The Queue: Cursed?

Please enjoy this header.

Let’s Queue.

You’re probably not the only one, but I don’t think that’s the case. Someone made a good comparison in the comments — basically that people worrying about a “late” schedule is equivalent to thinking the dude who shows up 2 hours early to work every day is dead because they show up only 1 hour early one day. They have a lot of mystery content this year, and I’m sure they want to keep it close to their vest to avoid rampant speculation or even misinformation. If we saw four “Coming Soon” slots a month ago, I’m sure there would have been multiple “credible” “leaks” from 4Chan or whatever that were totally made up just for a moment in the spotlight. And then all those “leaks” would set expectations. And then those expectations wouldn’t be met by someone. And then the super cool announcements that would’ve otherwise been a huge hit would have someone going, “Yeah, it’s cool, but…”

Also, Blizzard plans BlizzCon for months. If anything happens as a result of not having enough people or time, it’s likely a behind-the-scenes thing that’s causing employees to run around like everything’s on fire. If we consistently have panels not running smoothly or sound issues or anything consistent and noticeable outside of the usual, then we can revisit.

My guess is because Blizzard is still committed to Allied Races having a story tie-in rather than just going, “Hey, you can play as [race] now!” And also because people like things that are shiny and new. If we’d been given Allied Races more frequently, I’d be more surprised, but they’ve been a lot more few and far between than I initially expected, to be honest.

I guess my answer is… None? I mean, “A” is the closest I’d probably take, but the best solution to people hating mobile announcements is to pair them with other announcements. If we’d gotten the Diablo Immortal announcement after a D4 announcement, none of this would have ever happened. You want to announce a new Warcraft app? Do it after you’ve announced a new expansion. Overwatch Chess coming to mobile? Announce it after Overwatch 2. Mobile games aren’t bad. Mobile announcements aren’t bad. But people will still hate them if they’re announced on their own as though they hold the same weight to players as a console/PC announcement would have.

Look, some of the buttons are super large. Some of them are maybe a bit old and hard to move. I like to imagine that time spent is your character fidgeting around trying to find the exact right spot or amount of pressure to put on the button to make it work. These things take time.

Are they all exclusive? I haven’t kept up a ton on the pins this year, but a quick look showed they have some special edition ones or something. Is there one in particular that’s super awesome and cool and not worth missing out on, or do you just like collecting all of them?

I’m assuming it will be with the release of the raid, which usually coincides pretty closely with the .5 patches, though that could easily be in patch 8.3. Regardless, I don’t think it’s going to carry over into the next expansion. There might be a SMALL reference (like when Xal’atath has a new voice line for Priests) but the storyline itself will very likely not continue on beyond this expansion. For one, it’s not something Blizz usually does. But also, if Blizz intends to move past Old Gods as a main plot point (which seems more likely now with the 8.3 raid), having it continue after BFA ends would just distract people from whatever 9.0 actually ends up being about. It would be another expansion of “when are the Old Gods coming?”

That’s, of course, assuming 9.0 isn’t all Black Empire. I don’t have money on that being the case, but who knows. If we’re somehow headed for more Old Gods in 9.0, then it has potential to carry over (but still not much).

I’ve never really retired a character, since I keep the same main throughout. But uhh… maybe if I ever delete a character, I’ll make this their story. It would have to be a Druid, so I could turn that Dalaran-Druid-in-a-Tub Dude into a much darker story.

I wanted to say no, and then I started thinking about all the egg-like Old God things, and I have no idea where those eggs actually come from. My guess is that maybe Old Gods/their minions can corrupt races which can reproduce, and then their offspring becomes all tentacle-y and full of Void energy. I still don’t think N’Zoth can reproduce, though. And if he can, it would be Faceless Ones, not anything akin to a baby Old God. I don’t think an Old God can create another being as powerful as an Old God just on their own, basically.

I’ve seen a lot of people unhappy about this, and while I’m not sure how I feel about having RNG determine how strong a particular effect is, I do kind of like the idea overall. But that’s probably because I’ve reached a point in my playing where I don’t focus on min/maxing as much. I see cool effects that we don’t get in many other places and I like ’em.

That said, Kaivax did post last night that they’re still iterating on the whole system and looking for feedback. So even if it’s not your thing, I wouldn’t get up in arms just yet. Play the PTR, see how it feels, provide feedback.

That’s all for today.