WoW Insider Show is giving away a WWI beta key tomorrow
by Mike Schramm 
Jul 25th 2008 at 11:00AM
Plus there's another surprise, which I'm a little too scared to even talk about -- let's just say that Turpster may be showing off his musical talents, and he may have roped some other folks in this time. And since I (unlike Rossi) do in fact have the email login, we'll be answering your emails from theshow@wow.com and chatting live in IRC at irc.mmoirc.com in the #wowradio channel.
So tune in tomorrow for not only your chance to hear great insight and commentary about the latest World of Warcraft news, and not only to Turpster (and maybe some other familiar WI voices) sing, but also your chance to pick up that rarest of epic treasures lately: an honest to goodness WWI beta key*. See you tomorrow afternoon at 3:30pm EST over on WoW Radio.
*Note: We'll talk about this on the show I'm sure, but please note that we're giving you a beta key, not access to the beta -- it's up to Blizzard to actually let you in. And we're giving you a WWI key, which means it's for EU players only -- the key won't let you enter the beta on US realms. Sorry US players, but all of our other contests are for you, so karma evens out.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, WoW Insider Business, Contests, Humor, WoW Insider Show
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Nati Jul 25th 2008 11:07AM
Karma evens out? Not for us Europeans who play on US servers. :P
Tarbh Jul 26th 2008 12:51PM
We just can't win. :(
Braundo Jul 25th 2008 11:07AM
That "EU players only" tidbit might have been better to put earlier in the article. Got my hopes up for nothing.
jake Jul 25th 2008 1:22PM
/second
Nuok Jul 25th 2008 11:16AM
Finaly a good (nerdie) reason to be British, apart from the turpster event which was awsome
turboliux Jul 25th 2008 11:16AM
I think this is awesome, the winner will totally appreciate a chance to play some WotLK beta (if he gets confirmed of course)! So far I was blown away by the new content and never seen mechanics of DK quests. Just hope the winner doesn't sell it on eBay or something, because that would be such a waste.
p.s. if understood correctly, this is the first time EU players can win goodies from WoWInsider show! Cool!
Sanol Jul 25th 2008 11:16AM
the one time i cannot listen you are giving a wwi key away ! GG Xd :D
Athmeno Jul 25th 2008 11:24AM
Gah! I'm EU-resident and play on US servers!!
./cry
Juneau Jul 25th 2008 11:29AM
Ha! Something us Europeans can win for once! I'll be tuning in ;)
F0REM4N Jul 25th 2008 11:33AM
I have a quick question, why is the turn around so dang long between your broadcast and upload of the podcast? You have the slowest turn around of any that I listen to, and that is a lot of podcast. Anyway to get them out same day, or are we doomed to get older news if we like to download the show?
TotalBiscuit Jul 25th 2008 11:41AM
How many live WoW shows do you listen to exactly? Aside from ours, only a tiny handful of podcasts actually broadcast live. Off the top of my head, I can only think of one other that does, though I could be wrong.
The archiving method for WoW Insider is complex, far more so than any other podcast, to ensure the best possible quality. It takes a lot of time. Bear in mind though, if you're 'getting your news' from the WoW Insider show, then you're missing the point. Everything discussed on the WoW Insider show is a past article that's been on the site that week. The discussion of said article and it's exploration a little more in-depth than the site, is the show's mandate.
F0REM4N Jul 25th 2008 11:50AM
I'm not trying to knock the show at all, it's easily the best podcast on wow radio and amongst the top 3 (in my opinion of course) currently in production on all the web. I enjoy WoW Things Considered as well.
The Instance comes to mind for a live show with quick (at least same day) turn around. I will listen regardless, I am no editing genius, I just wanted to know if it would be possible to get it out faster is all. Thanks for your reply, Bears with Lasers forever.
TotalBiscuit Jul 25th 2008 12:02PM
Yup, the Instance is about the only other one that does it live (and that's a recent development if I remember correctly). Basically this is how it works. You've got 3 kinds of shows on WoW Radio. Solo-hosted shows, co-hosted shows in the same location and co-hosted shows in remote locations. WoW Insider is a remote location show, since all of the guest hosts live in different areas. Now VOIP is tricky business, it doesn't always work out right, and if you listen to the WoW Insider show, you'll sometimes notice problems with the audio. That's the problem with Skype, it's very good for latency-free audio, but it sometimes has hiccups and the quality isn't as good as we'd like.
The podcast is a different animal. What we do is, we have each of our hosts record their individual voices at the same time as they do the live show. Once the live show is done, all those voices are saved as seperate files and sent to the producer, who pain-stakingly puts them all together, cleans up any problems or issues with the audio, makes sure everyone's at the same volume level and talking at the correct times, and then encodes it all and releases the podcast. Little trade secret for you guys there if you ever want to do a podcast of your own ;) It's a great method, it ensures top-notch quality, at least as far as you can go with guest hosts, who aren't always using the level of gear that our guys have, but it takes quite a long time to create, that's the disadvantage.
Nails Jul 25th 2008 1:08PM
thanks TB, sounds like you guys do a great job
i always download the podcast on monday and i love it. i was also wondering why it took a little while for them to be available for download, but your explanation makes sense
Chuddy Jul 25th 2008 1:18PM
I'd like to add to Tb's comments that truely the best form is running into a mixer though a good to decent mic. I play in bands so I've already got quite a assortment but I find the Shure SM58 is stellar for it if on the pricey side of things.Get a pop cover. they're not expensive at ALL. I find alesis's to be pretty decent for it's cost. That all said, you can buy anyone you desire of course and achieve the same results as using shareware. One thing to consider is no matter how great your initial recording is you are tied to the weakest link in your chain. TB uses skype, I use Telos units and patch them together via the mixer for talkback and can handle as many lines as my bus's allot me. It's a incredibly odd way of doing things though. However, both our methods are on the better side of the medium right now, but you're still stuck to streaming audio which is never close to the original quality. Tb and me should team up. :)
TotalBiscuit Jul 25th 2008 1:41PM
Telos units? Flux capacitors? You sure you're not making this stuff up? :P Seriously though, shoot me an email, we should talk ;)
F0REM4N Jul 25th 2008 2:08PM
I don't think I've ever been more satisfied with an explanation to any question I've asked online. I totally understand now, and thank you for taking the time to answer so thoroughly.
Chuddy Jul 25th 2008 3:43PM
Yeah, wrote that a little haphazardly. My bad. I am at work. Telos units are the means I use to capture telephone audio and then patch it into the mixer which then goes into the program I use: adobe audition. Hence the use of buses on the mixer when dealing with multiple people. Though telos or, rather telephone audio is truely awful. Downright awful. I think the actual amount of bandwidth possible for wave of audio is around 9k. You have no margin for error really. Anyways yeah, I always prefer using a mixer but when you record someone from across the country you have to come up with options. Skype is nice, and most anyone can get it. They've got to have the headset and man, it comes down to your mic in the back of your machine. I suggest that though because most audio cards are decent on the out of box machines. If you want some freeware for editing something, i suggest
audacity" it's no frills. Multitrack is a bit nappy though. I'm pretty sure the most well known multitrack editor, protools is out there, and hell garageband probably another good one. I personally use adobe audition 1.0 because it's a reskin of cool edit pro which is what I first learned on about 6 years ago. It's up to 3.0 now, totally overbloated as all adobe products are. Lastly get a decent set of speakers. No need to spend 100$ on each but..you can make do. Never edit in headphones either. Also normalize is your best friend. Crap....After this wall of text though I suggest tb's podcast on how to, over at wcradio. Very informative.
Duncor Jul 26th 2008 1:38PM
Also, Sometimes it takes longer for people to send me their voice recordings then I would like.
Juneau Jul 25th 2008 11:39AM
Just one question, what is EST translated into British time?