The Queue: A blast from the past

Since I’m currently so busy with end of the school year wrap ups and events and getting ready for summer activities, I’m taking this opportunity to go through my gmail inbox and finally get a handle on my unread emails. I’ve had the same gmail account since before WoW launched in 2004, so it’s been a weird little time capsule to explore, from flash-in-the-pan historical figures — do you guys remember Ken Bone? — to ghosts of BlizzCons past. I just deleted the email notification informing me that I was granted access to edit the Blizzard Watch Google+ page. Ah, memories.

This is The Queue, our daily column where you ask us questions, and we give you the answers — no, we’re not going to discuss how many emails, because Liz might fire us in disgust.

The latter, pretty emphatically. While I definitely have PLANS for farming Opulence of every difficulty with every armor type, I always have this kind of hangup in gaming where, ah yes, but if you wait a little longer, things could get easier~! And then I just never quite get around to doing the thing, because I either forget, or there will always be a way that it will get easier again at some other, future date.

The one exception are the things like the soup event, which are easier with more warm bodies rather than more powerful bodies. The more people you have chucking things in, the easier the soup event (and most of its related achievements) become, but it’s not like a raid where you’ll eventually outscale it. I have a feeling we’re already well past the peak on the soup event, and it’ll only get more difficult to complete as time passes. Though, of course, there’s always the possibility that they’ll revamp it slightly to make it easier later.

Anything is possible!

Does it have to be a sequel?

I feel like I’ve posted about Hinterland Studios enough that y’all know I love them dearly and deeply. They’re ethical both in word and deed, and though their production schedule is lengthy and then some, that comes with the territory in terms of both treating their people ethically and respectfully, but also increasing the scope of a relatively older, beloved, and expansive game.

I’m in what appears to be the minority, in that I don’t play The Long Dark for a more short-lived challenge. I play the second easiest mode (because the easiest mode features animals that run away instead of confronting you, and if they don’t confront me I don’t usually kill them) and just vibe. But, in their current iterative process, they pushed out a semi-DLC, which they posed as a sort-of seasonal thing, where they wanted us to pay up front, and then they’d keep updating and adding recipes and other fun stuff — but the materials for many of these things are consumable. In my original save I’d already, you know, consumed them. Now I’m hesitant to keep playing at all.

I’m at a point where I’m just waiting to play again until they finish, but they’re already well over 6 months beyond their initial timetable, and are just about halfway through their slate of proposed upcoming features. I still support them thoroughly, and I definitely have a sizable Steam backlog to tackle, but still. Please, I just want to exist in my silly little cold house with piles of fish and sticks on the floor. Please.

There are also a few indie devs who always make me pull out the eyes emoji in terms of sequels. The lead dev behind Skatebird has been talking briefly, vaguely, about her next project, which proves to be wildly different, and I already know that’s going to be a day 1 purchase (unless it’s a platformer or metroidvania).

Pirates. PIRATES.

I generally really enjoy playing APM builds, regardless of family. Pirates as a family have a whole lot of fun flavor, and I do enjoy playing them. But I also find that most other families can kinda muddle through the midgame even if you don’t have every single part of a phenomenal build. Some, like Demons, do have a couple specific pieces you absolutely cannot be successful without, but, for instance, I recently won with a non-venomous Murloc build without a Bassgill because I lucked into a Choral. Don’t need to summon your Bream Counter if you already have all its stats on the board!

But I have a tough time making Pirates truly happen, which is a shame, because all that extra gold flying around sure is fun!