Episode 60 – Reaping a Full House
Posted: March 24, 2014 Filed under: Show | Tags: 100 Word Story Contest, All Things Azeroth, barbarian, Breja, crusader, demon hunter, developer interviews, Diablo III, DrJDredscythe, EatGameLive, hardcore, Hearthstone, Hell Frozen Over, Heroes of the Storm, Jen, lanntonio, launch night plans, launch party, Medros, Nate Kenyon, Nevik, OFTMPT, parsnips of reflection, Realm Maintenance, Reaper of Souls, red team gaming, Rho, Scythe and Shield, Sibcoe, song of the show, State of the Game, Storm of Light, witch doctor, wizard 1 Comment »In this momentous episode, not only are we whole once more, but we are joined by Medros and Rho for the eve of the reaping. After much celebration and frivolity we get down to business by discussing what we’ve been up to in-game: Breja is shaking things up in Torment, Lanntonio cleaned the slate, Nevik decided to invest into hardcore, and Jen dinged 60 on her Demon Hunter, Thirtyseven!!!
In this episode:
* We read, and respond to, a mountain of emails we received from our wonderful listeners. This batch came to us from Master Do, Sean, and Mangall. Thank you for the emails and voice mail! Keep them coming, really!
* We received a mountain of tweets from @Torrack1714, @shawno, @Hawgeye_ctr, @scanline75, @CkRtech, @BurghCrow78, @obelu5, @Rilandune, @HomeTownHero008, @Foqbupog, @pergosmaster, @gs01r, @Smokimus, @Cybrwolf0, @AllThingsAZ, @JCMonkeyD3, @Grindexp, @Outerlaw, @Cweirick, @GENERAL00, and @Hasteur. Thank you for your tweets. Don’t forget that you, too, can send in your thoughts via social media outlets such as Facebook, Google+, and Twitter.
* We posed the question on Twitter asking what class would you be playing first in Reaper of Souls. We got quite a few responses. Be sure to follow our show account, @ShatteredStone, on Twitter for future Questions of the Show.
* The deadline for our 100 Word Story Contest has come and gone. Hope you submitted your story. We will be announcing the winners on episode 61!
* With the launch of Reaper of Souls being imminent we thought it would be a good idea to go through what will be coming in the expansion that did not come with Patch 2.0.1. If you have been holding off on picking Diablo III back up until the expansion is here you may want to check out WoWhead’s Welcome Back to Diablo guide detailing all of the changes made in Patch 2.0.1 and Reaper of Souls.
* Blizzard has taken cross-promotion of their products to a new level with multiple tie-ins with the purchase of Reaper of Souls. By activating a Reaper of Souls key by 11:59pm PDT March 31st, 2014 you will gain the in-game cosmetic item Wings of Valor as well as unlock the Demon Hunter in Blizzard’s forth-coming Heroes of the Storm. As if that wasn’t enough, all purchases of the expansion will include some Hearthstone card packs!
* Our favorite hand-talker is up to his devious tricks again with some small and not so small allusions to the possibility of ladders coming. Do you like climbing ladders? Well Josh Mosqueira and the Diablo III development team sure think so.
* Nate Kenyon, author of Diablo III: The Order and Diablo III: Storm of Light, recently paid a visit to Breja’s son’s school to talk about what it takes to be an author and possibly inspire the next generation of Diablo novelists! Breja managed to record the presentation and you will find it near the end of this episode.
* If you were wondering if anyone could possibly be angry about the pre-order and Digital Deluxe/Collector’s Edition bonuses then this is an Official Forum Thread Masterpiece Theater for you. While we can’t always promise that this segment will always make an appearance, we do love a good OFTMPT. As always we are looking for your participation with this fun segment, send your Official Forum Thread Masterpiece Theater audio segments (or humorous forum threads) to Show@ShatteredSoulstone.com.
This episode’s Official Forum Thread Masterpiece Theater segment bed music included Rondeau from Sinfonie de Fanfares by Jean-Joseph Mouret and IMARMX by Zoe Leela.
Links for you to Visit:
If you were not already aware our editor, Shawn, is in-between jobs and could really use some help. If you can spare anything there is a Crowdtilt fund to help make ends meet. We are massively grateful for any help you can send his way. Thank you!
* As mentioned during the show, Rho from All Things Azeroth and the Realm Maintenance podcast has graciously provided listeners of our show the ability to listen to the March 25th Diablo-sized Realm Maintenance podcast early! This episode of Realm Maintenance includes interviews with Archon the Wizard and all four of us Shattered Soulstone hosts!
* Remember how we mentioned that GrindEXP.com was going to be doing a Diablo podcast? Well Dred recently sat down and interviewed wizard extraordinaire Jaetch for the very first episode of Scythe and Shield!
* JCMonkey, friend of the show, has dove into the world of web-comics with his Diablo-themed comic series, The Subsequent Heroes. He already has the prologue and the first episode out. Be sure to send him feedback!
* We don’t envy the judges of the Blizzard/Deviant Art Reaper of Souls Fan Art contest. They have narrowed the entries down to the semi-finalists and every single piece is incredible. Don’t believe us? Head on over to see for yourself!
* In case you missed the live show on BiteSizeTV, Chaotic Awesome sat down with Josh Mosquiera to talk about Reaper of Souls.
http://youtu.be/6Gb_k77KmaY
* To say the Crusader is a major component of the Reaper of Souls would be a massive understatement. Over the past two weeks Blizzard has been drip-feeding us tasty tidbits of Crusader information with a look at the History of the Crusade, a look at the design process of building the Crusader, and “End of Her Journey” a short story by Robert Brooks.
* If that still wasn’t enough to satiate your need for Crusader infos, BlizzPro recently had a chance to sit down and interview Brian Kindregan (Lead Writer: Diablo III: Reaper of Souls), Andrea Toyias (Casting and Voice Over Director), Gideon Emery (Voice Actor: Male Crusader), and Mary Elizabeth McGlynn (Voice Actor: Female Crusader).
* Kierpanda of EatGameLive.com is back with another Diablo-themed culinary masterpiece: Parsnips of Reflection.
* Tatasinke is back with another edition of his Paper.li newspaper, the New Tristram News. Check it out and subscribe!
Song of the Show:
Rho from All Things Azeroth and the Realm Maintenance podcast has dipped his toes into the world of song parodies with Hell Frozen Over, a song that reflects the re-ignition of his love affair with Diablo III. We hope to hear more Diablo parodies from Rho in the future! *hint*hint*
Have a Diablo III related comment, question, story, or rant that you’d like to share with all of us? Send your email, or short audio comment, to Show@ShatteredSoulstone.com.
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Episode 52 – Live From Anaheim
Posted: November 13, 2013 Filed under: Show | Tags: adventure mode, blizzcon 2013, bounties, Breja, campaign, crusader, developer interviews, difficulty 2.0, difficulty mode removal, Dredscythe, GrindEXP, jaetch, Jen, Jesse, lanntonio, loot 2.0, Melkor, nephalem rifts, Nevik, PDawg, Reaper of Souls, Shawno, system changes 1 Comment »Show notes originally posted by Nevik
BLIZZCON IS HERE! Errr, well it was, IT CAME! And WE WERE THERE! And we got together with a bunch of friends from the community to discuss everything that we learned while down in Anaheim. Listen on as we discuss our experiences with playing Reaper of Souls and meeting the vastly approachable development and community teams.
In this episode:
* We were joined by a number of special guests for our special LIVE FROM ANAHEIM POST-BLIZZCON ROUND-UP including Breja’s son PDawg, Jesse aka @HomeTownHero008, Beta and Dr J Dredscythe from GrindEXP.com, everybody’s favorite ninja wizard Jaetch, Critical Mass rapper Melkor, and the Magic Man himself, Shawno!
* We discuss our hands-on experiences with both the Act V campaign and Adventure Mode demos on both PC and Playstation 4. You may be a little surprised to hear what everyone decided to give a spin on the demos.
* While it wasn’t outrightly stated, we did discuss the ramifications of the change in the difficulty system and the removal of the four difficulty modes: Normal, Nightmare, Hell and Inferno.
* We share our thoughts on other various details that we learned during the panels and/or slightly more private interviews with the developers including some details about some systems coming to the Playstation 4 version that wasn’t mentioned on stage!
Links for you to Visit:
* Beta and Dr J Dredscythe will be publishing numerous articles containing a wide-range of information on everything announced and shared at Blizzcon over at GrindEXP.com, we suggest you visit their site to get their juicy details.
* Everyone loves ninjas and wizards right? Well make sure to check out Jaetch’s YouTube channel for all of his wizard hijinks!
* In case you didn’t already know, Nevik loves wizards, so it would only make sense that with Melkor in the house that we would promote Melkor’s series proclaiming his love for Critical Mass.
* With Shawno finally stepping from behind the editor’s desk, it’s about time we promoted NoMarket.org, a site where you can find everything that Shawn and Jen publish on the net.
Have a Diablo III related comment, question, story, or rant that you’d like to share with all of us? Send your email, or short audio comment, to Show@ShatteredSoulstone.com.
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Episode 45 – #Daws
Posted: August 1, 2013 Filed under: Show | Tags: #daws, Activision-Blizzard, Anime Expo 2013, archon the wizard, barbarian, Breja, cafepress, cosplay, D3UP.com, developer interviews, Diablo Somepage, Diabro3.com, effective health pool, EHP, hardcore etiquette, jaetch, Jen, lanntonio, Leah, legendary farming, loot 2.0, Moldran, moving, Mr. Monstrosity, Nerdy Dance Experiment, Nevik, Shanar, show swag, Sword of Justice, twitch.tv, Vivendi Leave a comment »Show notes originally posted by Nevik
In this episode, our 4th Musketeer could not join us for more than a fleeting moment on account of having a massive household move the following day. We then get down to business by discussing what we’ve been up to in-game: Breja dreams of the possibilities of an Auriel statuette, Jen caught up with Zoltun Kulle-story-bro in Hell, and Nevik powered through his wizard up to paragon 80.
In this episode:
* We read, and respond to, another mountain of emails we received from our wonderful listeners. This batch comes to us from Tensor, Chad and Daws. Thank you for the email! Keep them coming, really!
* We received tweets from @scanline75, @HomeTownHero008, @Torrack1714, @Jaetch, @TwizzTE, and our very own @QueenofHaiku. Thank you for your tweets. Don’t forget that you, too, can send in your thoughts via social media outlets such as Facebook, Google+, and Twitter.
* We ponder how much how much our 4th Musketeer, Lanntonio, should offer to his brother-in-law, Daws, for helping him with the move. How much do you think he should gift? Be sure to either leave a comment on this show thread, or share your opinion on Twitter. Be sure to direct your tweet @Lanntonio and include the hashtag #daws.
[Editor’s Note: It appears #daws has an entirely different meaning out there in the twitterverse, but hopefully we can confoozle some folks out there with our inclusion of the hashtag ^^]
* Our very good friend, Jaetch (@Jaetch) picked up some swag from our CafePress store. Very stylin’!
* Mr. Monstrosity is back with another impressive suggestion thread over on the DiabloFans forums titled Loot 2.0, Discovering Its True Potential. There are some really neat ideas in his thread and it has garnered attention over at /r/Diablo and by the Blizzard Diablo III community team with an official blog post highlighting it. We highly recommend checking it out and sharing your opinions with us by shooting us an email: show@shatteredsoulstone.com.
* We discuss Senior Technical Designer Wyatt Cheng popping his head out over at /r/Diablo to discuss design theory in regards to life regeneration and EHP (effective health pool) and give our opinions on the discussion. For a summation of the exchange head on over to the DiabloFans article highlighting it.
* Just by listening to the show you would never guess that Nevik has a bias towards wizards. Nope. Never. So we figured whenever we get some wizard-love from our fellow listeners we have to share it with all of you. Our good friend Tensor recently hit paragon level 70 with his wizard and here’s his screenshot to prove it!
Links for you to Visit:
* If you haven’t picked up the trade paperback of the Diablo: Sword of Justice comic series then you’re doing yourself a HARSH INJUSTICE. Quite simply this comic series is AH-MAZE-NG and you owe it to yourself to own this incredible piece of work before it becomes hard to find.
* Sometimes you will hear us mention EHP and other technical terms on the show and might be wondering how one would go about determining that. D3UP.com is a fantastic utility site out there that makes it easy to discover your EHP as well as provide other extremely useful information!
* DiaBro3.com is another useful utility site comes to us recommended by Jaetch, wizard extraordinaire. It is a gear evaluator that identifies your overall gear value and can help plan out effective upgrades as well as provide you a fairly accurate assessment of which monster power level your character can handle effectively.
* In breaking news a day prior to recording the show we learned that Activision-Blizzard bought back a significant portion of shares held by Vivendi resulting in freeing themselves from being controlled by Vivendi. Head on over to Flux’s article over at Diablo.IncGamers for more information on the deal.
* Who doesn’t love cosplay? Especially if it is of the Diablo persuasion? Recently down in Los Angeles Anime Expo 2013 happened and there were some amazing Diablo-themed cosplay to be found.
* If you play one of those overpowered barbarians and are looking to maximize your legendary farming techniques check out Moldran’s short video highlighting 5 tips for you.
* Somehow we missed it, but Diablo Somepage was able to sit down with Josh Mosquiera, Travis Day and Kevin Martens back in June. OOOPS! While not as fresh as the most recent batch of developer interviews, there’s still some good information to consume, check out the interview!
* Blizzard’s community team has been taking a more active role in promoting individuals from the community and took the time to sit down with Twitch.tv streamer Archon the Wizard. If you would like to know a bit more about the prolific D3, head on over to Blizzard’s interview with Archon.
* Xanth over at Diablo.Incgamers recently posted an article on proper public game etiquette titled Playing Well with Others. We know that none of our listeners would be as bold to leech XP in higher MP level games, but nonetheless it is a good read and something to be aware of when joining a public game.
* Tatasinke is back with another edition of his Paper.li newspaper, the New Tristram News. Check it out and subscribe!
Song of the Show:
Most of the Diablo-themed musical remixes we’ve found out there have mainly been focused on Diablo’s most iconic piece of music, Tristram. This episode we bring you a remix based on Leah’s theme titled Leah (Diablo 3 Dom1 Remix) created by the Nerdy Dance Experiment, a blog that takes video game mash-ups and adds interpretive dance. You can find more video game mash-ups from the Nerdy Dance Experiment at their blog, or at SoundCloud.
Have a Diablo III related comment, question, story, or rant that you’d like to share with all of us? Send your email, or short audio comment, to Show@ShatteredSoulstone.com.
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Episode 40 – Birthday in the Buff
Posted: May 22, 2013 Filed under: Show | Tags: a look back, archon the wizard, birthday, birthday suit challenge, Breja, developer interviews, Diablo 3, gaming night, hardcore, Jen, lanntonio, launch night, Nevik, new intro, one year anniversary, retrospective, twitch.tv Leave a comment »Show notes originally posted by Nevik
WELCOME TO SMASHEZ STANZENFYR TALK… ERR oops, couldn’t help it.
In this episode, we celebrate Diablo 3 leveling up IRL and then we get down to business by discussing what we’ve been up to in-game: Breja returns to his altoholic ways, Lanntonio mucked around with his hardcore monk, Nevik attained a few more paragon levels, and Jen CLEARED NORMAL with her launch night demon hunter, Thirtyseven.
In this episode:
* We did NOT receive a mountain of emails like we normally do from you, our wonderful listeners. We were genuinely shocked at this given what happened when patch 1.0.8 went live. Nevertheless we LOVE hearing from you with your emails! Keep them coming, really!
* We received tweets from @scanline75, @HomeTownHero008, @Torrack1714, @eG_acefisher1, @Smokimus, @shawno, @Healzonwheelz, @Rilandune, and our very own @QueenofHaiku! Thank you for your tweets. Don’t forget that you, too, can send in your thoughts via social media outlets such as Facebook, Google+, and Twitter.
* With Diablo 3 turning a year old we decided to take a look back at the past 12 months. From controversies to triumphs we covered most of it thanks to the immensely handy article, Diablo 3: A Look Back, over at DiabloFans.com. Also be sure to check out Blizzard’s official blog post, The Road So Far.
* Assuredly you will notice that we have a NEW INTRO! Thank you to @JCMonkeyD3 for providing us with our new intro. We LURVES it!
Links for you to Visit:
* We referenced interviews that Archon the Wizard conducted with Travis Day and Wyatt Cheng during his 36 hour gaming marathon. It’s three hours long so strap in. However, if you’d like the juicy tidbits from these interviews Flux from Diablo.IncGamers.com penned them down for all of us: Travis Day Interview Highlights, and Wyatt Cheng Interview Highlights.
* If you’re anxiously awaiting the Playstation 3 version of Diablo 3 Sony recently sat down with Production Director John Hight as well as a few other key members from the console team.
* Tatasinke is back with another edition of his Paper.li newspaper, the New Tristram News. Check it out and subscribe!
Have a Diablo III related comment, question, story, or rant that you’d like to share with all of us? Send your email, or short audio comment, to Show@ShatteredSoulstone.com.
Show Links:
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