Archive for December 28th, 2005

Computer Gaming Magazine Confirms Draenei as New Alliance Race?

Wednesday, December 28th, 2005

Draenei thew new Alliance race?According to Computer Games Magazine February 2006 Issue the Draenei have been confirmed as the new Alliance race. There are some scans of the magazine (here and here) but they are a bit hard to read. For those without 20/10 vision here is the text from the article:

World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade

Developer/Publisher Blizzard Entertainment
Release Date Summer

WHY?
*You’ve hit that wall known as Level 60, at least once if not multiple times, as WoW has been voted “Easiest MMO to Cap Out Ever”; Blizzard’s new level cap of 70 will at least give you something higher to shoot for.

*They’re not just upgrading spells and skills (like Conjure Water rank 32, or Kidney Shot rank 19); they’re adding brand-new ones, as well as additional tiers in the talent trees.

*The socketed item phenomenon that was sort of “coined” by Diablo will be implemented and Jewelcrafting added to the tradesperson skill set.

*Alliance players will enjoy playing as Draenei, and the new Blood Elf race gives the Horde faction its first exercise in what humans perceive as sex appeal (even though those Troll females are pretty cute).

*If you’re bored with the same old continents and dungeons — which you probably are — Burning Crusade adds the planet of Outland, formerly Draenor, around which Level 70 characters can fly on Nether Dragon mounts.

WHY NOT?
*You can’t fight on your Nether Dragon, nor use it outside of Outland, and it’s slower than the current flying contingent of Griffons and Bats.

*They’re not planning to add new classes at this juncture, nor will the “hero class” be ready to launch.

*Those of you who’ve spent the last several hundred game hours getting those epic armor sets and Arathi stuff might be disappointed that they won’t be the end-all and be-all anymore.

*And will the current zones all of a sudden become deserted when people flock to the new areas? (Have you been to the n00b zones in EverQuest in the past thousand years? The NPCs are there, but they’re awfully lonely.)

Of course I have saying for quite some time that the Draenei are most likely the new Alliance race, so this adds just one more log to the rumor fire. Thanks to Fozzle for this information.

State of the TWiT Message

Wednesday, December 28th, 2005

Belated holiday greetings to you all. Thanks so much for your heartfelt support in 2005. It’s been an amazing year.

I’ve posted a new poll on the site and I’d appreciate your vote and input. Up to now I’ve been trying to keep TWiT running on your donations and the little Google ads up top. And you’ve been very generous. I think we’ve used your money wisely to add new podcasts and buy the equipment we need to expand into video. Ultimately it’s my goal to create an audio and video podcast channel to rival the best of TechTV, and thanks to you we’re well on the way. We have a new TV show and several new podcasts in the works for you, and plans to do much more.

All along it’s been my intention to avoid the mistakes of TechTV. We TWiTs want to control the production and distribution so that we never have to go through what happened to TechTV again. And I’ve avoided advertising, because I wanted to preserve our independence and editorial integrity. Your donations and my day jobs in mainstream media have subsidized the growth of the TWiT Network.

But in order to grow beyond this point, I need to take it to the next level. I need to be able to devote more time to TWiT, to hire people to help, to redesign the site to better fit our goals, and so on. This is going to take money. That means one of two things: subscriptions or advertising. I’m torn between asking listeners and viewers to bear the brunt of the production costs, or taking carefully selected unobtrusive advertising to foot the bill. So, as always, I’m asking you to tell me what you want.

What is the best way to build TWiT into a business that focuses on delivering the highest quality and most entertaining tech information online without compromising its integrity or risking its future? Enquiring minds want to know. Please vote in the poll on the right and post your comments below.

Thank you so much for an incredible year! TWiT exists because of your interest and your support - we know that and would never do anything to jeopardize your faith in us. Here’s to a great 2006!

Stephen King and LOST

Wednesday, December 28th, 2005

We’ve got a special treat for you this week. Laura is a LOSTCasts listener who sent us an in-depth commentary on connections between LOST and Stephen King. Unfortunately in the last podcast, we barely touched on her thoughts, and I…

Stephen King and LOST

Wednesday, December 28th, 2005

We’ve got a special treat for you this week. Laura is a LOSTCasts listener who sent us an in-depth commentary on connections between LOST and Stephen King. Unfortunately in the last podcast, we barely touched on her thoughts, and I…

Stephen King and LOST

Wednesday, December 28th, 2005

We’ve got a special treat for you this week. Laura is a LOSTCasts listener who sent us an in-depth commentary on connections between LOST and Stephen King. Unfortunately in the last podcast, we barely touched on her thoughts, and I…

Stephen King and LOST

Wednesday, December 28th, 2005

We’ve got a special treat for you this week. Laura is a LOSTCasts listener who sent us an in-depth commentary on connections between LOST and Stephen King. Unfortunately in the last podcast, we barely touched on her thoughts, and I…

Stephen King and LOST

Wednesday, December 28th, 2005

We’ve got a special treat for you this week. Laura is a LOSTCasts listener who sent us an in-depth commentary on connections between LOST and Stephen King. Unfortunately in the last podcast, we barely touched on her thoughts, and I…

Stephen King and LOST

Wednesday, December 28th, 2005

We’ve got a special treat for you this week. Laura is a LOSTCasts listener who sent us an in-depth commentary on connections between LOST and Stephen King. Unfortunately in the last podcast, we barely touched on her thoughts, and I…

Stephen King and LOST

Wednesday, December 28th, 2005

We’ve got a special treat for you this week. Laura is a LOSTCasts listener who sent us an in-depth commentary on connections between LOST and Stephen King. Unfortunately in the last podcast, we barely touched on her thoughts, and I…