The Queue: Alright, fine.

I gave in and played my first match of Heroes of the Storm in like 8 years. I stopped playing almost immediately after the HGC was shuttered. I was covering the league at that time so it was a combination of being sad, burnout, but also I had other fish to fry with other games, and I didn’t have to keep up with this one anymore, so. But yeah, it’s fairly fun. Remembering which button is which ability for which hero is a bit of a learning curve, so Brightwing, where all I technically need to do is stay sorta close to everyone else, is perfect for getting back into the Nexus.

This is The Queue, our daily column where you ask us questions, and eh, we’ll get around to it. Just one more game, first.

So I got into beta a little late, like a week late. So usually with stuff like this I’m not all that precious about a name but I do have a few I just keep using as creature of habit, just to fill the field and get out the door so I can start collecting data points, figure out what my content strategy is, all that. Anyway, longtime readers won’t be surprised that the first name I tried was Lio Pleurodon.

It was taken.

A week into beta, and freakin first name Lio, last name Pleurodon, was taken.

I’m not mad, to be clear. I don’t particularly care about that name, and it’s a beta. Whatever. But considering all the names out there in the pantheon of characters you can slap together, and how very placeholder-y that one is, that is a wild benchmark of the number of people who are likely trying to create a character.

With that in mind, if you have your heart set on a specific name, even if it’s not an established character, I would plan on purchasing Early Access, and being ready the second servers go live for name reservation. I would also plan a list of alternatives in both last names and first names. If you have your heart absolutely set on naming, say, your Night Elf Druid Eliana Ivyleaf, think about whether going with an Elliana or Elyanna would be ok. Plan out whether Maplebranch or Oakentwig would work for you. And have all that in a notepad or notes note ready to go so you don’t have to waste time thinking of alternatives while they all slip away into someone else’s reserved name bin.

No.

I don’t often speak in absolutes as far as Blizzard goes, because, eh, you never know. But this time, I’m confident enough to there is zero chance they will retain info from the beta servers. Especially given that beta servers are intended to be wiped and reused, it would make no sense to keep the last beta build mounted to live servers and only retain certain random parts of them for certain accounts. It would be deeply unfair to everyone who wasn’t randomly lucky. It would also be unfair to the people who were told they wouldn’t have to pay for early access.

Forever‘s lifespan is going to be long, and these first handful of levels will only be a memory a week after launch.

I will say though, it seems like however many people they’re estimating will try to play on day one, it’s likely to be double that number. More, if the whole “it’ll be fine; you get a last name” thing is any indication. And unless you have the plan on literally no-lifing until you are at cap, I would wait at least a week to even try getting on and playing.

Orphan Matron Nightingale.

My favorite thing about doing World Bosses is completely ruined by instancing them. I always loved that there seemed to be that one guy rolling up as a level 12 on foot and trying his best to kill the boss, just zerg rushing his little face off to do three damage before getting coned into oblivion over and over. While this did sometimes lend itself to essentially griefing depending on boss mechanics, it was also fun and memorable.

I totally understand the benefits and reasoning for the change, it’s just, things used to be relatively simpler, and I miss some things about the good ol days. Nostalgia glasses, etc.

My birthday is November 25, so with a November 23 midnight release, I’m counting the original World of Warcraft.

I know, I’m Blizzard’s favorite princess.