Episode 3 of the WoW Insider show now available
by Mike Schramm 
Sep 17th 2007 at 1:30PM
Episode 3 of the WoW Insider Show is now available to listen over at WoW Radio and also as a podcast on iTunes (wow, those iTunes reviews are harsh, aren't they? Send us your suggestions on how to make the show better at theshow@wow.com). I was on board this time around, as was our own Amanda Rivera, and WoW Radio's ever popular Turpster and Alris from the World of Theorycraft.
We chatted about all of our popular posts from last week, including whether rogues stealthing around constitutes an exploit, Matthew's post about trojans, and what exactly Blizzard's Hydra is. We hit on lots more, too, and I made everyone give their prediction for the patch 2.2 release-- "this week," "next week," or "later." I believe "this week" won among the four of us (it's what I said), but considering what the CMs are saying lately, I have to admit I'm second guessing myself-- we may not see the patch tomorrow morning after all.
And don't forget that we do this live every Saturday at 3:30pm EST over at WoW Radio. Tune in next week for yet another episode of WoW Insider in audio form-- we call it the WoW Insider Show.
We chatted about all of our popular posts from last week, including whether rogues stealthing around constitutes an exploit, Matthew's post about trojans, and what exactly Blizzard's Hydra is. We hit on lots more, too, and I made everyone give their prediction for the patch 2.2 release-- "this week," "next week," or "later." I believe "this week" won among the four of us (it's what I said), but considering what the CMs are saying lately, I have to admit I'm second guessing myself-- we may not see the patch tomorrow morning after all.
And don't forget that we do this live every Saturday at 3:30pm EST over at WoW Radio. Tune in next week for yet another episode of WoW Insider in audio form-- we call it the WoW Insider Show.
Filed under: Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Podcasting, Blizzard, Features, WoW Insider Show
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Demnie Sep 17th 2007 1:57PM
Is it just me or does Turpster sound EXACTLY like Ricky Gervais from "the Office" ??
Charlie Taylor Sep 17th 2007 2:14PM
something is wrong with the audio, the itunes feed seems really choppy. The MP3 feed of wowradio is a little choppy, but not nearly as bad as the itunes feed.
Automatt Sep 17th 2007 3:37PM
Love the show, I posted a nice review for you. More Turpster!
Amanda Rivera Sep 17th 2007 4:41PM
Huzzah Mike! I win I win! :)
TotalBiscuit Sep 17th 2007 5:29PM
@2 - I would recommend you actually download the show rather than attempt to stream it. I've checked the file itself and it's just fine. We've been having some routing issues to the server of late. While we do have a capable server, we do sometimes get issues when big shows go onto iTunes because 10s of 1000s try and stream it at the same time, which makes our server cry :'(
So yeah, download the file, then play it on your media player, and you should have no problems at all.
If you still do, let me know, describe the problem in this thread and I'll forward it onto our technical team to find out what's going on.
TB.
robodex Sep 17th 2007 7:41PM
Oh man, I was sitting here this morning thinking "where the hell have I heard TB from before?" Then I realized he was the guy from "Chronicles of the Gold Farmer."
Anyway, I just got caught up (put the first 3 episodes on my iPod this morning and listened to them on the way to/from school) and I have to say that next week I'm going to try my best to listen. Good job :)
FireStar Sep 18th 2007 3:33PM
The only thing i have to suggest is Please stop interrupting each other. I listened halfway through the 1st episode, and skipped to the 3rd to hope the interruptions were significantly lessened, and I didn't see much of an improvement. Also, there are quality issues with the podcast, with weird distortion bursts on it.
FireStar Sep 18th 2007 3:45PM
...Comments not showing up...
If this one shows up, please stop the interrupting of each other in your show. Also the quality of podcast has distortion. Other than that its fine.
TotalBiscuit Sep 18th 2007 4:11PM
@7 - Our hosts have far more live radio experience than The Instance, and the Instance doesn't do it live, making it far easier to polish up the production. It's very unusual that we get complaints about the talent of our hosts. I've yet to find any podcast other than Warcast that can match up to the hosting talents of our staff.
I'd simply say, different strokes for different folks. You'd be the first to complain about that, that's for sure. Loads of people hate me, I'm a mouthy bastard, but you'd be the first to complain about my voice that's for sure ;)
Keep the feedback coming in though, but keep it constructive. Generic white-wash whining about vague and indescript things doesn't help anybody.
TB.
TotalBiscuit Sep 18th 2007 4:22PM
As regards to distortion, that's the result of Skype and there's nothing we can do about it short of
1) Pre-recording the entire show, defeating the point of doing a live show altogether.
2) Have all the hosts in the same room, an impossibility.
Those are the choices really. You can have a show who's sound quality is as good if not better than every other WoW podcast out-there, but is pre-recorded, not live, and has no listener interaction, or you can have the live show, the interaction in our IRC channel and the whole 'live experience', but sacrifice some quality.
Those are the choices. There's no magical lack of talent, knowledge or gear on our end, we know exactly what we're doing, we're simply limited by VOIP technology. What would the listener-base prefer? That's the big question, feedback is appreciated.
TB.
TotalBiscuit Sep 18th 2007 6:11PM
Actually come to think of it, there is one option I missed.
Trade secret for free ladies and gents, the best way to do a pre-recorded podcast when everyone isn't in the same room is to fire up Skype, fire up a copy of Audition or a similar, good quality audio-editor on each host's machine, and have them record themselves while they do the show. Then send each host's 'lines', unedited to a producer. The producer puts each person's lines on a seperate track and effectively splices them altogether to form a coherent conversation, edits out dead-air, gaps, mistakes etc, then normalizes all the hosts so their volume is similar, polishes it up with some subtle EQ and such, pops in the background music and Kazam, a podcast that has no Skype distortion issues, but is still effectively the live show that was just broadcast.
Best of both worlds, though the podcast would take quite a bit longer to release after the live show. I think I'll try that this coming week, just if anything to put a cork in the mouths of the naysayers who question our ability ;)
TB.
ropax Sep 28th 2007 9:17AM
I have to agree with number 7. Sorry TB. The quality of this podcast is terrible. I listened to show number 1 and could barely hear Dan at all. The audio would cut out occasionally and the format was disorganized.
I would also agree that The Instance is a far better podcast. Scott and Randy are very professional, organized and less prone to falling into crap talk.
Their show is done live via youstream. They do edit in post to add effects and clean things up but all in all, the quality of their podcast should be aspired to not disparaged.
TotalBiscuit Oct 1st 2007 8:12AM
@14 - Then you may wish to listen to Episode 5. Having done a comparison I can safely say it's up to par with what they put out. They have a key advantage that live Skyped shows can never have, and that's being in the same room. And if they're not, then I'd love to know how they pull it off without a dedicated ISDN linkup. Comparing the two's sound quality is simply unfair. A live remote-hosted show can never sound as good as one where the hosts are in the same studio and physical location.
Listening to a pilot with 2 hosts that have never done a podcast before (ie. WoW Insider) that was plagued with pilot-style technical issues and then comparing it to a show that's been running for over a year with heavy financial backing is a moot comparison. Listen to our latest, where we've implemented a new archive method. Also take some time and listen to our other, longer running shows our A-listers like Octale and Hordak, Warcraft Anonymous, Casually Hardcore and Titan. I'd put any of those shows confidently up against The Instance any day of the week.
Call it friendly competition, it helps drive quality development.
You can hold your opinion about The Instance as regards to 'crap-talk' if you wish but I don't agree. My experience of The Instance has been nothing but negative ever since Scarablord ran off. They seem to be strictly aimed at the casual market, and by casual I mean 'aren't 70, have never raided, haven't really experienced the meat of the game'. Their information is often false, they clearly admit to not having listened to some of the 'listener recordings' they play. Having done live radio for over 8 years and trained at the feet of people who now work for the BBC and various other stations, I have to heartily disagree as regards to their professionalism. Professionalism does not mean having a lot of money to buy nice gear. In talk-radio, it's about delivering accurate, as well as entertaining content, and giving the impression that you know what you're talking about, which in my opinion, Scott and Co fail to do time after time.
But hey, that's just my opinion from a listening perspective. No-one's saying you have to listen to just one podcast, but I'd recommend, when doing comparisons, that you do it in a balanced fashion. Take one of our longer running shows, and compare to theirs, don't blast WoW Insider's guys just because they're still learning. Nobody's going to be totally professional after just a few hours of shoutcasting time. We're just happy to give them a platform to learn, we don't care if they don't sound 110% awesome all the time, as long as they're getting the experience they need to be better hosts in the future.
TB.
TotalBiscuit Oct 1st 2007 12:38PM
I must point out by the way that all of the above is my own personal opinion as a listener. I'm very critical of audio work, particularly my own, so I bear no grudge against any of these podcasts, I just don't like them that much for various reasons :)
TB.
Janessriel Oct 2nd 2007 4:13PM
@15
Not to nitpick your argument, but the Instance is done through Skype. Scott lives in Utah and Randy lives in Texas. Whether or not they have a "dedicated ISDN linkup" is up for debate, as the Instance isn't the only show Scott does and all of them sound the same, with several different hosts.
And the "Scarab Lord" wasn't on The Instance. Luke Smith was part of 1up, he was on Legendary Thread. Andrew was the one who left The Instance simply due to him not enjoying the game anymore, which is understandable.
I spent many many hours listening to many many WoW podcasts so I tend to know this area of this game more than most. I've heard the well known ones: World of Warcast, WoWcast, WoW Chronicles, cancelled stuff like Taverncast and Weekly Murloc and newer shows like Epic Dolls, In The World and so forth. I listen to a LOT of podcasts and for a time there, I was VERY into WoW so I found a lot of WoW podcasts that are both good and bad.
However, before you nitpick my nitpick, I do agree that The Instance is made for a more casual audience. They tend to merely report news and that's it, along with a few segments here and there. I also agree that Legendary Thread has gone severely downhill since Luke Smith left. I assume that's the one you meant above anyway.
I'd argue that comparing yourself to The Instance isn't warranted. Most of the WoW Radio shows I've heard tend to be focused towards the player that 1) knows and 2) cares what Haste rating is and how that will affect his next raid of Gruul. The Instance is made more for people who like to log on, talk to some friends and kill some mangy wolves.
So I wouldn't get too worked up about anything, WoW Radio is doing fine. As for this show, no show is amazing and perfect after only 5 shows. It's only around now that a rhythm develops and now they can work on fine tuning the content. The foundation is there, keep it up and this show will be just fine.
Sorry about the length. :)
Janessriel Oct 2nd 2007 4:23PM
@15
One more thing, cause I'm anal:
"Listening to a pilot with 2 hosts that have never done a podcast before (ie. WoW Insider)..."
Not entirely true, as Mike Schramm has done a podcast before. It was called Happy Time, ask him about it. :)