The Queue: Totally the Gnome you are looking for

Welcome back to The Queue, our daily Q&A feature for all of Blizzard’s games! Have a question for the Blizzard Watch staff? Leave it in the comments!

Hi, it’s me, the Gnome you were definitely expecting to see today. Yep, no shenanigans here! Just a good time answering questions! No, no that is not an Orb of Deception in my pocket. I have no idea what you’re talking about!

Yes, actually! Only less from a “Oh man they’re going to hate everything” kind of way, and more from just being interested in just how well Classic is going to actually do. I know there is a die-hard fanbase of the original game that are just going to love everything about the experience, which is great!

But I’m pretty sure there’s also going to be an initial surge of players who maybe weren’t around during vanilla, and want to see what it was like. Are they going to stick around? Is there going to be enough players in Classic to warrant the effort that was made to put it out there?

I’m also wondering if or how this is going to affect the playerbase in the current expansion. Are people going to peace out to go play Classic? Is there going to be a surge of new players who are there for Classic, but felt like checking out the current game while they were around? Blizzard’s never done anything like this before, so I’m excited to see how it all pans out for them.

For the same reason you’d participate in any other beta — to track down bugs and stomp them before the game goes live. And I suppose it could also be a way for those not really sold on the idea of playing Classic to check out what it’s like ahead of time. But mostly it’s for the same reasons that players participate in any beta Blizzard throws out there.

It’s going to be kind of an interesting process, though. I mean…WoW is way, way different these days. Things that might be considered a bug or a mistake when viewed by today’s standards might not actually be a bug on Classic. I know usually when I get into betas myself, I tend to focus on either graphic errors — wrong textures, that sort of thing — or text errors, because I’m an editor at heart and I simply can’t help myself.

And it’s easy enough to report mobs that aren’t behaving correctly. But spells working correctly? Well…they might not be correct for today’s game, but they could very well be correct for Classic. I’m curious to see how Blizzard handles bug reports, as far as that’s concerned.

To my knowledge, we’ve heard nothing about beta keys at all as of yet. I mean, they just announced the whole beta thing. I don’t even know if they’re going to have keys for the thing. Regardless, if we do happen to get our hands on some keys, there won’t be any kissing up involved, just…you know, the usual giveaway kind of thing we always do, no lips necessary!

So many. Garrus from Mass Effect is the best. There’s nothing like a good tango. And so is the Iron Bull. I think he’s one of the most interesting characters in Dragon Age Inquisition.

Also, due to my habit of talking everyone in game to death, my experience with the original Dragon Age ended up with every single character in my camp that could be romanced all telling me they liked me all at once, on the same night. It…made for a really awkward evening around the campfire, lemme tell ya.

I think Mythic+ is doing fine where it is — it’s an alternative to raiding, not exactly a replacement for it, but a challenge for players that might not have the numbers to do a proper raid. I don’t think players are ever going to consider Mythic+ as “new raids” — they’re dungeons. They’ve always been dungeons. Particularly difficult dungeons, but dungeons nonetheless. I don’t think Blizzard really needs to “make” players gravitate towards Mythic+, I think it’s fine just being there as a viable option for people that want to clear challenging, smaller-scale content for fun and loot.

I’m assuming you’re referring to the Drakonid — they’re the humanoid, two-legged dragon creatures most commonly found wielding polearms. They have an interesting history, too. They aren’t “true” dragons, they’re mortals that have been empowered/transformed by the dragons they serve, either through intentional alteration, or just from long-term exposure. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a willing transformation, either.

On the one hand, the idea maybe has a little merit — mostly because while we haven’t seen Wrathion around lately, his cohorts are hanging around Blackwing Lair, the place where Nefarian did all his experiments on the various draconic types out there. He has his Blacktalon servants — it’s possible that somewhere along the way, he could create some Drakonid of his own.

But honestly, that’s really unlikely. There are way more races out there that have a lot more potential as far as a new race or an Allied Race is concerned. It’s possible — anything is possible, after all — but I wouldn’t really hold my breath on that one.

That’s it for today’s Queue — if you have any questions you’d like to see answered, be sure to leave them in the comments below!