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The 2009 Streamy Awards took place last night out in LA and our favorite web series took home some serious out-of-game achievements!

Best Comedy Web Series
The Guild

Best Female Actor in a Comedy Web Series
Felicia Day (The Guild)

Best Ensemble Cast in a Web Series
The Guild

I must say, the award-bling complimented Felicia Day’s lovely babydoll butterfly dress delightfully!

If you have a few minutes, make sure to congratulate the cast and crew on their site, watchtheguild.com, or send them a tweet @theguild, @feliciaday, @vork, @sandeepparikh! Or, if you have been under a rock for the last couple of years, dial up the show on the interwebz and catch up! Season 2 is wrapped, and hopefully Season 3 is in the planning stages.

Grats guys!

This week Haf shares his Three Pronged Attack to getting his hands on a Proto-Drake. He pretty much has his bases covered, and his hands full working on obtaining a version of this awesome flying mount. In working towards the Glory of the Hero achievement, he nailed a fantastic strategy for the Krik’thir the Gatewatcher encounter, and shares it with us! Sadly, he made it through an entire episode and failed to mention the infamous Albino (Al-bee-no) drake.

And, we had an exclusive interview this week with Tim from El’s Extreme Anglin’ that was aired in this week’s show! We chatted about the upcoming changes being planned for fishing in 3.1, detail a few older changes, and get all giggly over the new bobbers being added!

This and much more is ready for your ears via iTunes, RSS feed, download, or you can stream it from our main page.

Links to things we discussed this week:

• Blizzard’s New UI Add-on Policy
• Blizzard Details Secret World of Warcraft ‘Progressive Percentage’ Item Drop Mechanic
• Blizzard Talking With Microsoft Over Next Xbox
• 3.1 Changes Regarding Flasks
• Sea Turtle Tool Tip and Screenshot

We also announced the FINAL Secret Code Word for the Tweet Me, Tweet You contest! Send us a @Stompalina tweet with this week’s word! Check here for full contest details, and follow us on twitter; Stompalina and Hafrot!

And, the next DFW World of Warcraft Squad meetup is scheduled for April 18th, at the Main Event in Grapevine! So, if you are in the DFW area, make sure to sign-up for the DFW WoW Squad and reference “RAWR” to enter and win a FREE $25 JINX gift card. Check here for details!

This week on The Rawrcast Show we will be joined by Tim from El’s Extreme Anglin’! Together we run through the ins and outs of the upcoming fishing changes planned for 3.1, revisit a few changes made in previous patches, and discuss the development of the fishing profession community within World of Warcraft.

So, crack open a Captain Rumsy Lager, whip out your huge rod, and plan to join us for the live show this Saturday at 4 PM, CST on Ustream!~

It seems that anytime there is an idle pause in World of Warcraft, unrest follows. It happens in all MMOs (from what I hear), and I am reminded of this every holiday season, before each expansion, and now – before a major content patch.

With most raiding guilds having content on farm, people tend to become lax in their drive to raid. People instinctively are no longer interested in encounters that they feel are no longer challenging. And with that, raiders are jumping ship to do other things. Enjoy the springtime weather and turn off the game, running out of RL money and unintentionally turning off the game, transferring servers for a “fresh start”. Whatever reason they have had brewing to leave their guild and no longer be as dedicated as they were when they were getting their gear has now surfaced and they are jumping ship.

The Real Challenge
Nowadays the real challenge for any great raiding guild is adapting. We are not a sinking ship. Not by any stretch of the imagination. The great thing about a stable guild is that we have an amazing bench of people that are happy and ready to raid when an opportunity arises that suits their schedule. So, those that have been on the sidelines have been called up on more than one occasion lately. And, learning the encounters along with them again has been exciting and challenging. However, the bench is not a replacement for the dedicated raiders we need in those slots.

And so the cycle goes…
Raiding recruitment has opened once again in preparation for this content expansion. Hopefully we pick up a few a dedicated raiders in the bunch of new recruits. The most frustrating part is that most guild over-recruit during this time in hopes to whittle down to those dedicated few. And, that process is just as painful as losing people in the first place…

Keep Tabs
The strongest word of advice I can give to any raiding guild that is going through this tough patch is… Keep tabs! Take a proverbial attendance roll of those that are still showing up, using consumables, etc. And, make note of those that are not. Invariably those that haven’t been around much will mysteriously resurface once the new content arrives. And, nothing will stir the masses as strongly as having some putz who has been AFK for the tough patch show up and feel entitled to upgrades as quickly and easily as those that raided with the bench for six weeks.

Above all, hang in there, be selective about who you pick-up during this recruitment time, and communicate with existing members. We have all been through this before, and it will happen again. Be open to talking with other guilds that are in the same predicament about a possible alliance to fill in gaps on raid nights. Keeping idle hands busy is key to maintaining a consistent raiding membership.

This week we take a closer look at some of the social, and anti-social, aspects of the game, and share our take on meeting fellow players outside of the game. We also busted up some of this week’s WoW headlines, including the expectant faction based Mountain Dew. Being able to drink your faction just sounds so icky.

Additionally, we received a fantastic listener e-mail that we extended into our first “Back Talking” segment. I was so excited about calling up our first listener for this bit that I broke out into beat boxing…. There was some drooling involved. Best of all, if you have never waited till the end of the show for the outtakes, it is worth the wait this week!

This and much, much more is available for your listening pleasure via iTunes, RSS feed, download, or you can stream it from our main page.

Links to stuff discussed on the show:

• The Combobulator: Stomp and Haf were guests on Season 2, Episode 16
• Pixelated Geek
• eringames.com
• mygamemug.com
• Battle.net Mobile Authenticator FAQ
• Children’s Week Article on MMORPG.com
• Children’s Week Achievements
• Stocking up for Ulduar article on WoM
• Kaliban’s Class Loot List
• DK Diseaseless Blood Spec

We also divulged this week’s Secret Code Word for the Tweet Me, Tweet You contest! Help us keep the lead by sending us a @Stompalina tweet with this week’s word! Check here for full contest details, and follow us on twitter; Stompalina and Hafrot!

And, if you are a listener in the DFW area, make sure to sign-up for the DFW WoW Squad and reference “RAWR” to enter and win a FREE $25 JINX gift card. Check here for details!

Music provided by: Allen Dean – Holes

This week we had the distinct pleasure of being guests on a show that we have followed as listeners for quite awhile, The Combobulator. Emeny was kind enough to have us on for a lovely chat, meandering through topics like; how we came into blogging and podcasting, our roles as raiders in our guild, and we reviewed an article that details the mandatory attributes of a successful raider.

So, if you aren’t already subscribed to The Combobulator, give this special episode a listen. You are bound to learn a little bit more about Haf and me, and you may gain a different perspective on the Virtues of an Effective Raider in World of Warcraft.

As we have mentioned before, The Combobulator is part of the Virgin Worlds MMO Podcast Collective. So, while you are checking the Combob, make sure to visit the other wonderful podcasts that are part of this fantastic community.

This week’s episode (despite live technical difficulties) has been released and includes a hilarious recap of our adventures in home repair, as per the request of our live chat audience. We also dedicated a large portion of this week’s show to the basics of the lore and legend of Ulduar with our Lore Master, Siba!

We also had a nice segment with our 9-year old, hardcore hunter, MAGNOM – level 15 Draenei Hunter! His understanding of the story of Warcraft is quite entertaining.

This and much more is available for your listening pleasure via iTunes, RSS feed, download, or you can stream it from our main page.

Links to a few items we discussed:

• Underground World of Warcraft
• mmo-champion.com
• Information about the new Aquatic Mount

We also divulged this week’s Secret Code Word for the Tweet Me, Tweet You contest! Help us keep the lead by sending us a @tweet with this week’s word! Check here for full contest details

And, this week we kicked off another new contest for listeners in the DFW area! The DFW Meetup Sign-up Giveaway is officially underway. Check out full details here, and plan to attend the next meetup this Saturday, March 21st, at the Main Event in Grapevine starting at 2PM. Haf and I will be there, we hope you will be too!