The Queue: A whole age of dragons?

In this economy?

I’ve finally gotten around to playing the latest Dragon Age game, and it’s pretty good so far. I’ve made the first big choice (which city to defend from dragon attack) that I regretted about an hour after making it — so that’s a typical BioWare experience. I try really hard not to look up guides and playthroughs for the story beats of these games; I want all of my messiness to be fully earned. That one hurt, though, as I was left with a character I liked being sidelined and devastated by the destruction in their city, and another I didn’t have strong feelings for sticking around all happy-go-lucky. Still, I’ve come too far, and this just gives me the extra layer of reality, as there is no reloading a save in real life.

Still, my Necro mage is having a good time bopping around between planes of existence and trying to flirt with anything that has a pulse.

While I spend too long trying to figure out the path to that chest I can see just on the edge of that ledge over there, it’s time for our daily question and answer column — The Queue!

That’s like tumbleweeds whole deal, they move from place to place. You’ve just found some extra enterprising ones that have managed to find their way to you. They’re very prickly. I don’t think many people want to stop a tumbleweed on the move, so it makes sense why they can show up in biomes that don’t really seem like they’d be showing up naturally.

I’ll buy the most expensive thing first as soon as I have the currency, then I’ll work my way back down the list of things. I know that my urge to farm up the X currency needed for the most expensive thing can be a fickle thing, and if I do it first, every other purchase after that won’t feel as bad.

Any time you want to remember what it was like to write a Queue, you just gotta let me know, and you can borrow my spot! It’s possible the people might be clamoring for Kalcheus! Mitch has the same standing offer, but he’s never taken me up on it either.

Of course! That’s the best way to get them to come out and stop setting traps.

This is very similar to the jump in the water/stand in the fire/leap into the abyss method of determining whether or not something will hurt you in a video game. Like in Dragon Age: Veilguard, the random bonfires around don’t seem to hurt me, but the magical fire left behind after an enemy’s attack definitely does, which is an important thing to know!

Also, what BioWare game doesn’t love having you trip the villain’s traps by running face-first into them? Sure, sometimes you’ll use “stealth” or “careful planning” to get a better outcome, but half the time you’re just blundering around hoping for the best.

It really is a baffling thing.

At the height of Blizzard’s popularity, all of their properties could’ve made for a good show. Now, with the myriad streaming services out there, all vying for recognizable IP to build a ten-episode season around every three years, it’s even more baffling that it hasn’t happened.

Blizzard’s strength has always been making these great-designed characters and giving them some archetypal story to exist in, so why not do that on TV? I get that they probably want the prestige of a live-action series to try and get some of the same acclaim that The Witcher and Fallout’s first seasons did — but even Arcane has shown us that it’s possible to win the hearts and minds of nerds while winning awards in the animated sphere. So what gives? Are they gunshy after the middling reception that the Warcraft movie got? Have there been several deals that have gotten to the mid-point before failing? I know that any tv show actually getting a season pickup can be a miracle, just like making video games, so maybe it’s just that someone has been too protective of the IP at some stage, and the project got shelved.

Maybe we’ll get the Blizzard season of Secret Level on Amazon Prime, and that will be enough to satisfy. Or, funnier, maybe Blizzard has been working tirelessly and secretly on a StarCraft tv show that will launch just before the Henry Cavill Warhammer series at Amazon.

Who can choose just one? I’d better roll a d4 and let that decide.

My top four in no order:

Lady Liadrin

Alexstrazsa

Yrel

N’zoth

I caught Bacardi practicing for his own jetpack — videogames are a bad influence after all! He should’ve been hard at work getting everyone their fancy loot for the week. Although he could do that faster if he had his own jetpack. Maybe I’ll ask Blizzard nicely if Fika would share theirs.

Would you rather?

Have the ability to breathe underwater

Or

The ability to jump 20 feet in the air

Today’s Anna Earworm™: The Distance

After a few weeks of the mildest winter weather in memory, I’ve got a cold snap on the way, so stay warm out there! Make sure you leave Anna lots of questions while you’re staying warm, though.