The Queue: Play Fair

It’s weird, because I really, truly hated (and honestly on a gut level still hate) the monetization changes to Hearthstone‘s Battlegrounds, and yet now I find myself playing them more than ever before. I know I have a tendency to respond very strongly to external pressure — the even simple and completely arbitrary leaderboards on Duolingo lights my competitive streak, and I will learn French quicker than FirstnameBunchanumbers progresses through German. Even though the rewards track didn’t compel me to play before, now that the rewards are confined to Battlegrounds, and especially because they’re all cosmetic, I’m fighting tooth and claw to get them.

Also, weirdly, now that they got rid of SI:Sefin and added in Toxfin, I’m no longer calling for nerfs, while I’m also trying for the quest that lets me trigger as many Battlecries as possible. So much fairer! No, not because I’m the one playing it. Other reasons.

This is The Queue, where you ask us questions, and we’ll answer them right after this game.

Every so often, somebody points something out and it seems so incredibly obvious I don’t know why it hasn’t been talked about before. It’s like a slow, dawning realization, of, “oh yeah, that is kind of weird. huh.”

So now I’m sitting here, and wondering why haven’t we travelled to another of those planets yet. We’ve gone to a bunch of random planets through various magic-fueled deus ex machina already, and we’ve known there are other planets in our own backyard for a while now, so it seems like it would be trivial to pop in for a visit. I think we can conclude that if there is sentient life on those planets, they’re neither technologically or magically advanced enough to engage in interstellar travel on their own because I’d think they might pop in for a little visit to see what the heck is up with that sword by now.

Though of course the truest answer to that question is, “well, the devs haven’t made up a reason to go there yet.”

This is actually really tricky for me, because I’m not all that big into weaponry per se. I generally play casters and Hunters, and the truly iconic weaponry with those classes is pretty scarce. The Frostmourne for sale now is unquestionably iconic, and it’s an impressive piece of steel, but it doesn’t fit with my vibe and how I play.

I’m also getting to an age (and level of accumulation of stuff) that I’ve been trying to be really mindful of what I bring into the house before I actually bring it into the house. There are very few pieces in WoW which would match my decor. My office is a dark teal with a lot of middle toned warm wood and nickel hardware. The red and bright gold Sunfury is going to look as garish and out of place as a St Pauli’s Girl neon sign in my space.  There are also very few pieces I’d have the space to display properly, if at all. The Staff of Antonidas would mostly work in the aesthetic of my office, but it’s like, nine feet long so I don’t know where I could mount it except my dining room, which would be an incredibly odd choice. Besides, I already have several paintings there I really like. Maybe I could mount it diagonally in my office, but then I’d imagine it would be really top heavy and hard to balance properly in a bracket.

Kel’thuzad’s body and lichdom was brought about by The Jailer, but his nature wasn’t truly shaped by him. Kel’thuzad sought out a figure like The Jailer who could give him all the power he wanted. Of course, this wasn’t for a motive which had, at least, the veneer of respectability, like Kael’thas initially seeking out power to help save his people. Kel’thuzad basically just thought everyone else was a coward for not following the Lich King for a Golden Corral-style all-you-can-wield eldritch power buffet. Seeking out power, especially power others find distasteful, is a very Necrolords thing.

However, in the final act of Shadowlands, it was revealed that The Jailer was behind a great number of things that happened on Azeroth, extending back decades, if not centuries. It stands to reason that the Arbiter was on shaky ground before her deactivation, and that somebody (i. e., The Jailer) was already messing with the machine of death before he could be fully released from it. And even if KT displays a whole lot of Maldraxxian traits and would likely be there eventually, it would stand to reason that, without The Jailer’s help, it’s likely he’d have a lengthy repentance tour of Revendreth beforehand.

I’m not sure whether the general radio silence on that front was due to trying to promote Wrath Classic as hard as they possibly could, or if it was because they wanted to give outlets a little space to breathe through the beta coverage, but yeah. We’ve got three solid months til “on or before” the end of 2022, so I’m surprised we don’t have a date yet.

I will say, though, that if we don’t get a date in the next week or so, it may be time to temper our expectations, that maybe it’ll be “on or before” the end of q1 2023 instead. Honestly, I’d rather a delay and expectation adjustment than crunch and all that, but I’m getting fairly laissez faire with my gaming these days. Since I’m already trying to keep up with my Hearthstone dailies, and soon my Overwatch 2 dailies, if the WoW team wants to delay a little I’m totally cool with that.