The Queue: Real Fake Doors

If you’re wondering who spent way too much time on a completely unrelated, mediocre-looking gag that most people probably won’t get, I’ll give you a hint: It’s the person who is not Alex and also who’s writing today’s Queue. You get two guesses.

And with that seg-out-of-the-ue, let’s get to questions!

I’ve definitely gotten more into the Heroes scene as of late, but I’m still not that familiar with all the teams and their histories. That said, Tempo Storm’s roster has been around for a pretty long time (going from Murloc Geniuses to Astral Authority to Tempo Storm), they’re fun to watch, and they seem like nice people. I have a bit of an affinity for them because they’re the team I’ve actually been able to follow the longest.

However, Team 8 has been knocking it out of the park during HGC and I always love to see freshman teams bring the heat and surprise everyone with what they can do. Gale Force Esports is the other team I’ve been able to follow for more than a little while, mostly because of Michael Udall. I definitely believe they’re good players, but they seem to sometimes be a bit overconfident and it doesn’t come off as endearing (to me at least).

As for the rest of the teams, I don’t know them well enough to say. Really, I enjoy Heroes esports the same way I enjoy what little athletic sports I watch: Just enjoying the spirit of the event, occasionally rooting for a side I know slightly better.

If he didn’t die, I will be very mad at Blizzard and totally take back everything I am about to say a few questions down. He died, his story is over, it was a beautiful ending, and you need to let him rest in peace. Stop bringing back characters who’ve had a perfectly adequate arc just for the sake of making them bad guys we have to kill.

Seriously. Stop it.

I don’t know how it would work, exactly, but I’ve always wondered why we don’t have more ranged classes that aren’t casters. I’m pretty sure it’s a fan favorite, but something like a Tinkerer could work for this. They could throw saw blades, construct a cannon mid-combat, electrocute an enemy, defibrillate an ally as a form of combat resurrection, and so on. If you want, throw in a tank spec because I guess we can’t have a new class without those.

Oh, and for the love of the Old Gods, please make this class use mail.

Honestly, I’m all for a ME:A podcast. We haven’t discussed one yet, but with how hyped we all our for the game (I’m pretty sure we’re all taking time off to play it), it might not be too hard to coerce them into doing something. No promises, but I’ll see if I can do some arm-pulling.

As for the second question, do I have to choose one? What’s that? I don’t. Oh, okay, good — because I pick Garrus and Liara. If I get a third, I throw in Javik because his dialog with everyone is amazing.

This may not be something everyone agrees with, but for the most part, Blizzard’s writing has never been unforgettable or amazeballs quality. But that’s not to say I think it’s bad either. Yes, certain moments can be pretty bad, while other moments are almost surprisingly good, but I think some of that is more because of the confines created by the game.

Take the Broken Shore or some of the big-picture stories that can sometimes feel all over the place. The former exists because the game’s faction conflict demands it while the latter exists because Warcraft‘s lore is massive and quite frankly a lot bigger and more nitpicked than I think Blizzard ever thought it would be. You could argue that “actual writers” would have done the Broken Shore conflict or various other stories better, and you might be right — but that’s never really what WoW has ever been.

And when the writers do focus on self-contained stories that don’t need to tie into existing stories or set up plot points for the future, we get something like Suramar.

While I’m in control of the Queue Car, I’m going to do what I want. And what I want is to keep the streak going.

Here’s to you, RC! May your luck never end.

I definitely think some of the things WoW has lost over the years were not for the better. I (as well as other staffers here) have mentioned that throwing a buff another player’s way used to be a great way to thank them or show comradery without needing to say much. On top of that, it added a bit of flavor to your class. Faster combat is nice for the most part, but it wouldn’t hurt to have a few slower-paced options out there. What’s worse, in my opinion, is the homogenization across a lot of classes — build, spend, cooldown, etc. When you had the flavor on top of those things, it wasn’t as noticeable. Now, it stands out quite a bit more.

Other things, like instant (or faster) travel I think are changes that almost had to be made to keep up with what players wanted. We’ve all seen how people react to not having flying, and it’s not pretty. Not having the travel conveniences we do now would maybe not be actively noticeable, but it would wear on players eventually in a way that having them doesn’t.

As far as the last three things you mention, that ties in a bit to my answer above regarding writers, but it’s more that I think it’s something WoW could add more of rather than anything it’s lost.

For those of you keeping track at home, I’m now up to a class column, a podcast, and two Queues for the week. Sadly, Li’tch will not be making our usual appearance tomorrow, but we will be up to some good ol’ shenanigans on the leveling stream. Rossi or one of his alter egos will be doing tomorrow’s Queue in our stead. Be sure to stay on topic and ask him lots of good questions.

Also, anyone who tells Anduin what Genn (justifiably!) did in Stormheim is a bigger traitor to the Alliance than Genn ever could have been. Toodles!