Episode 181: Hell's Breakin' Loose

[00:00:00] Warning, this program contains strong language, auditory violence, and mental nudity. It is intended only for mature audiences. Listener discretion is advised. Uncensored Home for World of Warcraft news and opinions. This is Unshackled Fury.

[00:00:59] The shit has hit the fan, and we're pulling hard on that e-break. As it is time we had us here a little open discussion. So welcome back for episode 181 of your Uncensored Home for World of Warcraft news and opinions, Unshackled Fury. I'm your host Berzerker and with me once again is the man who puts the man in anger management, Mr. Jez Corden. Welcome back again good sir. Hello buddy. Can you hear me okay?

[00:01:29] Loud and clear. Thank God. Oh man, I've had all sorts of PC problems. I'm getting exhausted with this PC. I've had it for quite a long time now. Maybe it's time to upgrade and put it out to pasture. But anyways, yes, glad to be here. It's the great fear of this year is having to replace equipment with everything that's going on.

[00:01:52] Because I know I'm looking at a PC that is now more than 10 years old and it is definitely having its moments. So yeah, I'm coming to you for recommendations, Mr. Microsoft. I need the ins and outs of what's going to actually live and die. Who's going to be supported a year from now versus who's going to become a bot farm? Good question, man. Good, good question. Anybody knows? It's a weird time in tech. Very weird time.

[00:02:22] Definitely, definitely. Well, good to have you here. And for those that are on the YouTube, yeah, you can see the latest development in this surgical situation on my forehead, on my temple area. I'm sitting back far enough where you're not getting a super juicy look at it. But I can't put a hat or really wear anything on top of it yet. It's still kind of uncomfortable. It is a little sensitive, but I don't know. Maybe I can get close. Maybe I can get close. There you go.

[00:02:51] There you go. There it is. It's doing a thing. It's healing. And as far as I can tell, it's what it's supposed to be. So we'll see as time goes on. But again, thanks to everybody for hanging in there. And yeah, we're going to do something a little bit different this week. Because Warcraft, it's one of those times when a real rough patch has been hit.

[00:03:19] And so rather than just kind of gloss over it and just talk about news items and this and that, I thought that maybe it'd be better if we just had more of kind of a discussion on the state of things, kind of touched on a few things. And to be honest, a good chunk of this is also generated from me going on social media and seeing things and just getting really angry. So I figured, you know what?

[00:03:45] We'll just come on the podcast and just fucking do it here because that's what we do. So, but before that, a little business, a little unfortunate business that I do want to get to, but I do need to get to it. So I'm going to pull this up here. We lost a fellow World of Warcraft podcaster this past week, a friend of the show. I got to bring everybody up here. Bricko. Bricko.

[00:04:14] I have no idea what his real name was. I don't know anything about the real state of this man. But Bricko was one of the hosts of a show called The Third Faction. And they were one of the first podcasts that ever had me on. And he was always just a super solid dude. Incredible voice. That Midwestern accent. Mr. Minnesota always just killed me. Great laugh. Outdoorsman.

[00:04:44] Super into like classic muscle cars. I know he'd recently gotten married and that was a big deal for him and taking on some new family and challenges and kids and all kinds of stuff. And, you know, I never knew him out of this space. But what I knew of him, he was a super solid guy. Man's man to an end.

[00:05:10] Always very up and bright and ready to take on anything and just super supportive. He was he's always been one of the people that is like, you know, liked our tweets or retweet them or posted stuff and, you know, engaged with us in this show. And just really one of the best people that I've met in this space. And, you know, politically, I know that we were very different people.

[00:05:41] But again, I think it's just one of those examples that these, you know, there are still good people, no matter how you may differ on certain things. And sometimes those are the connections that you really should focus on. So he was a solid guy. I will miss him being out there in the community and especially posting like old classic muscle car shit on Twitter. Whenever I'm on there, I'd always see that kind of stuff. I was like, yeah, that's a badass car.

[00:06:10] Just always brought a smile to my face. And he will be missed by friends and family alike. So my condolences to his family and all the other friends out there. He'll be missed. And good luck out there. Whatever the mysteries may be, Bricko. And we love you and miss you. And send us a postcard from time to time, will you? On that note, I had to find a band.

[00:06:38] I had to find an album that would be a proper send off for the Minnesotan, for the Viking fan, for the true dude that he was. And so this week I have a really good album and a band that I rarely ever talk about. Teresas, the Varangian Way. Teresas is a Finnish folk metal band.

[00:07:03] And it is like sea shanty Viking metal. I mean, it's kind of hard for me to describe. You have to listen to it. But this is a solid ass album all the way through. Teresas is a Finnish metal band that I don't know. I don't even think that they're still active. They haven't been really doing anything the last handful of years.

[00:07:26] But this was released back in May if you're in the UK, July if you're in North America, June if you're in Europe, of 2007. So this one goes back a little bit of a ways. But this is a concept album. You know how I love a concept album. And it tells the story of a group of Scandinavians traveling down the river roots of the Kivan Rus. So medieval Russia kind of stuff.

[00:07:54] But it is a solid listen all the way through song to song. And this is the exact kind of thing that makes me think of people like Bricko. Just that sort of love of Viking kind of vibe. And I love this one. This is a solid one. I don't know, Jez, have you ever heard of Teresas? I have not, but I'm going to check them out. I think you will like this.

[00:08:20] The great sound of the voice has got that kind of thing going on that I know that I know that you love. And I do too, obviously. But this, I think you'll dig this. I think so true. I do love me a concept album. Big on Mastodon for that reason. But I think, you know, speaking of like, you know, the album of the week, I suppose.

[00:08:46] A band like went really viral on TikTok recently with the youth called Pentagram. Have you heard of them? Oh, man. Pentagram? In the deep recesses of my mind, I feel like something, but it's been a long time. Yeah, so like that they've been like crazy viral at the moment. And I've been listening to that. That went really viral. They're like old school sort of doom sludge kind of metal.

[00:09:16] Oh, yeah. And the reason they went viral is because like the video of the lead singer, like, sort of looking on top of his face, like a wind machine blowing his hair around. And he looks like a wizard, you know. Wow. Like if one of the forsaken band was like in real life, it's like that. Like just search pentagram viral on YouTube.

[00:09:46] Okay. And you will find the video. And they're awesome. So I've been listening to them. Okay. There you go. Another twofer. Sometimes we can bang that out for you. But this week, in memory of our dear friend, Bricko, Teresa's the Varangian way. Get out there. Give it a listen. I think you will enjoy it. All right.

[00:10:12] So for discussion this week, we got we got kind of a few things that I talked to Jez already to kind of give him an idea of some of the things I have here. And I'm not really sure. I'm not really sure where exactly this is going to go, but I'm going to try to kind of walk through this maybe chronologically to guide the discussion. But it is undoubtedly a difficult period of time right now for World of Warcraft.

[00:10:42] There are a variety of hits that are being taken right now, as we have discussed and we will discuss there. There are some lumps here that are earned and it's impossible to ignore at this point.

[00:11:01] But I think that there is also a fair amount of dogpiling that is happening, some unrealistic, I can speak, expectations that are being thrown out there. So we're going to try to kind of walk through here and pick apart what's what is legitimate and maybe what is less so.

[00:11:19] So let's start with this patch, patch 12.0.5, which has been met near universally with all kinds of disdain in various amounts. It's been so bad in terms of its bugs and reception and everything else that World of Warcraft put out a message to players, which is not something they typically want to do, though.

[00:11:49] You know, they just kind of keep moving on. So when they put something out in writing, you know, it's bad. You know that they recognize that they have legitimately fucked up. So for those that may not have seen it, this went out on social media. This went out on their new stuff. It may have been communicated to the VIP club. And here is what it says. A message regarding the 12.0.5 launch.

[00:12:14] The 12.0.5 launch was not up to our standards, and we know this disrupted your time and caused justified frustration. Team has been working around the clock since launch to stabilize the game and fix the biggest issues players were hitting right away. And then there's a link here. See our hot fixes updates at this link. The team is taking lessons learned from this launch to help ensure this doesn't happen again.

[00:12:39] We will also work harder to communicate openly, early and often when a launch doesn't go as expected. The known issues we're working on, fixes as they roll out, and any other information that would be useful to our community as problems are worked on and solved. We care deeply about this game and we play it right alongside you. We will do better. Thanks for sticking with us, the World of Warcraft team. So, on the surface, right?

[00:13:08] They've acknowledged it. I think, you know, acknowledgement is always the good first step when you have a problem, whether it's one thing or another. Some of the things here on the surface level, right? In a vacuum, say, okay, you know, recognize that you messed up. You're committing to doing better. You're one of us. All right. Sounds good.

[00:13:28] But my impression has been, and Jez, I'm going to throw it to you on this, is that this apology, well-meaning or not, was received rather hollow. And it seems like people are not really taking this very well in the sense of like, okay, they've got it. It's handled. No worries. It's been like, no, this is not enough. And you guys really fucked up. And what are you going to do about it next?

[00:14:01] I mean, I suppose like you, we, I've got a feeling you might get into it later, but it doesn't help that. Uh, there was an interview, uh, around midnight launch where Holly long down brave director or franchise director. I can't remember job time, but she's like basically the lead of Warcraft at the moment. Um, she, she earned that role from her work with well classic, I believe if I remember correctly.

[00:14:29] And, um, you know, she's, she's a person of Warcraft player and even a cosplayer, you know, um, she's, uh, I met her myself multiple times and she's, you know, as, as Alliance members go, she's pretty, pretty cool. I see. Very nice when I met her. Yeah. Yeah. So I know that she genuinely cares, but it doesn't help that she didn't interview in February, January, something like that.

[00:14:53] I remember correctly where she talks about the fact that midnight had no crunch and they didn't compromise on quality. Uh, evidently com quality has been compromised though. So I think that's kind of, you know, and people picked up on that pretty quick because, you know, it's, uh,

[00:15:13] uh, not it's happened many times in the gaming industry where, uh, so where sort of a game director said, well, we didn't do crunch. We didn't do crunch and everything's peachy and everything's great. And then, uh, you step on a rake. The Xbox community knows this very well.

[00:15:33] And they always say, you know, all the Xbox community and the Xbox podcasters that they call it stepping on a rake, you know, specifically when, when, uh, cause this happens a lot in the Xbox community. Oh, uh, oh, um, over the last few years where it's like one step forward, two steps backwards. Right. Um, so people picked up on that and, uh, you know, I think that's why it's, it's kind of wrong hollow in some, some degrees, but, you know, since, since the apology, which was like about a week ago, something like that.

[00:16:03] Right now. Um, we've had even more problems and more problems keep popping up and, you know, and they've just put out a patch notes thing where they're talking about balance and. And, you know, people aren't happy about that either. It's like, there's a lot of balance issues right now. Like arcane mages aren't happy and, and, uh, and different rogue specs.

[00:16:27] I think subtlety got a buff finally, but like, now you've got like arcane mages is going to be low down the pack and it's a whole thing. Like people, I think basically frustrations boiled over in, um, in a few ways right now. And, um, the bugs are kind of, uh, given people a sort of platform in a way to sound off about other issues they've got with the game.

[00:16:56] So I've been writing a lot about the games writing, cause I've been pissed off about the writing as a demonology warlock. I'm more than happy with the balance right now. Uh, cause, uh, you know, demonology is doing pretty, pretty well from where I'm from. Um, so I, you know, I passed early this evening, so I'm very happy with myself and, um, and, uh, yeah.

[00:17:18] So I'm, I'm, I'm not someone who's particularly upset with the balance, but if I was an arcane mage as my preferred place, I'd not be very happy with the way things are right now. You know, so, uh, but I'm not happy with the writing. So I've been talking about that a lot and you know, everyone's got like, the game has become very, very big and complicated and trying to serve a lot of different audiences.

[00:17:41] And I do remember like back in the day when, you know, Lizard's first started catering to casuals, you know, and there was all these debates on the forums and I'm going back about 20 years. When like they made started making certain things easier, apparently. Um, I think it was when they first introduced ride finder and you know, when the LFG system was installed and people lost their minds.

[00:18:07] Yeah. People lost their minds. Yeah. Like I remember all that shit back in the day and, um, you know, and as the game's grown in complexity, it's just been like, they've, they've kind of created more points of failure for themselves. They're like, you've got people who like the law and you've got people who skip all the quest texts, you know, like I'm someone who buys books. So like, I get upset about the law. I don't give a shit about housing that much. Like I like the housing, but it's not like my be all and end all.

[00:18:36] Yeah. But I also announced the whole microtransaction heavy housing stuff this week, which we're going to get into in a minute. So those that communities pissed off. Well, class community is pretty pissed off because they haven't been served very well. So I think the common theme, the common thread for me is like everyone's kind of got a reason to be mad right now. And it just comes the more I think about it. And I actually wrote about this too. It's like blizzards spread themselves a bit thin and they're trying to do a lot very quickly.

[00:19:06] And, uh, they're evidently struggling with the patch cadence they've set for themselves. And I feel like it will come to a head this week or the past couple of weeks. And, uh, Diablo having a really great launch has not helped because there's a lot. Now there's a lot of jealousy thrown on top of the pile too. Yeah. But yeah, it's not been fun for the world team lately.

[00:19:28] No, I hadn't. I think you hit the nail on the head. It's just, it seems like it's all kind of coming together from all these different angles, all these different parts of the game. And I know you also wrote about, um, like tank balancing or something like that. Um, you know, I don't actively tank or, or even raid, uh, at this point in the game, what, um, what's going on with the tanks these days? What's, what's their, what's their problem?

[00:19:54] Yeah. So that's a whole other thing. It's like, when you look at, um, the meta for like the high-end mythic keys. So I ain't super pro with doing mythic keys. I just did 3k right in this past week and I'm kind of done with it, but for grants, sorry, go on. Oh yeah. Thank you. I didn't, I didn't even want the mount, but like I was almost there. So I thought I might as well. Good work. Just the last little bit over the edge. I wanted the, the two, the 2.5 came out looks way better, I think.

[00:20:25] But anyways, I thought I might as well go for it. Um, but there are people who push like 17s and you know, even higher. And Blizzard has added like some stuff for people who really push mythic to the high, the high, the high end, the high of the high end. It's like, they can now get like access to these mount tokens, which lets them buy previous season mounts. Yes. Right. Yeah. Which is, you know, pretty cool. Right.

[00:20:49] Um, you know, and now you've got heroic raiders are kind of pissed off because they're like, well, what about us? You gave all, you gave all our gear away to Delves. And now like, there's no, there's no reason to do heroic raiding anymore. So yeah, it's like, everyone's got some reason to be pissed off at the moment. But anyway, there's, uh, the tanks like at the high end, the sort of really high on the mythic plus a meta kind of emerges.

[00:21:16] And like, if you look at like, um, world of logs and what people are actually playing, it's like almost been exclusively brewmaster. You know, like for the really, really high keys, like brewmaster has been like really, really ahead, you know, and at the very least there's like, there's a perception that brewmaster will have a much easier time. And basically reduce the amount of stress on the group. Right.

[00:21:41] Now all the tanks have been, um, not particularly happy because they're, they're squishy, you know, and if you're a healer, like squishy tank means more stress for you and means less people want to play. Yeah. I feel like, like, I mean, like a couple of, uh, mythic plus this chords and like, I feel like finding a tank has been like harder than it has been for quite a while.

[00:22:06] Like at the sort of the moderately high end, you know, like, like I'm talking like 13s or 14s, like no, nobody wants to do that shit. Cause it's, you know, press fall, especially the higher end. So yeah. And I was just kind of like making the argument, like instead of nerfing brewmaster into the ground, like why, why not just buff the other tanks up to that level, you know? And the tanks did get a little bit of a buff. And I think brewmaster got like a slight nerf kind of thing.

[00:22:35] And I don't know how that's going to play out with regards to the, you know, the high end metal or whatever. But, um, I was just sort of like kind of mirror mirroring some of the opinions that my, my guild mates were having really. I like, I like to amplify the voice of the community. Cause I feel like I've got this man of the people.

[00:22:59] Well, I like the clicks too, but it's, um, you know, it's also like, uh, I've got this platform and I like to amplify what people are talking about. And people in my guild are talking about that, you know, um, and people talking about the story. And like, I say this past month for the first time in my entire career, I did more traffic on world of Warcraft than I did on Xbox.

[00:23:25] Wow. For the first time my entire career and Xbox had a lot of news this month. Yeah. Like the, I think the wow community is not, I think a part of it is the fact that no big websites really cover. Well, it's not like I had all the juice, but, um, yeah. So you get the occasional PC gamer, but, uh, yeah.

[00:23:47] Yeah. PC gamer does a little bit here and there, but, um, there's been a lot of, a lot of discontentment, I suppose you could say at the moment. Yeah. And you know, I think that that's where for me, I think part of the challenge that I am having in this moment is I feel like there's, there's two realities for me at the moment. One is me, just the player in my own world where I'm doing my thing. I do deals with a buddy.

[00:24:17] Um, you know, the homie Rommel once a week, if we can. Yeah. I see some polish issues. I think more than anything is like, I'm like the transmog thing still doesn't pop up right when you go and you look at the lists and the stuff isn't what it's supposed to be. And like, those are some of the kinds of things that I see. And I'm like, yeah, this isn't really the sort of thing that I think Blizzard is, you know, they're capable of better.

[00:24:42] But then, and this is why I stay off of social media for whatever reason. Oh, that's right. Cause we were running a contest for a mount, um, uh, through our show. And I find myself on Twitter. Yes. It's Twitter forever. And what I see is just, and it's being fed to me on purpose, right? It's, you know, there's the thing that you follow and then there's the for you or whatever.

[00:25:11] So admittedly, it's trying to, you know, get that engagement on me. And it's just this sort of endless stream of dialogue about how this is bad and that is bad. And these people are bad and this is awful and this and that and the other thing. And it just goes on and on and on and on and on. And it's like, Jesus Christ, am I playing the same fucking game? Because I am not having this level of a problem with the thing that I'm doing.

[00:25:40] Like, yeah, I noticed some things, but I'm not out here sending 20 fucking tweets about one thing. And one of those things that I saw was all of the sudden, everybody's got a problem with the Argentina. But I'm like, okay, it's this little fucking thing. And, you know, I think it gets started potentially by some of the larger content creators in our space. And then people jump in on that.

[00:26:09] And I know Ian got a ration of shit in our interview with him when he said stuff like this. But I do think that it is true when some of the louder voices say something, other people pick up on that and then just fucking run with it. I'm not saying that what they're saying isn't true or whatever, just generally. But all of a sudden it was like, fuck the Argentina. They should take this thing out. People are being too nice to each other, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I like the thing. I think it's fine.

[00:26:35] It's cool to go in there and see this little space and like, oh, well, you know, they said that it was an escape for the ones that went to Outland. And so they weren't really trapped there. And it takes away from the level of danger that they were facing. And oh, my God. They had a thing that was a cool idea and they had to figure out how to shoehorn the shit in. And this is what they decided to do was make a little pocket universe where we could have the space.

[00:27:02] And yes, some of the veterans from some of our older wars may have drinks together and have a little peace and quiet and a little reconciliation. That's not a bad thing. It's not. And I get it. Maybe you come from a country that has had conflict, maybe in a little more recent time. But World of Warcraft happens on like an accelerated timetable.

[00:27:29] If you think about all the shit that we've been through, that wouldn't happen in like the handful of years that this thing has been going on 20, 30 years. If you look at the whole, you know, the major timeline of all the events. Right. This would take a lot fucking longer. So, heaven forbid that people from two different sides come together in this one place and have a little coming together moment.

[00:27:52] That is not a reason to tear the whole thing out because, oh, my God, it doesn't happen the way that I think it should happen based on my experiences. Maybe it is something a little bit different. And so I just saw just as yeah, yeah, they're trying to make Wrathion into this thing. And then, you know, Horde and Alliance. And Jez, we talk all the time about we love having the war in Warcraft. We love that. We think that is a core part of the game. We both agree that there should be more of it. But my God, the level of discourse on this.

[00:28:22] I was like reading through it going, what the fuck did they do to you? Why is this so fucking bad? I don't understand. Oh, the writing, all the writing. You mentioned the writing. We'll talk about the writing here in a little bit. But here's the thing. I am not a script editor. I don't write for a major publication. I have not written the great American novel. Do I write for a living? In a way, yes, I do. Do I edit for a living? Yes, I do that, too. I don't write. I don't. It's not creative writing like this.

[00:28:50] But I'm not going to sit here and go, oh, well, that doesn't make sense for this character. And I can't believe that they did this. Oh, my God, this is the worst thing ever. And just like lose my fucking shit over it. But this is the level of discourse that I'm seeing. And I'm like, I don't get it. I don't understand. This is a nice thing. They've given us a nice thing. And yes, it's a cozy thing. And yes, I know everybody's like, oh, it's too cozy.

[00:29:16] And I'll grant you that sometimes it can be a little too twee for my liking. Yes, I get that. I understand that. But seeing this kind of discourse over the Argentina, it was just driving me fucking crazy. And this is why I typically don't get on social media because I'm just seeing just one person after the next. Just that energy. Once that train leaves the station, it just goes and it goes and it goes until the next thing happens. And then everybody moves on and they forget about them.

[00:29:46] Remember when the portal rooms were a big deal and everybody was freaking out because they were adding that. Nobody gives a fuck now. We just go to the portal room and we do whatever we got to do. It's fine. Same thing with the Argentina. Yes, it's a little cozy. Yes, it's it's not violent. Yeah, I get that. I understand that. But my goodness, it's not worth all of that hysteria. It just it just.

[00:30:14] I don't know if you spend much time in there, Jez. I don't know if you have any complaints about it or if you even give a shit. I mean, I've kind of like I've kind of accepted that the writing in WoW is never going to be good again. What does that tell me what that means? See, I think this is this is a great. This is a great subject right here because I hear this complaint all the time.

[00:30:43] And I've heard this complaint the 18 years that I've played this game. So as somebody who's been around forever. What is it that makes it so bad? And is it it's the it's is it is it just a war thing or is it the actual writing or is it both? It's it's the direction. I think more than anything like the ratheon thing, right?

[00:31:11] Like and the the sort of like, oh, we just slipped into the Arcantina whenever we were, you know, sucking out land all that kind of thing. Yeah, I agree with the detractors on this because it does it mischaracterizes previously held notions about the game and the law and the impact some of those previous events had.

[00:31:37] But at the same time, the game has been trending in that direction for a really long time. Where the people who are running the game as of today don't seem to have much interest in the previous law. They want to put their own mark on it. And to be fair, they're running the game. It's their game that can do what they want with it. That's completely fine.

[00:32:02] So I've kind of resigned myself to the idea that World of Warcraft story direction is not for me anymore. I'm not the target market. Evidently, they very clearly have a specific target target market in mind when they're building this out.

[00:32:20] And, you know, when they did say they did say things like, oh, we find the fact that the game's got the name war in the title is restrictive, you know, that kind of like people picked up on that. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They memed it and all that kind of stuff.

[00:32:40] Personally, I think it is indicative of mentality about the way that their thought process with regards to well now. I think they prefer like, I think they're looking at games like Genshin Impact, right? Which has a very abstract kind of name and Wuthering Waves and some of these other sort of MMO-ish kind of service games. Mm hmm. Have an abstract name, which can mean anything you want.

[00:33:09] Whereas like World of Warcraft kind of implies that there's a craft of war within this world. Yeah. It kind of, it kind of, that sort of the identity that Warcraft has for itself undermines what they feel is potentially blocking its potential growth. And I think they look at the kind of audiences that Genshin Impact has.

[00:33:36] And some of these other games have these sort of massive, you know, huge audiences and they think, oh, we, we want a slice of that. Mm hmm. How can we tap into that? And honestly, those games are cozy. You know, I don't know. It's become a cliche to like call World of Warcraft, World of Cozy Craft and all that. Yes. Cozy core and like this whole cozy genre kind of game. Yeah. Yeah. Like I was, I was bitching you with that.

[00:34:04] Like, cause I saw like they're adding another onesie trans mark. Like, and I'm just sitting there like, does anyone actually want that? There are a lot of people that do. There are a lot of people that do. I don't see people wearing those trans, those onesie trans marks ever. Maybe it's cause I buy an RP server, you know, and people actually like might be have. Yeah, maybe like, like on our, on our P servers, people like care about that trans mark. Yeah. I suppose.

[00:34:35] And walking around in a onesie, he was not, he's not going to be conducive to, you know, typical, typical behavior in the city. Um, at least, at least not, uh, in my expectation, but, um, uh, so I just tweeted out the people actually want this stuff. Cause I was just thinking like the art team could have been working on something cooler in, in my estimation or something that people actually want. I was curious if people actually want that shit.

[00:35:05] And, and then I sort of get into thinking like, well, is it because they're not trying to appeal to a certain potentially new player that they don't have in abundance yet, which is what informs, informed their decision to put housing in the game in the first place. And that all the DLC for the housing stuff so far has been cozy and whimsical and fairy tale-ish, you know? Mm-hmm . Mm-hmm .

[00:35:31] And I'm just kind of like, none of this is for me. Yeah. And that's fine. But if it's not for me, then I might end up playing something else. And maybe the audience that you're trying to target with this shit won't care because fundamentally World of Warcraft is a hard game to get into. And fundamentally the new player experience is fucking terrible. Mm-hmm .

[00:35:59] So, you know, for me, I'm just kind of like, they're spreading themselves too thin. They're focusing on audiences that don't yet exist and audiences that they can't efficiently serve because they don't have a good new player experience. So I'm just kind of like, frustrated with some of that direction that the game has had as of late. Yeah.

[00:36:23] Because for me, if the whole game revolves around the end game, which by the way, positive comment, the end game's been very good. Like I've put more time into this iteration of the end game than I have in years. Mm-hmm . Maybe ever. Yeah. I've unlocked every single transmog set, including the elite PvP set, which I've never done before. And I've grinded 3K rating. Yeah. I've got best in slot almost everything.

[00:36:53] Mythic, 6 out of 6, almost, on most stuff. You know, pressed cap ending. Mm-hmm . And yeah, I played the end game really hardcore. I've really enjoyed the gameplay, but everything around that, like, has been soft and suckering and boring and lame. And I think, like, playing through the Diablo campaign, which I finished this week. Mm-hmm .

[00:37:20] I was just kind of shocked at, like, how good Blizzard can write. Yeah. You know, and how believable it can write characters. Yeah. And how it can create these epic moments. Yeah. And I think it's because in Diablo, they actually give themselves the time to do that. Whereas in Warcraft, they don't, because they've got a subscription churn to manage. They've got the eight-week patch cadence to manage. Whereas Diablo is just like, are we going to make a really high quality story?

[00:37:51] Mm-hmm . And then the seasons don't really have much of a story in them. So they don't really need to think about that. But all the quality goes into the expansion for the writing. And that can really sit there and iterate and, you know, add the details that it needs. And, you know, direct it well. Yeah. And I don't know. I think it's just one of them.

[00:38:19] It's like, there's a lot of different reasons that we frustrated with the current state of the game. Yeah. And people are pressing that in a variety of ways all at once. Right. And I think it is because Blizzard spread themselves thin, facing all these different audiences. The cozy audience, the hardcore endgame audience. Mm-hmm . And then you've got like, classic audience isn't being served properly.

[00:38:45] And then you end up with a game that starts feeling a bit like a jack of all trades, master of none, you know? So, I don't know. There's my ramble on all that shit. So, here's the crux of, I think, part of this. So, appreciate what you're saying.

[00:39:08] Just because something isn't for you or for me, I think this is the distinction that I think a lot of people are missing. It doesn't make it bad. And I think that's where I see a lot of this discourse. Not you. But I see a lot of it out there when I do jump into these channels. And it's just like, it's not this, so it's bad. And I think that's where we have to be careful.

[00:39:35] Because, like you said, it's not wrong if it's for someone else or someone else likes it. That's fine. And if the trend is long enough where it isn't for you and it isn't for me, then I guess we got to do what we got to do. But this is where I think people just take it off in a whole other direction that, yes, I'll admit that, you know, things like that onesie, that shit ain't for me. I'm never going to wear that.

[00:40:04] But I know plenty of people. I see it. I see the engagement where people are like, oh, that's really cool. Oh, that's really fun. Okay. Cool. Good for you. Run with it. There are some months on the trading post. I don't buy shit because it's not for me. I'm not buying a butterfly set. I'm not buying a, you know, druidic something. I don't give a shit about any of that stuff. But that's fine. I take my shit and I move on. How does, and I'm going to push you a little bit on this one.

[00:40:31] How does having the Argentina somehow diminish previous lore? It's not the Argentina itself. It's just the way some of the character interactions have been handled. Like, Rethion, like, he was, it feels like they're almost trying to write him out of the story. To be honest. I do miss him. Been wondering where the fuck he is. Yeah.

[00:41:00] And I've just got this conspiracy theory that they want to write out any, anything in the game that has even the vaguest sense of edge to it. Right. And Rethion was exactly like that. He was kind of like, uh, he set the Alliance and Horde against each other. And he's, you know, a bit of a dick. And, you know, and doing punched him in the face. That was a really great cinematic. Yeah. And sure. Carragh, you know, he's a, he's a young dragon. As dragons go.

[00:41:30] A very young dragon. And people do grow mature and all that kind of stuff. But I think it's kind of like, kind of one of them where it's like, should that not be part of the story? More than like a throwaway common in the Ark container? I don't know. Um, it just feels like the, I think the Ark container is a really great concept.

[00:41:53] And, and especially as someone as a, you know, a monster into player, like the monster monster has the gathering hub. Right. He's like, you know, when you're in a sort of here hosted server, there's like a bar type place where all the players in the server can connect, you know, it's a cool concept. Um, so like when I saw the Ark container, I was like, Oh my God, it's a gathering hub from monster. And that's class. Um, and you know, I've done some of the quests that they've added to it.

[00:42:22] And I think there is like an opportunity just like the, um, the tavern in the garrison, uh, to add some flavor and some context and further along some of those side characters like Raytheon. But you know, it just, it's not the cantina itself. I think it's just the way that the stuff there has been written. I think it's coming back to Ryan again, it comes back to like the, the kind of game they clearly want to make, which is this.

[00:42:53] Everyone is soft, friendly, happy, lovely, lovely, lovely, lovely, everyone's love and peace and happiness. Now I think that's really what it boils down to. Cause that's what the game feels like now to me. And that's fine. If that's what the kind of game they want to make fantastic, but I ain't going to sit here and say that it's good. Yeah. I think the game, I think a game like this needs drama.

[00:43:16] I think it needs characters who are unapologetic dicks, you know, um, for, for flavor or mistakes to have villains and characters that can have meaningful interactions. Mm hmm. You know, if everyone behaves the same kind of way, like the game feels like it's being written by one person who has one or two ideas about how a character should behave. Mm hmm.

[00:43:46] And that they've written that repeatedly in the same way over and over again. Like everything just feels homogenous. I mean, I'm not, I mean, I can give you a lot of examples of that. Like who, like, who are you thinking of when you say that? The purpose is. Alleria. Okay. For God's sake. Alleria, like the sort of Alleria reminds me of Tyrande reminds me for my air, you know, it's just like, they're all the same character basically.

[00:44:16] Um, in essence, uh, and, you know, and Sylvanas to some degree. Um, and we've seen them just repeatedly play out in the same way over again. Like, uh, Anduin is the same as I remember his name. What's his name? The new elf guy. Arator? He's so Arator. Yeah. Anduin is Arator. They're the same character. They're exactly the same fucking character.

[00:44:45] They're both paladins. Basically, they're both emo. They're both young. They are the same character. Mm hmm. I don't know why they made Arator so prominent in the story when they could have had it. Anduin in the same role. Mm hmm. At least Anduin could have had some more character development, but instead Anduin's just kind of like, you know, Anduin had a really cool story arc and he was in a lot of cool cinematics in battle for Azeroth.

[00:45:15] He did the whole like huge bubble thing calling on the light. Yeah. And I was like, damn, I even like, I'm even pretty hyped about the Alliance right now as well. And then he did that digital stuff in Shadowlands, which, you know, I think I thought Anduin's arc in Shadowlands was one of the good parts of Shadowlands. Yeah, for sure. And it feels like, yeah. And I feel like, and then we came into War Within and they had the nice cinematic with

[00:45:44] Thrall and Anduin. Amazing cinematic. Mm hmm. Where Anduin's kind of like losing his fucking mind. Yeah. And they did nothing with it. They did fucking nothing with it. You know? And now you've got Arator doing the same kind of shit. Oh, he's losing his mind because he's blinded by the light and all this kind of stuff. Mm hmm. That could have been Anduin losing his mind falling to the dark side or something, you know? Mm hmm.

[00:46:10] Or like he's scarred by the Shadow magic that he was impacted by or something like that. And instead we've just got this standing for Anduin. Like, why? You know? And it's, it's just, I don't know. So that was an example of things that I find frustrating about the writing. Yeah. And we, what we end up with is all these plot threads which are unfinished. Anduin's plot threads is going to be unfinished in perpetuity now.

[00:46:40] And the story ends up being a mess for it. I mean, we don't, we don't know that. And here's the thing. If they'd have put him in, people would have complained. And all this is too much Anduin. It's all about Anduin now. And we would have wanted somebody else. This is why I feel like they can't win no matter what they do. Because it's, you know, me, if the whole story was about the, about the Rin family, I would be so happy, but I know nobody wants that. But me, that very few people want to see that kind of shit.

[00:47:11] So I, I hear what you're saying in the sense that like some of that can feel homogenous and I'm like, I'm going to be honest, because I know the, I'm chasing them. I caught them. I didn't catch them. I'm chasing them. I caught them. I couldn't catch it. Like the Tyrande storyline was one of the most frustrating things I think I've ever watched in this whole game. It was just like, what the, what the fuck is going on here? And then with the Larry, it was really feeling that same way of like, Oh my God. Like you, you tease me long enough.

[00:47:40] And it's like, it's, it's not a tease anymore. You just start to get angry about what's going on. Yeah. And Larry are hunting, hunting across. I just kept thinking of like the end of black temple where he lives. Like, Oh, you're nothing without the hunt, you know? Yeah. I'm not saying that's like spectacularly great writing either, but it's, it's also like we've been here. We've done this. We've done the whole angry elf hunting someone forever thing. Like, can we not have something different? Can't we have a different motivation for someone for once?

[00:48:09] We need some variety here is what we're saying. We need some, we need some different goals. Like, like the character goals. What are we? Cause there always has to be a big bad, right? Isn't there always like a thing that we have to try to kill? I mean, what else are we going to do? Like fight each other. That's how we get the war back in Warcraft. But I'll throw us to, let's. We've killed everyone else. Now we just have to go after each other.

[00:48:37] I mean, that's kind of our society works, isn't it really? Uh, but I, I don't know. Yeah. I mean, it is tough, you know, like I couldn't do it. Like I sit here like bitching about it. Like, I don't know what the solution is. Like genuinely speaking, I really don't know what the solution is. I wouldn't have the first clue of writing, um, like, you know, overarching lore and handling all that shit.

[00:49:01] I think part, I think, um, the stay of one, listen moments have been really good for adding extra context. Right. Um, I, I would like more of that, I suppose, but it's, um, I think it's just the overarching, like, I don't know. And someone not just be nice for once, I suppose. Uh, I don't know. Like bring back.

[00:49:30] We need some more dickish characters in World of Warcraft. Yeah. Like getting gray, man. Like he's, he's like old and depressed now before he was like a proud bad-ass. Like, like I still like, I still often think about like how, how I felt in Cataclysm as a Forsaken. Cause I'm a, I remember making a hunter, a Forsaken hunter alt in Cataclysm and I wanted to be an undead hunter since forever. You know, with an undead pet.

[00:49:59] And it's just like, this is, this is bad-ass. This is what I want. And all the new quests they added to Tirisfal Glades and, and Silverpine and then Hillsbrad. That was like the best story questing experience I think I've ever had in this game. Hmm. Um, like hunting Gengreymane and, you know, dealing with those three traitor Forsaken and, you know, Sylvanas getting shot in the head. Like it was awesome.

[00:50:28] Like, and now we just, we don't really get anything like that. There was so much variety there. And then Garrosh coming in and calling Sylvanas a bitch. Yeah. I was like, fuck me. That's edgy. And they're so edgy. They've removed it from the game. I was gonna say, so edgy. They took it out. Yeah. Um, but that was cool. Like it was, there are people like that in real life. Garrosh was an asshole, you know, but you need an asshole.

[00:50:56] If you're gonna tell a story that has flavor and different kinds of characters. And I think ultimately, you know, that's why Garrosh ended up being popular. I mean, there's definitely some of that toxic kind of popularity with Garrosh, especially amongst Americans. Um, but yeah. And, uh, but you've also got that sort of like, I like Garrosh because he added some intrigue to the story. I love to hate him.

[00:51:23] He was like a WWE heel, you know? Yeah. He was a dick. Great way to put that. He made the game. Yeah. He's a WWE heel. He made the game interesting. Like Logan Paul in WWE. Logan Paul is an insufferable human being in real life. Yeah. But you've got to admit. You can't take away from how good they are. No, he's fucking good in WWE. He's like the only. It drives me fucking crazy. Yeah. In the post-KFabe era in WWE.

[00:51:55] What better way to have a heel than to have someone who's an asshole in real life to spot. But he's like, you know, he's not evil, but you know, he's incredibly annoying. And he's, he's great TV man. Joe Hendry's like rolling him now and you know, and the guy's clearly passionate. You know, about what he does. But anyways, I digress.

[00:52:20] I think you can't just like have this world where the villains are, you know, you know, they're always like the great doing it for the greater good. Like, can't we just have a villain who's just evil? You know, like, we still don't know if Zalatav's truly evil. Part of me thinks like, but at some point during the saga, she's going to be like, Oh, I'm doing, I'm doing this to help you, you know, or like the jailer was like a devoid cosmos on cannot stand again. What's next? And yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:52:49] And it's like a half thing. Like we're going to, we're going to go down that route with fucking Zalatav at some point. Probably. Yeah. Like con they can't help themselves. Oh man. And like I say, like Diablo is like really driven this point home recently because Mephisto, Steve Bloom, incredible villain. Like absolutely incredible. Yeah. And just amazing.

[00:53:18] You know, like they are demons are like naturally evil. Yeah. They are naturally predisposed to evil. Yes. We know they're evil. They're villains and that's the rest of it. Yes. And instead in WoW, we have this like, we have the situation where like, yeah, they're villains, but actually they're a bit sympathetic for this reason, you know? And I don't know.

[00:53:40] I'm rambling a bit now, but there's just sort of struggled with the broad strokes in the game for a long time now. And I think part of it is the fear from the backlash that had from Battle for Azeroth. Yes. And also fear from the backlash they had with Shadowlands. So like, I, part of me thinks like that it's Arator and not Anduin because of Shadowlands.

[00:54:09] Because they're, they're, they're scared of people being upset about it for that reason. And I think they wanted to tie together all the Elven tribes. Right. And so he's a son of, you know, an important one and ties in there. Sure. But whatever reason it is, it doesn't feel natural. Like whether it's the forced forced in because of the Elf story or forced in because they didn't want to retread Shadowlands lore, which they would have had to do if they were bringing Anduin into the plot, you know?

[00:54:38] But I mean, they're doing it with Sylvanas. Like you can't, you can't talk Sylvanas without Shadowlands right now. Yeah. So I don't know. It just, just none of it feels, has felt great to me. It just feels like they're founded in, someone's just doing a 95 and they're not kind of, I don't know. I'm really salty about it. Like genuinely. And you're not alone. Right. And that's why I wanted to bring this up is, is trying to tease out like, what is the problem?

[00:55:08] And I think part, and I, I feel like I hear what you're saying when I understand what you're saying. And this ties to, I think some of the other conversation that I've seen about the past about how, you know, Warcraft didn't used to be like this, that, you know, there was a time when it was all of these things. I mean, I've been playing since Burning Crusade.

[00:55:35] And the only time that I can recall when it was death and destruction and the whole thing. I mean, we're talking like way back when, like whatever version of Warcraft people are talking about, it's not modern. It hasn't been around in a long, long time. And I don't know that that's going to change when you have to feed as big an audience as they do. Whereas with Diablo, you get to that, that is a much more niche audience.

[00:56:05] That's a, that's a rated M game. You can go hard and stuff like that. Yeah, you can fuck shit up and be evil and brutal and all kinds of stuff. And well, I'll say this, Diablo, Diablo, the current Diablo expansion ends on a positive note, you know, on a hopeful note. Don't stop me. I'm only halfway through. Oh, sorry. Well, you know, it does because the end of the song. All right. But there has to, there has to be an end game. Right.

[00:56:37] I don't, I don't think it's, I don't think it's a spoiler to say that we, we win. It, I mean, it, what I've played so far has genuinely been fantastic. I mean, it's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. But it's a point being is like, it's, it's not about making wow, just endlessly dark. Cause I don't think that isn't well, that's, that's never been well. It's never been Warcraft three. It's never been like that. It's just that it had those dark edges and it feels like they're trying to remove it.

[00:57:05] It feels like we've lost any kind of darkness. And it does come back to things like censoring garage, censoring garage's character, which I realized like in the wake of the allegations from a few years ago, that they, they, they had a look over everything. And we're like, you know, what can we remove here? Yeah. But they did it for PR reason. They didn't do it because it was the right thing to do. In my opinion. Yeah.

[00:57:34] Um, you know, you don't Spencer, like people don't like, look at like classic novels and shit and the way they used to be. And like American psycho and, and all these like great novels, which, you know, literature essence in essence. Yeah. There's probably like, like I've just, I was just trying to think of the most misogynistic character I could think of.

[00:57:58] And it's Patrick Bateman from American psycho, you know, and, but like if you censor. Yeah. But that was satire. Yeah. I mean, is it? Yeah. American psycho is 100% a satire. Number one. But the thing is people like that exist. And we have, of course, there are people who think American psycho is a guide to life.

[00:58:23] And we have to live with a bunch of these assholes in America, you know, run a fucking joint now that think that. Tyler Durden and Patrick Bateman are models to be no, no, no, that's not. Those are not models to follow. Sure. But Garrosh was not a model to follow. No. No. This is my point. No, but it was written by a man or at least was guided by a group of people who were found liable for all kinds of things.

[00:58:52] And so the context there, I think, is a little bit different. I would argue. Well, maybe, but you know, it's, it's, it's just sort of like, my point is, if you, if you sort of, if you want to flee from any form of controversy, or, you know, human, human characters. Yes.

[00:59:14] With that, with genuine flaws, then you've got a Saturday morning cartoon, you know, and that's the, that's the thing that people often describe wow as these days. It started in morning cartoon and it never felt like that back in the day, you know, or maybe like as something like clone wars, maybe, which has some seriously dark fucking edges in it. Yeah. Yeah. I would have been serious.

[00:59:39] You know, especially like with the new, the new mall stuff that they're putting in there. But you know, it's, it's my point is, it's the variety. Not like, I don't think anyone wants to go back to like full blown open warfare, but for the game to be like, you know, I don't think a fifth war should needs to ever happen. You know, I don't think it does, but you don't have to do that to give the game some edge again. Yeah.

[01:00:09] Yeah. And, and I think, I think that's a fair point. Um, because I typically find that those kinds of characters are the most interesting, you know? Uh, I think that's the exact point that you brought up about Rathion, right? Like right, wrong or indifferent, he made things happen and he was an interesting character and you wanted to know what was going on there. You were, you were curious about like, Oh, what's shit. What's his next move? What's happening?

[01:00:36] Um, and that, that does make sense to me. I think, you know, again, kind of moving the, the, the timeline forward here a little bit of what I've seen recently is yet by all accounts, uh, the Diablo expansion, the most recent one, uh, Lord of hatred has had a phenomenal launch. Uh, a ton of us have played through it or, or playing through it. And it's, it's, um, it's been awesome to see it. It's, it's, it holds some heft. Like it's, it's got some fucking weight to it.

[01:01:07] Um, but you're racing nothing yet. I don't. Yeah. That's why that's why I'm fucking rushing. I'm trying to get through this thing. Cause I want to see it all. Um, all it man, seriously, like you'll be devastated if you get spoiled. It's fantastic. Like, and, and just to be clear, like, I'm not suggesting well, should ever be as dark as Diablo either. You know? Cause like you said, Diablo is mature rated. They've got much more. You expect to be horror. It's a horror. It's fucking horror.

[01:01:37] Yeah. I'm always horror. It's a horror drama. You know? I don't think, I don't think anyone wants wow to be like that. Like Warcraft three wasn't like, but it had, it's like dark edges. And we don't even like the forsaken aren't even in the plot anymore. And people, people on Twitter were saying to me like, Oh my God, Alonso's fouls. Like a main character. I'm like, bro, he's not even, you know, I want to see like, I understand what you're saying. And it's honestly, Belmont or, you know, one of the, I want to see the forsaken, not

[01:02:05] like the, he's in the priest faction. One guy who's a priest. One guy who's light sided. Yeah. He didn't, he didn't. He's, he's basically. Yeah. I, I, I think the challenge that I'm having is as great as it is and credit to the whole team. I, why, why does that lens immediately have to go? Well, this is great. Why can't, why can't Warcraft have some of this? Like, because they're two different things.

[01:02:35] They're two different, you know, the, the, the, the good example of this is I see, I don't know why I see a lot of conversation about this, but there are transmog sets right now in Diablo that are, there's like a Warcraft Diablo thing. I know you've seen them too. They are fucking hall of fame, phenomenal Diablo transmogs. They have the tier two paladin set in there and it is one of the most badass things I have ever seen in my whole life.

[01:03:04] They have a set for everybody based on the old sets and they are just unbelievable. They're $28 a piece. So you're going to be paying, you know, a hefty sum for that. Plus another 58 for the weapons pack or whatever it is. But they, they are, they are fucking phenomenal. So there is a crossover there and I understand that. And it kind of gets people's brains wired in a certain way. But I see all of this stuff like, Oh, fire the wow team and put the Diablo team in place.

[01:03:33] And you know, if only wow had all this more Diablo in it, then it would be great again or whatever. And it's like, I don't, I don't understand that. First of all, Warcraft will never look like Diablo two different franchises, two different aesthetics. And trust me, your computer doesn't want to have to put up with all of that in a Warcraft raid. So that's, that's part of it. One, two is I get the edge.

[01:03:57] I, I, I, I understand that part, but I feel like people are going way too far with just dumping on the Warcraft team unnecessarily because another area of the company is doing well. And, and I, and I get why those connections would be made, but I see this sort of disingenuous out there from the same people who talk out of both sides of the mouth. Where on one hand, it's like, Oh, I'm going to be super brave.

[01:04:26] And I'm going to tweet out that these, these tree house prices are too much, but it's not the devs. Don't blame the devs. The devs are doing a great job. The devs are terrible. Who is making a decision on this team about why this thing is a certain way they should all be fired.

[01:04:45] Like, which one is it? Are you supporting the devs who are being held ransom by the fucking people who make decisions about how much a tree house costs or, or are you like, fuck them. These bozos shouldn't be allowed to run a lemonade stand because of the way some of these things are happening. It's just the, the, the, again, the conversation that I see this whole other world of social media and everything else. It just, it, it drives me crazy because that's what public perception becomes. Then you see it on Twitter.

[01:05:15] Then you see it on Reddit. Then you see it on fucking trade chat. Like, it just, it takes on a life of its own. And I just, I don't think that people are really thinking about how this machine works. And this is why I've always appreciated you just being here and out there is you, you understand the business mechanics of this better than anybody.

[01:05:38] So like a year ago, six months ago, whenever, when some artist makes up a tree house on a thing, they don't, they have no hand in what the fuck is going to become of that thing. They just doing it because they can. And because they either had an idea or they were asked to, or they pitched it in a meeting or whatever the thing was, it's somebody else who's deciding, okay, down here in this month, this is what we're going to do. We're going to launch this thing.

[01:06:06] And there are whales out there who are going to fucking pay for this thing. Like the big mounts in the past, like all the other stuff. There's always going to be some. And I think just as you've pointed out, this is how you also keep your subscription costs low because this is another revenue stream for them to bring in money to that team. So on the bottom line on when they're looking at red and black, Warcraft is making money.

[01:06:29] We don't have the jack up subscription prices because there are people out here who will pay $75 for a fucking tree house, whether you like it or not. It's indifferent to the whole thing. If you don't like it, in my opinion, don't engage with it. Don't tweet it. Don't talk about it. Don't buy it. Don't buy it. Don't buy it. Because that to me is how you beat this thing. If there is a way to beat this thing is you is is is it becomes nothing. It gets no traction. Nobody gives a fuck about it.

[01:07:00] Look at this movie that poor what's his face was in overseas about the desert warrior or whatever the thing was. One hundred fifty million dollars is spent on this film. I think it made like four hundred grand because there was no trade. There was like no press on it. There was nobody talking about it. There was no nothing. And so it didn't make shit to me. That's how you beat these things. So, you know, putting out a tweet about all, you know, some performative thing about how bad you think it is. I don't think that does shit.

[01:07:28] I think silence is the only way that you can do anything with this. And it has nothing to do with the devs, the devs. They're just doing their fucking jobs. This is about being counters. This is about other people making these decisions. Jez. Tell me I'm wrong about this. I mean, you're completely right.

[01:07:48] Like there's the devs don't have any say in the pricing of the things that create, you know, not like the finance DFO was Amy Hood was there making the house, you know, and. And it's true that the whales, the people who buy all this shit is they're helping subsidize stuff. Like I've said before, developing a game in California is extremely expensive. Very. I remember I played a game last year called Chronos the New Dawn.

[01:08:16] It was probably my game of the year, actually. Absolutely love that game. It's by a small, a small, well, a small ish Polish studio or Bloober team who also just made the recent Sonic L2 remake. And I think they said the budget they had for that game was something like $20 million or something. You know, and it's like if you wanted to make the equivalent game in California, you're looking at easily a hundred million dollars.

[01:08:44] Yeah, probably easily. But the cost alone. Well, yeah, but also like the developers in California are in high demand and they ask for higher wages and they can get higher wages because they are in a very competitive market. Whereas like, you know, Poland, the cost of living is lower and the rest of it. And in California, everything is more expensive, you know, so developing a game in California is monstrously expensive already.

[01:09:14] But developing like a service game in California is even more monstrously expensive. And developing a service game that has like multiple dedicated servers that have to be running 24 seven is also extremely expensive. And those servers burn out. They have to be replaced. And the chips, the chips that go into these servers, which do burn out and do need to be replaced, are becoming astronomically expensive right now. So there's a huge memory shortage.

[01:09:40] Like this is why there's no Xbox stock available at all is because there's no memory with which to put in these consoles. And the same is true for server infrastructure, like server infrastructure, the cost of all this shit is skyrocketing.

[01:09:53] So the way I see like these, these kind of these kind of prices, like the housing stuff, like, yeah, it's kind of comes back to like, it would be more palatable if the game wasn't suffering so much in other areas. I think the timing makes it way worse for sure. Yeah. So for example, I, I went full while and bought all the Warcraft shit in Diablo. Did you really?

[01:10:23] I did. Yeah. I mean, it's amazing. Like I spent over a hundred dollars, whatever it was. Yeah. Every single piece. And I bought the, the, the premium reliquary that has like, it has a dark portal hearthstone in it. Oh, man. Well, the teleport, you know, the dark, cause I've got that. I've got that dark portal teleport hearthstone in world of Warcraft. So I need it in Diablo. Yeah. The warlock tier two set. I need that in Diablo. So I was like, but you know what? I felt good about it.

[01:10:50] I felt good about buying it because I thought the devs had done such a great job and it almost felt like I was just giving them a tip. I mean, they're on. If people, I swear to God, if you haven't seen them, you know what, just while you're talking, I'm going to pull one up here. Just, just so people can fucking see this, what this fucking shit looks like. Yeah. Warcraft. I mean, it's, it's just unbelievable.

[01:11:20] Um, that's art. You know, those skins are art. I like, yes. Oh yeah. I did not mind buying them at all. Um, I felt, and it's like, I remember when I played Monsunta World Iceborne and like, I think Iceborne was like $25 or something like that. There was so much content that they put in that game.

[01:11:46] I was like, I felt, and I felt so good about Monsunta World. But I literally bought all the DLC I could. And all the microtransactions I could, even for stuff that I wasn't going to use. Because I was, I just loved the game so much. I really wanted to just give the devs more money. You know? And, and I think like when the timing with this housing stuff is like when, hang on a sec. You've taken our subscription money.

[01:12:16] We've paid for midnight and all this kind of stuff. You're giving us buggy patches. You're giving us like weak writing. And now you want to, you think you have the audacity. You think they have, you have the right to charge this much money for a house. Not only that, but it's, it's, if you are into housing, it's also very annoying because the housing has been a lot of money.

[01:12:43] Housing exterior does not negate the housing budget. So if you want to make a cool ass housing exterior, you have to spend your writing budget to do it. Yes. Or you could buy one of these premium cool ass houses, you know? Yeah. It's kind of annoying, but also it's even more annoying because they haven't put the housing exterior stars for other races in the game yet. And they're already sprinting out to $75 housing bundles.

[01:13:12] It's kind of annoying. Um, but is it also the end of the universe? Uh, it's, it's not a big deal to me. And it's like you said, like, you don't want it. Don't buy it. At the end of the day, it's purely cosmetic. And you know, I'm someone who couldn't care less about cosmetic DLC. Wales helped fund the game.

[01:13:34] And like you said, um, it is ultimately quite cheap, the subscription and the prices haven't gone up. Generally speaking, but look at those skins, man. Those skins are art. I mean, that is, those are just unbelievable. I mean, you see them in person or you pull them up in the game. I mean, it is, they're stunning. They're absolutely stunning.

[01:13:59] That I, that T2 Paladin set, and you can dye them and make them different colors and stuff. I mean, that's what's just, I mean, it's just, it's just absolutely bonkers. So, yeah, I, man, this shit is wild. And, uh, somehow I just totally screwed up this, uh, screen that I'm looking at. So now we're going to be, now we're going to be stuck on the screen for a while. Um, I thought dealing with this stuff, here we go.

[01:14:29] Here we go back again. Um, so yeah, I, I don't know. So at the end of the day, there are fair criticisms. I think of what is happening with our beloved world of Warcraft and above all else, they have to slow down. I think that is something that is near universally agreed upon.

[01:14:56] Whether you think, whatever you think about the Argentina or a tree house or Diablo should be more in Warcraft. I think we all agree they need to slow down. So I know Johanna Ferries watches the show religiously, just like, uh, just like every other exec. Please for the love of all that is holy or unholy.

[01:15:25] You got to slow this pace down. God, we will forgive you. Slow down. Eight weeks. Yes. Take the Pandaren lead here. Uh, slow down. Eight, eight weeks. People just from a gameplay perspective, people are having a hard time digesting that much content that quickly. Number one. Number two. It is clear that quality has diminished.

[01:15:49] Blizzard has always been synonymous with quality, whether it has met that quality or not in our minds. At least I think us older players that have been around, right? It was, it'll, it'll come out when it's ready. You know, that was the old line that they used to throw around. And we know that that's not necessarily true anymore, but that is something that should be, you know, you should strive for that. And if it's 10 weeks, if it's 12 weeks, we'll be fine with that. We will absolutely be fine with that.

[01:16:15] There, there may be a handful of people like, ah, okay, maybe I'll wait, you know, to resub and I'll skip a couple of weeks. So maybe a month, whatever it is, you'll get those people back because the quality will be there and people will be ready for that content. And it will be much better received than what is happening right now. Like there's probably a plan. I imagine to get us through last Titan and you've mapped it out and you know, this and that don't do it for whatever's after that.

[01:16:44] If you can extend what's happening now, I think people would be understanding of that. But if you can't at the very least, whatever comes after slow it down, ratchet down a gear. It is clear from every perspective of player that this just ain't working and we want it to work. That's the thing at the end of the day as well. Whatever any of us think about all of these things, we want it to work because we love Warcraft.

[01:17:12] We want to see it continue to succeed and thrive and to pull in new players. I mean, we haven't talked a lot about the new player experience, but we all recognize how messy it is. It's a big game. There's a lot of stuff. And when you're coming in, you can't digest all of that. It takes time to work your way through it. And it just the push to the end game. Just it's not it's not going to work for a new player. Right? Like again, slow down. Let people take the time. That's always what's been magical about World of Warcraft is like finding your way through all of this shit.

[01:17:41] So much of it is, you know, kind of fed to us now with arrows and dots and you can find stuff or whatever. Okay, that's modern wow. But like generally, please slow down. Whoever is in power, whoever makes these decisions, whatever leadership it is that is pushing these ideas. You got to let your foot off the gas just a little bit when it comes to the timeline, but not the quality.

[01:18:06] Right? Like, if you got two cars that are competing and one is pushing out the timeline and one is pushing out good quality, let the quality surpass the timeline. Like that's that's that's what we got to do right now. So this is this is what's been on my mind lately. And this is why I don't stay on social media for very long, because it just the stuff gets fed to me and it just makes me feel like I'm fucking crazy.

[01:18:34] And I get that some people do things for clicks and views and you know, whatever. And listen, you got a life to live and you got to do what you got to do. But again, I just I asked people in general, just try to be fair. Be fair with the people that are in our community. Be fair with the people that are responsible for this stuff. Yeah, there's some dirt bag shit eating corporate types that don't give a fuck about us and our game and our in our community. And they just want to break in, you know, bonuses and, you know, corporate profits.

[01:19:02] I get all that and fuck all those corporal bastards. Like, you know, there's there's no daylight between any of us on that. But try to keep in mind, there are a lot of really good people working really fucking hard. They're scared every day that they're going to be put out of a job because of A.I. or whatever the fuck it is, or they're easily replaceable by, you know, a swelling job market of people that are clamoring to get into these businesses just so they can get some pay. Um, so again, just be mindful out there, people.

[01:19:32] That's that's that's that's my thing that I want to throw down there and, you know, appreciate all the hard work that folks are putting in. And hopefully we can find a better pace at some point. But, you know, I don't know if you find something that's not working right. You got to let them know. Keep it up. Keep that pressure up. It's the only way that they're going to make sure that they know that the quality is being met or not. Get out on those forums and do your thing. That's that's I've always said that on the show.

[01:19:59] And I'll continue to say that respect for you. What's that? Respectfully, though. Respectfully, please just be mindful. A lot of the people that we deal with are not the people that make these decisions. And there's it's a it's a whole different world. But before we get out of here, Jez, any any final thoughts about the state of things or any of that?

[01:20:24] Nah, I mean, it's like you said, it's it's like I really genuinely think like it's not the devs because in in Midnight, there are these hints of regret writing. Like I've said repeatedly, some of the side quests were the best side quests in the game. Um, uh, in the void storm and Zulman had some really great questing as well. It's just like it really does feel like it's the patch cadence. It's the details.

[01:20:53] It's the like, like people like if if I had more time to sit there and like actually analyze some of the things that are putting in the game. I'm sure they'll be like, oh, yeah, we can't do that because this happened, you know, like a bit bit of iteration. I'm convinced that it's the patch cadence. It's not the devs, um, at least with regards to some of this stuff.

[01:21:15] And I, I wouldn't be shocked if the patch cadence is why the writing feels so saccharine because it's like we can't take these risks because we don't have time to really think about them properly. So we go for the safe option because that is more conducive to the speed with either have to chase or we've, we've decided to chase. I don't know. But, um, but like I said, the end game is like fantastic still, like better than ever.

[01:21:45] I've been doing so much of it. Um, I'm slowly gradually building up my housing library of stuff. And, you know, I still love the game and I've got no intention to quit. A lot of people are just like, ah, do this and fix that or I'm going to quit. And it's like, I'm not going to sit here and pretend that I'm going to quit anytime soon because I love my guild. I love the end game. I love the gameplay. Yeah. I just, we all just wish it was a little bit better, you know? Yeah.

[01:22:12] Um, and it's, it's not rose tinted glasses. It's just, it's just, you know, blow down and iterate a bit more, you know? We'll see. There it is. There it is. All right. Well, I think we've done enough damage for one episode. We'll see how this one goes. Uh, but for those who don't already know, where can the good people find you out on the internet? Jez. Yeah. Yeah.

[01:22:42] You can find me on Twitter, the horrible place, which you probably shouldn't go to anyway. Um, at Jez Corden. Also on, uh, window central.com forward slash gaming. And, uh, yeah. And the internet. There it is. My, thanks to all of you for tuning in and remember, you can always follow me and the show on Twitter at Berserker Rage and unshackled underscore fury.

[01:23:10] You can see me getting all pissed off about stuff. Uh, blue sky at Berserker and unshackled fury as well as on YouTube at unshackled underscore fury. You can also join our discord links for which are in the profile of this show on Twitter and on our websites, unshackled fury.com. Feel free to contact the show with your questions, comments, or otherwise through any of those resources, uh, or email us at unshackled fury show at gmail.com. And you can find the show wherever you get your podcasts.

[01:23:39] So once again, thank you for listening. Remember to keep your swords wet and your banners high, and we'll see you next time. Farewell.