The Queue: Game of the year is already locked

I will not be taking further questions at this time.

Er… except I will be taking further questions. It is the Queue, after all. But no more questions about GOTY, because as I’ve said, it’s already locked.

I had this exact same problem. I’m playing a new character and figured there must be a quest I needed to do somewhere. I skipped the leveling campaign and hadn’t done any of the level 80 campaign, or Alleria’s quests, or the Kirin Tor quests (which the game tells me to do, but aren’t available because the requisite NPC isn’t there because I haven’t done the level 80 campaign). I set out trying to figure out the requirements when I discovered…

The quest to go to Undermine was in my quest log.

Look for a quest called “When Opportunity Explodes.” I found that it appeared in my quest log without a talking head or any audible dialog — all I had was a humble message in my chat pane saying I accepted the quest, which was lost in a cavalcade of login spam.

So take a look, because you may already have it.

(If you don’t, and you haven’t done the leveling campaign or have access to the campaign skip to leapfrog past it, I would go back to try completing that.)

I know it’s hard to accept, because Mayla is magnificent. However, only Mayla can make choices for Mayla. You can’t just beat up her boyfriend to win her love, and you’ve got to learn to live with that.

Secret library… but no one said a secret library couldn’t be in a garden, or have a pleasant garden terrace outside.

It’s so weird I have to assume it’s some kind of bug. Hearing half of the conversation in the main quest line throughout the Undermine story has been exceedingly strange. But Blizzard hasn’t commented on it being a bug, in which case it is just a very strange (and unwelcome) design choice.

I’ve seen speculation (including right under this question) that his VA may be part of the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike, in which the union is fighting largely against the use of AI to replace actors in video games. The strike has been on since July 2024, and at the time included Activision Blizzard. SAG-AFTRA has since signed contracts with some developers, but I can’t find any mention of a deal with Blizzard, so this could still be ongoing.

So the strike could be why Renzik isn’t voiced, but I can’t tell you for certain.

The game is in an odd place right now. Delves have all of their Season 2 features. A lot of weeklies are awarding Season 2 loot. You can’t upgrade your Season 1 gear anymore… in some ways it feels like Season 2 has already started.

But it hasn’t. We’re still in Season 1 and your vault rewards next week will also be Season 1 rewards. After that we’re full into Season 2.

I admittedly choked on my drink when I saw the price. But then, this is more than twice the price of the Diablo 4 bundle of five different colored Town Portals, which I thought was ridiculous at $30. (They’re just town portals with unique color filters applied! Come on!) Single-class transmog sets in the game are priced about the same.

These pandas aren’t my style and I’m not made of money, so I am not personally buying them. And that’s what’s good about this: it’s easy to take it or leave it. World of Warcraft isn’t even very aggressive in its marketing, whereas in Diablo 4 it’s in the top game menu whenever you open the map, flagged when it has something new for you to look at (or, often, even when it doesn’t). And it’s nowhere near as aggressive as Diablo Immortal or Warcraft Rumble, both of which shove you into their store multiple times a day to claim free rewards (and maybe while you’re here spend some money, too?).

Even though all of this is optional, somehow the mounting pile of microtransactions does feel like a weight on one’s shoulders, constantly whispering buy, buy, buy. We’re playing games to escape the pressures of the world, and this does feel like one more.

GOTY, and now I will definitely not be taking further questions.

Thank you all for being here.

Take care everybody and have a great weekend. I’ll catch you right back here next week!