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The QueueMay 5, 2023 12:00 pm CT

The Queue: Friday edition

Another day means another Queue. But this Queue is special because it is the Friday Queue. A time of both long-suffering afternoons and hope for a peaceful weekend.

So let’s get to it. Here’s the Queue.


SOEROAH ASKED:

Just a vibe check, but regarding the Trading Post

How would people here feel if they added Tender as achievement rewards for collection-based achievements?

For example, the “catch all the pets” achievement in an expansion giving a one-time 200 tender reward, or collecting a class’s whole tier set from a given raid gives a 10 tender reward, etc.

Not a monthly thing that leads to ‘having’ to do everything each month to maximise income, just.. well, I suppose it’s sort of the old ‘what if we could use achievement points for something’ but in a bit of a more limited capacity – the Trading Post is about collecting mogs, pets and mounts, so if collecting those things outside the TP fed back into it and earned the currency as a bunch of one-time, permanently available rewards I think that could be a good way to incentivise more old world content while gameifying the collection system.

I think this is a solid idea, that gives a little reward for doing collection-related achievements without turning into something anyone feels like they have to do. One of the best things about the Trading Post is that it doesn’t feel like I’m forced into doing anything. I’ve yet to find a month where I need to do anything beyond just playing the game to max out Traders’ Tender (though I might rush through activities if I wanted anything right now). The whole thing is very chill. Play the game, and then collect some neat cosmetic loot.

However, I also wonder if earning extra points is necessary. The system is designed around not having an unlimited number of points, and making you pick and choose rewards each month (or save them for next month). If you put too many extra points into achievements, it would undermine that and you’d just buy everything all the time — but if you put too few points in, it doesn’t feel like a reward at all. That’s a hard line to walk and I’m not sure it’s worth the benefit.

However, I certainly wouldn’t be unhappy if Blizzard did so. It’s a little reward that fits very neatly in with the existing system.


BRAINSTRAIN ASKED:

Q4TQ: How likely is it that we will get a 10.3 patch?

With Blizz sticking to its release schedule like clockwork, I don’t see where an x.3 patch fits in while still releasing a new expansion around November 2024.

Especially since Blizz has discussed plans to do another “greatest hits” season like in Shadowlands. There’s simply not time for 5 seasons of progression.

There have been no signs from Blizzard on this point, so all any of us can do is guess about patch 10.3… but my guess is yes, we will get another major patch cycle in 2024.

This two-patch expansion is actually very uncommon. Shadowlands and Warlords of Draenor are the only WoW expansions with just two major patch cycles. Most expansions — Wrath of the Lich King, Cataclysm, Legion, and Battle for Azeroth — include three major patches, with a couple of oddities — The Burning Crusade, Mists of Pandaria — that had four patches. I think the shorter patch cycles of Shadowlands and Warlords are flukes, and not an overall change in direction. I think three patches is the goal, and the Warcraft team seems laser focused on hitting its patch goals lately, with an aggressive roll-out schedule and an expansive content plan for 2023.

My guess is that will continue into 2024 with a patch 10.3, 10.3.5, and 10.3.7, with a Dragonflight Season 4 coming in at the tail end to give everyone a little extra to do while waiting for the next expansion. There’s no reason that a Season 4 has to be a long one — it’s purely there to kill time and to prevent a big end of expansion lull. In Shadowlands, I think it filled that job very well, and it’s no surprise Blizzard plans to bring something along those lines back.

With the pacing of patches, that would probably mean a new expansion in early 2025 (or maybe very late 2024), with a Season 4 filling in whatever time is left between the end of Dragonflight content and the beginning of the new expansion. That schedule would fit a pretty typical expansion timeline, and I think the only difference between my assumptions and your assumptions are that Season 4 doesn’t need to be a full-length Season. It’s just there to fill the space.


MOVEWOW ASKED:

Q4tQ: The thing that I do like about using chatgpt to create WoW content is that someday there really could be a WoW2, WoW3, etc really created. We could get player housing. We could get balanced systems. We could even get good PvP (lol). If you could have chatgpt create something in WoW what would it be? I would go with player housing first.

I’m really not a fan of ChatGPT, because it’s just a remix tool that understands how to mimic natural language. It takes in information, and it knows how to shuffle it around into something that looks new, and can be very different from the original… but it’s still just a remix. ChatGPT is a parrot, listening and repeating back whatever it wants, in a different order or different context. And, honestly, that may be an insult to parrots, because ChatGPT isn’t very smart.

If we were to use such a tool to make quest text, we would get the typical repetitive fantasy content. Kill ten rats. The once-an-expansion poop quest. But we wouldn’t get anything new. (Though we might get fewer typos in quest text.) One of the great things about Dragonflight, I think, is that it takes us to new places and tells new types of stories, fleshing out the Dragon Isles into a vibrant world full of interesting characters. That’s not something ChatGPT is going to be able to do well.

I feel similarly from a code perspective. Is it just going to be able to balance classes at a glance? Would it read the forums and decide what “balance” is based on input and then remix everything its absorbed into the seemingly perfect classes? Because it just takes in data and spits out a new version, without applying any intelligence or judgment, I don’t think you’d get what you want out of such a thing building game systems.

This kind of technology is widely called “AI,” but the problem is that it doesn’t have any intelligence. It’s very good at mimicking human language, but it doesn’t know anything. And whether you’re writing a story or working on class balance, judgement needs to be applied. Currently programs like ChatGPT don’t have that ability, even though their skill at mimicking can make it look like they do.


RED ASKED:

Q4Liz: do you need any extra questions for The Queue? What answer would you give to this one?

Everybody always needs questions for the Queue. Please ask questions, because I’m sure Cory will appreciate it on Monday.

And that’s all I have my friends. I hope you have a good day and a better weekend. I’m going to go take a nap now.

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