BlizzCast cometh

Podcast, vidcast, streamed content, or just the show: whatever you want to call the "new media" uprising. I welcome any of our overlords that enter the leet infoz arena. Blizzard has finally acknowledged the need to get with the times by launching a video podcast. BlizzCast is set to kick off the first week in January and will be produced by Blizzard. Viewers can expect hullabaloo from various Starcraft 2 and WoW developers with some Q&A rounds thrown into the mix and will top it off with glorious prizes. We do prizes too. We know you love them. I guess Blizzard is testing the waters, and will be keeping a close eye on how the show is received. If it doesn't take off the show might fizzle into obscurity.

The first episode will see two developers yakking it up:

• Interview with Sam Didier (Art Director SCII): Concept Art for the StarCraft and Warcraft Franchises
• Interview with Jeff Kaplan (Lead Designer WoW): Highlights of Sunwell Plateau and Patch 2.4

I'm sure Blizzard will garner enough viewers from their fanboy empire to keep rolling out the show. It is a lot more work for the community team, but it's not like they do much with the fansites anyway. Blizzard is normally tight-lipped and the fansites fight for very few scraps. Blizzard really should focus on better community support and content with their fansites, but with more and more fansites popping up I don't see the accessibility door opening anytime soon, and we'll gladly take the official channels over nothing at all. (Jeff Kaplan a.k.a. Tigole does make the rounds!)

As many of you already know. The WAR community team already beat Blizzard to the video punch and Warhammer: Age of Reckoning isn't even out yet. The WAR team cranks out all their video content left and right and it really is what some might call a pièce de résistance. Having Paul Barnett, the hilariously well spoken mastermind on their side certainly helps. I had some harsh words when the Warhammer community team didn't update the promised weekly updates at the early onset after the beta went offline back in early October, but the tide turned. The information from this month alone is staggering.

The SOE community team produces an audio podcast. I enjoy listening in; especially when it occupies those long hours involving mind-numbing tasks that make video watching null and void. SOE Podcast listeners get exclusive developer interviews they'd probably normally miss otherwise. It's handy for anyone wanting to keep tabs on what's up with their MMOGs. Go listen, or I will hurt you with more elongated walls of text.

If you are interested in fan related MMOG podcasts definitely check out Michael Zenke's Podcast roundup. He tunes in and dishes the who's who on a the MMOG podcast gamut. I'm hoping Massively joins the new media fold sometime in the New Year. I want to woo you all.

[via Virgin Worlds]