The Queue: A very happy Monday to Grue

Good morning Queue world! Let’s start answering some questions…

In some regards there’s a lot to be said about the debate surrounding factions and their political actions. This is good — WoW has a vibrant system that it’s created and there’s a lot of different avenues for people to believe that one side or another is more justified in their actions than the other side. In some cases this is clear cut, and in other cases it is; just as in reality there are a lot of shades of gray and it’s rare that there’s one completely right answer. And when there is a completely right answer we usually get the factions teaming up to work together.

Because this story is so in-depth and because things are not cut-and-dry, it creates a natural point of conflict within the fan base… and like any fandom, people get really passionate about it and can take it to levels that are too extreme. The escapism that WoW offers, and I’m not saying this in a bad way either, amplifies the arguments into a entrenching position on the part of either side that quickly personal, and thus heated.

I love both factions, each are flawed and each have characteristics that are honorable. What I love though is looking at both and examining how two polar opposite actions and paths make perfect sense yet can lead to extraordinary conflict. The real genius of WoW’s factions does not lie in the factions themselves, but in the ability to see all sides of a story first hand.

That is never a bad thing, in any context or time.

It’s pretty easy; there’s always at least a group or two around when I’m looking. Right now I’m working class mount five and six, and the collecting marks part is always the easiest. It’s really just a matter of jumping into a group, spending 15 minutes, and leaving. The rest of it is trivial now, to say the least. As long as you have 850/880 gear on you won’t have any problem, and it’ll seem just like normal leveling content. I could see some challenge if you’re not geared to that level … maybe challenge is too strong of a word, it probably wouldn’t go just as fast.

The most annoying part is waiting for world quests to respawn on the Broken Shore… I think Blizzard forgot to tweak the requirement down to four; the eight that are required right now seems a bit artificial.

I’ve mentioned this a couple times before elsewhere, but I think ALL of the in-game holidays should be retired and new ones should spring up in their place. It makes no sense to me why after all these years we’re still given the same boring holiday stuff. Granted I see participation in the holidays across the board, usually for new pets, mounts, or buffs, but for the most part you can completely ignore them without missing anything significant.

Love is in the Air was useful this year for everyone leveling a new allied race; the quests and the daily dungeon provided a non-trivial amount of XP, especially at earlier levels. Similar things exist elsewhere and will give a nice quick bump when leveling alts. But that said … it’s not like it’s groundbreaking content anymore. I would really like to see all the current holidays turned into Feats of Strength and then a whole new batch of achievements and rewards come out.

As far as what holiday should make it in game, I’ve been thinking lately that it would be fun if each faction had their own Independence Day-type holiday, celebrating the founding of their alliance.