The Queue: Rainbows for everyone!
@faience
And you get a rainbow and you get a rainbow and you get a rainbow!
Yep, that’s just the kind of randomness you can expect here in the Queue.
Question/Request for the site: May I request that Blizzard Watch compile an article with links and/or summaries of the various excerpts of “Before the Storm” that have been purposely released by “Amazon” or more directly by Blizzard itself?
The reason I ask is that, being 2/3 through the audiobook (which is extremely good by the way, the reader is quite skilled at capturing the various voices!) as of this post, one of the most prominent non-spoiler points of review that leaps out at me to share is that while there are minor subplots and less than minor scenes of emotion and context throughout the novel, it’s seeming that all of the game-relevant points were indeed purposefully, intentionally and strategically released already. Again, I’m 2/3 done, and I still have one major previously released excerpt point and most of its setup ahead of me, leaving limited space for much else. Obviously, this bodes well for the “I hate needing external media purchases to learn the lore” camp, so perhaps a pointed, ordered article walking these folks through, pragmatically speaking, “all the important stuff” from the novel (meaning the excerpts released intentionally) might be appreciated.
The novel is still a worthwhile purchase… but yeah, if you follow fan sites and have read all the excerpts, my judgment from where I am in the book now is that you already know all you “need” to as a WoW player.
Wowhead has the best compilation of all of the Amazon previews, which includes some of the stuff that was later published officially by Blizzard. But the thing about those Amazon previews is… I don’t think they were meant to come out. They’re over 90 pages of a 300 page novel, including the ending. The fact that Amazon has pulled down every page of the preview is pretty telling that posting it wasn’t what the publisher (or Blizzard) wanted. And though it’s possible it was leaked in an intentional fashion so fans who aren’t interested in the novel know the story beats, I don’t think Blizzard would have done it in such an odd way.
Blizzard’s official excerpts feel much more preview-y, offering hints of what’s to come without dumping major story spoilers on you.
That’s gone a little off topic, but there’s no denying that leaving major lore points in books can leave players a little lost. (Hello Tides of War, War Crimes, etc.) Giving people who aren’t into the novels something to work with would be a great idea, but Blizzard has never done it before and I don’t think they intended to start now.
A “what you need to know going into Battle for Azeroth” article is a darn good idea though… hm… who could I get to write that…
(This is something we’re more likely to do after the book’s been out a while and we’re a little closer to the expansion release, though.)
Who do you think is gonna win: Horde or Alliance?
I don’t think anyone can win, because then the game would be over. The war must continue for there to be a Warcraft.
But if it did end, maybe we’d finally have an expansion with player housing we could design and decorate and invite our friends to and … basically The Sims: World of Warcraft Edition. Okay, I’m now all in on ending this war and getting to our interior design expansion. Let’s make this happen, everyone.
WoW is slow to add classes, but you kind of have to assume that whenever they do add a new one…it’ll be a caster of some form…after 14 years and 3 straight melee classes…right?
Depending on how long they decide to do the Void thing (look how long the Burning Legion was a threat)…how likely could we see a caster class that’s all about the Void, pulled completely out of the air, much like Void Elves were when it comes to creating new races?
I don’t know that there’s any evidence that Blizzard cares about an existing class’ flavor when they create new classes (just ask any thumb-sucking Warlock sulking in the corner over Legion). :D
You remember how upset Warlocks were when Demon Hunters were introduced, because their Metamorphosis ability was given to said Demon Hunters? We would get that, except for Shadow Priests.
However, I generally think you’re right. Every class Blizzard has added has been melee, and the last two have been leather-wearers. We have to get a little more variety at some point, right? I’m rooting for a Bard or Tinker class, myself. I’d also love a battle cleric of some kind… Holy Paladin is kind of but not quite there, but it may not be enough to spin an entire class out of.
But, hey, Blizzard has proven they’re okay with borrowing from one class to build another in the name of “class fantasy,” so I wouldn’t say a void caster is impossible.
Q4tQ: so all my servers went from Low to Medium today. I know we didn’t get an influx of returning players, so what do we think happened? Server size now counts joined servers? They shrunk max players prior to further merges?
First up, I don’t actually have an answer. Second up, I’ve been wondering the same thing. All I can think is that they’ve changed their classifications, and maybe that’s because of the inevitable influx of players who will arrive with the expansion.
Q4tQ: How much would you pay in gold to unlock the ability to use the flightmaster whistle in 0-100 leveling content?
Every bit of gold I have, on every character I have.
Except that is actually not all that much gold, because I am terrible at making gold. I dare say this would be more valuable than a brontosaurus, though.
Q4TQ: I pretty much play both sides for fun, all my friends play horde, trying to get into this upcoming Story I feel more Drawn to alliance side, but I don’t want to play alone. Any advice? What to do if ur friends r one faction and u want to be the other?
I’ve always found that it’s less about what you play than who you play with. I could be playing my least favorite class on my least favorite race on my least favorite faction, but I would still have more fun playing with my friends than playing without them. The social aspect can really make or break the game.
But, if the Horde story just kills you (and I get it, I felt the same way in Mists), there’s no reason you can’t make new friends. (Or, perhaps, find that some of your friends feel the same way about the state of the faction war.) If you go Alliance, I would strongly suggest investigating guilds first, because having people to play with who share your game goals and can help you reach them just makes the game a heck of a lot more fun.
And that’s all for now. We are back on a totally regular schedule this week (probably), so Anne will be in tomorrow. I’ll see you back here next week!
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