The Queue: Dakotaraptor

I was going to talk about BlizzCon but then this happened.

Welcome Dakotaraptor, a contender for largest Dromaeosaurid ever. Not only is it nearly the same size as Utahraptor (it’s built on a more gracile body plan, so it almost certainly weighed less) but this late Cretaceous raptor is a game changer for a variety of reasons. It’s much akin to its relatives Velociraptor or Deinonychus but scaled up to bigger than even Jurassic Park dared dream, and it had long feathers on its forelimbs in a structure that even the most anti-feathered dinosaur grump would have to admit is a wing.

Wings. This nearly twenty foot (six meters) long raptor had wings. No, it couldn’t fly with them any more than an ostrich can, but it had clear, unmistakably feathered forelimbs. At this point, if you put featherless raptors in your dinosaur movie, you look like an idiot. It would be like having hairless lions and tigers in your movie because they look cooler. Just stop it, Hollywood.

The idea of Survival Hunters as melee has me interested in playing my hunter, I might even use my boost on him. If they gave Worgen Druids a super-Worgen form (basically, one of those awesome Worgen from the Grizzly Hills) I’d consider playing my Worgen Druid again.

Basically, any ranged class, give it a melee option and I’d probably get more interested in playing it.

No special food. I’ll be here in my office, watching the feed, writing and such as needed. I likely won’t be wearing anything different than what I’m wearing right now.

I’m hoping to have switched to a Mac by then, so no, I probably won’t. If I still have a PC, or they make buying it on the Xbone get you the pet, then I might.

Well, I personally haven’t done an entire article because my answer in the Queue yesterday was pretty much my entire take on it. But to directly answer you, active subs are actually a terrible metric for how many people are playing at any given time.

For one example, I have several friends who sub for long periods of time to get a price savings on their sub cost. For them, even when they stop playing, they’re still subbed. Similarly, if someone uses a lot of gold and buys a year’s worth of game time tokens, then stops playing, their account is still subbed. It doesn’t matter if they log in or not.

Now, I’m not naive, and I know that Blizzard is likely taking this step because they’re sick of hearing the “WoW is dying” mantra every time they post their sub numbers. Legion is likely not going to see the bump that Warlords did, and so, better to just mention how many copies of the expansion sell (hint, it’ll be a lot) and move on from there. But really, nowadays, the financial health of an MMO has almost nothing to do with sub numbers. I’m not at all surprised they’re tired of hearing about it.

As a person who writes about Blizzard games, I’ll admit I’ll miss the easy headline.

We did in fact see that.

I pointed out on Twitter that Warlords actually went live more than a month in advance of its pre-order ‘By December 20th’ date, and unlike Legion, Warlords had BlizzCon right around the time it was coming out which likely contributed to its release woes. That being said, because I know people will want to discuss this, I’ll give you my take on it. But before I do, please, please remember, pre-order ‘on or before’ dates are not final release dates. Legacy of the Void had an original pre-order date of March 20th, 2016. It’s being released on November 10th. That’s a four month gap between the pre-order date and the actual release.

September 20th is way too late.

August would be, in my opinion, still way too late.

July would be acceptable but it’s still eight months after BlizzCon 2015 and close to a year after Hellfire was released, so not in my opinion optimal.

June I would outright deem a decent release date. 11 months after HFC, but only seven months after BlizzCon, so enough time for a robust Beta period.

Anything after April but before June I would consider good work on their part. Anything before April I would consider rushed and unlikely.

That’s all just my take on this. They’ll take as long as they need. I know people are going to want to speculate, complain and hope, and that’s all fine, that’s what the Queue comments are for. But please try and keep in mind that we don’t know the release date yet.

That depends on why you don’t like games with guns, ultimately. If it’s a moral objection of some sort, then really you’d be wasting your time with Overwatch. (I respect such a decision, if that’s what you’re doing.) If you just don’t like shooter play, then again, I think maybe this isn’t the game for you. There’s going to be some twitch involved, it’s the nature of the beast. But if you’re just not into the aesthetic, I’d argue that this is likely going to be a heck of a game, and the science-fictional elements seem to serve an overall aesthetic that’s got a lot going for it.

I’m not in the Overwatch beta, but my coworkers who are seem to love it to pieces. So there’s that.

That’s the Queue for today. I’m also writing tomorrow’s Queue. Whoo boy that one’s going to be wild. I leave you with another image of Dakotaraptor.