know it should have been something like that not this sort of
[00:44:52] wimpy little like and as well as in the horde the forsaken heritage quest line Sylvanas appears I
[00:44:59] mean this is spoilers for anyone who cares about the heritage quest line but Sylvanas appears at
[00:45:04] the end of it and she's just like yeah I'm still doing my penance in the in the in the what's it called
[00:45:13] the law in the more I'm still getting all the souls back and it makes me feel you know redeemed
[00:45:19] or whatever I can't even remember what she said I was just like rolling my eyes so hard I was like
[00:45:24] that's not my Sylvanas that's not my Sylvanas my Sylvanas would be for me laying some kind of plan
[00:45:31] to get out there she'd be harvesting the souls and using that power power to grow a new army and then come
[00:45:38] back or something the new jaylor just like we always intended yeah the new jaylor this maybe she
[00:45:43] could yeah man that could have been so cool but no they're turning into turn her into this little
[00:45:50] weed and it's really depressing I even I was so desperate for context about the whole I'm going
[00:45:56] off from around here and apologize I was so desperate for context about Sylvanas I actually read
[00:46:00] the book the Sylvanas book and I hate I hate reading dude I hate reading so much as a man who is
[00:46:08] a managing editor of a major news website yeah yeah I'm a vessel right but I hate reading I hate
[00:46:14] reading it's so boring I'm like this is why we have video games this is why we have television show
[00:46:19] so I don't have to think while I'm while I'm indulging no I'm with you but I'm so desperate for
[00:46:24] for resolution with Sylvanas I read that whole last book and there was just nothing just this
[00:46:28] weird story about lava worms and shit and I was just like oh my god it's just there's nothing
[00:46:35] here there's no hope you got to learn about the brother and the whole the whole thing but yeah no I
[00:46:41] to bring us back of course here I think that I think I pretty much there's no daylight between us
[00:46:50] on the gill nays opportunity um and what more there could have been that being said because
[00:46:58] I'm a sucker for this stuff it does end in a cutscene with test and again where one again
[00:47:09] turn Gregory and the crew always upping these in-game cutscenes and now like
[00:47:14] freaking again has like you know that little part of the corner your eye like your tear ducts
[00:47:17] like they've now added those into the models I mean they just keep adding these little things
[00:47:21] it's making all I mean once again the art is amazing and the art is saving it and they had a little
[00:47:29] scene there that I again I probably give too much emotion to all this stuff but I thought it was
[00:47:37] a really touching scene that they that they crafted there where Gens put on blast for essentially
[00:47:43] taking his daughter for granted and you know always being there and being a badass he's off fighting
[00:47:49] another war taking another surrogate kid or doing some other shit and for anybody that's ever been
[00:47:56] kind of left behind by a parent you know that that shit runs deep and so to kind of have that
[00:48:02] little moment between them where he you know tries to set things right understands that he fucked up
[00:48:09] and then hands the keys literally to her where she's now in charge of gill nays and effectively ending
[00:48:16] his I think storyline to a good point where it feels like a lot of this and we'll get to this with the
[00:48:24] next part of the patch that was really what really consequential it feels like the starting to
[00:48:31] turn over who the leadership is throughout the game where it's not going to be again it's
[00:48:38] gonna be tests for the night elves like that's going to be changing like there you can see that
[00:48:44] there is an evolution that is happening here and they've talked about how you know shadow lands was
[00:48:49] closing of chapter or closing a whole part of a book or whatever the fucking euphemism they used
[00:48:54] and then dragon flight is kind of like moving that forward a little bit further and
[00:49:01] that to me feels like that probably is a good idea that we're starting to get new people in places
[00:49:07] where we can tell fresh stories or have different takes different lenses on what we're going to be
[00:49:13] doing so that part that part I like that part I like quite a bit because then I was just mentioning
[00:49:23] that feeds into the sort of the next part which is bellumeth which is that night elf city that
[00:49:29] whole area which your voice was echoing through my brain as I was going through this it is very much
[00:49:35] a starter zone all the language that's being used all the stuff that they've put in there like
[00:49:41] there's very much a starter zone when you get in there's some there's some short quests and
[00:49:49] when you get into the patch there's some short quests that have these epilogue videos and some
[00:49:56] other things going on some little you know stay a while and listen type situations where there's
[00:50:01] some characters talking like calligos and catgar have a little chat calligos is stepping down from
[00:50:08] the council of say which is like bro you're an aspect you don't need to be doing this shit anymore so
[00:50:13] don't worry about it um this some other conversations with the black dragon flight but it was really
[00:50:18] it was that it was the the three kind of cinematics again that they had uh that start to
[00:50:26] really put that final nail in the story of dragon flight and get that turn going towards war within
[00:50:34] um
[00:50:37] for Bella meth
[00:50:39] essentially it's now fury and finally comes back because we'd wondered about that you know now
[00:50:44] that the trade with the sarah had been made you know where was my fury and my fury and comes back
[00:50:48] the ron runs and jumps in his arms and they kiss and swing around and it's a whole scene and
[00:50:54] I thought it was nice you know even though I think my fury is like the most deadbeat husband of all time
[00:50:59] it was nice to see that there's love between them and that uh you know they're adopted daughter
[00:51:05] right that she's there and uh you know that they're they're bringing her in and like yes
[00:51:11] we love you too and guess what you're in charge because we're gonna be over here in this hot
[00:51:15] fucking for like the next hour many years I mean clearly they're they're they're they're saying
[00:51:20] something about you know they need some alone time and we know what that means um but having
[00:51:25] having chandras now step into that leadership role is what that very much feels like where
[00:51:31] taurana's like yes we're here at Bella meth and we have these other sacred places and they even drop
[00:51:35] the you know when something happens on the ash and shores of tell dress ill will be there too
[00:51:39] which seems to be another like maybe in the distance tell dress ill come back um what it's that
[00:51:45] it's that handoff after that uh cinematic this little chitchat there where they're like you know
[00:51:53] we're taking a break we're gonna go over here to the sex hut they don't call it that I'm just
[00:51:57] calling their their their they're just gonna be over here spend as quality alone time and you're in
[00:52:02] charge so now we have yet another one coming in and so I look at those I look at andewen finally
[00:52:10] coming back into the fold is this you know he's he's fucked up but he's still young um
[00:52:15] it's just that that that change over now of the old guard to the new some of it is clunky
[00:52:24] but I like it I like that they're moving the story forward in that way um and before we get to
[00:52:31] the other two sort of epilogue parts of this I just wanted to to to button this one up here
[00:52:38] what did you think of this part of the story this part of the epilogue is it is it satisfying
[00:52:45] at all for you or are you just like all right let's just let's just be done and get out of here
[00:52:48] I'm just thinking about which alliance leader i'm gonna kill first frankly
[00:52:53] motherfucker uh well it's it's kind of annoying to be honest um because
[00:53:02] it's it gives me like I mean are you familiar with anime at all like do you know like the the whole
[00:53:11] drama between Naruto and Boruto when that because they did this yeah that's basically the
[00:53:20] narrative I haven't watched the narrator on myself but this is whole meme about her like
[00:53:24] because a narrator has like a million episodes and like they do this in Naruto as well it's like
[00:53:29] they passed the torch on to his son Boruto where his name is and everyone hated it you know
[00:53:36] so it's like we want the OGs back we want the OGs back so I think like it it'll become like a classic
[00:53:42] coat moment where people are like you know we want the we want these all characters back and I do
[00:53:48] realize that some of them are actually getting old like again Gray Man I suppose he's actually aging
[00:53:55] but there's a lot of there's a lot of my elves and they don't they don't really age to the same
[00:54:00] level they're not in the same time scale you know I mean I'm not even sure what the status is
[00:54:06] night elves immortalities now do they get it back and have the trees back or oh well I don't know
[00:54:12] I don't think so I don't think they're immortal again yeah I think it's just really long lived
[00:54:17] yeah so well even still like that they're really long lived it's like yeah okay I mean
[00:54:21] to Randers that I mean some of these characters have earned a break sure I mean she needs a break
[00:54:27] more than anybody she needs a break like she better be getting a rub down as some serious
[00:54:32] service in that hut well she's earned that shit a hundred times over they actually posted a picture
[00:54:39] of what they're up to on on Twitter I don't know if you saw this but they they posted like a
[00:54:47] a selfie photograph from a goblin camera of the three of them to Ronda Malfurian and Shandris
[00:54:57] doing a spotter garden in in Balameth a really really sweet little like a little photograph you know
[00:55:04] I thought that's a great that's so lovely isn't it that's so nice and cute and a lioncy with
[00:55:10] the little plants popping off there imagine if there's a big barrel of blight poured all over that
[00:55:18] yeah but it's but yeah I don't know man because I wouldn't mind it so much right if they weren't
[00:55:26] homogenising the storyline between the lines and horde because that's kind of like that's
[00:55:33] a big hook for me and it always has been I think it will be for a lot of the OG players who come in
[00:55:37] from Warcraft 3 right exactly I want the horned lines to kill each other that's that's what I mean
[00:55:43] that's why me but I believe in the factions yeah they're sort of yeah they're moving away from it
[00:55:49] I think partially because there's not enough many players as they were and like having combined
[00:55:55] cues makes it much easier and quicker to find a group and stuff like that and but I'm kind of
[00:56:01] like you can do that anyway because all the players are kind of we are playing as mercenaries at
[00:56:08] the end of the day it's not like you know it's not like we're a lioncy and horde soldiers we're all
[00:56:13] playing as mercenaries you know an adventurer's and treasure hunters really so like I mean you could
[00:56:20] still have the merged cues and just sort of imagine that you're working with a mercenary lion
[00:56:25] or whatever which have existed in the law since forever you know without compromising the full
[00:56:33] blow on faction war or you know you could do something clever like move it to like a shadow
[00:56:38] faction war where there's still you know pockets of the horned lines that do want to scrap and
[00:56:44] you know and because that again happens in real life you have proxy wars you know I would like
[00:56:52] after two decades of fighting over rathy highlands with the defylands really just be like yeah okay
[00:56:58] we're all sunshine and rainbows and lollipops now you know like it feels like that I'm giving a lot
[00:57:06] a thought to this and again it comes back to that whole sort of idea of like they're just
[00:57:11] rushing it out rushing out content without a great deal of consideration for the overarching
[00:57:18] narrative there potentially you know but maybe there's an opportunity there for you know Chris
[00:57:24] Metson to bring a bit more imagination to proceedings about how all this works without compromising
[00:57:30] warcraft's historical identity you know maybe we'll see cracks and fishes and tension appear
[00:57:37] again someday because it's not like they're going to turn PVP or backgrounds off is it you know
[00:57:43] um you know and there's still you know going to be there's still going to have to be like
[00:57:49] battleground vendors and stuff what I wonder what they'll be saying you know when
[00:57:54] when they're kind of like in the war within in a world where there's this you know supposed tree
[00:58:02] you know what will they say what would what would the law be just the bad kids that can't be helped
[00:58:07] yeah but yeah like stuff like that I don't know when you're bad you can just go fight now
[00:58:12] to wreck the energy out yeah something like that but um I suppose like you know just to round it
[00:58:19] off the the homogeneity I'm getting at really is the fact that all the characters feel the same
[00:58:25] right now like the the the major faction leaders like they're they're all like what what what
[00:58:31] is their motivation now like just defending Azeroth and stuff you know I've we've got and it's
[00:58:37] the same on both factions too like the even the forsaken faction leaders are soft and you know
[00:58:44] the the orc faction leaders are soft and you know I don't even know the troll faction rock and like
[00:58:49] who who's it what is it you know he's dude from the comics or something hanging out in zander
[00:58:54] Laura I don't know yeah yeah I'm not I'm probably if I need to load a troll trosa I'm not really
[00:58:59] that familiar with trod law because I don't care where trolls but don't worry nobody's the show anyway
[00:59:04] it's fine but yeah yeah I just um I'm not no I think you would you and I are very much on the same
[00:59:12] page because I've always been like keep the war and warcraft but I will tell you the predominant
[00:59:18] comment I hear and it's like 90 plus percent of the people do not care about faction conflict they
[00:59:24] don't want it they want to break down the barriers they want to be able to break cross-faction they
[00:59:28] want cross-faction gills they want cross-faction everything to the point where like they break it
[00:59:33] down but I you know some of us have to be hold out just yeah some of us have to hold the wall there
[00:59:38] I really think with a bit of imagination you could do both you know with a bit of bit of
[00:59:43] bit of you know the head cannon like I say it could be yeah we've got some alliance
[00:59:48] make race mercenaries in our horde guild you know and and stuff like that but I don't know hopefully
[00:59:56] someone at Blizzard will you know figure it all out because I do think the games lost a lot of its
[01:00:02] identity over recent years and all the faction leaders are the same there's no motive there's no
[01:00:08] like there's no like there's no scheming anymore like Sylvanas was always scheming and again had
[01:00:15] these grudges and you know Gaurosh was scheming and where's Gallywix gone he's just completely vanished
[01:00:22] and you know and I suppose the most interesting character right now really is Anduin like I kind of
[01:00:30] feel like he's undoing gonna go off the rails he's gonna go mental I'd love that that'll be great
[01:00:36] that'll be that'll be really interesting but um I'm here soon yeah we will and and to that end just
[01:00:44] the wrap of the last two sort of epilogue parts one is that we got one more I don't know sit down with
[01:00:50] the aspects where they gave us praise and declared as champion champion of the dragon flights
[01:00:56] uh uh the you know and that was it right and then there wasn't even a title and then they
[01:01:02] patched in a title they hot fixed in a title so now you walk around like yes I am the champion
[01:01:06] of the dragonfly or whatever um which is fine and then it's you know it's feel good stuff which for
[01:01:13] me it's fine I know it's not for everybody and that's cool too but the third and final one that I
[01:01:18] want to touch on is the most consequential and it is clearly the one where it's like this is
[01:01:23] the end of dragon flight this is the beginning of the war within is the one between Viranoth
[01:01:27] and a riddekron where you see Viranoth is summoned gets a summons from a riddekron and then they go
[01:01:34] meet on a snowy mountain peak that he basically blows up as he comes over it and they confirm yes
[01:01:41] the ties of the of the incarnates you know has ended and and she's scolding him for what he's doing
[01:01:48] in a rickance basically like yeah I don't know what the voice doing but I trust that they're out
[01:01:52] to do some shit and I just want to kill the Titans wipe them out and sounds like we're all
[01:01:56] reminded that so uh stay out of my way and that's the fun little teda teth that they have uh I love
[01:02:04] a riddekron as a character yeah I'm there not this character I love I'm gonna miss for rock like
[01:02:10] they were all good they were they were all great so I look forward to more of a riddekron like in
[01:02:16] the future but I really appreciated that they actually did something that was like very clearly
[01:02:21] like this is the turn of the story to the next thing that we are doing ever doing it now
[01:02:28] so I really enjoyed that but uh what was your take on that yeah man I agree on a riddekron
[01:02:37] Viranoth and for rock I thought they're really well written characters overall and I was some
[01:02:42] people kind of some people were kind of hoping that the expansion would basically be we go and kill
[01:02:48] each one of them off but I feel like that would be a waste you know they're too good like yeah especially
[01:02:55] like your riddekron strikes me as like really really really cool and smart and interesting
[01:03:03] and a little bit more complicated to villain than perhaps some of the you know well the J-Layer
[01:03:10] suppose um so yeah like I do wonder but again it's kind of like I've been I've been down the
[01:03:20] road before where it's like okay but Savanas is up to something really clever here she's up
[01:03:25] to something really clever here she's gonna be okay that's a bit weird but it's all part of the
[01:03:29] plan it's fine it's it's gonna be good yeah that was a bit weird but I'm sure Savan oh god
[01:03:35] she didn't have a plan at all there was no plan nothing there was no plan at all so um yeah so
[01:03:41] maybe this this whole stuff with the riddekron apply it the same way where they're just that you
[01:03:44] know they can't stick the landing or whatever but for now I'm just gonna kind of enjoy it and see
[01:03:49] where it all goes you know I mean there's the the whole stuff is Zalatath Naifu and the void
[01:03:56] and oh we got we got the next five six years of that shit coming it's gonna be wild man it's gonna
[01:04:03] be wild it's gonna be wild that is definitely gonna be wild so that that sort of wraps up
[01:04:09] dragon flight as a story and time will tell and it seems that there was a little bit of a
[01:04:15] visionous history I feel like happening but the honest criticism as well it's coming but I
[01:04:20] feel like overall it's been it's been pretty solid as we head into this next mega super met's
[01:04:26] an arc and whatever comes with it and obviously we'll be what we're talking about that but that
[01:04:31] was not the only thing that happened in 1025 we also got a few more things one maybe the best one
[01:04:39] dragon riding became available worldwide and it's at a I think I think they still kept the
[01:04:46] slightly reduced speed but quite honestly I don't notice because I have been jamming around on my
[01:04:53] dragon riding mounts almost exclusively they have now the distinction here right is not it's not
[01:04:59] the old flying mount not the static flying mounts where do they call it those have not yet been given
[01:05:04] the ability to drag and ride that's war with it this now is that we can use our dragon riding mounts
[01:05:09] basically all over the place and doing the there's a quest for the lunar festival holiday that's going
[01:05:16] on right now if you didn't know the nr. festival happening right now also loving is in the air
[01:05:20] is happening right now for another week or so you have to like charge this staff so you have to go
[01:05:25] all these moon wells all around calendor first time I've ever really seen calendor
[01:05:34] from a great height since they've done all of the lighting and changes and everything and so to do
[01:05:40] the dragon riding we also kind of get like that zoomed out a sort of effect when you speed up and
[01:05:46] so to see it all coming kind of down from Hyjal like down into that southern part of calendor
[01:05:51] was rad is fuck it was so much fun and it reminds me partially why I love this game so much it's just
[01:06:00] so much fun to ride around and see these places and and just kind of enjoy going around and just doing
[01:06:05] the simple quest but it's just fun just riding around and I kind of forget sometimes because being a
[01:06:10] raider almost exclusively it's always like what's the next thing push for this get this load this
[01:06:15] up you know grind this out it's sometimes I forget to just stop and have fun as you know the pandaren
[01:06:20] thing like slow down touch digital grass what's that to take you forget to touch some digital grass
[01:06:29] yes touch some digital grass that's right I did that and it was fun so dragon riding here to stay
[01:06:37] it's it's fucking rad um I assume you love it too yeah dragon riding awesome like this is one of
[01:06:44] this is one this has been one of my biggest criticisms criticisms of the modern world and that's
[01:06:50] this this idea that nothing you earn sticks with you it's always borrow power this borrow power
[01:06:55] that yeah you know but um rightfully so it seems to be moving away from that and we move in
[01:07:01] towards permanent expansion additions like dragon riding is going to be here to stay forever the new
[01:07:07] profession system is going to be here to stay forever you know not perfect on professions and hopefully
[01:07:13] they do improve them because they basically shipped this whole profession system then barely
[01:07:18] touched it for all of dragon flight which I think it was a bit of a shame but um but I'm much more
[01:07:26] excited about permanent additions to the game than these temporary things like you know stuff in
[01:07:31] the past that like you know island expeditions and war fronts and all that kind of stuff which just
[01:07:36] wasn't that didn't have the longevity I suppose but um you know it's uh yeah like I haven't tried
[01:07:44] dragon riding calmed or yet myself we're kind of on a rating break at the moment we do that every season
[01:07:50] when we basically kill we basically get ahead of the curve and then we all take a break from the
[01:07:56] game um yeah um it works really well for our guild like it's really really cool um but uh but yeah
[01:08:05] I'm looking forward to seeing what they're doing next with that stuff like there isn't the
[01:08:09] the expectation that they're gonna do um they're gonna do a more physics based ground
[01:08:18] riding I think I'm sure they either announce that please come on or someone discovered it in
[01:08:23] the files or something good but um the more interactive riding is so much more immersive than just
[01:08:29] like the speed boost aspect of it so make your feel just more involved in the game in general it's a
[01:08:35] really great addition I love it more it's more alive and it's fantastic meanwhile um I have not touched
[01:08:42] Azerothian archives the people I've seen playing it have not given it rave reviews so I don't
[01:08:47] know that I'm going to touch it so I don't really know I have much to say about it at all
[01:08:51] I looked at the rewards and just like nah yeah I'm good so if you're enjoying it great I'm sorry
[01:08:59] I have nothing else to say it doesn't sound like either it was due uh but the follower dungeons to
[01:09:05] to button this up that I did enjoy quite a bit and I will fully admit I had a couple of dungeon
[01:09:12] quests that I've had since I leveled a year ago that I haven't done and I did them on my own and
[01:09:17] it was awesome and I am I'm very happy with how that AI tech is working out and I know it'll only
[01:09:25] get better and maybe we can do some you know mythic zeros or plus ones or some low level shit um
[01:09:31] but I thought it was great I really had a good time being able to turn it over to them and just
[01:09:37] DPS and do my thing and like not have to worry about people's bullshit I enjoyed it immensely
[01:09:44] so it's pretty cool I'm very happy that it's around um I know we are running up on time here we
[01:09:53] have a few more things for you folks uh patch 10.2.6 looks like it's coming out in March um we'll see
[01:09:59] what that looks like and then there were some hero talent previews and some other stuff uh that
[01:10:04] we can get to next time so uh including trading post ratings I owe all of you we owe all of you
[01:10:10] uh January and February don't worry we have time we will get to it there's one more episode of
[01:10:15] February and multiple um so before we go I is a bit of a personal note uh I just wanted to
[01:10:26] to lay on here because it's like a podcast I can do this um
[01:10:32] this week in fact in three days I'm gonna be flying out to uh for lack of a better term
[01:10:42] as I understand it uh memorial service for a member of my guild a member a long time member
[01:10:49] of my rating team and a member of our leadership team uh he went by the name
[01:10:55] rasklin and I still to this very moment don't know his real name I don't know what he did as an
[01:11:05] occupation I don't know uh his wife raised with us I don't know her name either their child raised
[01:11:11] with us I don't know their name either all I know was screen names all I know is character names
[01:11:16] it's all we've ever known that's always ever shared with us um a guy that was super secretive but
[01:11:22] with somebody who was such an integral part of our team uh had the greatest wit and uh such an
[01:11:30] awesome voice and he was such a he was such a treasured person uh to have around and
[01:11:37] when we lost him before Christmas it was a shock to the team uh it effectively ended our raid team
[01:11:44] um we don't really raid as a team anymore um so it was it was it was quite a blow um
[01:11:55] and I've had some time to reflect on that just for myself um
[01:12:00] um
[01:12:02] it's a funny thing what we do here sometimes where
[01:12:08] you know growing up we weren't supposed to play video games as adults it's something
[01:12:12] that you were supposed to stop as a kid and as I got older and I found warcraft especially
[01:12:17] and I kept playing and well I kept getting older well so did everybody else that I played with
[01:12:23] and I found people decades older than me playing this game and I was always shocked early on
[01:12:29] like wow really you're like 50 playing this game yeah playing this game and it and it really
[01:12:35] became clear to me that meeting people online and joining guilds and having friendships and raid
[01:12:43] teams and all this stuff like it is we have created a different kind of societal architecture for
[01:12:52] ourselves where these relationships are as legitimate as anything that we have offline
[01:12:59] and the proof of that is that out of
[01:13:07] out of the five of us four of us will be there to honor the fifth
[01:13:12] in person in their house with their family
[01:13:17] and I'm very honored that they're allowing us to do that I didn't know if they would feel comfortable
[01:13:26] um but it was something that if we had the opportunity to do I knew I was going to
[01:13:31] and even if that means traveling a distance and potentially some perilous weather I don't give a
[01:13:37] fuck I'm running a four wheel drive I'll make it work um but to be able to do that you know it's
[01:13:44] very special and you know for all of us that have these friendships treasure them cultivate them
[01:13:52] appreciate them because it's easy to hide behind a screen name it's easy to hide behind the keyboard
[01:13:59] it's easy to hide behind sort of this anonymity uh but if you open yourself up and you allow
[01:14:04] yourself to be open in that way um there's some really great experiences waiting for you out there
[01:14:10] uh to rasteland to his family love y'all miss you and uh I'll see all of you uh very very soon
[01:14:18] all right I think we've done enough damage for one episode so for those of you who are for
[01:14:26] those who don't already know sorry where can the good people find you on the internet jaz
[01:14:32] yes you can uh find me on twitter that's jaz cordon jaz z z z or d and or j easy as the american say
[01:14:44] um and uh i will summon those central that come so uh yeah rockin a rollin um
[01:14:52] I mean be nice to him god damn it don't the Xbox motherfuckers need to calm down that's all I'm
[01:14:59] gonna say yeah yeah there's all sorts of crazy stuff going on the Xbox world right now but um
[01:15:04] but you're totally right about like the friendships we make in game and stuff and you know I remember
[01:15:10] when i started playing this isn't an 18 year old or 17 year old there was a there was a dude in our
[01:15:16] guild who was in his 30s and we called him grams which is laughable now because he's like everyone
[01:15:24] in my guild is like between the ages of like maybe 28 to 30 I think the youngest guy there's
[01:15:30] like one guy in our guild who's like 19 and 20ish and like he's the young he's the odd one out
[01:15:37] he's the young one so it's like really weird right um yeah so uh yeah it's uh you know it's
[01:15:46] it's an awesome thing that you you're able to go and do that um but yeah the the friendships you
[01:15:51] mic online are definitely real friendships and yeah i'm still speaking to people I met him well
[01:15:59] 20 years ago until this day you know it's crazy but yeah um good show man
[01:16:07] but on and uh appreciate you uh as always surf being here and uh and my thanks to all of you
[01:16:13] for listening and remember you can always follow me and the show on twitter at berserker rage
[01:16:18] and unshackled underscore fury on blue sky at berserker and unshackled fury which everybody can
[01:16:24] join us and jump on there as well as on twitch at unshackled fury and real berserker you can also
[01:16:30] join our discord links for which you're in the profile the show on twitter and on our bonus role
[01:16:34] page and uh yeah we're doing pretty good over there as well feel free to contact this show with
[01:16:39] your questions comments or otherwise through any of those resources or unshackled fury.com
[01:16:44] and you can find this show wherever you get your podcasts so once again thank you for listening
[01:16:50] remember to keep your swords wet in your banners high and we'll see you next time farewell