The Queue: I chose Darkness
My 2021 journey through the Soulsborne series is inching closer to its completion. The other day, I beat the final (non-DLC) boss of Dark Souls 2, which leaves just the DLC and then Dark Souls 3 and Sekiro left on my list of “to finish” Soulsborne games. For the unfamiliar, the games typically have a “choose your own ending” element to them — not surprisingly, I favor the endings that lead the world into an age of Dark.
Anyhow, I’ll talk more about my Soulsborne obsessions tomorrow — for today, we Queue.
If you use your Switch while in the bathroom, where do you put it when it’s time to use your hands? I’ve always wondered this about bathroom gaming
Personally, it’s not something I actually do. I’m guilty of (cleanly) using my phone plenty, but that’s about it. I will say, with the Switch, I’d probably preemptively pop the stand up, then just set it on the nearest counter or flat surface when I’m ready.
Q4tQ: Do you ever “take the long way around” in WoW, even when it’s not ‘optimal’ for no other reason than that you want to do it?
Example: I always sell my daily vendor trash at Distributor Au’til in the Hall of Shapes in Oribos instead of just hopping on the yak or mammoth to use those vendors.
Absolutely! Honestly, that’s one of the reasons I’m okay with flying being a “first major patch” thing — I love getting to see the world up close and realizing all the small details that are put in to make things feel alive. It’s not that you can’t get a sense of scale with flying… but it’s a different scale.
Even with flying, though, yeah, I’ll totally take the long way around sometimes. It depends what I’m doing, but there are some places in game that just capture my attention and draw me away, efficiency be danged. It’s a whole world meant for us to explore — there’s nothing wrong with getting immersed, even if it’s not the most efficient :)
So what do you do when a skunk crosses your path and walks within a couple feet of you as you relax on your porch? Asking for myself. Time-sensitive question.
I feel like the “time sensitive” portion of this has passed, but I did find it amusing because I, too, recently faced a skunk in the yard. Granted, it was a whole backyard’s length away (and yours was… a lot closer) but that’s the second time I’ve ever encountered a skunk in a backyard, and my reaction both times has been to back away slowly, creating as much distance as possible, and getting inside behind a door as quickly and quietly as possible.
In general, creatures in nature react to being spooked. Leave them be, don’t do anything sudden, and just quietly remove yourself from what is ultimately their natural habitat.
Now, if you find yourself with an animal inside your home — hypothetically, let’s say it’s a squirrel and you have two weeks before you move out anyhow — then I don’t have great advice. Just make sure to sanitize anywhere it’s been while you were asleep, and pray to the Void it doesn’t invite forest friends.
I’d like to see an expansion where we just go around and fix things. I never got to see the original version of the Vale of Eternal Blossoms in game, so it would be great to restore that.
Other places like Lordaeron could really use some heavy duty decontamination. We could keep ourselves busy for a good long while just by patching things up.
I’ll be honest — and at the risk of being a bit “conspiracy-y” here — I’m a little worried that WoW Classic will make Blizzard more inclined to break things rather than fix them. Now, that’s purely my anxieties manifesting, but it’s easier and more exciting* to break things, and if you can just “go check out WoW Classic!” to see the fixed things… ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Honestly, though, I’d still love Blizz to find a way to have us revisit and fix old places. We’ve seen a bit of that with Arathi and (sort of) the Vale, but I kind of wish Arathi had been a progressive thing like the original Argent Tournament or something. I’m sure it’s easier said than done, but FFXIV keeps players traveling to the “old world” a lot, and I’m confident WoW could do it — I just don’t know how much of a priority it is.
*For the player base at large.
Q4tQ Do you pronounce stygian as “STIG-e-an” or “sti-GY-an”
I do not use a hard “G” when I pronounce it.
Fun fact, at least as I was taught it: Latin words did not actually have soft sounds. So when Sigma says “Tempus Fugit” in Overwatch, he’s actually pronouncing it the more modernized way. It should be Foo-Git, not Foo-jet. So — to take this all back to your question — if we want to do like the Romans did, it would be Stig-e-an.
How’s the void treating you these days?
The Void always treats me well. Life, however, has been busy. On top of work continually kicking my butt, I’ve gone through a move, several birthdays (including my own), and an anniversary all in the past month.
I’ve never been a fan of following a very strict routine, but lately I haven’t really felt like I’ve found a groove at all. I miss having scheduled raid nights, scheduled Mythic+ nights, more guaranteed writing time, time to rock climb, and just generally more time for gaming and socializing. So I guess I’m doing well enough, but I’m not exactly feeling fulfilled the way I used to.
Q4TQ: what kind of player are you, when it comes to the weekly questing content?
1) “new content? Gotta get to it ASAP … Okay, done on Tuesday! I’m all caught up!”
2) “new content? Cool. I have the whole week! Whenever I have a free night, I’ll do it.”
I’ve been both types of players, with a heavy emphasis on that first one for very much of my WoW life. Lately, though, it’s been “I’ll get to it when I get to it,” and frankly, I haven’t felt like getting to it at all. With the aforementioned lack of free time, I don’t want to play a game to feel like I’m checking boxes, and that’s what WoW feels like to me once you’re through with the story content. I used to be all about that completionist life though! It’s just that things have changed, and I’m trying to purely prioritize enjoyment when it comes to gaming.
I think the game really needs to slow down the pace. We’re getting into Dragonball Z levels of power escalation, and it’s just removes any sense of danger, from a narrative perspective. Why should we care about some elemental lord destroying a whole zone, if we know there’s a cosmic threat out there trying to uncreate all of the universe?
I think Goblin Slayer made some very good points on the need for small town heroes, to have a “friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man”.
One thing that we always lose, when the scales are constantly raised, is character development. I’ve not seen many franchises able to escalate that high, without turning their characters into caricatures. Smaller stakes allow for more nuance, better storytelling, and more character development. If you are a god, you don’t really have room to grow anymore.
I completely agree, and this is also a big part of why I’ve been hoping for a Warcraft 4, which would serve as a lead-in for new WoW content. Give us a new RTS, introduce completely new areas and races, set the “small-scale” precedent in a game that hasn’t had the past decade+ defined by world-ending threats, and then let us carry those stories on in WoW somehow.
It’s not perfect, but I do feel like WoW needs to hit the reset button. However it does that is up to the devs — but if we could get a new Warcraft RTS in the process, who am I to complain?
That’s our Queue for today! Someone is writing tomorrow’s, but I have no idea whomst! Please leave them lots of questions regardless.
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