The Gamer Lounge

Ever since canceling my World of Warcraft count a year ago, I am occasionally tempted to jump back into the game.  However, the idea of constantly updating addons, and big grinds to get anything cool always turn me off.  I never expected WoW to put out a patch that would actually cure my need for quest helping addons, nor did I expect them to lower the level requirement for a mount again as well as the cost.

Check out these little bits from the 3.2 Patch Notes:

• Apprentice Riding (Skill 75): Can now be learned at level 20 for 4 gold. Mail will be sent to players who reach level 20 directing them to the riding trainer.
• Journeyman Riding (Skill 150): Can now be learned at level 40 for 50 gold. Mail will be sent to players who reach level 40 directing them back to the riding trainer.
• Expert Riding (Skill 225): Can now be learned at level 60 for 600 gold from trainers in Honor Hold or Thrallmar. Faction discounts now apply (Honor Hold for Alliance; Thrallmar for Horde). Flight speed at this skill level has been increased to 150% of run speed, up from 60%.
• Item Comparisons: Holding the shift key while hovering over an item will now display the stat differences with the item currently equipped in the relevant slot.
• Quest creatures and objects will now show on the player’s world map.
• The quest log is now double-paned for more easily viewing quest information.
• Vendor prices will now be listed on items whether or not players are at a vendor.

Wow, I am very surprised.  I know some players might say this makes the game too easy, but for me it just makes it a lot more fun and playable.  I don’t know about you, but I HATE spending a half hour running around looking for a quest objective.  Whenever this patch makes its way onto the live realms, you might just see Kargo roaming around again.

It has been FOREVER since we’ve put out a new episode, but now we finally did.  Considering the fact that tonight’s episode went so well, the chances of us staying consistent are really good now.  Since we had 6 months worth of stuff to cover, this was an extra long show. Topics included E3, UP, and pretty much everything else that’s in the below mountain of tags. At a little over an hour and a half, the show should keep you busy until next Sunday!  :-)

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Interested in being a co-host or have something you’d like read on the show?  Shoot me an email at gamerloungepodcast@gmail.com

Yes folks, I did not die.  I am still here, and it is nice to see that many of you listeners/readers are still hanging around here as well.  For those of you that don’t check out the site (not you), I made a little .MP3 saying that I’m still around.  You can here the slightly better recording quality the mixer/new mic offers as well.

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Not bad, eh?

While I’m at it, I might as well update the Casual WoW listners as well.  I know what you’re thinking, “Sure, he makes an .MP3 for the GL but not for us CW listeners.”  Well folks, the truth is I can’t.  Maybe all that complaining I did jinxed it or something, but not a single podcaster can upload any more files to Mypodcast.  And, chances are, I might actually lose all of the files I had uploaded.  Thank god for Mevio!

Here’s a little extra tidbit that wasn’t put into the feed though.  I wanted to mess around with recording some “songs” I had came up with, and this was the result.  Not sure if I’ll add many more of these, but keep your eyes peeled.

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Not quite your Justin Timberlake, but hey, I’m free!

New episodes up soon…and this time I mean it…really, I do.

This is a great article to read if you’re even a teensy bit interested in Warhammer Online.

I really want to give this game a try, but as of yet I have not.  Has anyone out there played it that can tell me their thoughts?

My sister and I temporarily take the reigns on this episode and talk about the new iPods, Chuck, Fracture, Warhammer Online, House, CSI Miami, and Larry Bear.   Also, a new hard drive, Apple microphone and how iTunes makes me an honest man.

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It’s finally here!  A new episode featuring both Larry and I!  If I do say so myself, this is our best episode yet.  We wrote out some notes to follow during the show, things flow smoothly, and there were no sound hiccups that I could find.

Some topics are Spore: Origins and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed for the iPod touch/iPhone, free MMO subscription models, Diablo 3 before Starcraft 2, Wrath of the Lich King release date, Warhammer Online, Smallville, Marble Blast Ultra, Star Wars TV series, Larry’s new mac, and more!

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Did I mention we actually had a little bit of viewer/listener input this time?  I read one of the comments on the blog dealing with the free subscription model.  That could be you next time!  So leave a comment or send an email to gamerloungepodcast@gmail.com

I found THIS ARTICLE to be interesting indeed.  The juicy part of this article is that Blizzard announced that over the last five years it has only cost them $200 million in upkeep.  Now at first glance this looks like a lot, but let’s put things into perspective.  5 years is 60 months.  World of Warcraft currently has something like 10 million subscribers (I think it’s actually about 12 mil now) paying about $15 a month.  (They can pay $1 or $2 less if they pay for multiple months at a time)

So this is about $150 million they are making a month.  150*60=9000.  So they’ve made $9 billion dollars from monthly fees alone.  So in other words, only about 1% goes to upkeep.  Interesting.

Update: Let’s look at something else, shall we?  How many subscribers, paying $15 a month, would they need to break even after five years?  Well, $200 million divided by the 60 months is about $3, 333, 333.33.  Not divide this by $15 (for the monthly fee), and you get 222,222.22 which would round to 222,223 subscribers.  They currently have more than 10 million.  I’d say they did Ok.

Now let’s look at one final thing.  What if they took a method like Guild Wars did and only charged for the main game and expansions.  Well, $50*$10 million gives you $500 million.  Then you can pretty much double that considering the Burning Crusade expansion pack.  Again, looks like they would be Ok.  Hmmm…it does seem like the subscription model isn’t necessary.

It’s episode #10, and, as promised, we were broadcasting live with a chatroom! The cool thing? The people in the chatroom got to listen to the show almost a full day before anyone else. Cool, huh?

But anyway, in this episode we talk about the new Mummy movie, X-Files, Hot Fuzz, Fallout 3, DC Universe Online, Champions Online, Team Fortress 2, a five grand computer, annoying checkpoint saves, and so much more!

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Now make yourselves useful and email us! You can do that here, gamerloungepodcast@gmail.com

Well first off, there is no Gamer Lounge this week!  Sorry about that, but both Larry and I had some things going on, and, most importantly, we wanted our first live show to be something truly memorable!  So the general thought was “If we’re going to have a live show, we should probably tell people where to see it!” 

So here’s the low down, at 6:30 PM Central time on Tuesday, August 5th, you can go right here, http://www.ustream.tv/channel/the-gamer-lounge, and see our show broadcasting live.  If you have any news, comments, or thoughts while we’re recording, you can just type them into the chatroom.  What does this allow?  It allows you guys to customize the show!  If you aren’t happy with the topics we’ve currently been covering, or if you think we need help getting off the topic of World of Warcraft, then here’s your chance to chime in.

(If you’d prefer to listen to that and my thoughts on Space Siege, here’s a link to the .MP3)

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(Also, if you’re interested in the Space Siege demo, it can be found right HERE.)

In this episode Larry and I talk about Wall-E, Journey to the Center of the Earth, iPhone/iPod applications, and tons of stuff from E3!

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