The Queue: Ruined

Happy Thursday, folks! Right about the time I started writing this, news broke that ABK workers are going on strike. And with The Game Awards tonight, I’m sure it’s going to be quite the day.

For now, though, we’re here to Queue.

Ooooh, I like this question! Perhaps not surprising to some, I think I’d take it in a Bloodborne-esque direction, with maybe a bit more story directly laid out — Soulsborne lore is notoriously difficult to follow if you don’t do a lot of outside research. I’d set it in Ny’alotha or the original Black Empire. Essentially, a fully formed Old God/Void Lord world. Heck, maybe it’s not even set on Azeroth and just shows us a planet before the Void Lords destroyed it.

I like the idea of making it a solo-player experience with an emphasis on level design — which the Soulsborne games do exceptionally well — and boss fights. This would be a chance for players to get to really know what it’s like to see Old Gods at the height of their power. Plus, being a solo experience would mean it could have branching pathways and multiple endings. Want to side with the Old Gods in the end? You can do that!

Dang, now I’ve gotten myself really excited for a game that’ll probably never exist.

PS: Yes, you’d be able to adjust the difficulty.

Hello and welcome back! ^_^ I completely empathize with work being brutal and WoW being on the back burner. But hey, I’m glad you were able to find time to pop by The Queue :)

I’ll be honest, I haven’t touched WoW more than a small number of times since January. There have been a couple moments when I feel like playing again, and then some new horrible thing comes out and my mood kinda sours on the whole thing. So no, I haven’t tried the Mage Tower yet — but it’s something that I actually do intend to try! Given the feedback so far, though, it sounds awful and I’m just gonna wait. I had an annoying enough time during its original run because of the stupid “through the ground” bug that never got fixed.

I think Blizzard is doing their best to navigate out of this whole “fan favorite commits genocide” thing. And I don’t mean that as a criticism — I think they were painted into a corner the second they decided to have Sylvanas burn Teldrassil and it was never going to have an easy way out.

But they are being very direct through Uther: She did these things and she has to answer for them. It may have been half her soul, but it was still her. Now, she can either do nothing and guarantee her and everyone else’s suffering was for naught… or she can take action.

All that said, even as a diehard Sylvanas fan, any time more story comes out about her, my reaction is frustration. Because I know it’s just going to stir up players and cause bickering. There’s literally no way Blizzard can resolve Sylvanas’ story in a way that makes everyone happy, so the longer it drags out, the longer and more often we have to deal with people upset about something.

Scallions. I absolutely love scallions. I don’t necessarily put them in everything, but I still love them when they are in a dish. Also they go great in ramen.

Least favorite: Mushrooms. I wish I could stand them because lots of vegetarian dishes use them, but nope. I’m just not a mushroom person.

Umm… I’m going to cheat and say it’s the HOTS model above. Nothing beats that, possibly ever.

(If we’re talking WoW exclusively, then I’m actually a big fan of her 9.0 model.)

There’s never really been an expansion where I actively disliked Shadow, to be honest. Burning Crusade is still probably my favorite, but at this point, my biggest criticism of Shadow is that it’s not its own class.

Which is to say, I really want to be able to customize my playstyle and aesthetic more without losing the core of what makes Shadow, Shadow. Warlords did this to a degree by having end-tier talents that altered your playstyle (DOT, Shadow Mage, mix), but because these talents had to coexist with all the other talent options, it kind of felt like it was only ever half realized.

So to make a long answer short, I like it an average amount, but I’m always wanting more love for Shadow.

That’s our Queue for today! Have a great Thursday and please leave lots of questions for tomorrow’s writer — especially since I’m sure the comments will be full of Game Awards chatter.