BlizzCast hits the scene

Listen to BlizzCast or it may die, and go away forever. No, that's not a good thing. In the first segment, CM Kevin "Karune" Yui interviews Samwise Didier, Blizzard Entertainment's Art Director. The interview runs for 12 minutes; no ground-breaking information is disclosed, but there is some good shop-talk on Starcraft II art and his conceptual art process. You can also check out some featured artwork from Samwise throughout the transcript.

The final segment focuses on World of Warcraft and clocks in at 8 minutes. CM Drysc interviews Jeffrey "Tigole" Kaplan. Kaplan mainly rehashes what the designers are doing with the upcoming Sunwell 2.4 patch. WoW Insider has been covering this ad nauseum, but here's what I gleaned:

• First 3 Sunwell Plateau bosses and their difficulty levels are tuned against Tier 6 players.
  

• No attunement to enter or for the first 3 bosses.
  

• Overall faction for Sunwell Isle is the Shattered Sun Offensive.

• Aldor and Scryer storyline continues as their forces combine to battle against the Burning Legion. NPC changes will be reflected in Shattrath.
  

• Sunwell Plateau loot rewards will be Tier 7; including, armor sets bonuses and class specific loot but no unique sets in terms of looks.

• Kaplan assures that the Tier 7 look will diversify better than the comparisons made with AQ 40 itemization.

• Magister's Terrace 5 man dungeon both heroic and normal modes, and it will have a similar difficulty as Shadow Labyrinth and Shattered Halls.

• Magister's Terrace is a 4 boss dungeon. The first 3 bosses drop one 1 in 15 blues, which are normal level 70 dungeon loot. The last boss will drop 1 in 10 epics on par with lower-end Karazhan epics.
  

• Magister's Terrace itemization is intended to play a deeper relevancy in WoW's itemization today by offering better rewards than older dungeons but not over doing it.

• Possible class balancing depending on the results from the 2.3 patch, but nothing concrete at this time.

• Daily quest allotment will be raised from 10 to 25.

That's a wrap on my show notes. Be sure to check out the official BlizzCast page where you can view the transcript or download the audio. Chris Metzen will be joining the next episode. I'm definitely looking forward to that, and maybe we will get some information on the World of Warcraft movie. Blizzard is also giving away some sweet Logitech 5.1 speaker sets and Starcraft II garb to those who leave feedback about their first show. My thoughts about the production and format are after the break.

There are a few quirks that I personally don't like about BlizzCast. This has mainly to do with the lame sound effects: "Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!" It's alright for a first-time podcast, and I'm sure the Blizzard Community Managers are new to this, and they'll get better with practice.

I think SOE's official podcast is better produced, and it is more free-flowing. You get to know the SOE CMs as people and not just as employees that conduct interviews. I prefer that format even if a lot of segments are fluff, but it would be a pain in the ass to transcribe a one plus hour long podcast verbatim and expect people to read through that. Anyhow, I think BlizzCast is off to a good start. I'm looking forward to the next installment, and any potential information slips on Blizzard's next MMOG.