The Queue: Is it 2026 yet?
@Kalcheus
BlizzCon 2026 is happening and I couldn’t be more excited! Well, that’s not true — I’d be a lot more excited if we were getting BlizzCon 2025. That said after BlizzCon 2024 was cancelled I wasn’t sure if we’d ever have another one again so it’s welcome news that the event isn’t dead yet.
As for whether or not I’ll try to attend I’m actually leaning towards it; I’ve yet to go to a BlizzCon so it’d be a new experience. The only concern is flying out there — I’d rather drive but Carolina to California may be too much of a haul. Of course it’s not just planes that give me anxiety as I’m not fond of large crowds anymore either. Now that I think about it I’ll probably be happier staying home and watching it on screen instead of in person. I guess I have 18 months to make up my mind.
Whether or not I go though I’m curious what’s going to be announced. If Midnight is out early next year as expected it seems a little too soon to be talking about The Last Titan (although the Northrend visual in the trailer suggests that could be the case). It’s definitely too early to talk about what’s after the Worldsoul Saga, right? Maybe it’s spinoff time!
While I dream about a Heroes of the Storm revival, let’s answer some questions!
Did Mathias Shaw get a new voice actor?
With the caveat that I’m a poor judge of voice actors in the first place, yeah his voice did sound different. Dunno if that means a new voice actor though or if Flynn Fairwind has been softening his prior gruff manner.
I haven’t put any other characters into a group screen because when I went to make a new one it asked me to name it. Naming things is hard! it’s silly, I know.
What did y’all name your groups? did you go by a theme? did you number them?
I renamed “Favorites” as “Main”. I made one group called Earthen but then deleted it because I wasn’t feeling it. After that I’ve done … nothing. I’m just not all that interested in organizing my toons — which is probably a good thing because that might just encourage me to start deleting some!
I did change the background for Main to the Oh’naran Plains though.
Q4tQ: what type of side- or mini-game stuff do you like the most? I’m talking about things that aren’t necessary for progression or major rewards, but that you like when they’re a small part of a larger game.
Asking because I’m still making my way through Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, and the Queen’s Blood card game and the chocobo races have become my favorites. Which is surprising, because I wouldn’t be much interested in either one if they were stand-alone games.
This is a tough one for me as my instinctive answer is “none”. It’s not that I have an issue with side stuff, it’s just that focusing on completing games in my backlog has made me a little impatient. I don’t skip it but I also don’t typically linger their longer than I need to.
Unless it’s something rhythm game-styled. Then I can’t resist the siren call of bopping to the beat.
I’ll reiterate that Story Mode needs to be longer, doesn’t have to be the whole raid, but just dropping the player into the final fight feels anticlimactic in the sense that there isn’t enough buildup for it to feel like a climax. In the case of Liberation of Undermine, I’d say just the 3 Gallagio bosses and the intervening trash mobs would of been enough.
Agreed 100%. What I find really perplexing is that we already have the NPC party experience with follower dungeons. Just carve out a chunk of the raid into a dungeon-sized bite. Players can then get a more complete sense of the story’s resolution through the journey rather than downing a solitary mob.
Did you know that Blizz is going to allow guild masters to change their guild name yearly?
I did not know this! It’s a great idea, honestly — we should be able to rename/change stuff for free in other aspects of the game. Of course while I support this, there’s no chance that The Undeleted will be going through it any time soon.
Q4tQ: Due to (undisclosed reasons) Blizzard has hired you to rewrite the story for 11.2! Where are we going, and what happens to lead us into Midnight?
Picture it: Xal’atath confronting Chromie and Nozdormu.
Her goal: force her way back in time to prevent the Ethereals from stealing the Dark Heart.
The fly in the ointment: the players show up to stop her.
The result: we’re not able to stop her plans, but with herself as a focal point our disruption results in us going too far back in time.
To an uncorrupted Grim Batol where Xal’atath is still imprisoned in a knife possessed by Modgud. It’s time to fight in the War of the Three Hammers!
… this really has nothing to do with Midnight per se, but I can imagine something voidy following us back to the present and triggering the events.
Q4TQ: what big announcements do you think they’ll have on BlizzCon 2026? Heroes of the Storm Returns? Warcraft 4? StarCraft 3? Overwatch 9?
Like I said in the intro I don’t really now what the centerpiece of BlizzCon 2026 will be. I didn’t think of it until you said it, but Warcraft 4 actually makes a lot of sense. It allows them to keep their core IP front-and-center while not having to spend too much time talking about stuff everybody already knows (i.e. Midnight) or is way off in the future (i.e. The Last Titan).
Another possibility is a completely new genre of game set in the Warcraft universe. How about a high school-style RPG set in Dalaran when Jaina, Kael’thas, and Kel’Thuzad were all there? Ok, maybe not.
Favorite grey/white item flavor text?
Battleaxe of the Sober Dwarf! Oh wait, that’s a green item.
I’m going to go with the Ancient Pandaren Woodcutter (which I still have in my bags):
Etched into the handle, you see something that has all but faded…. ‘+15 Woodcrafting’
What is the preferred way you level in WoW? For me, I plink around until I get to the latest expansion, then do all the Delve Quests, then do the World Quests and just gather while vibing which is insanely effective. :D
I’ve been mostly doing my leveling from 70-80 via Timewalking Dungeons. Not only because it’s a mostly effective way to level, but also because I may actually get the Infinite Timereaver one day! If I ever do get it I’m not sure what I’ll do (besides cry tears of joy).
What is your favorite part of BlizzCon?
The news/info dumps (aka “Deep Dives”). I am a news junkie constantly trying to stay on top of things and all the new information that comes out at BlizzCon is like ambrosia to me. My news addiction is so bad I almost stopped answering this question to check the news in my Steam client!
Speaking of Steam …
The Steam Spring Sale starts tomorrow but I’m in mourning because the Steam Delivery Girl mascot from 2024 is not returning. I’ll still probably buy stuff though as I don’t imagine a solo boycott campaign until she is restored to her rightful place would be successful.
That’s all the space and time we have for questions today. Everyone have a great day, and be sure to ask plenty of questions for Matt!
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