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We've been playing Cryptic's new free-to-play Dungeons & Dragons MMORPG, and we have deep thoughts to share. Or at least some observations about the lack of bards and RP servers and a comparison to the upcoming Elder Scrolls Online.

I hate to disappoint, but Andy McNamara has a rare absence in today's show. You'll have to make do with GI's Matt Miller instead, though I think you'll find his ability to be baited about 4th Edition knowledge of Dungeons & Dragons to be a solid addition to the podcast.

This week's bumper music is the main theme from Cryptic's Neverwinter.

Find more Respec Radio on iTunes or our RSS feed and/or the hub.

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We promised it forever ago, but Andy McNamara, Adam

Andy and Robert have been playing MMOs together since the

Bumper music this week is the totally classic EverQuest main theme. Enjoy.

Forty more episodes of Respec Radio and counting can be found on iTunes or our RSS feed and/or the hub.

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The shooter MMO from Trion has had some launch pangs, particularly with its console versions, but we have some good things to say about it too.

GI's Andy Reiner and Mike Futter, who have had the ill fortune to (attempt to) play the Xbox 360 version, join host Adam Biessener and his perspective from the vastly superior PC incarnation of the game. As frustrating as the lag and crashing have been for the poor Xbox players, they're not quite as full of anger and hate as you might imagine.

The bumper music in this episode is the Theme from Defiance by the excellent Bear McCreary (of Battlestar Galactica fame, among others). Special thanks to Trion Worlds for supplying the music.

[Note: I said I'd double-check to see if episode missions are in fact removed from the game after the episode in question airs, and it appears that that is indeed the case. Get the sexy purple assault rifle while it's hot, folks.]

The rest of the years-long Respec Radio ouevre longs to caress your earbones, and can be found on iTunes or our RSS feed and/or the hub.

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GI editor-in-chief Andy McNamara makes his long-awaited return to our MMO podcast this week to grill Respec Radio host and GI PC editor Adam Biessener about The Elder Scrolls Online.

Anything that I can speak about from my four hours of playtime in two of the game's starter zones is fair game, and we touch on most of it in between generous helpings of snark and love for Ready Player One (which you should totally read if you're listening to an MMO podcast).

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Complete your collection (guaranteed to never be worth anything, ever) of Respec Radio with every episode we've ever made, available via iTunes or our RSS feed and/or the hub.

The newly appointed creative director of the live teams for The Secret World, Age of Conan, and Anarchy Online joins GI's Adam Biessener for a chat about the dramatic restructuring of Funcom's development teams, commercial disappointments, and the company's future.

Joel Bylos was one of the principal designers on The Secret World, an MMO from last year that won critical praise but failed to hit sales expectations. Now he's tasked with running the recently reorganized teams that work on all three of the company's live games. Listen in for a refreshingly honest and straightforward interview in which Bylos fully owns up to the flaws in his company's games while laying out a series of ideas and goals he has for keeping his players happy and loyal.

Special thanks to Funcom for supplying the Secret World theme music used as bumper beats in this episode and to Bylos for his time and honesty. Please accept my apologies for my own sound quality; Skype was being intransigent.

Get all the MMO banter you can handle and then some with all of the Respec Radio episodes we've recorded, available via iTunes or our RSS feed and/or the hub.

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Mike Donatelli and Mike Geldard from Wildstar development studio Carbine join the GI MMO podcast for an informal chat about housing, tabletop role-playing, and space bacon.

Host Adam Biessener grills content director Donatelli and global brand manager Geldard on a variety of topics on their upcoming MMORPG. Things start to get out of hand once anecdotes about high-school tabletop role-playing get busted out, though, and really go off the rails shortly thereafter.

No joke: This is my favorite Respec Radio episode I've done in recent memory. Even if Wildstar doesn't sound like a game for you, I encourage you to listen in.

I said I'd dig up some Wildstar video, but the best thing to do honestly is head to the game's official YouTube channel where you can find trailers, gameplay, and more.

Wildstar comes out later this year; look for a beta announcement soon since the developers have started to let fans go hands-on at PAX East as of today.

For those curious, the music in the podcast is the character select track from Wildstar. Special thanks to publisher NCsoft for sending Donatelli and Geldard out to our offices in the first place and supplying the bumper music as well.

For more MMO chatter from GI, subscribe via iTunes or our RSS feed, and/or head to the hub for every episode we've ever recorded.

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[Note: The original version of this article incorrectly listed Mike Geldard's name as Matt Geldard. Game Informer regrets the error.]

The 5.2 update to World of Warcraft introduces the Thunder King and his raid tier alongside a whole bunch of other stuff for Mists of Pandaria players to keep themselves busy with. Lead encounter designer Ian Hazzikostas joined the prestigious GI MMO podcast to tell us all about the juggernaut MMO's latest content patch.

Prodded by host Adam Biessener, Hazzikostas gives some insight into how raid encounters are designed, the point of the new Thunderforged mechanic, why Blizzard is pumping out more world bosses after avoiding them for years, and the long-awaited debut of green fire for Warlocks.

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Please accept my apologies for some minor distortion on my own voice on this one, gracious listeners. I can only plead ignorance of the finer points of ProTools. To make it up to you, I'll post more episodes on a more regular basis. I promise. I'll retweet you making fun of me on Twitter if I don't make good on it, pinkie swear.

For more Respec Radio, head to the hub or check us out on iTunes.

We are alive! Now that the Game Informer editors have survived the annual onslaught of holiday games and news, Andy McNamara finally had a minute or fifty to sit down with Respec Radio host to chat about PlanetSide 2.

Between Andy's war stories from the original game and Adam's gushing about the sequel (read more here), there's plenty to convince you to drop the zero dollars it takes to start blasting fools in PlanetSide 2 in the podcast.

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We won't let it go this long between Respec Radio episodes next time. Promise.*

* probably

Join Adam Biessener and Andy McNamara for a freewheeling discussion of ArenaNet's brand new smash hit MMO, Guild Wars 2.

Whether you're looking to have your own opinions validated or more interested in picking our proclamations apart, we've got you covered with plenty of jibber-jabber on everything from crafting to World vs. World and why Andy is so uncharacteristically late to the party.

As always, you can find classic Respec Radio episodes (and by classic, I mean...old) at the hub or at our iTunes page, and subscribe either via iTunes or through our RSS feed.

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Host Adam Biessener and Respec stalwart Andy McNamara are joined by GI's Ben Hanson in a wide-ranging exploration of the consequences of the recently announced free-to-play move for Star Wars: The Old Republic. Also, we shout at each other about PvP and healing UIs.

Before Hanson's questions lead us far afield from our normally laser-focused MMO podcasting (ha!), we even slide in a little Secret World discussion. We know the critics love it, but how is it doing? Is Funcom healthy? Who knows!

More MMO podcasts await at the Respec Radio hub, our RSS feed, and on our iTunes page.

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