The Instance! World of Warcraft Podcast A podcast for lovers of World of Warcraft

A chinese lion statue

"The Instance" is the most popular World of Warcraft podcast on the web today. Listen to Scott Johnson and RandyDeluxe discuss the issues that matter most to players, including breaking news, in depth tips and strategies, and general commentary regarding the business of MMO's, Blizzard, and the game we all love to play.

To subscribe to the show through iTunes, click here. To contact the show, email us at theinstance at gmail.com. To leave us a voice mail, call 206.202.3WOW. Follow Scott on Twitter. Follow Randy on Twitter. Find us at The Instance Ning page.

The Instance #122: “Give back my honor!”

myextralife October 3rd, 2008

Full show notes coming!

Special thanks to TypeFrag and Godaddy, and DogHouse Systems for sponsoring this episode.

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The 2008 Bloggers Choice Awards are accepting votes now, and The Instance could win in the Best Podcast category, if you vote! The only downside is that you have to register with a valid e-mail address. You can do that here. Thereafter, just go here and click on the vote button. Thank you!

The Instance #121: In the Dog House

Randydeluxe September 29th, 2008

The 2008 Bloggers Choice Awards are accepting votes now, and The Instance could win in the Best Podcast category, if you vote! The only downside is that you have to register with a valid e-mail address. You can do that here. Thereafter, just go here and click on the vote button. Thank you!

Big News Of The Week

It’s Time To Level Up

It’s not often that we get a scoop, but we’ve got one this week, and it’s something that we’ve been waiting to announce for months: Doghouse Systems, our newest sponsor and simply *the* choice hardware provider for the discriminating World Of Warcraft gamer, is opening for business on Thursday, Oct 2. Why is this so exciting?

  • We’ve got many contests and prizes this episode and the next (Oct. 2).
  • An exclusive interview with John Pryor from Doghouse.
  • Did we mention prizes?  Listen to win.

Rumors And Scuttlebutt

Blizzard To Wipe Away Your Sins

Blizzard announced this week that they will be wiping away all of your honor, all of your marks, and everything that you might use to purchase PvP rewards in the expansion.

We Get To Say The Name Bobby Kotick Again

The excellently-named CEO of Activision submitted to an interview with the Wall Street Journal for an article called “The Future Of Video Games”. You need a subscription to enjoy the full story, but in summary, Kotick didn’t talk so much about the future as he did the past - why Activision bought Blizzard away from Vivendi, what it means to run an MMO, with all of the considerations of the business, and how different this business is in Asia.

Town Cryer

Tom A. writes:

Hey Scott and Randy,i have a level 39 Orc hunter on Maiev, As I continue to try to level him,it’s becoming increasinglly dificult to find groups for Instances around my level(such as Uldaman,and Razorfen Downs).My question is,do you have any tips on how to find groups for these dungeons.Such as going to a certain location,doing a specific thing,etc.

Drop Of The Week

Bejeweled In WoW

This hit the scene while we were recording our last episode live seven days ago, and the discussion hasn’t ceased all week. Popcap Games, known for making solid, fun and lightweight games targeted at the Internet community, decided to put an addon into WoW specifically that gives you a fine looking version of Bejeweled to play no matter where you are in the world… of Warcraft. We have to ask - is this a good thing?

Additional show content provided by Mean Gene, Patrick from France, Shawn Basic, Darrell the Tipgiver, and the outstanding Instance Community.

Special thanks to TypeFrag and Godaddy, and DogHouse Systems for sponsoring this episode.

- The RSS Feed
- The MP3 File
- The iTunes Subscription

The 2008 Bloggers Choice Awards are accepting votes now, and The Instance could win in the Best Podcast category, if you vote! The only downside is that you have to register with a valid e-mail address. You can do that here. Thereafter, just go here and click on the vote button. Thank you!

The Instance #120 - Dung Fest, 2008!

Randydeluxe September 20th, 2008

Dung Fest

The 2008 Bloggers Choice Awards are accepting votes now, and The Instance could win in the Best Podcast category, if you vote! The only downside is that you have to register with a valid e-mail address. You can do that here. Thereafter, just go here and click on the vote button. Thank you!

Big News Of The Week

Get Your Drink On!

Brewfest started today. In only it’s first appearance in-game last year, Brewfest was instantly one of the top two or three favorite events for players, and this year Blizzard has packed even more into the beer-appreciating, polka-music-themed drinkfest.

Rumors And Scuttlebutt

Get Your Ride On!

We started spotting the fabled motorcycle mount in the Beta this week. It’s a level 80 mount that can only be used in Outland or Northrend. Furthermore, the mount isn’t currently restricted to engineering use, but we think that may be a temporary measure to promote testing. Nonetheless, it looks like right now anyone at level 80 can pick one up.

Get Your Spirit Beast On!

Over at Mania’s Arcania - a must-read website for hunters, and let’s face it, we all play a hunter eventually - breaking news has been rolling in the last couple of days regarding the discovery of a whole new classification of tamable pets in the Beta: Spirit Beasts. We don’t know much at this point, but Mania has a killer screenshot of a snow leopard-like cat with glowing blue eyes.

Town Cryer

Austin K. wrote:

Hey Scott and Randy, I was wondering if you guys know of any mod that gives me and in game media control for something like iTunes. It’s becoming annoying to tab out to change songs. I would love like a titan panel plugin that shows pause, skip, etc.

Soundtrack mod here

Drop Of The Week

Get Your Look On!

Blizzard Entertainment and Rubie’s Costume Company are proud to introduce a new line of Warcraft-themed Halloween goods. From deluxe Tauren masks to full night elf kits, there’s something for everyone to equip — and it’s all perfectly tailored for looting epic candy drops. Visit this retailer or this retailer to check out the new gear.

Additional show content provided by Mean Gene, Patrick from France, Shawn Basic, Darrell the Tipgiver, and the outstanding Instance Community.

Special thanks to TypeFrag and Godaddy for sponsoring this episode.

- The RSS Feed
- The MP3 File
- The iTunes Subscription

The 2008 Bloggers Choice Awards are accepting votes now, and The Instance could win in the Best Podcast category, if you vote! The only downside is that you have to register with a valid e-mail address. You can do that here. Thereafter, just go here and click on the vote button. Thank you!

The Instance #119 - The Banana Hammock Gergaling

Randydeluxe September 13th, 2008

Big News Of The Week

Human Sacrifice, Dogs And Cats Living Together… Mass Hysteria!

Blizzard shocked the community this week by implementing character transfers in WoW *from* PVE realms *to* PVP realms. It’s a complete reversal of one of their most closely held beliefs: that the gameplay, and therefore the behaviors of the players, on PVP realms are so different that it is unfair to level up a character on a PVE realm and then move that character to a PVP realm.

Rumors And Scuttlebutt

All My Readings Point To Something Big On The Horizon

It looks like Blizzard has enabled the PTR character copy utility. This may mean really good news for those who cannot wait for Blizzard to launch 3.0 to the public and hasten the arrival of the 2nd expansion.

Listen… Do You Smell Something?

Suddenly this week, we started seeing reports that pretty much everyone who signed up for the lottery to gain access to the Beta of Wrath Of The Lich King, and had not yet gotten in, received Beta keys and access to play on the PTRs.

Somebody Blows Their Nose And You Want To Keep It?

As expected, the big talent-nerfing patch that follows a long period of beta-testing appears to have arrived. It’s build 8926 for those of you keeping score at home, and it appears to have cranked back many effects for many classes on many talents, too many to list here. But the larger question is ‘what does this all mean’?

Well, There’s Something You Don’t See Every Day

If you’ve not run WoW in a few days, you might want to do so to get the background downloader running. According to reports we’ve received from players who have done no beta testing, the total download is going to be one gigabyte of data.

Town Cryer

Matthew C. writes:

I came to WoW, after being out of MMOs for a few years, after the Burning Crusade. I have had an interest in running some of the old world content, especially as I level a character, but no one seems interested… Is this a common occurence? should I even worry about never getting to see some of the older instances?

Drop Of The Week

No Human Being Would Stack Books Like This

As the Lich King’s plague of undeath ravages the human kingdom of Lordaeron, a mighty blade is forged from a dark orb. In the hands of Highlord Alexandros Mograine, the blade will become legend. In time, both blade and man will become… Ashbringer.

In anticipation of the upcoming World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King expansion, Wildstorm and Blizzard Entertainment have created a four-issue miniseries chronicling the Ashbringer’s tale, written by Blizzard’s Micky Neilson and featuring art by Ludo Lullabi and Tony Washington.

Additional show content provided by Mean Gene, Patrick from France, Shawn Basic, Darrell the Tipgiver, and the outstanding Instance Community.

Special thanks to TypeFrag and Godaddy for sponsoring this episode.

- The RSS Feed
- The MP3 File
- The iTunes Subscription

The Instance #118 - I want to be a dentist

Randydeluxe September 5th, 2008

Big News Of The Week

Blizzard Brings The Tunes

Just when you thought you’d never hear a WoW Soundtrack story called the big news of anything, Blizzard unexpectedly got the soundtracks from StarCraft, Diablo II, Warcraft III, World of Warcraft, and The Burning Crusade all published for sale on iTunes this week, and the clamor has been impressive. But what made the move even better? Discovery Download placed the overture from the forthcoming Diablo 3 into iTunes for free for a week. That week ends in two days, presumably on September 8th!

Competitive Gaming This Weekend

The 2008 North American and European Warcraft Finals will be taking place this weekend, September 6-7, in Boston, Massachusetts, and Madrid, Spain. These events will feature the top eight qualifiers from the 2008 World of Warcraft Arena and Warcraft III tournaments for their respective regions. Attendees will also have the opportunity to try out demos of Wrath of the Lich King and StarCraft II on-site. Admission is free, so come by and check it out if you’re in the area.

Rumors And Scuttlebutt

Stop Trying So Hard To Get To 80

Tigole posted on the official forums yesterday that Blizzard has “decided to remove the titles for the Realm First Feats of Strength that are associated with reaching level 80. We’ve also removed the titles associated with the Realm First Feats of Strength associated with gaining 450 skill in the professions and secondary skill. Lastly, we’ve removed the title associated with Realm First to accomplish the Northrend Vanguard achievement.”

Town Cryer

TyrionTheImp, a Gnome Mage on the Coilfang server writes:

I have a question thats been buggin me for the past year. Where do you get the commendation signets that the guys in stormwind and ironforge (and other cities I guess) with the blue question marks are asking for. I thought those were from battlegrounds but I guess not.

Drop Of The Week

Everyone Can Go To Blizzcon, Sort Of

DIRECTV has just announced further details for their pay per view package of BlizzCon coverage, and that the special promotion offering it free with a new subscription is now open. New DIRECTV subscribers in the US who sign up for DIRECTV by September 30 through this website or 800-728-9375 will receive the package for free, while existing DIRECTV customers will be able to order it for $39.95 beginning on September 28. For full details, check out the official announcement, or head over to the BlizzCon site.

Additional show content provided by Mean Gene, Patrick from France, Shawn Basic, Darrell the Tipgiver, and the outstanding Instance Community.

Special thanks to TypeFrag and Godaddy for sponsoring this episode.

- The RSS Feed
- The MP3 File
- The iTunes Subscription

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