The Queue: Crushed by the mush

You may remember that the last time I A’d your Qs, we were on the verge of another Splatfest. Well, as is usually the case with these things, the more popular team — Stars, by a long shot — ended up losing the overall Splatfest. But hey, maybe the real Splatfest was the friends we made along the way.

Anyhow, it’s Thursday, which means it’s Queue time!

Typically, Wednesdays (for whatever reason) end up being fairly busy for me, so if I ever skip a Queue, it’s probably because I’m swamped with other things and would love to save on sleep. It helps that the other Queue writers are more than willing to help out, which is always super helpful!

Great idea, obvi. In general, I’m on board with WoW having more “fun” mounts, sort of how you can ride a giant chonky cat in FFXIV. Plus, anything that makes professions feel meaningful is cool in my book. What are some other fun mounts y’all would like to see?

Personally, I’m still holding out hope for my “Murlocs carrying me around like royalty” idea.

Much as I would love that idea, I don’t think Blizzard needs to compensate us for anything ;P What I would love more — and what would be more realistic — is if Oribos had a passive speed boost, the way the Priest Order Hall eventually got. Nothing is more annoying to me than crossing an arbitrary threshold, getting dismounted, and then being able to mount like two seconds later. Just let us run fast (or give us roller skates) in Oribos, Blizz!

Look, Vashj’ir is one of my favorite zones… but it’s one I don’t really want to do twice. It’s gorgeous and unique, and I’m sure Blizzard could do even more with an environment like that nowadays.

But we don’t need a whole expansion of that. Not to mention, with a deep space expansion, we could easily have a one-off environment of some kind that fulfills that deep-sea role super well. And because it’s space, who cares about the normal laws of physics!

I know not everyone loves when WoW goes into Sci-Fi territory, but I absolutely love what the environment artists do when they can go crazy, so it’s hard for me to ever not support more space.

I think when it comes to those whispers, we get a mix of things. Sometimes, something might start out as a direct hint to future events, but then development shifts and you’re left with a line in the game that hints at nothing. Sometimes, it may start out as something intentionally designed as a misdirect. Other times, there may be a few possible story directions the team wants to go, and they throw in lines that could be used for any of those directions.

Basically, the Void sees all possibilities, and that’s kind of how I imagine Blizz goes about adding these voice lines. I’m not sure they’d add things in just because they sound cool — there’s probably someone who scrubs dialog like that to be sure it won’t break canon — but I do think they look at the lines as potential hints, without the need to actually carry through with them if the game changes direction.

That’s all just my guess though! I do think the crooked serpent could easily be talking about Oribos (AKA Ouroboros).

Either the Blood Council, because they know how to be fancy af, or Sire Denathrius because he’s more like Daddynathrius, amirite?

(…Please don’t fire me, Liz or Dan.)

Well, dang, when you put it like that, I feel old as heck. But you’re right, WoW is 16 and likely incredibly angsty. It’s seen wars come and go, people die all the time, ships sail and sink, and a whole lot more. Maybe that’s why it’s so obsessed with death right now. It’s going through a “life is meaningless” phase.

Then again, Gen Z seems more progressive than Millennials were at 16, so maybe WoW would be totally chill and just trying to survive and make memes while still being lit af. It would also explain the yeeting we have to do to get to the Maw. Kids these days and their yeets.

I wouldn’t say we need them as playable, no. Mostly because I think playable races have to stick to a sort-of template where armor and everything looks good on them. And if you have a creepy, lopsided, nightmare horror as a playable race, armor probably won’t look great on it.

So reserve the creepy stuff for NPCs, and let the artists go wild with how creepy they are. (None of that’s to say the existing races and NPCs aren’t cool or creepy — I just want more!)

That’s our Queue for the day! We only have a few days left in the month, so by the time we talk like this again, it’ll be February. (I’ll still see you in the comments, though <3)