The Queue

And celebrate it all year ’round.

Just 364 days until next Halloween! I’m sure there’ll be other interesting things in between then and now — probably. New Year’s Eve is pretty fun, I guess. I can’t help but feel like I’m forgetting something though. We’ve had the Nightmare, but doesn’t it come before something?

Ah well, I’m sure it’ll come to me. While I try to remember what it is, it’s time for — The Queue.

Today’s a real grab bag, folks. We’ll start off with a real gaming question and then head off the map into mystery and/or adventure, just like a Murloc wielding Thunderfury.

So let’s Queue.

I don’t think it really needs to be said, but goodness, do I love Spooky Season™. I didn’t get to quite do as much this year as I wanted, but today is a day of pumpkin picking (and carving), apple cider and donuts, and some crisp fall weather. And hey, it’s not about the time of year you get spooked, it’s about the spooks that live in your heart, outside of time.

So I hope you make today and this weekend especially spooky but that you also keep the spookiness alive throughout the rest of the year. I believe in you! I also believe…

…in Queue.

It always feels so, so awkward to walk into the room and Garrosh and Saurfang are in the middle of their argument about killing Hellscream if he ever drags the Horde down that dark path again. I mean, okay, that’s great, but I had a quest? Are either of you going to be done soon so I can turn this in?

Also, seriously, don’t ask about the antlers.

I’m sure we’ve all had that nightmare where there’s something really big and important you forgot to do. Maybe it’s a school paper, and then you’re in your underwear in front of the entire sophomore student body. Maybe it’s a project at work, and then you get fired. Maybe it’s a weekly Q&A column. Either way, it’s spooky.

This is The Queue, where you ask us questions and we definitely remember to give you answers quickly enough that it doesn’t haunt our dreams ever.

Can you believe that it’s almost Halloween? By this time next week, all of the candy will be on sale and Jack-o-lanterns will be extinguished. We better make the most of it, before that other holiday rears its head and you can’t go into a store without hearing carols.

While I go put up some spooky decorations, it’s time for — The Queue.

It’s almost the weekend, and I am ready for a nap or ten. But while I wait for my weekend nap time, let’s Queue.

I promise the title is actually relevant — but even if not, who doesn’t love a good #ThrowbackThursday to remind them of one of everyone’s favorite lines in the game?!…No?

Okay, fine. In that case, I guess all we have left to do…

…is Queue.

In honor of my wife’s birthday, I wanted to tell a little story.

I didn’t play Warcraft 3 at the time, and had absolutely no interest in World of Warcraft when I heard it was coming out. MMO’s sounded ridiculous to me — I have pretty strong social anxiety and the idea of playing a game at the same time as other human beings just didn’t appeal to me in the slightest. Julian, a girl I knew primarily online, and I talked about it but it wasn’t until she came to visit and actually used my computer to play the game (she was in the beta) and showed me how to play it that I started to get interested. And even then, playing a Paladin on her account, I ended up getting yelled at to heal a Deadmines run. I did not want to heal, and so, I did not enjoy that group.

But after Julian went back up to Canada, WoW became how we kept in touch. It was our instant messaging, our shared activity (I would tank and she would DPS, we ranged across Azeroth’s many dungeons)  and our evenings would often end with the two of us sitting on the dock in Menethil Harbor chatting. Once she came back down to Seattle, we settled into a groove playing in a raid guild together, which is what led to pretty much the past fifteen years of us being married.

And so many of our shared memories have involved video games — both of us yelling treasure goblin and screaming around a level in Diablo 3 trying to kill the pesky things, innumerable dungeon runs and raids together, allowing myself to be dragged along on yet another attempt to tame something I’ve never heard of, so much of it I might never have done if not for her. In a real way, without Julian, I wouldn’t be working here, I certainly wouldn’t have ever played WoW, and my life would be utterly different now. I love you, Julian. Thank you.

You know, in looking through our internal media kit to honor Cory on his birthday, I started wondering if a theme emerged, along the lines of orangish-brown bears. Probably not.

This is The Queue, where you ask us questions and we’ll supply the answers — in glorious transmog, naturally.