The Queue is the Queue is the Queue is the …

What is the Queue? A endless loop, a pile of questions with the occasional answer. And just the Queue. Hello, Queue. Let’s chat.

Stunned. Being stuck and not being able to do anything is the worst. It ends (even if briefly) your ability to play the game, which is not why you’re trying to play a game. They completely halt the gameplay loop.

Perhaps they have a place in games, but I think if you want to punish gamers or provide a challenge, just make mechanics that do a lot of damage or poison or slow or anything else to teach you to avoid them, but still provide a chance to learn the mechanics and, most importantly, keep playing.

Playing other games really makes me miss how customizable WoW’s interface is. Don’t like where something is? Move it. Want so see something that isn’t usually there? Add it! You can change most of the interface to make it easier for you to see what’s going on. It’s pretty uncommon for a game to have that level of customization. (Though, sometimes, it can also make WoW hard to read, when someone has a heavily modded UI that’s different from what you’re used to — what is with those people who have health bars that are gray when they’re full?!)

Every game’s UI has a least a little bit of a learning curve. But once you play for a while, you get used to it. I think we’re all pretty used to WoW (even when the health bars are gray), so that makes it “easy” to read, while something we’re less familiar with might not be as easy. It’s not always something right or something wrong with the game; just the fact that we’re used to something and this is something else.

Blizzard hasn’t said how long the Puzzling Cartel Chips will be around, but I expect they’ll be available until the next raid tier. However, that’s just a guess.

But, if you’re behind there’s a new catchup mechanism that will let you repeat the weekly quest until you’re caught up, which should be helpful for anyone who’s been out of the game (or has too many alts).

I’m not a big demo player, because either I want to play the game (and want the full version), or I don’t want to play the game and I don’t care about the demo. So Steam Next Fest this week is neat but I have not fallen into its gaping jaws, caught up in hundreds of new demos. (And it’s just not possible to find the time to explore all of them!)

I am, however, modestly excited for some upcoming games. I try to avoid getting too hyped, because that way lies disappointment, but I am looking forward to The Outer Worlds 2 in October, and have re-installed The Outer Worlds 1 to prepare. I am also looking forward to Dispatch, which also recently got a demo that I know many people are very excited about, but I added it to my wishlist when it was released last year and am just waiting for it to launch. I don’t need to play a demo with a cliffhanger ending months before I can see the rest of the story. (Note this one doesn’t have a release date other than 2025 yet.)

I’ve added about a dozen games to my wishlist, and we’ll see how it pans out.

I will play any game with a great story, even if it’s in a genre I don’t usually like. I am still ostensibly working through Pacific Drive, even though I am bad at driving games and bad at survival games because it has a compelling narrative, and builds out an interesting world to explore with interesting characters inhabiting it. Also I put glow in the dark stickers on my car, which was pretty neat. (In part because it’s one way to be able to see the car in the dark. Very practical.)

And that’s all today everybody. We’ve made it half-way through the week, now we just have to hang on for a few more days into the weekend. Take care everybody, and have a pleasant Wednesday.