RealmCast

We told you we’d be getting these out more often, and so far we are gonna keep the Realm love coming. This week, our intrepid gang of four dives into more questions that ever before, answering your queries about upcoming changes to the game, talking food yet again, and putting our artistic skills to the test. Join TiffyTiffy, Zbornox, Willem, and DashAhead once again on our aural adventure through the Realm.

EDIT: Forgot our lovely drawings of the Lord of the Lost Lands. Can you guess who drew each of them?

The holiday break is behind us and 2013 is well underway. To celebrate our return to the Realm, we put together another episode of ReamCast just for you! Tune in to hear the usual crew (TiffyTiff, Zbornox, Willem, and DashAhead) discuss the upcoming Fame redesign, Willem’s artistic influences, the winners of our recent community events, Digimon, and plenty of other nerdy topics close to our hearts. We also managed to find enough time to draw some renditions of tacos. See if you can discern who drew which one.

We’ve also seen fit to include the winners of our various events here for you to peruse:

Naughty 'N Nice Ninjas Unite:

1st: KickKaster
2nd: Crapadap
3rd: GeeroTwo

End the World

Written: Sir Obsidian
Visual: Frogboffin
Video: GeeroTwo

Thanks for listening and as always, let us know what you think here and on the SoundCloud!

EDIT * willem

Hey guys,
gogoasafur had a great question that I wanted to adress. The answer is written below as well but I thought it was worth sticking up here for you all to see more easily:

He asks:(paraphrased)
I’m not dead and NOT planning on dying- this means that I can’t utilize the new fame system, and punishes people who stay alive.

Answer:
I have a multipart answer to this subject. (Questions like this are perfect for podcasts, as I can really get in depth)

Firstly, even though staying alive for a great deal of time is a testament to your skill and a great feat in the wold or RotMG, we really want to provide goals that extend beyond your character’s life. Ideally, I’d like to hit a middle-ground where great, long living players are well rewarded, but have other goals in realm that they are working towards beyond that ‘life’. We want to promote a life cycle for a player character- a beginning, middle and end. There are several benefits to death, such as fame and the option to try out a new class. I’d like to add even more to this list so that players try to hit a sweet spot- making their characters have long and full lives and also appropriate and meaningful deaths. Currently, we don’t really provide anything else to focus on, but this is something that we will be working to change through housing and guilds, eventually.

Second, it has been discussed to allow in some way for players to ‘extract’ fame from a living character - should they not wish to kill them off for their fame. This will likely come with some sort of diminishing returns or detriment (maybe the fame you extract is slightly less that what you would have earned if you died in battle). This likely will not be a feature at launch of the fame re-design, but could be soon to follow.

Thanks for the great question, and I’ll try to answer more if I see any others of note!
-Willem

P.S. Please ignore grammer and spelling errors- im certainly NOT perfect and make them plenty.

Note: as always this is a quick transcription, and doesn’t include every word they said. For more detail listen to it. I’ve put time indexes here and there to help you find certain parts.

###Attendees

• DashAhead
• Zbornox
• TiffyTiff
• Willem

###Community News
0:00:55

Naughty 'N Nice Ninjas Unite winners:
1st place - KickKaster
2nd place - Crapadap
3rd place – GeeroTwo

End the World
Visual - Frogboffin
Written - Sir Obsidian
Video – GeeroTwo

Next event: make a RotMG animated GIF. Details to come.

New package: Play More is back with two backpacks added to the mix.

New forum moderators. Current mods are staying, just adding some new ones. Not sure how many, but if you’re outside of the USA throw in your application.

###Q&A
0:07:00

Anuke: when will MMC dungeon be released?
Willem: there’s been a lot of technical difficulties slowing things down. We’re hoping 2 weeks but we’ll see how it goes.

billowillo: is there any ninja buff in the future?
Willem: currently we have our eyes on other things. Feel free to keep commenting on this on the forum and I’ll take a look.

TehKarrot: when will the fame update and houses come?
Willem: fame redesign we want on test next week. Housing is much further goal. We want to start laying the foundation in the next month but it will be a while till we start putting up the walls.

The Ood: guilds were to get some attention in previous realmcasts, but it hasn’t happened. What’s going on there?
Willem: after houses. All of our engineers but one are working on Project @#$%^&, so everything else is kinda at a standstill till that gets done.
DashAhead: are there any plans we can share regarding future guild upgrades?
Willem: we want to increase the ability for guilds to compete against eachother. Maybe something like a leaderboard. It’s all conceptual at this point.

The Ood: have you thought about letting guilds increase the size of their roster?
Willem: yes

FrozenFire: how do you manage your love lives?
TiffyTiff: very carefully
Zbornox: I write myself poetry every day and resite it
DashAhead: I don’t do the job of managing my love life
Willem: I just make sure there’s room for video games and eating.

0:13:35
TiffyTiff: I witnessed a marriage proposal the other day in the realm, in AsiaEast. (listen for more, too much to copy)

Eternally: why am I slowly being drawn into Social?
DashAhead: I think you’re the only one who can answer this, but maybe it’s addicting, maybe it’s because mods make it so sweet.
Zbornox: I’m actually going on Social more and more now.
DashAhead: I didn’t realize there are so many AMA’s. That’s like all it is right now.

Piply: I’m not rude!
DashAhead: we know you’re not rude.
Piply: if I was going to send you something do you have a Kabam address or should I use your home ones?
DashAhead: PLEASE DO NOT TRY TO FIND OUR HOME ADDRESSES.
Willem: we do have a Kabam address, on Kabam.com. It’s the San Francisco office.
DashAhead: we’ve actually only gotten one thing, a postcard from jooster. Someone promised us a taco postcard but no taco postcard have we!

Piply: is there any way to make the red-bag special sale icon more accurate? I missed out because I thought I had more time.
Willem: that’s something I’d like get that fixed. It will probably be a while till we can get that changed to something more like hours or minutes, so I suggest that if you see something you like buy it right away and don’t hesitate.

gogoasafur: will you ever add siege type content?
Willem: that’s a possibility but we don’t have any plans right now. The castle seems to be exactly that, but I would like to mix up the realm encounters a little bit. That may come someday.

gogoasafur: regarding fame changes and it possibly being less valuable, will it be easier to gain?
Willem: I feel like every podcast we’re getting people saying fame won’t be as valuable. It will be much more valuable when you can use it to buy things.

gogoasafur: right now we use fame to judge other players and how well they’ve played to reach high fame. Will the changes mean players after the fame redesign will be able to quickly surpass people who have high fame now?
Willem: we’re splitting the leaderboard, for one. The current leaderboard will be saved but retired, and the new leaderboard will be made so as to judge only players who die after the fame changes.

TehNyanKat: does doing overdamage cause your chances of getting a drop to go down? Put an end to this controversy!
Willem: it is a myth. You can’t put an end to myths so people will still believe it’s true, but it’s all superstition. It’s bologna.

AceMatt: when are you planning to turn the test server back on?
Willem: meh, I dunno.

Nazu: I heard Lil Oryx will return to the store. Is this real?
Willem: it’s unlikely Lil’ Oryx will return.

SlugKing: do you like slugs?
DashAhead: I grew up in the forest and I hate the things. They’re all over!
TiffyTiff: I’m part of the slug club, where you had to kiss one to get in.
DashAhead: that can kill them!
Willem: banana slugs are the best slugs.

0:27:02
SlugKing: will only the winners from the dungeon art contest make it into the game, or could any participants work potentially appear.
Willem: boosh is in charge of that one. I think he’s choosing art from all over, not just from the winners of that contest. We’ve been looking at a lot of art for the Elder Realms, too.

Linkshot: how much of your work has been influenced by EarthBound?
Willem: a lot of my work is. EarthBound’s my favorite. I’ve played all the games in the series. Mother 2’s the best of the series.
DashAhead: I like Mother 3 more. It’s more emotional.
Willem: everything I do is a little influenced by EarthBound. The Jungle is more influenced by the Deep Darkness. The Ocean Trench, however, was not.

Walorus: Why are “limited edition” pets and skins sold again at a later date?
Willem: I think the only things that were said were supposed to be limited edition were the skins.
DashAhead: there’s a difference between being a limited edition item and an item available for a limited time. Things that are only for a limited time could re-appear. Seasonal items will stay seasonal.

ilikefoosv2: will be seeing April Fools or Valentines stuff?
Willem: I really want to bring back the Heart Pet. I also want to do something for April Fools again, but whether or not it will be new depends on the dev schedule.

iamop: how will you be dealing with RWT and autoloot bots?
DashAhead: we’ve been kicking around a lot of ideas. Whatever will be the harshest on the will probably be the one implemented. We HATE the spambots.
Willem: the biggest thing to remember is that getting rid of them isn’t the hardest part. The hardest part is getting rid of them without negatively affecting everyone else.

iamop: do any of you watch Gundam?
DashAhead: my favorite was Gundam Wing, despite it’s unpopularity. Mobile Suit Gundam is boring, G Gundam is worst thing in the world. Gundam Seed is dumb and Gundam Seed Destiny is uber dumb. Sorry if I’m offending anyone.
Willem: if anyone’s as into OnePiece as much as I am hit me up and we’ll be BFF’s.

SomeTurtle: has much thought has been put into new pet functions?
Willem: there’s been a lot of thought into it, and it’s actually been something I’ve personally be working on for a couple weeks.
SomeTurtle: what about pet dyes, and selling all dyes all the time?
Willem: Haven’t thought about pet dyes, but we are working on a system that, basically, makes all the dyes available. We’ve got something like 450 dyes now.

Crapadap: there hasn’t been a RealmCast in like 3 weeks. We’re lacking in sanity without them!
Zbornox: you could listen to the old ones, there’s something.
All: we’re going to be doing them weekly. Christmas broke it up a bit.

Crapadap: we have so much gold but nothing to spend it on. Will there be an extension to the vault?
Willem: going to forever regret saying that people bought the right to mule. It’s very possible we’ll be expanding the vault, but it’s all tied up with the housing idea so it will probably wait till then.
Zbornox: just want to remind everyone we don’t support mules. If you have them, and something happens, we can’t do anything about it. We get support requests with people asking to recover some mules password because it had a bogus email address, or got hacked, or etc etc. We can’t support that since the ToS says you can’t have multiple accounts.

Eozu: when we can expect packages that include gold instead of just items?
Willem: we don’t have that functionality with the package system yet. It will happen when it’s possible.
0:43:45

Eozu: anything more you can share about the Elder Realms?
Willem: I got back into that over the Christmas break. I’ve thought about it a lot and have started write up documentation on it this week. We’re starting to really look into it. There are some key questions and issues on an engineering front which we’ll get addressed, but it’s mainly going to be content creation when doesn’t involve them so much. We have started on it.

Eatfrenchfries: when will we know when GM’s are online doing fun stuffs?
DashAhead: follow us on Twitter! We always post it there. @RotMG_News

Lakabaus: Do you have a lot of friends?
TiffyTiff: What’s a lot?
Willem: not really
TiffyTiff: I have a few very good friends.
Willem: I’m good friends with my roommates and some people at work.

Lakabaus: What do you do in your free time?
DashAhead: I have lots of magic cards and board games. I’ve been playing FarCry 3 and I love it and hate it at the same time. I do my missions all stealthy and a dog, or a lizard, or some freakin tiger always finds me and ruins everything.
TiffyTiff: I play some music. I bake and make food.
Zbornox: I hike cats a lot.
Willem: I spend great deals of time thinking about what to eat, then less time to eat.

Lakabaus: Do you play realm a lot yourselves?
Zbornox and TiffyTiff: we’re picking it back up again, kinda took a break over the holidays.
DashAhead: we used to play a lot but we just got too busy.
Willem: I always play a lot when we release new content. But it’s been a while so I haven’t played in ages. I’m getting fed up waiting so I’ve played a bit lately.

Lakabaus: Will we see our deaths again?
Willem: I’ve mentioned graveyards with housing, but I want to add it back to the main menu as something like a tab. I don’t know when we have that scheduled. It was supposed to be in the last menu re-design but there was a bug so it had to be put off.

Gwhat: have you ever sat in a cockpit?
TiffyTiff: I have.
Willem: I remember when I was a kid I may have. Vaguely.

Gwhat: have you ever seen a grown man naked?
Zbornox: let me just remind you where we are. We’re in San Franscisco.
DashAhead: pretty much anything around here that invites people to gather in public there are naked men.
Zbornox: I’m surprised how desensitized I’ve become to it.

1:02:45
Secert: since it’s called Elder Realms, can you give us any hints on what to expect?
Willem: in it’s simplest form, the Elder Realm is a completely separate realm that’s much more dangerous and existing than the current realms.

Secert: Will it have restrictions?
Willem: it won’t have restrictions but it will be much harder. You’ll just get murdered if you’re not strong enough to make it.

Secert: Will it be unlockable in the nexus with something like an incantation?
Willem: we’re considering a number of things but our leading idea is something like that.

carsanity: I’ll make you a taco.
DashAhead: we’ll hold you to that.
Car: will the pally buff be coming in the next build?
Willem: we’re not concentrating on that right now.
Car: are you going to make a taco room or taco items?
Willem: it was not one of my plans but it sounds good! No promises.

Sorry for the slight delay, but the gang is back in action with your latest episode of RealmCast. This time, Zbornox, TiffyTiff, Willem, and DashAhead dive straight into your questions, and only come up for air when distracted by which anime characters would win in a fight. Join us as we delve into these important topics along with plenty Taco talk and some hints about the Elder Realms.

DashAhead: Welcome blah blah blah

###Community news
Not much community news

Zbornox: Moderator application status

Thursday, have 300 applications, looked through them yesterday, narrowed down to 40, waiting for dashahead and tiffytiff to review

First cut list will be sent to the mods

Decisions based on mods and GMs, hopefully made late next week

DashAhead: Animated GIF event

Disco priest, dancing oryx are notable.

Shipping: rooting for relationship to succeed

Next week is inauguration, there will be an inauguration event, details next week. There will be a package.

New YouTube channel, one video with Zbornox and Willem trolling everyone, Alex dancing, Dashahead’s beard (live action)
More videos will come, tours of studio

Name of channel: RTMG Videos

Flosion is having celebration for 400th YouTube subscriber, shout out to him

Willem is working on tiny low level dungeons to improve new player experiences by himself

###Q&A
(10:00 min mark)

Monkeyball21: Can we expect the fame changes to be before February?

Willem: I think so, we’re trying to do a release today. Hopefully, it’ll be on testing soon, but closed to public. It’ll be up by the end of January or the beginning of February.

Nubbers: (Nubbers or Noobers?) When will you implement the ultimate flawless solution? How will the spam bots be destroyed?
The ways to stop this is to make only players rank 3 or up be able to talk and force new accounts to run tutorial.
Zbornox: We have thought of some of these
DashAhead: There is no flawless solution, exploring
Willem: We thought of those, some they’re very anti-new player. MMOs where you can’t talk for the first few days are harsh.
Zbornox: We’re thinking
DashAhead: Ultimate solution may be combination of those, but we’re not there yet.

JuliusJudo: Sup?!

What action is being taken about hacked clients? I know good evidence is hard to come by.
Willem: Send a support ticket. If there’s definitive proof, we ban them.
DashAhead: But definitive proof is hard to come by. What we need to do is to limit those hacked clients from our side. Reports are tricky and can be inaccurate. Photoshop can be used to fake proof. We don’t want to wrongly ban someone.

Seriously, DashAhead, are you in fact Paul Rud, or at least a relative of his? Don’t take this the wrong way, but I have a serious bromance on your voice, platonically.

(16:00)
Willem: Well you did have that vocal cord switching surgery
DashAhead: Yeah, Paul Rud might have been a doner
He is also Jewish.

Zbornox knows a lot about Paul Rud from the wiki
DashAhead thinks his voice doesn’t sound like Paul Rud

DashAhead doesn’t mind a bromance crush on his voice.
Zbornox: DashAhead looks more like Lord Ruthvan, with the cape

Greedkils: When the Elder Realms are released, will the normal realms get changed? What’s the progress on Elder Realms?

Willem: No, they’ll be completely separate. Designs for the Elder Realms are drawn by Willem. He wants to do something above the level of realm, something new and epic, but the technology’s not up to scratch. An engineer will be conscripted to work on them, changing the mapping software. They’ll know capabilities in a week. Several enemies are made. Basically waiting for engineers to finish their current project (fame changes?)

Coat: You said marriage is out of the question, which is understandable. But will you go out on a date with me? I will buy you tacos, and pie, and candy, accompany by the movie of your choice, Everyone knows you won’t say no!

Zbornox: Well I’m sorry, Coat. I’d love your food, but I have a boyfriend. He’ll have to come along and supervise. I also made DashAhead and TiffyTiff a little envious with tacos, so they want to come as well. Dash doesn’t like the ocean.

Dash: Everyone is going. Let us know when that will happen.

MerchantCo: Shall the nexus crier ever return to our loving arms?
Willem: Yes he probably will return. He was part of an emergency situation. So, in order to out him in, we’ll need a full push. We can spawn him, but what he says is preprogrammed. You’ll likely only see him when there’s a big emergency right next to an update.
DashAhead: Someone asked if the Nexus Crier could announce that the lag in the game is due to the Chrome updates, but we don’t want to blame others. Don’t use Chrome for now.
Willem: We might change him later.

You guys made fun of him blah blah blah

GTM: I’ve seen you guys post and Tweet at the most weird times. Do you guys work odd hours?
DashAhead: Maybe you live in a different time zone than we do, but we post from 9-5. We tweet when we feel like though. Zbornoz scheduals her tweets.

DashAhead works Sundays, Zbornox works Saturdays.

Singing, random chatter

Crassword:

To Tiffy: DO you love me, as much as I love you?
Zbornox: The answer is no, because Tiffy’s love is infinite.

(26:00)
Tacos. The end. Please make the rest of the cast about Taco dungeons. I want a super awesome taco set
They thought he meant Taco Dung.

Willem: The reason you don’t want to see a taco dungeon is the player population’s fault. There was a backlash after Mad Lab. It doesn’t fit in with the High Fantasy scheme of Realm.

We canceled a whole awesome dungeon because we thought players would dislike the theme. If you guys want a wider range of content, be careful what you say. Be receptive. We’re going to edge into sillier content.

(27:50)
Piply: (female skins) Burr! It looks cold outside in the Nexus! Can the bun buns come inside to warm up sometimes? Also, I’ve seen the new Steath Assassin pack and the skin looks curvy. Does that mean it’s a female skin? Will there be a female priest skin? If so, I’d definitely buy it.

PS: How many people work on RTS Kabam?

Willem: The Assassin is in full stealth gear. It may be any gender. He/she is pretty curvy. For the priest skin, I would love more female skins. (Nuns) More female skins will come out.

2 designers + Mike + 7 Engineers + Brandon + Q&A

(15 of us or so)

Happy Birthday Betty White! Happy 91st. All of the Golden Gods of the Realm wish you a happy birthday.

Willem: We care

Give her chocolate blah blah blah

(31:00)
Padmei: So many questions so little time

Have you seen Blackjam’s King’s Chest idea? Are you thinking about it?
DashAhead: We are thinking about it. I didn’t see it until you posted this question. Zbornox hasn’t seen the actually post. Kabam doesn’t know about it for the most part. Tell us about it.

Castlevania shirt blah blah blah Simon Belmont blah blah blah ugly Chrismas sweater

Should I write more songs/poems
Everyone: Yes.

Aurorious: First off, hearty hello to you all. Are you planning on adding addition music? The current theme is getting boring. You said composers are boring. Myself and others are decent composers. Can we make music for the game?
Dash: Send us music and we’ll play it on the Realm cast. We’d love to play it if it’s original and you give us the permissions. Willem is working on music. We have inhouse composers. They have samples.
Willem: Reviewing styles. Is currently choosing interesting and good tracks. He agrees the main song is getting grating. Still in the process of chosing. If you have samples, feel free to send it to us. Willem will consider.
Dash: Send your stuff our way and we’ll definitely listen to it
Zbornox: We might make a contest out of it. Give us a month and a half. Start composing now!
Dash: We might not do a contest.
Zbornox: There’s always an open submission.

Adventure time blah blah

Jufda: How much books do you read? Favorites?
Dash: phrasing funny blah blah.
Tiff: Murakami
Zbornox: I’ve read Norwiegen Woods
Dash: I’ve just been reading the Neuromancer.
I’ve wanted to read the trilogy. Cyberpunk.

CGIs in trailers suck blah blah

Zbornox: I read a lot, mostly auto-biographies. Elliot Aronson’s Not By Chance, Social Psychologist. I’m always reading a book
Dash: I read a lot more comics then prose. I don’t read nonfiction.
Willem: I don’t read very much. I’m dyslexic, so I’m slow. I listen to lots of audiobooks. I play too many video games.

Marvel > DC (DashAhead) blah blah blah

(42:00)

Gogoasafur:
As you know by now, I am an avid member of the I REFUSE TO DIE foundation. Will we see any changes that will let us display our living character’s awesomeness? Badges? Tooltip?
Willem: No immediate plans. Maybe someday
Dash: It’s a good idea

Will we see any social RP elements in the game? Marriage?
Dash: We don’t stop in game marriage, but there’s no chapel for it.

Sante: Did Google Chrome update cause the glitches recently? Did the Peptide plugin cause it?
Everyone: Yes. Play your game in a different browser.

Zbornox: Who will !@#$ curse or !@%$ reveal his name in the Realm cast?

(45:00)

Crapadap: What are you looking for in a forum mod applicant?
Zbornox: We need someone trustworthy. Isn’t judgemental. Will do things for the greater good.
Willem: Need to be responsible. Need to understand the frustrations of the community are frustrating for everyone. Be mature to respect the issues we’re having.

BobPenguin: Do you like my story? (Oryx’s Origin)
Dash: Only Tiff read it so far. She likes it.

LootBeard: Zbornox, do you go to Taco Bell (no), Taco Bueno (no)?
Zbornox: I like a soft shell taco from Taco John’s.

If I made an animated taco sprite for you, would you add it to your signature?
TiffyTiff: Yes I would.

Who’s beard do you like the most?
(Lootbeard hasn’t posted his beard, so they can’t judge.)
Dash: Post a picture of your beard!

DashAhead and Zbornox would make a great couple.
Dash: They both have significant others. But we would make a great chimera!

Archon: What would you do for a ?condite? bar?
Willem: I’d pay $1.5, or do a short dance, or recite a poem or joke.

Someone stole all of them blah blah

GWhut: For the Anime nerds, who would win a fight? Vash the Stampede (Trigon), or Spike Spiegal.
Willem knows little about them.
Dash: Spike is clever, but he would kill someone. Vash doesn’t kill people. Vash is more western cowboy style.

Overall, Vash would win.

Out of the other three people in the room, who would you kill?
Tiff: We can’t answer that (violation).
Dash: We can talk about kiling fictional things though.

Iamop: (We can change your name to I am wig or I am Mop)

What Gundam do you like the best?
Dash: Deathscythe Custom. Shenlong is second.

What about dat lag?
Everyone: Yeah, it’s terrible

What about tacos:
Zbornox is craving them

Dash: They’re just a lot of good things stuffed together. Who doesn’t like tacos?

Zbornox texts her boyfriend for tacos

KidsTonio: First off, thanks for reading. Third, what did you guys do in your free time when you were 5-10 year old.
Everyone: We played outside because we didn’t have as much technology.
Dash grew up in the mountains.
Willem made lego mazes for insects.
Willem trapped caterpillars in his toy chest. They pooped and died.

XXXsBoyXX: Can I be DashAhead’s friend, since he seems to not have any?
Dash: yaaaahhhhh. I appreciate it.

Hi Tiffytiff, I caught you playing tag in nexus
Dash: Well you win. You better be happy!

DruidSpell: Anyway, can you give us one detail about an enemy of the Elder Realms?
Willem: I just made an enemy called the Crystal guardian, which teleports and uses magic.
Everyone: Ohhhhhh Realm cast exclusive about the elder realms.

(1:02:00)

PieCake (Adventure time quiz)

Yuchiku: While the Ghostly Prism change was indeed a change, any chance it and the totally macaroni/total balony robe (Mixcoatl’s Tlaolani Robe) might get an improvement?
Dash: It does do more damage now, for longer period of time.
Everyone: what does he mean by Macaroni robe?

Why limit packages to a few days? I missed a pack because I was out for a few days/
Willem: We pull packs down to put new ones up. Right now, we can only have one package up at a time. The Holiday ones are one time only, but ones like the Play More packs will come up again and again.

End of Q&A

(1:07:00)

I got bored after finishing school work, so I decided to save Trustee some work and transcript! Sorry to anyone’s name I misspelt.

Is it really already RealmCast Episode 12? Indeed! Listen in as DashAhead, TiffyTiff, Zbornox and Willem answer player questions and discuss the newest dungeon, the Lair of Draconis! You’ll also get to meet our new GMs, SirRacha and BuffSoulja! You gotta listen to find out!

*Apologies about DashAhead’s mic, we fix it about 10 min in.

First, a new fancy feature for transcriptions: TACO TOTALS. I’m keeping track of every time someone says “taco” (except if they’re reading a player question) and will give the totals at the end. Stay tuned!

###Attendees:

• TiffyTiff
• Willem
• DashAhead
• Zbornox
• SirRacha
• BuffSoulja

Announcements / Community News:

zomg the world is ending! DashAhead and TiffyTiff are leaving! They’re moving on to be GM’s in another Kabam game called Kingdoms of Camelot. Zbornox is not going to be lonely, though. SirRacha and BuffSoulja are going to joining her as new GM’s for RotMG. Welcome them here! [link not archived]

New Moderators

Make a GIF contest winners:

McGansta hand drawn
ManKay’s Nyanoryx
PotatoT (Zbornox’s personal favorite)

###Game News
(6:45)

New dungeon is on test, when it’s online. The new event that drops this dungeon is pretty much finished but the dungeon itself is going to get some tweaks over the next week. (Surprise announcement: Travis aka boosh is moving onto another Kabam game, too!)

###New GM questions:
(8:30)

What are your GM names?

SirRacha: I looked around my desk thinking of a name and I was inspired by the spicy love that is sriracha
BuffSoulja: I went to the University of Colorado where the mascot is the Buffalo. I wanted to be the Buffalo Soldier but because of the 10 character limit so I picked BuffSoulja.

Where are you guys from?

Both are born and raised in San Francisco.

When did you start working at Kabam?

SirRacha: I started in August 2011, same as DashAhead.
BuffSoulja: April 2012, same as Zbornox.

What games were you working on before?

SirRacha: a couple. I started on Glory of Rome, then Dragons of Atlantis, then Knights of Camelot, and now RotMG.
BuffSoulja: a bunch. Glory of Rome, Global Warfare, (something I can’t find), KoC: battle of the north, KoC: Vanilla, and now RotMG.

What’s your impression of RotMG?

SirRacha: I think it’s tight. Favorite class? Necromancer.
BuffSoulja: I’m a big fan of MMOs so I’m already addicted to the game. So far I’m on the Huntress.

What did you do before coming to Kabam?

SirRacha: I was working at Starbucks for like 5 or 6 years. ‘n stuff.
BuffSoulja: basically right out of college.

(15:55)

How long have you been playing games?

SirRacha: since the day I was born.
BuffSoulja: since I was like 3.

Do you have any tatoos?
SirRacha: one on my side but it’s not done yet.
BuffSoulja: two. An anatomically correct heart on my one arm and on my other arm the state of California with other stuff.

(18:35)

###Player Q&A

Willem: I’m in a broken chair so I’ve got my mic sitting on my belly so please excuse any gastrointestinal noises.

MrCognac: Do you like beards.
DashAhead: why, yes. Yes I do.

MrCognac: any new news about the new dungeon?
Willem: it’s getting polish. You’ll probably see it on test again in a week or so. The thing with this dungeon is there have been three different people working on it so the code is a nightmare.

MrCognac: any hints about what the heck treasures are for?
Willem: well, erm, yeah. Um… well, I will say there will be one more UT thing, and some other things.

Crapadap: will we ever get to hear the engineers?
DashAhead: Alec and Indigo are both engineers who has been on realmcasts before. We’ll have Tom on here in a future. Watch the question thread and we’ll let you know so you can ask your questions for them.

Bacainc: have you ever thought about making RotMG into something else like a comic or something?
DashAhead: we were just talking about something but we won’t go into it. Short answer: yes.

Bacainc: what is your take on mass suicides?
Willem: don’t kill your character out of protest. We won’t even notice, and if we do it won’t affect us at all.
DashAhead: I like to see them because the game is really all about death anyway.
Willem: about protests. We do listen to everyone about bugs and other problems. Don’t kill your character or start a protest. Find a more constructive way to tell us what’s bothering you and make your case why you think it’s in the game’s best interest that we fix it. We’re much more likely to fix something if we understand your position, not because you committed suicide as if we’re supposed to know exactly why you’re doing it.

Arisraya: now that there’s an official RotMG youtube channel, will we get video podcast as well as realmcasts?
DashAhead: there’s a lot of considerations but I was going to be doing them so if it’s going to happen someone else on the GM team will have to pick it up.
Zbornox: hopefully we’ll do more videos in the future.

Dmike: is there any special twist to the dungeon after killing the 4 dragons?
Willem: I’m thinking about adding something like that. The idea behind it is the battle changes depending on the order in which you kill the dragons. So for now we’re going to work on enhancing that system and bringing the dragons more equal in terms of variety. Depending on what time there is left after that we may add something else.
DashAhead: I thought the black dragon was the hardest.
Willem: he’s supposed to be harder. I like the red dragon the best. That one will probably stay much as it is.

RotMG iObsidian: why aren’t you showing your faces?
Zbornox: there’s a potential to have a group picture of the 3 “old” GM’s soon.
TiffyTiff: I’ve been sick lately so I’ve lost some weight. You’ll have to imagine me 5 pounds heavier.

(29:40)

gogoasafur: do you plan on bringing the new fame system to test before whatever the treasures are for?
Willem: the fame change will go to testing first, I think. The only reason it wouldn’t is if there’s no more data we could gain by putting it on test. But most likely it will hit test.

Nubbers: any spambot news?
DashAhead: we’ve had some work done. We’ll see what happens in the near future.

Diokles: would you start offering all the new skins? And more than one offer at a time?
Willem: all the skins released so far, except the limited time ones, are available right now on the character select screen. Right now we’re only capable of doing one package deal at a time. We may do one big package with all skins released to date?

Diokles: what about Canada day specials?
Willem: if it’s this month it’s not going to happen.
Zbornox: if you have ideas for special days please let us know.
Willem: We need to know at least 2 weeks in advance, and a whole month would be even better.

Willem: did we get any music from the players?
DashAhead: no! We want music!
Zbornox: I’ve been rehearsing my own theme music on my iPhone, but you guys don’t want to hear it.

gwhat: what was the thinking behind removing godland pot drops?
Willem: The idea was originally make the dungeons a better place for high level players rather than sitting in godlands all day. But there was a big outcry and I can understand the arguments. A lot of it was there was not enough new to compensate. And it was unbalanced in a few ways with something like ATT pots being harder to find.

gwhat: Deadpool or Batman. Who would win?
DashAhead: I’ve got some feelings about this. Any comic comparison anyone says batman always wins. He always beats everyone in the DC universe because he outthinks them. But in the new Weapon X program all those guys are basically immortal so I’m going to say Deadpool would win.
Willem: there’s a possible stalemate system. I think batman would somehow trap Deadpool to neutralize him but not actually kill him.

(37:45)

(Tiffy’s last moments in RealmCast)

Piply: thanks for coming to my birthday WC!
Zbornox: thanks, sorry I died.

Piply: will you bless my marriage to Henez?
Zbornox: I will.

Piply: what is your beard routine?
DashAhead: I don’t have a grooming regimen. I trim it with a weed whacker like once every 2 months and wash it daily with face wash. It’s a product of my laziness, not my vanity.

ImToby: the dungeon is easy if you know what order to kill the dragons. What other purpose will the dungeon have?
Willem: I’m going to be adding drops in the next version of testing.

Eozu: extra mashed or fried potatoes?
Willem: What’s extra mashed?
DashAhead: if it’s like puree then I’ll go with fried.
Willem: I’ll go with puree since that usually comes with fancy sauce and filet minion.

Neroxe: will there be a forum update?
Zbornox: I’m taking some online classes on Drupal now so I can do what I can. There’s a lot of functions we just can’t implement. We’re not going to take the forums off Drupal right now, there are no plans at all yet.
DashAhead: on KoC they use vBulletin and it’s awesome compared to stupid Drupal.
Zbornox: if you have anything specific feel free to ask but chances are low we can do much.

MerchantCo: do you want to read some of my erotica?
DashAhead: I REALLY want to read some but I want it to be RotMG related!

StolenMojoz: will there be new pets or player custom made dyes?
Willem: maybe someday we could have enemy pets but that’s a while off. As for custom made dyes we still have the dick problem. If we allow you to draw things there will be obscenity. We are talking about more things players can customize but those ideas are way down the road.

(45:05)

Stormpegy: what’s up with the godland pot drop rates?
Willem: I think you’re imaging things. We put them back.

Stormpegy: what’s up with the lag?
Willem: what browser are you using? Chrome is basically broken right now. Use anything else.

Stormpegy: can you tell us the white bag drop rate?
Willem: it varies by dungeon and I’m not going to through all of them.

KARASSWORD: will the UT drop rate be important?
DashAhead: yes they’re important, that’s how you get UT’s.

KARASSWORD: do treasure sets perform some kind of function?
DashAhead: we’re not going to get into those details.

KARASSWORD: will I ever meet TiffyTiff in the game?
DashAhead: well, not anymore.

KARASSWORD: will we get Kabam office tour part 2?
DashAhead: we hope so, and we’ll film it landscape this time.

KARASSWORD: where are the nexus bunnies?
Willem: they’re supposed to be there!

CheeseHead: treas…
Willem: no, can’t tell you.

CheeseHead: how much fame will things cost?
Willem: the amount of fame will be related to the amount of gold. It may be a straight conversion but we can set it however we want.

TheDuat: when’s the next big update coming out?
Willem: we have that new dragon dungeon coming out, hopefully in the next two weeks. Then we have another low level dungeon that’s basically done.

TheDuat: can tiffy work on a new in-game taco item?
DashAhead: well, no, but we can make Zbornox do that.

(55:10)

Wawawa: will the death screens come back soon?
Willem: that was supposed to be in ages ago. It’s on our list of things and will eventually get done.

Wawawa: will the buy pop-up go away?
Willem: you can turn that off in Options I think.

Wawawa: will trickster decoys be able to push Tomb buttons again?
Willem: there was some exploit I fixed a while ago that may have broken that. It won’t be coming back. Switches and other triggers will never be affected by anything other than the players themselves.

Dalla: have you considered having a zoo for all the pets?
Willem: yeah, we’ve been working on something like that.

FrogBoffin: how can I sacrifice my guildmates to Oryx?
DashAhead: you could trick them? Maybe on testing let us know and we’ll spawn Oryx on their head.

(59:30)

Adventure Time Q&A for Willem

1. Jake’s a attention seeker True
   True (True)

2. Finn losers more often to Jake on video games True
   True (True)

3. A melon has a family of fruit that do stuff False
   True. Wait, no, false. (False)

4. Finn is afraid of large volumes of water False (He’s only afraid of the ocean)
   True (True)

5. Bubblegum has died more than ONCE False
   False (False)

6. The party god is a giant cat head False
   False (False)

7. The ultimate tart is only eaten at the back rubbing ceremony True
   True (True)

8 Jake’s imagination is more powerful than Finn’s True
True (True)

9. The Lich king controls a snail to do his bidding True
   True (True)

10. You’re the ultimate adventure time fan besides me True
    False (True)

(61:50)

DashAhead’s farewell.

Todays Taco Total:

Willem: 3
DashAhead: 3
Zbornox: 0
TiffyTiff: 0
SirRacha: 0
BuffSoulja: 0

Woah, I’m disappointed!

It’s here! Join the Realm of the Mad God GMs Zbornox, BuffSoulja, and SirRacha on Season 2 of RealmCast, the official RotMG podcast!! We’re back with player questions, game news and community event updates.

And for your viewing pleasure, please take a looksee at the video version of RealmCast right over here! (Note: there are no pics of the GMs in this video…sorry!)

**Special thanks to Beat Garden for the opening track “Slow Game” and to Bilal for providing the other musical tunes throughout the show. You can check out all of Bilal’s here.

Many apologies to everyone who is used to Doc’s excellent work on transcribing. I did my best. Also, I don’t recognize buff and racha’s voices yet to tell them apart, so most of their quotes may be juxtaposed.

~*~

Zbo: welcome to realmcast season 2
Participants: zbornox, buffsoulja, and sirracha
We are giving you what you want: Updates on Game & Community, Answer to Player Questions.

Buff: “we acknowledge the feedback we are getting from you (both good and bad) and we are loving getting”

Racha: “This is one of my favorite Kabam games that’s come out since I started working here. As an MMO player, it’s awesome to be working on this and awesome to be working with the community.”

Buff:” The whole point of an MMO is the community. It’s exciting to see a passionate community on this game. “

###Game Updates

Buff: “The Lair of Draconis was released in error when the Rock Dragon was released. The dungeon will be released later and none of the things you saw in the dungeon are what you will see later when it is officially released. Also, expect it to be a lot harder.”

Racha: “It looks like the Rock Dragon is new and challenging, which is good.”

Buff: “Yes. We want the game to be difficult. There’s no fun if you can beat things the first time you encounter them. You don’t want to die (Nexus Nexus Nexus!) but we do want it to be difficult for you and we welcome any feedback that you guys have and we look forward to developing more difficult content in the future. We have had some good feedback on the Rock Dragon so far, for example:

ClipsPL “the rock dragon is IMO a great challenging and well designed event
DanJamWar “the rock dragon is an epic boss-it was so much fun!”
MrBunk “the rock dragon is a wonderfully terrifying experience”

Zbo: “We love hearing what you think about everything in realm. Speaking of realm, we have….”

###Community News

Racha: “Chinese/Lunar New Year just passed and we had the Chinese New Year Parade event. Everyone who submitted a parade got the 2013 fame prize. Congrats to PixelHero, DonghuaP, YoungAngel810”

(cont’d) “We also had the big twitter boost event. We set the bar at 10k followers. We got 1k new followers, but I’m happy with that so we are going ahead with the spawn-a-thon as planned”

Zbo: “Racha just doubled the twitter following in one week.”

Racha: “There will be a valentine’s day event as well, so stay tuned.”

(Cont’d) Also, there is a new e-mail address for all of you creative artists making realm related art artists.rotmg@gmail.com

(Cont’d) Check out Bilal’s music! https://soundcloud.com/bilalrotmg

Zbornox: Another event in progress: the tournament of fame. Top 10 on weekly legends board will get tops/UTs of their choice. Mouseyface is in the lead right now with 41k fame.

(cont’d) We also have some packages in game right now. The rogue pack is up right now. This comes with a slot as well as some items for only 1200 gold. It’s a pretty good deal, considering the price of a slot running 1000 gp by itself. (13 minute mark)

(cont’d) I like the rogue. In fact, the mods have been teaching me to tomb!

(cont’d)We also have the valentine’s pack, which I think is cool because you can give a heart pet to a friend. Very romantic.

Buff(?): Spread the love, guys.

Zbo: Spread it pixel.ated.ly

(cont’d): If you have feedback on the packages, please tag it on twitter #realmpack

###Player Questions
(14:30)

Zbo:There were a lot of questions about Mike Sellers’ post in the forum about selling top tier items.

Racha: This is a big decision made in the best interest of the game. We are working with the team to see how this is going to work out and we want to keep you guys in touch with the team and the decisions that are being made.

Zbo: Changes are inevitable.

Racha: One of the nice things about a game like this is that if something doesn’t work, it can be changed back. You saw that happen with the release 9 pot drop
changes. If something truly doesn’t work, we can always change it back. There are a lot of different types of feedback that we get. You have the obvious forum feedback that everyone can see, there are the actual sales which show how many people are buying and using the packs, and then there’s lots of data that we look at – users that log in, new users, how long players stay, etc. There is a lot of data that comes in, and with something like this I know that Mike is looking at as much data as possible and wants to make changes that are not going to hurt the game and will keep the game going for the long term.

Buff: The game is evolving. Sometimes people are afraid of change, but sometimes we are in a position to listen to you guys, see how you take it, and see if things work out. It’s a scary thing, but it’s a good thing. In the end, we want realm to be the best game in the entire friggin world.

Zbo: We want the same things (the best game with the best content). How we go about getting there may be not what you think would get us there initially but we do want the same thing and we want it to be around, so this is what we have to do.

Racha: And if you look at the thread, you do see players voicing their opinions from different perspectives. Some players don’t like it and they are very adamant. Others say it couldn’t affect me in the slightest. And others say they like the packages. Those are three very strong points of view that reflect the overall realm population. It came down, I think, for Mike to determine whether it would hurt the game overall or whether it would help the game in the long run.

(cont’d): One thing that’s very interesting about this game is that there are three full fledged economies operating at the same time which impact each other (the item trade economy, the Kabam economy of items sold in the game, and the RWT economy of third party sellers).

Buff: Those guys suck. Don’t buy from them!

Racha: We want it to be a skill based game. I think most people will agree that even if you have great items you will just die if you don’t have skill. Some items may help you get there a little quicker, but you can also die with them. The other thing is that these items were already being bought from RWT sites, and that just takes money away from the development of the game. We want money spent on realm of the mad god to come back out in realm of the mad god.

Zbo: That said, here are some specific player supplied questions:

QTrollatron: “Not asking for lots of details, but in regard to the elder realms, will the release of elder realms make oryx obsolete or will oryx be adjusted to keep him from becoming obsolete with the new content?”

Willem: “Elder Realms are a thing the game has been calling out for in so many ways, but it has been pushed back. The best way to think of them is as level 2 where the normal realms are level 1. Oryx will not be obsolete for people who play level 1 and people who reach level 2 will have new challenges.”

Q Lodis: “Will the future of RotMG be more of a co-op experience? Will you basically reduce all possible ways for solo play and in some way enforce the co-op aspect?”

Willem: Realm is a coop experience and will continue to be one. I think a lot of what makes it cooperative is how difficulty curve works. Many of the classes are also specifically designed to work well together. I am going to continue to perpetuate this coop through the design of the game”

QHolyBlades: Why don’t you do more in-game events which all the players can participate in, instead of forum based events like videos. Why can’t you do more events actually in the game?

Racha: We will definitely be doing this. Specifically, pay attention to the twitter for information about what we are doing in game.

Buff: BTW, when we are in game we are not ignoring you if we don’t respond to your messages. We just get so many that it’s impossible to read and respond to them all.

QFlairious: What are your thoughts on the Lair of Draconis leak and people using it to obtain high tier equipment?

Buff: I think we mentioned it a little earlier. We are working to make sure these things don’t happen and it’s unfortunate that it did. We’ll just have to make changes to improve the way we are doing things to prevent them in the future.

QSnup: Why don’t you take a resolute stance on all the hacking and cheating that goes on in the game? All you did was to tell players to send in a support ticket, but you did not say what action you are taking on the players being reported. Do you yourself have any experiences of seeing cheating going on while in game? What is the focus of development right now?

Zbo: I work a lot with the support team. Sending in evidence is the best way to alert us. This flags the situation and through this we can investigate it in our own way. We have a privacy policy to protect both sides though, so we cannot talk about this in the forum. Although we cannot discuss the details of the investigation you can feel safe that we are looking at it. I haven’t personally experienced seeing someone else cheating in game, but I think we can all agree that this does create a bad experience for people and it’s something we don’t want. So we are definitely working to stop it, we’re looking at your evidence, and we’re looking at things on our own. The main focus on development right now is content that everyone can enjoy, but

Buff: We really do adhere to a super strict privacy policy. Writing a support ticket is the best way. We don’t want players to be shamed in the forums because we don’t want the hacks to be on the forum.

Racha: we want to make sure everyone enjoys their gameplay experience. When someone is publicly put out there on the forum that’s when it can become a witch hunt, and in essence it can become bullying. We have a strict policy against bullying, and we know that rumors can get started very easily and spread like wildfire. We try to handle all of the accusations in a way that works with our terms of service and doesn’t hinder anyone else’s gameplay.

Zbo: To report hackers or cheaters send us an e-mail to support@wildshadow.com

QSlugKing: Sell the peppermint sale. Also, do you take skin submissions?

Racha: Yes! Follow us on twitter @rotmg_news and tag your submissions with #realmrequest and we’ll look into them. Also feel free to submit to artists.rotmg@gmail.com as noted above. We are always looking for ideas to throw at the design team and there is a process but we would love to see your stuff! It might even make it into the game.

QCgaff: Still no news about the treasures?

Willem: No news. They will be and already are valuable.

Racha: I know we are waiting, but there is really good stuff coming up soon.

Zbo: And that is the end of realmcast Season 2 Episode 1. If you have questions or comments #realmcast2x1 on twitter.

Racha: and we do this for you so give us your feedback about what you want in the realmcasts.

Zbornox, Buff and SirRacha are at it again with RealmCast Episode 2, where we update you on all things Realm!

This episode includes Zbornox chatting with Tournament of Fame winner, MouseyFace, while SirRacha shares all of the awesome event submissions from the last few Community Events, and Buff presents an overview of jobs that are currently working to make Realm the best game in the entire universe.

Add to that a bit more game and community news and toss in a few player Q/A, and you have RealmCast 2x2! Thanks for listening and please leave your feedback here and on our Twitter with #RealmCast2x2.

To view MouseyFace’s Tournament of Fame winning death, please check out his Youtube channel over here!

**Special thanks to Beat Garden for the opening and closing track “Slow Game” and MouseyFace for his interview!

Amulets aren’t coming back
There’s no release date for the Elder Realms yet
There will be tons of cool stuff omfg omfg but they can’t tell us what these awesome things will be, or when they’ll be released because they’re so extracool they have to be kept a secret
Google Chrome is shit, don’t use it
Check out the awesome new messages that now pop up instead of packages, aren’t they awesome?!
Mouseyface tells us the story of his life (he’s the guy who accidentally died when the “fame tournament” was going on, and won the first prize)
Useless blabber about recent competitions/events (Wiserhood got mentioned the most, well done I guess)
They know people are pissed off about bugs not getting fixed, etc. but don’t worry folks, Uncle Mike’s got it all under control, for real
Lack of new quality content is Willem’s fault
GMs have a plan

!!! Q&A !!!

There were over 300 questions but they only answered 3
There will be no zooming in/out
There will be no titles such as lord/king, etc. (rofl@the autist who submitted this question)
There will be no PvP (see above)
Final remarks: submit tons of stuff (music, art, etc.), kthxbye

Willem, SirRacha, Buff, and Zbornox talk about the recently released duping Hotfix and the upcoming functional Pets!

Add to that a bit more game and community news and toss in a few player Q/A, and you have RealmCast 2x3!

GAME UPDATES
Emphasizing the SB situation is temporary
In the end the SB will be good for the economy because it won’t be flooded with so many items
Reason why it too so long for them to deploy the SB was they wanted to make sure it worked with the new pet functions
Pets just around the corner

COMMUNITY NEWS
Fan Lore Competition
Mr.Hotgod 1st Place-Tale of Septavius
Bopadop 2nd Place-Knight Lore
Youaremyhabit 3rd Place-Drowned into a New World
Unknownstoryteller 4th Place-Wizard
Pentagraph 5th Place-Untitled Story
1st Place-Ring of their choice
2nd Place-Ability of their choice
3rd Place-ect. ect.
4th Place-
5th Place-

KNIGHT RUN
The GMs enjoyed it, had fun
There’s a few videos of the Knight Run, Zbornox filmed one

ST. PATRICK’S DAY
New packages
Green dyes and other green “stuff” available in nexus shop
St. Patrick’s Day Video Competition
Make sure your videos stand out and are unique since the spawn-a-thon is a pretty big prize
Leprechaun Forums Hunt Competition
Free Beer Giftbox Package
Unique St. Patrick’s items(Lucky Clover for ex.)

PET FUNCTION NEWS

Pet changes coming soon but can’t say exact date
Willem’s idea, had it for a long time now
He was sad the pets didn’t have a function other than aesthetics
Can buy for find pets
Pets will begin in egg form
Hatch them in your pet yard
Pet yard dedicated to where your pets will live
Access your pet yard through your vault
Have one of them at a time
Each pet will have several abilities
You can level the pets up
Pets will not die, to compensate they will have a slower leveling up process the our characters

Please sit back and listen as Zbornox, SirRacha and Buff catch you up with game updates, community events, and player Q&A. This RealmCast includes special guest star appearance by RotMG’s Quality Assurance Analyst, KoalaP!

Please sit back and listen as Zbornox, SirRacha and Buff catch you up with all things Realm. This RealmCast includes special guest star appearance by RotMG’s lead, ArbiterZ.

Random stuff in the intro

At 1:40, they get right to business and introduce our fluffy new general manager

###ArbiterZ
First, questions from the older GMs to ArbiterZ

"What do you do here?"
ArbiterZ is responsible for making sure the game stays on track in terms of content releases and making sure everything runs smoothly. “My job is to make sure that I have as little work to do as possible… It’s a kickass job.”

"What’s your experience with games?"
Mostly a PC gamer, mostly plays MMORPGs. Favorite game: Everquest. Has played at least 45 MMOs. It’s how he discovered Realm.

"What makes Realm stand out from the rest?"
Easy answer: the art style and permadeath. What really makes it stand out is how easy it is to pick up and play. It’s easy to learn but hard to master. The leap from low-midlands to Godlands and solo dungeons is large and takes a lot to master. The skill requirement and ceiling is one of the big things you don’t see in other MMOs.

SgtSunshine dies a lot.

ArbiterZ picked up Realm before Kabam acquired it, towards the end of 2011. One of the engineers on the team that he just moved to at the time was playing a goofy 2D pixel shooter MMO and he got hooked. His favorite dungeon is Manor, his favorite boss is Davy Jones (for the invulnerable/puzzle boss aspect), His favorite classes are Mystic (if he feels trollish) and Paladin (otherwise).

"Will there be a Paladin buff in the future?"
Not 100% yes, but not 100% no. Class balance is definitely something they want to look at. It’s not uncommon for classes and characters to be rebalanced in MMORPGs. There haven’t really been many overhauls, so they’ll try to tackle that. He knows that melees are overpowered, and that functional pets have caused healing classes to be less useful. He can’t 100% say Paladins specifically will be buffed.

"What makes Manor your favorite?"
The way it looks. The lightning effects, the atmosphere. It’s just a level of depth that he wasn’t expecting in a 2D pixel shooter.

Zbornox loves Lord Ruthven

"SB UTs?"
Soulbinding all UTs is not what’s best for the players. There’s nothing worse than getting a white bag with a UT you don’t need and can’t use and having no outlet to trade them to other player for stat pots, etc. However, on the other hand, there’s nothing worse than taking the best items in the game and mass-duping them, ruining the game’s economy. These are the two opposite ends of the spectrum, and neither are good. They’ll look into it. Soulbinding all UTs is not the answer, but ArbiterZ doesn’t have an answer yet. As soon as they have a solution, they’ll inform the players through their usual means of communication.

“How do you go about selecting user ideas to implement?”
“We have a big hat that we put all the ideas in, and every Tuesday, we pull one out. That’s what I was doing yesterday; that’s why I was so busy.” He said in the intro thread that the players have amazing ideas. None of the new team members think that they know better than the community. So, they’ll be turning to the community for input and suggestions a lot more. They’re not going to implement everything that’s suggested (salt vs. chicken), but they’re going to focus a lot more on community.

###Community questions
(around 10:00):

Xonico (that’s how Zbornox pronounced it, anyway):
"Is there any more information on the Shatters?"
He has a bit more info. Why they picked the Shatters? It lays everything out nicely, describing behaviors, effects, enemies, etc. in a way that the team doesn’t need much extra information to build the dungeon. They’re building a template based on the Shatters’ forum thread that allows people to fill-in-the-blanks and make a good dungeon design that the team can work with. As far as the dungeon itself goes, they’re working on it based on the design from the forum thread, getting familiar with the monsters, layout, bosses, etc. They don’t have an actual timeline yet, but they’re certainly working on it. It’s one of the first things the new team will do.

Concerns on the forums about following the design of Shatters verbatim:
They’ll build it verbatim, test it (likely on Testing), and go from there. If it’s too easy (due to pets, new tiers, etc), they’ll make it harder. If it’s imbalanced, they’ll tweak it. It seems unfriendly to melee at first glance, so they’ll make sure to test it with all character types. They’ll probably keep some bosses melee focused and some ranged focused.

An anonymous player:
"What are some aspects of Realm that you would like to put emphasis on while developing to make the game better? Some examples could be teamwork, cool loot, simplicity, or difficulty."
Since it’s an MMORPG, there are some core things to focus on, and there are some things to focus on specifically because this is Realm. They want to make sure there are compelling content, both solo and group. Some of the epic-level dungeons will probably require more than a few people. One idea to force group play is regenerating walls. Since this is Realm, he wants to focus on difficulty. With higher tiers and pets (and therefore a player buff) there needs to be content that matches it, so just having a pet doesn’t mean you can breeze through the content. “Your characters are going to die.” This is Realm, this is what makes Realm special, and if you take that way, it suddenly loses a lot of its charm. The three things will probably be engaging solo content, engaging group content, and difficulty.

Next question:
"Hey, ArbiterZ! How’s it going?"
It’s going good. Next question.

"When will we start to see all those amazing promises? I don’t expect for you to introduce everything in one update, but I would like to see what you have planned for the next update."
Not everything will be in the next update; if it was then it would take too long. It’s pretty much 100% guaranteed that not all of it will be in July or August. They have new team members who need to learn the dev tools, and some things like Elder Realms are a very large undertaking. He can say that the next release will contain one, maybe two, epic-level dungeons. They’re looking at the early dungeons, like Pirate Cave and Spider Den, and those will be the first epic dungeons that they introduce. Right now, that’s the only thing slated for the next update. There will likely be bugfixes, etc. as well.

Something about Star Wars Galaxies.

###Community news
(at 19:00)

SirRacha is Mr. Community, apparently.

3 events, because the number 3 is fantastic.

Fight for independence video contest. There were around 15 entries. BlueMarble, Bleddicson (sic), Wiserhood, GeeroTwo, XMBotX won. Zbornox is impressed because all these people have skills. GeeroTwo’s in particular was awesome.

Arena Lore contest. There were some very good stories coming out of this. One in particular was really good from some player named Zerao (sic). He had a story with how the spectators came to be. It was really cool and ended a bit creepily.

Something about Broadway.

“And, last but not least… that’s such a cliche saying! Why did I even say that?”

Pirate king challenge. They’re offering a released UT ability for anyone that submits a video where they finish the Pirate Cave in the fastest time. They mentioned an 8 second time (probably mine), and there are even faster times out there. Zbornox is just shocked at anyone completing anything in 8 seconds (i think 4-5 seconds is the current record, actually). Luck is useful since the dungeon is randomly generated in a way that makes it easy to get to rooms that are nearby but not connected by paths.

They’re thinking about doing a similar Forest Maze contest, since you actually have to navigate. How quickly can you kill an Ultimate Squirrel? “It looks like there’s a giant Moth Queen trying to get in the room right now. Oh, that’s just Arbiter.”

Realmcast has been fun.

Contact information:
blog.wildshadow.com (Tumblr)
forums.wildshadow.com (This place)
artists.rotmg@gmail.com (For artists to send them stuff)
facebook.com/rotmg (Facespace)
@rotmg_news (Twitter)

realmcast (Twitter)

youtube.com/realm (Youtube)

Thanks to Local Party (IGN:ThugZero) for outro music.