The Queue: Shots Shots Shots!

I just got my second COVID vaccine a few hours before writing this post and I don’t feel so good, Mr. Stark.

Let’s Queue!

To paraphrase Shigeru Miyamoto, a delayed expansion is eventually a good expansion. A bad expansion is bad forever.

I feel like the expansions we think of as the “worst” ones collectively — Warlords of Draenor, I’m looking at you — suffered largely from seeming “unfinished” in a lot of aspects. Heck, we’ve even seen what can happen in the middle of a disruptive disaster in other media — Heroes season 2 is a clear example there.

We can’t know what went on behind the curtain, what made the cut and what didn’t in any given expansion — for all we know, they almost finished Player Housing in Mists of Pandaria and then axed it. However, based on assets, we do know a lot of things were cut in Warlords, and we do know that Blizzard was publicly making a lot of noise at the time about not ever having a Siege-of-Orgrimmar-long final patch ever again, and tightening up their production schedule in general. I would much rather Blizzard go back to the “when it’s ready” philosophy.

I’ll add that this is in no small part because the story we need to explore in Shadowlands seems vast and incredibly exposition-y. It seems like almost all the Covenant plot threads are important in their own way, and will remain so in some capacity for the future. I feel like Blizzard are really getting to the point where they can use all the tools of interactive storytelling to make these seem meaningful, and we’ve got a lot of story beats to wrap up before we can go back to the world of the living — if we can… ominous organ

stares in Queen’s Conservatory

To be fair, between IRL and being annoyed at the Queen’s Conservatory I haven’t done a whole lot of engaged grinding to make things happen for myself. I did get a couple Soulshapes I wanted, but it feels incredibly bad to invest Anima in that when I could be investing it in the Queen’s Conservatory.

It’s a self-perpetuating issue — burnout because I’m trying too hard to get the thing, so I don’t get the thing, and then I’m discouraged so I burn out harder — and I’m really not sure how to solve it unless I could greatly increase Anima gain.

Basically just avoided the AH except for right after server resets on Tuesday. I was on a PVP server so it wasn’t quite the all-encompassing devastation wrought on the more populated PVE servers.

Since becoming a parent I almost always avoid games where you rescue a person — especially a kid — from peril as the main plot thread. If the person in trouble could be replaced by a personal memento like a locket from a grandparent, but they opted to use a whole kid instead, I’m probably not going to enjoy myself. Either it’s upsetting on a personal level or it’s overwrought on a storytelling level, and either way I’ll pass.

Inevitably, when I do play a game like that, it reminds me why I don’t like them (The Forest). I did play Fallout 4 eventually, because like most Bethesda games it barely remembers to remind you to do the main storyline as opposed to helping Settlements or whatever, but it took me a while to get past the initial intro. There are so many games out there I’d rather play one I know I won’t find incredibly annoying or upsetting from the outset.

They’ll convert into headaches and full body aches and a sore arm, but it’ll be worth it.

That’s it for The Queue today. If you need me, I’ll be in bed.