What the podcasts are saying

Twenty-two episodes, and nearly all of them inside the hobby

Since Blizzard announced World of Warcraft: Forever at BlizzCon on September 12, we've found 22 podcast episodes about it on 12 different shows. Every one is linked on our podcasts page. Some are four-hour deep dives. Some give it twenty minutes between other news.

Almost all of them are Warcraft shows or MMO shows. The only general gaming podcast we could confirm talking about it is the Giant Bombcast, about an hour and forty minutes into a show that was mostly about other things. We looked for episodes on the big tech, culture and business podcasts, from The Vergecast and Decoder to Hard Fork, NPR, Bloomberg and The Ringer, and found none.

That's surprising. Blizzard is making Forever a permanent version of WoW, alongside the modern game and Classic, and Azeroth Morning Radio reports the beta crowds are big enough that Blizzard keeps adding capacity. For now, though, people who play WoW are the only ones talking about it. That may change on November 4.

Blizzard's podcast is hosted by the biggest independent one

The most important show on the list belongs to Blizzard. World of Warcraft: Forever, the official podcast, started in September. Josh Corbett of Countdown To Classic hosts it, with Blizzard designers on every episode and a big streamer as guest: Xaryu in the first, Sodapoppin in the second.

It's worth listening to. In the first episode Blizzard put its own beta data on the record for the first time: levels 1 to 20 are slower in Forever than in Classic Era, and some early blue quest rewards are being pulled back. The second is the designers explaining their class changes in their own words.

Hosting it is a coup for Countdown To Classic, and it's easy to see why Blizzard asked: nobody independent has a bigger Classic audience. But it does mean the loudest independent voice on Forever now hosts the official show too, and his own show's latest episode reacts to an episode of the official one. That isn't a scandal, but it's worth knowing. Listen to both, and notice which one speaks more freely.

Is it still Classic?

This question runs through almost every episode. Azeroth United asks it outright: 'does WoW Forever still feel like Classic?' It's a fair question. The world and the level cap of 60 are the original ones, but Blizzard has added new zones, nine new dungeons, reworked talents, new race and class combinations, a new race, transmog and smaller raids.

Blizzard's own answer, from game director Ion Hazzikostas in a BlizzCon interview with Warcraft Tavern, is that it's 'still the Classic assets, it's still the setting. But, boy, is the vibe just massively enhanced.' Lead classic designer Tim Jones put it more simply: 'The world is the main character.'

If you want the before and after, Warcraft Brew spent the summer surveying fans on what Classic+ should be, then recorded their first beta impressions on September 21. Azeroth Morning Radio's 'What is Warcraft Forever?', recorded four days before the reveal, is a time capsule of what people expected.

Slower and harder, and most of them like it

The surprise of the beta's first weeks is that most of the shows seem to welcome how slow it is. Blizzard's numbers say early levelling takes longer than in Classic Era, and the designers want gear to climb from white to green to blue at the old pace. Azeroth Morning Radio asks whether that slower, more dangerous open world will end up changing modern WoW as well.

The classes are where it gets heated. Countdown To Classic spent a long stretch of 'The Dulltimate Warrior' arguing that the warrior still feels dull. When the designers explained their thinking on the official podcast, one forum thread called it the 'best interaction between fans and devs I have ever seen', while other players complained of a 'simple and stupid' design that removes 'fun, niche options'.

Does the beta spoil launch day?

The Blizzard Watch Podcast's 600th episode was recorded live while Liz Harper played the beta, and the crew split on it. Liz thinks playing early wears the shine off launch; Joe doesn't mind at all.

It matters more than it sounds, because beta access is one of the things money buys. The Epic Pack includes it. The beta ends on October 21, and fan sites expect beta characters to be wiped, so for most players the first real character is the one they make on November 4.

The race you pay for

The Skyborne, Forever's new elf race, aren't part of the game your subscription gets you. They come in the paid Heroic Pack. Lore Watch, Blizzard Watch's lore show, goes at it from the story side and asks whether the Skyborne have enough history behind them to earn a place among the original races.

Blizzard's line on the rest of the money question, from Clay Stone, is that there's no WoW Token and no paid boosts at launch, and no plans for them: 'You get better at the game by playing the game.'

What we left out

The beta's loudest news story this month has been about gold buying and a few big streamers. Countdown To Classic's 'Can't Buy Me Gold' covers it if you want it. We stay out of stories that are about people rather than the game, so it isn't part of this piece.

What nobody can answer yet

• Will the general and mainstream shows pick Forever up at launch, or does it stay a Warcraft story?
• Hardcore realms are coming 'later'. Blizzard hasn't given a date.
• Native gamepad support has the shows talking about a console version. Blizzard hasn't said anything.
• Blizzard has surveyed players about possible new classes. Nobody knows whether any will come.
• Will the class changes the shows are arguing about survive the last two weeks of beta?