Episode 182: Rage Bait

[00:00:01] 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.

[00:00:30] We settled, we recharged, and now we are back once again to rampage over the World of Warcraft landscape.

[00:01:11] So welcome back for episode 182 of your Uncensored Home for World of Warcraft news and opinions, Unshackled Theory. I'm your host, Berzerker, and with me once again is the man who is the piece and piece de resistance, Mr. Jez Corden. Welcome back again, good sir. Oh, man. I love the intros, man. It's worth showing up just for that. You don't get those on Xbox too. I know it.

[00:01:41] No, no. No, I don't. I don't. I do not. You got to tell Rand to step it up. Mm-hmm. I agree. I do. I'm going to tell him so. Yeah. Listen, this is how it is over on my side piece show. You got to start stepping it up. Yep, yep.

[00:02:01] Well, welcome back to you, sir. Welcome back everyone. Apologies to the YouTube crew. If you're on the YouTube listening to this or viewing this as it were, you're just getting the audio. So, uh, having some, uh, behind the, behind the stage issues with stuff. So it's, it's going to be audio only just for this and the next episode before we go on break.

[00:02:25] And I'm going to try to do some things during the summer break to get us back on screen and doing all the, you know, video stuff. You people, at least the five of you that watch seem to love. Uh, so thank you for, uh, for heading, uh, along this journey with us on the audio, on the audio waves, at least just for a little while. But, uh, yes, we are. We are back after, uh, a three week break, had to take an extra week, uh, just to kind of get schedules to settle out.

[00:02:51] Uh, we're going to do this episode and a couple of weeks. We'll do our last one before summer break. I've got stuff to do. Jazz has got stuff to do and summer's just always fucking nuts and a good time to take a little break before we get into the, the run up to blizzcon, which is going to be all kinds of, uh, crazy. But, uh, jazz since this last, we were here, how have things been? How has life been treating you? Are you still, uh, afloat in the window central world?

[00:03:22] I mean, it's tough out there for publishers, man. Google keeps changing everything, steering the content and just offering it versus via AI. So it's like, how are we supposed to run a business like this? And then furthermore, I'm kind of sitting there thinking like, how is Google supposed to run a business like this? Because if nobody can write any information, their AI is not going to have anything to click on anyway.

[00:03:47] Right. So it just, it's a baff, it's a baffling time in tech. So, but, uh, you know, as, as a lot of people are suffering in a lot of industries right now, I think kind of like they're calling it the next industrial revolution or whatever.

[00:04:00] And there was a lot of chaos when that popped off. Um, but I kind of feel like AI is a lot, a lot less impressive than the steam engine was though. A lot less impressive. You know, I like, I've tried to use AI for work and it's just too dumb.

[00:04:18] Um, you know, I sit here wondering like, is this, is this something that's going to be good in two or three years? Because right now it's trash. You know, I asked, I asked AI the other day to pull me, pull me the links for the top stories from window central last week.

[00:04:34] So I could put them in a newsletter and it just couldn't do it. It just kept giving me fake URLs and fake stories. And I was like, I was like, bro, those stories don't exist. And I was like, Oh yeah, you're right. You got me. I'll try again. Another bunch of fake stories. And I'm like, what the hell? This is what, this is what they're investing trillions of dollars in. So yeah, that's how I am. How are you?

[00:05:01] Well, believe, you know, believe it or not, AI is, you know, as you well know, uh, AI is infiltrated just about everything. So it may not surprise you. I've been having my own, uh, uh, battles with AI, even on my side of things and in ways that I'm just like, come on people, stop being stupid. And yeah, not entirely being correct in the way that things are coming out. And it's like, just do it yourself.

[00:05:26] Please just knock it off. You know, AI is good for making up fake songs about stuff that are, that I really enjoy or coming up with, you know, stupid movies of things that I enjoy, but in the workplace, it's, it's terrible. But, uh, yeah, we, uh, we actually, this weekend, jazz as you and I record, uh, it's the Memorial Day weekend happening here in the U S.

[00:05:49] So, uh, here we are on Sunday, Monday, tomorrow, uh, I will be back at it, smoking delicious giant cuts of meat. We've got a nice pork shoulder, uh, that's going on the, uh, smoker tomorrow and around about 10 pounds. So that'll yield maybe like seven pounds of meat. So we're going to be eating pretty good, uh, this week. But in order for me to go Monday off.

[00:06:11] Yeah. Monday off. Yeah. Monday off. Oh, damn nice. Three day weekend. So, uh, you know, in, in remembrance of, you know, all of those, uh, it's one of those times in, uh, American history. We remember those that, uh, you know, have served in the arms forces, armed forces, those that have, uh, given some or given all, uh, in many, many cases, uh, to protect, uh, ourselves, our interests are, are very founding, uh, those kinds of things.

[00:06:40] So, uh, regardless of where anyone is on any political spectrum, I think we can all, uh, take a moment to appreciate, uh, the folks that have put their asses out there on the line, uh, on the families who support them and anything that we can do to support our veterans, please, dear God, take the opportunities to do that because they get royally fucked at every turn and it's horrible.

[00:07:02] And so, uh, if there are any veterans, uh, happening, uh, to be listening to this program, thank you for your service, uh, putting your necks out there. Um, beyond appreciative, uh, having members of my own family as many generations back as I can trace, I'm probably the first that didn't go into the military. Uh, or some sort of, uh, police force or something to that effect.

[00:07:26] Um, so I, I, I'm certainly the outlier in my family and, uh, appreciate folks, um, that have participated, uh, in that side of life. So, uh, thank you. And in your honor, big giant meats, uh, being smoked and, uh, probably, uh, share some of that around town. Uh, but in order to do that, Jez, uh, I had to clean out the enormous rat shit infested nest that was under my outdoor couch by my smoker and it was absolutely horrific.

[00:07:56] And oh boy. Oh my God. I had to buy a brand new shovel just to be able to, uh, get it the way I needed to get it. Cause there was so much of it and it was so nasty and there was like fruit rinds and husks. And yesterday was gnarly, bro. I, I probably needed to take at least one more shower to get, to get through it. So, uh, much happier to be here recording with you doing this than what I was doing yesterday, but tomorrow, uh, will be great.

[00:08:24] Um, one thing that I did get to do recently and you saw photos of this was I got to meet, I went to a recording of total nonstop action, uh, wrestling with my son a week ago. And we got to meet the Hardy boys, which, Oh wow. If you've been around wrestling, you know, you know who the Hardy boys are. They've been around forever and we got to do a meet and greet and they were so nice. They were just, just the nicest two dudes.

[00:08:53] And they were very gracious with their time. They were spending a couple of minutes with everybody that came through. And, uh, Jeff is a, is, is a good hugger. That's what I'll say. Jeff, Jeff Hardy, good hugger. And we had, we took a nice photo and that was, that was awesome. It was awesome. Um, I don't watch a lot of TNA, uh, but they came to town and we're like, I will give it a shot. Had the most fucking fun. It was a great time, a great show.

[00:09:19] I know they're like way down on the kind of hierarchy of pro wrestling, uh, these days, but it was, it was an awesome time. We had, we had a fucking fantastic time. Mike Santana, Mustafa Ali. Uh, we got to see, uh, uh, uh, oh God damn it. What's his name? Top of my head. Uh, he's retired, but he came out of retirement basically for like the one match, uh, Santino Morella. He was awesome. He was, Oh wow. You met Santino Morella. He, he, he, he dude still got moves.

[00:09:49] It's crazy. So, uh, it was, it was a great time, but, uh, yeah, that's, that's what we've been up to, uh, since last we were here. And, uh, Jez, I don't know what inspired me for the metal album of the week this week, shifting gears here.

[00:10:06] Um, I, I don't know what inspired me to reach into the deep recesses of my mind for this one, but, uh, I'm curious what you may know or remember or have experienced, uh, in relation to this band. But going back to September 29th of 2009, it was the release of death album two by death clock. Death clock.

[00:10:37] So the laugh is warranted. If you don't know who death clock is or was death clock was the fictional semi fictional band that existed on a show called metalocalypse, which was an adult swim, uh, uh, staple, I think for, for many years. I only did, I think four episodes, four seasons, but they were just around.

[00:11:00] And if you never watched, you didn't know essentially, and I'm boiling this way down is that death clock was this, you know, Uber heavy metal band. That was like the biggest band in the world. They were like the seventh largest economy on the planet by this time. They, you know, it just, it's just like crazy fantasy about the, the biggest band. And it was a metal band that ever lived. Uh, but they actually did put out albums. The guy who ran the whole thing. Um, I can't remember his name off the top of my head.

[00:11:30] I got to pull this up. Um, uh, Brendan small. He actually like created this whole thing and sang it and played music and, and they had like real, uh, musicians like Gene Hoagland, who was, uh, a drummer and testament, uh, for a while. Uh, they, they had like a legitimate, uh, a band. And for a while just, they even toured and I saw them. And I think this is what like, again, inspired this sort of thing. Going back to 2009, I had to pull this up November 21st of 2009.

[00:12:00] So it was right after this album came out. I saw them at the event center arena in San Jose at San Jose state, a buddy of mine. Uh, and the homie Rommel, uh, will know exactly who was with me, uh, when I went to this one, uh, cause he and I used to go to a bunch of metal shows, uh, but his driving terrifies me. And so I don't know that we do that anymore. Um, but I saw them and it was awesome. And they had like, you know, the big animated stuff playing on a big screen behind the band. And it was, it was a bad-ass time. They were touring in support of Mastodon.

[00:12:30] Uh, and yeah, it was, it was a phenomenal show. I was trying to think of who else was on there. It was Mastodon, uh, high on fire and converge. Yeah. It was those four bands in one night. It was, it was, it was a great, it was a great, great time. Uh, but for you, Jez, do you death clock? Are you familiar with death clock? I am familiar with death clock. I got, I got a couple of friends who are huge, huge fans of them.

[00:12:59] I've never really listened to them myself too much. Um, except like when sometimes like we'd hang out and get drunk and like, kind of like one of the things we do is we, we, um, uh, we all connect our phones to the TV. And then build up a spot, um, a YouTube, YouTube playlist. Oh, we all like take it in turn to submit songs while drinking. And that would always submit death clock. Right. And then I'm submitting weird shit, like swans. And that's not nobody wants to listen.

[00:13:29] Yeah. So it's, uh, uh, everyone's like, everyone's there. Like listening to like, uh, I'm on a Martha death clock and stuff. And I'm there with my weird, like, he's, uh, Angelo Badlamenti of the Twin Peaks soundtrack. And I'm like, what the fuck is this, Jez? That's good too. Yeah. Well, I don't know. But yeah, that's how I'm aware of them. This is, this is, it's, it's always the friends. They're always the problem. Uh, this, this I think is a good one for you.

[00:13:58] Uh, laser cannon death sentence is, is probably my favorite song off of this. And was very famous. It was in a guitar hero. Um, I think it was in a guitar hero or a couple of guitar hero games. Uh, this album actually peaked at 15 on the billboard top 200. So it did, it did get some play numbers. It it's a decent listen. Uh, honestly, uh, you can put it on. I know you're, uh, you're a Spotify guy.

[00:14:24] So, uh, go out and, uh, and throw, just throw this on while you're, I don't know, working on a, your newsletter or something. Uh, this, this is, Oh yeah, I got to do a newsletter. Thanks for reminding me. There it is. Uh, put it on. It's a good time. And I think there was a DVD and some other stuff that went with this one. But, uh, yeah. Uh, if you aren't familiar out there with death clock, it's very kind of tongue in cheek in a lot of ways. It just, it's serious, but not, um, it was, uh,

[00:14:54] it was a great kind of moment in time for this just crazy creation. That was this pseudo, you know, pseudo real band. Uh, but for, uh, for our recommendation this week, get out there. Death album two by death clock from September of 2009. All right. Uh, I've got a rage segment that I've been sitting on, uh, for a couple of weeks

[00:15:20] because it came up, uh, right after we did our last episode and, um, I had a revelation and then I didn't. And well, let's hear about it. Let's go. Let's rage. Since we were here last Jez, a, a thing happened.

[00:15:47] A thing happened that I didn't think would ever happen. I fell in love with PVP. Whoa. A thing that I have shunned for many, many, many, many years, all the years, basically that I played world of world crap. I found a new love with PVP that I didn't think would ever happen.

[00:16:15] You know, and I got to thank the homie Rommel for this because, uh, you know, we were getting together on a regular Thursday night, uh, Jamboree hootenanny. And instead of doing delves, Jez, we started doing duels and not just any duels, decor duels, the most hardcore of the hardcore of PVP.

[00:16:43] I thought you were going to tell me you were doing a slash Maccarat, but no. Oh no. We were doing decor duels. The greatest dueling of any kind of dueling in the history of world of warcraft there in the mean streets of silver moon. There we were. And we came, we, we had come up with all kinds of strategies. Rommel with the hay pillow and the column scroll and all of the other things that we came up with on that night.

[00:17:11] And we, and we played and we slayed and we found and we hid and we evaded and we jumped and we did all kinds of maneuvers to win. And after all of those games, Jez, after all of those duels, after all of that PVP content that I did, not one item, not even a hope of a chance of anything in my vault, my weekly vault,

[00:17:37] because as it turns out, that kind of PVP doesn't count towards your weekly vault. Oh snap. Well, that's unfortunate. Can you believe it? Well, actually, yeah, because it's not legitimate PVP, bro. Oh, nobody told me. Nobody told me. It was in the PVP section. I, I, I thought I had found it.

[00:18:07] I thought I had finally connected with the great PVP realms of the world and beyond. And we were having so much fun and we were dominating, uh, hiding out in plain sight as a harp or, uh, uh, a stack of books or, you know, some scroll somewhere.

[00:18:26] And we were, we were dominating and I, I was ready for my hero level helm to be bestowed upon me from this great, uh, PVP action. But nay, nay, there, there, there is no progress counted from the core dueling. So if you like me were bamboozled, were tricked, were hoodwinked into thinking that that counted towards your weekly vaults,

[00:18:53] do not fall for that trap as I did because it is in fact considered non, non-violence, non-hostile PVP. And I guess only if you kill somebody else, you actually get credit towards getting a new piece of gear. So I guess, Jez, that's just the lesson that I have to learn the hard way once again. But, uh, for all of you that, uh, don't like PVP, I may have found, uh, your way into.

[00:19:22] So word to the wise, word to the wise. All right. Uh, let's get into to our news section where, uh, you know, this week we're going to try to make a chicken sit in the chicken salad. Here we go. We are in the doldrums. That's just, that's just what it is. But, you know, we're here, we're here, we're here for you.

[00:19:52] We're here for the people. Uh, last episode, Jez, we had a, a wide ranging conversation about me getting all fucking worked up because of Twitter. And I shouldn't have gone on there in the first place. And off we went into all of these different areas of the community and the game and what might be going sideways and what might they need to do and all, all kinds of stuff.

[00:20:15] But something that I learned coming out of this, and, and I know that, you know, this far better than I do, but the rage sells, man. Like rage really sells because we never got as much of a response through email, Twitter, discord, skywriting, smoke signals, carrier pigeon, man. We were getting it from all corners. I, I've never seen a response like this to any episode.

[00:20:44] I think that I've ever put out there for us. Um, is this, is this what it is like? Uh, somebody who has a, a, a, a greater reach on Xbox two and windows central. It, it, it, it, it's just, just all about clicks and views. The rage just has always really sold. Hasn't it? Yeah. It's nothing really new. It's kind of funny. If you go back and watch like, uh, old movies and stuff, this, these, these topics do come up. Like I was, what was I playing?

[00:21:13] I was playing broken sword the other day. Have you heard of broken sword? Broken sword. Um, broken sword. When did it come out? So broken sword, the original broken sword game, uh, launched on the PlayStation one. Wow. All the way back in 1996. Wow. Shadow of the Templars. Okay. It's a, it was known as circle of blood in North America. I didn't know that, but it's known as Shadow of the Templars in Britain. Okay. I don't know why, but in, in the nineties, like a lot of games had different names in

[00:21:43] Britain compared to America. I don't know why, but that was, that was a thing apparently. Anyways, I digress. I was playing broken sword, which is from 1996. Okay. And, um, it's a point and click adventure game. You play as an American guy. It's funny because it's written by British people. You play as an American guy. Okay. And it's like the American guy keeps using British humor and British sarcasm. It's, it's a really strange dynamic now that I'm an adult and I can understand it. Yeah.

[00:22:08] But, um, he's really sarcastic, but he gets caught up in a terror attack and then he just decides like, I'm going to investigate this myself. He's a tourist. And he becomes, he just decides to start investigating this terror attack. He gets caught up in all these secret societies and all this kind of stuff. And, and, uh, at the start of the game, like there's a dude there reading the newspaper. And one of the things you have to do is talk to people and interact with them and try and get clues and that kind of thing. Yeah.

[00:22:36] And the guy's like sitting there with a newspaper and he's, he's opening the newspaper and he's like, Oh, it's just all the same shit. It's all, it's all propaganda. It's all sensationalism. It's all rage. It doesn't say rage bait, but you know, it's like, it's all, I was just sitting there thinking, fuck me. Nothing's changed. Nothing's changed. This game came out, this game came out 30 years ago. It came out 30 years ago. And then he's, he's bitching about the same stuff, you know? So yeah, nothing's really changed. Like rage sells. Yeah.

[00:23:06] Division. And he's even took, it's really funny what he says. Cause it's just like this, this game has an age today and it's 30 years old. That's wild. It's crazy, man. So, but yeah, rage sells. It's been a thing since forever. Since forever. Yeah. Yeah. I guess, you know, try not to court too much of that side of things. Cause, uh, you know, we got, first I want to say anybody that felt the, the need,

[00:23:33] would want desire to, uh, to comment or apply to anything, to send anything in, you know, always appreciate people listening, checking out the show and feeling something about something enough to actually do something. Um, I got, uh, certainly one, uh, one email in particular was very long and well-written and, you know, had a lot of thoughts and, you know, anybody that takes the time to put something down like that.

[00:23:58] But I gotta say, I, I'm, I'm honestly in a way kind of flattered that you would actually take that much time out of your life to do that. Cause you know, this is, this is just dumb podcast. So, you know, thank you for, for, for having that much thought in, in what we were doing. And I think it's exhausting to some degree. Cause I know I had at least one Twitter interaction with somebody who was wholly confused about something that I had said. And I'm like, I don't really, I'm kind of unsure about what to do because I don't want to blow anybody up.

[00:24:28] But at the same time, it's like, I think you're on the wrong track, buddy. So marshalling that kind of thing. I see Jez why you're so non-responsive on Twitter. Cause even like I say stuff to you and I, I don't even get any response from you. So I, I assume your filter is very high. I just, I had to stop reading the comments. Like straight up, man. I've got a tweet. Or something like that. Yeah. Like actually, let me just double check that.

[00:24:57] I might be, I might be exact over exaggerating here. But I did. It's just a dumb quote tweet. I put out a quote tweet. Um, let me find it now. Oh yeah, here it is. Oh, it's got 4.5 million views. That's crazy. 43,000 likes. And, uh, I just kind of like, it's gotten to the point with my algorithm where it's kind of started to snowball. Now I had, I had 180,000 followers last autumn.

[00:25:27] Now I've got 250,000. Wow. It's like, it started to snowball. So like, it just, it just comes a point where I just, I have to, I don't, I don't even see like what people say anymore. Cause I try, I spot check it, but like, dude, I'm not going to see if you're applying me on Twitter. I'm probably not going to see it. Oh, this was about the AI WWE, which is hilarious. Cause there's a Hardy boy, like right in front of that. I met that guy. Yeah.

[00:25:56] It's kind of surreal now when I see like, cause I went to the WWE event and there was loads of like CM Punk was there. And Joe, when I, when I see them on Twitter and stuff, I was like, Oh my God, I met that guy. It's kind of surreal. But, uh, but yeah, it's Twitter's just, um, and it's, it's not a humble brag. It's just, it's just the way it is. Like if even like, I think even back when I had like 50,000 followers or a hundred thousand, um, it starts getting exhausting reading all the replies. Yeah.

[00:26:25] I do however read all my DMs. Cause I feel like if someone, when people have made the effort to DM, that's like, they've gone an extra, they've gone the extra mile to get. That's how I got it. So I like, Oh God. Yeah. Yeah. Well message me on discord. I just messaged you on here. Like it's crazy. Well, my discord's public. You know, if, if people really want to contact me, there's like, there are ways of doing it, but it's just, you're not hard to find. It's just noise. Yeah. It's just bots and bots and bots. It's probably like a good 75% of my followers are bots.

[00:26:55] I wouldn't be surprised. You know, it's hard to verify any of this stuff anymore. So it is, it is entirely possible. That's true. But yeah, it's, it's, again, it's kind of like when we did the interview with Ian, you know, rarity for, for these parts. And so kind of the, seeing the reaction and the discussion and kind of what happens after you do something like that. It is different, you know, it's just, it's a different environment.

[00:27:20] You pull in different people and you know, the, the, the tenor of things is, is a little bit tougher and, and it's a little more uncomfortable. Yeah. Which, which is why it's kind of funny to me and, and, and you had some great insight and, and you already touched on this a little bit.

[00:27:39] But there's been some discussion furthering into this sort of rage bait, rage selling sort of thing is a lot of commentary over the last, like two weeks about wow head of all places. And some of the, let's call them opinion pieces, perhaps that they're putting out.

[00:27:57] Uh, the one that I saw that got the most traction was is blizzard going overboard with casual content, which I find kind of hilarious for a wow head to put something out about this because the more that, that, that like blizzard and Warcraft puts out, the more that wow head can report on. So it seems like they would want them to go overboard with stuff because that's good for their clicks and that's good for their views. And that's, you know, that's content that people are consuming of theirs.

[00:28:26] And instead we've got this sort of opinion piece about, well, you know, the Arcantina and the lore walking and we got the core duels and abyss anglers. And we got this and we got this and we got this. It's like, yeah, we got all this stuff. Why are you upset? I'm not sure why you're upset. Wow head. Uh, there was an also picking up on what we talked about last time. Another piece by Arkham Tiros warrior God himself about how the Arkantina, uh, it doesn't make sense, which I mean, we've just all beat that into death now.

[00:28:57] Um, but you had mentioned to me, you talked about a little bit earlier. Is this a, just a strategy change because of things like this Google change where Google is now not going to be doing search results. Did I understand that? Right. That's how that works or is going to work like in a week. Yeah. So one of the things Google is about to roll out is when you do a search and Google like best wow builds, for example.

[00:29:25] Um, when you do that right now, the first thing that comes up is max role and then wow head, at least in Germany. But what, what's going to be starting to roll out soon is you put best wow builds in and you're going to get the Gemini cat box instead. Yeah.

[00:30:10] You're going to be able to change registry. Like we have so many weird niche windows guides covering every single topic, uh, like a huge knowledge base that we've built up over decades. Like I think windows central is like 15 years old now. So like over a decade or something like 18 years. I can't remember, but Google stole all that content and reproduced it into artificial intelligence. So like, I know if you meet, like I go to wow head and usually I go there straight to look at like, what's the, what's the build people using now. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:30:39] Now these days I use our con instead. Um, but, um, if I'm, if I'm a wow head or like a wiki or, or any of these other kinds of websites, which build their business on reference, reference material rather than news or exclusives.

[00:30:52] Um, that kind of fucked, you know, so, uh, having doing these kinds of content to try and get into the algorithm more because Google will still sort of promote opinion pieces in the Google news and, uh, Google discover on an Android phone. If you swipe left, there's like a feed of algorithmic content. And if you're, if, if Google knows you're like world of Warcraft, it might show you an opinion article about world of Warcraft from wow head or windows central.

[00:31:22] Like some of my wow opinion articles last month, they got a huge amount of Google news traffic. Um, so that's probably why they're leaning into that. Cause it's one of the only ways you'll still be able to get traffic is from that Google news, that Google news algorithm. But even that's going away because Google's like Google's prioritizing YouTube for that. Now, no, it's like, they are basically stealing the internet.

[00:31:46] You won't be able to put out any content on the internet unless you are feeding YouTube or feeding one of their platforms directly. The open web is screwed. So that's probably why you're seeing more websites like wow head and other wiki sites increasingly moving in towards news and that kind of thing. Um, oh yeah. That's the boring, the boring business side of it.

[00:32:10] Oh, well, I, it didn't seem like they got a whole lot of love coming around the first time on this. I mean, I guess we'll see what they continue to do. We've had, we've had pieces from wow head in the past where it's let's go and take a part like a cinematic. And let's talk about, you know, why all these things are important or what this might be.

[00:32:31] Uh, I know they've got at least one person on staff who goes like, in my opinion, a little too deep on the lore sometimes and just gets all bent out of shape about all sorts of shit. But you know, that's just me. And, and, you know, they, there's been some, I think, opinion in there, but something like this, it does feel like, I don't know, man. Like wow head questioning whether or not there's too much casual content. That was kind of silly.

[00:32:56] Uh, considering, you know, again, the more stuff that blizzard puts out, the more stuff that warcraft puts out, you know, all these little bits and pieces that that that's a wow head article. Every single one of those individual things is a wow head post like that. And I'm not hating on them for it. That's just what they do. Um, but it, it, it would be kind of funny to, for them to shit on that, I guess. But, uh, for whatever it's worth, I love the casual content. I doing all the decor dueling stuff.

[00:33:26] I know I was joking about it earlier. Uh, the homie Rommel and I have legitimately been having insane fun doing it. And I think part of it is the hilarity of two, you know, guys in their mid forties playing fucking decor duels and like, you know, scrambling around this place and trying to hide as a pillow under a column or something. Like it just, it, in a way it's, it is wholly ridiculous, but we're having like the best time doing it.

[00:33:54] And it's, it's just a stupid little thing, but yes, it's part of what I love about Warcraft. That's why we played the game for so long is there's these things that kind of keep us going when, you know, we're no longer on a raid team. We haven't been on an active raid team now for two years. I think it's, I mean, it's been a while and you know, the delves are great, but you know, they, they, you know, you can only run so many delves. We've never been dungeon ears really.

[00:34:21] Um, so we kind of have to keep finding things to keep our interest in the more that they do, the more that we, the more that we find. So I, for whatever it's worth that, I know that they got the article out there, but for whatever it's worth, I, I appreciate the casual content, but yeah, it is, it is, it is kind of funny to see that sort of shift from wow. But maybe, but maybe, like you said, maybe they got good reasons.

[00:34:46] Um, the last, maybe a portion of the rage based agenda as well. We'll slide out of this, uh, coming out of the last weekend in this interesting story that's been going around. I want to say like the last week or so of a player, maybe it was two weeks now, a player who got banned for dropping F bombs, uh, in the game. So saying fuck a bunch of times or whatever it was.

[00:35:16] So like the, like the, like the, the, the progenitor of this, the, the, the real story, whatever happened in game, nobody seems to know what actually happened. But what we got was, I think a screenshot of somebody getting the, you know, crappy AI, you know, you just, we're talking about AI, right? It's got the crappy AI, uh, customer service thing that responded to somebody who got their account banned and was like, well, you know, you were cursing.

[00:35:46] It's too bad. And so they screenshot it, put it up online, uh, put it up on Twitter. They tagged blizzard. They tagged warcraft and they tagged blizzard CS and the blizzard CS wrote back. It looks like this was an actual human that said, I just looked at the logs. Cody, you seem to have a fondness for dropping F bombs. Even one if reported is enough. And then it had a little PJ, little, little thing, little symbol in a PJ thing.

[00:36:12] Um, and then people responded to that and talking about freedom of speech. And I'm, you know, I'm glad blizzard pointed it out that, you know, we have a code of conduct that every player of our game agrees to. Part of that is refraining from profanity. Freedom of speech is between the U S government and its citizens. This, thank you for clarifying that point, not between a private company and their customers. No, you aren't allowed to curse in our games. Uh, what's the rest to say? Um, do so get reported. There are consequences.

[00:36:42] I mean, it just kept going. Like, Oh my God. Um, I curse all the time. I see people curse all the time. Just, I know you curse all the time. There's a, there's a chat filter in the game. Like, you know, there's, there's a way to deal with this. Um, finally, there was, I think the response to all of this from another person in blizzard CS to put the kibosh on all this. They said, Hey, all jumping in here. The way we engaged with this post.

[00:37:12] Isn't the quality we expect of ourselves or each other at blizzard customer services here to offer clarification and guidance. We want to make our policies clear and we want you all to feel comfortable reaching out to us. Our behavior policies are important and are regularly evaluated to help ensure our games are great places to be for as many people as possible. To be clear, cursing is not blanket punished within our games. Context matters.

[00:37:40] And in this case, the context warranted upholding the action. Thank you for making your voices heard and we will work to communicate with more clarity moving forward. Love, love it when they say that. We've heard that before potentially. Uh, Jez, what do you think happened here? Do you think somebody got in trouble on the CS side? Man, I, I really don't know.

[00:38:02] Like there was a, there was another big story about customer service this, this week where like a major PlayStation influencer, maybe the biggest PlayStation influencer, Colin Moriarty, a band on PlayStation network. Oops. And the way, the way it got banned was like, uh, someone bribed PlayStation customer support. That's crazy account. Yeah. It's absolutely nuts. Right. So I think there's, there is a theme, there is a theme going on right now with, with corporate America.

[00:38:31] Where it's like, we're, we're outsourcing customer service either to artificial intelligence or, you know, to exploited third world countries and that kind of thing. And as a result, like we keep seeing these stories. Like I've got like so many DMS from people who've been banned on Xbox live saying, can you help me get my account back? And there's no, there's no, like, there's no recourse for some of this stuff. And some people have said like, you know, I, I didn't even use this account for months. And then I randomly got banned and it does feel like there's something, something weird going on with all this kind of stuff.

[00:39:01] And I just, I just feel like it's all, it all boils down to the fact all this stuff is underfunded, understaffed, undermanned. And it's, it's just one big area where they've cut corners, but I know it's not necessarily like totally relevant to the discussion about whether or not there should be swearing in World of Warcraft. I've always thought it's kind of dumb personally because there's the swearing in World of Warcraft. And it's kind of like, well, it's a mature rate of game. Like what the fuck? And there's also, there's like, there's filters in game too.

[00:39:30] Like what you, you turn the filter off and then got upset when you saw an unfiltered comment. Like I think if it's like, if it's swearing directed at someone, like insulting them or something, I think that's it. Then that's different. Yeah. But if it's just like, I'm just putting emphasis on something like, oh, that's fucking bullshit that I didn't get that fucking trinket again for the thousandth fucking time. It's like Blizzard really? And then some, some dickhead just decides, oh, I'm going to report this guy.

[00:40:00] Yeah. Because I was offended because I turned the filter off or I'm offended by the filtered asterisks and stuff like that. Yeah. I think it's, I just think it's dumb as hell and it's over sanitized. And I think it's right. And a needless headache, not just for the community, but for them too. Like they have to moderate this needless shit. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah. That, that again, I'm glad they said this. I think that's where the context matters, right? Like if you're like in your example, right? If you're just saying, oh, you God damn.

[00:40:27] I fucking didn't get that piece of shit. I can drink it again. Like that's, that doesn't, that doesn't hurt anybody. But if you're like you motherfucker, you piece of shit, you stole my whatever, you know, like there's a, obviously that's verbally abusive to another player and that, that you can't have. Um, but you do get people right. That they see a word and they get, they get upset. I mean, I, I, I, I mean, I've been dealing with people like this my whole life.

[00:40:56] It makes me think of a situation when I was in high school, you know, a thousand years ago and we were having a discussion about something in our debate class. And one of the kind of snobby kids in the class was saying something about, uh, you know, just, just talking out of his ass. And, and, and part of my response to him in the class about something was, I, I said that, uh, you're, you know, whoever the people we were talking about, like, well, you're fucked.

[00:41:24] And you would have thought that I had just done the worst thing possible by dropping an F bomb in the middle of class. I mean, nowadays it means nothing. But back then, back in the, back in the olden times, people, people lost their shit. And I, and I almost got suspended because somebody went home and told their mom that I said a dirty word in class and they called the principal. Like there was a whole thing about it.

[00:41:48] So, you know, there's always been people that get all bent out of shape about usage of a word. And, you know, I, obviously this show has always been very blue in its language and it's, it is what it is. So I, you know, we've never had a problem with it as long as you're not going after another person. But, you know, this saga, it just highlights to your point, how underfunded, how undermanned this portion of things probably is, uh, very likely is the handover of the AI to stuff.

[00:42:18] And then the example that you use with the PlayStation where, you know, they're paying a guy dick. That's not, you know, just working on the thing. And it's probably very easy to, what was the phrase you used with me earlier? Socially engineer, right? A situation where you're like, Hey, uh, I can get you paid if you do this thing. And it's like, fuck it. Why not? I'm not making shit. I'll do it. So yeah, it's, I, I rarely hear anything good about Blizzard CS.

[00:42:47] And, you know, it's just when you fire all of the humans and you turn it over to bots, that level of sophistication doesn't exist. To deal with people and their real problems. And, you know, to what you were saying about the AI earlier and, um, you know, not being able to pull up real links for a newsletter. There's just a level of sophistication that doesn't exist yet. And they're just trying to brute force it. And it doesn't make sense.

[00:43:15] But anyway, if you haven't seen it, there's all kinds of links and stuff in Twitter. Very easy to search out this, this whole saga and find out. But it was, it was an interesting insight into once again, I think the de-evolution of some of the parts of our, our community and our beloved franchise that needs, needs a little bit of help. But, uh, let's switch gears a little bit. Uh, we're not getting a whole lot of, uh, patch 12.0.7 news.

[00:43:42] Uh, it's been trickling in little bits here and there. I think some updates to some rewards perhaps, and I think there's going to be a boost in some experience gains and stuff like that. But the one thing that Blizzard themselves, who've been pretty quiet on the news front, uh, but one thing that they did put out there was a brief, uh, just a little preview of Sporefall, which is the one boss raid that is coming in 1207.

[00:44:11] Uh, it's in Herondar, going to be in Herondar. Obviously max level, uh, characters, uh, need only apply. Uh, minimum eye level for Raid Finder to 40. Shouldn't be too difficult these days. And it'll be on all levels, Raid Finder, normal, heroic, mythic. Um, and you'll be taking on this, this big mushroomy, broody dude named Rotmire. And Rotmire is, oh, the fungal growth of your nightmare.

[00:44:42] Uh, but lots of gear, Spore, what are they calling it? Spore fuse gear dropped from this. There's a, a hilarious toy, uh, which I think turns you into like a little angry, like a little angry Spore guy, little mushroom guy. They're hilarious. Um, and then a horrid, horrid decor item, which is like this, I don't know what it is. It's, they call it a rot shroom. But if you've got that thing, it's a phobia where you see like holes and stuff.

[00:45:11] Don't look at it. Um, cause I've got it. And I looked at it and I was like, oh, I'm going to bomb. So not for me on that one. Um, but, uh, I appreciate, I appreciate the one boss raid. Jez, we don't, uh, you know, we don't get those too often anymore. I think back to the, you know, Mac Theradon's lair kind of thing, uh, back in BC. I think that was probably the first one I ever did. I liked the one boss raid. I like just getting in there, kicking ass and getting out.

[00:45:40] So your, uh, your team looking forward to this? I haven't seen a lot of excitement about this. I mean, on the one hand, it's cool that we are getting one boss raids here and there. But on the other hand, it's the most boring boss model I've ever seen. It's just one of them four giants that are already roaming around the map. At least, um, at least the undreamt God was a somewhat unique model.

[00:46:09] And had somewhat interesting lore and had a pretty cool, like, um, had some cool voiceovers. And there's some, there was some like really interesting lore implications of the undreamt God. Yeah. It kind of implies that, you know, the wild gods were kind of dreamt into existence by Azeroth herself. And, and this particular God is either the product of a nightmare or it wasn't,

[00:46:35] the dream wasn't able to fully complete because she was ripped out of her cradle by the Titans. Like there's a lot of cool lore there, but this, this, this one-off boss is literally just mushroom guy. Gray. Fantastic. Like it just feels, maybe there'll be something cool in there. Maybe there'll be something, maybe they'll have some fun abilities or something, you know? I mean, maybe I know, I know you're kind of like, you're kind of like, oh God, Jez is being negative again.

[00:47:01] And it is kind of like, oh, oh, my steak is too juicy. Like I shouldn't be complaining about the fact that we're getting content. But at the same time, it's just, it just doesn't feel compelling to me. It reminded me of, um, you know, some of the, they've done this in the past a couple of times. And I remember, um, towards the end of, uh, the Wrath of the Lich King, they added a dragon raid, didn't they? After Ice Chrome Citadel to try and tide people over. They did. And it was like that. It was just another one of them. It was like, it was bad. There's no point doing this.

[00:47:31] It was going to be obsolete in a few weeks. Yeah. Everybody hated it. Yeah. And I kind of feel like that with this. It's like the gear that I get from this is not really going to do much for me at the end of the season. Like season two is going to come along and then all the gear from that's going to completely blow this away. Yeah. So there would have had to have been something more compelling, like, like the Isle of Quell the Nassar raid. I think that's fantastic. Yeah.

[00:47:57] We've got like, Lura is mechanically incredibly unique and complicated. Mm-hmm. Even though it's like we've already fought her once before. But there's like some really cool stuff that happens in that raid. And also, um, uh, what's the, the, the bird called now? Bel, Belor, Belor something? I can't remember. Yeah.

[00:48:17] Some, some elvish bollocks, but, um, they were, they were mechanically more interesting, but this is, this dude looked like he's been copy and pasted out of, um, uh, what's it called now? The swamp in the burning crusade. Undermire? Oh, Zanger Marsh? Zanger Marsh. Yeah. Yeah. That's the one. It does look very Zanger Marsh-y. That's true. Yeah. He's, he's just, dude's been copy and pasted out of Zanger Marsh. And it's like, like with, with some slight model changes. And I was just like, nah, I don't, I don't find that very compelling.

[00:48:46] I like, I'm kind of taking a break from the game at the minute. Cause we got ahead of the curve and I've got, I've got like almost all mythic track gear, all my gears maxed out. And it's like, there's, there is nothing left to do. I've got every single transmog set, including the elite PVP set. There you go. Literally everything I could possibly want. And I would rather like, I'd rather they, the time they spend making this, I would rather they've taken that time and those dev hours and made the next season even more compelling. Hmm.

[00:49:16] I don't know why. I don't really know if this, people want this, but maybe they do. And maybe I'm just cynical or whatever, but I don't, I don't know. Like if this is the right direction to take, I don't know. We'll see what the response is. Hey. I'm going to get some more comments, Jez. I'm going to get some more comments. Yeah. Let them come. I'm sorry. I'm negative.

[00:49:43] But I just, like I say, I just wish it was a more interesting, unique kind of boss model. Yeah. And not just like random, random, random mushroom time. That's fair. Like the undreamed card. Give me another undreamed card. For God's sake. I wouldn't. That's probably coming. Shit's going to be unavoidable here for too long. So yeah. Um, 1207 out there on the horizon.

[00:50:08] We've been kind of throwing darts at June 16th. Uh, there was a bit of an update on the PTR that the turbulent time waves got moved back to June 30th. So maybe they're moving it back or maybe that part of the patch will just be a little bit later. So it seems to be in flux. They haven't actually told us when that's coming out.

[00:50:34] So we're coming up on just like three weeks away if that's the date in mid June. So, um, we should be, I don't know. We should be finding out soon, but maybe, maybe they heard all of us after 12 0 point, you know, 12.0 point five. And we're like, ah, maybe we ought to fucking hit the brakes a little bit, but I don't know. We'll see. We'll see. But, uh, we'll keep an eye on it. My, my assumption is, is when we come back in a couple of weeks, we'll have a full 12, point 0 point seven preview for everybody.

[00:51:03] And we can pick that apart and talk a little bit further about it. But until then, uh, drips and drabs, uh, coming. So just, uh, keep an eye out on all your favorites, uh, new spaces. And, uh, we've also seen that patch 12.1, the next big content patch, uh, it is out there on the encrypted vendor server, whatever the fuck that is. You know, they've got it out there somewhere. Someone's keeping an eye on. So, um, it is rolling on the, the beat, the beat marches on.

[00:51:34] In the meantime, we had kind of an interesting announcements, um, unrelated to patch cadences and all these other things. Uh, we had an official announcement from blizzard about the blizzcon 2026 community night host and contest judges, which I mean, we're still four months away, uh, from blizzcon. So not forever.

[00:52:02] Uh, still, still a little ways away, I think, uh, from the show, but, uh, highlight of that of course is everybody loves Darren DePaul. Great voice actor, uh, from all kinds of blizzard properties. Probably, uh, best known, uh, from, um, uh, Reinhardt in overwatch. And he's always full of energy and I don't know. Well, I was going to make a drug reference, but I don't know if that's nice. He always has a lot of energy and I, and I wish I had that energy myself to, you know,

[00:52:31] take with me wherever I go. But, uh, Darren DePaul, uh, let's see, what do they say? Voice of Reinhardt, N'Zoth, Blackhand, Tear, Gallywix. Yeah, he's done a bunch. Um, he's going to be, it's your boy Gallywix. Jez Gallywix is hosting the community night. That's all you need to know. That's, that's, that's, that's the main thing. You know what that, you know what that says to me? What does that say? Gallywix ain't dead. Gallywix ain't dead, bro. That says to me he escaped. There was no body. There was no body.

[00:53:02] I did not see a body, so I think he escaped. Yeah. I think Gallywix is not dead. Yeah. Especially if the voice actor is still playing a huge role at BlizzCon. Yeah. I know he does other voices too, but. Man. I think. The last Titan. He's Gallywix. Oh, shit. There it is. You crack. I think all, I think this whole time we've been thinking the Titan. Titan. The last Titan is a Titan.

[00:53:29] But what if it's a Titanic sized meh made by Gallywix? I mean. I'm going with that. I'm going with that. That, that would be something. I mean, you know, listen. I am all for a Pacific Rim-esque expansion where it's just Jaegers everywhere. That would be, you know, I'll take Gypsy Danger into action any day. That'd be, that'd be fantastic.

[00:53:55] Well, while Jess is cracking the code there, a couple other people we got on this one as judges. The judges. Cosplay judges. We've got Tiffany Gordon cosplay who had that excellent Lilith cosplay back in 2023. I mean, just absolutely gorgeous. The whole big head piece. You know, all the wardrobe. The whole kit and caboodle. Just outstanding.

[00:54:26] Samir Tikamasala Kamui. Kamui? K-A-M-U-I. Kamui. I never know how to say it, but I see her all the time. Kamui cosplay. I don't know. Sendaris, who I think does a pretty solid Sylvanas for you there, buddy. Sweet. I really want to meet Kamui cosplay. I saw her at Gamescom. Yeah. At the Blizzard mixer, and I was just too shy to say hello. Dude, she's great.

[00:54:55] She's done a ton of cool shit. Yeah, she's awesome. Is she like the biggest cosplayer on Instagram, I think? Is she? I mean. I think she might be. She's huge. She's German, too, I think. I think she's like Germany's biggest influence. Oh, shit. We had to say hi. Ah, well, we'll fix that. Yeah. Last one is... Selasara? If I fucked that up, my apologies.

[00:55:21] Also, I believe a Blizzard employee, an IT support engineer, a BlizzCon ambassador. They're doing these BlizzCon ambassadors this year, and they're going to have like a special cert, and they're people that I think are there to kind of help spread good cheer. So, it's another one of those people you'll see out there. But, yeah, this is the big, you know, talent show that we do at BlizzCon. It's always one of my favorites. You know, the Q&A used to be my favorite when it was just live and uncensored and unfiltered

[00:55:51] and unpre-chosen questions when it was just shot out of a cannon. You can get anybody up there asking fucking questions. But the Community Night has always been one of my favorite. You know, you have your costumes, your cosplays. You have... You used to do the dance competition until that guy broke his fucking leg or whatever the thing was or broke his arm when he was doing the undead dance, and he fell, and that was the whole thing. But I used to love that. They've also got the art contest, short film contest, whatever the talent is. You know, you get people singing songs.

[00:56:21] Always a great night. Always a great time. It takes a lot of guts to go out on a stage and do anything in front of a convention of this size. Like, I think people may not know until they get there how big it is, and then you get out there. Man, it takes a lot of fucking balls to go out there and do anything in front of a crowd that big. It's... Let alone the sort of global audience online. That's a big fucking deal. So, yeah.

[00:56:47] So, we've seen now our first BlizzCon kind of specific announcement about a panel and who's going to be doing what and where. I haven't seen any others yet. I can say officially that Blizzard has invited... You know, we all just got the hookup, but Blizzard did invite me. So, I have been one of the officially invited people on behalf of Blizzard.

[00:57:17] I don't know what that actually means on the grounds. I don't know if this is... I've asked for specificity on this, but I don't know if it's just a general audience thing, which I've already purchased, or if this is what we consider to be a press pass. I don't know. But I was part of the handful of people or a group of people that were asked to come on their dime.

[00:57:44] So, I did, of course, say yes, and we'll see what that turns into. So, you know, I was already going to be there, but hopefully this means we get a little more access while we're down there. But, Jez, have any of the Blizzard people or any of the Microsoft people got you hooked up with any interviews with our Dream Stars yet? Or are you still waiting in the wings for more instruction? I'm still waiting. Still waiting.

[00:58:14] I should chase up, actually. Okay. It's getting close. I'm going to Summer Game Fest, though. I'm going to the Xbox event in a couple of weeks here in LA. Ooh. And then it's BlizzCon in a couple of months. Four months. Less than. I don't know if there's any Blizzard-y stuff going on at Summer Game Fest this year, but I presume there'll be some Blizzard-y people to meet at the Xbox stuff. Well, we'll see what happens.

[00:58:42] It's definitely going to be that at BlizzCon, and I expect you to take full advantage. I don't know. I'll throw it out to the listeners. Should Jez do a meet-and-greet? You know, the meet-and-greet that I went to recently for the Hardy Boys was a big success. We were there until like 1 o'clock in the morning. I still had people going, but I think Jez might be able to do a meet-and-greet as one of the stalwarts of the community. We could be your cabana boys and just like bring you water and stuff like that. But I don't know.

[00:59:12] Well, chime in. Let us know. Should Jez do a meet-and-greet? Don't worry about me. Not an Unshackled Fury meet-and-greet. Dude, no one's going to want a meet-and-greet. Jez meet-and-greet. That's the big plan. While we're busy showing Jez around. Because taco plate. We got to figure it out. We got to get this going. And speaking of BlizzCon, just off the top of my head as I'm thinking about this.

[00:59:40] If you are going to the convention, I would just throw this out now. Now is a great time if you haven't already to start walking. Just a daily walk to get yourself prepared. Because it's a fuck ton of walking around that place. Because you're going to put on miles and miles a day. Just to get from place to place. You want comfortable shoes. I'd start breaking them in. Probably 60 days out. So what's that?

[01:00:10] July. Maybe mid-July. But start walking now. Start getting those miles in. Start getting those legs limbered up. Because trust me, you're going to be thankful that you're putting in the mileage now. When you're out there on that convention floor. And it is a fucking thousand yards away to get to the nearest water fountain. It's a big fucking place. Just something that is on my mind. Alright.

[01:00:40] For purposes of time. This is going to be a little bit of a shorter one. Wanted to get to Jez. We got a new review. And some Q&A questions. Five star review coming in. I want to thank Cardboardist out of Canada. Because Jez, we've got a lock on that Canadian listenership. In case you didn't know. A fantastic WOW podcast. Says this title. This is my go-to WOW podcast.

[01:01:08] Berserker and Jez are bringing fantastic insight and opinions. While having a great rapport that you can sense while listening. It's true. I do like it. You get news and other tidbits you might have missed. While also hearing opinions from two people who have played the game for quite a while. They have wonderful discussions. Have Q&A with community members. And make the time spent a fun and enjoyable one. Listen to that. If you are looking to stay engaged with the game you love and play. Look no further than Unshackled Fury.

[01:01:36] Check out the video on YouTube as well. My goodness. Checks in the mail. That was a fantastic review. That was really kind. Yeah. That was very kind of you. Thank you. Very generous. Very generous. Alright. With that. We got to get to Jez's favorite portion of the show. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. All right.

[01:02:06] Q&A. First up. This one's a holdover from a while back. Snowp on Discord asked. What is a class or spec that you just can't get the hang of at all? Throw it to you, Jez. Oh, that's a pretty good one. I've tried a couple of times to get into Rogue. And I don't know if it's necessarily that I don't, I can't get the hang of it.

[01:02:34] More just like, I can't find the fun, kind of. I feel like a lot of the time, like, and again, maybe this is me not getting the hang of it. I feel like a lot of the time you're just sitting on energy and you can't really do anything. Yeah. And then other times it's like, you've got too much energy. It's like, you can't click fast enough because of the global cooldown. I don't know. So, I've struggled to get into Rogue, even though, like, I've got a Goblin Rogue.

[01:03:02] And Goblin Rogue's badass. Yeah. Yeah. I need to give it a proper go, maybe. I suppose that'd be mine. I honestly don't play a lot of ults. I always just think, I always end up thinking like, oh, I wish this was my warlock. Yeah. You know? How about you? You know what you love? How about you? You know, it's really, it's a genre more than a class respect. I just can't heal at all.

[01:03:28] It just doesn't vibe with my brain. I have to be stabbing something. I have to be throwing a spell at something, at least. I have to be, you know, putting a shield in front of somebody's face. Like, it's, it's, um, I don't know. It's just, it's a tactile mindset thing. I don't know what it is, but I just, I've tried it a couple times just for shits and giggles. And I just, I just can't do it. I just, I don't like it. It just feels really oogie.

[01:03:59] So, I just, I just, I just, I can't. I can't at all. Uh, second and last question here from, uh, the friend Allie on Discord. Put on your game developer hats. What would you do to create the perfect 0.5 patch?

[01:04:21] And to that, I would say the, the, the sort of half patch, semi patch, half chub patch, whatever you want to call this. That's, that's the perfect time for your, you know, like, like, like right now, I think we need a big housing update of some kind. There's, there's some, there's some, there's some aspects to the housing that I think people have identified that need to be put into the game or refined or something like that. A half patch, perfect time for that.

[01:04:51] Um, additional story, like maybe through a smaller dungeon, like maybe like a three boss dungeon and something like that, where you got some story, you got some gear. It's kind of a little different. Maybe it's in a bridge place of some kind. Um, certainly a new decor dueling spot. Good time to unveil something like that.

[01:05:10] I think the main raid zone story, major mechanics, all that, like that's your big, uh, you know, that's your 12.1, 12.2, but like your, your, your 0.5, your half patches. You know, that's the good time for everything else, because then it gives people time to kind of digest it. I think doing the 0.5 and the 0.7, that might be overkill.

[01:05:36] You combine those that, that I think is where maybe you get a more effective half patch and, and maybe finding something else to do other than, oh, it's an invasion point. Okay. It's, oh, it's an invasion point. Okay. Okay. We'll go over there. Oh, look, it's an invasion point. Okay. Okay. We got it.

[01:05:54] Like maybe a different iteration on that sort of play as well might be, might be called for, but, uh, uh, but for you, Jez, how, what would you do to create the perfect 0.5 patch? Hmm. Hmm. Oh man, that's a tough one. That is a tough one. I think I do like the idea of a single, like little mini raids. I do like the idea.

[01:06:20] And there has been patches in the past, which have had mini raids in the middle, but I think like I have to be, they have to be compelling. You know, they have to have a unique boss with good lore and, you know, good loot or some kind of mechanic that makes it interesting or some kind of cosmetic reward, maybe. Yeah.

[01:06:44] Like a cool ass mount or just some, just some kind of hook beyond, beyond being just another looping out of a gear that, you know, is going to be defunct in a few weeks. Yeah. You know? Yeah. Um, the game has become increasingly cosmetic heavy and, um, and it's, uh, and I love that because I love cosmetics. It's just like the cool cosmetics don't come.

[01:07:09] They often, they're often tied to like trading post or absolutely insane rep grinds. Mm hmm. I think most, more of that stuff should come in the form of learning a hard boss and getting them down and that kind of thing. Um, I don't know. I don't know. I remember back in the day we used to get, we used to get dungeons in, um, mid season patches.

[01:07:39] Mm hmm. Or maybe not mid season too often, but they have like, they have added delves here and there, which have been cool in some of the mid season patches at the moment. Yeah. Yeah. That's a good, I guess. Yeah. I'd say like a delve here and there, a more compelling single raid boss that maybe had unique mounts or cosmetic rewards to make it worthwhile beyond simply getting a more powerful item.

[01:08:08] Um, and, uh, yeah, I don't know. There you go. That's a tough one. It's a tough one trying to figure out how to, there's so much now. Like, what do we prioritize? I mean, I, I, I get the struggle, but, uh, thank you all, uh, for your questions and, uh, for that wonderful, uh, comment that the review for us, the reviews do help us out.

[01:08:35] Uh, uh, I sound like such a schmuck when I say stuff like this, but it is genuinely helpful to the visibility of the show and other things. Um, so when I go around and asking, you know, hat in hand, uh, that kind of stuff is helpful. Um, so thank you. Thank you folks for, uh, for your participation. And all right. I think, uh, I think we've done enough damage for one episode for those who don't already know, where can the good people find you out on the internet? Jez?

[01:09:05] I am over, uh, Jez Corden on Twitter or X. There's apparently no, no, and I'm never going to call it X. It's Twitter. Like X, X is such a terrible brand name. Yeah. It's such a terrible brand name. It's bad for SEO. Like where there is, is decades of brand equity and you threw it away. But like, it's crazy. It's never going to be called, it's never going to be called X.

[01:09:29] But yeah, I'm on Twitter and, uh, and also, uh, Xbox two podcast on YouTube. And it's window central.com forward slash gaming. There it is. And, uh, thank you again, sir, for joining me. And, uh, my thanks to all of you, uh, as well for tuning in. And remember, you can always follow me and the show on Twitter at berserker rage and unshackled underscore fury. I'm blue sky berserker and unshackled fury, as well as on YouTube at unshackled underscore fury.

[01:09:58] You can also join our discord links for which are in the profile of the show on Twitter and on our website, unshackled fury.com. Feel free to contact the show with your questions, comments, or otherwise through any of those resources or email us at unshackled fury show at gmail.com. And you can find this show wherever you get your podcasts. 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.