Uploaded May 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago
Olwenn and I welcome our first podcast guest, Dan Olsen of Folding Ideas, to talk about his long history with WoW and his videos "Why It's Rude to Suck at Warcraft" and "WoW Classic and What We Left Behind." We dig into Midnight's early impressions, the challenges of jumping into an expansion late, the messy state of WoW's transmedia storytelling, and how the writing team and cinematics team actually put the game together. We also get into WoW's classic version fragmentation and what makes a good raid cinematic.
*FOLLOW DAN HERE*
youtube.com/@UCyNtlmLB73-7gtlBz00XOQQ
twitter.com/FoldableHuman
https://bsky.app/profile/foldablehuman.bsky.social
*GET OUR MERCH*
pyromancer-shop.fourthwall.com
00:00 - H&H Intro with Dan Olson
01:37 - Dan’s History with World of Warcraft
11:56 - New & Returning Player Experience
22:25 - Dan’s Impressions of Midnight (Crafting & Leveling Evoker)
30:03 - Dan on Harandar
33:55 - Dan on Midnight’s War on Addons
45:26 - Patch 12.0.5 (Bugs & Class Balance)
52:54 - Patch 12.0.5 (Dan Discovers the Voidforge)
59:47 - Dan on WoW’s Transmedia Story
01:14:45 - Patch 12.0.5 (World Content Soup)
01:25:20 - Horizontal & Evergreen Progression
01:35:13 - Yes! Shadowlands Apologia!
01:41:24 - Retrospective: Dan’s WoW Video Essays (Shoutout Nathan)
02:05:54 - Media Literacy & Online Discourse
02:15:28 - Who Is Writing WoW?
02:25:49 - Thinking About WoW Cinematics
02:39:08 - "Disneyification" of WoW: A Myth
02:47:39 - Dan on the Creative Process at Folding Ideas
02:53:01 - Outro
*FOLLOW PYRO HERE*
twitch.tv/pyromancer
discord.gg/pyromancer
youtube.com/@PyromancerFF
https://bsky.app/profile/pyromanceryt.bsky.social
*FOLLOW OLWENN HERE*
youtube.com/@profolwenn
https://bsky.app/profile/profolwenn.bsky.social
*BUSINESS INQUIRIES*
pyroyoutube@outlook.com
As always, we want to hear from you! Send your art, music, and voice work to *hearthandhammerpodcast@outlook.com* and help us build this community-driven podcast together!
#WoW #WorldOfWarcraft #WoWPodcast #Midnight #FoldingIdeas #WoWLore
Olwenn and I welcome our first podcast guest, Dan Olsen of Folding Ideas, to talk about his long history with WoW and his videos "Why It's Rude to Suck at Warcraft" and "WoW Classic and What We Left Behind." We dig into Midnight's early impressions, the challenges of jumping into an expansion late, the messy state of WoW's transmedia storytelling, and how the writing team and cinematics team actually put the game together. We also get into WoW's classic version fragmentation and what makes a good raid cinematic.
*FOLLOW DAN HERE*
youtube.com/@UCyNtlmLB73-7gtlBz00XOQQ
twitter.com/FoldableHuman
https://bsky.app/profile/foldablehuman.bsky.social
*GET OUR MERCH*
pyromancer-shop.fourthwall.com
00:00 - H&H Intro with Dan Olson
01:37 - Dan’s History with World of Warcraft
11:56 - New & Returning Player Experience
22:25 - Dan’s Impressions of Midnight (Crafting & Leveling Evoker)
30:03 - Dan on Harandar
33:55 - Dan on Midnight’s War on Addons
45:26 - Patch 12.0.5 (Bugs & Class Balance)
52:54 - Patch 12.0.5 (Dan Discovers the Voidforge)
59:47 - Dan on WoW’s Transmedia Story
01:14:45 - Patch 12.0.5 (World Content Soup)
01:25:20 - Horizontal & Evergreen Progression
01:35:13 - Yes! Shadowlands Apologia!
01:41:24 - Retrospective: Dan’s WoW Video Essays (Shoutout Nathan)
02:05:54 - Media Literacy & Online Discourse
02:15:28 - Who Is Writing WoW?
02:25:49 - Thinking About WoW Cinematics
02:39:08 - "Disneyification" of WoW: A Myth
02:47:39 - Dan on the Creative Process at Folding Ideas
02:53:01 - Outro
*FOLLOW PYRO HERE*
twitch.tv/pyromancer
discord.gg/pyromancer
youtube.com/@PyromancerFF
https://bsky.app/profile/pyromanceryt.bsky.social
*FOLLOW OLWENN HERE*
youtube.com/@profolwenn
https://bsky.app/profile/profolwenn.bsky.social
*BUSINESS INQUIRIES*
pyroyoutube@outlook.com
As always, we want to hear from you! Send your art, music, and voice work to *hearthandhammerpodcast@outlook.com* and help us build this community-driven podcast together!
#WoW #WorldOfWarcraft #WoWPodcast #Midnight #FoldingIdeas #WoWLore
