The Queue: Mr. Snuggles goes to jail

Welcome to The Queue, the Q&A column for all things Blizzard related. If you have a question for the Queue, leave a comment and you may see it answered tomorrow!

I don’t know exactly know what my elekk plushie did, but he’s currently paying the savage consequences.

War Crimes was this expansion’s opening novel of sorts — we haven’t gotten any indication that there is going to be some kind of middle novel like we got with Vol’jin during Mists. The only novel we know for sure is being released later this year is Warcraft: Chronicle Volume 1, which is less of a traditional fiction story novel and more like an illustrated history book that will explain game lore we’ve been missing. Volume 1 supposedly involves the creation of Azeroth, so I’m very much looking forward to it. In the meantime, Blizzard seems to be releasing short stories fairly regularly!

Archimonde is Man’ari, a corrupted Eredar. Man’ari have been referred to as “twisted demonic reflections” of the draenei, so its possible that demonic corruption turned him into one giant demon, maybe. It’s not unheard of — the satyr were night elves that were corrupted and twisted into their current demonic form by the Burning Legion.

We actually have a really good guide on just that question, check it out! Every pet on that list is a good choice. Personally, I think having Chrominius and the Pandaren Water Spirit is incredibly useful. But runners up for me have been the Anubisath Idol, who comes in handy in a variety of fights, and either the Nether Faerie Dragon, or Sprite Darter Hatchling — they both share the same devastating sets. Life Exchange has been a life saver on more than one occasion.

The strange event with the sprite darters out in Tirisfal Glades has always been a weird and fascinating thing to me, something that has yet to be explained or even acknowledged by anyone we’ve run into on Azeroth. Given the history of Tirisfal Glades, the strange little ceremony is just off enough that you kind of wonder if it’s being performed to prevent something really, really terrible from happening.

In the current expansion, that whole storyline with Admiral Taylor is just weird, and unresolved, and unexplained. We get kind of an explanation, but no real depth to it at all. The series of events out at Taylor’s garrison are spelled out in a hazy fashion, but for some reason we just don’t feel the need to try and find out why Ephial did what he did, whether he was working under his own volition or for some other reason. And of course there’s the whole matter of Wrathion’s sudden appearance, and just as sudden disappearance. Where’d he go?

At the moment, there’s been no indication of a change on the PTR. We’ll have to wait and see on that one. For now, I’d say hang onto your upgrades until we have a definite one way or the other.

It’s possible. But if that is the case, the chances of them saying so somewhere in the film are not likely at all. The people that play Warcraft are not the only people that are going to go see this movie in the theaters. If you pop something in the film about how it’s some alternate timeline, every person in there who is not already familiar with the franchise is going to be scratching their heads and wondering what exactly is going on — you’re essentially alienating part of your potential audience.

Think about it — you go to the movies, pay your $20 or so for tickets and snacks, sit down and start watching a brand-new, pretty-cool looking film you’ve never seen before. Five minutes in, someone casually says something about how this is an alternate version of what is real. And that’s the last time they say anything about it. So now you’re sitting there wondering what the heck they were talking about, and wondering why, if this is some alternate reality, anything that is actually happening on the screen really matters. Why are you there? What’s going on? Suddenly you feel like you’ve missed out on something the film isn’t telling you, either because it doesn’t have time, or that stuff isn’t important. And if it isn’t important, why’d they say anything to begin with?

You see what I mean? Generally speaking, I think we’d be safer just assuming that the Warcraft film is its own product with its own storyline that exists separately from whatever we’re doing with the game story. Don’t think about it in terms of alternate timelines, just let it be its own story, unless Blizzard tells us we should be thinking otherwise at some point further down the road.

No — because our reality is a separate one. Everything that happened in our reality, happened. Everything that happens on Draenor, happens. Think of them as bubbles sitting next to each other. Each bubble has its own series of events. We can now actually affect what’s happening in that other bubble, but ours is still distinct, separate, and completely outside the other one. Kairoz and Garrosh just managed to punch a hole between the bubbles so we can cross over, but it’s not something we can just do without a tremendous amount of effort on our part.

In theory, it’s possible that the Burning Legion/Old Gods can move from bubble to bubble at their own whim. But honestly that’s so ridiculously complicated that I don’t really know if it’s true or not. As I said yesterday, there are signs that point in either direction, but neither option has been confirmed. And frankly, trying to look at them too closely is apt to make your eyes cross. At this point, we’re better off just taking the matter of coexisting realities at face value.

That’s it for Sunday’s edition of the Queue — be sure to leave plenty of questions for Monday in the comments below!