The Queue: As seen on TLC

There’s always one part of a new expansion I have trouble with, and that’s figuring out what in the sam hill hickity heck to do with all this junk before I go accumulate even more junk. I probably should’ve done a ton of crafting and AHing in the lead-up, but the entire gameplay loop of items and crafting just isn’t my thing. I want to hit the ground running in whatever (as long as it’s transmogged) and be a little loot goblin and hoard stuff forever. It doesn’t matter what it is as long as I can pick it up. Anyway, anybody want a scourgestone?

This is The Queue, our daily column where you ask us questions and the answer is probably not to just buy a new tab and shove all this garbage in there. Right?

I’m doing early release, because (full disclosure) I was furnished a code by Blizzard, in part because I needed to continue my beta access after the alpha window elapsed for Website Reasons. I don’t think I would’ve upgraded to the early access price on my own, though I definitely would have prepurchased to mess with my house early.

Really the core thing that I’m doing special in terms of WoW today is literally setting aside time and running a pomodoro timer to organize my bags, bank, and quest log before I set out. I so do not want to.

I’m going with Arator first, because I want to unlock the Arcantina ASAP. I don’t really care all that much about the Harranir, because I’m all in on my Blood Elf Hunter this expansion (naturally), and I don’t really have time to play multiple characters. I’m not going with trolls because again, I’m a Blood Elf. The whole of Zul’Aman is a weird back-and-forth with those trolls and blood elves, and honestly I thought we’d resolved the whole issue by killing, like, all of them 20 years ago?

Though I have to renew my objection to whatever Arator’s hair is.

Nothing, because they’re dead now.

I’m honestly not sure!

A lot of what Blizzard continues forward seems to be contingent on internal metrics we have no way of knowing from this side. Features like those mission boards persisted for a couple expansions in a couple ways, then go the way of the dodo based on what they know. As a larger community we can see some of those cracks showing, like when people just kinda didn’t bother all that much when it was the tables in Shadowlands, as opposed to when they made us money hand over fist in Warlords.

I’d say there’s a decent chance we’ll see a circuit or two in Midnight, but interest in the feature seems like it’s been slowly waning over time. The scope of setting up those races and the times and all that seems pretty expansive, just if you’re doing a single Cup.