The Instance

The Instance is a weekly World of Warcraft podcast, "so you don't have to", hosted by Scott Johnson of ExtraLife Comics and ExtraLife Radio, Mark "Turpster" Turpin, and "Dills". The podcast has a large fanbase that actively contributes emails and phone calls that are used during the show.

The Instance first aired on January 7th, 2006 with hosts Scott Johnson and Andrew Konietzky from Cranial Jacks & Converse, and has been running on a regular weekly schedule (personal circumstances of the hosts permitting). Randydeluxe was added as a third host in December 2006. Andrew left the show in May 2007.

Scott and Randy continued hosting the instance together until February 12, 2011 (Ep. #217), which was Randy's last episode due to a conflict of interest with his new job. Many people are speculating about what kind of job Randy was offered, and at which company. Presently, all we know is that the job is in the video game industry, and is located in southern California. This aligns with many people's suspicions that Randy will be working at Blizzard. Again, that is only speculative.

In 2008, The Instance won the Bloggers Choice Award for Best Podcast and The Podcast Awards Best Gaming Podcast, beating out nine other finalists, none of which were World Of Warcraft-related.

In addition to the podcast, The Instance is also broadcast live on The Instance uStream page when it is being recorded.

Show Sections
The Instance is divided into different sections. They are typically in the same order:

Big News of the Week
This covers breaking news related to WoW, Blizzard or the MMORPG game space.

Rumors and Scuttlebutt
Scott and Randy talk about WoW-related, and sometimes completely unrelated rumors, predictions and analysis.

Town Cryer
The hosts refer to their e-mail and answering machine to play phone calls, read e-mails and ask one another series of "Quickfire Questions".

Drop of the Week
An external site, movie, WoW-related product or addons is highlighted.

The main body of the show is followed by an exit segment comprised of calls, recordings, comedy bits and songs that the hosts receive each week.

Regular Contributors and Topics
The podcast features regular contributors who add information and entertainment to the show.

Curt Schilling (Retired)
Mr. Schilling has made regular appearances on The Instance since his interview in episode #102 - “The Curt Schilling Episode”. As an unofficial "third-chair", Mr. Schilling contributes to the topics of discussion drawing from his personal experience as a WoW and EQ gamer, and a MMO developer.

Patrick from France (Retired)
Patrick Beja's regular segment is called the "Mod Tip of the Week" and usually consists of a description of an AddOn, including who the mod is useful for, why Patrick likes it and where you can find the mod. All of Patrick's mods are listed here (usually updated after the show).

At Blizzcon in 2007, 2008, and 2009, Patrick met up with The Instance listeners. At Blizzcon in 2008, Patrick was joined by Randy in interviewing such Blizzard luminaries as Mike Morhaime, Jeff Kaplan, and Russell Brower. Randy regularly jokes that the show has since had a "special relationship" with Russell Brower, making it difficult for Mr. Brower to appear on the show, unless Scott can come up with something non-WoW-related to talk about.

Patrick has also appeared on several episodes as "third-chair", and done standalone interviews for the show.

Patrick announced on the Instance 160, that he is leaving do to acquiring a job with Blizzard, and thus didn't want to create a conflict of interest.

Shawn Basic (Retired)
Shawn "Shawn Basic" Coons provided submissions for newbies featured in many episodes during 2006-2007, which captured basic information and tips for lower level and casual players of the game. Shawn left the show after Episode 56, returning to guest host Episodes 70 and 100.

Mean Gene (Retired)
"Mean" Gene Marques offers the PvP Tip Of The Week, almost always listened to by the hosts just before Town Cryer (along with Patrick's Mod Of The Week). Tips include (but are not limited to) Twinking, speccing for PvP, or how to conduct yourself in Battlegrounds and World PvP.

He has also made guest hosting appearances on Episode #100 on Episode #111.

Most recently, "Mean" Gene announced that he was retiring from World of Warcraft and this from his segment on WoW. Scott announced that they'll just continue on with this show in the middle, which usually would have been taken up by "Mean" Gene and Patrick Beja

Darrell the Tip Giver
Starting in late 2007, Darrell's submission to The Instance was the Tip Givers' Tip of the Week (TGTOTW), a comedy spot that was the first bit played after the hosts sign-off. Originally a tongue-in-cheek series of suggestions for all those wishing to submit tips to the show, TGTOTW grew to become many listeners' favorite part of the show, with both comedy and advice for anyone aspiring to create tips, or do a podcast of their own.

Darrell the Tip Giver has also done a mash up of clips from the previous episode to form something that often has a completely different meaning than what was said in the episode. This first started in episode 137 and continued through 182 when the birth of his daughter greatly diminished his editing time. All mashups done after 182 were done by other contributors.

Buxley
Steve Pietrowicz has been contributing as the character "Buxley" in the "Ask Buxley" comedy segment since Episode #116. Buxley explains things that happen in the World of Warcraft universe according to his own view of the world, which has very little to do with what's really going on. It does make sense to him though. Buxley is a level 80 Tauren Shaman and is a proud member of Alea Iacta Est.

Alea Iacta Est (Retired)
A regular returning item that usually appears in Rumors and Scuttlebutt (but not exclusively) is news or updates concerning the Alea Iacta Est (AIE) guild on the US-Earthen Ring server. Alea Iacta Est was formed as a companion guild to The Instance and Extralife Radio and was announced on February 13th, 2007.

The phrase "Alea Iacta Est" means "the die has been cast", and is in reference to what Caesar supposedly said as he crossed the Rubicon in northern Italy in 49 B.C. A more detailed discussion can be found here.

The most prominent mention of AIE on The Instance was on episode 74b: "Rest In Peace, Bruce Galloway" in which AIE members and Instance listeners made a special tribute to AIE member Bruce Galloway (aka Milliway) who passed away on August 2nd, 2007.