Blizzcon 2026 & Housing Hype!

This week on Azeroth Morning Radio, we’re diving into the latest World of Warcraft player housing updates, from new Azeroth neighborhood music to the “less than 1% shop items” reveal for Hearthsteel housing decor in the Midnight alpha. We break down what this means for customization, monetization, and the future of housing in WoW. Plus, BlizzCon 2026 passes are now on sale, and we’re officially going!

Episode Transcript

(00:52):
All right, good morning,everybody. This is Azeroth Morning
Radio. Don't know what thatmeans, but I put it in there. Anyway,
this episode, number eight,it's Warcraft for the rest of us,
the nine to fivers, those ofus working the weekends, parents,
all the fun things, we're yourhosts. My name's Jibs, and I'm joined

(01:13):
by Dunborough's 2008 mayor.His name is Cash.
Hey there.
I don't know how you passedfor mayor. You're like 6 foot 8 and
just a skinny little fella.
Thanks for bumping me up a fewinches, but no, I'm not six foot
eight. I am six foot three.But I did. I did win. This is actually

(01:35):
a true one. This is true. Idid win a prize for being the tallest
Yoda at a Star wars cosplayevent. 6 foot 3 Yoda. And my daughter
at the time, she was little,but she was. She was Vader. She was
like a. Like a three and ahalf foot tall Vader.

(01:58):
That's so funny.
And I was a 6 foot 3 yoda.
I feel like it should havebeen backwards.
I feel like that was kind ofthe. The point of it was to make
people laugh and it worked.And actually. Oh my gosh, dude, I
totally almost forgot this. Ialso was a 6 foot 3 Frodo when we
went. Actually, no, it wasn'tFrodo. It was the Hobbit when we

(02:20):
went to Dragon Con all thoseyears ago.
Yeah. Looks like meat's backon the menu, boys. Oh, wow, that
brings back memories. Iremember seeing all those pics from
that. Geez, dude, that waslike 10 years ago.
Yeah, that was a. Cash doesn'tcosplay people, okay? I don't cosplay.

(02:40):
Every once in a while, I getlike this massive lightning strike
of nerdism and I'll dosomething funny like that.
So, yeah, you say that, butyou have a bow and a quiver behind
you, and I know you have alegit ranger costume.
Why are you outing people?
Whoa. Don't lie. I can seeyour bow.
Okay, so maybe I do. That'sfor the Ren Faire, though.

(03:02):
Oh, that is fun. I love whenyou guys do the Ren Faire.
Am I a cosplayer, bro?
No, you're a closet nerd. It'slike you're afraid to step out of
the closet. You want me topull you out?
Although. Although I was like.I was seriously darting across the
Ren Faire in my Ranger costume.
Yeah.
And feel like I had the fullfreaking Ranger mustache. And like,

(03:23):
that was real. Everything waslike, look, man, that cosplay was
on point, and people werelike, fine, Ranger sir. And I. And
I. I'd look at them, like,with a. With my eyes like, agape
and my mouth agape and my eyeswide. And I would say, shh, there's
goblins afoot. And I'd raceoff and they'd just start laughing,

(03:46):
really. Like, I was on my wayto get another beer, but, oh, my
God. People would be like,there's goblins afoot, and just run.
Oh, I love it.
That is character.
That is awesome. Well, how wasyour week in gaming? How was WOW
for you this past week, buddy?
I was back in WOW with fullforce this week. It was. It was good.

(04:07):
I've put in some really gooddays. I'm still trying to finish
up lmix, and it's. It's. It'shard. Like, I've done, for the most
part, Like, I'm just cleaningup quests now. Like, I've done so
much, but I keep gettingsucked back into Mythics. I keep
getting sucked back intoraiding. I just, Like, I just want

(04:30):
to. And at this point, mywhole goal is to just finish off
as many Transmog sets as I canpossibly get. Like, I now I want
to collect them all. So I gotmost of those, at least the ones
that are released before.Before the next patch for Remix comes
out. And then now I'm workingon mounts, even though there's a

(04:52):
bunch of mounts that I don'treally want. But it's just a collector's
thing. I'm like, yeah, I just.I'm trying to beef it up to get closer
to that 500. I don't have 500mounts yet.
Yeah. Did you see this new 600mount reward they've got coming?
It's pretty sick.
Yeah, it's pretty sick. And,you know, like, I. I am kind of a

(05:12):
collector. I'm more of anachievement hunter. But at this point,
it's just like, well, Remix ishere. It's out. I'm at 7:40. I'm
freaking just one shot,everything. And it's still fun. But
I really do miss my retailcharacter. So I hopped back into
retail, actually, just thismorning. I was old man up at 4am
this morning, so made A cup ofcoffee, and I just got back on my

(05:34):
retail character, and now I'mstarting to go through the weekly
stuff. And it's funny becauseI was going through the weekly stuff
literally, like, by the timewe recorded this show, like a few
hours before reset happensanyway. So I'm like, well, I might
as well finish off timewalking and a few other things. But,
yeah, when I log back inlater, I'm logging into retail, so
I gotta force myself at leastuntil Argus comes out. And then once

(05:55):
that's out, then I'll do thatstoryline and then play remix a little
bit and then back to my retailcharacter. I just. I miss Mythics.
I think I'm going to feel likeI don't know how to heal Mythics
anymore, so I'm a littleparanoid about it.
Yeah. Yeah, I could see that.That's the. That's the beauty and
possibly the curse with remixis that, like, you get so accustomed

(06:17):
to just literally flyingthrough everything because it's,
you know, everyone's so, like,dialed up with their power levels
and everything. And then yougo back to retail and you're like,
oh, wait, I got to be tactical here.
I know. Like, I got to slowdown. I should not be in cat form
the entire time. Like, oh,this guy needs a heel. I should probably

(06:37):
do that for him. Yelled at.
Yeah, that's right. That'sright. Yeah, man, it's been a fun
week. I've definitely beentransmog hunting. I went and did
some. I, too, was up earlythis morning right before reset.
And by the way, we arerecording a little bit earlier this
week, folks, so if there isany, like, a major news, we'll cover
the following episode.Promise. But yeah, so I was up early

(07:01):
doing lfrs specifically forthe. Some transmog for. For the class.
And so I was doing that did. Iwent back and did Warlords of Draenor
raids for Mog. And I wasdoing. Trying to hunt down the ever
elusive vestment of the TideSages. For those of you who don't

(07:21):
know what that is, it onlydrops on Mythic from what is the
dungeon Shrine of the Storm,from battle for Azeroth. And I think
the drop chance is like 0.01.I think maybe 0.05. And so I started
farming that. And that'll be aweekly thing for me.
So I have a question. Isn'tthat a cloth piece?

(07:42):
I. I might have mucked thisone. Up a wee bit.
So anyway, this week on theshow, we freaking. No.
Nope. People are gonna get toknow us. And this is all part of
it. Jim's.
Yeah.
But why? I'm just, I'mwondering because it slips my mind.
Oh, does it?
Maybe trying, huh?

(08:04):
Yeah.
Why are you trying to getcloth pieces for Transmog? What happened
to the mail?
Oh, well, you know, I'm justgetting everything, you know, just
seems felt like the rightthing to do.
Oh, you are so full of a giantmetric ton of freaking. Yeah. What?
Done. Yeah. I was going tosay, watching you.

(08:25):
Try to censor yourself is like.
Because I typically don'tcensor myself very well.
It's like your body's refusing it.
So Jibs is playing a warlockthis week?
This week. This week.
Look at.
I love it. Yeah, no, I, I, Iwent back to Cloth. I wanted to play

(08:47):
Cloth originally. It's thetruth. I think this. I'm not even
gonna say that because I waslistening to the previous episode
again. I like to activelylisten to our episodes when they
come out because I'mconstantly critiquing an edit, and
so I'm seeing where I can, youknow, where we can do better. And
I heard myself say, yeah, Ithink I found my. Think I might have
found my main for Midnight.And I'm like, okay, we're just not

(09:09):
gonna say that on the air anymore.
I love it, though. I love it.I think for, For. For some comedic
relief. Like, not that we needany comedic relief because you and
I in a room just flicking eachother in the nuts. It's comedic relief
enough, I think. I mean, it'sentertaining for me. Listen to us

(09:30):
do it. So hopefully the peoplelike it, but I like telling these
stories. And it's not. I mean,it's partly me uncovering your issues
with characters.
Oh, my gosh. Really?
It's not uncommon for peopleto bounce from character to character,

(09:52):
so it's okay.
Honestly, what it is. It's aproblem. I was thinking the day I'm
like, you know, you have agood game when you like every class.
And aside from Evoker, that'sthe one I have zero desire to ever
play. No. No offense to anyonewho does play that, but just does
not resonate with me at all.And so I think that's the only one.

(10:12):
But outside of that, I mean,they're all great classes. Hunter,
Great. Paladin. Hello. Druid.So many forms, so many things to
collect. You are a farmingmachine with that thing. I mean,
you know, it goes on and onand on. Mage. Beautiful. I mean,
so, yeah, Priest, they're allgreat. They're all great and so,
yeah, good problem to have.But anyway folks, thanks so much

(10:35):
for tuning in, hanging outwith us, Push and play. We really
do appreciate all of you,every single one of you. It's always
exciting every single Tuesdaywhen the episode drops, watching
your responses, seeing yourcomments. And we can't thank you
enough for your support andfor constantly tuning in. So this
week on the show, we'retalking housing in a big, big way.
Blizzcon. We got a fun littleannouncement there for you and snark

(10:57):
gets snarky and a whole lotmore. So we'll be right back after
this. Commercial break.
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(12:37):
This is Buddy Whack it. Andwhen I'm not selling ketchup popsicles
to women in white gloves, I'mlistening to Azeroth Morning Radio.
All right, everybody, welcomeback. I think it's, I think we jump
right in the hero's call.Let's get that going.

(13:01):
Heroes call
Friends and adventurers. It isNovember. And if you know, you know
the month of November.Actually right after Halloween, it's
usually the weekend afterHalloween. Every year is Extra Life
Weekend. And here on theHero's Call board, we always like

(13:22):
to talk about new and amazingthings that people are doing out
there in the community. Inthis episode, we thought it would
be very appropriate toshowcase something that's very near
and dear to our heart. And weknow that the World of Warcraft community
does lots of people do thisand they do it throughout gaming.
It's not just World ofWarcraft, but this is some pretty

(13:44):
amazing stuff that people doin gaming in general. If you don't
know what Extra Life is, it isa fundraising initiative that is
run by the Children's MiracleNetwork Hospitals or CMN Hospitals.
And basically what it is, it'sthe gaming community raising money
for children's hospitals inthe US And Canada. I believe in Puerto

(14:06):
Rico now too. I think they'veadded a couple of children's hospitals
in Puerto Rico, which is,which is fantastic. So here's the
concept of Extra Life and thisis something that is again, very
near and dear to our heartsbecause we've taken part in this
for many, many years now. Overa decade we've been doing Extra Life.
The concept is this, as agamer, you register, you pick a local

(14:28):
children's hospital. It couldbe local, it could be one all the
way across the United States.Maybe you lived in New York at one
time and a children's hospitalin New York, you know, helped your
nephew or helped you, whateverchildren's hospital that's in this
network you can choose tosupport. And basically what you do
is you're playing games andraising funds from your family, friends,

(14:51):
the gaming community at largeand that. It's kind of like a marathon,
like a lot of people will do.It started as a 24 hour marathon,
but I think as the age ofgamers started to grow a little bit.
Yes, I'm talking about myself.People are like, I ain't doing 24
hours. Like I've done 24 hourmarathons quite a few times and they

(15:14):
can be brutal. So you canbreak it up however you want, but
the goal is to play 24 hourstotal and fundraise. You don't have
to stream it. We typicallywould and we've actually had, over
the years we've had somereally impressive fundraising efforts

(15:37):
happen because of this, Ibelieve. One year, one year we actually
got sponsored by a company andended up raising over 30 grand for.
It was a, a company that wasmaking a digital board game. So kind
of like Hearthstone typething. But they sponsored us and

(15:58):
we ended up with over $30,000in. In funds.
That's awesome.
And my cat is losing his mind.I hear that outside my door I.
Hear that I got you.
I'll be right back.
Yeah, Extra Life is very, veryimportant to Cash and I. It's Something
that we typically would doevery year. Now this year we're not.

(16:19):
However, someone did send us amessage, an email actually, and asked
was that something we do or wewill be doing? And answer, yes, absolutely,
absolutely. In a big, big way.
Yeah. This year, I will saythis. This year, embarrassingly enough,
we had so many things going onthat this like flashed right by us.

(16:40):
And as you know, we've beentalking about our Twitch page for
Twitch Channel for a littlewhile. That is going to be a thing.
But as of right now, we're notlike fully set up for it yet or ready.
It's going to be again, it'slike a stretch goal for us, but we
will be on there and I don'tknow, maybe we'll do like a freaking
raid a thon or something forExtra Life next year. But we're definitely

(17:04):
going to be taking part inExtra Life again. We'll probably
be forming a team for it,which will be fun. But I wanted,
I wanted to get into a little.A few of the key facts about Extra
Life and what makes it soawesome. So it's been going on since
2008. Extra Life has been athing and they have to date raised

(17:26):
over $130 million as of 2025,which is, it's nuts. I remember when
they passed 100 million, Iremember when they passed 30 million
and it was an awesome thing.But $130 million from gamers and
people that they know andgaming companies and stuff like that.

(17:47):
People that, that are tryingto make and make an impact on these
children's hospitals. So wheredo your funds go? This one, I have
very innate knowledge of thisand, and I'll tell you why here in
a second. But the funds go tothis, to CMN hospitals and the hospitals
will decide how to use thefunds. And the funds are typically

(18:09):
used in equipment, research,child life services, etc. The reason
that I have such innateknowledge of this is because for
quite a while I ran a localchapter here in Orange County, California
and we benefited Children'sHospital of Orange county. And I
did several events at thehospital itself. They have a full

(18:33):
recording studio in there andwe were given access to the recording
studio in there. It'sactually, it's a Ryan Seacrest recording
studio because he does a lotof sponsorships through his foundation
specifically for children'shospitals, which is amazing. Like
Brian Seacrest. Brian Seacrestis a very good dude. But through
that I was able, you know,just through meetings and the people,

(18:55):
the administrators at thehospital, I was able to meet. I actually
got to see where these fundsgo and is 100% of your funds go to
exactly what I was saying.Actually a lot of the money got,
got sent to the parents ofsick kids who were, you know, obviously
the kids were in the hospitaland needing to be seen for injuries

(19:18):
and illnesses and the parentscould not afford care for their child.
And that's where a lot of thismoney ended up going. The other area
it went is, you know, puttingfamilies up while they're, while
their child is being treated.They would put families up in, you
know, homes around the areaand that's where a lot of this money

(19:39):
went to. They would buy videogame system systems for kids to make
their stay a little morepalatable and just little things
like that all the way totreatment for the kids. So. And it
is 100. It's a full non profitorganization. It's run by some very
incredible people who aresuper dedicated to the cause. So

(20:00):
I always worry about where mymoney goes. Always, always, always
if I'm giving to charitiesbecause we, you know, we, we give
a lot in my family and I amalways very leery about where that
money goes. So I like to do myresearch and that's why Extra Life
is definitely at the top ofour list. So with Extra Life you
can participate from anywhere.You can do it at home, you can do

(20:20):
it online streaming. Itdoesn't matter where, where you do
your personal fundraising. Andpeople get super into this. Like
we have tried or like we'vetried to get our team like on the
top 10 board. And it is, it'snuts because there's massive gaming
companies that are supportingthis thing and it's, it's become
an event across gaming for thelast decade or so, which is really,

(20:45):
really cool. It's actuallyover a decade, well over a decade.
So we've taken part in quite afew of them. Tried to keep each other
awake in the wee hours of the night.
Very true.
While we do this.
Very true. Yeah. As we'vegotten older and the more years have
gone on, kind of like what yousaid earlier, like we don't do the
24 like hollow one any, anyanymore. It's like maybe an eight

(21:05):
hour, maybe a 12. But ages,they're still fun. They are still
fun. Yeah, definitely.
So just, just a quick story.Last year, as you, as you may or
may not know, we werepodcasting for a game that's in development
called Ashes of Creation. Andwe had an Extra Life event where

(21:26):
we were playing in the alphaof that game for the entire period
of time that we were doing ourmarathon and we ended up getting
visited by the main developerof the game. He spawned in as a massive
demon that nobody had everseen. They, he, like the developers

(21:49):
changed, this is all duringour stream. It was the coolest thing.
They completely changed thetone. They turned night or day into
night. Like live.
Yep.
And he shows up on the streamwith this massive demon still. We
were doing a naked run fromone town to another. So our entire
group of people is probably 40or 50 of us, all like down to our

(22:12):
druthers running across thisbridge and this massive demon spawns.
And the reason being wasbecause this particular developer,
Intrepid Studios, they'revery, very big supporters of Extra
Life. Like they've done ExtraLife events every single year. But
last year they weren't, theyweren't able to because they were

(22:34):
so. They were in crunch. Theywere like in a pretty deep spot of
development for their game. Sothey weren't able to do it, but the
developers were able to, youknow, I guess celebrate us because
we were doing it and it wasjust the coolest thing. So Extra
Life Day is a big day. It'svery special for a lot of people
and things like that just endup happening. And to me it shows

(22:58):
how the gaming community candirectly support real world charitable
causes and just be ajuggernaut for that cause. It's just
amazing things that communityis doing in games and making a difference.
Yeah, yeah, definitely. That'sthe best thing I. Well, that's one
of the things I really enjoywhen gamers get together and they

(23:21):
focus on a single effort andthey make huge waves and huge impacts
just through gaming because italways tends to raise an eyebrow
and people are like, oh, Ididn't realize that could happen.
Like, oh no, it can, it can ina big, big way. So yeah, I always
love when gamers do that. It'sa good time.
Yeah. And it gives, you know,it gives you, it gives you the feels

(23:41):
like it truly does. You know,it feels like your, your efforts
are going toward a cause andyou're able to bridge the virtual
world with the real world,which, you know, we talk about those
parallels on this show all thetime and it's, it's important to
us. So we wanted to showcaseit on Heroes Call and you can guarantee
that Azeroth Morning Radio isgoing to be a part of Extra Life

(24:02):
for many years to come.
Agreed. Agreed. Couldn't sayit better.
One last thing. If you'reinterested in learning more, you
can either email us and wewill get you the information, or
you can go to extra-life.organd they're finishing up this year
through December, but comeJanuary 1st, you can register for

(24:23):
2026.
There you go.
And also, when you make leapsand bounds in your own fundraising,
they send you things. You getT shirts and medals and all kinds
of cool stuff just forparticipating. So extra-life.org
there you go.

(24:44):
Breaking news brought to allof you by the Goblin News Network.
All right, so first in theheadlines this week, we got exploded.
Explore the neighborhoods ofAzeroth with player housing. Music
patch. Excuse me in Patch.1-3-11. This coming to us from wowhead.com
and quote. With player housingjust on the horizon, the finishing

(25:07):
touches appear to be takingshape. Explore the neighborhoods
of Azeroth with epic newmusical scores that will almost certainly
have you yearning for home.And they list an entire playlist.
Cash, you and I both were kindof just diving into this. I played
close to an hour with it,particularly the interior music,

(25:27):
track number one from DavidArkenstone. Oh, buddy, that is amazing
music.
It is. It's a good mix betweenwhat you would hear in Elwynn Forest
and Tavern music.
Oh, wow. Yeah, Nice pull.
It's very calming. There'slutes like. It is just fantasy music

(25:50):
at its best. And I think oneof striking features is that a lot
of these. Is it all of them oris it. I think it's all of them are
written by David Arkenstone.
Oh, wow. I didn't realize theywere all written by him. I know there's
other people listed, but Ididn't know if that they. He wrote
all of it.
Oh, well, maybe. Maybe it'snot. Maybe some of them are. I know

(26:13):
that, like, my favorite is theBroomwood one. That is definitely
David Arkenstone. Let me kindof click through these a little bit
and we'll see if there'sdifferent. Yeah, there. There's some
different artists. LeoKaliske, Adam Burgess and Jake Lefkowitz.
Yeah, there's. There's a bunchof them. But I mentioned Arkenstone
because Arkenstone is prettywell known in the World of Warcraft

(26:37):
music community. And he alsodid one of our favorite albums of
all time. Jobs.
Oh, gosh. Taverns of Azeroth.
That's the one. Oh, man.
Man, I was starting to sweat.You can't do that.
Look for a new co host.
We're putting the word out.Jibs has been fired.

(27:02):
Never replace.
You kidding me? Yeah, man. Itell you, this music it's such a.
It's such a crazy thing. Andwhen I was teaching audio engineering,
it was always, you know, oneof the things I would always say
is audio is king. It'severything. It's. It is. It is everything
in a movie. It's everything ina video game. If you watch a horror
movie and you put it on mute,you will quickly find out that said

(27:24):
horror movie becomes a comedy.If you go. And we always, always
took them to this. Took themto this movie specifically. If you
go to Dune, when they recentlyremade the Dune. Dune movie and they
have a whole documentary onjust how they created the sounds
and you got. And you reallyget a good vibe and understanding

(27:45):
of everything that goes intoit. And if. Same with Warcraft, like
play boot up Warcraft and muteit or have some fun with it. Turn
down, let's say you turn downthe music, but you crank up the ambience.
Well, what is that? What doesthat do for you? And vice versa.
And so music really iseverything. And it's such an impactful
thing in gaming, in movies, ineveryday life, and it really is what

(28:08):
helps set the tone for what aplayer gets to enjoy when they're
in front of a game.
Yeah, it. It really does. Itreally does solidify the mood for
sure. And if you will, whenyou're truly listening to the music,
you listen to the transitionbetween just adventuring and then
when you transition intocombat, you can hear those changes.

(28:30):
And it really does set theentire tone for a gameplay session,
or as Jibs was saying, for amovie. And it's. It's stuff that's
meant to be in the background.It's not necessarily meant for you
to key in on it, but when youdo, you realize just how impactful
it is for the experience thatyou're having. So for something like

(28:52):
this, I think they nailed itwith these songs. And do yourself
a favor, go look at the fullplaylist on YouTube for Azeroth player
housing. It is excellent.There's some really good tracks in
there. Jib said he listened tothat one on repeat for an hour. And
I can see why. I mean, it'sjust. It really sets the mood when

(29:13):
you're going to be. You'regoing to be spending hours. Hours,
yeah. Inside and outside ofyour home, friends. Most of you probably
will be, oh, gosh, yeah. Somepeople aren't, you know, really into
it, and that's super cool. Butthe fact that they are, they say
they're putting the finishingtouches on stuff, and now they're,
you Know, they're letting usdiscover what the music is going

(29:34):
to be. They, they're notpulling any punches with housing.
No.
An entire soundtrack just forhousing. They're not mailing this
in. Friends. Housing is goingto be a juggernaut.
Yeah, yeah, it really is. And,and it's great because we kind of
got to see. It's almost likewe kind of got to see through the

(29:55):
window, a glimpse into whathousing is going to feel like just
by listening to these tracks.And yeah, I had it on. I was just
in Warcraft playing and I hadthe in game music muted and I had
the YouTube video just crankedup while I was listening and I'm
like, oh, my gosh, this is soseamless. This is perfect. It's so,

(30:16):
so perfect. And you're right,there's gonna be plenty of us, us
included, who will spendhours. Hours. You know, we talk last
episode, we talked about howthe classes may change what happens
to people in game in World ofWarcraft in a big, big way. Housing,
I think, is just going to flipeverything on its head, man. Hours

(30:37):
will be spent listening tothis music inadvertently.
Yeah, there will be. I wonderif there's a way for us to put some
of this music in the show sothey can hear it without getting
caught.
Oh, you mean like this?

(31:19):
Okay, that is fantastic. Andhopefully I don't think we'll get
a strike for that, but I mean,it's free advertising.
It's amazing.
But it is, it is a very bigpart of my gameplay. I know. It's
a very big part of jibs.Gameplay is music and ambience. Sounds

(31:40):
are everything.
Oh, it is.
So, yeah, really do yourself a favor.
Go back to Arthas andeverything with the wrath of the
Lich King. And you hear that,the little boy singing the choir
part at the beginning, doesthat not instantly take you back
to wrath?
Yes.
And you get the vibeimmediately of the downfall of the
Lich King. The heaviness andweight of everything that's being

(32:02):
carried. Oh, man, so good.
Here's another one. I knowthis one will get you because it
got me Jaina talking to her papa.
Oh, buddy, oh, buddy, oh.
Battle for Azeroth. Thatopening scene with Jayna talking
to her dad and oh my gosh,that one. I mean, look at the time.

(32:26):
My daughter was younger, butmany man did that bring back when
she was a little tiny girl.And that one really, really got my
heartstrings.
Yeah. I'll never forget and Ibelieve this is what he said. I will
weather every Storm, if I knowyou are there waiting for me.
I'm just like, okay, you can'tdo that. I'm for clamp. Dead baby

(32:49):
dolphins.
Okay, so I want to ask you this.
Dirty socks. Oh, the tears are real.
All right, let me ask you this.
Yeah.
Favorite. You have to pickone. Favorite zone music of all time.
You're known for what? Really? Really?
Wow.
Well, okay. Okay. We. Okay, ifyou're talking World of Warcraft.

(33:13):
Elune hates you right now.
Eluna, get over it. Becausethat one for us is really good. She's
like, right now, Elune, like,By the light of the moon. She's very
upset. Are you. Were youtalking just Warcraft?
Warcraft all time, best zonemusic you had. If you had. If you

(33:35):
had to pick one. And it canjust be your favorite today. It doesn't
have to be like, you know,next week you could say something
different. But as of this moment.
Okay, so I really like theEmerald Dream a lot. It's very. It's
very Druidy. And I can't stealyours because I already know what
you're gonna say.
You can say it. It's okay.
No, I'm. I'm gonna stick. I'mgonna stick with Elwyn and. And this

(33:58):
is. It's a hundred percentbecause of nostalgia purposes, but.
Yeah. And you know what?Darnassis is pretty good, too. It
would actually. Yeah, it wouldactually be like the. The Night Elf
starting Zone. That one for meor Elwyn is. I think they're fantastic
scores in, you know, on theirown. But to me, they bring back so

(34:23):
much nostalgia that. That itgets my goat. The other. So, yeah,
I would say L1 for. If I haveto pick one, I'd say L1, but pretty
much anything off of that.Taverns of Azeroth is also. It's
also like, way, way up there.
Yeah.
On my list.
Yeah.

(34:43):
How about you?
Oh, mine's easy for Alice. Ithink you knew I was going there.
That is a. Oh, man, that is.That is prime real estate right there.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it is.
It's. It's just. It's a goodmix of the cool town that you experience

(35:04):
at the beginning of a darkpirate movie.
Yeah, that's really well said.Yeah, really well said.
You think like Pirates of theCaribbean or to Go. Right. Tortuga,
you know, and, you know, it'sgonna get bad.
Yeah.
But this is a happy time.
Yeah.
And we're in town.
Right. Right.
So there's a lot of, like,fun, whimsical stuff going on and

(35:27):
I think that's what Boralesfeels like to me.
Oh yeah, yeah. Brales isBareilles is a lot of things and
one of them is amazing. I willsay that. So anyway, you can check
this out. Explore theneighborhoods of Azeroth. We'll play
your housing music. Coming toyou from wowhead.com Next up, you've
got. Less than 1% of housingdecor items are currently flagged
as shop sources. So thisshould put some nerves to bed here.

(35:50):
This again coming to us fromwowhead.com, quote with Blizzard
confirming Hearthsteel as apremium. I know, my God. As a premium
currency for housingdecorations. Data mining shows the
in game shop's currentofferings are surprisingly limited.
Out of 2,208 total housingdecor pieces in the Midnight Alpha,

(36:14):
only 19, less than 1% are shopexclusive. These include lion and
wolf plushies and two themedbundles, Spring cherry blossom and
spring garden gnome setsfeaturing items like chairs, fountains,
wreaths, trees, gazebos andlamps. It goes on to say the housing
dashboard only displays 15shop items. So far though it's still

(36:35):
under development. Blizzardhas stated that only a small fraction
of housing decor will bepurchasable and race or class based
items will not be monetized.Your thoughts?
My thoughts are people shouldput their torches out and put their
pitchforks away and stop whining.
Oh, coming in hot.

(36:55):
Oh, here we go.
Yeah, I'm coming in hot onthis one. And the reason being is
look at the history of theshop, the things that you can buy
right now. You have to take acertain dinosaur amount out of this
discussion because that's ananomaly. The almost one hundred dollar

(37:22):
mount that a lot of people bought.
Yeah, it's coming back. Didyou hear that? It's coming back.
Only in China.
Say that again. What about China?
It's coming back, but only onthe China servers. That's the word
on the street. Oh, you want togo to China?
Dirty.
You want to go. You want to goto abroad?
No, I'm, I'm gonna stay here.But come on, I'm just sticking. I

(37:43):
mean if it came out again, I'dprobably buy it.
Oh, okay.
Anyway, get to my original point.
All right, go ahead.
Okay. If you look at the stuffthat's on the shop now, it's quite
limited. It's not a massiveshop like a ton of other games have.
There are some exclusive itemson there, but if you were to compare
the items, even the exclusiveitems that are on the shop now and

(38:07):
have been for years, you know,the Stuff that gets cycled through.
Compare those items to theamount of earnable items in the game.
It's probably about 1%. Mm.It's probably around there. So I
don't see them changing thistrend because wow does not want to

(38:27):
be known as a game that doesthat. And I don't think that they
are. There are certain thingsthat end up in the shop that upset
other people because, becausethey earned it in game. Or a super
expensive item like a dinosaurthat has, you know, everything that
you could possibly ever needon a mount. But I don't think this

(38:50):
is the, the trend that they'regoing to start with housing. I think
it's going to remain verylimited amount of items. They could
be exclusive items. Therecould be things that are seasonal
and rotate in and out and Ithink that is just fine. But a majority
of the things that you'regoing to earn for housing are going

(39:12):
to be done with achievementsin game.
That's what we wanted. That'swhat we wanted. It is, it's exciting.
You know, and I, we said thisa couple episodes ago, maybe three
episodes at least. I reallyfeel like from the onset when we
started seeing kind of thecurtain being slowly pulled back

(39:32):
for the housing system, reallygot a feel that every step they were
taking with this system inparticular was very measured, you
know, like that everything wastruly felt like years in development.
It truly felt like they had agrasp and I still have that same
feeling that they have a goodgrasp on what their community wants

(39:57):
and what they don't want andwhat would go over well and what
would not go. Can you imaginethis was flip flopped. Let's say
it was like 70, 30. Can youimagine that? 7. 70%. You earned
30% on the shop. Well, at thatpoint you're acting like some other
MMOs on the market right now.You know, like that's, that's.
Yeah, that's a cash grab.
That's a cash grab. But thislooks great. This is great.

(40:18):
Yeah. And I think where, whereBlizzard is going to make their money
is, is by making a goodsystem, period. And it's, it's obvious
that this is a, this was amassive undertaking. This has been.
Housing in general has beensomething that has been on the docket
for a long time, talked aboutfor many years before any of it was

(40:39):
teased or released. And theyhad, they've been prepping for this
system to be insane. And itis, you know, by all accounts so
far from what we've heard andseen on, on YouTube and you know,
there's been tons of peoplethat have gotten to to get in there
and play with it. And I meanthere's housing associations now,

(40:59):
homeowners associations outthere now. This system is being done.
Right. So I think where themoney for Blizzard is going to be
made is going to be notnecessarily in midnight, but it's
going to be the amount ofpeople who are going to A come back
to the game or B try the gamefor the first time because they heard

(41:21):
that wow's housing isabsolutely insane. There's going
to be a large volume ofplayers coming to Azeroth because
of the housing period and Ithink they're doing it right.
Yeah, there's going to be aninflux. There's going to be an influx
of players and granted whilethere wasn't official numbers put
out, this happened. I'm tryingto remember what it was for specifically

(41:43):
it was Warcraft related whereit was inadvertently stated that
they have 9 million playersright now. I wish I could find that
where that came from.
However, even that spellularwe did a video on that.
Oh, was that what it was?
Yeah. Oh yeah, and it was fromWindows. I thought it was Windows
Central.
Windows sent. Was it?
I thought it was WindowsCentral put an article out about

(42:06):
the actual numbers of Warcraftplayers right now.
Oh, he did cover that. I sawit somewhere else though. I don't
forget where I saw it at. Butyeah, anyway, yeah, so imagine that
having even more of an influxof players. You're gonna have people
come back just to do. It'sgonna be great. It's gonna be great
all around. I'm excited totest it. Can't wait to not test it
to experience it when itreleases. Yeah, check us out folks

(42:27):
[e-mail] you.
Can hear it in the wind. Anecho, a whisper, a calling home.
It welcomes us not aswanderers but as its kin. In search
of a. Memory of what once was,where purpose ignites.

(43:11):
And then finally for the day,Blizzcon passes are now on sale.
If you are listening onrelease day of this episode, November
18th. Well, great news.Blizzcon passes are out and about.
Early access already happenedthe past week but this two day event
returns to Anaheim ConventionCenter September 12th and 13th promising

(43:34):
major game reveals, panels,cosplay contests and world class
esport competitions. Blitzcon2026 will feature all the fan favorite
experiences from the BlizzardArcade and community night to Darkmoon
Fair and Blizzcon Charitynight benefiting Make a Wish Foundation.
Blizzardhead is also confirmedconfirmed Enhanced accessibility,
new Merch kiosks and expandedcareer and inclusion events. Yeah,

(43:58):
they're going to be reviewing.They'll review your resume and they're
going to help you there. So ifyou're looking to get in the industry,
they can help you do that.Dude. Exciting times.
It is certainly excitingtimes. And. Okay, so it's at Anaheim
Convention Center. Why is it.It's just striking some kind of thought,
maybe my mind. Oh, it'sprobably because Anaheim Convention

(44:21):
center and Disneyland and allthose other things are like 15 minutes
from me.
So.
That being said, we have anexciting announcement to make. Cue
the Drum roll. The AMR teamwill be at BlizzCon 2026. Yes.

(44:43):
Heck, yeah.
Yes. And yeah. So you're gonnafly over from the. The. The frozen
tundra, Indiana, baby. Yeah,the frozen tundra.
That's what we are.
Right. Basically into thesurface of the sun at that particular
time because.
Perfect.
When is this taking place?
September. What'd it say?September 12th and 13th.

(45:04):
You can stop there. You canstop when you said September because
California burns that time ofyear, so hopefully your plane can
dodge all the smoke. But it'sgoing to be. It'll be hot here for
sure.
Perfect.
So anyway, yeah, Jibs and Iare going to be. We're going to be
there. I have a. I have alittle story to tell.

(45:27):
Yeah.
About the securing of thetickets for the Gliz Gone on Early
bird. So I was at work, but Iset an alarm for 9am because they
were going on sale at 9am forthe early bird rate passes. 8:59
in the morning. I wasspamming. Refresh on the page. Spamming,

(45:49):
spamming, spamming. Boom. Itpops up. I was like, yes. So I got
our two tickets and thenthere's all these add ons. So I start.
And the add ons were new tome. I admit, I did not research it.
I didn't know anything aboutthe Darkmoon Fair. I didn't know
anything about the Blizzconcharity night. But I wanted to get

(46:10):
the darkmoon Faire tickets. Iwas like, let's do this. So I immediately
click on the darkmoon Fairething and then saw the price of the
charity thing and there wasanother 500 a ticket. And I was like,
nope, not doing that one.Sorry, kid. I love you kids. I love
the Make a Wish Foundation.But yeah. Oh, ouch. That one was
gonna hurt. So anyway, Iclicked the button real quick and

(46:32):
it wouldn't let me advance.And friends, this is a minute. It's
9:01 at this point, 9. 01. Andit wouldn't let me advance. And I
was trying to figure out whyit wouldn't let me advance. So I
hit refresh. I had to put thetwo tickets in my box again. And
then I looked down because Iwas just about to do the Darkmoon
Faire. Sold out at 9:01 60seconds. Yeah.

(46:57):
It was gone.
And thank God I was able toget. Still able to get Early Bird
tickets. But we did get ourtwo tickets. Unfortunately, we won't
be going to the Darkmoon Fairbecause apparently there was a virtual
line for that one. But anyway.Yeah. And I don't know. I don't know
what our plans are gonna be.It's gonna be super fun. Jib's gonna
come out early. We're gonnasmoke cigars, drink some beer.

(47:19):
Oh, man. It's gonna be a goodtime. We'll still get to go to Dark
Moon and we just won't havethe spiritual special after hours.
So we'll get to. We'll stillget to see the fair. So it's not.
Yeah, for sure.
So there's that.
Community night would havebeen really cool.
Oh, yeah. That'd be awesome.
Anyway.
But yeah. Yeah, I'm excited tocome out. This is both of our very
first Blizzcon ever. It'salways been like a pipe dream for
Cash and I. And it's all justa bunch of pipe dreams, to be honest.

(47:43):
This the show and then goingto Blizzcon itself, being able to
meet so many community people.I know there's people from the Guild.
We are in PollingAgro IRL.They're gonna be there. I saw other
creators are gonna be there. Imean, it's just gonna be a great
time. And honestly, I can'twait to meet so many people. I will

(48:04):
never, ever forget when yousent me a picture, you were sitting
next to Gina Bruno, who is thecommunity manager at eso, at the
front row seat of their bigopening event. Their big. Like the.
The opener. I forget the namewhat that's called. And then next
to. To your left, to yourright was Gina. To your left was
was Rich. Rich Lambert, thecreative director of Elder Scrolls

(48:28):
Online at that time when wewere creating over there. And ever
since then, I've alwaysdreamed of having a feeling, a moment
just like that where I couldbe at an opening, something like
this. I've never forgotten it.I've always wanted it. And now we're
getting ready to do it andwould do it with so many people,
so many of our peers. I can't wait.

(48:50):
I can't wait to get drunk at10:00am but, yeah, I mean, all that
other stuff is cool, too.Well, bro, I. I mean, I will say
we'll be in the audience, butI can't guarantee that Ian's going
to come sit on my lap. No.
Like, who are you?
I know, like, Nut Kick will befreaking blowing his whistle.

(49:18):
Man. I just can't wait to bethere with all the community. It's
going to be a heck of a time.And, yeah, you know, I had something
that we definitely need todiscuss, but there. There may be
some fun things that we dowhile we're there and details to
come, because Tat Cash doesn'teven know the idea for it, but there's
some things we need to talkabout. Great. Yeah. We're gonna have

(49:40):
a good time, so.
Yeah. And hey, if you have anidea for something that we should
do.
Yeah, there you go.
Send it to us.
Yeah.
Because we might just do it.
Yeah.
We're at the IDGAF stage ofour lives right now, I would imagine.

(50:00):
Internally.
Didn't.
You had to say it internally,didn't you, just to get those initials.
I did, I did. Because normallyI just blurt it out, but yeah, I'm
kind of at that stage in mylife where idgaf.
So you only live once, man.
Crazy stuff.
Yeah.
Did you hear about the guy? Idon't. It was at the last Blizzcon,

(50:22):
the guy that dressed up likeBran and followed the development
team everywhere. Everywhere?
Oh, no.
On the show floor.
No.
Yes. And I. And I hope he was,like, if they were, like, going to
get food or something likethat, where he just, like, stepped
right in front of him andblocked him from grabbing the food,

(50:43):
because that is brand 100. ButI don't aim to be irritating to anybody,
but. Damn, that's funny.
Oh, that's hilarious. Can youimagine how that went? They walked
in the bathroom. Don't go in there.
Don't stand in.

(51:03):
Oh, gosh. Anyway, folks, wewant to meet so many of you. If.
If you can come, we would loveto meet you. It would just be amazing
to see so many faces and justas exciting for us to. To be there
at Blizzcon to see the revealsand to meet all of you. All right,

(51:25):
you ready for Snark?
Snark online.
Why'd you lean to the leftwhen that did that?
Because I was trying to mimic snark.
Are you, like, pseudo farting?

(51:46):
Yeah, I was gonna try, but youknow what?
They say, you know, you gottabe careful about that.
So far after 40.
No, no, that's right. Well,that's true. Beyond 32. So, you know,
you just gotta. You gottaslowly roll there.
I was trying to lip. Trying tolip sync.
Oh, that's what it was.
Snark fart. Okay, don't dothat. Hey, we gotta take a break.
I gotta be right back.

(52:08):
Oh, my gosh.
Oh, friends, this week. Thisis gonna be a fun one. This week
we have a really good segment,and I think we're both kind of excited
to talk about it, but thesegment for the week that Snark popped
out is the Wheel of Hot Takes.This is a new one.
Here we go.
We haven't done this one yet,and this. This is a big topic, and

(52:30):
we're gonna get right into it.But our topic for the week is which
is better, Classic Wow orretail wow?
Here we go.
Oh, my gosh. You are justlighting a fire.
I know.
And pouring gasoline all over it.
That's what I do.
Oh, my gosh. All right, let'sdo it. All right. Oh, my God.

(52:57):
We just don't know who's gonnastart, because this. I don't know.
This could. Next week, thiscould be a classic wow show.
No, you never know. I don'tthink it will be. I think I do know.
Yeah. Just because I'll flyall the way to Indiana and flick
you and your nuts.
Yeah. I won't let you leaveeither. Pseudo kidnap my best friend.

(53:19):
Oh, you're gonna neck hug me, bro.
And keep me there. Oh, mygosh. All right, how do we want to
do this?
I don't know. Maybe we. Let'stalk classic wow first.
Okay. All right.
Talk about the things that wethink are good, good and bad about
Classic Wow. And then we cando the same for retail. But we are.

(53:41):
We need to. We'll have to vote.
Okay.
We're gonna need to vote wherewe land at the end.
Okay.
Okay. So you have. You'vealways been a fan of Classic Wow?
Always? I have, yes.
Okay, then you should kickthis off.
You want me to do, like,defense things of Defense of classic

(54:02):
or, like, my thoughts on it or.
I want whatever is foremost inyour brain right now regarding Classic
Wow.
Foremost in my brain aboutClassic Warcraft is that I love,
with an underline, embolden,italicize, raise the font 50 characters
above everything else. I lovethat Classic Wow really embodies

(54:25):
the RPG of mmorpg. That is thebread and butter I think of Classic
at its heart is and it's a,it's several things that make that
happen, that facilitate thatfeeling within classic Warcraft itself.
But to me, classic really doesa great job embodying the role play

(54:50):
game aspect of an MMORPG.
I have to agree. I have toagree 100%. And this is going to
be off brand off character forme because we, we boast on the show
about how we love story andhow we embrace nostalgia. Right.

(55:13):
Because there's a lot of itwhen it comes to World of Warcraft
as a whole. It's going to makeme sound and look like an idiot.
But when you, you know, whenyou have a platform and you can shout
it out to the world thatyou're dumb and you're shallow, when
you can prep, you might aswell just do it. So I agree with
what you're saying aboutClassic Wow having all of the elements

(55:37):
of a classic rpg, which we've,we've all grown to love.
Absolutely.
But it looks like hammereddog. I'll take the hate mail. I'll
take the hate mail. Oh, Icould not play Runescape for. As
an, as amazing as the game is,I could not play classic Runescape

(56:02):
because it looked so terrible.
It's got a classic charm.
It 100% does. 100% does. Andso does Classic Wow. It has a lot
of charm.
Yeah.
But I can't get over the graphics.
Isn't it funny?
Can't.
Isn't it funny? When that gamelaunched, did you even see that at

(56:25):
all? Of course not. No,because it was.
Because that was. Yeah, it wascurrent, it was fun. It was whimsical
at the time.
Yeah. It's always a crazything. Not to sidestep, but it's
always a crazy thing. Wheneveryou think, like you have these memories
of games that you loved andyou enjoyed. For instance, I'll say
Twisted Metal for me fromPlayStation. In my head, it looks

(56:47):
great. I know if I go back tothat thing, it's gonna look like
an eight bit mess, you know,so. But it's, it's kind of funny
how, you know, with Warcrafteven 20 years later, you. We've grown
so accustomed to what greatgraphics are now and that sort of
thing and you know, like 4090sand all that stuff and you look back
at it, classic experience andsomething like that is what, you
know, sticks out to you.

(57:08):
I know, and that's why I'membarrassed. I'm happy to share it
with people, but it is thetruth for me. It is the God's honest
truth for Me that I have areally hard time with the Data Graphics.
The RPG aspect of the game isincredible. It is 100% what it was
in 2004 when it released andwhen I played it happily and almost

(57:33):
to the detriment of mymarriage. Almost to the detriment
of my marriage. I played Worldof Warcraft. Oh, you were one of
those.0506. Luckily my wife isa saint and she's amazing and she
understands how gaming is amental release for me compared to
my normal life. Had to take ashort break because there was a truck

(57:56):
backing up outside and Iwanted to avoid having to go out
and flatten four tires,possibly six. Okay, all right, back
at it. So yeah, gaming ingeneral, specifically MMOs and RPGs
are. That is my mentalrelease. 100% from the woes of the
world. I turn it off. I forgetabout anything that's going on in

(58:20):
my life or in the surroundingworld when I play games. And classic
wow. Had. Has the ability todo that because you get. You can
get lost in your character.You have to earn everything that
the initial earning of your mount.
Yeah.
Getting enough gold to do so,not having the modern conveniences

(58:44):
that we now have in retail areall very, very special.
Yep.
I have a friend that playshardcore and I could not see myself
doing that because I do fallin love with my characters for sure.
That type of thing is very,very enjoyable to me. So to see my

(59:05):
character die would bedisastrous for me. And it's funny
because he was doing good. Hewas 60 and raiding on hardcore and
he'd send me all theachievements and stuff they were
making. And the tank made onemistake and wiped their entire. Their

(59:26):
entire group a couple ofmonths back. And he sent me this.
He sent me a screenshot of alllike his guild is dead on the floor.
He's like, oh, we finallydied. And I was like, no way. And
he said, yep. And then he sentme another picture of his brand new
character at level one. I waslike, nope, that is not for me. Did

(59:50):
not do that. But you know, it.It goes to show the level of commitment
that a lot of people have tothe classic experience. And I. And
I love that. And I've beentrying to get him into retail forever.
And he's like, I just don'tthink I can do it. Because he loves
a classic experience so much.So for me, honestly, it, it does
come down to the visualappeal. Although we have. We've played

(01:00:13):
plenty of classic.
Oh yeah. Yeah.
And I really did have a goodtime with all of the things that
you are talking about.
Yeah.
You know, there's this senseof discovery in the world and a lot
of that comes from not havingthe ability to fly right away.
Oh, yeah, man. Yeah. Yes.Yeah. And that's another hot topic,

(01:00:38):
man. Is that a hot one? Butyeah, that's definitely when you
can slow down. And I don'tthink people realize just how impactful
that, like how that can changeon a moment, your gameplay voluntarily
go through a zone. If you'relistening right now, like, challenge
yourself to go through a zonethat you can fly through on just

(01:00:58):
a mount that you can't fly onand see how you take in the world
differently. See how thingsstand out to you. See how you, the,
the design of these zonessticks out to you. It's. It really
does change you. It really does.
Yeah. And you couldn't. Andthere's still some semblance of this
in, In Warcraft where you,you, you have to finish a zone. You

(01:01:22):
have to stick with a zone tofinish that thing before you can
move on to another zone.Because if you go to another zone.
We just talked about it lastweek when we were talking about the
wetlands. I would make the runto either Stormwind or Ironforge
on a relatively new character.And I was in fear for my life.

(01:01:43):
Yeah.
Running through the wetlandsbecause of particularly the croc.
Crocodilisks. Crocodiles.
Yeah.
Crocodile type creatures. Andthe raptors.
Yep.
And they would path over the road.
Oh.
So you'd have to like, yougotta like run up to the aggro range
and stop and just wait forthis thing to meander across the
road before you can keep going.

(01:02:05):
Yep.
And brought a lot of nostalgiaback when you, when you have to do
that. So you need to finishthe zone. You become in love with
the zone and the story that'sbeing told in that zone and all the
things you need to do toprogress your character. And then
by the time you're close,you're like, man, I gotta be getting

(01:02:26):
close because I'm. I'm kind ofsick of this zone. Now you move on
to a brand new zone and thatis the classic experience.
Yeah.
You can't take that away fromthe classic experience. The game
felt. The world felt dangerous.
Yeah.
It felt alive. And it feltlike you are not, you are not prepared

(01:02:51):
for the next zone until you are.
Yeah.
Right. Every piece of gearmeant something.
Oh, yeah. Yeah. And so toclass identity. Class identity was
very prevalent in classic. Itis not. I shouldn't say was it is
it's very prevalent. You're.You don't have everything. Not everybody
has everything. And I still tothis day love that even when I'm

(01:03:16):
in retail playing. I stilllove the notion that not every class
should have everything kind ofthing. You know what I mean? That
your class identity holds itsimportance because of what you bring
to the group, what you bringto your guild and. Or your raid team
or it could be soon to behousing team, you know, like, it's

(01:03:38):
just it. The class identity isvery, very present in Classic.
Yeah. And it, it really doesbring the power of the trinity.
Oh yeah. Oh gosh.
To gaming. It did that very,very well. Like if you're going to.
Into an area you didn't haveall of the utility that you have
now in, in retail and theability to survive. Like not everybody

(01:04:01):
had a heel.
Right.
So you needed to bring ahealer with you if you were right,
if you were going intosomething super dangerous. But I,
I just, I remember thosetimes. I remember, you know, tweaking
characters out way back then.
Oh man.
That's where you would keepyour character from leveling to.
You just keep like a level 19and you would go through, you know,

(01:04:24):
Razorfriend Crawl or whateverto try and get this certain chess
piece, you know, and if itwould drop, you're like, oh my God,
he finally dropped. Now youhave a blue chest piece and you can
go into PvP and just whoopeveryone's ass. Super fun stuff,
right. And, and that large inpart has gone away with the modern

(01:04:44):
conveniences that we have ofretail. So that's, that's kind of
where. It's where I land. Idefinitely. And I'll summarize when,
after we, you know, talk aboutretail a little bit. But for me it
is the biggest positive isexactly what you said. It's that

(01:05:05):
true role playing game feelwhere you're having to earn everything
with a huge splash ofnostalgia. That's definitely there.
But for me, for making it mymain game, it really comes down to
visuals for me. And I realizehow shallow Hal that is. Dude, I

(01:05:26):
totally realize it. But at thesame time, I think retail has my
heart.
Yeah, no, no, that's. That'sunderstandable. Like, and everyone's
going to feel different aboutthat. That's a, that is oddly enough
a huge line that is drawnwhenever people talk about, you know,
like, what could Classic pluslook like for from Blizzard now?

(01:05:47):
And it comes down to that. Youalways see it in every post, updated
visuals or toggle option forvisuals. And there's a very. It seems
just again bird's eye view.I'm not really involved in those
conversations. I don't reallylook at them with through a microscope,
but it really seems likethere's a line drawn where people

(01:06:08):
are like absolutely againstit. Keep everything 100 pure to the
experience that it was. Andthen those who are looking or interested
in some changes, somemodernizations to where it still
maintains that the. Theoriginal experience with some tweaks
of 2025.
Warning Nostalgia levelsexceeding safe thresholds. Recommend

(01:06:29):
hydration and possibly therapy.
Fast forward to 2025, friends.We are now playing retail. Obviously
fans of retail because we havea weekly podcast revolving around
all things retail. We don'tmind talking all the other aspects.
I'm sure at some point we'lltalk about. We'll talk Hearthstone

(01:06:50):
as well.
Oh my gosh.
I love Hearthstone and all theother games. Yeah, you know, I'm
sure we will because we arefans of Blizzard, but our shtick
is retail. World of Warcraftfor me it is. I'll just start with
the low hanging fruit. Visualsare fantastic. Really enjoying the

(01:07:16):
visuals of the, of the newparts of the world. I still get that
dose of classic and vanillawhen I'm, you know, when I'm in the
older parts of the world oryou got to go there for a quest or
something, you know, for anewer quest. A lot of times you get
sent back to the old zones andyou can see that they're, they're
quite dated. But it's nodifferent in any other long standing

(01:07:36):
MMO that has modern expansionsand expansions from, you know, 10,
12 years ago, 15 years ago.
Okay, so hang on a second,hang on a second. So you feel as
though for you personally youcan do with the dated area visuals,
you can do with the zoneslooking dated. But when it comes
to your character, that'swhere you draw the line.

(01:07:59):
That is a very astute observation.
Okay.
Because. Yes. Yeah, the. Andthe answer is yes. And again, like
I realize how bad that sounds.
No, it's fine. It's fine. It's fine.
I'm not alone.
No, you're not. No, you'renot. You're not alone. And that's
okay. I just wanted a clar.Clarification to see where you're.

(01:08:20):
Where you landed.
Dude. I like having a cloak on.
Yeah.
That has nice shading. Itflows and it gives me my character
aesthetic of the, of thecharacter that I want to play. I
love having the earth tonesand having the option to grind or

(01:08:41):
buy stuff that has earth tonesin it because I feel like that is.
I like that my druid wearsearth tones and a cloak and has a
really good looking, you know,simple wooden staff that looks like
it's from nature. I like beingable to change that and have him
wear some other type ofadventuring clothes or if it's the

(01:09:04):
wintertime, transmogging himto something that is more wintry
and looks aestheticallypleasing. It's a big part of my gameplay.
So for me, I'm comfortablewith that. And obviously I'm comfortable
with it because I've admittedmight be a fault, but I do admit
that that's okay. I'm notjudging, not live on the.
Air nor off of it.

(01:09:27):
You're such a good friend.Okay, so anyway, now that I've acted
like a grandpa, I think thatthe accessibility that retail has
gone down, the modernconveniences that have been added
are a blessing and a curse.And they're a blessing because, yes,

(01:09:49):
it makes things easier. AndI'm talking things like, like the
dungeon finder, raid finder.Being able to, you know, being able
to get into groups very, veryquickly is a nice modern convenience.
However, the cross serverplay, the steamrolling dungeons,

(01:10:16):
the ability to. Or theinability like nobody puts groups
together anymore outside ofthe raid finder unless like they're
with their friends in adiscord, which is, which is fine.
But it does remove some of thecharm from retail. Wow. It removes
that. Those experiences thatyou used to have where you're, you

(01:10:39):
know, you're sitting at thesummoning stone trying to put a group
together to run Deadminds, youknow, that was really cool when you
got to do that. And when you,when you finally did get into a group,
you had a sense of commitmentto that group. I mean, am I, am I

(01:11:01):
wrong there? Like you wantedto see it through.
Because that's very well said.
You took the time to put ittogether. You have this sense of
commitment to, to finish thisthing with these people. You still
ran into jerks, but at thesame time it was harder to put those
groups together. So you lose alittle bit of that. And that's a
modern convenience. Flying100% modern convenience. And we talked

(01:11:22):
about that. If you couldn'tfly everywhere in the game all the
time and get from point A topoint B super quickly, you lose the
scale of the world. You reallydo. When you could just like zone
someplace and don't have tomake a long run. And there's still
some aspects of retail whereyou still do it's it might be a long

(01:11:46):
flight or it might be a longrun. Some of those are still there,
but for the most part they'regone. And that does also take away
some of that charm. So it's abalancing act in these new more efficient
ways to navigate the world andnavigate the content that you want

(01:12:08):
to get into. It's added thespeed to it. And my personal opinion
is, you know, in our digitalage where we have the answers to
nearly everything in the palmof our hand in the form of a. It's
not even just a phone. It's aphone, a gps, a computer, a search
engine. It's everything.

(01:12:29):
Yep.
And it's in your hand at all times.
Yeah.
And people have become usedto. Society has become used to instant
satisfaction, instant answerswhere just a mere 15 years ago, a
mere 20 years ago, it wasn'tthat way. You had to work for things,

(01:12:49):
still had to look some thingsup. You might have to go look at
microfiche at the library nowI'm really a grandpa because nobody
in our listener base knowswhat microfiche is. But what I'm
saying is that modernconveniences have sped everything
up for us and we've becomeaccustomed to it. So the conveniences
of a game like this in thestate that retail. Wow Is have spoiled

(01:13:15):
us.
I think that there's. Man, youhit a lot of things that are, you
know, really worth unpacking.I think for me when it comes to everything
with, with retail, theconveniences, the today's conveniences
and this is a hundred percentprobably one sided and, and very.

(01:13:38):
What's. What's the selfish.It's. I'm saying this selfishly.
Okay. Every. The modernconveniences in Warcraft fit my life
right now so perfectly. A yearago I never would have seen that
coming. You know, like justthe, the conveniences itself. Yes.

(01:13:58):
There's some things I wishthat it didn't. That didn't give
you like I wish I could go tothe trainer and get my skills. I
wish I could keep going to themount person to buy my mount and
train. Because that's like amoment right. Like you've hit a certain
level, you can go do the. Istill love and wish that that was
in retail. Like just littlethings like that. But overall the

(01:14:20):
conveniences are the thingsthat really fit my life now. Being
a father, a husband, you know,just like you mortgage like, you
know like all this show yougrew up playing. Wow. And you grew
up like. And as thoseconveniences in itself that are some

(01:14:41):
of the ways that Warcraft fitsme so perfectly. And to go off some
of the other things that yousaid. Yeah, I do. I do wish some
of the things were not asconvenient, you know, that were a
little bit more towards.Geared towards the RPG side of things.
Because I'll be honest, likeplaying my warlock, I want to use

(01:15:02):
my summoning spell, you know,cuz like that's a big thing, you
know, like the. At least itfelt like it used to be. Granted
I'm a warlock newbie, soforgive me if like maybe this is,
maybe there's a way it's stillreally impactful but because of the
cooldown of your hearthstoneand, and some of the portals, depending

(01:15:22):
on where you're at, it kind oflike I feel like I don't know where
I could use this in a way thatreally is beneficial as though, as
if it's really needed anymorekind of thing. Now granted there's
other things you can do, youknow, like I can give, give out my
little fel cookies, you know,I bake for you and a little ding
and at 400 degrees for 18minutes and everyone takes them and

(01:15:43):
everyone's happy. So. Butoverall, like it really is two different
games in two different eras.Right now we live in a TikTok era
where everyone's attentionspan is so minute and everyone is
so overloaded with so muchmedia that they don't have the patience

(01:16:03):
or the realization that ifthey slowed down may and took away
some things, maybe that wouldhelp them or maybe they would find
a different joy in the game orsomething like that. But we, we really
do live in a world wherepeople don't have long attention
spans like they used to. So Iget the, I get the conveniences 100%.

(01:16:26):
I mean, obviously we loveWarcraft or we wouldn't be doing
a show about it. Right? But Istill stand on the fact that there's
just little things, littlethings I wish were, were still in
the retail experience. It'sobviously not going to affect my
state of if I'm going to stopplaying retail or anything crazy
like that. I love World ofWarcraft and Azeroth, but yeah, there's

(01:16:49):
some little things I miss.
Yeah, I think with, withretail, you know, along with those,
I think the gameplay systems,the combat is evolving. Oh yeah,
we're, you know, we're, we'reon the cusp of, you know, a major
combat revamp here that isgoing to keep things fresh and modernized.
The other thing for me, amajor thing is that whenever I played

(01:17:15):
classic, I always Felt like,well, there's. There's gonna be an
end to it. And I like tocommit for the. For the long term.
Right. When I play a game.
Right.
And granted, there's plenty ofcontent there, don't get me wrong.
But when there's almost like asunset clause on it, like, okay,
like once we reach this point,if they just keep doing expansion

(01:17:38):
after expansion afterexpansion, then pretty much you're
in retail now, right? I mean,am I. Am I wrong? Am I off base there?
No, no, you're. I mean, youeventually arrive. You know, some
people say that the moment youstepped into Wrath the Lich King,
you started to lose thatinitial experience. You know, that's.
That's, I think, relativelywell. Well understood and known,

(01:18:01):
ultimately. Yeah, you arrive.I mean, it. It is what it is.
Yeah. And the way that I feelwith retail is that retail is going
to continue. It's going tocontinue to evolve. The storytelling
is going to continue toexpand, and things are going to continue
to get better. You have moderncinematics, you have modern voice

(01:18:23):
acting. Who knows with AIwhere voice acting is going to go?
And that's a whole other Oprahshow talking about that kind of stuff.
You get a cross line, you geta car. Sorry, go ahead.
You get an AI voice and youlose your job and.
Oh, that's terrible.
It's a hot topic. That is ahot topic with us, but we'll. We'll

(01:18:46):
probably talk about thatanother show. But I think that the
cinematic experience thatwe're getting with retail, World
of Warcraft, is very appealingto me, knowing that it. This is just
going to keep going. Andeverybody always talked about the
wild killer for years. Wetalked about the wild killer for
years. And the funny part isnothing's going to kill World of

(01:19:09):
Warcraft except for World ofWarcraft. Like, they're in the driver's
seat, clearly.
Yep.
There's other MMOs that arealso very good and very popular,
but World of Warcraft is theking. And I think we all know that.
Yep.
We can all be honest withourselves at this point that World
of Warcraft is the king.
Processing, modernconvenience. Ah, yes, the dopamine

(01:19:33):
buffet. Would you like frieswith your instant Queue?
I don't know. I think unlessyou have anything else to add about
retail, I think we should makea choice. And then I have a final
question for you.
Okay, let's make a choice.
Okay, you go first.
Retail.
Classic retail. That wasreally quick. That was. It was a

(01:19:58):
little premature there. I know.
I just kind of fired off theHip. My bad. Hang on. For entertainment
value, please ask me the question.
Okay. We know that you likeretail. Retail or classic? Wow. Which
is better?
Well, Rick, you know, I'vereally weighed the options. I really
thought about this. I thoughtI wrote down a whole dissertation
to go retail.

(01:20:18):
Okay, Rick abides. Rickabides. I also am going to go retail.
It doesn't remove the magic ofclassic for me. Certainly removes
the shitty looking characters,but it doesn't remove the magic of
classic for me. Let me ask youthis as a follow up, okay. And this

(01:20:43):
comes right along with this,the speculation about classic plus.
Okay, what would it take foryour. What changes would need to
be made for your main game tochange to classic?
I don't think that it everwould. Just to preface everything

(01:21:03):
I'm telling you now, this showis geared towards the people of retail.
That's the community, youknow, obviously that we're focusing
on. I don't believe I everwould make that switch, let's say
in a theoretical world wherejibs would make that switch. Well,
I would like to see updatedvisuals. The option for it. The option
you don't have to use it, butthe option to have that involved.

(01:21:27):
I would like to see thecurrent races available somehow,
some way when it makes senseor maybe released in certain, I don't
know, certain timeline. Iwould like to see expanded storylines
that focus on Azeroth itselfand the tone maintained that you're
not the champion, you're notthe guy, but you're a guy. Because

(01:21:50):
it felt like back then that'skind of more the vibe that it was.
I think I could be way offbase here. I'll be honest. Again,
my first real Warcraftexperience was warlords. But that,
that back then where you, youfelt like you were an adventurer
and we kind of aren't how wefurther developed where we are now,
you're just a guy. I wouldlike to see that. If I was going

(01:22:13):
to play classic, I guessthat's already there. What am I doing?
Yes, it's already there. Andthen finally Transmog definitely
big part of. And that again,selfish. That is just. That's just
a want. And finally it wouldbe. It would be the profession system

(01:22:34):
that is in current retail tobe present in classic.
Man, that's a laundry list.
Yeah, I really have nointention of. I love and appreciate
both. I do. I think it'sgreat. I'm of the opinion, just like
you said a couple episodesago, Warcraft. More Warcraft is more
Warcraft for everyone. It'sforever. You Know, it's for everybody.

(01:22:55):
It's a win. And that's, youknow, what makes the community so
great. And I love dearly. But,yeah, classic really is my love.
Or not classic. I'm sorry.Retail really. Retail really is my
love.
Oh, man. Dude, I was confusedfor a minute.
I know. Ed, you there?
You did. Okay, you did bringup a really good point, though. And
you're not off base. Everycharacter, if you go through the

(01:23:19):
storyline, you are the herofor sure. Even though they just call
you adventure, it drives menuts when they don't, you know, when
the. The voice actors, like, Iwould have loved if there was a way
for them just to call youdruid or Warlock, they call you Outlander,
they call you adventurer, theycall you hero. That's about it. And

(01:23:43):
it is a funny thing about,about this game, though, I love that
you brought up. I would loveto just be not the guy, but a guy.
And it brings us back tosomething that we've talked about
for a long time, which is.Wait a minute. You're the Dovahkin.
You're the Dovahkin. I am thedo. I am.

(01:24:05):
Oh, that's good for an ElderScrolls reference.
If you played Elder Scrolls,you know exactly what we're talking
about. Everybody's the damnDovahkin. When a lot of times people
just want to be existing inthe world. They don't necessarily
want to be the hero all thetime, but how. How else are they
going to tell the story?Right? So I like all those things
that you said. I think for meto make classic, my main would be

(01:24:30):
an act of God, first of all,because I love. I love retail, but
it's a little more simple forme if, if it were, you know, if Classic
plus were to come out and theywere to. Yes, update the. Let's bring
the graphical bar up there alittle bit so it's modernized, tell

(01:24:51):
different stories. As. As yousaid, if the stories were new and
there were new things for meto absorb and experience, that would
be really tough for me tochoose. Keep that RPG feel, lose
a lot of the modernconveniences and give me some hope

(01:25:11):
that once we reach Wrath ofthe Lich King, it's not over. It's
not over for me. Or once we,you know, once we start getting into
that more modern era, it's notover. I want new stuff in a Classic
Plus. And actually, if allthose things came together and that
is what Classic plus is goingto be, it's terrifying for me because

(01:25:36):
of how much I love retail.It's scary to think about it, but
yeah, I definitely land in theretail camp. And I. It's very obvious
that we land in the retailcamp because our show is about retail
and it will continue to beabout retail. But I hope that was
a good conversation. I hopethat was a cool conversation for.

(01:25:57):
For you to listen to. Ithought that that's such a hot topic.
Oh, gosh, it's such a hotmoment. I saw that in there. I thought,
oh, here we go. Here we go.
Yeah, but, you know, that's.That's our job.
It is.
Unfortunately, we don't getpaid for it, but that is our job
today.
Jokes on you. I have a 401kgoblin. 401k. But, you know, but

(01:26:19):
there's, oddly enough, sevenasterisks. I don't know what that
means, but anyway, hey, yeah,it just means you're extra special.
Wink, wink.
So I don't know, sum it up.Retail is fun. Classic is home. Flip,
flip for you.
No, Flip, flip. That I did.
Okay, so for you, it's retailis home. Classic is fun.

(01:26:41):
There you go.
Okay, I'll buy it.
Yeah, retail's home.
Allow it.
Retail's my home. Andhonestly, though, at the end of the
day, Azeroth is my home.That's what it is. And I don't like
drawing hard lines. I don'tlike the community putting themselves.
I don't. I. I would hate forthe community put themselves in any
spot. You know, it's like atthe end of the day, we're all, as

(01:27:02):
in Azeroth, we're all a partof this grand world that we all love.
And that's just. Yeah, man.Like, that's. I'm gonna sound like
a sappy old man if I keepgoing, but yeah, man, like, we're
all for one dude. Like, it's.I love it. I love the world. I love
the dev team behind it thathave devoted so many years to it,

(01:27:23):
so many careers who've comeand gone. Like, that's history. You
know, we essentially just hada history lesson, really. And, yeah,
I look forward to the next 10years of it, so.
I do, too. My beard is gonnabe a lot grayer in another 10 years.
Maybe we'll live next to eachother. We'll be grumpy old men.
Yep, that's the plan. Walk outand kick dog poop onto your lawn.

(01:27:51):
Give me a middle finger and goto your. Do your. Continue about
your day. Oh, I love it. Well,folks, we'll be right back. We're
gonna take commercial Breakand we'll wrap up the show Sunday,
Sunday, Sunday. Get ready forpure unfiltered high octane goblin
mayhem at the Kazan demolitionderby. Rocket powered junkers, fell

(01:28:12):
fueled clunkers and goblinswho absolutely did not read the safety
manual. See squeak and nobrakes, boom, whistle, crash into
everything and then apologizeto nothing. Kids enter free if they
sign the waiver. That'sSunday, Sunday, Sunday at the undermine

(01:28:33):
dust bowl around arena wherethe motto is if it moves, hit it.
All right everybody. Well,thank you so much for tuning in.
This was Azeroth MorningRadio. Folks, if you're enjoying
your time here, we areencroaching on 10 episodes. On 10

(01:28:54):
episodes. And we've beeninvited to come on another show at
some point to talk about thatto celebrate that thing. We'll have
details for that in thefuture. But yeah, we're encroaching
on 10 episodes and really wewant to hear from you feedback, things
you'd love to see, things youdon't like, things that you you'd
love for us to lean more into.This show is made by the community

(01:29:16):
with a love for the community.And so this show is for you. And
so please let us know. Thankyou again for listening. If you enjoyed
your time with here here withus, please leave us a review whatever
podcast app you're using andplease share this with your guild,
your community, a friend. Ifyou think they'd enjoy this again,
this is for you. You can visitour [e-mail]

(01:29:37):
Full episode transcripts arethere for those who need it. You
can learn more about AMR andof course you can get in contact
with us directly over at thecontact page. Cash.
Friends, you can email us withyour thoughts concerns about my inability
to like nostalgic thingsbecause the graphics are [e-mail]

(01:29:58):
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Or you can do, you can doeverything that's opposite of what

(01:30:18):
he has told you and we takethat too.
Yeah, we have thick skin kindof. Oh, I cry a lot.
Well, you know, when in Rome.
Friends, don't forget, send usheroes call topics like I've said
that for a few weeks. I'mserious. We want to know what the
community is doing that youthink is amazing and wholesome, and

(01:30:39):
then we want to detail it onthe show. Massive shout out for Pulling
Aggro irl, which is agro, ourguild. They're making some changes
over there. We're getting somenew officers, and they continue to
be an amazing guild that ismade for adults, professionals, parents,
and players that just mightnot have all the time in the world

(01:30:59):
to neck beard World ofWarcraft. So Pulling Aggro irl, you
can find them in the guildfinder and come join us over there.
We'd love to run some contentwith you.
There you go, friends, we loveyou. Stay awesome, and we can't wait
to see you at BlizzCon. Have agreat week, everybody. I need a target.
I need a freaking target.