The Queue: Sleepy writer is sleepy

It is another bright and beautiful morning here at the Queue… or at least that’s what I’m telling myself in hopes it will make me less sleepy.

/puts on sunglasses and sips coffee

Yep, a bright and beautiful morning. Definitely. But sleepy or not, there are Queue questions to answer, so myself and my co-conspirator Mitch will dive in right in to today’s Q&A.

Warning: There are some Legion spoilers in this post, so please avoid it if you’d rather to be surprised.

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Liz: The Broken Isles feels small but it’s only half open.

Mitch: Broken Isles feel kind of Draenor-sized to me. They’re definitely not massive feeling, but they’re also somewhat round which makes flying from end to end easier than, say, flying from Borean Tundra to Howling Fjord.

Liz: I was thinking Outland/Draenor.

Mitch: It’s definitely smaller than Northrend.

Liz: There go those Wrath/Legion comparisons.

Mitch: Location-wise, there’s nothing official yet. Technically, they’ve been on the in-game map for a long time now if you zoom out to a certain point, but my feeling is that it’s not entirely decided yet. They may be northwest of Eastern Kingdoms… or Blizz may plop them down elsewhere. We don’t know yet.

Liz: It’ll be a surprise, like opening a Christmas present.

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Liz: Okay, this isn’t a question, but so many people are talking about Overwatch skins and I thought this was an interesting take on them.

Mitch: I don’t look at myself in the mirror all day, but I still (generally) like to make sure I look good before going out.

Liz: The character design in Overwatch is gorgeous, so I find it hard to be unhappy about skin options… though I’d definitely rather be able to admire them.

Mitch: Maybe not the best comparison but still. I do like seeing my hero skins in Heroes, but Overwatch is an FPS and the skins (so far) seem obtainable without money so I’d rather have them than not. Plus, in a game where the entire team can be the same hero, they add variety and help to strike fear into the hearts of your enemies…. or give them a distinct target to pick off. I think a fair compromise would be added visuals to your attacks to go with the skins. I haven’t tested them all, so this may already be the case, but seeing Hanzo’s dragon in a different variant would be pretty cool and make a special skin more worth it.

Liz: Part of not being able to see them, though, is that there’s no pressure to collect them. You pick them up as you level and if you get one you like, great! But if you don’t it doesn’t matter that much. Even though the skins are going to be RNG, it feels low stress.

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Mitch: My guess for WoW‘s population is that it will increase tenfold with the reintroduction of Shadowform and subsequent introduction of Voidform. Wait, no, twentyfold. Wait, no… ONE HUNDREDFOLD.

Liz: Really, Mitch?

Mitch: The Queue has now become a quest to see how often I can reference the new Shadowform.

Liz: With their last quarterly report — where the game had fallen to 5.6 million active players — Blizzard said they wouldn’t be releasing subscriber numbers in the future. This didn’t particularly surprise me as other game companies don’t announce this kind of subscriber info. Blizzard always seemed to announce them because they were impressive, a sign of how well the company was doing — with the numbers lower and less impressive, it makes sense for them to focus on different stats. If I were to guess at the numbers, though, I’d say they’ve dropped even further. Players with no new content to look forward to aren’t players who are going to stick around.

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Mitch: In my downtime, I’m mostly just enjoying the new Voidform added in the recent alpha build. Outside of that, I’m trying very, very hard to catch up on my backlog of games and failing. This is the first expansion lull that I haven’t been obsessive about filling out my achievements in WoW, but that’s not stopping me from playing a lot of Blizzard games. Though I do have a lot of other non-Blizzard games I need to play to. Basically, I’m using the downtime to constantly try to play catch up, but it’s more like running in place than catching up on anything.

Liz: I’m mostly not playing, though I go through phases where I try to motivate myself to finish up achievements or level alts… it’s just not very exciting stuff. I am in a guild that’s still doing stuff (other than the same old raids) like at-level retro raiding, which is definitely worth logging on for. But the rest of the game? Eh.

Mitch: Soloing MoP raids? I think MSV and Terrace will be pretty easy, but it’s been a while since I’ve tried. The Sha of Fear’s teleport thingy might give you trouble but a pet or enough DPS may avoid that. Really, just give it a shot! If you absolutely can’t do it, you can’t do it. If it’s a challenge, you may find new ways to play your class that wind up keeping things fresh.

Liz: If you work at it, there’s a lot of Mists that’s soloable — though you may have to work on your ilvl. Check out guides from Warcraft Hunters Union for Hunter-specific content, The Cranky Tank’s Warrior soloing videos, and Mione’s Death Knight soloing videos — Mione has soloed all the way up to Garrosh!

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Mitch: That depends, was your friend telling you this whilst in the new Voidform? If so, s/he may be lying because the new Voidform just reeks of deviousness.

Liz: Your friend isn’t lying. There’s even video. (Warning: there’s some NSFW language here.)

Mitch: It’s part of the pre-expansion event and it actually seems like we’ll see more of the Burning Legion in the older zones than the Broken Isles, which seem to be setting up lots of very, very interesting, non-Burning Legion stories.

Liz: But is its position over Karazhan just a placeholder? We don’t know. Personally, I hope Legion ships are everywhere — stressing that the Legion invasion can’t be escaped. Legion’s class hall and artifact quests imply that no one will be unaffected by the Legion’s invasion, and it would be nice to see that in Azeroth as a whole.

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Mitch: I would love it if the trophy room had a statue of me in there. But not live me, alpha me. You know, the one in Voidform. The Voidform recently added.

Liz: Honestly, Mitch?

Mitch: Yes, Liz, honestly.

Liz: I hardly have anything in my trophy room. I hardly go there, so it mostly seems like wasted space. Why aren’t any of my achievements from earlier days represented there? Why are so few of my Draenor achievements represented there? I say bulldoze it and make space for another building.

Mitch: I’ve wanted from the beginning to see iconic armor sets that you’ve gathered hanging up somewhere. Give us achievements for gathering full sets and tie displays to them as a reward. It’s not like they don’t have something in game for that exact thing (see: the Mists sets in the Shrines). There are so many small things in the game that would add personality to the garrison (and upcoming class halls) that just… don’t exist.

Liz: The farm in Mists felt more personal, even though it had far less customization.

And that’s all for today! Tune in again tomorrow for more Q&A from me and — maybe — Mitch. It really depends on how much he gets on my nerves in this afternoon’s livestream.