Matthew Rossi

On June 24, 2006 I completed a quest that began in a Molten Core raid. I stood in a baking hot Seattle (technically Kirkland) back yard and married Julian, who came down from Canada and began the long, strange trip that has brought us to this day. We saw the Warcraft movie together. We stood in line for four expansions, and leveled together for decades. 20 years later, I am still Busbandon and they are still Gwifelor.

Thank you, Julian, for all of it. I love you.

Look, life is crazy now and I have no idea if we’ll still be around this November. But if we are, I know that I’ll be playing Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee Remastered, and for a brief moment. I’ll be Godzilla.

Y’all talked a lot about chips, so don’t be disappointed that this Queue is mostly about that. And about Red and his hunger for dinosaur flesh.

I’m fishing.

In a video game.

I have never been willing to do this. Diablo 4, I think you’ve broken me.

As y’all can see in the above screenie, Lilith likes to claim we need her to stop Mephisto. After several hundred attempts to kill the Echo of Lilith on Torment 8 (I’m handily clearing Torment 9 content otherwise) I don’t think we do.

I’m really willing to take a chance on this.

I am far from a good Diablo 4 player. If you want a talented player, Liz Patt has you covered. What I am is bizarrely and ridiculously tenacious. And, occasionally, I am lucky at the weirdest times. For example, I am wearing Tyrael’s Might, it’s updated for Lord of Hatred but it’s still a really great breastplate. I got it when I turned in my War Plan and Tyrael threw a bunch of loot at me, which included his breastplate.

The next Belial run I ended up on, the chest had El’druin, Sword of Justice in it. All I need are a pair of weird Angel tendrils and a hood and I’m basically cosplaying as the guy, and it’s making every time I turn in a War Plan kind of awkward.

I mean, it’s kind of hard for me to believe it when people tell me that Diablo 4 is an ARPG and not How I Met Everyone’s Mother with my burly Barbarian regaling her presumably winged children with the story of how she met Lilith.

Come on, she’s literally telling me how much I need her up there. It’s not subtle.

Day 8 — So far I still have no idea how I got to this ‘Sanctuary’ place. It is perhaps the worst name for a place I’ve ever encountered, and I’ve been to a world named Draenor after the people who crash landed on it instead of the people native to it.

No one I’ve spoken to can point me to any portals that lead anywhere except to ‘Hell’ which is not helpful. Significant demonic problem — most people here seem terrified of or resigned to the things so I’ve taken on the task to cleaning them out.

On the upside, I can finally dye my armor.

Wow, how about that REDACTED when REDACTED ended up REDACTED? Crazy! I love Lord of Hatred, it’s completely nuts.

I’ve always been a bit of a contrarian.

So I have collected all of the stuff I wanted for the Doom: The Dark Ages crossover, unlocked Torment 3 (and frankly I’m not feeling like I’m prepared for the difficulty) and otherwise I feel done with the whole turning into the Butcher aspect of the Season. Since I now have a metric boatload of Barbarians to choose to level through the upcoming Lord of Hatred expansion, I think now may be the time to get in some World of Warcraft and let my Barbarians (and that one Paladin) rest for a while.

So, Horde or Alliance? I have an Elf ready for both factions.