The Queue: Somehow, halfway through April

Anyone else feel like the month just started? This has admittedly been a bit of a tumultuous month for me, but even still, it’s hard to believe we’re halfway through it already.

But Jovan’s the expert on time, so I’ll leave that discussion for another day.

Right now, we Queue.

“Bother” might be a bit strong there, but I’ve always liked the idea of adding another mail class to the game. That’s less because of the imbalance and more because I’m excited for what kind of unique niches could be filled with another mail class. Mail tank? Ranged tank? Someone who just throws mail armor at enemies? There’s room for more class types, and even if balance makes adding new classes tough, I’m always excited about a new class being added to the game. Whether that class uses mail or not is secondary to whether it’s fun and unique — if ya hit those marks, using mail would be a cherry on top.

Look, it’s taken us this long to get glasses of any kind, and that’s a step in the right direction. I know it’s never a good feeling to finally get something only to have it feel underwhelming, but I’m sure if/when these become hot-ticket items, Blizzard will work on adding more! My rule of thumb is that adding X or Y to a game is (almost) always going to be at least 10x more difficult and time-consuming than I expect. It makes sense that Blizz would start small and expand, but I’m prepared to eat my words if we don’t have more options one expansion from now.

I know this wasn’t a question, but you’re right — we’re about $150k off from unlocking Daisy, and there’s not much time left. I’d have to look at the language a bit closer, but IIRC, it’s written in a way that makes it a bit unclear whether or not Daisy will be purchasable if we DON’T meet the goal. It’s very clear that we can meet the goal and still purchase Daisy after, but I’m not sure about what happens if we don’t hit that $1MM mark.

Regardless, if you’ve ever seen me talk about Games Done Quick, you may know that the most exciting part is the final day, because 11th-hour donations can make all the difference. So I’m hopeful that something similar happens here, but I wouldn’t mind Blizz tossing out a few more in-your-face reminders, because, frankly, it feels like it could use more eventizing.

Umm… yes!

For real though, I don’t think we’d have the Void as a major player in a cosmic war and NOT have Old Gods involved in some capacity. That could be in the form of existing ones returning, new ones being discovered (like G’huun), or some freaky Mega Old God amalgamation. With all the hints from Ulduar alone, I’d be surprised if at least Yogg didn’t show up, but I hope (and expect) that wouldn’t be the end of it.

Also, from a “shiny new models” standpoint, I can’t imagine a cosmic war without some shiny new models.

I had to think about this one for a bit, because I really hate saying “it depends” and calling it a day, but it does depend a lot on the game itself. However, I think I gravitate more toward real-time RPGs than turn-based. Turn-based ones take a lot to feel juuuuust right, whereas even mediocre real-time RPGs can feel like a lot of fun if you’re able to just smash through things mindlessly.

I do want to give a shout-out to tactical RPGs, though, because I think the Fire Emblem series (especially of late) has done a good job making strategic RPGs still feel fast paced. On easier difficulties, I can usually attack an enemy at random and be fine, while also speeding up the combat animations. The result there is that a full turn/round doesn’t feel slowed down by the strategic elements at play, but it does still require some level of thinking on my part. The games also give me the option of playing on much higher difficulties, where I do have to slow down and think about things.

Overall, it’s a good mix of “go kill this” moments and “I really gotta think this turn out” ones, and I appreciate that.

I really love the look of death magic (and have ever since I saw it up close in BFA), so I’ll for sure miss that. Heck, I’d love to see a class (or new DK spec) built around death magic, just because I love the aesthetic so much.

That doesn’t really answer your question, and neither will this next part, but I will say that I’m not going to miss whatever Venthyr effect puts red lines on the ground. WoW is not great about making it clear what’s bad and what’s good, and having a giant red mark on the ground that’s good runs counter to almost everything the game’s taught us, so I really am not a fan of that design.

I don’t know if this will be surprising or completely in line with expectations, but I’m not a huge fan of Pepe in general. I was, at one point! But I got Pepe burnout at some point and have been kind of hoping for something new to take Pepe’s place.

That all said, the Venthyr Pepe reminds me of Bloodborne, which managed to skyrocket its way to one of my favorite games ever, so Venthyr Pepe gets the win here.

I admit, I hadn’t really looked at it as a Kyrian/Venthyr and Night Fae/Necrolords thing, but it makes sense in terms of what the Shadowlands — and Shadowlands, the expansion — are all about. Each zone serves a purpose, and those purposes are meant to feel like a stark contrast from one another. (Of course, you do occasionally have characters questioning their placement, but at the end of the day, the Arbiter apparently doesn’t make mistakes which… I don’t love but I’ll buy into for now.)

I know we’ll never truly see all of the Shadowlands — or even a fraction of them, for that matter — but I would be thrilled to even see a list of possible ideas that Blizz considered for zone themes. Sure, concept art for them would be even better, but something as simple as a list would go a long way for my curiosity.

That’s all for today! Stay safe and be sure to ask lots of questions!