ChaosCast: A Warhammer Online Podcast

I am very excited to share with you all a project that has been in the works for a while now. A couple months ago Snafzg from The Greenskin, Syp from WAAAGH!, and Keen from Keen and Graev’s Gaming Blog (me, duh!) got together and decided that we wanted to collaborate on some form of Warhammer Online project. We’re all rabid fans and bloggers of WAR and wanted an additional outlet or project since obviously blogging is never enough.

What is ChaosCast? It’s a podcast dedicated to bringing the online WAR community together. We’re hoping to bridge the WAR blogging, fansite, forum, and online community in a small way to prove that we’re a very tight-knit group of avid gamers. How will we do this? ChaosCast will cover a range of topics every episode including a community spotlight where we highlight various websites that stand out, Commentary on all aspects WAR, Q/A’s, hopefully some Dev interaction, and all things WAR.

Episode #1: “It’s my WAR and you’ll bleed if I want you to!”

[podcast]http://www.garageband.com/mp3cat/.UZCMYCuC4K2v/01_ChaosCast_Episode_1___It_s_my_WAR_and_you_.mp3[/podcast]

This first episode is much longer than our future episodes will be. We hope to record and publish a new episode every 2-3 weeks giving us a lot more time to focus in on less topics and get more specific. During the podcast you might notice some latency issues – I blame the Canadian. We’re still working out the kinks in the audio recording and learning to cope with Syp being a Wookie. We all have challenges to overcome, right?

We hope you enjoy the podcast and encourage you to leave comments on any of our sites. If there is anything you would like us to discuss in our next or future shows please feel free to contact one of us. Remember, we want this to be about the community and a big part of that is YOU!

  • Cool I enjoyed that, it was very interesting and informative. The direction of WAR is very good – I think they’ve gone with the aim to make a good game, not to get millions of subscribers. That’s great in my opinion.

  • PODCAST STRUCTURE

    When I decide to listen to a podcast, I like my information to be really concise and informative. Even more so, if you’re talking about something, I’d like to hear a summary first of what you’re talking about and then afterwards hear each of your knowledgeable opinions on the subject. With regards to joking around, sure I don’t mind a joke here and there but keep it short and sweet to liven things up but not too long so as to bore people with something off topic.

    For the most part, I’d say you guys did a phenomenal job of sticking to this format above, especially for a first attempt. There were a few times though when you seemed to deviate off track (i.e. White Lion pet names) and I skipped ahead because it didn’t interest me but you’re summaries and opinions on crafting and Massively’s inside info was perfectly relayed.

    Oh and with regards to the audio between sections, I think that’s a great idea but I’d both reduce the audio overlap when you’re talking and reduce the amount of the time break in between as well.

    PODCAST CONTENT

    Good content topics for a first podcast as well. For me, the Crafting and Massively Inside Info sections were the best and most informative. The Wiki and NDA were not bad as well but the Why This Podcast and new Community sites section I found seemed to go off track a little bit or weren’t as focused.

    Still as I said above, phenomenal job on this first attempt nonetheless.

    As for future content to discuss in the podcasts, I’d like to hear your opinions on both Living Guilds and Living Cities. In effect, how do you think they’ll incorporate them and how do you think they’ll differ compared to other MMOs in the past (besides what’s already know).

  • Thanks for the feedback Nollind! I definitely agree with everything you said and that’s the direction we’re shooting for right now.

    A few additional notes:
    – I’m going to lower the volume of the music a lot
    – Music won’t overlap commentary as much
    – A much more subtle fade in when music does begin to overlap a transition

  • Music audio changes you mentioned sound good.

    BTW I forgot to mention that I think your initial intro to the podcast is really great as well (i.e. hard metal music, orc voices, basic intro of what podcast is about and who the hosts are).

  • @Aaron: Additionally you can click the link to the podcast’s RSS feed and the MP3 file is there available for download.

  • Fantastic! This will go a long way to keeping me tuned in until the game’s eventual release this Fall/Winter. Thanks Keen and pals. 🙂

  • I thought that was one of the very best podcasts I’ve heard in quite a while. You guys kept it moving. I liked that you talked about the new sites and gave the wiki’s some love. My site wants to interview the star of the podcast (the dog) LOL I look forward to the next one. Two thumbs WAY up!!!

  • you must like van helsing, not only did you mention it twice you found the horse song from the movie. well done all around.

  • Here are a few topics you could bring up next time:
    How unique do you want to be? – Character Coztimuzation, Titles, Armor dyes, guild emblems, and mount costimuzation.

    How different should a class mirror be? Since we know that classes will mirror each other, what extent of mirroring would you guys like to see? Pro’s/Con’s

    What makes RvR a more exciting and involving end-game “setting” rather than a PvE-raid style a’la WoW?

    What are your expectations for open beta(assuming the three of you have bought CE’s)? By that I mean how you plan to spend your time in open beta, will you limit yourself to get the full experience at release?

    And on a personal note:
    Great podcast, I’ve been lurking all three of you guy’s blog, and It’s always interesting to hear your views in a more back-and-forth form. Looking forward to the next one!

  • My bad on the spelling of customization, I hadn’t got my mornin’ coffe so I mistakedly clicked “Submit” before having a chance to look up the proper spelling, that I always seem to forget on that bloody word.

  • Great work, thats a very cool cast.

    Thanks for the info and I hope we can get a lot more in the future. You must be dying to ask questions about the state of the game in beta sometimes?

  • Come on guys, maybe a little planning beforehand? I mean you guys have distractions (dogs), derailed trains of thought, and just too many “I don’t know where I heard X, or Y” etc. Sounds like I’m listening to any 3 guys talk about WAR over Ventrilo, with the occasional person turning their music up too loud and drowning out the voices. I don’t follow WAR that closely, and even I took nothing away from this podcast.

  • @Pete

    Sounds like 3 guys chatting over vent? Personally, I hope that’s the style we continue to podcast with. Our intention isn’t to break the latest and greatest news about WAR (there are other podcasts for that), it’s to discuss the topics we find most interesting amongst ourselves and play off each other’s ideas.

    The “community” part focuses on bridging our three blogging communities as well as the WAR fansite community at large. Our main goal is to let you know about cool stuff happening on community sites.

    I do see merit to part of your comment though. We should, or at least I should in particular, prepare a little bit better in terms of reference notes and organizing thoughts beforehand. I do, however, enjoy the little jaunts we take off the defined track from time to time because that’s where the humour usually comes in.

    The dog distraction was quite entertaining for a lot of our listeners (and ourselves!), but I understand you can’t please everyone. 🙂

  • I’ll take Pete’s comments as a compliment. I agree with Snafzg that the “3 guys chatting over vent” is precisely the style we want for our podcast. Some of the best content in a podcast comes from going off on tangets and following alternate trains of thought. If we read you a rehearsed dialog you would surely get all the info in a quick orderly fashion… but it would sound like watching CNN.

  • Honestly I really enjoyed it. Personally, I’m really hoping they have guest spots. (nudge nudge). I did find that I think they glossed over some potential issues and in some areas didn’t go deep enough in their anaylisis of some of the topics.

    As for wikis. Yes, WHA is building a wiki 1.0. We’ve been working on it, for nearly a year. It’s STILL not ready for public consumption. And yes, we’re doing a wiki 2.0 as well.

    Also, I agree the NDA is a bit too restrictive. There are several areas that I think it reaches too far. Not specifically covering disclosure, but in the areas of UI addon development.

  • It’s hard to know where the balance lies, between being prepared and TOO prepared, diving into topics and meandering too long on nitty gritty details, between being prepared and being spontaneous. I think we’ll find our footing the more we do this, but as long as we can just enjoy ourselves and not feel like we’re putting on an NPR-polished news feature, it’ll go fine.

  • I think the guys chatting over vent was the perfect style, it was fun and informal. But the music overpowering you still talking was kinda annoying, and it would have been nice if you’d referenced better. But other than that, I enjoyed it, the style and pitch were perfect. Sadly the star of the show (the dog) stole it for me though!

  • I just gotta say this was an excellent Podcast. I’m pretty critical of Podcasts because I’ve done them before. You guys need to work out your music transitions a little better, but it’s probably due to being excited about releasing your first podcast.

    One thing that’s interesting is that none of your guys appear to be actual Warhammer Fans. Warhammer Online sure, but you guys don’t appear to know a lot about history of the Warhammer Universe. It’s a different perspective which would have been nice to hear.

    P.S. Linking to you guys on my blog.
    http://www.victorlaurence.com/topic/gaming

  • Nope, I haven’t been a Warhammer Fantasy fan previous to getting into this game. And I think that’s a valid perspective to blog from — if Mythic wants their game to be successful, it has to reach people like me just as much, if not more, than the die hard Warhammer fans. We all gotta starts somewhere.

  • Great Podcast, thanks a lot. I enjoy all three blogs and it was fun listening to you guys wax philosophical about the game, the May newsletter, NDAs, and whatever else happened to pop into your minds. I think this style of podcast is really good for the community and I look forward to the next installment.

    P.S. I really hope that a single wiki emerges as THE place to go for guides and data about the game. I know that questions like “What abilities are available in the Marauder’s Path of Brutality?” are easy to answer and don’t require a wiki, but in other games I’ve found that a wiki can be a great place to collect info on things like game mechanics (e.g. A chart showing the probability that a target resists a magic attack based on the intelligence of the caster and the willpower of the target).

  • Again, thanks for all the great feedback and ideas for future podcasts! Our list is already getting huge! 😛

  • I thought the podcast was great and fun to listen to throughout the whole podcast which is an achievement as this one was quite long compared to others (depends who you listen to really). And I’m going to have to respectfully disagree with Nollind and Pete about their opinions on going off the track a bit and making jokes. As I think it’s great as it stops it being three guys giving out as much information as they can within a certain time, but instead is three guys looking forward to the game like myself with their opinions.

    I do like the WAR crafting system very much compared to other games too. It takes the point off of gear as you said and focuses more on RvR and spending your time getting better as bashing people’s heads in, by bashing people’s heads in rather than crafting for those hours instead.

    And I wasn’t sure who said it at the end of the podcast but they said what I’ve wanted for WAR all since waiting for it. And that’s to keep the level cap at 40. Not only does this keep away the grind of other up another 10 levels or so. But focuses on more end game content instead when you are level 40. Also if they did raise the cap to 50 and created a level 41 – 50 area to do so what would happen to city sieges. Would the Cities be ‘moved’ to the level 50 zone? Or if somebody wanted to further city capture they would have to backtrack to the tier 4 zones again. Meaning there be a bunch of level 50s running around in a level 31 – 40 zone. i think the best thing Mythic can do is come up with some new cool ideas for the end game.

    So moving on to why I made this comment, since you asked for some ideas on the next podcast. I too would like some more opinions on the living guild system. I’m in a guild called the Acolytes (which also has Arkane which I think is the Arkane one of you mentioned unless there’s more than one floating around there, it sounded like our one). And to have the guild grow the more we do and to be able to display our banners on any keeps we capture greatly increases the importance of a guild. Also what do you think Mythic could do to just stop zerg guilds being better than say a close guild where everyone knows each other, and skillfully works together. What else do you think could be done to make guilds seem more important and useful without making solo play harder for those who want to as well?

  • Loving the podcast so far, just got to the Wiki section. Do have to say- Hammerwiki forever!

    Really good stuff though, enjoying it.