The Queue: Time Lapse

The danger of writing the Queue the night before the event is, by the time this goes live on the site you’ll all be neck deep in BlizzCon, but as I write it the con is still 12 hours away from starting.

I’m listening to Time-Lapse by Kings and Creatures and going through yesterday’s Queue, marveling at how much I like the cut of that ‘Mitch’ fellow’s jib. I went and looked up what ‘cut of his jib’ means and it turns out it’s a reference to a kind of sail. Huh.

The heart wants what it wants.

Personally I think Blizzard should honor the Cubs by naming shoulder armor after them, putting it on a World Boss, and then never letting any of them get it on their characters.

In terms of actual playable space we move our characters through, I definitely don’t feel like we’re experiencing a smaller region this time out. Each zone is pretty large, there’s a lot to do in all of them.

In terms of ‘if Azeroth was a real planet’ scale, I definitely think the Broken Isles are smaller than Northrend or Pandaria or Kalimdor or the Eastern Kingdoms. A lot smaller.

I am assuming (and that’s a big assumption) that this map is to scale and that the continents and islands depicted on it are actually those relative sizes, so that either Kalimdor or the Eastern Kingdoms are that size in comparison to the Broken Isles as an example. In terms of gameplay, I don’t believe they are – the Broken Isles feel like they’re easily the same size as Pandaria, which itself easily felt as large as Northrend.

But based on that map, I’d say the Broken Isles are about half the size of Pandaria, if not less. If we assume the map is not at all to scale, then I no longer have any way to really answer your question on the topic of the size of the Broken Isles.

After the unholy mess of the Cataclysm redesign of Ashkandi for BWD, I honestly don’t want Blizzard to touch Zin. That sword looks awesome, don’t redesign it or use it as inspiration for anything.

In terms of Artifact appearances I would have wanted to see, I wouldn’t have minded a mace pattered after Might of Menethil. Back before BC, that mace in a Warriors’ hands meant instant death in PvP. It was pretty sweet.

If all else fails you can hang out here in Friday’s Queue. There’s going to be a lot of cool posts this weekend, though, what with BlizzCon and all. So maybe hang out in one of them?

You guys are welcome in any post we do.

I feel like Blizzard might want to keep the hype going.

It’s hard to overstate how amazingly good this last quarter of 2016 has been for them as a company. Overwatch is a huge hit, Legion is the most popular expansion in years. Just because we don’t currently know what’s going to happen at BlizzCon doesn’t mean nothing is going to happen this year, and with them coming off the most successful year in a while, it’s very unlikely that they’re not going to want to celebrate that and try and get their fan base excited for the future.

I’m not saying they couldn’t skip a year, I’m saying I don’t expect they would. They have four main franchises now (the Warcraft, Starcraft, Diablo and Overwatch franchises), with Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm out there as well. That’s a lot of games. They should have plenty to talk about.

When my wife and I were still getting to know each other, and she was living up here in Canada while I was down in Seattle, we used WoW to keep in contact. We could play together and chat via the in-game tools like Party and Guild chat, which made WoW basically a lot more fun than AIM or other IM services of the time.

For whatever reason we’d often get together in Menethil Harbor (this was obviously pre-Cata) and just sit on the dock watching the sun come up and talk. I really enjoyed that.

I really, really hope you’re right.

Okay, that’s the Queue for Friday.

I don’t know what’s going to happen this weekend. I’m excited. Let’s find out together, shall we?