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Opening the valve: Steam Curators rule the front page
Ask a hundred independent developers what impacts their sales most and you'll likely get a hundred different answers, but among the more popular ones will be the topic of discoverability, the ways in which prospective buyers are able to find lesser-known video games. Platforms like the App Store and Steam see a lot of foot-traffic in their featured sections, and even brief visibility for independent developers can make for a massive difference in their bottom line. As more games have made their way to Steam via regular release, Greenlight and Early Access, it's become vastly more difficult for a new game to be discovered. Enter Steam Curators, Valve's means of placing the weight of game recommendations on those outside its walls. The service launched this week and allows any person or brand (such as your friends here at Joystiq) to compile lists of games their followers should play, shifting the scope of the store's front page to include recommended games and a section for popular curators. Given Steam's incredible popularity and its status as a "must-have" piece of PC gaming software, Steam Curators is a major step for the service, and developers hope that it might heavily influence independent game sales.
BioWare's Gabe Amatangelo speaks on faction imbalance, UI customization, Ops, and more
Star Wars: The Old Republic has had a bit of a rocky time with some post-launch hiccups, and it's at that point in time when players begin to start picking on the game's flaws. Despite, or perhaps because of, this turbulence, one of the game's lead designers, Gabe Amatangelo, sat down with John Bain -- better known as Total Biscuit -- for an interview. Throughout the course of the interview, the pair cover issues ranging from the obvious (what is BioWare doing to address faction imbalance?) to the more abstract (would BioWare ever consider causing skills to act differently in PvP than in PvE?), and Amatangelo has some rather interesting answers. Bain mentions the game's bracketless PvP and asks if the studio might consider further bracketing. Amatangelo replies that BioWare "would not go to further bracketing without opening up the pools of players, and I guess you can infer what you will from that," making a rather overt reference to cross-server PvP. For all this and more, listen to the full interview after the cut.
WoW Radio at BlizzCon 2008
WoW Insider is heading off to BlizzCon tomorrow (I've got to catch a flight out of O'Hare first thing tomorrow morning), but we're obviously not going to be the only ones covering the event. Our good friends at WoW Radio also have big plans to keep you informed throughout the two days in Anaheim -- Totalbiscuit and the gang over there will be hosting live audio streams of all of the panels, both as they happen and after they happen, and they'll have shows, interviews, and commentary throughout the weekend (including our special live recording of the WoW Insider Show there on Friday night). We'll have liveblogs and updates here, of course, but you can drink right from the firehose of an audio stream there as well, all weekend long.TB has posted a special podcast outlining their plans for the weekend, so if you plan to do some listening to what's going on in Anaheim, check it out. Additionally, they'll also be chatting throughout the weekend in IRC, so feel free to join either #blizzcon08 on irc.quakenet.org or #wowradio on irc.mmoirc.com for up-to-the-minute chats and updates on what's going down near Disneyland.Sure, you could pay for the DirecTV feed and get just the video, or you could stay tuned to our sites for free, and pick up even more news and views about the big event. If you couldn't grab a ticket or didn't have the time or money to make the trip, don't worry one bit -- we're going to make sure you've got the best seat in the house.
WoW Insider Show Episode 58: Live at BlizzCon
Not only will WoW Insider be at BlizzCon all weekend, and not only will you get a chance to meet-and-greet with us on Thursday night at The Lost Bar, but this is the first BlizzCon in the life of our podcast, the WoW Insider Show, and the show's going on the road, too. Friday night at 8pm, we're inviting you to come see us do a live recording of the show, direct from right outside the Anaheim Convention Center. Our partners at WoW Radio will be set up in the courtyard between the Convention Center and the hotel next door, and all of us will be there, doing a live recording of the podcast for you to hear and see as we do it.And as if that wasn't enough, we've got another surprise, too: the folks from The Guild will be right there with us. Felicia Day and her cohorts will have a panel during the day, but they're spending the evening with us, so we'll talk to them about making the series, their experience with WoW, and what they think of all the craziness that's sure to be at BlizzCon. We'll have some other guests from around the community as well: both Totalbiscuit from WoW Radio and Starman from World of Warcast will be on hand to talk shop with us. And as is usual on the WoW Insider Show, we'll talk about everything going on in World of Warcraft, our most popular posts on the site, and don't be surprised if we have some good giveaways for passers-by to win as well.It's going to be a lot of fun, and you'll get to see us make the show right there in front of your very eyes. Friday night at 8pm, come right outside the Convention Center, and look for the WoW Radio setup, because that's where we'll be. Everybody have a safe trip out to BlizzCon, and have a great time while you're out there.
WoW Insider Show Episode 55: The PvE to PvP transfer
The latest episode of the WoW Insider Show is now up for your listening enjoyment over on WoW Radio. Unfortunately, Totalbiscuit (who runs things over there) tells us that they're having more issues with a Google false positive of malware, so this week will be the perfect week to jump on into iTunes and both subscribe to and review our show from there if you haven't yet. Right there in your music player, you can find all of our shows so far, and you can subscribe to get any new ones we do for free right on your new iPod touch (or whatever ya got). Topics on last week's show include: The usual email answering: we answered questions about why there are no Auction Houses in Shattrath or Dalaran, what to do when your guild won't let you roll on damage gear when they ask you to heal, and why getting Champion tabards at Exalted would be a horrible idea. We talked about PvE to PvP transfers and why they might be a problem, but probably won't be. Racial abilites (and the suggestion to free them up a bit) came up in conversation We hit on Mages and why they're thrilled with Mirror Image (stay tuned for more Mage talk next week). And finally we asked around for AH tips, so if you want to make more money on the AH, definitely listen in. If you've got tips or questions of your own, definitely drop us an email: the address is theshow@wow.com. We do this every Saturday, so if you weren't free last week but happen to be around next Saturday at 3:30pm Eastern, jump on over to WoW Radio and tune in to hear us live. Thanks for listening, and enjoy the show!Listen here on the page:
WoW Radio runs CoT: Stratholme
Our good friends at WoW Radio have continued their beta instance-running ways -- previously, they've taken runs through Utgarde Keep and The Nexus, and after a short break (they're busy folks, pushing out great radio 24/7), they've done a run through CoT: Stratholme, viewable right there if you want to see it.We should warn you that there are spoilers, of course, and personally, I think I might not watch the whole thing -- I'd kind of rather experience the Culling of Stratholme on my own. But for those of you willing to take the plunge with the WoW Radio folks, enjoy. We hear there is some good lore commentary going on, and there's even a bug where, Totalbiscuit tells us, "all Gnome females are default naked." Shudder.Yeah I think I will pass, actually. But if you do choose to press play, enjoy the video.
WoW Radio runs The Nexus
Here's the second Northrend instance run from the guys at WoW Radio -- last time around, they took us through Utgarde Keep, and this time Totalbiscuit, Duncor, Gnomewise, Mugi, and Nachtsturm run us through The Nexus, a level 72ish instance on the Borean Tundra. This run is a little more spoileriffic than Utgarde -- there's some Blue Dragonflight lore floating around, so watch at your own risk if you don't want to know about that kind of stuff.But the instance does look terrific -- there are some new looks at Blizzard's updated cavern shader system we heard about a long time ago, and considering that The Nexus is, well, a Nexus of magical energy, it provides for some fascinating vistas and magical effects, even on Totalbiscuit's older machine. And the fact that all that magic is floating around seems like it provides for some fun mana mechanics for casters. These instances are shaping up, even in this early Wrath of the Lich King beta, to look like the best Blizzard has ever created.
WoW Radio runs Utgarde Keep
Our good friends at WoW Radio have somehow boonswaggled their way into the beta, and they're letting you all reap the rewards: Totalbiscuit and his buddies all ran Utgarde Keep, the first instance of Northrend, and you can see the results above. This is the same instance we played way back at BlizzCon of last year, and it looks about the same -- you can see the hulking Vrykul, the big flame forge with its walls that come down when you pull mobs, and later on you can check out the other boss battles, including a dual boss battle (two bosses, and both have to die, or else the one that dies first spawns a shade of himself), and Ingvar the Plunderer, who has a pretty mean AoE and some cheating help. There's also a few glimpses of other beta features, including Illidan form way at the end.Unfortunately, they don't run the next instance, Sar Chasm, which features a boss who says things to you he doesn't actually mean (spoiler: that's a joke, watch the video). But it's awesome to get a first look at Utgarde, bugs and all (the dragons who walk through the air are pretty fun), and the WoW Radio guys are pretty entertaining the whole time.
WoW Radio fighting claims of malware
A few readers (thanks!) have sent us news that visiting the website of our good friends at WoW Radio has caused their Firefox browser to flag that there's malware present over there. I visited the site last Sunday, and my browser tossed up error messages aplenty at me. But after talking with Totalbiscuit and Duncor, I'll repeat their message here, so just so everyone knows: there is no malware problem with WoW Radio.Totalbiscuit has posted a notice on their front page explaining what happened -- sometime last week, a hacker attempted to post some kind of malware nonsense on their forums, and was headed off at the pass. Unfortunately, Google just happened to catch one look at a possibly negative piece of code, and thus the site was flagged (strange that just one flag would cause the kinds of alerts that Firefox is spitting out, but that's a discussion for another day). But at this point, we know for certain that there is no malicious code on WoW Radio, and even Google admits that the one piece of code it saw was the fault of a third party, not the WoW Radio folks.Both Totalbiscuit and Duncor tell me they're working with their ISP and Google as much as they can to get the warnings removed. But in the meantime, you've got nothing to worry about -- you can listen to our podcast (or any of the other podcasts over there) without worry.
WoW Moviewatch: Zalgradis Paladin PvP 3
(This video contain some language, so view with caution.)TotalBiscuit, of WoW Radio, is probably the most notorious commenter in the WoW Moviewatch section, so we asked him to recommend something that he actually liked. He offered up Zalgradis Paladin PvP 3. While I absolutely hated it, he had some interesting things to say about it.Before 1.9, Zalgradis was able to do incredible things that not many were able to do as a Paladin at that time. In the film, he combined a(horrible) metal soundtrack with action bits, while other sections had scripted comedy. Thank you, TB, for reminding me why I never feature PvP!If you have any suggestions for WoW Moviewatch, you can mail them to us at machinima AT wowinsider DOT com.Previously on Moviewatch ...
Reminder: The WoW Insider Show premieres tomorrow!
Just in case you missed it earlier this week, set your clocks for 3:30 EST tomorrow afternoon, Saturday the 1st, because WoW Insider and WoW Radio are making history. We're premiering The WoW Insider Show, a brand new podcast that combines the audio genius of Totalbiscuit and his gang at WoW Radio with the vast knowledge (and witty asides) of all the staff here at WoW Insider. Every week, we're going to take a look at what's happened in Azeroth the past week, as well as give you a chance to share your input and ask us what we think about the World of Warcraft.Oh, and there'll be prizes! We're kicking it off right by giving away a Murloc suit, straight from BlizzCon. To win, all you have to do is listen-- during the show, we'll give out a secret phrase and ask you to email it to us before Saturday at midnight, and then we'll chose one person who does that to get a code for a Murloc suit. It's your chance to win one of the hottest items in the game, just for listening!So check us out over at WoW Radio tomorrow afternoon at 3:30 EST. We'll also have a downloadable mp3 of the show available next week, and the show should appear on iTunes soon (as soon as we record it, that is). But if you listen later, you can't win the Murloc suit, so if you're available, check in and listen live with us tomorrow afternoon. Be there as WoW Insider and WoW Radio make some history, and bring you the ultimate World of Warcraft podcast.
WoW Insider and WoW Radio present: The WoW Insider Show
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/WoW_Insider_WoW_Radio_team_up_to_present_The_WoW_Insider_Show'; You've asked us for a podcast, we've considered our options, and now it's time to do it up right. WoW Insider has teamed up with none other than Totalbiscuit and the folks at WoW Radio to create The WoW Insider Show, a weekly audio podcast featuring news and views about World of Warcraft and its community. Every Saturday afternoon at 3:30 EST, WoW Insider will appear live on WoW Radio to talk about the most popular posts of the last week, and what's happening in the World of Warcraft.We want your insight and your comments, too: our show email will be theshow@wow.com, and that's where you'll be able to send insights both during and after the show. And we'll hook you up for your input-- while you're listening live, you'll be given the chance to win swag as well. For our first show, going down this Saturday, September 1st, we'll be giving away one of our biggest prizes yet: an ingame Murloc suit from BlizzCon. Listen in to learn how to win your chance to wear one of these!WoW Insider. WoW Radio. Two of the biggest names in the World of Warcraft community have teamed up to bring you the ultimate World of Warcraft podcast. Stay tuned to WoW Insider and our show site at WoW Radio to learn more, and get ready to listen in on Saturday, as WoW Insider's Mike Schramm and Dan O'Halloran take to the air with WoW Radio's Mark 'Turpster' Turpin and Kyle 'Mickey-C' McCarley. Be there!
Four endgame guilds on WoW Radio today
Our friend Totalbiscuit of WoW Radio sends word to remind us that today at 2 pm EST (in just about an hour and a half from now), he'll be hosting a roundtable with members of Nihilum, Death and Taxes, Forte and Method-- in other words, pretty much every endgame guild that matters. I guess he could probably go for Curse as well, but "Four Horsemen" just sounds better.On the menu is supposed to be "all aspects of the endgame," so it'll be interesting to see what gets talked about. Expect to hear about what they thought of the Black Temple and the attunements being lifted from the Eye and SSC, and TB would probably be remiss if he didn't ask what they think is coming next (even though no one but Blizzard has anything but speculation about that right now, probably until Blizzcon). But nevertheless, WoW Radio always does a good interview, and this should be a good listen for sure.
