The Queue: All hail your new overlord

I really do think Arthas’ story line in Warcraft is one of the best the game has done — something so true that apparently Mitch and I actually agree on it. But do you really need an Arthas-based Warcraft movie when you have the above masterwork of cinema? I think not.

Image, of course, courtesy of our own Anne Stickney, who is willing to take these jokes just too far.

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Mitch: The problem is, Warcraft has so much lore, the movie franchise could theoretically go on for as long as it’s lucrative. But I don’t want that. I do think a trilogy would work well, and I absolutely think we need to see Arthas’ transformation into the Lich King. It’s likely the one most Warcraft fans know and also a big favorite. Zombies, Arthas, Sylvanas… Oh yeah, we need to see that.

Liz: I don’t say this often but… Mitch is right. There are so many stories to tell that there doesn’t necessarily have to be an end. I don’t think anything in the game lore neatly bookends itself into a trilogy (like Lord of the Rings, which I think is the easiest fantasy film comparison). And, honestly, the story we’re starting with isn’t exactly my favorite. If we just had one movie, I would want to see Arthas’ fall. Show us Stratholme burning. Show his doomed expedition to Northrend. That would be quite a movie. Sylvanas’ rise and fall is really a story in and of itself, though one I’d also like to see.

Mitch: I only meant a Sylvanas cameo. The original mission to turn her into a Banshee was technically a side quest not even required to finish the main mission. It would be cool to include that small bit in an Arthas movie as setup for Sylvanas’ own thing.

Liz: There’s so much to unpack with Sylvanas. You could honestly cut off an Arthas movie with him becoming a Death Knight and then do a second one on his rise to the Lich King with the full Sylvanas story.

Mitch: Whatever the case, I want to see all of his story from WC3 and WC3: TFT turned into a movie or two.

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Mitch: So, I’d forgotten that one of the most recent builds added this system in. I went to switch talents while writing the Demon Hunter article and I wanted to see the visual on a different talent aaaand I wasn’t in a rested area. Great, I’ll just hearth. Aaaand it’s on cooldown. It was annoying.

Liz: Being able to change talents on the fly was great. It killed the idea of one perfect “cookie cutter” build. You could swap talents whenever you wanted. You could test a new talent setup for a fight and switch it when it didn’t work and then switch it again when it still didn’t work. The flexibility was amazing. Some of that’s been more important in the alpha/beta stage, I imagine, when we really have been testing everything. But I thought it was great and I’m going to miss it.

Mitch: If the cost for Tomes of the Tranquil Mind don’t end up being too high, though, it’ll basically be like having to buy Tomes of the Clear Mind, right? And instead of one Tome per talent, it’ll be one Tome per one minute of swapping. For scribes, that’s actually a good thing because it’ll put demand on something every player is going to need (like gems, flasks, etc.) but if players really don’t want to spend the gold, they can go to a city or inn or whatever.

Liz: With the material requirements… uh… I’m not sure they’re going to be low cost. But then again we still don’t really know what gold making is going to be like.

Mitch: The flaw in this? If Warlocks become the in-demand thing instead of scribes.

Liz: Brb, rolling a Warlock.

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Mitch: Honestly, it’s probably a bit of both. You are almost always going to be better with voice chat than without it, no matter how new or old a game is. I do think the lack of competitive mode (which is coming in the first content patch) is a factor. Blizzard designed the game with swapping heroes as needed as a core aspect of the game.  Without ranking to reinforce this, though, people who are just playing for fun won’t ever really do it.

Liz: Do people really not swap heroes? Even without a ranked play mode, don’t people want to… win?

Mitch: Personally, I don’t swap because my thinking is, “My skill on useless X hero is good enough to make up for how bad useful Y character would be.”

Liz: So… it’s the difference between WoW dungeons and WoW challenge mode dungeons?

Mitch: Hm… I dunno. If you avoid swapping a min/max talent in regular dungeons because you’re unfamiliar with it.. sure?

Liz: Or you just don’t push as hard. It’s okay if you don’t rush. It’s okay if you’re kind of half paying attention with Netflix on in the background. (Not that I have ever done this. It’s usually Twitter.)*

Mitch: It’s sort of like playing vs AI compared to Quick Match compared to Hero League in Heroes of the Storm. In any of those modes, you’ll do better over voice chat but you’ll also find people of varying skills in each mode.

Liz: Back to my WoW analogy, consider running raids with and without voice chat. Sure, you can succeed without voice chat, but your entire team is quicker and more responsive when you can talk to each other. I think it’s true in every game, but it’s even more obvious in an FPS because they’re so fast-paced.

Mitch: Yeah, exactly. Sure, being new adds to it. But being old won’t change it either.

* Editor’s note: Mitch and I got off track here and spent several hundred words arguing about AIM and ICQ. I have helpfully cut this for everyone’s continued sanity.

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Mitch: Funny you should ask, as I was recently a guest on the Lore Watch podcast that discussed Overwatch (which will be out later today for non-Patrons)! So, there’s one place. But we also have a nice summary pages of all the KYL articles Anne has worked on over the past few months. The podcast couldn’t cover it all, but seriously, if you want lore on the characters, check out those KYL posts.

Liz: There’s a ridiculous amount of story to Overwatch that never appears in the game world. You’ve gotta go looking for it.

Mitch: As to where Anne got them? Primarily the Overwatch site itself. There’s a lot more info there than just hero stats.

Liz: There’s also, of course, story in the cinematics and shorts. And on Blizzard’s official Overwatch site you’ll find in-universe news reports about current happenings. The hard part is piecing it all together.

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Liz: Jay, why.

Mitch:

Xul approaches Arthas atop the Frozen Throne

“You have upset the balance, Lich King_”

Arthas just laughs and extends his hand forward.

“A soldier of the dead… come to face the King of the Dead. You’ve made a mistake, and now you’re mine.”

“Your control won’t work over me, ‘King’”

Xul charges forward and swings his scythe, but Arthas deflects it downward, getting it stuck in the ice. He kicks Xul backward and charges forward.

“Not so fast!” Xul yells, trapping Arthas within his skeletal prison before making another charge.

“Two can play that game!” says Arthas, launching a blast of ice forward that freezes Xul in place.

Neither can move

…

“…This… is awkward,” Arthas mutters after several minutes.

“At least it’s balanced,” Xul replies.

Liz: Then Chromie casts Temporal Loop on them and they’re stuck like this forever.

Mitch: Chromie with her new bffl Tracer?

Liz: Obviously. And then they go off and have adventures in time together.

After mutually answering the latest Queue questions… 

Liz: Here’s what it looks like so far.

Mitch: Extra space after the “brb rolling warlock” answer.

Liz: Picky.

Mitch: I see everything.

Liz: Even with that shadowy vision of yours?

Mitch: Especially with it.

Liz: The joke’s on you, then, because I already have a Warlock!