The Queue: Changes and regrets

It’s funny, when a game makes radical changes, sometimes there are little quirks you don’t realize until later. Sometimes a mechanic will change so that something that didn’t work before does now, and sometimes it alters your playstyle drastically because of it.

Anyway, if you like Hearthstone’s Battlegrounds, now you don’t need to have a churn slot open if you’re playing minions just for Magnetic. If only I had known…

This is The Queue, where you ask us questions and we promise we aren’t day drinking away our regrets while we answer.

Primogeniture is, like, SO year 591. In addition to the firstborn heirs frequently being only somewhat suited for such a bellicose, weighty position, we’ve had a frankly disturbing spate of leaders by inheritance who have then become incapacitated, corrupted in a literal sense, replaced by dopplegangers, or just flat murdered. The only time any Alliance or Horde race has had an actual representative election, they then immediately just up and made the guy a lifetime king anyway — and then he got merked immediately thereafter. So the people were once again in the same position, because they made him a king without an immediate obvious successor.

Plus, it kinda sucks to have your destiny pre-ordained when you have other interests and talents. Let Jaina read her books. Let Anduin study the light. Let Magni howl at the moon or whatever nonsense he’s up to at this point.

It should be pointed out that this opens up the opportunity for a populist hero who has proven themselves by skill and merit to govern. Even though nepotism and the benefit of name recognition can be a factor in elections, sometimes the heir really is the best person for the job.

So really, this is all a circuitous plot to make Vanessa VanCleef as leader of the Alliance. Long may she govern.

Unfortunately, everyone in the family but me is allergic to dander, so it’s not in the cards. Every so often we’ve discussed getting a poodle or bichon mix, but my husband is even allergic to dog saliva. We do have fish, which can be fun and rewarding when their tanks aren’t full of blue-green algae. We also like to feed the birds and watch the squirrels outside, and we don’t have to deal with poop, so win/win really.

It’s mindboggling that certain appearance types aren’t in game yet. This is one of them.

Another is Quivers, which they made a huge to-do about in WoD and then never implemented. I understand that including an additional cosmetic-only slot for just one class would be a pain that would involve lots of different developers with lots of different jobs — not to mention the QA involved in making sure those quivers don’t clip through any of their egregiously large shoulder pads — but come on.

You think I have expertise in being professional? That’s so adorable.

Really though, it depends on context. “I will circle back to that later,” doesn’t quite have the up yours buddy attitude of something like “as per my last email,” but it does buy you some time to put your professional face back on. In lots of contexts I’d go with “well, bless your heart,” but that isn’t usually applicable in a professional setting.

There is a phrase I really enjoy closing with, whether it’s a professional email, or even something like an Instagram story. It’s definitely double-edged, but seems pleasant unless you think about it too much.

Anyway, Queue, I hope you have the day you deserve.