The Queue: Busy busy busy

It’s been a hectic week for me. So many games to play, so little time to play them! But, at last, the weekend has arrived.

This is The Queue, our daily Q&A column where we feel like a draenei runner delivering stolen black market crystals to an underground crime gang. It’s just the way things are sometimes.

Me too.

It’s going to be a little bit weird whenever new lore like “a race that always existed there” gets added to Forever without also being added to Modern/Retail. If that happens, I guess it’ll really drive the point that we’re on divergent continuities. But it still makes me wonder: so on the “original” timeline that group of Eldre’thalas elves simply never decided to leave and seek out those Air Elementals and make a pact with them? Odd. Very odd.

I know it’s not a super realistic goal for everything (new races, classes, race/class combos, etc) to be shared between both versions of the game: Forever might get some class or race that only makes sense in that particular period of time, and that is even more true for Modern. Still, when something new is added to one version that fits the other without requiring a leap in logic, I kinda hope that it does get added to both — and a race like Skyborne is a very good candidate for to make it from Forever to Modern eventually.

It’s possible because we did get gnome content in the original Northrend zones (especially Borean Tundra). We also have Titan Keepers like Mimiron, the original creator of the Mechagnomes, after all. That ginormous robot is definitely Titanic in nature (like a Northrend Fel Reaver, maybe?), and we absolutely should see more Titan ruins, Titan facilities, Titan stuff in general. So there’s always the definite possibility of Gnome content there.

As for Tinkers, I would be a little less optimistic. I’m not sure if it fits the vibe of the expansion overall — and new classes are usually very tied to the main themes of an expansion (like Death Knights with Wrath, Monks with Pandaria, Demon Hunters with Legion, and Evokers with Dragonflight). Which got me thinking: what kind of expansion would even be appropriate for the Tinker class? I just don’t see Blizzard making an entire WoW expansion based around Gnome and/or Goblin content unless there was a major shift in how they decided to write them — no more comic relief, actual drama.

Or if they decided to expand the concept of Tinkers far beyond how we think of them now — those often wacky or faulty mechsuits, comically large bombs and death rays, etc. If they started considering things like a Lightforged Warframe to also count as a possible “Tinker” feature, and also included Dwarven engineering, etc., maybe they could land on a class that is a little bit wider than how we think of it now, and it could more easily fit into a different expansion. But I would be surprised if they were added to The Last Titan, unless we got some new development that pointed in that direction.

That’s a great question, because it’s a bit hard to say for sure. I tend to believe that most Classic players will migrate to Forever, but there’s no guarantee.

Surely there are gonna be some players who still prefer the original game, with as few changes or additions as possible. Or players who want to keep playing Classic Progression, taking their characters from original vanilla to Burning Crusade, Wrath, and beyond — the appeal of that can be very different from the appeal of playing Forever.

But overall, if I had to guess, I would say that the majority of players from the current assortment of Classic versions will find a new home in Forever, with a minority choosing to stick to the old versions.

Well, now I do. lmao.

I don’t think they’d make a fully-invisible mount, however. They’d probably make a spectral version of Invincible and dial up the transparency as much as possible without making it disappear completely. Or perhaps the actual horse body is nearly invisible while the saddle and other ornaments are fully visible.

Either way, it’s too good a joke for them to pass up, so I really hope they don’t waste this unique opportunity.

Honestly, as much of an asshat as he can be sometimes, I don’t begrudge Cloud that much. The man’s psyche is severely damaged. Childhood trauma, mako experiments, Jenova cells messing with him, Sephiroth messing with him. Most other people in his situation — Hojo’s test subjects, not actual SOLDIERs — end up becoming mindless drones in weird black robes who just walk toward “reunion,” not a single thought remaining in their heads, while Cloud actually shows impressive mental fortitude by being able to resist it for as long as he does. And even he does succumb eventually (thankfully Tifa was there to rescue him).

So while it’s easy for us to think “that guy is the absolute worst,” it’s just a very intricate defense mechanism. His false memories, the false persona he created for himself, those are the reason he didn’t lose his mind completely. Holding on to that false Cloud — heroic and powerful, the “SOLDIER 1st Class” he promised Tifa he’d become — is what allowed him to remain functional at all. That’s the severity of the mental damage we’re talking about here. Cloud can be an asshat, but he’s also a victim doing everything he can to not completely lose himself.

And the super obnoxious “whatever, don’t care” attitude is just an affectation, like Cloud is imitating the way he thinks a cool, accomplished SOLDIER would talk and behave. It’s like he started beliving his own immature childhood fantasies. But the real Cloud underneath all of that it is a vulnerable, awkward, sensitive, earnest boy.

I was super eager to answer this question, thinking I was gonna find some cool games to talk about, maybe sell them to people a little bit…

…but I found none. Zero. Nada.

So I guess I should recommend games I don’t know instead.

Buy Ori and the Will of the Wisps! It’s 90% off and has “Overwhelmingly Positive” reviews.

Take care, friends, and make sure you deliver your dubiously-acquired merchandise to the right unlicensed businessman this weekend!