Rilandune Sunday, 9th of January 2011 at 08:17:38 AM
I am fully aware of the seemingly odd choice I made for this weeks Spotlight. Having a YouTube channel as a resource for World of Warcraft is not the most conventional idea, however this particular YouTube channel has become a staple of my WoW news routine, and even a daily one which amazes me.
During it’s running I listened to, like many folks, WoW Radio. I tune in for The Cynical Brit, not regularly honestly, but often enough. I have even watched some Starcraft Shoutcasts by this weeks Spotlight creator, despite the fact I have never played Starcraft. I am of course talking about TotalBiscuit.
TotalBiscuit, or TB, contributes a great deal of content to the WoW community, he always has. The specific focus of this article will be his YouTube channel – TotalHalibut. (I know theres a story behind the name, cannot remember it for the life of me)
The video that I feel is of particular importance to you, the WoW community, is Azeroth Daily. TB produces a daily video show with audio overlay of that days news and events in the World of Warcraft. It sits somewhere in the range of 15 minutes, so it is a very comfortable watching length. It is chock full of TB’s typical wit, humor, and cynicism, and gives a great overview of the daily goings-on in WoW. The blue posts, patch notes, forum highlights section of the videos is my particular favorite, as I have not ventured onto the official forums since 2006, so very often if I have not checked my RSS feed from sites like MMO Champion, I have no idea what the “Blues” are up to.
There is often times when producing something in audio content that is of a news topic is quite difficult, likewise it is often tricky to convey a certain degree of humor in a written post. Video covers both of those failings rather well. And TB is a master, there is no doubt. Honestly, his voice alone sells it. He has certainly been blessed with the girpping tones of professional radio man. From Britain, which is just an unfair advantage over boring-accented Americans such as myself.
Here ist oday’s “Azeroth Daily” – I highly recommend you watch it and then head over to the TotalHalibut YouTube channel and add this site to your Resource Repertoire.
Fimlys Thursday, 6th of January 2011 at 03:29:41 PM
This week, TNB welcomes Gazimoff from Mana Obscura and The Obscurecast to the show. Being as he in Europe, he’ll be waking up really early to speak with us, so make sure we’ve got some great questions for him! Send them in to us or call and we’ll make sure we ask! You can also join us in the chat room Saturday night. We hope to see you there!
When is it?: This live show is scheduled for Saturday, January 8th at 8pm PT (11pm ET). Not sure what time that is for you? Use this handy-dandy time converter!
Where do I go? To participate on the live show, you will need to go to the TNB Live Show page to connect with the stream. See, totally easy. If you are having issues then go to the Ustream page. Don’t forget to register/login to UStream so you can chat with us!
Some general ground rules:
Be nice. If you say very inappropriate things be aware you will be kicked from the room. We are doing this to have a great time, come with a beer, come during a raid, come how you wish, just don’t come to cause trouble.
You may ask questions to the participants during the show, but we reserve the right to use them if and when we can. We will be monitoring the chat room and if we can we will use the comments during the show. We love that you are with us, but we will have to weave them in. Even if it isn’t asked, we all appreciate your questions!
Outside of that, we will love to have you join us and partake in an enlightening discussion that is sure to follow! Hope to see you there!
Rilandune Wednesday, 5th of January 2011 at 02:52:37 AM
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is no longer safe to let your children run in the streets, for among you are five that seem trustworthy, that seem honorable, and most of all they seem sane. However I can tell you this, those assumptions are all very, very wrong. Particularly the last, but that goes without saying.
Yes folks, we have done it. We finally got 5 (actually 6) calendars to sync up for our first recording. The intention truly was for this to be a very loose, casual first go of the show. More of a night for each of us to get to know one another on a larger and more intimate scale than through twitter communication and blog post comments.
What resulted was a 2 hour recording. A full blown show. In fact it’s longer than we intend the weekly shows to take place. Originally I had thought to ask Fimlys to cut it in half. Yet, having an ep. 0 and an ep. 0.5 seemed both silly and nearing lunacy. Therefore, I give to you…
What you will hear is very much our first run. This episode really wasn’t supposed to take place in this format. I really had thought we would just be talking, introducing ourselves, talking about role-playing, talking about how we’ll be playing our new characters. Then, as I said, 2 hours had past and we had begun leveling and going into our impressions of the Gilnean conflict.
So, please take my word for it and know that this is not really going to be the format for the shows to come. In truth, we don’t know exactly what those shows will feel like. Similar, mind you, but as the show progresses, as is the case with all projects such as these, it will grow and mature and flesh itself out into the form that we will inevitably just fall into and feel comfortable in.
Right now, I urge you to listen, get comfortable, and get accustomed to hearing our voices, because this is a project that has a lot of heart, and will go places, I promise you that.
We would appreciate, above all else, commenting on the show. Here on the blog, on iTunes and Zune, sending us emails, messages on twitter. We want to hear what the community has to say, this is a community driven show and we want to know what you folks like, don’t like, and want to hear. Ask questions, make us do our homework. The more feedback we receive, the better the show will be. I promise you that!
It’s a new year and for our first episode of 2011 we welcome Murloc Parliament to the mic. Zelmaru and Noble (a.k.a ArcaneTinkerTank) join us for lots of Warcraft goodness. We talk about balancing family life and WoW and even a pretty funny story or two. For the rest of the show we talk about an important WordPress self-hosted update, Afrasiabi on G4tv and we have not 1, not 2 but 3(!) Shared Topics from Blog Azeroth. Rounding up the podcast is an extra long Addon Junkie segment where Rilandune starts his series about building a custom UI. Don’t miss it!
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Rilandune Saturday, 1st of January 2011 at 04:45:20 PM
I know what you are thinking – “everyone knows about curse” – and while this may be true, this spotlight ties in directly with my Addon Junkie segment for tonight’s TNB broadcast. And also, there are still folks out there that do not know what addons are, or do not use them because they think they are unneeded or too much trouble. These are the people I must reach out to. I must show them the light. I must bring them to the dark side – that is actually a bad string of analogies… hmmmmmm
Curse.com is a World of Warcraft (among other games) addon and UI site where one can go to find nearly every addon and UI compilation available in WoW. There is one other major player in that market, perhaps I shall write a spotlight on that site soon as well. Curse has a feature, the Curse Client, that is both wonderful and slightly controversial at the same time. I myself resisted using the client for some time because of things I was told about other similar tools like WoW Matrix, and that the addon authors themselves did not like the client and its function. Since then I have come to find that the addon authors are indifferent to it’s uses and that the security issues that had been a concern with other tools seems to not be present with the Curse client.
I run my PC on ultra-paranoia mode. I am one of those individuals that believes someone is always watching – because lets face it, someone always is! I run daily virus scans, malware scans, registry scans, I wipe all cookies and cache data, I defrag at least thrice weekly. I stop short of running a TOR system, but only because I haven’t quite figured out how to yet, but thats coming.
All this is to say that I have never once found the Curse client to be in any way insecure, so in my opinion that is an unfounded claim.
What I do know is that my extreme addon addiction would not be nearly as manageable without the help of Curse.com and the Curse Client – which allows for one to have an alert when any of their addons have updates ready, and with a few simple clicks from a centralized desktop tool, update those addons without having to access the browser or drill down through a file structure with an unzip tool.
Also, the Curse Client allows for an almost shopping cart experience in searching for new addons, popular addons, etc.
If you have been one of those folks that have felt addons are unneccessary, please join us on the dark side and customize that UI of yours. Or, if you are a user of the other major player in the addon site market, I encourage you to check out Curse. Having some competition in the marketplace is always a good thing, and seeing a fresh site with a different layout is always refreshing as well.
Cheers!
~Rilandune
PS. Make sure to tune in for tonight’s Twisted Nether Blogcast as I will be speaking about the Curse Client and handing out some homework – don’t worry, it’s the fun kind. 🙂
*****Each week Rilandune can be heard on the Twisted Nether Blogcast with his segment contribution, the Addon Junkie Segment, wherein he discusses the UI and Addon aspects of WoW. The weekly Resource Site Spotlight is his contribution to the Twisted Nether Blog in written form. And last, but not least, you can hear Rilandune and the rest of the OverLore’s on the Twisted Nether Networks newest show, The OverLore’s, where five brave individuals level Worgen together and delve the depths of the forgotten bastions of antiquity and lore in World of Warcraft, recorded and sent to your ears in podcast form.***** twitter.com/rilandune heroicallyrandom.com
Sunday, 9th of January 2011 at 08:17:38 AM
