Latest / For Azeroth!: A World of Warcraft Podcast / #265 - For Azeroth!: “Convention Conjecture”

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#265 - For Azeroth!: “Convention Conjecture” · For Azeroth!: A World of Warcraft Podcast

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BlizzCon 2023 is almost upon us and I'm going to sit down with
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ease from Realm Maintenance to go into all the franchises
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Diablo, Overwatch, and of course World of Warcraft on this
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episode of for Azeroth. For calendar.
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For the burning region or Ginnaeus has not died.
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For the Lich King, For the Sindora, For the Alliance.
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For the Horn for Azeroth, hello, and welcome to another episode
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of For Azroth. I am, of course your host, the
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true villain Manny, and I am joined by a great special guest,
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returning Ease, Ease. How are you doing?
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Hello Manny. Thank you for having me.
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I'm doing great. I always love being here.
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Chatting with you second time off for Astros feels very fun.
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Feels very good. Thanks for having me.
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How are you doing today? Doing OK.
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It is a Canadian Thanksgiving here.
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I've got a lot to be thankful for.
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Happy Thanksgiving. That's great.
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Yeah, you got another month before yours, but actually more
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than a month because in a month's time we've got BlizzCon
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coming up. And I mean, that'll be most of
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my holidays. Not gonna lie.
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That's where I'm taking my vacation.
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Yeah, I'm glad that we're not worried about an expansion
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coming out this year, because then splitting the time there
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would be would be a lot. It would be a lot.
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But yeah, yeah, talking about BlizzCon, that's the reason that
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we're here today, because we're going to be doing some
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speculation. We're going to be doing some
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guessing. We're going to be doing some
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tinfoil hat theorizing on what exactly we're going to be seeing
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at the return of BlizzCon. Have you been doing BlizzCon
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before? I have not.
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No, I am. You know, EU originally grew up
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in Sweden and so even though always wanted to, it was never
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quite obtainable. And I was, yeah.
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So no, I haven't. I I really wanted to go 2019 and
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I was actually debating it, but in the end it wasn't actually
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feasible. So I'm very excited now.
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I live in the US and I have a lot shorter way to go.
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So I'm super excited too. I wish.
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I wish you were still going so I could have met you.
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But you know what doesn't always work out?
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Yeah, yeah, this is this. I'm hoping this is not a curse.
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2019. I wanted to go, and then I feel
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ill, like literally like a day or two before.
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And so like, I'm glad I felt ill before I went and not when I
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went. I didn't want to be patient
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zero. Definitely didn't want to be
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patient zero. And then no Blizzcons in the
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time since. So this is the return of
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BlizzCon and what has happened in that time in between this
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man, just like, you know, the controversies, the new games and
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everything, this is going to be a pretty stacked BlizzCon.
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Yeah, I think so. You know it's.
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They've had their they had the Blisscon Live 2021 and then
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2022. They had like a they didn't
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really call it. Did they call it Blisscon line
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the second time too? I'm not entirely sure they did.
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I think they either like, OK, we have to cancel.
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We'll try and do something. February, they did a small
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thing, and then they did a bigger Blisscon line.
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Maybe they did. Yeah, I guess they must have
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announced Dragonfight at some point.
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Oh yeah. No, I don't know.
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I can't remember anything anymore.
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Either way it it does have a lot riding on it.
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You know, it's the first blisscon back back in in person
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and a lot of people are thinking a lot of things that a lot of
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things are going to be talked about and they keep saying that
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there's a lot to announce. I mean, Mike Ibarra's tweet a
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couple weeks ago about Warcraft having the most to announce
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which? I mean, that's exciting, But
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also, it sounds like he's thinking Warcraft means a
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Hearthstone, Wow, Wow, Classic and Warcraft rumble.
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And if that's the case, no wonder that's the most, like,
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that's four games. Yeah, yeah, there's a lot riding
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on what exactly his definition of Warcraft is.
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But honestly, I'm glad to have you on because, you know, this
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is a for as off, we're all about World of Warcraft, but you do
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not only Rath babies World of Warcraft, but you're also the
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host anchoring down around maintenance, which does so much
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stuff in the Blizzard verse. So you're the person that I'm
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going to go to to talk about like this, the general stuff
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that we're going to see at BlizzCon.
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Well, I mean that feels very honoring.
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Yes, I do host Realm Maintenance which covers all of Lizard
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games, but I also do have Co hosts or correspondence as we
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call them, simply because I don't play all the games
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equally. But I do keep, keep like keep up
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to date on them. Famously, I'm not the hugest
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Hearthstone player. When I do play, I play duels.
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No arena. See, I don't even get it right.
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I play arena when I do play and. But but I yeah, I I try to at
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least keep track of what's going on because we cover all the
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news. So I'm very happy to be here and
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hopefully I'll have something interesting to say.
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We'll see. Well, OK, let's let's.
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Since you did mention Hearthstone, let's start with
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your I guess the weakest area specifically because I used to
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be so into Hearthstone and then I just, I just dropped out.
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Joss is somewhere out there giving me giving the eye and
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Karen too. But you know you know she's
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busy. She just had her beautiful baby
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girl. Big big congratulations to Joss
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for her little baby Olivia that was born just recently sending a
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lot of love to her and her husband Matt.
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So maybe she's got her hands full and and can't come after
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me. But let let's talk about her
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stone. So Hearthstone, I think is a
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strange one because it's not just, you know, Arena.
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It's not just like their constructive format.
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They've they've stuffed a bunch of different things in there.
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They so like it almost feels like it's a platform in and of
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itself rather than just one game.
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Do you, since you cover this, what was the last sort of set
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that we had? So we're currently in Titans
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with. With the the miniset Fall of
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Olduar coming out just a couple weeks ago now, I think it's like
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finally released late September, which means usually expansions
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have an expansion and then a miniset and then we get the next
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expansion. And so we're right in Titans,
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which is still shaking things up and we have Fall of Olduar,
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everyone praising Yog, everyone loves Yogs are on apparently.
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That's like, for two weeks straight, all the Hearthstone
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podcast titles. Had something to do with Yog to
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do like they mentioned Yog in one way or another, because we
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always do like a podcast roundup listing all the shows in
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Blizzard that released an episode.
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So I always see all the titles and there's a lot of yogs that
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are on there for a while, OK. And so from like the the buzz
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that you're getting from all these different shows is like
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her someone in a good place right now?
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Or like, is there something that people are like really sticking
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on? I I.
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The general vibe I think is that it Hearthstone is doing well,
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it's in a good spot. If anything this might just be
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me and the fact that just looking at the scene it seems
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like it's due for some innovation.
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Obviously each expansion comes with with new keyword keywords,
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new new spins on formats. Twists just came out not too
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long ago, which is kind of a a returning format.
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So I I. I feel like a lot of people are
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wanting something new and especially with like esports has
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always been such a big part of Hearthstone.
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And then this year they super scaled it back compared to to
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previous years. And I'm not an esport person
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anything. I don't watch any esports
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regularly. I watch like if I happens to be
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on, I like and I watch highlights.
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But but especially the Hearthstone, I've never
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followed. But I know that a lot of people
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were kind of like, well, what does that what does this mean
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for the future of Hearthstone? So?
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I I think a lot of people are expecting because the safe
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prediction. The the safe prediction of what
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what we basically know what we're going to get.
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We're going to get probably the next year like the next.
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Each year has a oh, year of the dragon, Year of the rat,
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whatever they call it. I I think we're going to get a
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preview of that that isn't usually actually start until
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Spring, but I think we'll we'll get a preview of that probably
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preview of at least one expansion.
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But usually that has the biggest impact on Standard and and Arena
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probably also going to hear something about Battlegrounds
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because that's still a big part of the game I that that's kind
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of the safe bet like we're going to get new expansions we're
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going to get a new like season announcement for Battlegrounds.
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As far as like specifics, I I. And if Monica Monica Stone,
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Wicked Kitten 13, go check her out, if she was here, she should
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probably could probably give you a great like theory crafting
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ideas of what these expansions would actually entail.
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So I can't really go into that. But I I do wanna wager that no.
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What's it called? I wanna risk a wager.
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There, there's something. There's the title.
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What? What is it?
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There's a place, Some sort of bet?
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Yeah, but there's like a title. I wanna wait, I can't remember.
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It doesn't matter. I I I wanna say that they're
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either gonna come out with a new format so something like
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Battlegrounds may be a replacement for for mercenaries
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because that kind of died out. They're not producing new
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content for that. So either either a resurrection
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of that, or a new format or a big rehaul for battlegrounds.
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Or possibly duals like pushing duals more because that's kind
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of people wanted it and then it's there.
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But as I see it, there's not been that much focus on it.
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So I I think we're like this might my wild and unpredictable
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prediction is that we're going to get either a a completely new
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format or a big rework of a current format.
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OK. OK.
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Well you are more in the know than I am.
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But I'm gonna, I'm gonna throw out like obviously those safe,
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those safe bets. I I agree with you.
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You're probably going to be hearing about like the next
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expansion the the next year year of the Unicorn perhaps or
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whatever it might be. You're probably going to be
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hearing about like maybe a new tribe in battlegrounds.
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Like that's that's how they. I've seen them mixed up before.
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It's like oh we've got robots in.
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We've got like we've got pirates and that sort of stuff.
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Probably have that sort of thing thrown in.
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I genuinely think that if they were to really push something,
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it would have to be something very strong in terms of
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mechanics, right? Like you're not not even talking
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about like a divine shield sort of thing that they they've got
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there, but like something where it's like, oh, it's going to
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like generally pull something out of your deck.
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Well typically the her son is airs on the side of more
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randomness. So it's more like it's going to
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pull like a random card that from the collection and put it
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in. I think that they they might
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want to reconsider that. Like, I think being able to pull
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something from your deck limits the options that it can pull.
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Means that the IT will make people reconsider their deck
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building a little bit more, and also has a sort of thing where
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if you introduce that along with some along with like a multitude
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of those cards, you suddenly shift other mechanics in a
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different way. Back when warlocks were the king
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of burning out your deck, right? If people are actively pulling
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from their own deck, burn becomes a little bit stronger
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there. And so like, there's reasons to
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consider that sort of that sort of thing.
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So I'd like to see them look at stuff that they originally
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didn't consider because they're like, oh, we're going to go for
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more randomness. Oh, we're going to like put
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we're going to push this because it is a digital format and
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realize that some of that stuff does have very specific
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mechanical functions that can really shift things.
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And then if you do that, then it's really easy to then have a
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tribe that you're bringing in that feeds off of that same sort
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of vector. So I'd love to.
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I'd love to see that. I don't know.
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I have I have very little connection to her stone at the
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time. Like every time I'm like, yeah,
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I kind of want to like see if I could buy in and and like create
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a deck. I will like every time they put
13:26
up the twitch like claim 3 packs.
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So like like, yeah, I'll do that.
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So if I want to come back in maybe I'll I'll have some cards
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open and that'll give me a head start.
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It just, it feels, it feels weird that that Hearthstone
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seems to have like the greatest paywall to like really die back
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into it right now. And I'm sad about that.
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That's very true. I feel like that's the main
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reason why I often play Arena, because you don't have to buy
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decks for that, you just get given the cards that you get
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given. Yeah, I feel that and I think
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that is meant, yeah, 100%. I I think it'd be fun if they
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did do something. It just feels like it has to be
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something to shake up what's currently being done in
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Hearthstone and so, so something as fundamental as that.
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Like you mentioned, they're obviously they they replace new,
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they come in with new keywords and expansions, but I agree that
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they would have to do something kind of fundamental.
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Like a big new mechanic of some kind.
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Yeah. I and as far as I'll give one
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little prediction on what the first expansion possibly could
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be, I want to say that we are going to get a Shadowlands theme
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even more so. We already had, we already had
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Castle Nathriya, Murder, Murder at Castle Nathriya.
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I'm thinking we're going to get like.
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Let's just say Bastion themed. We're going to get a Bastion
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themed expansion. Yeah.
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I think that we're now a little bit further away that they might
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not be so afraid of Shadowland, but I still think it has a
15:05
general bad taste in their mouth like Nathria was because hey,
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everybody loves daddy Denathria. So they're like, yeah, we could
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do, we could do that. I think they want to.
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The good thing about Hearthstone is that now that they've broken
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themselves away from being so linearly following Warcraft and
15:21
its story now they can sort of like cherry pick what they think
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is the most fun thing that happened in a particular spot.
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Yeah. Even going back to Uldwar and
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having like yaks are on breakout like that is them being like,
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yeah, we're gonna we're not even doing canonical events now.
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We're doing our own thing. And I yeah, and I do love that.
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I love. I always love the Hearthstone
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announcement. It's I I don't remember her name
15:47
but she comes out and she just has that like voice with
15:50
gravitas. She's like the alliance and
15:52
people say Mets and doesn't doesn't have competition, but
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oh, she brings it out in me. I'm gonna find out her name cuz
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I feel bad that I'm not crediting crediting this, right?
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But yeah, let's see what we get from her.
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So I'm hoping there is a way to get players returning back into
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it cuz it looks fun. It's just it feels like it's
16:13
just a lot to get back invested. But move.
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Go ahead. I wanna say if you do, if you
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are interested in Hearthstone, want to hear more?
16:22
Predictions Hearth Casual will be doing a a Blisscon
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predictions pretty soon here in the coming couple weeks.
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So keep it keep an eye on Hearth Casual the podcast.
16:33
Hearth Casual nice nice. So moving on from Hearthstone
16:38
OK, we've got Diablo. I think that's that's a big one
16:43
to cover because Diablo has gone from like, you know, Diablo
16:48
Mortal, which got released and didn't seem that bad until
16:53
people realized how much money was going on and then I think
16:56
that soured it for so many people.
16:59
Do we expect to hear anything from Diablo because they did do
17:05
a a new class, the Blood Knights, right?
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They were introduced that, so they're still seemingly
17:12
supporting it. Do you think we're going to hear
17:13
more from Diablo Mortal I? Think they're going to say
17:17
something? I.
17:19
Hope that they've learned their lesson.
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Maybe this is a fool sermon, but I hope they learned a lesson to
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not take up a lot of space at Blisscon or Immortal.
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But I do think we'll hear something.
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If nothing else, they'll probably say that, oh, we have
17:33
these coming seasons planned because they're they're going
17:35
through seasons. Like, I don't have a good
17:39
analogy, but their their seasons are moving just really fast.
17:44
They're going through seasons like Diablo.
17:45
Players go through loot. Just.
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Yes, exactly. So I I think there's something I
17:52
doubt is going to be big, but again, that might not be the
17:58
case. I don't know how much money
17:59
they're making on on Immortal if if people are still putting
18:02
money in there, they might very well announce a new class or
18:05
something like that. I don't think we'll see
18:07
expansions to it. It doesn't feel like the type of
18:10
game that they would. Like really delve much deeper
18:14
into. But I also haven't touched
18:18
Immortal that much if they if they switched up some
18:22
accessibility. Again we talk about pay walls
18:24
and stuff but if they did suffer, it's like it's even
18:26
easier to get in before and they did like a sort of bundle along
18:30
with like adding in a class or something that like brings
18:33
people, that brings people back. They're like Oh my goodness like
18:36
the druid. The like what?
18:38
Barbarians always always in there.
18:40
Right? The palette and the just like
18:43
have that introduced and be like, yeah, yeah, now you can
18:45
play that on Immortal and along with that it's now even easier
18:48
to get into the game than ever before.
18:51
And they put that, you know, not front and center as the big
18:55
announcement but like after stuff coming to Diablo 4, right.
19:00
I think it'll it'll work. And and I can definitely see
19:03
them like they obviously they've already done.
19:05
In 2019 they had the Diablo Immortal.
19:09
Demo on the floor. And that would be a super easy
19:11
demo to have there. Like just put up a bunch of
19:14
phones, right? Like And then so you know what?
19:18
I will change my mind. I do think we'll see an
19:20
announcement for the Druid. Sure.
19:26
Yeah, a new class. Let's say that I'm a Druid Main
19:29
in Diablo 4. So, so yeah.
19:32
Also I think that at this point they should like lean into it
19:36
and instead of like typing in there is no Cal level, there
19:39
should be like type in, don't you have phones and that unlocks
19:42
the secret level. Like if they did that they would
19:44
own it. It would be great.
19:45
But the real gem of the Diablo franchise right now is Diablo
19:54
Four, and unfortunately that's also had some hard times with
19:59
its first season not really hitting well.
20:02
With the, like, you know, public perception, now we're getting
20:06
the Season 2, the season of blood, right?
20:08
Season of blood? Yep.
20:10
And tell me about that, because I I actually don't know much.
20:13
Yeah, it's quite a lot of lot of updates as far as as far as
20:19
seasons go, you know, a lot of people.
20:22
Surprisingly, we're surprised that with a new season you have
20:25
to start a new character in Diablo.
20:27
I assume these people have never played Diablo before because
20:30
that's always been the case. And so as far as seasons go it's
20:36
there's no new content in a way of like new dungeons, new zone,
20:41
there's nothing new like that. But we're getting is a new
20:44
seasonal system. Season one had the the Malignant
20:49
Hearts which basically just gave you an extra buff or or effect
20:54
that happened when you did certain things and season 2 is
20:58
going to have something similar with.
21:01
All themed around blood and vampiric powers.
21:05
So there's going to be a lot of vampires, a lot of blood flowing
21:10
all over the place. And so we we just had a a a
21:16
fireside chat or a community chat the other day and we're
21:19
getting another one this week. And so there's still a lot of
21:22
stuff coming out. So by the time this airs there,
21:25
there's probably more info than I know about, so I'm not going
21:28
to go too deep into it. But we're but we're getting,
21:31
aside from like the new seasonal stuff, which is new, like a new
21:37
journey, a new Battle Pass, yay or nay.
21:41
You can feel however you want with that, but you can always
21:43
get free stuff, even if you just play.
21:45
And they're they're having a lot of improvements to the gameplay
21:49
as well. Such as when you mount, you're
21:52
going to have a shorter cool down to get back on your mount.
21:55
When you dash, you can dash through obstacles.
21:58
Which is kind of huge, instead of having to dismount to destroy
22:01
a wall, which might seem small, but it's it's a nice quality of
22:04
change. And really the big thing is that
22:06
they're going to the the, the experience requirements from
22:10
level 50 and up all the way to 100 is going to be drastically
22:13
reduced. Because I think that's one thing
22:16
that a lot of people have realized that while the core
22:19
game play is while you're there. Getting to 100 is a big
22:23
investment. It takes a long time to get to
22:25
100. And so they're they're reducing
22:27
that and they're making some quality of life improvements.
22:32
It feels like they're definitely just kind of laying more
22:34
groundwork to to be able to to build further on this game.
22:39
OK, so then, if all of these Fireside chats are happening
22:43
before Blisscon, that's clearly not going to be the Blisscon
22:47
announcement, which makes me think that we're going to be
22:53
getting something big. Now refresh my memory, when was
22:59
Diablo released? Diablo 4.
23:02
June of this year. June of this.
23:04
Year June 2nd, June 4th. Somewhere in there.
23:08
OK. Now I guess it would be too soon
23:12
to like say, oh new expansion if they were just going to send out
23:18
a new expansion. But if they're going to like
23:19
actually do testing, right like and all of that, then yeah, we
23:26
could see something as big as a new expansion to then be slated
23:32
to be released next next year. But I can also see them being on
23:39
a two year cycle and say like hey like let's let the seasons
23:42
run for a bit and then 2025 we get the the first expansion.
23:47
I I do not think it's farfetched to say that we will see an
23:51
expansion in 2024 and therefore I kind of expecting and hoping
23:57
for a an expansion announcements A blisscon.
24:02
I think it'll be kind of lackluster if they don't.
24:05
If all the announce is the next season, I don't think people are
24:09
going to be happy with that and and the fact is controversially,
24:13
possibly there was an article a while back where?
24:17
I can't remember who said it, but someone said that they are
24:19
on the schedule and on track to releasing new.
24:24
I think they said games, but people thought, you know,
24:26
expansions yearly for Diablo and the Diablo franchise.
24:31
So just seeing at the reception of of the Seasons and of Diablo
24:38
Four, I think even if they hadn't planned that initially, I
24:42
think they're going to announce the first expansion for Diablo
24:44
4. Abless Khan, even if they say
24:47
it's coming in October, November, December 2024, I think
24:51
they're still going to announce it because I think they have to,
24:54
unfortunately. Which is never a nice reason to
24:57
have to announce something. But I think they will,
25:01
considering like the story of Diablo Four and the fact that
25:04
they were like there was like even a rumor that they were
25:07
going to announce at the same time they were announcing Diablo
25:10
Mortal and they decided to push it back.
25:12
I I don't see them being backed into the corner to like force an
25:18
announcement before they're ready.
25:20
But I do think that the fact that we are getting these
25:23
Fireside chats so close to BlizzCon, when all of that could
25:27
be just held to be like here's a lot of stuff at BlizzCon, means
25:30
that they're clearing the way to talk about something bigger for
25:33
Diablo, for at BlizzCon. And I would love to see it.
25:38
I don't want just like one new class.
25:40
I want like at least two or three new classes, a new
25:43
environment, and like a big continuation of the story.
25:47
The strange thing about this is, correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm
25:50
hearing that the seasons themselves have like a little
25:53
bit of continuing story of like, what's happening in Sanctuary.
25:59
Yes, there is a little bit of that.
26:02
It's not. That like, it's not that heavy
26:06
of a lure, like see, it's like one story sort of things.
26:09
Yeah, there there's there's the story and it's pretty short, but
26:11
it's I season one was basically this one guy tried to save his
26:16
village from corruption and instead he kind of released the
26:21
corruption and it it spread across all of Sanctuary and so.
26:26
All you do is you're trying to find a cure and it ends up being
26:29
you can't cure it you just have to kill it.
26:31
And so the story is just like, oh, there's more different
26:34
monsters in the same place we already are.
26:36
We just have to kill him. Like there's not.
26:39
There's a there's a couple heartfelt moments between this
26:41
guy and and his and his teacher but really it's not there's
26:45
nothing substantial, but it is I guess kind of a tie in to like
26:49
the end of Diablo 4. Have you played the entire
26:51
campaign? No, no, I apologize.
26:53
I have not played like one minute of Diablo 4.
26:56
The my knowledge of it is from like people that I've talked to,
27:01
people that I've like, watched streaming, playing it and
27:03
everything. So shout out to Silky Raven who
27:07
is part of bonus roles, who was playing that tide before she got
27:14
like, you know what? Can we really call it waylaid
27:17
when you get caught up playing like Starfield and other great
27:21
releases like Baldur's Gate 3? And so you're like, I've gotta,
27:25
I've gotta finish Diablo so I can like get to more great
27:30
games. What a what a great time to be a
27:32
gamer. What a great time to be a gamer
27:34
it is. It's been a good year, like so
27:37
many, and I'm so sad I was finally gonna get back into Jedi
27:42
fallen order, no Jedi survivor last night because I realized I
27:46
haven't played it since May. But there was an update and it
27:49
took I had. It was a mess.
27:52
I never got to play yesterday, but there's so many games that I
27:54
want to play. Do you mind spoilers for Diablo
27:57
4 here? Yeah, that's you know what?
28:00
It's the main campaign has been out for a while.
28:03
I don't believe this to be to be something that we need to be
28:06
afraid to spoil. Feel free to talk freely about
28:10
the campaign of Diablo 4. Great, because that kind of
28:14
carries into the actual. Announcement Predictions So
28:19
Diablo 4 ends with Lilith being defeated, we think, Definitely
28:24
seems like it. And Narelle, one of your close
28:27
companions who helps you actually make this happen, kind
28:30
of goes away with Mefisto, one of the Prime Evils, and she goes
28:36
traveling away to try to hide his essence, and she leaves the
28:40
main continent that we're on right now in Diablo 4.
28:44
And so a lot of people think and I think it's it's fairly
28:47
reasonable to say that we're going to follow her or she's
28:49
going to come back and be like, hey, this is what happened with
28:52
Mefisto, we got to deal with it. And so, so I I do, I don't feel
29:00
it's far fetched to to say that we're going to have an expansion
29:03
two classes historically that seems a lot of hope in coming
29:08
from you Manny. I think, I think absolutely at
29:12
least one new class. And I'm.
29:14
I'm going to go a little like a lot of people are talking about
29:17
the Crusader or Paladin, because that's what we've had in in
29:20
previous expansions. I've even heard like Demon
29:23
Hunter. I think just how heavily how
29:27
Howizar was featured. I think we're going to get a
29:31
witch doctor, I hope. And I I I predict a witch
29:37
Doctor. I know that there was, there was
29:40
controversy with Diablo 3 but I I love the class fantasy and the
29:44
way it played and I always felt that with these expansions and
29:49
yeah, definitely a lot of opium for two classes.
29:52
I will. I will take that L right there.
29:54
But so I always felt that when they did these classes they
29:57
wanted to make sure that they didn't have too close on overlap
30:01
with the with other classes. So we got like the witch doctor
30:05
instead of having a necromancer come back.
30:07
Now we've got the necromancer come back.
30:09
I'm I'm gonna call hopiam on you for witch doctor.
30:12
I think that like that Nisha sort of like currently got a
30:15
bunch of skeleton stamp stomping on that grave.
30:17
So I would think that they would be more likely to put something
30:22
like, yeah, Templar. Like instead of calling it a
30:25
Crusade or a Paladin. It's like the Templar this time.
30:28
Yeah, Or like just a car, whatever.
30:31
They whatever they want to to call it and maybe have something
30:34
along those lines. We've got the sorcerer, so we
30:38
don't need a mage. I feel like the Rogue Demon
30:45
Hunter kind of has an overlap there.
30:47
Yes, definitely does. Yeah, but yeah, I think you were
30:52
right on your first on your first guest for that.
30:55
So yeah, that's that's where we're going to put our guesses
30:57
for Diablo. OK, moving on from that, man, it
31:03
feels like a lot of Blizzard's property has just been mired in
31:06
controversy. This is the one that hurts me
31:08
the most right now. Overwatch.
31:13
Overwatch started shifting into Overwatch too, promised a lot of
31:20
PVE content, didn't come out, didn't come out.
31:24
And then they finally had to like, you know, drop the other.
31:28
She would say, hey, you know what, Half of the PV content
31:31
that we were thinking of, it's just not something that we can
31:35
get to work. But we are going to be doing
31:39
other half of the PV content and that included with the season
31:46
that you would either purchase a season pass for like 15 bucks or
31:50
something like that you would get this like story content and
31:56
Nah I I I am liking that. Like I understand that the base
32:02
game is free but they they just shut down the Overwatch League
32:09
that that that just had the Owls just not they're not going to
32:13
return at least in the form that they that they were and that's
32:18
sad and I think if you want to keep people in this game you got
32:21
to give them something just to download it and get into it.
32:25
And like once I'm playing it I'll be like oh you know what
32:27
This was cool. Let me play this character in
32:29
like matches and stuff and then come back every time there's
32:33
like some cool story bit to go through because like even in
32:36
Overwatch one, right when they started, everyone's like, oh
32:39
man, I can't wait to dive into this world, this world that
32:42
needs heroes. Like, I wanted to see more about
32:46
this. So unfortunately, what I predict
32:50
and what I want are going to be completely different things.
32:55
But let's start with you. What do you predict is going to
32:58
be shown at BlizzCon for Overwatch 2?
33:03
Ah there's this a lot to unpack. I am also again I have a
33:08
correspondent the Creek on rail maintenance, who is our resident
33:13
Overwatch to correspondent and they know much more than I do.
33:18
So once again we're we're going to have a bit of a similar
33:22
prediction thing on brand maintenance and so hopefully
33:24
getting some more, some more close takes rather than shots in
33:28
the dark from me, but. I think that just based on where
33:35
the team seems to be like every time I see Aaron Keller, no
33:40
Aaron Aaron Keller. I thought it was Keeler.
33:44
No cuz like. The the the game director.
33:49
Either way, the problem is when you see Aaron Keller, I'm
33:53
thinking of the YouTuber guy which is a similar sounding
33:59
name, but anyways, every time you hear from the game.
34:02
Director Yes. Now I'm just, I I want to find
34:08
it. It doesn't matter.
34:09
OK. When I when I every time I see
34:12
him take writing his director's take which you know they're
34:16
fairly regular on the new site. It seems like the entire team is
34:22
kind of trying to recover from the game, not have in the right
34:27
direction like people. Had ideas that they didn't
34:32
really know how to execute on. And then a lot of those people
34:36
left the team and now the team that's there are trying to they
34:40
for a long time they tried like with PDE, they wanted to make it
34:43
work and finally realized that they can't at least they can't
34:48
find a way to do it. And so the one thing that keeps
34:51
me hopeful about Overwatch too is that that the director and
34:55
the the the developers keep. They they seem to keep coming
35:01
with like with with genuine responses, with genuine, like
35:05
this is what we wanted to do, but we can't.
35:07
So now we're doing this instead. I do think that there's still
35:10
kind of in a reconstruction phase of not really being 100%
35:14
sure where they're headed and I think they're working their way
35:16
back into that. Obviously the PVE content that
35:19
we got is kind of. It shows that like it wasn't
35:23
what everyone was hoping for. And now with the Overwatch
35:25
League being what it is, it's another step in that direction.
35:32
As far as what I predict that we're going to hear from
35:35
Overwatch Two, I don't really know how much.
35:39
Obviously, we're going to get a new hero that's already on.
35:41
They've already announced that basically this is Meet the New
35:44
Hero, and so we're going to get a new hero.
35:49
I'm going to predict this is a very boring prediction, but I'm
35:51
going to predict that we're not going to get a lot.
35:53
I'm going to predict that Overwatch Two is going to give
35:56
us a hero, Possibly a map, possibly, But even that's like
36:01
On the Verge and they're going to stay kind of quiet, focus on
36:05
the hero, focus on the live competition that's there, and
36:09
continue to recuperate the team and building their vision long
36:15
term going forward. So.
36:18
I don't know if it's a hot or a cold take, but my, my, my, my my
36:22
prediction is that we're not going to hear a lot from
36:25
Overwatch. I I don't want to be too doom
36:30
and gloom but how long term can a plan be for Overwatch before
36:39
the bottom falls out of that game.
36:44
Like it it just it feels like they they need something to
36:47
rally around right now or they should have held off on
36:53
particular announcements until after because like it just it
36:58
it's yeah, no news is bad news most of the time.
37:06
But I I feel like the entire genre is currently in decline.
37:15
Like even if you are playing Apex, I don't hear that all the
37:21
time. Pub G is like every so often
37:24
I'll hear whispers of it, like the entire, the the entire
37:27
shooter genre. And Valerant, I know Valerant's
37:30
doing things, but like it, they're not.
37:34
They're not the big hotness. Like I mean everybody's like
37:37
right now into like Boulder's Gate and that's kind of cycled
37:41
into this entire thing of like D&D resurgence like and that
37:47
that was pretty quick for D&D to have research because that had
37:49
to like being pretty big like mid pandemic and it's back
37:54
again. But, but like I feel like the
37:59
shooters those like those arena things, those like quick matches
38:07
there is they need something. And I think that Overwatch could
38:13
have lived through the slump in the genre if the story that PVE
38:20
would have kept people like sort of coming back to it to like
38:25
keep the the player base healthy.
38:27
And that's especially true when you launch Overwatch Two and you
38:32
only have a certain window before people are like, well,
38:35
Overwatch two. And maybe people are already
38:37
thinking this, maybe people are already given up on Overwatch 2,
38:41
because what did that actually do from Overwatch One?
38:44
I lost one tank. Like, that's a that's a like
38:50
they already had the fight that it wasn't a patch or right,
38:53
they've already had the fight that it wasn't like something
38:55
less than even an expansion. And I think they do need to hit
39:01
hit while the iron's hot. I think that the the developers
39:05
feel it, even if they're they know that what they wanted to do
39:10
for PVE didn't quite work out for them.
39:13
I think that probably people above them are also looking to
39:19
do like something to get more of a return and that eternal
39:24
growth. So they're feeling the pressure
39:25
internally and from the top and probably from the player base
39:29
too. I'm hoping for the best for
39:31
them. It's not a situation that I
39:33
would want for any game or developers, but I'm hoping that
39:39
they can push something big out there.
39:42
And in fact, like even in the chat we got a first time talker
39:47
MAGA station who said that they just uninstalled Overwatch 2
39:53
because they promised PVE and then got rid of it.
39:56
And it's only like they got rid of half of it, which sucks.
39:59
And like you can equate that to getting rid of it all, but then
40:02
they put it through the paywall and it just, it just feels it's
40:05
a lot of bad news, a lot of bad news.
40:07
I'm hoping for some good news for them.
40:08
So something big for Overwatch? Please and I think honestly, the
40:16
FPS genre for the longest time has been run by the yearly
40:21
releases. It hasn't really, aside from
40:24
Counterstrike, it hasn't been a a live service game like Call of
40:30
Duty, Battlefront. All these games come out with,
40:33
if not yearly at least. You know, every so often there's
40:37
a new game to play and there's enough to kind of change things
40:41
up. But in the end, it's it's an
40:42
FPS, you go around and you shoot, right?
40:45
And I think Overwatch from the very beginning, very beginning
40:48
has been fighting that of there's not quite enough like
40:55
refreshment to keep people engaged, at least not for me.
40:58
Obviously Overwatch was very successful for a very long time,
41:01
but I think Overwatch two kind of reiterated that that actually
41:06
this was a like a live service game and now they're putting out
41:10
a second one. But why?
41:12
And so I I think, I don't know if Valorent.
41:15
Valorent is coming to a similar place.
41:18
It feels like Apex Legends has that it's there's just not
41:23
enough happening that they that that it keeps people engaged
41:28
outside of just being a good shooter.
41:30
Because people who like PvP shooters are loving Overwatch
41:33
Two. Like that's a fight.
41:34
It's it plays great and people are loving it.
41:37
But people who wanted Overwatch Two to not just be another
41:40
shooter didn't get what they wanted.
41:42
And Fortnight knows what they're doing, right.
41:46
They have new refresh, like they refresh things all the time.
41:49
They have a formula that somehow works for them and there's new
41:52
stuff. Overwatch Two never quite got
41:54
into that space. So that's why I'm thinking like
42:00
it would be kind of standard if they just announced a new hero
42:03
and a new map. That's not big, but it is.
42:05
It's something. And I think we're going to
42:07
either going to, that's what I'm thinking we're going to get
42:10
because they're still working on that big overhaul of what we're
42:14
actually gonna get. So while I do hope that we that
42:18
they would announce that big overhaul of just PAL, this is
42:23
what Overwatch Two really is about.
42:24
This is the breakthrough. I don't think we're gonna get
42:27
that yet. I'm hopeful that we will get it
42:29
down the line, but I think that right now the team just isn't
42:32
there. Yeah, I'd I'd love to see
42:35
something shake up for Overwatch, but.
42:39
That's the first half of the show.
42:40
We've gone through all these different properties.
42:44
Before we dive right in the wow, I want to give the 5050 question
42:48
here. Do you think we are going to
42:50
hear anything about the untitled survival game that was first
42:58
banded out ages ago and has gone quiet ever since?
43:01
Is Blisscon 2023 when it gets a title?
43:05
Get some spotlight. I'm gonna get on the Hopeium and
43:08
say, yes, I think, you know, there's two stages for
43:11
Overwatch. And yeah, absolutely.
43:13
One is all for competition and one is for demos and stuff.
43:16
But there's space when there's not competition on that stage to
43:20
have show something for that survival game.
43:23
So I'm gonna go with Hopeium and say, yes, we're gonna see
43:25
something about that survival game.
43:29
I I don't share the Hopeium. I'm gonna.
43:31
I'm going to bet on the no right now.
43:33
I think that they can also just afford to hold it back.
43:36
I think that they. Even if they announce good
43:43
sounding things for all their current titles, we have our
43:46
Warcraft rumble that's going to be like sort of their small new
43:50
thing, right? And I think Warcraft, which is
43:54
going to be like getting more than anything else is probably,
43:58
but it's going to be carrying a lot of lot of it.
44:01
So let's let's dive into World of Warcraft.
44:08
Now as you said before, we had the tweet that said that
44:12
Warcraft has more than anything else, but the question always
44:17
was what do you mean by Warcraft?
44:19
Do you do you just mean like Warcraft universe in general or
44:24
or do you mean like World of Warcraft?
44:27
And even when you say World of Warcraft particularly retail
44:32
classic, some variant thereof, like what?
44:35
What's happening? So.
44:37
Going through it, World of Warcraft Classic, we're now
44:42
heading into ICC, They've been talking about that.
44:47
Do you think we're going to have an announcement for the next
44:50
phase of Classic and what do you think that's going to look like?
44:56
I think we are going to get the next phase.
44:59
I do not share the insane copium of people saying that we're
45:03
going to get Classic Plus because I there's, I do not see
45:07
that happening. I know people want Classic Plus.
45:10
I'm just going to shut that down and say we're going to get
45:12
Cataclysm. Like that's that's the role
45:14
we've been on. It's a very boring and mid take
45:18
and people don't like, but I I I want Cataclysm, OK?
45:21
I want to play classic Cataclysm and I might be in a minority
45:24
there, but that is my very lukewarm take of saying that I
45:30
think we're going to get Cataclysm Classic.
45:33
We're not going to get Classic Plus.
45:36
I love when the lukewarm take is so spicy and I know people are
45:40
coming for you with pitchforks for the lukewarm take.
45:45
I I think that, yeah, you're right.
45:50
I I do think that cataclysm is an inevitability.
45:55
I just don't think that they are, that they have the moxie
45:59
and like I think they have more sense than to announce.
46:04
Cada Classic alone. I think along with Cada Classic,
46:08
they would put something else out there for the people who are
46:11
gonna bounce off of Cada. Now I never said we're only
46:15
getting Cataclysm. I definitely think.
46:18
I don't think we're getting Classic Plus.
46:20
But I do agree with you, they've already teased a new season of
46:24
mastery for vanilla Classic. Hardcore is going still very
46:28
hard, like it's still very popular.
46:30
People are still out there, and so I think absolutely we're
46:34
going to hear something for Vanilla Classic.
46:36
I don't think it's going to be Classic.
46:37
Plus, I think if anything, they're going to possibly be
46:41
kind of wild with Season of Mastery 2 or whatever.
46:45
They end up calling it and making it like shaking it up.
46:50
I just don't think we're going to get new content out of
46:53
Vanilla Classic. I OK.
46:57
So when they in first announced. Classic hardcore, I was like,
47:02
oh, do you think that they would extend this into like BC or
47:06
Wrath Hardcore? And I think that falls into a
47:10
similar problem where you become, you take your player
47:15
base and you start splintering it over and over and over again
47:18
and it becomes problematic like you get.
47:20
There are how many players that like loved Wrath and that was
47:23
the first time they they ever played World of Warcraft and
47:27
they got dragged to the raid and their their friends were like,
47:29
yeah, yeah, come play we're going to do, we're going to take
47:31
down the Lich King and they defeat the Lich King with like a
47:34
fishing rod or a broomstick or whatever.
47:36
And that's like their their story, right?
47:38
Like I've heard those stories and I love those stories.
47:42
Some of those people will go back and they will play again
47:45
for the nostalgia and they have been doing that with ICC
47:48
Classic. But making a hardcore version of
47:51
that, that's a niche within a niche and I don't think they
47:56
want to go that far. So I I agree that the creating
48:06
whole cloth new content for a classic plus seems like a pipe
48:11
dream. I think that.
48:15
I would like to see Season of Mastery start doing kind of the
48:21
classic era, right? They do like they do the Golden
48:25
Age, and that is vanilla BC Wrath.
48:28
And then they start and like if they were going to announce
48:31
CATA, we would have seen surveys by now.
48:33
This is something that I don't think that they could keep under
48:36
their hat. They would have put out the
48:37
surveys being like, oh hey, what do you think of a silver age
48:41
where it's cata Mista Pandaria? Or Lord God, I think, yeah.
48:49
Honestly, I want to say that that would be what I would
48:53
consider the silver era, because Legion just seems like the start
48:57
of what I would consider the most modern era of World of
49:02
Warcraft. And it might be that, depending
49:05
on the lasting impacts of dragonflight, that we're in a
49:08
new era. But I don't want to call it a
49:10
new era yet until I see, like, what actually sticks.
49:14
Problem Dragon fight. Because it's just, it feels, all
49:17
testing the waters at this point.
49:18
Wasn't there a survey sent out about cataclysm I remember
49:23
seeing, like six months ago? So like people who got that
49:29
survey, they're not supposed to say anything about it, but if
49:34
there was a survey like that, it would have had like one
49:37
question. You know, different surveys do
49:38
have different, different questions out there, so.
49:41
So sometimes they would have had like one question or stuff to
49:43
like sort of do a general gauge of it, but they do more than
49:48
just those surveys in one off things.
49:51
There is a lot more outreach about that sort of stuff.
49:56
True. And I do.
50:01
I think a Cada server has legs, I think.
50:07
It might in a classic way, because classic, you go through
50:10
those phases quite quickly, right?
50:14
But there's a point where you're going to catch up to where you
50:17
are and they need something else.
50:21
Or they need to be like, OK, this is where the classic
50:23
experiment ends. Where do you think the classic
50:26
experiment ends? I used to say Wrath.
50:33
I'm now undecided between Cataclysm and Mop.
50:38
I can definitely see. I know a lot of people are
50:41
pining for Mists, but at the same time I know that like if we
50:48
if we do keep going, if we keep, if they announce Cataclysm, I
50:53
can see them doing a Wrath era in the same way that they did a
50:56
vanilla era. Because Wrath is one of the most
50:59
popular if not the most popular expansion at least to go back to
51:03
and so I could see them doing a Rath era server going to
51:08
Cataclysm and then ending with Mist depending on if if
51:13
Cataclysm actually. I don't.
51:15
I don't think you OK. I can see a cutoff at cataclysm,
51:18
because from miss onward we've always had like the this leads
51:23
into this, this leads into this, this leads into this.
51:25
And so like, as soon as you hit miss, you almost can't end it,
51:29
because nothing actually. Finishes.
51:32
There's always something leading into the next expansion.
51:36
But does this story really matter anymore?
51:39
Like it's classic? Doesn't matter that Garash ends
51:42
up not dying at the end of Mop? Does it really matter?
51:45
We all know what happens. Yeah, yeah.
51:51
I think the the the the through thread is way stronger as soon
51:56
as you hit warlords. Because it's like go through the
51:59
portal and do stuff and it's like, oh, that's the end.
52:02
That's the end of the story. What?
52:03
No, no, what? Sword in the ground and and
52:07
bleeding. We're not going to do anything
52:10
about that. There's no consequence to that.
52:11
So I think it begins harder the further you go along.
52:14
But yeah, I think maybe, yeah. And garage was locked away for
52:18
the rest of his life. Could be a a inferred ending.
52:23
I mean, it's not like it was expected that Garash would be
52:27
set free by a bronze dragon taken to an alternate universe
52:30
where he would then convince his dad to not drink the demon blood
52:34
so that you know, like it's not then.
52:37
You didn't see that coming. Are we playing the steak game?
52:41
So yeah, I I, I do think my prediction is going to be we're
52:47
going to get Cataclysm. We're going to get an
52:50
announcement about season and mastery for vanilla, maybe even
52:55
like a season for hardcore because they realized that, oh,
52:59
a great way to keep people engaged in hardcore is maybe
53:02
increased experience. Obviously a lot of people would
53:05
be like, that's not hardcore, but a lot of people would be
53:07
like, oh, now I don't die when I'm level 12, so but but yes.
53:18
So I think I'm going to bank on Cataclysm season mastery.
53:24
Let's just let's instead of being Luke War.
53:26
But I'm also going to say we're going to get something announced
53:28
for hardcore, like a Season 2 for hardcore.
53:31
OK, all right, here's here's my tinfoil hat.
53:36
Over the course of World of Warcraft, we have seen so many
53:39
Vanilla dungeons get reworked, whether it's like as part of
53:44
like, the intro to Warlords as part of like.
53:50
A going back in Mr. Pandaria and they've reworked this.
53:53
I think what we might see is those reworked dungeons put in
53:58
at a much higher tuned difficulty, right?
54:03
And have that as like some aspirational content for vanilla
54:10
because you don't have to add in the new zones or stuff.
54:12
It's just like, here's the reworked one with those
54:14
mechanics we know, you guys should know those mechanics
54:17
from, like. Further versions, right, But
54:21
we're tuned up the difficulty and this is like the hardest
54:23
it's being. And I think if they did that,
54:27
people would be like, whoa, OK, like, yeah, yeah, this is still
54:29
like close to vanilla. This is still the vanilla world.
54:32
That's the closest I would put to a vanilla plus.
54:36
And they could do similar things with like, hey, remember when we
54:40
had this boss come back in this later dungeon?
54:43
Well, now he's got those, those mechanics in the original
54:47
dungeon in vanilla. I think if they did that, that
54:49
would be a cool way of like introducing new content to
54:53
vanilla, do like a kind of remix without having to like again,
54:57
making stuff from the whole cloth just seems like a bridge
54:59
too far to me. I will agree only because I want
55:04
Dead Minds as a mythic plus engine and this is the closest
55:07
thing to it. So yes, let's do that.
55:10
OK. So then moving from classic to
55:15
retail. Wow.
55:18
OK, I think that if they have a classic announcement, they have
55:24
an announcement for retail. That to me is what he was
55:27
considering Wow or Warcraft having more to announce than
55:32
anything else because he would be technically correct.
55:36
I I hate technically correct. It's the worst kind of correct.
55:39
Like, be enthusiastically correct.
55:41
Be objectively correct. Don't like.
55:44
Like, people get annoyed when we have, like, the director or
55:48
something that use their words in such a particular way.
55:51
Yeah, yeah, right. Just be like like, undeniably
55:56
correct is what I'm hoping for. So what's your predictions for
56:01
World of Warcraft retail for BlizzCon 2023?
56:04
Well, now I'm just like I'm, I'm interested in what is what does
56:08
it mean for you to be objectively correct?
56:11
How much would he, how much would he have to announce for
56:14
him to, to that be like enthusiastically correct?
56:18
Oh, it does not take much honestly.
56:20
They could be saying hey we are doing like great, you guys have
56:26
been seeing all that stuff on the PTR and 10.2 is going to be
56:29
released next week and then it says but we've that's not all.
56:33
10.3, we're going to talk about that at 10.2 point, 510.10 point
56:39
2.7 and 10.3 is going to, it's going to be out and everyone's
56:43
like whoa, that's so, so cool. And it's like, and we've got a
56:46
special trailer for you and they do a little trailer and talk
56:50
pretty much nothing about World of Warcraft, Pirates of the
56:54
Caribbean and like there it is. And yeah, everybody would flip
56:59
their lids. Everybody like just just the
57:02
announcement trailer and be like, yeah, we're going to be
57:04
talking more about this next year.
57:07
Here's the road map for 2024. And you're going to start
57:11
hearing about the next expansion pretty soon as we come into the
57:16
next year. But for now, let's go.
57:19
Let's go deep into what's coming in 10 point 2.510.2.710.3.
57:24
Now if they don't have a 10.3 right?
57:28
And 10.2 is the last major story, which is something that
57:32
the very coy about, then they've got to go way deeper into 11.0.
57:39
And I also will say this right now I don't want another siege
57:44
of orgamar. I am sorry 10.2.
57:48
Being released, let's call it November, and it can't be late
57:54
November. We do not want another time
57:56
where the Raid season is butting into Christmas and it's just
58:00
like, what in the world's going on here, right?
58:04
We already have US Thanksgiving that's going to be coming up and
58:08
stuff. There's a there's a lot of
58:10
holiday season trouble with releasing a patch at this point,
58:15
so. 10.2 shows up November. How long before 10 point, 2.5?
58:23
Right now they've been doing like, what, roughly 2 months
58:30
between patches and I'd have to go look at the calendar.
58:33
But it just seems like every time something else comes hits
58:37
the the live servers, the next thing's on the PTR within a week
58:40
or two later, to be released roughly 6/6 to 8 weeks later.
58:47
Right. And yeah, right.
58:51
And so that means what, 10 point 2.5 somewhere in February, Let's
58:58
push it off till March, which is 3 months.
59:00
I'm like, no, that's four months, sorry.
59:01
February is 3 months because because the .2 patch is, is
59:07
November, right? So let's say February.
59:10
Three months later, we get a .5 patch which doesn't add.
59:16
Too much in terms of main story as not story legs but main
59:22
mechanical legs. You then add to add in from
59:27
there the .7 patch and let's give that another 2-2 months.
59:31
We haven't made June yet guys. And then that means that you're
59:35
going to have the expansion launching in July, August.
59:45
That that's not how they they drop those things like it just
59:48
and it seems like a lot. I feel like it's if they had a
59:54
three patch, it seems like that's more possible to get out
1:00:01
mid of next year an an entirely new expansion with proper
1:00:07
testing that doesn't completely undermine everything you're
1:00:11
doing for the next half year. It feels like that's necessary
1:00:19
and not having 6-8 months of the same raid also seems nice.
1:00:30
Now obviously the the .3 patch could be same thing that they
1:00:35
did with the .4 patch in Shadowlands where it's just
1:00:37
like, hey, random events to tide you over and that that can't
1:00:42
help. And maybe that's what they used
1:00:44
to bridge the gap. But I I would this is my Hopeium
1:00:47
on full display. I would hope for something more
1:00:52
and I would think that the where the .7 patch lands is where we
1:00:58
get the like Season 4 have your fun.
1:01:00
It's a shorter season right? Just so you can go back and do
1:01:05
the all the old raids and stuff and that this last raid doesn't
1:01:08
doesn't like get into tedium territory.
1:01:13
I feel that. I feel that.
1:01:14
I I think I keep swinging between I, I've.
1:01:20
I've gone back and forth a lot between between having a 10.3
1:01:23
not having a 10.3. So I'm gonna I'm gonna give it
1:01:26
two very different predictions. I'm just gonna stick to my guns
1:01:30
instead of being the person who thinks, oh all of these could be
1:01:33
possible. I'm gonna give you 2 versions of
1:01:36
1. Game plan, game plan number.
1:01:38
The first version of this is. There's no 10.3, we get 10.2.
1:01:43
And then like you said, eventually 10 dot 2.5 with some
1:01:46
more story and some shake ups, whatever.
1:01:51
And then 10 dot 2.7 sure, whatever.
1:01:57
But but we wrap up the story in the Dragon Isles and we go into
1:02:02
the the end of expansion. Season where we we recycle all
1:02:09
dragonfly dungeons, we have all eight in one season, and we do
1:02:13
the rotation of the raids and then we get 11.0 S seas to the
1:02:20
West of the Buddha Bay sometime late 2024.
1:02:29
That's like, that's my that's my one take on, probably more
1:02:33
realistic take on no 10.3. With 10.2 kind of playing out
1:02:38
the way the other patches have and then getting a tide over
1:02:42
patch where they do the same thing they did in Shadowlands.
1:02:45
My other take that is just flying on Copium and and it it's
1:02:51
going to burst as soon as we run into the the least amount of
1:02:54
turbulence is 10.2 releases, maybe the day after Blisscon.
1:03:02
We're going hard here. OK, tender two is tender two is
1:03:04
coming right after Blisscon as soon as people come home at
1:03:07
10.25 comes in in February. Wrapping up all the story we got
1:03:11
a 10.27 which also acts as a pre patch for 11.0 releasing in
1:03:17
June. I am going hardcore on this
1:03:20
line. Shadowlands was a shorter
1:03:22
version. They're getting into the loop of
1:03:24
dragonflight being a stepping stone into this next season of
1:03:29
of Iridocron. Which it's it's more of a A tag
1:03:34
on expansion. It's not it's it's not the as
1:03:38
big as as the previous expansion has been it's been more of a
1:03:41
shorter patch notes or shorter patch cycles with with content
1:03:47
stripped in between big plans that I definitely very very
1:03:53
fragile. But you know what?
1:03:55
I'm gonna. I'm gonna bank hard on the
1:03:57
Blitzer team, OK? I'm going to say one part of
1:04:01
your like opium strategy that I think is not is completely
1:04:06
ground in reality. 100% true is that whatever the final season,
1:04:11
the like, hey last hurrah for Dragonflight, the dungeons in
1:04:15
the Mythic Plus rotation will 100% be all of the Dragonfight
1:04:22
dungeons. Yes, all together for the first
1:04:25
time in Mythic Plus. I think that is that is
1:04:27
definitely a great way to like send off dragon flight.
1:04:32
So I I agree with that to the point where like that that feels
1:04:35
more like that might have always been the plan, scary as that is.
1:04:43
And then like maybe they make that 10 dungeon so you get you
1:04:47
get the mega dungeon split in two along with those, right?
1:04:52
Because like who who cares if if this one is an odd season.
1:04:59
I think that the part that I I don't agree with the most is
1:05:04
just because of weird economical things.
1:05:06
I just don't see an expansion launching early summer.
1:05:13
I feel like they would definitely want to push that
1:05:15
towards Q4. So it's like that gets the
1:05:18
groundswell. People are loving it.
1:05:19
People buy, buy the game for Christmas like that's that's the
1:05:22
purchasing season. So I feel like that's when they
1:05:24
usually push that stuff off. But we have seen expansions
1:05:30
early in that quarter, just not late in that quarter.
1:05:33
Like not late in the previous quarter, I don't know that's
1:05:38
there, there's there's a lot of opium in there.
1:05:39
But like it's the the other one just feels like, I don't want to
1:05:45
say soul crushing, It just feels it.
1:05:47
It feels like, please Sir, can I can I have some more?
1:05:52
Well that's the thing like I predictions have to have to be,
1:05:55
you know, you have to have some level of of risk in your
1:05:59
predictions and I think that it just doesn't seem likely to me
1:06:03
to do a 10.3 like they've said several times in 10.1 dot five
1:06:08
that Iridocron is gone. We we don't know where he is.
1:06:11
And having him come back after a full patch of him being gone
1:06:14
with. There's nothing about a Rudykron
1:06:16
in 10.2. Having him then come back to
1:06:19
like do this great void thing. I don't want that.
1:06:24
I'd much rather have him like be gone, work on his big plan and
1:06:27
then come back with a Big Bang in a new expansion.
1:06:31
And then I don't want him to come back next expansion.
1:06:34
Like I don't want him back, right.
1:06:36
I don't want him back. Yeah, a couple expansions down.
1:06:39
I don't want him back right away, and I don't want him back.
1:06:44
Like, yeah, I don't want him back in like a 10.3 and I don't
1:06:47
want to back in an 11.0. I agree with you there.
1:06:50
I think that like, it's just, it feels like this story for
1:06:56
Dragonflight lost its way somewhere like in the Zerlach
1:07:03
caverns, because they weren't doing enough to really put the
1:07:10
stakes out there. And like the tree being in
1:07:12
danger is like, OK, sorry night elves, I guess we're going to
1:07:16
have to find you a new home, right?
1:07:19
But it doesn't seem like the threat that World of Warcraft is
1:07:24
having. And I know this is like a
1:07:26
general thing, but, like, it just feels like when they said,
1:07:30
hey, at the end of the Vault of the Incarnates, you're going to
1:07:34
know who the main, the main antagonist is.
1:07:38
Ain't nobody pointing at fire rack, right.
1:07:42
It wasn't. It wasn't until, like he, like,
1:07:45
drank a little bit of that shadow flame that they were
1:07:47
like, oh, fireworks kind of got an edge to him.
1:07:49
Before that. He was just like the the lovable
1:07:51
mischief guy. Like, hey, I'm gonna burn it.
1:07:53
It's like, no, no, fire rack. Hold off.
1:07:56
We need to interrogate it first. Yeah.
1:07:58
Let me burn him. Let me burn him.
1:08:00
Like, it's just he he doesn't have the threat.
1:08:02
He doesn't have the threat. And so I'm hoping even if he is
1:08:07
supposed to be the main threat, something is done to raise him
1:08:11
to that level. And I haven't seen that in 10.2.
1:08:13
Not going to go into story spoilers, because that's not
1:08:16
what this episode's about. If you really want some thought
1:08:21
on where the World of Warcraft story is going, do make sure you
1:08:25
check out the last episode where I sat down with Discordian
1:08:27
Kitty. We went through where we think
1:08:30
the story is going, how we feel the story is currently landing,
1:08:34
not just in terms of like the narrative points in Dragon
1:08:38
Flight, but also with the return of Chris Metzen and all of that.
1:08:42
So that's kind of what I want to ask the last thing for to you is
1:08:48
how much Metzen do you think we're going to see at Bliss
1:08:50
gone? I think we're going to get a lot
1:08:52
of medicine. I think he's going to be front
1:08:54
and center. He's going to do his Horde Lions
1:08:56
shout. He's going to be the main guy
1:08:58
presenting. I don't really have a big stake.
1:09:01
Like I I wasn't part of the beginning of Blizzard.
1:09:05
I've never been to Blisscon. I've only seen videos of him
1:09:08
doing his horde and the Lions shout.
1:09:10
He seems cool. I'll happily have him there.
1:09:15
I'm not putting a big stakes on it, but I do think we're going
1:09:18
to see a lot of him. Because that's what it seems
1:09:22
like they've been saying, like me and the team and me and
1:09:26
Chris, I have a lot to share at Blisscon.
1:09:29
I hope that he is one person of the team that is sharing a bunch
1:09:35
of things. I hope that they aren't going
1:09:37
back to the fully Rockstar thing, but it would be great to
1:09:40
have him right at the beginning be like Horde Alliance where you
1:09:44
at and like get that chair going and then he steps to the side.
1:09:48
And everybody who is like the the person who's the expertise
1:09:52
of this and the person who's like got like so much love for
1:09:55
this then gets up and has their part as well.
1:09:58
Like he can like be get that initial pop, but I don't want
1:10:01
him to over shadow everything because I think that would send
1:10:04
the wrong message. So yeah, I agree.
1:10:08
I agree. That would be really nice.
1:10:09
It's a nice touch of showing that he's here, but also he's
1:10:12
here for the team, which it seems like that's what he's.
1:10:16
Been trying to say it seems like, at least publicly, so
1:10:20
that'd be cool. OK, so before we wrap up, you
1:10:24
have any last BlizzCon predictions?
1:10:31
StarCraft 2 is getting something.
1:10:34
StarCraft 2 is getting something.
1:10:37
OK, let me rephrase. StarCraft is getting something.
1:10:40
Not StarCraft 2, but StarCraft is getting something.
1:10:44
I'm going to be as nebulous as that because it's already out
1:10:47
there. But StarCraft, there's going to
1:10:49
be not just a throw out mention of StarCraft, they're going to
1:10:53
announce something for StarCraft.
1:10:57
You know, when they first announced the the untitled
1:11:00
survival game, I was like trying to pin it to like different
1:11:04
things and like oh what if it's the StarCraft thing?
1:11:05
And what if it like what if it's like set in that universe and
1:11:08
stuff. You know what?
1:11:09
Nah, I want them to do their own new universe, like their own new
1:11:12
worlds. I'm glad that when we saw the we
1:11:14
saw the art, it really seemed like completely new terrain for
1:11:20
Blizzard, so I'm happy for that. I think StarCraft can be held in
1:11:24
reserve. They can wait until people are
1:11:26
like you know what I really like?
1:11:27
Again, I like turn based Rpg's and then have it come back.
1:11:32
Also, picture this, people are expecting or wanting to hear
1:11:35
something about the survival game.
1:11:37
You know, we've had all the we have had the announcements of of
1:11:40
the next expansion for Diablo 4, the next expansion for Wow.
1:11:44
We've had the next expansion for Hearthstone.
1:11:46
Overwatch Two is having a new hero and nothing else.
1:11:49
And people are thinking that the survival we're going to hear
1:11:52
about the survival game, but then in the same fashion that
1:11:55
they did the survival game, they say.
1:11:57
We have a new game, a new genre of game set in the StarCraft
1:12:02
universe and then they just show concept art.
1:12:06
There's no like I there's no way they're going to have any, not
1:12:11
even a trailer, but they have a concept art in the same way of
1:12:15
like Ghost. The stealth game obviously was
1:12:19
like, everyone wanted that, but something like that, you know, a
1:12:22
concept art of a of something set in.
1:12:27
StarCraft, just to cap it all off, saying we're excited to
1:12:31
share more about this in the future, but for now, stay tuned.
1:12:35
Nah, I don't like it. I don't like it because then
1:12:38
people are going like that's the dark side of the opium.
1:12:42
Because then people are this like imagine it could be
1:12:44
anything. And then when they actually show
1:12:46
it, it's not what they were picturing in their head.
1:12:49
And they go bitter and they go cruel and they go talk that
1:12:51
they're like, that's not my StarCraft.
1:12:53
So they'd have to say like what type of game it is.
1:12:56
But just like, in the same way that they said, oh, this is a
1:12:58
survival game and then they just show like concept art, they
1:13:02
could say, oh, this is a Farming Simulator game and then show
1:13:06
some concept art of Rainer at a farm, you know, something like
1:13:10
that. Yeah, yeah, but that's a scary
1:13:13
proposition. But we'll see how right we are.
1:13:16
Honestly, I think maybe when we get a chance is we'll we'll sit
1:13:23
down and like, check our predictions and see how right
1:13:26
and wrong we were and share that with people as well.
1:13:29
But until next time, where can people find you?
1:13:34
You can find me podcasting on Realm Maintenance, which is a
1:13:39
show all about Blizzard games and Blizzard podcasts.
1:13:42
We highlight other podcasts that might.
1:13:45
Do something special or just what's going on in general in
1:13:48
the community. Try to keep up to date on on all
1:13:50
the shows. And you can also find me on Rath
1:13:53
Babies, which is not a podcast solely focused on Rath Classic,
1:13:58
but simply hosted by two Rath Babies, me and my cohost Eric.
1:14:01
We both started in Wrath and we're still playing, so it's
1:14:03
mostly about retail, but it's called Rath Babies.
1:14:06
You can also find me on Twitter at Tweets with East and and you
1:14:12
will be able to find me at Blisscon.
1:14:14
Which I'm very excited to say and hope to to meet some of you
1:14:18
out there. Maybe if you see me I will more
1:14:20
than happily say hi. I don't know why you would want
1:14:22
to talk with me, but if you do, you're more than welcome to say
1:14:24
hi. I will be doing some some live
1:14:27
tweeting from the Bonus Productions Twitter account,
1:14:32
probably some stories on Instagram as well and hopefully
1:14:35
just having a good time. So find me on Twitter.
1:14:39
Sometimes streaming too. I'm just, I just keep talking
1:14:41
here about myself apparently I was told by Jin and Allie I have
1:14:44
live left Laura that I'm very good at self promoting so I'm
1:14:47
going to keep doing it. You can find me streaming on
1:14:51
Twitch at Gaming with ease and starting to pick back up now.
1:14:56
Kind of went quiet for a while, but then I started back up for
1:15:00
the Dungeon Dojo Invitational, which you casted for many and my
1:15:05
entire team. After we finished we all just
1:15:08
kind of we we shut off the stream and then we everyone said
1:15:11
the day after I just spent an hour and a half looking at the
1:15:15
cat like watching our the casters cast over us and
1:15:18
everybody loved the the what you had to say about us.
1:15:20
So we're all just. Egomaniacs, we're just too full
1:15:24
of ourselves, but you can't find me on Twitch at Gaming with
1:15:28
ease, Streaming, mostly Wow, and probably some Diablo Four when
1:15:32
Season 2 comes out, and you can find my.
1:15:35
Druid guides on Wowahead as well for Diablo 4.
1:15:38
Nice. Yeah I I'm horrible at self
1:15:42
promotion but if you're listening to this show I've done
1:15:45
my job. So until next time guys, make
1:15:48
all your hits be grits. Bye, bye.