The Queue: Alpha alpha alpha
@MatthewWRossi
Guys, it’s Alpha. Alpha alpha alpha. Alpha.
Ask me your questions but since you already asked them, I guess keep me in mind for next week’s Queue and ask me them there.
Queue Question for Rossi: If you were a Warcraft universe God, what would you command your dinosaur followers Do? Or would your followers be Warriors riding dinosaurs? Same question.
I just want the dinosaurs to be happy. So they can destroy Stormwind and Orgrimmar and eat everybody in both cities. Then they can learn to use weapons, kill everyone else and now we’re playing a new game where everyone’s a dinosaur.
Q4tQ: Would you ever like to see the ability to dual-spec into a different class? Maybe you can roll as a mage, but through an unlock chain, you could unlock the option to be a warrior on the same character, and it would work similar to changing class-specs
No, I would not like to see that. I was going to make a whole argument about it, but the fact is, I just plain don’t like the idea and I have no rational reason for it. My Warriors are Warriors, they’re not Warriors who suddenly turn into Paladins or Druids or whatever. No, I don’t like that idea, I don’t want it.
I’d be more willing to accept paid class change than letting characters switch to another class and then switch back the way spec switching works. Specs are subsets of a class — your Warrior is always a Warrior, so going from Arms to Fury doesn’t change that. But suddenly going from Arms to Arcane Mage bothers me, it really feels like it cheapens the whole idea of classes in a way I don’t like. (I also don’t like paid class change as an idea, I just dislike it less.)
If you want to play a Mage, roll one, that’s my view.
I was going though and unlocking the Allied races last night. I got to Nightborne, and even when Thalyssra explained why she chose the Horde it seemed really paper thin. Tyrande seemed to be legitimately wary about former Highborne and stated her reasons plainly, and it was going to take time to build trust.
Then it hit me, and I nearly reached though the screen and throttled the impudent “First Arcanist.”
She chose Horde, because SHE DIDN’T WANT TO REP GRIND!
After working on Army of the Light since last week I gotta say I don’t want to any more either, so I can’t blame her.
Look, Thalyssra and Tyrande were never going to be best buds. Tyrande was once a young and naive Priestess in Suramar, where she saw firsthand the dangers of Arcane magic and mages like Elisande and Thalyssra working for Queen Azshara did nothing to curb its misuse. Remember, Elisande worked for Azshara even while the Queen was openly summoning demons and only turned on her late in the game. The Highborne of Suramar who became the Nightborne have a long history of making questionable alliances with an eye for what benefits them the most in the moment.
Let’s be honest, though. None of us really likes rep grinding. Yes, we had to do a long, tedious rep grind with Thalyssra herself and now she’s blowing one off, but we’d have done the same if we could have.
Thinking a lot about my Dark Iron fire mage that’s coming. Our understanding is that we’ll unlock the extra two races after hitting 120, right? So if we want to play one of those races as our “main”, the initial playthrough will be on an “alt”. That feels a tiny bit clunky, but I’ll finally get my gray skin and fire eyes so maybe it’s worth it.
We don’t actually know yet how you’ll unlock them or when, but it does seem likely you’ll have to reach level 120 to do it. However, you could always race change whatever character did the unlock once you’ve finished it. That way, you’ll have a Dark Iron at 120 immediately.
Q4tQ: Are Blizzard “obligated” to do male and female models of any race or allied race that they create ever? Lord of the Rings Online, if I recall, had no gender options for Dwarves, they were just dwarves, and that was it.
One reason I ask is because of the “thin human,” which seems to be in the mix for potential allied race options, even if only as a selection for Kul Tirans or some other human allied race. The default human *male* has… a lot of room for thinning. Can the same be said for the female? I have yet to see a female model for this “thin human” category, and I therefore doubt it’s going to be an allied race…
…Unless Blizzard doesn’t feel bound to the logistical symmetry… OR (to take it in another direction) to the “gender binary” in creating allied races. Can Blizz cut corners for a future allied race by saying “these ones only come in X shape?” If we’re being realistic (or, indeed, suitably fantastic), ideally we should be ok with that, right?
I think most players would expect it and generally Blizzard likely wants to give players what they expect. Some people won’t play the opposite gender, others won’t play the same gender. Gender is a far more complicated issue than I’m willing to get into in a Blizzard Watch column, but I think certain races could get away with it — if we got playable Mantid, for example. We’ve never actually seen an obviously female Ogre, perhaps they don’t have particularly obvious secondary sex characteristics. It’s possible those only evolved later in Orcs.
It should be pointed out that the “Thin Human” absolutely has not been hinted at by Blizzard. As much as it might be cool, there is no current reason to believe they will be an Allied Race aside from the fact that they’re coded as able to be specific classes like current PC races.
Legit disgusted with the existence of some people. Someone got an alpha invite and their immediate reaction was to rub it in someone else’s face. So very very disappointing.
I… uh…
*Looks up at the title of this Queue and the header image.*
I was just excited, okay, I wasn’t trying to…
*Hangs head in shame.*
Dinosaurs, eat him.
*Dinosaurs eat you.*
Okay, that’s the Queue for this week. See y’all next week, although I’ll likely be running around elsewhere before that. I’d say where but Cloud wouldn’t approve and even though they’ve been eaten by dinosaurs I want to honor their last wishes.
Please consider supporting our Patreon!
Join the Discussion
Blizzard Watch is a safe space for all readers. By leaving comments on this site you agree to follow our commenting and community guidelines.
