Countdown to BlizzCon

This week we're counting it down til BlizzCon, which is happening any minute now. Editor-in-chief Liz talks a little strategy for our coverage, while we're mostly just excited for what we may see. Luckily, the World of Warcraft team had a few announcements up their sleeves, including a patch 12.1.5 preview, a new gold sink mount, and Winds of Mysterious Fortune, which will award you free tendies just for logging in! I'd say that'll hold us for now, but we all know those tendies are as good as spent.Plus, did you know Blizzard isn't the only company making video games? It's true! This week the Ocarina of Timeremake was announced, and Link looks uncanny and moist. Joe's favorite team shooter Marvel Rivals announced a new season featuring a hero which is actually a villain as the star.If you have a few minutes, please fill out our survey to tell us what you think about the podcast. This data is collected by our podcast host, Acast, and will be used to help us improve the show as well as attract potential sponsors. Your answers are completely anonymous. We appreciate your help!If you enjoy the show, please support us on Patreon, where you can get these episodes early and ad-free! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The BlizzCon schedule is now live! That means the podcast crew, joined by resident Diablo maven Liz Patt, are breaking it all down. We start with discussing the schedule itself, and then move into the wild speculation we do best. The schedule also includes times and channels for watching BlizzCon on Twitch, which also includes a ton of Drops and other items you can earn from watching. Hearthstone and Diablo have the same number of panels and share a space on the show floor. Overwatch has slightly more panels, and the Matt Mercer effect, and a whole area all to itself. And then WoW has even more panels and a huge hall to fill to boot. What does it mean? That's where the wild speculation comes into play.We get into Classic speculation, what Heroes of the Storm is up to, and 30 years of Battle.net. On Diablo 5, as Liz said in the episode, we're not going to hold our breath, because we need to breathe to live.If you have a few minutes, please fill out our survey to tell us what you think about the podcast. This data is collected by our podcast host, Acast, and will be used to help us improve the show as well as attract potential sponsors. Your answers are completely anonymous. We appreciate your help!If you enjoy the show, please support us on Patreon, where you can get these episodes early and ad-free! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We got a special treat this week as our Aussie columnist and player housing enthusiast Sara Hanson joined the podcast. She walked us through a lot of the very recent changes to how certain player housing features work, and discusses some of the things the housing community is trying to uncover, like which pets do what when they're hanging out, now that we can add them. She also has strong opinions on transmog, much like the rest of our hosts, so they had to discuss both the new cash shop offerings and this month's Trading Post, which we got an advance preview of. And not only an advance preview, but this one will bring back a bunch of older offerings as well, for a Trading Post megamix.Also something something Mythic Raiding race, or whatever. You know we're focused on the real end game, here.We also waded through some Gamescom news, which included CD Projekt Red teaming up with Blizzard, bringing The Witcher to the Battle.net launcher — and teasing some future announcements for BlizzCon. Of course, Matt thinks this means Cyberpunk on the Battle.net launcher, but Cory isn't the only one who can huff hopium around here. But Gamescom isn't all sunshine — several projects showcased are apparently using AI heavily in their development process. If I were a sim, I would have two red minus signs above my head in Crazy Taxi's general direction right now.If you have a few minutes, please fill out our survey to tell us what you think about the podcast. This data is collected by our podcast host, Acast, and will be used to help us improve the show as well as attract potential sponsors. Your answers are completely anonymous. We appreciate your help!If you enjoy the show, please support us on Patreon, where you can get these episodes early and ad-free! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Liz, a person who has a legitimate phobia of snakes, is rather emphatically not enjoying the Coiled Isle. Now that she's had time with the patch, she can confirm that she hates it. Some areas are less snakey than others, and those are okay, but Blizzard is not her favorite set of people just now. She did admit to enjoying the green, though. Luckily, she can experience the whole thing vicariously as the Race to World First kicked off this week with the beginning of MidnightSseason 2, and the opening of the Mythic version of the Venomous Abyss raid. Several of the teams are raising money for charity through the race, including a fun one from Liquid where if you donate a certain amount, they'll post your pet's photo on stream. If anything can help Liz make it through, it's puppies.There are also some new class sets coming to Hearthstone, which Liz is happy to explain. And read the site news! Anything, just enough with the dang snakes already.If you have a few minutes, please fill out our survey to tell us what you think about the podcast. This data is collected by our podcast host, Acast, and will be used to help us improve the show as well as attract potential sponsors. Your answers are completely anonymous. We appreciate your help!If you enjoy the show, please support us on Patreon, where you can get these episodes early and ad-free! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our favorite things about World of Warcraft patch 12.1 are mostly related to Player Housing, if we're being for real. There are other things to look forward to — raids, delves, quests, and maybe lore if you're into that kind of thing — but yeah, we're mulling over a name change to HousingWatch. But the patch is still new, so that could change. Probably won't, but it could.We're also excited that D.Mon is coming to Overwatch. Another character that's been on everyone's wishlist for years, D.Mon also has a lot of story associated with her, including a few new lore drops. Our cohosts are optimistic about what this means for Overwatch and the lore going forward. But, hold that thought, because the next news item is about the Microsoft management. Or at least, don't take a big swig of water here.If you have a few minutes, please fill out our survey to tell us what you think about the podcast. This data is collected by our podcast host, Acast, and will be used to help us improve the show as well as attract potential sponsors. Your answers are completely anonymous. We appreciate your help!If you enjoy the show, please support us on Patreon, where you can get these episodes early and ad-free! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There have been few hopes dashed harder than when Matt looked at our topics and thought for a brief, shining moment that maybe dyes were coming to transmog, and not just staying in Player Housing. But no, it's just for Player Housing, and there have been some changes to dyes as we head into patch 12.1 next week. Because we livestream the recording every week, and Liz has been playing WoW our guest host for this week Six took us on a quick tour of his apparently bonkers Housing creation, and we talked about some of the incredible looks you can get with creative item combinations. (And if you like streaming, Liz has been streaming indie games on Twitch, and you can catch the videos on YouTube if you miss the livestream.)And speaking of streaming, we have confirmation this week that BlizzCon will be livestreamed for free. And speaking of things being announced, did you hear there's going to be a new World of Warcraft adventure for Dungeons & Dragons? Pretty wild they announced that with about a month to go til BlizzCon. Makes me kind of excited to see what will be unveiled during the big show.Oh, and this is proof that if you send us some questions for the podcast, we will answer them! Eventually!If you have a few minutes, please fill out our survey to tell us what you think about the podcast. This data is collected by our podcast host, Acast, and will be used to help us improve the show as well as attract potential sponsors. Your answers are completely anonymous. We appreciate your help!If you enjoy the show, please support us on Patreon, where you can get these episodes early and ad-free! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week's podcast kicked off with the discussion that has been pinging around the World of Warcraft community this week: a GM cheating so a streamer could clear a M+23 dungeon on time. Though we all had Opinions on that one, we quickly forged ahead to happier topics, including the newly released launch date for patch 12.1 and season 2 of Midnight. That's right kids, it's time to grab your coat and move to the exits on season 1. We also issued a warning that spoilers for patch 12.1 are being datamined, even if in a slightly weird format that probably won't end up in the game. Then, we had the announcement of the BlizzCon digital bundles and a new Hearthstone Battlegrounds season to unwrap like a gift on Christmas morning.And speaking of unflagging optimism, Cory was our guest host this week, so it was time for another Heroes of the Storm Hopium Corner.If you have a few minutes, please fill out our survey to tell us what you think about the podcast. This data is collected by our podcast host, Acast, and will be used to help us improve the show as well as attract potential sponsors. Your answers are completely anonymous. We appreciate your help!If you enjoy the show, please support us on Patreon, where you can get these episodes early and ad-free! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We hope you got your fill of both the gameplay and the Player Housing rewards from Decor Duels, because they're going away in World of Warcraft patch 12.1. Well, you may be able to still get the decor, but not so much the transmog or mounts (at least according to the PTR). It was a fun little mode, but there was so much else going on we didn't get to play a ton, so we'll probably be investing some time in it before it goes away. And speaking of having no time and player housing, patch 12.1 brings us artisanal rooms, which are rooms that are essentially preset that you can just pop in to your player housing. Neat! This week's special guest Six helped us run down some stuff coming on the 12.1 PTR.But it's not all WoW. There are some changes in Diablo 4 worth a chat, and some Fallout news in the works with Bethesda's presser last week. Now if you'll excuse me, I am now contractually obligated to listen to Big Maybelle sing Whole Lotta Shakin Goin On.If you have a few minutes, please fill out our survey to tell us what you think about the podcast. This data is collected by our podcast host, Acast, and will be used to help us improve the show as well as attract potential sponsors. Your answers are completely anonymous. We appreciate your help!If you enjoy the show, please support us on Patreon, where you can get these episodes early and ad-free! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We kick off this week's show talking about the new Corrosive items coming in WoW patch 12.1, and reminiscing about the good ol days when our buddies would stack insane amounts of Corruption in order to make healers contemplate a grippy sock vacation. Speaking of healers losing it, we have a few more weeks of Turbulent Timeways: we're up to Shadowlands, and your last chance to start stacking your buff for the icy protodrake mount. Also, Matt thinks that the new 6-month subscription bonus mount, the Sunflare Driftmoth, is secretly judging him. What a moth has to be snobby about is anybody's guess.There was a bit of Diablo discussion, as there were a few little events and a few hotfixes to discuss. We ended on a high note, talking about some of the runs we enjoyed from Summer Games Done Quick, which raised over $2.4 million for Doctors Without Borders. There were a few upcoming releases discussed. Just a couple weird lil guys Liz is looking forward to talking about next week. We'll see you then.If you have a few minutes, please fill out our survey to tell us what you think about the podcast. This data is collected by our podcast host, Acast, and will be used to help us improve the show as well as attract potential sponsors. Your answers are completely anonymous. We appreciate your help!If you enjoy the show, please support us on Patreon, where you can get these episodes early and ad-free! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The new Zul'jan quest line just went live, so we're looking forward to World of Warcraft patch 12.1, which includes a new Player Housing exterior. Maybe. We hope. And we're not Monkey's Paw-ing this thing either, so don't act like we said it and that's why it's on the store. We already firmly rejected that possibility, so it is not on us if it goes down like that.Speaking of Monkey's Paws, Summer Games Done Quick is live, and Microsoft took that as a challenge, seeing if they could finish games as a whole really quickly by firing 20% of Xbox employees. This included closing many iconic game studios, some of which are going independent (again), and some being bought out by another party. There are some silver linings here, but it's a tough summer for people who make or enjoy games.A new Hearthstone expansion also released this week, so we have the lowdown on Escape from Violet Hold. It involves a jailbreak and Vanessa Van Cleef, so we're going out on a high note.If you have a few minutes, please fill out our survey to tell us what you think about the podcast. This data is collected by our podcast host, Acast, and will be used to help us improve the show as well as attract potential sponsors. Your answers are completely anonymous. We appreciate your help!If you enjoy the show, please support us on Patreon, where you can get these episodes early and ad-free! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.