The Queue: But that’s just your opinion, man

Something I try very hard to keep in mind is that, whatever I feel, whatever I truly believe and hold as such, there will always be those who disagree. When it comes to items of subjectivity — items of taste, items of art, items of personal enjoyment — when there are only so many objective facts to guide us, we must be willing to realize that what we think is just what we think.

What I’m saying is, the expansion you loved? Someone else hated it. The raid you loved, the dungeon you loved, the gearing system you loved was someone else’s worst moment ever. That story moment you hold forth as a triumph made someone else quit playing in disgust.

This is the Queue. Let’s share some opinions.

Bows are a form of technology. They are an extremely effective means to hurl miniature spears at great speed and at extraordinary range, and have been very effective in human warfare for literally thousands of years. Massed armies using chariots and archers decided the fact of empires as far back as the Battle of Kadesh in 1274 BC.

I think it’s very interesting that we view guns as ‘technology’ and something we couldn’t use magic to make better, but bows are perfectly acceptable to us, and we never stop to think about how bows are basically a drastic game changer in terms of warfare and human society. Before the bow, we used atlatl spear throwers, and we even used them alongside bows for a great long time. There were slings, javelins, and amentum leather straps used to give throwing spears a rifle-like spin when thrown. It’s all technology.

To answer your question, yes, absolutely there are people who dislike seeing guns and other ‘technology’ in their fantasy, while not getting terribly upset by seeing things like chariots or longswords even though those are both very advanced technological improvements on earlier designs. I mean, the technology needed to construct plate armor? It’s fairly advanced.

Heck, if you really wanted to avoid technology in a fantasy game, you’d have to play completely naked people who only used rocks as weapons, and the second they decided to bash two rocks together to make a sharper edge on one of the rocks, they’re making tools and thus it’s technology.

Man, I can barely keep three alts going and you want me to play eight.

I am significantly larger than my wife.

I never understand why y’all keep trying to make me a Dwarf. I’m over six feet. And my Scottish accent is terrible.

As for my wife, I think she’d be a Ranger or Sorceress, or maybe a Warlock with a Fey pact of some kind.

I hope so, it’s kind of my job to want them to do big Shadowlands info dumps so I can write articles talking about it all.

Did you see that clutch Counterspell? HOLY CRAP.

I’m trying hard not to spoil it for people not watching until later, but I definitely had a few freakout moments watching the game.

Okay, that’s the Queue for today. We’re doing a D&D podcast this weekend, maybe come hang out when we stream it. And hey, if we decided to do some one shots, what would y’all be interested in seeing? Joe’s bandied about doing Shadowrun.