Another big show on the podcast tomorrow -- this week we'll welcome back Matthew "Who needs a shirt?" Rossi, who hasn't been on with us for a while. And since he's on, you know we'll be talking about tanking and Shamans, specifically what things are like in patch 3.0.2. Amanda Dean will also join us, and we'll chat with her about how Hallow's End is going so far, and what else she's been up to in game. And while Turpster is off at a wedding this weekend, Duncor from WoW Radio has kindly agreed to join us, so we'll chat with him about his experiences at BlizzCon, the "zompocalypse," and what else might be in store for the big world event going on.

Plus, we'll get some talk in about achievements, since we still need to give out that loot card from last week, and we'll have the usual good times, including checking out your emails (feel free to send them to theshow at wowinsider dot com) and putting a few polls in. Don't forget, the action all takes place over on our Ustream channel (I've embedded a stream after the break), and the show kicks off promptly at 3:30pm Eastern. You can use this handy time zone converter to figure out when that is in your neck of the woods.

Should be fun -- we'll see you right back here (and on the Ustream page) tomorrow afternoon at 3:30pm Eastern.

We had bloggers onsite for Day 1 at the Worldwide Invitational 2008 in Paris. Elizabeth Harper, Turpster, and Jennie Lees were all in France to provide in-depth coverage with liveblogging, pictures, and videos, and our entire staff was back here in the US to break out the analysis and coverage of the live streams. Here's a roundup of all the posts from Day 1.

Liveblogging

• Opening ceremony
• Developer's panel
• Q&A with Developer's Panel

Analysis by Class

• Death Knight
• Druid
• Hunter
• Mage
• Paladin
• Priest
• Rogue
• Shaman
• Warlock
• Warrior

Analysis by Topic

• Diablo 3 Announcement
• Gear resets
• High expectations
• Linux
• Raid buffs
• Talent trees

Media

• WoW Insider podcast
• Gallery: Diablo 3
  
• Gallery: Splash screen speculation
  
• Gallery: A first look at the WWI digs
  
• Movie: Turpster talks to people waiting in line for WWI
  
• Movie: Turpster amok in Paris

UPDATE: A round up of our entire weekend of coverage can be found here!

This past Monday, June 23, The WotLK Information Wiki relaunched on a new web host after having been pulled down by a Cease and Desist order from Blizzard. Darkside, one of the admins for the WotLK Information Wiki, gave an interview to Medros over at All Things Azeroth to explain what happened. The interview was conducted as part of Medros' podcast Episode 53. Some highlights from the interview include:

• Most of the information that the alpha wiki provides is a result of file and image extraction from Blizzard's publically-available alpha client.
• The alpha client files contain all the information on the spells, creatures and environments to be tested and new things are added or subtracted each time the alpha is patched.
• The alpha wiki folks set up a "sandbox" where they could fly through the new locations and spawn creatures for screenshots.
• A small portion of the WotLK info -- some screenshots, for example -- has come from Blizzard employees under non-disclosure agreements the identities of whom the alpha wiki admins protect.
• Blizzard, Vivendi, and Activision IP addresses had visited the wiki frequently since it began.
  
• The Cease and Desist order from Blizzard arrived last Friday, June 20. Over the weekend the WotLK wiki admins tried several ways to appease the lawyers and eventually settled on moving to a new web host.
• The wiki's readership is approximately 200,000 page views per day.

Go to All Things Azeroth to hear the rest of the interview. Make sure you listen to the first few minutes of the podcast to hear a very humorous and well-sung parody of Johnny Cash's Folsom Prison Blues called Pugging Kara Blues.

[Thanks, Matticus and uber.]

The long-awaited third episode of Blizzcast, Blizzard's official podcast, has just gone live. Blizzard's US web sites are still down, but you can listen to it and read the transcript on the European site. As usual, since this is a Blizzard podcast and not a WoW-specific one, they spend some time covering the Starcraft universe as well, including an interview with Dustin Browder, SC2 lead designer, which I won't cover (good material on Zergs though). But later they brought in Jeff "Tigole" Kaplan, WoW lead designer for dungeons and raids, and here's what I found interesting in his segment:

• The original WoW raids were too hardcore early on; in BC they eased up on that and they hope to continue this in Wrath.
• Lessons learned in BC:
  • Heroic loot needs to be definitely better than normal-mode loot
    
  • Introductory raids need to be more friendly – he says "I don't want to say to casual players, but a little bit more accessible to people in general." Cites Maulgar and Mags as examples of less-than-friendly intro raids.
  • How to itemize raid content vs. other content

As scheduled, our good friend Duncor (and his co-host Cadwallion) on WoW Radio's WoW Things Considered podcast sat down for an interview with three guildies from Vis Maior, the guild that's been rolling through the PTR so far. It's a good interview -- Duncor and Cadwallion go through Vis Maior's (not Vis Major) history, how they've moved on to the PTR and begun raiding there, and what they think of the new content.

It's interesting to hear not only from a guild that has been around for a while, but is just now coming into the spotlight. And it's also cool to hear what the GMs are doing for the guilds testing the new content on the PTR -- they've deathtouched trash a few times, and even spawned "flaskators," which are NPCs which will give out consumables and other raiding standbys.

They also tackle the debate of whether "world firsts" actually count on the PTRs. Vis Maior does agree that PTR kills don't necessarily count if they're just being tested, but a world first kill of a "final" version of a boss should count. Duncor and Cad don't press them on this, unfortunately, but I'd disagree -- the only way you know a boss is final is if it is on the live realms, so only live realms should count. Still, Vis Maior sound like a great bunch of people (they sound like they really love to raid, which is always good for a high-end guild), and what they've done so far on the PTRs is definitely impressive. Kudos to them, and nice job to WoW Radio on the interview.

As I mentioned a little while ago, episode two of Blizzcast was released today. It features interviews with Chris Metzen and Geoff Goodman, the second of whom was a new name to me. You can go download or listen to it, or read the transcript, at Blizzard's site, but if you don't feel like it, or can't, here's a highlights version for you.

Chris Metzen talks about story stuff, since that's what his job is: vice president of creative development. What does he have to say about WoW?

• Not that this should surprise anyone, but the story team is "looking forward to future expansions".
• The original WoW was basically a snapshot, story-wise, with not much in the way of dynamic content. The expansions get more back to linear stories.
• We'll see themes in Wrath of the Lich King like Titans, the creation of the world, the dragon flights, and why Azeroth is so central to the events of this universe.

Geoff Goodman was on mostly to be interviewed about Magtheridon, by my favorite illuminating CM, Nethaera. Here's what I found interesting in his segment:

The second episode of Blizzcast, Blizzard's official podcast, has just been released. This one is double the length of the previous installment, at just over 49 minutes. Interviewees are Chris Metzen, VP of creative development, as well as WoW designer Geoff Goodman. The interviews are followed by a reader question-and-answer segment. You can see our coverage of the first episode in case you've forgotten what happened last time, and if you need some more WoW podcast goodness, why not check out our own WoW Insider show?

Another post is forthcoming as soon as I get a chance to analyze what's revealed in this episode; I just wanted to get this news out as quick as possible.

The WoW Insider Show is back for another week! We're broadcasting live this afternoon on WoW Radio at 3:30 PM EST (8:30 PM GMT). This week you'll be getting a double dose of Elizabeths with Elizabeth Harper and Elizabeth Wachowski as well as druid extrodinare John Patricelli and fan favorite Turpster. Being as it's the first podcast of 2008, we'll be reviewing what the past year has brought to the World of Warcraft as well as touching on the past week's biggest news.

So join us, won't you? You can even participate by joining us on IRC at irc.wowirc.com in channel #wowradio. And if you have something to say, but can't make the live show, feel free to e-mail your comments or questions to theshow@wowinsider.com!

Episode 9 of the WoW Insider Show is not to be missed. What? You missed it? Fear not, for it is now available for download and streaming on WoW Radio. This week, we have the return of Turpster along with yours truly and our in-house illustrator extraordinaire, Arturis.

The lively, hour-long debate covered the history of WoW, the lowered reputation costs for Heroic keys, why there are no tanks left for PuGs and much more.

Give it a listen and tell us what you think by e-mailing your comments to: theshow@wowinsider.com!

Welcome one and all to Ask WoW Insider, where we publish your questions every week. Recently we took a look at the best healing and best dps classes, and this week we turn our attention to podcasts. Ben writes:

Hi WOW Insider - I haven't seen anything on your site for a while about WoW podcasts. Do you guys listen to them? Which ones? I thought it would be interesting if you guys made a list of the most popular ones and described their format/style. Thanks!

We've also been discussing this question recently on the It Came from the Blog (join us!) forums. I'm personally a fan of The Instance, and am hoping Taverncast makes a comeback. There are a ton of WoW-themed podcasts out there now -- which would you recommend? What are your favorites?

We know you've got questions -- don't keep them bottled inside! Send them to ask AT wowinsider DOT com.

The latest edition of The Battlegrounds, a World of Warcraft podcast, is now available to listen to on their website. The host Jimmy always puts together a fun show, and it's definitely one of the better-produced WoW podcasts out there.

This week features discussion of level 60 content & an interview with an end-gamer who offers some interesting insights into life at the end of the grind. You can check out the latest show & all the previous archived ones right here.