[Podcast Review] The Instance
This is the first in my series of podcast reviews spawned by my new found love of podcasts. Most of them will be World of Warcraft related, but the rest will be pertinent geek life.
I’m going to start right off and say that I love The Instance. I’ll admit, I’m a bit of a fangirl of Scott Johnson. I read all his comics, listen to all his podcasts, read his blog. But I digress…
Scott Johnson and Randy “Deluxe” Jordan have fantastic chemistry. They balance each other perfectly. This does a lot to do attract the high numbers of listeners that they have that don’t actually play World of Warcraft. If Scott goes off on a rant about this or that, Randy is there with the hard facts to bring him back again. Randy and Scott can be on opposite sides of an issue, but it never decays into an arguement. After so many episodes together, they’ve developed a rapport and inside jokes have developed. I mean, who would have thought that Scott’s wrestling name in high school would be the same as the band that Randy played bass for?
It’s very clear that both of them have a passion for the game and truly enjoy playing. It is not a podcast that’s going to teach you how to get that extra 5 points of DPS in 25 man Naxx. It’s more concerned with making sure that you get the most out of the game no matter what your play style is. They strive to make sure that listeners know what’s going on in the game and with Blizzard in general so that no one misses out on anything. Most refreshing is that unlike some WoW players, they never loose sight of the fact that it is a game and should be enjoyable, otherwise it’s not worth playing.
The format consists regular segments for every episode covering the biggest news, WoW rumors, and questions from listeners. Episodes generally run about an hour and a half, but if the particular episode happens to be jam-packed, Scott and Randy are more than happy to let it run long to cover everything. I have to say, this is a rarity in WoW podcasts. Many others tend to be a bit too tied to their “time limit” and will cut off topics without letting them progress to their logical conclusion. However, they also know when someone (like a guest… ahem, Turpster) is wandering a bit too far off target and Scott and Randy are excellent at reigning them back in without stifling conversation.
Regular contributions from listeners like Patrick (from How I WoW), Mean Gene, Buxley, and others provides a variety of information for listeners. These segments contain information in little snippets that if they were the basis of the podcast would bog it down in number crunching and urls. There’s the Mod of the Week, PvP tips, twinking tips, and many others that come and go from week to week. This might be one of The Instance’s best qualities: Anyone can contribute. My favorites, by far, are the WoW parody songs. Those get stuck in my head, and I sing them for days.
The Instance has the highest production values of any WoW podcast I’ve yet heard. The segments submitted by listeners vary in quality, but all are better than many whole podcasts I’ve heard. This does a lot to make it enjoyable. There aren’t any sound problems to distract from the content. A lot of smaller podcasts suffer this fate, I feel, making me not want to listen even if I am completely interested in the subject matter.
The Instance has been described to me as “listening to a couple of your close friends talk about WoW.” It’s true, Scott and Randy feel like friends to me now. I follow both of them on Twitter. (You can follow me too!) But I’ve got to tell you, it’s way more interesting than listening to my friends talk about WoW. And while the expansion and all the new content had a lot to do with it, The Instance has really gotten me “into” WoW again. I’m even thinking about overlooking my distaste for leveling alts just to join the guild they started, Alea Iacta Est. I find that even though the podcast is all about playing WoW in whatever way you find enjoyable, it makes me want to be a better WoW player.
So, thanks, Scott and Randy, for setting the bar so high for other WoW podcasts.
April 28th, 2009 at 11:16 am
I listened to my first podcast of “The Instance” last night and I am intrigued. Plus, they are just hilarious…. thanks for sharing!
May 30th, 2009 at 4:36 pm
Thank you so much for the review! Did you know that if you Google search “review the instance”, this is the first real review of the podcast that comes up?