Welcome to Narrative Center with Danny Niffy. I'm Iffy way away. Danny is sitting this one out. She's been She's had quite an eventful weekend. You're doing the press junket for Bracket Ralph and you know, hanging out with all those celebs and all. Buddy Buddy, you know, didn't give me a ticket, But it's all bit, it's all good. I couldn't make it because I had blizz Con. But you know, I'm sure if I didn't have blizz Con, she would have me up in the air or something like that.
But in her stead, we have two people who were able to experience the con with me, and we'll be talking about a chatting and breaking it down, and that is Malika Limb and Naim Stewart. Hello. How are y'all doing? Hello? Everybody? Yeah, yeah, So we had one person who had a job offer from Blizzards. I'm not a job offer, but you got pretty close to the the light there, you got you had an interview. If I'm not mistaken, right, Yes, that's absolutely right. I'm Alika Limb again. I'm a game designer,
game developer, occasional community manager and marketer for games. I also like to play games surprise surprise, and a while back I did try to get an internship at Blizzard on the Quest writing team. I don't know if I'm allowed. I'm always nervous to talk about my relationships with other companies. Okay, we'll just stop there then and keep it safe. But I feel like that much is cool, you know what. I'm still interested in collaborating that out there tuned in
and and we have names Stewart Artists extraordinaire. I mean you, I mean he's a pro stippling. That's that's pretty much what he primarily does. Is he only does. I haven't done stip do you know what? You know what stipling is? Absolutely it's the dots. Yeah, pretty much. You explain it for the listeners. So pretty much you use ink dots, whether it be black or colored, and you will just create an image just using dots. That's what I did.
I mean, I still do it. I haven't done it actually in a couple of months, probably to a year now. I've been focusing more on digital, uh, drawing digitally, but yeah, I just do all types stuff. But that was one of the things that uh, if you remember me doing when he first met me. So yeah, because you did like this huge piece for twitch coom right that Twitch Con show, and it was like this huge dwarf and it was amazing. We're gonna add it in the footnotes
if you're listening and curiously what that looks like. But it's a real cool piece and it was like the like I knew of stifling, Like You've definitely kind of seen that art before, but I've never watched someone do it. And Naim used to stream himself literally just making dots on Twitch. Yeah. I would stream that late at night. Uh, started like around eight nine o'clock specific time, and just do that till five six in the morning and go and sleep and go to work. Yeah. I would probably
sleep like three hours and go straight to work. So when you're stippling, how do you know you're making what you want to make? Like? How do you plan it out some way? When I did it, I pretty much had a simple image just sketched out, and then when I started stippling, I just let it go just when it three and then whatever comes with it, I make it. So Yeah, alright, looll cool. I mean more on that. You probably go to his bods. I'm sure if you wanted to see that in action. But we're talking about
blizz Con, and blizz Con was super fun. It was both of your first times at blizz Con. First time it was, this is my second, so it's not like I'm like the super Vet, but blizz Con is was.
It's it's a great experience. I think when you have such a focus cons, like we talked in the Comic Con episode of how Like you know, when you go to a comic counter anime con, it's so many different properties coming together that you know, you get what you like, everyone gets what they're like, but sometimes you don't get enough. And when you have something so targeted like blizz Con, where it's just all Blizzard everything, it was so cool. They had like a whole large live dark Moonfair. They
had multiple sports made. Yeah, they had that we yeah you missed that, dad, full size dark Moonfair. It was and it spanned like multiple buildings. It felt, it honestly felt that that this year it was almost a little too big for the Anaheim Convention Center and y'all, y'all might have to move to l a convention center. You know, I'm just saying, Blizzard you know, not only would that make that trip way easier, but you'll have a lot
more space. It'll be a good time. I think it's time Blizzard come on down l a maybe make our lives way easier. But yeah, it's but every year it starts off with the opening ceremony and we get those sweet, sweet announcements. It's basically like the Apple kind of like keynote speech, but for Blizzard nerds, and it's super exciting. And they even have their own little versions of weight.
There's more, but let's kick it off with the Blizzard property most people are familiar with, which is World of Warcraft. They yes, yes, yes, they announced Tides of Vengeance, which is the war between and and you know this little tizzy that they hooked me up with. They gave me the press, you know, info so I can just read it all, and the war between the Horde and the Alliance,
which is a crucial turning point. And Tides of Vengeance the upcoming first major content update for Battle for Azarath that will bring new content including the Battle of Dessar, a Lower Raid and Battle for Dark Shore, Warfront and more. And there's then they added a nice cinematic which Naim got to watch I have sat there watched him watch it. Malik and I got to watch it live. It was amazing And unfortunately when Malik watched it, even when he
watched the livestream, he didn't get the cheers. But there's something about hearing the cheers at the specific moments and just the energy that's in the room. But for those who once again, this will be in the footnotes for you to watch later. But just a quick cliff notes. Um, if you are unaware at the top of Battle for as Roth in the general encounter and which you're joining the with a whole bunch of new players, you there's a battle in which you arrest sal Frank sour fang
Um and he's just in jail. So this picks up from there where Aldown goes down to check and he's kind of filling weathered by the war seeing so many people dying, which has been a good It's so interesting with the world of warcraft because they are so good at like both like making a game that sits in a constant state of war, but still like have that kind of down to earth take of like this is bad,
we're losing people. We we don't want this, Like, yeah, we're having fun out here questing, but there are you know, problems that come with war. And so he goes down consults with sour Fang. You find out that sour Fang is not happy with Sylvanas and the where she's taking a hoard. Yeah, some people disagree. Yeah, you know, well Silvanna still got stands na are you Hoarde? Okay, here's the thing, Wow, did not know that. I didn't say I was. I I like, both sides have have characters
on both sides. I started on Alliance, Um, I'm but the character on playing now is Alliance. But I still have love for Hoarde, I don't. I mean, I just look at both sides and see what's going on to to figure out the naime over here with good people on both sides. Yeah, so as a both sides are Um, how do you feel about this new expansion because it does kind of bring the both together sort of. Well, at first, I did not care for all the one
right at the beginning, I was all for King Varian. Uh, and when he you know, died get killed by Golden, I had to like getting used to this new guy, and and so far he's pretty cool. I believe he's a paladin, right yea, yeah, yeah, paladin. He might be a Paladin's I'm kind of going based off of his hearthstone. Yea. But so far, I haven't played much of the expansion because of work and other stuff. But so far as
it's pretty good, like really good. I haven't played a Legion was good too, but anyway, uh, it's so far, it's pretty good. Uh. I want to explore more about sar Fangs uh uh his uh what do you call it? His uh mindset when it comes to what he perceives as what the Horde looks for in his eyes? As well as Savannas, she's pretty much I know we have, like you said, stands for Silvanas, but what she's doing, in my opinion, is pretty left up. Yeah, I mean
she's she's basically committing genocide. And uh, I'm interesting to see if Sarfang could potentially be the new Wards you eventually, especially since he you know, if you played without the Lynch King, you know, he lost his son at that time, and then you know, I want to see what his mindset. I just want to explore more because he's a really
interesting character. Yeah. So yeah, no, I'm I'm super excited for that, and and it's it is so funny because I do feel like on the Horde side, They're big angle is that there's so much turmoil in the leadership of the Horde where Alliance are thing has just been and it does seem like Alliance are kind of being played as the good guys, where our biggest mission is
whatever the expansion pack is about. You know, there's never Our first change of power has been when King Arrian Wren died, which I skipped Warlords and a Legion because I just got caught up in other games. So I came back for Battle Forever round and I'm like, oh man, I'm excited to see my man Barian. You know, he's finally getting to fight. The Hoard was something to get spiced up. And then I come in. I'm like, where what is it? Why is it? Why is that one
running everything? And someone had to go and tell me that he is dead, and I was like, wait, what hey, straight killed my man's off behind the back. That's why that's why you played through all expansions, y'all, so you don't come back when your favor is dead. I didn't even get to see him off. I have to go back and play it, but it's not even the same because I know that I'm already in the future of it. You've seen the cut scene though, right the video of
you know, you're just trying to rub it in. Now, I thought you watched it. I will play through that point and watch it when I get to that point. Naive, I'm not there yet. I'm sorry. I thought you actually watched it. That's how we also had, you know, the confirmation of a release date of Wild Classic. I will launch in the summer of two thousand nineteen and will be included with your Wow subscription. Blizz count attendees can demo it early. Uh and uh it was on the
show floor. Me and Naim got to play it. Um, it's Wild Classic, that's my take on that's it. Well, what do you think of classic? Um? So, I've been playing Wild for a really long time. I'm on a day one server mana Roth confined me. Um, but I what I started what six years ago? And this is what a fourteen year old game now? So even I don't feel like o G And it's kind of cool to maybe have that opportunity to be like what were
you guys all freaking out about? Yeah, I mean it was it was Look, I will say there was interest in being like, oh what is this like first, and everyone so hyped about but I came in like Burning Crusade. But I came in in the same sense. I don't know how familiar. I feel like everyone in this room will be gamers and understand, but everyone remembers like that period where there were tons of MMOs and you would
play an MMO, but you weren't playing an MMO. You're just kind of leveling a bit before you were like all right, you know, like that, And that's kind of how that's that's how I did with b C. Then rather lich King came and I kind of first finally had a guild, people to cheer me on, someone who knew what they were doing, and something to build towards.
And that's when it became like the best off tank on'nara has ever seen, um but I But even then, like I remember, I really liked Wrath because that's when I kind of got good at the game and understood it, and they had the they just introduced the dungeon finder or the raid finder, and I was really excited about that because if if you were unfamiliar the way you have to find raids were speaking in all chats in the middle of the town, and people would run these
weird quizzes from you and expect you to know the rate, even if you're like, hey, it's my first run. Oh, you don't get a first run. You gotta know the raid. And then if you if it is someone who's like, I'm gonna let you run through, it's like, well, did you watch all the videos and you're like, yeah, I did, but it's still not the same as actually playing the game. Uh so, And there was just a lot of gate keeping, and it made for the end game being very slow
and stilted if you didn't have a guild. Uh and raid Finder kind of got rid of all that, and people were mad about it. And I think the thing people are mad about is that they don't get to be elitist that and that is my true heart of hearts feel on people's anger towards like a lot of the improvements, because a lot of the quality of life improvements helped with a lot of these things that I
felt were wrong on a social level. And wow, which is like people gatekeeping and being being able to be elitist within the game and when there was a way to skip them and they can't, you know, have this kind of hold over you. Now all of a sudden the games bad, but to stay on the task. For Wild Classic, I turned it on me and I am played I got a quest. I hit mapp to see where the quest was. It wasn't there, and I was like, oh, yeah, okay, I'm not gonna be playing this. Yeah. I played Wow
from the get go right when it launched. I got it for a right around Christmas two thousand five or something like that, and uh, that was pretty much. I
played an MMO beforehand before Wow. Those dark ages for next on made it whatever, But what well the world craft was like first full MMO experience, and uh, comparing Wild now compared to where it was, it's such a nine and day thing because, like if he said, when you look at your map, if you get a quest, usually now you can see where you need to go. It's it's so easy. Before you have to literally read the quest and figure out where such as such, if we had to kill like ten minutes, you have to
like read it where it's at. It's a mind southwest of the location right now, you have to go there and find it and then kill slowly ten uh ten or so amounts of uh uh whatever to uh complete quest, then come back to return it. You couldn't. You couldn't complete the quest right then and there. You have to come back to the quest giver at the hill for example, uh ten minutes away getting another quest, go back out.
It was such slow grinding experience. But because I was so young personally and I was just having fun and just hambored by the world that I was seeing, I was like, Okay, whatever, it's cool, this is cool. Um. But I think personally there will be such a wake up call once this comes out. Granted, I'm gonna play it. I want to, I want to play I'm gonna play it.
But I think once people get over into the nostalgia feeling of playing Wow Vanilla, they'd be like, I don't know if this was as fun as I remember what in the But I think because this will answer the question of did people want a Vanilla Wow experience or did people want a free Wow experience? Because that's what it's gonna answer, because remember that was the main thing
that where Blizzard was shutting down these services. All these servers were free, So we're getting the Wow, the same game that other people are paying a subscription fee for. You were getting it for free and you were saying the reason you wanted it is because it was vanilla, and Wow didn't offer that. So now that whole I was offering that it's gonna be it's gonna be interesting. It's like, it's so, now do you want it? Or
did you want a free Wow? There was things I can say doing Wow Classic the Classic area that were just amazing times, Like if you were if you got a rate of forty people together, do that you you managed to defeat, say Raging Ross and Moncore. That feeling of just seeing forty individual people just cheer on in Ventrilo Ventrilla is before now, but you know, of course you have to pay for a server. Then, yeah, teams speaking,
team speak. Counterstrike was all about team speak, then Trillo was for the MMO nerds, yeah, and vice versa for some people. But just just having that moment of hearing just forty people and then people waiting outside in the raid and just hearing that you've defeated the Raging Rows. Since your first guild raid Boss Kill is amazing, and I know people want to have that feeling again at
nostalgia feeling. But at the same time, it was hard to get forty people together and be on the same page to actually strategize to beat a boss and and molten Core and Black Wing Lair and next Ramus was so hard to deal with that, you know, But that's just one of the things that was both pros and contents when dealing with a WOW classic back then compared to now, well that was a yeah. So you know, love it, love it or not, it's gonna be there. And if you're already sub to Wow, no extra price
to you. So I think that's a win win either way. And you know, last a lot not least, they announced the the kind of charity gift they Every year they do a charity gift where if you buy, the proceeds go towards charity, and this year it's gonna benefit code dot org, which is a nonprofit dedicated to expanding computer science education in schools and increasing participation by women and minorities, Which is cool like that that not only is it a charity, but it's a charity that hope it helps
women and minorities, and you know, we definitely want more of that in stem tech and in gaming. And you know, to see a company like Blizzard be proactive about that by you know, helping a charity like that, that's real cool to see. Uh. And yeah, this year it's a cute little whomper, so you can adopt that. It's a whomper for for people who don't play Blizzard game it's basically abominable snowman, but look it up. It's cute. But we got to talk about the big old Overwatch announcement
that came out. It was exciting, everyone's super hyped about it. We'll get into that right after these messages and we're back. Uh just like that you know you need, and we're gonna jump in and we're gonna speed it up. We got real nostalgic with Wow, we're gonna I'm gonna try and be on everyone's head. But Overwatch kicked off with a Macree animated short which showed this character Ash, which was super exciting. Well before that, we saw this apple pie that was so good that made me go get
apple pie today. I was like, yeah, the apple pies are bomb. You're right, mcrea. Um. But uh, the animated short which will be in once again the footnotes, that's me cos playing as Miles. Uh. If you don't listen to the day the site guys, then you don't know
what I just did. Um. But it was cool because this was very much a like I don't want to say trolly because that seems like it's mean, but just definitely like exciting announcement because you know, they talked about how almost every character in that cinematic would be fun as a playable character, and it's true. And then they went through I thought they swerved us at the end by introducing that Echo character, but then he was like echoes not ready yet, and we're like, oh damn. And
they're like, but what if it's this guy? And I was like, oh, I was like, but it's not. What if it's this guy? Oh but it's not. What if it was Bob? And was like, oh, but it's not, it's Ash And we're like yeah. And then they play ashes uh kind of announcement uh you know video and it's good. And then towards the end of it, Uh, Bob pops up and we're like oh, and I'm losing my mind because I thought it was a double character announcement. It was not. It's just an ultimate which will get
into that. Actually, yeah, this will be pretty long because all of us had a chance to play, and your boy got real sweaty. I got play of the game in the media room because I don't play. I don't play. I don't care if y'all trying to test out this new character. I'm here trying to get wins, me and the guy who decided to stop playing as Ash and play a healer just so we can win. I was like, this is the type of scum lord stuff that I'm into, taking the media time, chance to learn this new character
and trying to win. But yeah, so we had Ash. She's a gun slinger, she was, she's in the Deadlock game.
She has a um, I don't know what would you call that, like yeah, like, but it's like it is like a staple in West Yeah, like a repeat yeah yeah, yeah, So it's a it's a repeater a rifle which is so versatile and cool because you have uh without aiming downsites is shooting pretty fast and then when you aim down shot sites, it shoots slower, but it has like that sniper rifle damage, and it does seem like it
gets that bonus damage with headshots. Uh. So it's uhum or lever action, yes, repeater or lever action for the cowboys in the room. But she is super fun. She her shift attack is a sawed off that knocks you both back, but if you shoot it in the ground, you can use it as a rocket jump. She has a dynamite which does damage over time because it catches you on fire, which has a fuse, or you can shoot it so it can explode immediately. Uh. And her ultimate is Bob. He he charges forward, slams down, and
then starts to shoot automatically. And once I figured this out, that's how I ended up getting play of the game. We were playing on El Dorado. That was the mat we're playing on, and that first little cave that you have um at the beginning before the turn for the payload, we were all in there fighting and I was like, oh, I think I just figured out that Bob is a charge like it doesn't just appear. And when I did it, he pushed all of our enemies out of the cave,
slammed down, and proceeded to kill everyone. Uh. So so that's when I was like, Oh, this will be fun to see the ways you can use it because you're basically firing Bob forward in the charge motion and it seems like it does get a little pushback, so you
can have fun with that on the edge. Or if you're a Naime Naime who smacked Bob off, the just basically auto killed someone's old because it charged towards Naime and he smacked him right off of the level and it was over, Yeah, what do you all think of ash? So that was I was a mouthful well. I mean I loved like witnessing that reveal video with you, Iffy, because it was, Oh, is it gonna be her? Oh? Is it gonna be you know who? And I was like, Iffy, I hope it's Bob. And I was like, yeah, how's
it Bob? You know? And I'm really glad that he is added to this whole Overwatch world. I did not have an epic play with Bob. I was like, oh, it's all charged up now, and I wasn't even really looking where I was looking, and I like shot him into one of those like rooms where there's pickups and he was just by himself, and I'm like that was like, you know, everyone's using you to fight their weird battles. I'm just gonna let you relax. I really liked the dynamite.
The dynamite was the most fun for me because it gave you the option because in such a fast paced game, You're like, well, it would be generally helpful if that dynamite blew up over there, and then you can time that explosion. Yeah. Oh yeah, so it's it's took great you can It's so first selling the ways you can use the dynamite and then also what both of you got to experience between me there. There there was one other thing Overwatch related that was at bliz Cons and
I'm gonna just read the the press. Uh kid, they sent Lucio's is here. With the help of Kelloggs, the popular Lucio in game spray has become a reality. The Syria will be available for purchase starting in late December at various retailers in the United States. Some lucky attendees at blizz Conn and those visiting Kellogg's NYC Cafe Union Square this weekend will be some of the first to boost their breakfast with the Lucy Oh Sonic Vanilla Flavor, who may have been one of those lucky people. Well
it was your boy. Your boy went and hounded. And I gotta give shouts out to Blizzard because I felt like any other company would have been really annoyed at. I've checked back with him every hour on the hour, but they they had it, they had it waiting for me when I went with Naime to get the Lucio's and I've never been more happy. It's sitting in my house. No. No, I was like, it needs to be right here, that I wanted that so bad and I got it. It's
so beautiful. I you know, I am taking a keyto break and yeah, I could have opened it up to taste and I was like, you know what, No, mostly because I said I was gonna do something with it, and I think I will. My the voice of Lucio, Johnny Cruiz is my friend, my buddy, and I'm gonna get him to sign that box of cereal and it will be uh put up as a giveaway during the extra live stream that I plan on doing this month,
so you know someone else will get lucky. Um, just like the Daft Punk song and if you know it's November, so you'll still get it early before it drops in mid December. It seems like, so stay tuned, show up on Twitch, you know, all that stuff. We're doing it for the charities, so it's a good cause. Let's jump over the Heroes of the Storm. All my mobile heads where y'all at? Uh, just me alright, yeah, alright, alright.
So we got a new hero in the Heroes of the Storm, which I pretty much expected, but what I did not expect was this their first ever Nexus born hero, which means it's not from a previous I p. If you're unaware of Heroes of the Storm. Heroes of the Storm basically, uh, it takes the it takes the sorry, it takes heroes from other Blizzard properties and puts them in the game. So you have Warcraft heroes like uhl Furian,
we have who Yeah, yeah, Arthur's is in there. And then you have Diablo, he was like Leoric the Crusader, I think, uh, I think the is the Demon Hunter in it yet? No? No Demon Hunter? Yeah yeah, and then you have Overwatch characters like Tracer, Genji and uh it Um. And then we what's what's a the StarCraft zero tool? You know, uh, the zerks, you know, a rainer,
you know, all those dudes. So it's very fun. So instead of pulling from that resource, they're like, we're creating a new hero called Orphea, which is the heir of the Raven Court and daughter of the nefarious raven lord. And it's pretty cool. I I got to play a bit. She's she's very fun. She's she's a kind of ranged hero. Her QUE is kind of this range attack that pulls pulls your enemy towards your pulls her towards the enemy.
Her W is a forward attack button, uh, and her E is ah it shoots a a area of effect hit that can be used to slow and her ultimate allows her one allows her to damage a whole area for a piece of time, and the other I forget, but that can be included in this package that we will also include in the footnotes. Uh, or all the deats will be there. Uh, so anything I might have
missed will be there. But yeah, it seems like she uses some kind of like he referred to it as dead magic, and it's like basically look like venom if it wasn't the bad top hardy version. It's it's really cool. She seems cool. She's carrying this like casket container on her back. That's really cool. Um, but her hair. Yeah. And one other fun note is they announced they kind of teased and announced that le Orc will be getting
a Janitor skin, which looks super fun. Yeah, and then it seems like they're doing a whole school theme for their skins. So that's Heroes of the Storm for all my stormheads. Then we're gonna talk about Diablo, oh boy, because yeah, this was a this was a this was this was a moment. Uh. And I will talk about what's going on and I will talk about how I feel. So we'll start with the good, which is they announced Diablo three, the Eternal Collection, now available on Switch, which
I've been grinding for the past two nights. It's been super fun. If you've been grinding, I we need to exchange stuff. I'm already uh level seventy. I just guess were fifty years. I'm like, yeah, I wasn't playing when I said I was grinding. I was grinding. I am like on the third I'm getting the fourth season journey before I'm running riffs. I was not. I was grinding that ass off. I was here, proud of myself from going level you know zero to last night. Yeah yeah,
no I was. I was not playing. But I will power level anyone who wants it though. So if you want a power level and get to this end game content, hit your boy up. Yeah no, I love Diablo is like that perfect game that's just there and you can always get back into it and have fun. Like that's what I love about Diablo. I love just you know,
and the season system is perfect for that. You can do the end game stuff pop off, and the community is there on Switch, like they have the quick Match that lets you match with people and man, we we're busting heads all day. Uh so definitely. And then they have the Switch Diablo three Collection Bundle, which comes with a uh special commemorative commemorative switch. The doc has some art on it. The back of the actual console has
some art on it. Uh you know, I would have liked the little art on the Joy cons as, you know, just to carry because that's what I'm gonna see the most of I dip. My DOC is behind my TV. But that's a me thing. If if if your DOC is like where it's visible with most consoles usually are visible, uh, then it probably looks cool and it comes with a super dope bag. But we got to talk about the
thing we're all growny about, which is Diablo Immortal. Blizzard introduced an authentic Diablo experience with Diablo Immortal, the mobile MMO action RPG and the newest entry into the Diablo series. So just off rip, uh, just so you know. It takes place between Diablo two and three, those stories in between, and you know it is a mobile device, and people are saying the that it feels like a real skin of. Um,
the company who made it made it other game. I went to look at videos and it didn't look similar like it. It has the same top down Diablo three Diablo I mean not Diablo three, but Diablo series. Feel the one that they're saying it's a real skin of
is more of a kind of third person action. So I feel like the UI is similar, but the there isn't much diversity in cell phone game U I. So that's kind of already a weak argument to begin In my and my point of view, you have one side being the thumbsick and you have the other side being buttons that your finger pressed, so which is kind of pretty much and like pup g is the same thing on phone. Yeah, and it's actually pretty fun when when I play. I still play every now and again. But yeah,
that's usually the control setup for most mobile games. Yeah. So with that being said, you know, I played it and I actually enjoyed it. Like I will say, when I first heard the announcement, I was team And it wasn't because I was feeling like it was a reskin or anything. I just, you know, I just phone games seem like, especially if you have all these stories that you're trying to tell, it's like that could be a DLC for the switch, or that could be a DLC
for the thing. But once I actually played it, it actually plays really well, and especially coming off of grinding uh Diablo and then coming to the cell phone version, it really did feel like it they did a good job of transferring the fal to the cell phone version. Um, I'm not, you know, sucking up because I got a media you know whatever, you you know, I this this
is just how I feel. Some people may feel differently, but it seems like a few of the outlets that did get their hands on it feel the same way as I do. That it feels pretty good once you play it. Everyone I've talked to at the at the con name can be my witness that that when they played it it felt good. So I I I just you know, say, if you're if you're not in the cell phone the games at all, and then yeah, definitely don't like break your your rule of not like in
cell phone games to try it out. But if you do like cell phone games and you're afraid that it's just a re skin, I say give it a shot because it definitely didn't feel like a re skin. But full disclosure, I also didn't play the game that was re skin. I kind of just went through and watched videos and tried to compare to what I played, and just from the videos that I saw, it definitely didn't feel like a ree skin. Yeah I didn't play it.
I think you played it right now, Okay, Uh, it's I just it's I know it's pros and cons with releasing it on a mobile. I know people want it on a PC. Diablo is a deep game, and you know you need your keyboards or you know, your configuration to do a lot of stuff. But they not much information to my knowledge, has been released for this thing yet, so people are already jumping to conclusions. I know we talked about this beforehand, and people already jumping to conclusions
about what's going to be. The game is going to be just a straight rip off of the third party, the other game that allegedly that people are looking at that's comparing it to it. But there's, like I said, pros and Constitus, UH, putting it on a mobile market, which is also just pretty big still to this day. UH introduces a wider audience to Diablo, which eventually, when di Alblo four comes out, you'll be able to bring those people that you already got from them playing Immortal
to the new Diabo four. Ya that's supposedly going to come out. Yeah, And I feel like that's really what it is. I think it's less. I think the game is getting the brunt of people being mad that they
have to wait for Diablo. Um. I mean technically comparatively, we're not the We haven't waited the longest yet because Diablo Too, Lord of Darkness came out in two thousand and one and Diablo three came out in two thousand and twelve, so we have yet to reach the eleven or the eleven year weight that people who waited for two and three to hit yet. So I think it's and I think you know, to trust the devs when
they're like, hey, um, you know we're doing that. Because there was a video that came out that kind of made me roll my eyes where it was the Q and a portion of Diablo and someone was like, oh, is this an out of season April Fool's joke, and like, you know, it's like, yeah, it's cool, it's funny for the memes, but like, at the end of the day, it's disrespectful. I was gonna add an extra syllable that
wouldn't have made it to the cut. Um. That type of stuff gets me riled up because when you know what goes into game design, when you know the work, like even though it's a game that you don't care about, even like even if it was a real skin of a game, that's still a lot of work that would have went in to put the Diablo assets into that game, and you and and like I at the same time, I don't want to like Negaine anyone's feelings, but there's like a level of entitlement when you think you can
walk up to someone who worked hardens like genuinely excited to share something that they spent time created and kind of spit in their face like that and think that you're in the right. And I think there's that's the source of a lot of things that are wrong today, that when you feel that you are in the right, you think it absolves you from any type of decency, And that's not the case. You still have to be
a good human even if you're mad. You have to be the bigger on the way here, when I was parking, somebody came and um, and they cut me off. And they they're hanking behind me the whole time, and they cut me off. They kind of came around because I was making a left turn and she had her window down. She was yelling, and I was like shut like I had there was there was a moment where I had to decide do I just part or do I follow
this person make them mad? But besides the optics of this giant black guy following this angry white woman, uh and just but I was like, it's nice, It's like it's it's like, you know, it's not that serious. Like that would still be a crappy thing to do, even though, like I feel like I'm justified because she is targeting me. Um and and that's what it comes down to, is like, you know, it feels old now because of everything that has happened between this quote up of the when they
when when when they go low, we go high. I think, you know, there's sometimes when we need to you know, rethink that. Uh, that analogy, but I think in general, in life, you definitely want to do that, especially over something that's supposed to be fun, like a video game. Definitely, in a video game, you gotta understand, and you also got to understand and appreciate people who will like that, because there are people who probably saw that and did
get excited. And now you're you're kind of sending this energy of like, oh no, you're dumb for liking this. Um, but that's my mini Diablo rant. Uh. And we're gonna do a complete one eight uh as we talk about her stone right after these messages. All right, and we're back and uh, we're gonna close out StarCraft. I'm gonna just hit their announcements up. But no one in here is a StarCraft to head except for Dan poor Dan's
he threw his hands up in disappointment. But yeah, we have zero tool dropping uh in the new co op mode, which you know, I thought zero tool was always around, but I guess you know. Uh, so how excited where you are speaking? Enough StarCraft professional scene A white dude the first time in twenty years one uh and the yeah yeah, I think the first instance of where people were like, yeah, white dude deeds win. Yeah, but it
was there. Yeah, it was a scene that's dominated by Koreans. Uh. Finally, Uh, that was interesting. I had a friend texting me updates and she was like, just in it. She was at the stadium and she was like it was crazy. Um. And now you can also gain war chest from watching people do it on Twitch. But let's talk about her Stone. Um. You know, before we even start into what this is eventually going to talk about, I want to say I really did enjoy the game. Me and Malika had a
great game. Uh. Playing with the expansion, it was super fun. It was great. Um. But if that was the longest game of Stone I've ever played in my life, it was so back in for Yeah, that was what was so crazy. It was long and it felt like at any moment you or me were gonna win. It just kept going back. It was. It was real fun. They had these two cards that we both had. Um, we
we both had one card. It was two in total that would have this feature called shrine in which if you killed it, it would just come back in three terms. But they all had a super dope effect. Her card had its attack was however much armor she had, and my card had a plus one spell damage for every spell in my hand. So her card was filled with armor up cards and my my deck was filled with spells.
And so it was just this back and forth where like this big scary guy would come because she was armored up, and then I would have to but he still had the same health, so I just need to do eight damage to knock him out. And then it's me trying to build up and prepare for this guy to come back, and she was just getting her armor up. It was real fun. I'm really excited for this expansion
the announcement. However, so let's talk about trolls as a whole. Trolls, you know, there are race that comes from the Warcraft universe have been in wow um one of the best designs on the Hoarde, I will say, but a lot of their design borrow kind of Aztecs designs and their voice borrows a Jamaican accent. Uh so they're there are these Jamaicans and the Aztec characters, and it never seemed
like an issue. Like me speaking from my you know, point of view and perspective back in like you know, early two thousand's, two thousands six and such when they first dropped. And then I feel like, you know, now we're in a time where it's it's different. It's it's it's it's very different. It's things are different, and you know,
he was it. I feel like Blizzard is in a weird position and I don't have a solution for them right now where they have these trolls and they have this race that talks like Jamaican Jamaicans, and like if someone was to be talking like a troll in a Blizzard setting like blizz Con, you'd be like, oh, they're just talking like a troll. But if they were talking like a troll in a normal setting where no one's aware of Blizzard properties, they'd be like, why is this
white dude doing a Jamaican accent. I will even go further to say that there are white Jamaicans with full on Jamaican accents, but that's very nuanced, very different. So there, so let this brings us well. Also, I don't know if you felt this way at the opening ceremony, but when they were doing the Hearthstone announcements, I felt super awkward because he also like shot it over to the new trailer with the Jamaican accent, and then he also talked about how they are a proud people, and it
was so weird. Yeah, I know, it's so it's so funny because it's like and and and this is one of those things where I feel like it is going to be a thing that like probably went over anyone who's not a person of color's head. But I actually know because I was in the I was yeah, I will say I do disagree. I was in um the BuzzFeed slack because I was out of office, but obviously
because I'm a great co worker. For the co workers who couldn't watch the opening ceremony, I was feeding them info and one of the co workers who were dope and bought virtual tickets were also kind of helping me out with that. And one was like, I am not feeling this and and and it's because it's a weird thing where like I want to defend it because I know context wise what you're doing, but I don't want to take anyone's agency to say like I don't like
this right. And then also you mentioned that when they made that announcement, like nobody laughed. I felt like, yeah, I felt like no one knew what to do because it was supposed to be like exciting because it was a troll close and we're like, well are we going mon? But it's like it's like it just seems like this why dude do in a Jamaican accident, and even like in the Battle for Azaroth, you see the troll like
Jamaicanism stuff kind of toned down. So to see it like flip back to this in her Stone, it is kind of like whoa, um, But you know, hey, I feel like here's the thing. These these discussions need to happen, whether whether we agree or not. And I and and by agree I mean me other Blacks and Jamaicans. I want to put that down so hard. I'm so tired of watching pete white people on Twitter try and explain
to people of color wise, something isn't racism. And I'm gonna say this I'm gonna try and keep it as short as possible because we're run on time. But you cannot. I I and for some people, I get where you're coming from. I know you're trying to be like this is why from the guy, but you cannot do you
do it? You you You would not be able to fathom, like I would never be able to explain to a woman why something isn't sexist because I've never in my life, nor will I ever know what that feels like I I can know something like it, like I. You know, there was a comment made in one of the uh last BuzzFeed videos that wasn't that A woman jokingly was like, I like seeing men struggle, and the comments were filled with trolls being like, oh, this is so sexist because
if a man would have said it, And I was like, well, if a man would have said it and it was if we were able to do that easy of an equation, then sexism wouldn't exist. That's why things are different. That's why I, you know, like it's it's it's it's like people just want to remove the nuance of things and make it equal when things aren't equal to begin with.
And that's why you can't have these discussions as a thing of like, well, if X did it, this would be fine, or if X did this, this would be fine. If we can just take a big step back and talk about a poo and people off want to talk groundskeeper Willie and he's not talking about well what about
the groundskeeper? Willie was like, well, you know, you could probably go on TV and find a hundreds of different portrayals of Scottish people and out of that you will have good portrayals and there would be enough to surmise
that this character is a joke. But when you have one South Asian perception of someone and that becomes the baseline, that becomes the barometer for people of what South Asian slash Indian people are like, that's when it's a problem when you don't when you are using stereotypes, because that is a pooh, whether it want to admit it or not, is the only Indian people of Indian person that some
people know. There are some people who have never met an Indian person in their life and they're only information on what they're like, and they and and through the show, I will admit they probably learned some good stuff. They
probably learned like information about his religion. Information like there's stuff that the show does right, but that accent and the fact that, like, you know, you have someone like Harry Kondoboulu who can go around and find all these other Indian people who said they've been called Apu in
a disparaging way. You have to take a seat and stop being like, oh, because I'm not racist with it, then everything's fine, and I and and you know, because that's a bad way to look at it, because one, if you really had empathy and compassion, you wouldn't just be using yourself as the barometer of if something's bad and how something makes you feel, especially when you're not
the one affected. Whoa this went from a bliss con talk to uh talk about you know, um well, that's usually how all episodes go at this point, be restating it. It's like it's like whatever, um uh but yeah, rosta Con I think that And that was the cheerry on top is rosta Con was. If it was other name I,
we probably wouldn't even be having this combo. But I think it's one of those things where it is like I like almost in the sense of like to take it back where it's something that seems funny, but it's just in the just not enough. There's not enough other representation to get away with this stuff. And I think that's just general in general. What what the barometer is
is is there enough other representation awhere? Like you can look at this and be like, oh, this is goofy, but at least we can see this dope version of the representation here now. Um And and it's such a bummer too because I can definitely separate this issue and the gameplay. And the gameplay was so good. I had a great time playing with you. If he I love my deck, I would love to play the same game but switcher decks and see how that would play out.
It was such a good, well balanced game. Yeah, I mean, and that's in the But the fun thing about this and it being a car thing is it is something that can be just toned down and changed, and you know, it's it's literally just you know, if if we go in and the voice lines aren't insane, you know, like you know, Bob Marley quotes all over the place, and then it's like then it's cool, no harm, no foul.
But I do think and people will be like, oh, we're more sensitive, and I don't think I and I genuinely think and take it from me, the guy who gets paid to tell jokes, who sometimes there have been some jokes that I've had to cut out because you know, if you can't always be woke. Uh, you know, no one is being more sensitive. We're just finally in a time where everyone can be heard for better or for worse. Uh. And and so I I think and even discussions like these,
are we saying that they should cancel this expansion? Now? Are we saying that this this needs to be deleted? No? I think all we're saying is it's something to think about and something going forward that we can kind of be more conscious of. And I think that's kind of what Harry was doing, is is something to think about and something to be more conscious going forward. And don't take it as an opportunity to defend yourself because there's
nothing really to defend. You don't have to defend yourself. We'd just like you to go forward and be more conscious. But keep making these dope packs because god dang it, if this thing ain't fun. Um that was that was bliss con But overall, I think final thoughts you forgot one game? Which game? Did I forget? You forgot Warcraft three? Oh oh man? What a what a what an accidental? But wait there's more. Yes, this was a game that
I actually, um glad not even reminded me. I was purposely saving it four last because no, no, but I did forge. I was saving it for last, and I did forget. As is want to happen at the end of my ram. This was one of the best moments for me because not only was it something that I feel is a long time coming, but I called it the night before. Jeff Kenyada was like, what do you
think they're gonna announce? And I was just going like down the list, and I was like, I think we're gonna get a Warcraft three remaster because it's about that time, because we just had that StarCraft re release and I was like, so it's about that time. So when that happened, I not only was I hyped, but I was feeling that vindicated like calling something, but also kicking myself in a boat because I was like, I should have tweeted it, because I would have been that would have been dope.
As every time you like privately call something you're like should have tweeted it. But yeah, we're getting no Warcraft three reforging. You're gonna experience the beloved real time strategy game like never before, new art, new updated models, and it looks good. Yeah. I think all three of us have the chance to play it. And the demo we got to play was the culling of strathel Horn, which is a big moment in the Warcraft universe. It is
what turns Arthur's into the Lynch King. It is the first steps into that, and it kind of closes off with that kind of moment with him and mel Gannis and it was like, oh, man, I remember playing this in the raid. It's crazy to actually play the RTS version because I got I had three and Frozen Throne, but I never played the game because I was playing as a Dota um, not being good at it, just playing it. Uh So I'm very curious if people are gonna take the three remaster and make Dota again, make
Dota classic. Everything's getting classic versions. I can see that happening. Um, I just had to get used to that pointing click uh way of playing again. I haven't played that in a long time. Maybe you should pick up some mobus, so you're probably right. Uh. When I after just getting used to control again, it just felt like I was
playing like a teenager again. It was so smooth. Uh. There's a lot more work that they're going to do to it, obviously, but I love the experience and to experience that big moment again with Artist and him going down the pathway of darkness, which him eventually becoming a litch king, it was really cool and I'm looking forward
to playing that game. So yeah, it was. It was a fun and interesting level for them to have you play because it's kind of like a dark level because the concept of the coloring of Shota Home is this is during Warcraft three, uh, where there was a play going around turning people into these beasts, and Artists says that everyone in this town is infected and the only way to deal with him is to kill these innocent people.
And Jana is like you know Bay at the time, and you know Uther both turn their backs on them and leave because they don't want to do it. He's going down that righteous but evil path of like I gotta do what's right, and so you're going against the demon and trying to kill the innocent people before he can turn them into demons. And uh it was a fun mechanic, like you get to kill him, but he would always come back like two minutes later, but that would give you a chance to kill freely. Yeah you
are yeah, yeah, it was great. It was it's it's it was so interesting to see that again for someone, especially as someone who like played the lich King like Wrath of lich King and went through I was running uh uh Strathahorn a few times because I'm trying to get that mount. Still don't have it. Uh, I don't know that still drop, it still drops, but it it's like a one person you know. Yeah. I tried to during Vanilla and would be I would go there, oh
my gosh, every thirty minute. Let's take a quick Vanilla break to talk about the b s which I'm wanted, the changes which I can't wait for these Vanilla Classic heads to try. So you would roll for stuff. I want to get into this. Okay, go ahead, go ahead.
You would roll for stuff. But the way you would do it is whoever is the designated raid leader would get the item and then they would have you use the in game macro to roll and whoever got the highest did it, But if you were pugging a guild raid, you were oftentimes gonna get screwed because because what would happen is you would roll and they'd be like, oh, Buff des One, well Eric's actually in our clan, so we're going to give it to him, and you're like,
wait what it was like? It was like, oh my gosh. It was one of those things where I wanted to ghost Dad someone. Can I still say ghost Dad people? Ghost Dad is that scene and goes Dad when Bill Cosby would go through the phone and choke the dude. But I don't know if I can ghost Dad people anymore. We need a ghost Dad reboot, is what I'm trying to say. But yeah, when I played, when I was really into serious rating, I would there will be points
that you can't do. There's still around nowadays, but back then, when you want to get into a serious rating guild, you have to actually apply, like a job. You have to go to the forums and apply, Like you have the character you want to be your main, Like you say you're a healer, you gotta apply with that character. I had a Holy Paladin and I'd apply. I I
did this several times. I had to go to the forum and if the the the guild that I wanted to be in wasn't on the server, I would look on other service and I had to pay twenty five bucks per character to transfer to a service. Still that still exists, but it was such a big deal and people will actually interview you on vent or team speak and if you pass it cool, then you have to pay to get transferred over. And sometimes you're not even fully into the rating guild. Sometimes you have to wait
outside to be able to get a spot. Possibly you have to like earn your keep then. Uh. Some guilds, like the ones I was in, Uh, they had a system called d k P Uh I forgot what have stand for dragon something? Yeah, dragon cable where where? Yeah? Dragon kill points? If you don't know what it is. Uh. It's basically you would earn points every time you would raid with your guild, and you use these points to cash in to buy uh whatever drops. And back then
everyone didn't get a drop like they do now. Yeah, if you wanted a tier item, one tier item would drop per class usually or basically you have to fight for one tier item against seven other people in a forty man raid group. Oh, I had a player follow
me one time. It's better suited to my character. Yeah, a lot of politics going on back then, so I'm pretty sure that's going to come back at some point when this class and then people were like, oh, I don't know if this is I mean, look, while Classic had some great things going on with it and introduce a lot of people like myself into MMOs, but it also had issues, which wow, nowadays for the most part, doesn't We don't have to deal with now because it
does all that for you, and it keeps cheaty, scummy people from getting their hands on your gear just to give it to their Lobi friend who didn't even do nothing during the raid. He was playing DBS. I'm the one off tanking. You give me the Are you gearing him up? Na, you better run the Oh my gosh. Yeah. I was like so relieved when I got to the point where I just transmog things. So I'm like, Okay, I look real cool right now. My night alf Boomkin.
But yeah, people were like cut throat, and you were saying, it's like applying for a job. People also treated it like a job, you know, when you clock in on time so that you get paid and stuff. Yeah, people would show up and it's so incredible because these people are from like around the world, you know, complete strangers and they are showing up at the same time so we can take down this, you know. But that was
cool though. It was it made that community. Uh if you were into like a serious rating guild that was that strive on the community and you built like a bond with it, which was really cool. Um. I mean it's still around nowadays, but not as prevalent to how it was before. Um, like people wore a rally around to get like, uh, certain things to help software out that is needing of gear or whatever if you were
in that nice guild. Uh. Yeah, but I would say it is still around, And I think that's a good jumping off point to kind of give my clothes and thoughts on blizz Con, because you know, I really did get just kind of get back in a while. But I've always been playing one or one Blizzard Pop property or the other. And one thing that I think really made me enjoy bliss Con was seeing all these guilds me guilties meet each other for the first time, and you saw the one that we had to take a
picture of right in front of Sylvanus was a guild. Yeah. So there was all these guilds meeting up and like just like having experiencing a company that has brought them together. And I was like, Yeah, that's what it's all about. And I really do enjoy the community that blizz Blizzard tries to build and continues to build. And I'm really excited for not only next year's con uh and hopefully we'll be seeing each other in the same place. Probably not at the same time. Uh, it's in the future.
Times different in that way. But you know, I add one epiphany. As I was walking around Blizz for the first time, I had this little epiphany. It was huge for me. I realized if I ran down this hall and said, people would know what that means. And I felt like, damn, I have come home. Well how about you tell people where you can find you. I am at Hello Underscore Molika on Twitter and Instagram. Oh, I'm at the Vicious fool At on Instagram and Twitter, and
people can catch you all on the hyper RPG twitch. Right. Absolutely, that is our home home. Sorry, I forgot to say, well, I we pretty much worked there. Yeah, yeah, and you know, I show up. They're from time to time and on my Twitch if ds as y'all all know. Uh and if you way on Twitter and Instagram, I f y n w A d I w E. I'm spelling it now. Ever since that one person said they were spelling my name like if you with two s Whitey Way. Uh,
so I'm gonna help you out. Uh, you know, I get how they might have got that trying to spell it out. Oh man, But you know, this was a good time, and you know, definitely tune in tomorrow for your regularly scheduled Nerdificent where we will be dropping an episode about street Fighter. It's uh long and convoluted and fun all around, but it's a good time. Thanks for popping by and listening to us ramble about Blizzard, and as always, stay nerdy. M