The Queue: Let’s Queue this thing

I asked for questions over on Twitter yesterday evening, hoping that I’d get a couple, turn in The Queue early, and get to bed. Of course, dozens of people then had questions so I’m sitting here typing and researching frantically with 20 minutes until the deadline. Just another day behind the scenes at Blizzard Watch. Hey, maybe I will have something to say in that $10 Patreon tier Behind The Scenes Podcast I’m supposed to be hosting. Huh.

I was surprised it took them as long as it did to add the Group Finder tool, especially since they added the full automated LFD/LFR tools 2 expansions earlier. It seems like a no-brainer to have a pseudo-message board to say, “hey, I’m online, I’m a Hunter and I have the UBRS key,” to coordinate groups more easily without yelling into the void that is Trade Chat. I’m not anti-LFR by any means, but having that middle step where you could perform some degree of quality control — and double check that yes, everyone really is here to do The Oculus — and continue pulling from your server specifically may have completely changed the face of BfA as we see it now.

Speaking of things that should’ve been added much, much earlier…

The first would be absolutely ideal. The unlocking mechanism of the whole thing is part of what makes it viable as a pastime. I like the idea of just playing dress-up with every outfit out there, of course, but the idea of hunting down that one last piece for the perfect transmog really piques my lizard brain.

However, if a full transmog suite included previously restricted item appearances — like that one Gilnean birdcage veil, or glasses — I’d have to seriously consider it.

Sgt Hammer has always been a favorite of mine, and all those varied getaway cars are amazing!

I love soup. And sweaters. And leaves. And pumpkin spice — but I hate pumpkin. You can hate all you want but follow me on Instagram.

This is spoilery for the plot of Gorogoa, but it’s such a trippy game I don’t think it’ll affect in your playthrough if you choose to go through it yourself — and I really recommend it. Through the game we followed a boy trying to get special fruit as an offering to summon a dragon. It’s unknown whether the dragon itself caused so much destruction in the wake of its summoning, but we see that something catastrophic happened. We see the boy go through a rebuilding process both physical and spiritual — he goes on a pilgrimage through the desert and into the mountains. Though we see many “characters,” it’s always him. I’m not sure whether the dragon is a metaphor for death, or war, growing up, or even just the process of searching for something elusive you’re not sure you really want to find. The puzzles were a joy to work out, even as I was just flat-out confused as heck.

Kotaku featured a really good interview with the creator and developer. It’s his very first game, he hand drew every single frame and puzzle and I am in awe.

I’m still obsessed with The Long Dark. There’s something about the survival aspect I just can’t put down especially as combined with the dopamine-triggering looting aspect, plus the random events to keep gameplay interesting and me on edge. The whole thing just keeps me wanting to play more. That’s in addition to the main character being voiced by either Jennifer Hale (Ashe from Overwatch) or David Hayter (Solid Snake from Metal Gear). The story is unfinished — it’s an indie game funded by Kickstarter so they’re not literally killing their devs to crunch “on time,” which I am behind — but the current story is engaging, and the challenges are fun to go through, plus sandbox survival modes never go out of style. I’m in the middle of trying to get through the first 25 days without killing anything for the Steam achievements — trying.

I made myself a pantry and I love it and want to live here. I mean, except for the wolves or whatever.

Right now, aside from streaming, a whole lot of my gaming is done on mobile. I’m all about the Shattered version of Pixel Dungeon, which is a roguelike which gives unexpectedly deep, nuanced gameplay. Pixel Dungeon itself is open source so there may be a version that you like better, or you may want to just code one to your liking. There’s also one I keep going back to called Influence which is strategy-based and an excellent way to kill time — one of those titles that’s easy to understand but tough to master.

It really is just a full, extra game onto itself. If all of WoW had its combat removed and was just battle pets, it would be a shockingly passable game — if that’s the game you’d like to play, of course.

The main issue with battles used to be getting to that max level but now, since everything scales, that’s far less crucial. Wait until you have at least one level 5 pet (because this means you can unlock a slot to put a second pet on your team), then familiarize yourself with the way Families interact with each other. For instance, if you really love your Rabbit, which is a Critter, you’ll want to take on opponents with Elemental attacks (which will hit for less) or Undead opponents (which you’ll hit harder with Critter attacks). As long as you get that cheat sheet down you’re well on your way to pet mastery!

Grind grind grind grind die grind grind die grind grind grind die grind die grind grind grind grind grind grind grind die grind grind grind Auction House grind grind grind die grind die die grind grind die grind grind grind.

I feel like there will definitely be a patch 8.3 just due to how long a tail WoW‘s development as a whole has. I don’t think they’re going to shoehorn in all the stuff they wanted to do — both in terms of mechanical development and story — in a .5 patch just because the current expansion has been ill-received. I’m honestly not sure they could, at least not without a Siege of Orgrimmar-sized gap in the development schedule.

As to the War Campaign ending, I feel like this is tied implicitly to whatever is going to go down in 8.3. I think 8.3 is going to set up another big bad, and we’re going to have to do the old-school mortal races unite thing, so the whole War thing will have to be iced as a result. I doubt we’ll go full single-faction, as Matt Rossi clearly spelled out the reasons for in this great article, but I think a formal temporary detente would be possible.

No.